Apple

Apple CEO: Google Wants To “Kill The iPhone”

According to a hearsay report in Wired, Apple CEO Steve Jobs allegedly said the following at an internal town hall meeting for Apple employees coinciding with the launch of the iPad: We did not enter the search business, Jobs said. They entered the phone business. Make no mistake they want to kill the iPhone. We […]

Apple

Irony: You Need A Map To Find Google Street View On The iPhone

We came to a strange realization on Friday at SEL headquarters: Google Street View is terribly unintuitive on the iPhone. As Danny Sullivan suggested, you practically need a map to find it. For those of you with an iPhone or iPod Touch who know how to use Street View already, move along — there’s nothing […]

Google algorithm updates

SearchCap: The Day In Search, January 29, 2010

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Good Bye Winter, Hello Santa Clara. PPC Marketer’s Dream Agenda I suppose the next best thing to dreaming about leaving the cold New Hampshire winter is to actually do it! Can’t […]

Google Ads

Yelp Ratings Appear In Google AdWords

I received a screenshot in email of an AdWords ad for a San Diego auto repair shop that featured Yelp ratings (and a link to the Yelp review) in the AdWords copy. Here’s a screen of the ad: Detail: Google has been making AdWords richer, with product images and maps (and so on) in the […]

Content

Goojje, A Google China Knockoff

The Chosun Ilbo reports a new Google China has launched, a knockoff, named Goojje.com. It was made in response to Google saying they may have to shut down their Google.cn search engine a few weeks back. It is a basic search engine, not affiliated with Google in anyway. It does however play on the Google […]

Google

Google Mobile Image Search Gets Popular Images

The Google Mobile Blog announced that Google has added “popular images” to their images home page on Android, iPhone, Palm and other smart phone devices. When you visit Google Images on those devices, you now see “popular images” and a link to browse more popular images. Here is the home page: After clicking on the […]

Content

The Algorithm Chasers

When the Fort Hood, Texas shooting rampage hit the news, a small staff of news folks were trying to determine which words to use for their online news stories on the topic. The goal was to get Google News to find and rank their article higher than their competition. They struggled with the difference of […]

SEO

Google May Be Crawling AJAX Now – How To Best Take Advantage Of It

In October 2009, Google proposed a new standard for implementing AJAX on web sites that would help search engines extract the content. Now, there’s evidence this proposal is either live or is about to be. Read on for more details on the proposal, how it works, and why it might be past the proposal stage. […]

Apple

SearchCap: The Day In Search, January 28, 2010

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Ballmer Blogs His Thoughts On Google, China Both current Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and former CEO Bill Gates have recently spoken out critically about Google’s stance on doing business in China. […]

Content

Ballmer Blogs His Thoughts On Google, China

Both current Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and former CEO Bill Gates have recently spoken out critically about Google’s stance on doing business in China. (See my previous posts, Ballmer Critical Of Google’s China Decision and Like Ballmer, Bill Gates Dings Google On China.) Now, Ballmer is putting his thoughts in writing … well, electronic writing […]

Apple

Bing Debuts In-Depth Stock Pages

Bing has announced a new “Stocks and Funds page” that offers in-depth information for users following or doing research related to stocks and finances. A sample page looks like this one for Apple: Searching on Bing for a company’s or fund’s ticker symbol prompts a new link called “Investor Data” on Bing’s main search results […]

Google News

8 Opportunities To Optimize Content Beyond Local Listings

Not to beat a dead horse, but as I said in my last column, I think 2009 was truly a watershed year for local search. Between Google’s introduction of the generic 10-pack, its beta test of local listing ads, dramatic improvements to Bing’s Local Listing Center, and numerous partnerships throughout the industry— all of these […]

Apple

Google Updates Google Book Search After Apple iPad Launch

Less than 24 hours after Apple announces the Apple iPad, Google announces improvements to the Google Books home page. The improvements include: You can now scroll through categories of books and magazines The My Library feature is now on the home page My Library selections can be kept private now You can now add one […]

SEO

7 Do’s & Don’ts For Working With A Technical SEO During A Redesign

In the past few months, I’ve been the technical SEO consultant to 6 companies who have been in the process of redesigning their websites. The companies range in size from a one-person show to a world-reknowned Boston hospital, and everything in between. All of the companies were smart enough to know they needed expert SEO […]

PPC

Survey: Only 42% Of Americans Have Googled Themselves

Although the phrase “Google yourself” has become part of our culture, a new survey suggests that less than half of Americans have actually done it. The numbers come from a December survey commissioned by Microsoft on the subject of online reputations. The survey polled about 2,500 consumers and recruiting personnel in the US, UK, Germany […]

PPC

A Paid Search Glossary

Before we really start diving into the specifics of managing a paid search account, it is important to cover some standard industry jargon. You may want to bookmark this post as a resource for any terms you may need to go back and reference. Account Terms Query: The actual input by a user into a […]

Google Maps

Google Maps’ Search Suggestions Get Personal

Google has announced that it’s now personalizing search suggestions that appear on Google Maps. It’s an odd announcement to me, because I’m almost sure my maps search suggestions have been personalized for some time now. One thing that I haven’t seen before, though, is the explicit notice beneath the suggestions that things have been personalized. […]

Content

How To Improve .EDU Link Requests Using Academic Metaphors

As a web marketer who is requesting high-quality links from the gatekeepers of academic sites, understanding the lingo and professional culture of the academic world can greatly improve your success rate. Academic environments can be a bit more formal and regulated than web or business world. When you get through to a blogger or .com […]

