Foursquare announced today that they reached the mark of 10,000,000 members. The popular location based check-in app has been growing quickly in both features and members. The release of Foursquare 3.0, enhanced analytics and improved specials have helped to make the free service popular with more than those just checking in. Since inception two years ago over […]
Earlier this month, Twitter announced that it would be rolling out its own photo sharing service. I found this enabled for my own account last week and today got a formal message about it. So, I thought a close look at how it works might be useful. Use The Camera Icon For Photo Sharing Right […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Hot At Sphinn: Automated Tweeting Pros/Cons, Deleting PPC Keywords & More Another busy week of discussion last week on our sister site, Sphinn, with more than a third of the published […]
There’s lots of advice out there for what to do in optimizing websites for local businesses, yet day after day, we see some of the same bad practices continue to be perpetuated in bad web designs. So, at the risk of sounding like a broken record, here’s a reminder of some basic things NOT to do […]
ICANN – the organization in charge of internet domain names – has approved plans that may create hundreds or thousands of new “top level domain names.” I’ve seen some reports already that this will help with search engine optimization. It won’t. It’ll just enrich some new TLD owners at the expense of brands who will […]
… and moving to a bigger house. Since over a quarter of the world’s mobile phones are now smartphones and mobile Internet use is set to overtake desktop use in the next 4 years, it’s even more important to have a mobile strategy or mobile offering. In recent times, Google has started to open up […]
There are a couple of new search and display ad forecasts out from eMarketer. They run through next year with Google increasing its dominance of search advertising, while Facebook steals the top slot from Yahoo in display. The firm sees Google US search ad revenues opening up a bigger lead despite Bing’s gains among consumers. […]
Every PPC manager wants to know how to increase their exposure, especially if they feel there aren’t any new keywords they wish to add. There is a simple way to determine how to increase an account’s exposure that can be accomplished in less than a minute. Generally speaking, when looking to increase your exposure, you […]
Bas van den Beld received a new notification from Google Webmaster Tools that has never been seen before. The notification informs those who are running outdated WordPress installations to update them to the latest version. Here is a screen shot: Matt Cutts of Google confirmed the new notifications via Twitter saying, “we’re kicking off a […]
Like in the previous years, Google has added a rainbow to the search results to show their support for the Gay and Lesbian community. June is Gay and Lesbian Pride month and like Google has done before in 2010, 2009 and 2008, Google has added the rainbow colors when you search for gay related keywords. […]
Having used the Samsung 10.1 Android tablet (running Honeycomb) for a number of weeks I can tell you conclusively that it doesn’t compete with the iPad. While the hardware is light and generally well designed, the overall software experience falls well short of the standard the iPad has established. An Unintentional iPad Competitor? Enter Google’s […]
Businesses are growing more aware of the need to understand and implement at least the basics of search engine optimization (SEO). But if you read a variety of blogs and websites, you’ll quickly see that there’s a lot of uncertainty over what makes up “the basics.” Without access to high-level consulting and without a lot […]
Today is Father’s Day in the U.S. and many other countries. To celebrate the day, Google has a special tie logo. Bing, Yahoo and other search engines have special logos and themes as well. Here they are: Google: Yahoo (animated): Yahoo (not-animated): Bing: Ask.com: DogPile: Baidu: Sogou: Search Engine Roundtable: Related Stories: Google’s 2011 Mother’s […]
A reader emailed us a screen shot of the Google home page missing the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button as well as a new look for the inside search result pages. Here are those screen shots. Notice the home page missing the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button: The next screen shot shows a completely new look for […]
Do you remember that disturbing, Photoshopped image of First Lady Michelle Obama that made big news a couple years ago? It’s hard to find now in Google Image Search unless you know exactly what to type into the search box. Type “michelle obama” and you probably won’t ever see it. (More on that at the […]
Remember the woman in Utah who used Google Maps’ walking directions, was hit by a car and sued? The case is Rosenberg v. Harwood and Google was successful in getting almost all the claims against the company dismissed last week. When last we left our story the plaintiff, Lauren Rosenberg, was walking from 96 Daly […]
Google’s planned purchase of publisher-side ad optimization firm Admeld is expected to be reviewed by the Department of Justice to ensure it doesn’t illegally inhibit competition in the display advertising industry. That according to reports from The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, and others, which cite sources familiar with the matter. The company announced its plans […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Up Close With Google’s Search By Image: Hits, Misses & More Earlier this week at its Inside Search event, Google announced a new way to search the web called Search By […]
Earlier this week at its Inside Search event, Google announced a new way to search the web called Search By Image. Rather than enter a text query, Search By Image lets you begin your search with an image and Google will (try to) tell you what it is and show visually similar images. Search By […]
From the you-knew-it-would-happen-at-some-point department: a “street view” photography car made out of LEGOs that actually works! The car/toy (frankly, I’m not sure what to call it) is the work of Mark Crosbie, a software architect based in Dublin, Ireland and self-described “big LEGO kid by night.” It uses Lego’s NXT (a programmable robotics system), a […]
During the Matt Cutts You & A at SMX Advanced in Seattle last week, someone asked Matt if Google would ever “like” query systems that provided ranking reports to SEOs. Matt said, again, that the focus shouldn’t be on rankings, and that website should be focused on “what makes the most money.” I rebutted that […]
In 1997, a computer called Deep Blue beat world chess champion Garry Kasparov. Headlines triumphed about the victory of machine over man, as we humans were “conquered”, “vanquished” and, as a result of our defeat, “stunned.” Checkmate…Finally! The real question isn’t why we finally were defeated by a chess playing computer, but why it took […]
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.
