Early last century, Albert Einstein turned the world of established physics upside down when he introduced his theories of special and general relativity. Newton’s Laws, which had successfully driven the work of physicists for hundreds of years, were usurped by Einstein’s new theories. At the heart of Einstein’s FIELD theories, which describe space-time, was his […]
Microsoft continues to run online its Pepsi-Challenge style ads “Bing It On,” in which a majority of users prefer Bing in a “blind comparison test” with Google. Despite the commercials and despite Microsoft reporting that after extensive testing users preferred Bing 2:1, people generally express skepticism. People simply don’t buy the campaign. Another recent study […]
Google Operating System reports on a potentially new feature for Google Now (Android 4.1 and higher). None of us here could duplicate it. As described, it clusters users’ search histories into topics that can easily be searched again (see image below “explore more”). I’ve noticed versions of this on my Android devices in the past. […]
Google has won a lawsuit filed by Wisconsin woman, Beverly Stayart, over Google Instant suggestions leading to a search result set that had ads. Beverly Stayart claimed Google suggested a search query phrase for the term [Bev Stayart levitra]. When you landed on that page of search results, Google would show search ads for Levitra […]
Google has largely ignored Bing’s Scroogled campaign, the one attacking it over the pay-for-play change to Google Shoppping & Gmail privacy. But today, Google search chief Amit Singhal pushed back a bit, saying Bing perhaps should focus on making better products rather than attacking Google. Speaking at the SXSW conference, when taking a question posed via […]
The growth of mobile search is like seeing a second child grow up. SEO isn’t bull. The knowledge graph, speech recognition and natural language are search’s biggest challenges. And, he really, really likes Star Trek. That’s just some of what the head of Google’s search efforts, Amit Singhal, shared when talking at SXSW today. Singhal is […]
One of the very interesting things going on in search is the phenomenon of “predictive search” or personalized recommendations based on a range of user data inputs (i.e., behavior, context, etc). Effectively, these are search results produced without entering a query into a search box. Much of what is happening in mobile and Google Now is […]
Had a bad experience purchasing from an online merchant? Google says it wants to protect searchers from that, and it may crackdown later this year with changes intended to prevent bad merchants from ranking well. The news came during the “How to Rank Better in Google & Bing” session that I moderated yesterday at the […]
According to AllThingsD, Google is about to settle the so-called “WiSpy” investigation with 30 US state Attorneys Generals. Google will admit no wrongdoing and pay $7 million according to the report. The article says the settlement will be announced next week. In early 2012, the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) concluded its own WiSpy investigation with no finding of […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the Web. From Search Engine Land: Drilling Into Top Conversion Paths For Valuable Insights Getting the whole story from your analytics is always a work in progress. Not only do we need to look at user behaviors […]
Getting the whole story from your analytics is always a work in progress. Not only do we need to look at user behaviors (or the lack thereof), we need to look at user experience interaction as well as revenues. One mistake I see many novice and new-to-analytics marketers fall into is ending their research path […]
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.
Google Maps may be banned in Germany as the result of a patent infringement lawsuit underway at a regional court in Germany. As FOSS Patents reports, Judge Matthias Zigann told Google today that he’s inclined to hold the company liable for infringing a Microsoft patent that describes a “computer system for identifying local resources and […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the Web. From Search Engine Land: Facebook Updates Newsfeed, No Impact On Graph Search (Today) We’ve covered this morning’s changes and enhancements to Facebook Newsfeed over at Marketing Land: Facebook Newsfeed Evolving Into “The Best Personalized Newspaper” […]
We’ve covered this morning’s changes and enhancements to Facebook News Feed over at Marketing Land: Facebook Newsfeed Evolving Into “The Best Personalized Newspaper” How To Get The New Facebook News Feed Power To Separate Feeds: A Look At The Filtering Inside The New Facebook News Feed Facebook’s New News Feed: The Before & After Look None […]
A “blind” study commissioned by directory publisher and local ad network YP, performed by Crowdflower, found that YP’s local search results were better overall than those of search engines. This was measured as a function of user satisfaction rating. Thousands of queries were compared over a year-long period. I can hear the skepticism: “It’s sponsored […]
When you sit down and think about it, search engines today have not changed all that dramatically in terms of depth-of-insight compared to their early days. Google recently added the Knowledge Graph for a subset of queries; but at its core, the level of insight available to the searcher remains primarily the Web links on […]
Enhanced Campaigns are the most important architectural change to Google AdWords since it moved from the right rail to take the place of “premium placements” in 2004. Much of the early commentary has focused on the version 1.0 implementation. It is important for Enterprise SEM program managers to start thinking hard and deep about the […]
Unconfirmed reports are surfacing throughout the SEO community that Google has penalized yet another link network. The rumors within the industry are that the link network targeted by Google is named SAPE links. Webmasters who have used the SAPE link network are reporting that their sites have taken hard penalties within Google, resulting in a […]
Mention Google and mobile together, and Google’s Android mobile operating system probably comes to mind. But Google’s mobile world is much larger than Android. It includes everything from ads, to offers, to apps like Google Now and yes, even Google Glass. The folks at WordStream have put together an excellent infographic covering 20 different ways that […]
