How To Leave Your Yacht Out Of A TechCrunch Story
Having your yacht mentioned in a TechCrunch article can be alarming. Follow a few simple guidelines, and maybe you can avoid this.
He Said/She Said Between Google & CNN On Face Recognition Story
This morning I read the CNN story that said Google was finally going to incorporate facial recognition technology into its Goggles app or another mobile application. I then wrote an opinion piece that argued Google was courting a major privacy backlash, despite seeming to have privacy controls worked out in the article. Thereafter I was […]
Bing Tests Links At Top Vs. Left Of Home Page
The Microsoft News Blog noticed Bing testing out a new user interface for the vertical search engine links. Instead of having the links to the vertical search properties on the middle section left hand side of the page, the links are at the top. A Microsoft spokesperson told us, “We’re constantly updating and refining the […]
Zapped: Google Votes -1 On That +1 Button
Just that quickly, Google has disabled the +1 button that was spotted online earlier today. The button was pieced together and seemed to work for a couple hours, though, as the comments on our story show, its integration into Google’s search results wasn’t real good due to the limited rollout of +1 so far. A […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, March 31, 2011
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 Launches Page Speed Analyzer In Labs Google’s fixation on page speed continues with today’s addition of Page Speed, a new analysis tool in Google Labs. The tool analyzes any URL, […]
Google Launches Page Speed Analyzer In Labs
Google’s fixation on page speed continues with today’s addition of Page Speed, a new analysis tool in Google Labs. The tool analyzes any URL, gives it a grade (on a score of 0-100) and then offers a potentially long list of ways to make the page faster. The suggestions are divided into High, Medium and […]
Google +1 Button Spotted … And It Works [Er, Worked]
Even though Google’s +1 button isn’t supposed to be ready for webmasters for a few months, they’ve already been spotted in the wild — and they appear to work. Yvo Schaap points to Fanity.com, where a +1 button has been embedded in a social widget next to Facebook and Twitter buttons. (See image at right.) […]
Google Not Planning To Release Mobile Face Recognition: Update
Contrary to what I reported earlier based on a seemingly very credible CNN report, Google is not planning to release a version of its mobile app Goggles with face recognition technology. Google has had the capability for several years but so far refrained from putting it out in the world other than on Picasa. I […]
When Pandas Attack: Online Retailers Need To React
We interrupt our regularly scheduled RETAIL SMARTS column for this special update on extremely rare, but deadly Panda attacks in the retail community… So this week, I was supposed to share the results from that 300% sales increase of that leather dog collar with nameplate example from last column, but this is a little more important. […]
Microsoft Comes Out Of Shadows With EU Antitrust Complaint Against Google
In the past Microsoft has been accused of orchestrating third party legal complaints against Google like some behind-the-scenes Cardinal Richelieu or puppet master. But now Redmond has come out of the shadows and joined the list of companies that have filed formal complaints against Google in Europe. “Microsoft is filing a formal complaint with the […]
Search Marketers Intrigued By Google’s +1
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 […]
Google’s Bunsen Burner Logo: Robert Bunsen 200th Birthday
Today on the Google home page you will see a special logo for Robert Bunsen’s 200th birthday. The Google logo is an interactive chemical lab set with a Bunsen burner. Robert Bunsen was the co-inventor of the Bunsen burner. You can use the logo by placing your mouse over the burner or other areas of […]
29 Ways To Speed Up Your Website
There are so many reasons to make your website faster: Higher conversion rates, lower bandwidth costs and yes, higher rankings in organic search. Frankly, I’m stunned how often web teams resist doing it. Here’s a list from easy to not-so-easy, of 29 ways you can get things running faster on your website: Put your images on […]
Google’s +1 A Potential Boon To Paid Search Marketers
For an in-depth overview of Google’s new +1 extension of social search, see Danny Sullivan’s Meet +1: Google’s Answer To The Facebook Like Button. In addition, Matt McGee has written How To Get Google +1 Buttons For Your Website for publishers interested in adding the new button. Danny’s article briefly discusses how +1 will be […]