Link building

SearchCap: The Day In Search, January 27, 2010

From Search Engine Land: Finally! Yahoo Search Weather Report : January 2010 The Yahoo Search Blog dusts itself off to announce a search update happening right now. The last “weather report” Yahoo announced was in September 2009 – typically, Yahoo would announce these updates monthly. We actually expected this to be announced. I was tracking […]

SEO

Finally! Yahoo Search Weather Report : January 2010

The Yahoo Search Blog dusts itself off to announce a search update happening right now. The last “weather report” Yahoo announced was in September 2009 – typically, Yahoo would announce these updates monthly. We actually expected this to be announced. I was tracking a WebmasterWorld thread where SEOs were noticing ranking changes at Yahoo Search. […]

Google

Google Social Search Goes Live, Adds New Features

Google has begun the rollout of its Social Search product, a way of seeing customized search results based upon the people in your social network. Social Search has been an opt-in Google Labs experiment since its debut in October, but will be available as a beta product in the “next few days” to all users […]

PPC

Yahoo Gains “Default” Search Deal With Ubuntu

One small search victory for Yahoo: a new default search deal with Ubuntu, the free Linux-based operating system. According to Ars Technica: Canonical, the company behind the popular Ubuntu Linux distribution, revealed today that it has established a revenue sharing agreement with Yahoo. As part of the deal, the Firefox Web browser that is shipped […]

SEO

AT&T Planning To Launch Yelp-Like Site Buzz.com

Forbes covers AT&T’s forthcoming local recommendations site Buzz.com. It aims to be a place where people can get and share recommendations about local businesses. Despite my headline and that of the Forbes article it’s not going to be a reviews and social networking site like Yelp. Rather it may be more analogous to AlikeList or […]

Content

6 Common Mistakes In B2B PPC Advertising

B2B marketers often preach about how B2B marketing is unique, and that advertising to businesses is very different from consumer focused advertising. And while there is truth in that argument, B2B marketers should be wary that leaning on their “uniqueness” too heavily can adversely impact their PPC campaigns. Granted, there are a number of ways […]

SEO

The 2010 In-House SEM To-Do List

While it may feel like 2010 is already whizzing by, now is a good time to take a step back and think about the big to-do list items for in-house search marketers this year. We’ve all got a list of million little search optimizations that need doing, but here are some larger tactics to think […]

Analytics & conversion

Conversion Optimization Is The New SEO

Thomas Edison said that genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. As we begin a new decade in search, we face a parallel truism: great search marketing is 1% about getting the click and 99% about what you do next. Starting here in 2010, conversion optimization is the new SEO. To be sure, SEO is […]

Google Analytics

SearchCap: The Day In Search, January 26, 2010

From Search Engine Land: Yahoo’s Q4 2009 Revenues Down Only 4%, Search Ads Down 15% YoY Yahoo announced their fourth quarter 2009 earnings just minutes ago. They reported better than expected earnings, with a decline in revenue of only 4%, year over year. Most of that decline came from a 15% drop in search ad […]

SEO

Yahoo’s Q4 2009 Revenues Down Only 4%, Search Ads Down 15% YoY

Yahoo announced their fourth quarter 2009 earnings just minutes ago. They reported better than expected earnings, with a decline in revenue of only 4%, year over year. Most of that decline came from a 15% drop in search ad revenue from Q4 2008 compared to Q4 2009. But Yahoo’s search ad dollars increased from Q3 […]

Apple

Google Acting Like A Carrier, Being Treated Like One By The FCC

Google, which to some eyes increasingly looks and acts like a VoIP/mobile carrier, is now effectively being treated like one by the US FCC. Today the regulatory body sent out requests for information to wireless carriers about the adequacy of their consumer disclosures associated with early termination penalties, which can be several hundred dollars in […]

Paid social

Is Celebrity Tweetvertising Worth Paying For?

Last January, I wrote about finding The Value of a Facebook Fan, which effectively took the number of fans a brand has on Facebook, multiplied that by the average number of friends a Facebook user has to determine the number of impressions each brand would receive from each users network, and then applied an average […]

Ecommerce

Collecta Widget Brings Real-Time Search Results To Any Site

Collecta has announced the availability of a new widget that allows any webmaster/blogger to show real-time search results on a web page. The widget builder is available now at widget.collecta.com, and includes several customization options including widget title, header background image, and even use of an external CSS file. It appears that the size of […]

Content

Disabling The Google Toolbar Doesn’t Stop Google From Tracking You

Ben Edelman uncovered evidence that even if you disable the Google Toolbar, Google may still be tracking your web browsing behavior. Edelman documents how he disabled the Google Toolbar within the preference, then visited a web page and captured how Google was sending browsing data from the toolbar to Google’s servers. Edelman first clicked the […]

Google

Google Trying To Remain In China, Even If Search Engine Doesn’t

Last week on Google’s Q4 earnings call Google CEO Eric Schmidt seemed to “walk back” some of Google’s prior strong statements about leaving China if it cannot operate in an unfiltered way there. In response to a financial analyst question he said the following: We have made a strong statement we wish to remain in […]

Link building

Linking Food For Thought

This week, I’m stepping away from my usual article format and instead, address several linking related questions and comments I haven’t seen discussed as much across the link building blog/twitter/feed o-sphere. I welcome your feedback, comments, opinions and answers. People will tell you that one of the better ways to spot link targets is to […]

Content

Like Ballmer, Bill Gates Dings Google On China

Bill Gates doesn’t get the fuss everyone’s making over Google’s recent threat to stop censoring search results in China. “They’ve done nothing and gotten a lot of credit for it,” Gates said Monday during a visit at The New York Times. “What point are they making?” Mr. Gates asked. “Now, if Google ever chooses to […]

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