Google released more details on its Mobile Ads Blog today about offer extensions and location targeting tools available in the new enhanced campaigns. Location Targeting With Better Reporting One of the main features of enhanced campaigns is that advertisers can target multiple locations within one campaign and adjust bids based on a multiple of the […]
TorrentFreak is reporting that Google is demoting the rank of the search result for the phrase “Pirate Bay”, the well-known BitTorrent tracker, on the UK version of Google. TorrentFreak research shows the actual Pirate Bay website is not listed in the first 100 results when searching on the UK site (independent of location) but continues […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the Web. From Search Engine Land: Twitter Improves Mobile Search: Top Tweets, Autocomplete & Web Browser Twitter announced search upgrades to the Twitter mobile app. The upgrades include an improved relevancy engine for top tweets, improved auto-completion […]
Twitter announced search upgrades to the Twitter mobile app. The upgrades includes an improved relevancy engine for top tweets, improved auto-completion for search and an easier web browser for results. Top Tweets In Search Results Some searches within the mobile Twitter interface may separate out top Tweets from the rest of the results. To see […]
VentureBeat reports Microsoft announced a new research project named ViralSearch. ViralSearch lets you search and navigate cascades of people passing content on social media and distinguish between things that are not just popular but also became viral in a sense that they are being passed from one person to the next over many generations. ViralSearch […]
You may find the subject of this column a bit self-serving, since I am a conversion optimizer. Well, it is. But, I hope to provide some basic math that will support my claims. If you’re spending money on a pay-per-click campaign or spending someone else’s money on a pay-per-click campaign, you should give some of […]
Search data is not one-size-fits-all – it goes way beyond search engine marketing and knowing which search led to a specific action. In fact, if search data can be used to forecast flu outbreaks, then I think we should consider the use cases beyond just an SEM campaign. There are various search entities where data […]
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 Matt Cutts Awarded Patent On Detecting Hidden Text & Hidden Links A new Google patent was awarded today named Systems and methods for detecting hidden text and hidden links. The […]
A new Google patent was awarded today named Systems and methods for detecting hidden text and hidden links. The patent was filed on August 25, 2009 by Google’s Matt Cutts and Fritz Schneider. It was awarded today after being in pending status for over 3 years. The abstract reads: A system detects hidden elements in […]
One of the more interesting aspects of Google’s recently released “How Search Works” interactive infographic were the live examples of spam that were recently removed. The features allows users to see live spam that was recently removed (once they clicked through the disclaimer that offensive material may be included.) Just 4 days later our own RustyBrick (the […]
Interflora got penalized only 2 weeks ago, right after Valentine’s day with a huge coverage in the media and also a some-what indirect statement from Google’s Matt Cutts himself about Advertorials also counting as paid links if they pass Page Rank (i.e. do not have NOFOLLOW tags on them). Now, just this past Sunday, a […]
It was unclear what to call FindTheBest when it first launched roughly two years ago: “anti-search engine,” “decision engine” or “comparison engine.” Today, it may not matter. The company just raised $11 million and has 22 million monthly users. (The site has raised $17 million to date.) CEO (and former DoubleClick founder) Kevin O’Connor sees […]
SEO and PPC fans often find themselves in different parts of the building, on different floors and sometimes on a different planet. This shouldn’t really be the case, but is. If you start to think of PPC as a device of SEO, it takes on a very different light and your own attitude shifts slightly. […]
They say timing is everything. This couldn’t be more true than when it comes to Social Media. One wrong move could spell a PR nightmare. It feels like we are walking on egg shells sometimes. Just look at what happened with poor Beyoncé. She made a fantastic performance at the Superbowl and then this: Why this became […]
Google announced an upgrade to the Google Maps for iPhone app that was originally released in December 2012. The update is version 1.1 and is available in the App Store as a free update. The changes include improved search for local venues, integration with your contacts and the addition of new countries. Local Icons To […]
In the latest video from Google’s head of search spam, Matt Cutts, he addresses Google’s standards for manually removing spam from the Google index. Matt Cutts first said and repeated it a couple times within the video that Google will not penalize or ban a site that is being critical of Google. Matt said: “One […]
Many businesses are fortunate to have widely recognized brands operating across countries or even the world, yet conduct much of their business locally. Retailers, real-estate agencies, home-service providers, B2B organizations… online marketing is essential for all of these types of businesses, but there can be a downside to being nationally recognized when you’re trying to […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: SMX West Starts Next Monday in San Jose; Register by March 10 and Save The clock is ticking! Search Engine Land’s – SMX West begins next Monday in San Jose, CA. […]
There’s been a lot of confusion among paid search marketers upset about the lack of device targeting in Enhanced Campaigns. This article will tell you how to advertise your mobile app using AdWords while checking out the new app promotion ad format in AdWords. One of the most common hypothetical use cases for device targeting […]
If you’ve followed headlines about the online deals industry over the past year, you might wonder if the phenomenon has lost its appeal. The coverage often goes something like this: Major players in the space are restructuring. The addition of hundreds of redundant and niche sites have saturated the market. Local businesses are moving on […]