How To Get Google +1 Buttons For Your Website
The long-rumored Google +1 social layer is now reality, but one of the oddities of today’s announcement is that website owners can’t put +1 voting buttons on their websites or blogs yet. In case it was lost in the flurry of today’s news and discussion about Google +1, you can put in a request to […]
Google Selects Kansas City For Superfast Broadband Network
A little more than a year after announcing its plans to build a superfast, experimental broadband network somewhere in the U.S., Google has announced where that’s going to happen: Kansas City, Kansas. In selecting a city, our goal was to find a location where we could build efficiently, make an impact on the community and […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, March 30, 2011
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Meet +1: Google’s Answer To The Facebook Like Button Nearly a year after Facebook Like buttons spread out across the web, Google has announced its own rival, the +1 button. It […]
Four Web Analytics Gurus On Key Trends In 2011
In a dynamic and constantly changing world like internet marketing, measuring the outcomes of our activities is increasingly important. To get a deeper understanding about the most important developments in 2010 and the biggest challenges lying ahead for us in the rest of 2011, I interviewed four of the most influential gurus in the field […]
Meet +1: Google’s Answer To The Facebook Like Button
Nearly a year after Facebook Like buttons spread out across the web, Google has announced its own rival, the +1 button. It launches today as part of Google’s search engine, allowing you to “+1” the search results and ads that you like. And in a few months, it’ll be arriving at a web site near […]
Twenty Year FTC “Privacy Audit” Intended To Punish, Make Example Of Google
As you read earlier the US Federal Trade Commission concluded its investigation of Google over the company’s supposedly “deceptive privacy practices in Google’s rollout of its Buzz social network.” My view after talking to people at Google following the Buzz launch is that Google was not intentionally seeking to deceive users. Rather it was overzealous […]
Deadline Threatens Google Maps’ Existence In China
Maybe the sequel to John Adams’ seminal modern opera “Nixon in China” should be called “Google in China.” Its on-again-off-again dance with the world’s largest and most strictly controlled internet market is the stuff of melodrama. Renewing Google Maps’ License The latest episode in the ongoing saga poses the question whether Google will be able […]
Google Settles FTC Charges Over Buzz, Agrees To 20 Years Of Privacy Audits
Google has agreed to have independent privacy audits over the next 20 years, to settle an FTC investigation into wrong doing over its Google Buzz product. The FTC has release a statement where Google agreed to allow independent audits of how Google handles privacy controls. After Google Buzz launched there was a lot of concern […]
Google Aims To Boost Gmail Relevance With “Priority Inbox” For Ads
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 […]
Why Affiliate Direct Linking Activity Has Doubled
Direct linking, sometimes also referred to as ‘URL Hijacking’, occurs on paid search when affiliate marketers assume the identity in paid ads of the represented merchant. Direct linking occurs when the affiliate uses the merchant’s website as the display URL, with an affiliate link as the destination URL. The effect of this tactic is that […]
How To Convert Website Visitors To Facebook Likes
Because of its intrinsic relationship with the Open Graph protocol, there’s even more compelling reasons to use the Facebook like button than to use the official Tweet button. Like the Tweet button, the Like button is easy to install, and is highly standardized. Furthermore, the Like button is tied directly to Facebook’s analytics platform, Insights, […]
How To Convert Website Visitors Into Twitter Followers
Where the standard Tweet button gives you little control over the button’s appearance, functionality or call-to-action (you can Tweet, Tweet or Tweet) you have virtually unlimited options when encouraging users to follow you on Twitter. This is because the following action takes place on Twitter itself, rather than on your website: you’re essentially encouraging a […]
How To Convert Website Visitors To Tweeters
The official tweet button from Twitter is easy to implement, aggregates direct tweets and retweets in its counter, and includes a mechanism to encourage following (discussed below). These features almost certainly outweigh the slender benefits of employing third-party tweeting tools (the main benefit being more flexibility in styling the tweet button’s appearance). There are a […]