In New York, at the Mobile Marketing Association forum, Google presented sponsored research on global smartphone user and marketer behavior. The data come from two related studies. The first is an “an online survey of thousands of mobile consumers in 30 countries.” The second is based on “a telephone survey of 1,000 marketing decision makers,” […]
This week Inside Facebook revealed that Facebook was planning on bringing a few new features to their Places product. Facebook Places launched almost a year ago, a product which has seen decent usage to date. The new features that are reportedly launching should make it much easier to market places, especially for those with small […]
Google announced they are now supporting the rel=”canonical” attribute within HTTP headers. This enables webmasters to set up a canonical for linking to or from PDF files or other non-HTML based files. One of the examples given by Google is that a “webmaster can signal to Google that the canonical URL for the PDF download […]
Intrepid searchers have been spotting click counts displaying under certain AdWords ads on Google.com, and the search giant has confirmed it’s doing a small experiment. Both Vinny O’Hare and Steven Weldler spotted the user interface test, in which a click count was displayed underneath the URL portion of the ad. In one implementation, the text […]
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 Expands Use & Display Of Related Searches Google has announced an interesting expansion of its related search capabilities. The updates to Google’s search results will show up in a number […]
Google has announced an interesting expansion of its related search capabilities. The updates to Google’s search results will show up in a number of different ways: Search References/Lists When the search query suggests results that may involve a list, Google will show what it calls the “top references” for the query. This may show up […]
Google is testing search and display versions of a cost-per-lead ad format that would allow users to request an advertiser contact them. The company confirmed a display test after a political controversy arose surrounding the AdWords feature, and declined to comment on a search test. Other than acknowledging that the display ad test was happening, […]
The Obama campaign ad that started it all — a display ad on Real Clear Politics that requested a user’s e-mail address — wasn’t even a Google ad. But someone from the Republican National Senatorial Committee (RNSC) thought it was, so she called her Google sales rep and asked about getting something similar for the […]
My kids and I really enjoy watching the MAKE Magazine video podcasts together. It’s one of those rare and happy things that a ten-year-old girl, an eight-year-old boy, and an adult can watch together and find interesting. Inspired by these podcasts, I thought it would be a good idea to create a do-it-yourself SEO project. […]
Two mobile-location privacy bills have been simultaneously introduced in Congress. Both are intended to regulate when location on mobile devices can be accessed and provide penalties for failure to obtain proper consent or authorization. The first of the two bills is from Democratic Senators Al Franken and Richard Blumenthal and would require Google, Apple, app […]
Did you know that out of all social networking users 92% partake in Facebook, 29% participate on MySpace, 18% are on LinkedIn and Twitter is the least utilized network with just 13% usage? Or that males on LinkedIn nearly double the number of females, yet female usage of Twitter almost doubles male usage? Today Pew […]
Shashi Seth, SVP of Search & Marketplaces at Yahoo believes that mobile apps are like websites in the early days of the internet and will only continue to multiply just as websites have done — seemingly exponentially. Regardless of whether the analogy is 100 percent accurate everyone agrees that app discovery has become a big […]
Google has launched a new “Me On The Web” section within its Google Dashboard area, which seems designed to push more people toward creating Google Profiles, as well as create greater awareness of how things that leak out of Facebook and other social networks may end up on Google. The Facebook Factor Perhaps I’m reading […]
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 Tweaks Interface For “Keyword Ideas” In AdWords Keyword Tool Google has changed the way it’s displaying “Keyword Ideas” in its AdWords Keyword Tool, breaking them into a separate tab so […]
Google has changed the way it’s displaying “Keyword Ideas” in its AdWords Keyword Tool, breaking them into a separate tab so advertisers can more easily view both keywords and ideas. The keyword ideas are suggestions that are somehow related to the keywords or URL input at the top of the tool, and, like keywords, they […]
While Google.com can store your search history, Google Maps is now storing and offering what you might call “map history” under a new tab called “My Places.” It’s a convenient way to access the different types of activity you might’ve had inside Google Maps:
Google is streaming today’s Lunar Eclipse on YouTube plus if you go to Google.com, you will see a special Google logo for the Lunar Eclipse. The logo leads to a search result answer telling you information on the timing of the Lunar Eclipse. Here is the search result you get after clicking on the logo: […]