How To Convert Website Visitors Into Facebook Fans
Whereas Twitter direct follow buttons are not easy to implement, Facebook makes it simple to “Like” a Page on Facebook (i.e., to become a “fan” of the person or organization represented by that Facebook Page) without actually needing to visit Facebook. The alternate method of enticing visitors to become fans is simply to link to […]
7 Approaches To Engagement Conversion, 5 Explicit Tactics For Twitter & Facebook
When you successfully encourage a visitor to share content they discover on your website, that action strongly recommends your website to that visitor’s friends, extends its reach, and increases its visibility in the search engines. That same visitor may also be persuaded to make a long-term connection with you or your business, forging an incredibly […]
How Paid Social Media Advertising Can Work For In-House Programs
In-house search marketers are often struggling to find ways to grow their responsibilities. For many, the search engine marketing program itself will only get so big or complicated before it settles into a healthy size for the organization that runs like a well-oiled machine. In-house marketers who are looking to grow their skills, expand their […]
Google Talk Guru Brings Search To Instant Messaging
Google Talk Guru is a new experiment that tries to turn the instant messaging interface into a search engine of sorts. It was just added to Google Labs today, and is very much a lab-level project. There are a very limited number of search commands that currently work in Google Talk Guru. As you can […]
Google To Let AdWords Advertisers Target Contextually By Category
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 […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, March 29, 2011
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’s Android To Dominate Globally In 2011: Report Tech consulting firm IDC has predicted that Google’s mobile operating system will become the dominant mobile platform this year, achieving a global market […]
Google’s Android To Dominate Globally In 2011: Report
Tech consulting firm IDC has predicted that Google’s mobile operating system will become the dominant mobile platform this year, achieving a global market share of 39.5 percent. The next in line would be former global leader Nokia with 20.9 percent. Apple comes in at 15.7 percent. Windows Phones to Overtake Apple (via Nokia) These figures […]
GetGlue Integrates With Foursquare, Announces Sponsorship With NFL Network, HBO Sports & More
Major announcement today from GetGlue headquarters in New York City– besides an update to its website, GetGlue.com, and its iPhone app, GetGlue is now integrating with Foursquare to allows users to check into both the sports event they are watching as well as the location they are watching it from. GetGlue makes it easy to […]
A How To Guide For Submitting Content To Fark
Unlike the 100% voting based social aggregation sites like Digg and Reddit, the website Fark.com (Fark) has articles chosen by editors, not the Fark members. Much like Search Engine Land’s social news site, Sphinn.com, Fark allows for users to submit articles for consideration, and the best submitted are selected. With a monthly traffic ranging between […]
Amazon Preempts Google Music With Cloud Player Streaming For Android
It would appear that Amazon is becoming Google’s best frenemy. The company launched its well designed Android app store last week and yesterday surprised a lot of people by introducing Amazon Cloud Drive and Cloud Player. No, it apparently doesn’t work on Apple devices. Beating Google Music to market it offers music storage and streaming […]
Search-Oriented Sites Get Special New AdSense Format
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 […]
The New York Times Paywall Meters All Google Visits, Not Just Search Visits
The New York Times launched its paywall globally today, and I’ve been putting the barrier through its paces. Visits from search engines like Google, for convoluted reasons, are limited to five per day. But as it turns out, visits from any Google site — search or not — appear blocked. To test how the new […]
Jack Dorsey Back At Twitter; Ev Williams “Less Involved,” Company Says
More changes today atop the perch at Twitter: Jack Dorsey, the company co-founder who famously sent the first tweet five years ago, is back in a day-to-day role as Executive Chairman and will be in charge of the Twitter product. Evan Williams, meanwhile, is “less involved day-to-day” at Twitter, the company tells us. Appropriately, Twitter […]