SearchCap: Google AMP, Bing Maps & AdWords App Upgrade

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.

From Search Engine Land:

• Local Traffic “Diversion”: Google Claims It’s A Bug, Yelp Says It’s Intentional
  Nov 24, 2015 by Greg Sterling
  Local search represents between 30 and 40 percent of mobile search results. Local is critical for consumers and represents billions in annual ad spending. And it’s a high-stakes area for all the companies involved in serving or selling to local businesses. Over the weekend, the following exchange took place on Twitter regarding Google’s local […]

• Google Says AMP Will Come To Google Search “Early Next Year”
  Nov 24, 2015 by Danny Sullivan
  Still in testing, AMP pages are set to see their public debut in Google search in early 2016.

• Bing Featuring Black Friday Flyer Ads On Some Retailer Brand Terms
  Nov 24, 2015 by Ginny Marvin
  The ads showcase products on sale and link to promotional flyers hosted on Flipp.com.

• Google Star Wars Easter Egg Delivers Epic Search Results For “A Long Time Ago In A Galaxy Far Far Away”
  Nov 24, 2015 by Amy Gesenhues
  Searching the film’s memorable first lines on Chrome will deliver results that mimic the opening scene of the original Star Wars.

• Paid Search Spend On “Black Friday” Terms Began Surging A Month Earlier Than Last Year [Study]
  Nov 24, 2015 by Ginny Marvin
  Paid search ad spend on desktop text ads started escalating the week of September 27, a month ahead of 2014’s surge.

• 2016: Manual Link Building & SEO
  Nov 24, 2015 by Andrew Dennis
  Can link building truly be replaced by content marketing and “link earning?” Columnist Andrew Dennis doesn’t think so. Here’s why.

• Bing Images Launches “Places To Buy” For Holiday Shopping Season
  Nov 24, 2015 by Amy Gesenhues
  Two new Bing image search features let users compare product prices, get product recommendations based on favorited images.

• What To Do When Traffic Doesn’t Equal Sales
  Nov 24, 2015 by Casie Gillette
  So you’re getting decent traffic, but sales aren’t up. What’s the problem? Columnist Casie Gillette offers suggestions on where to look for answers.

• Google Updates AdWords Android App To Include Video Campaigns
  Nov 24, 2015 by Ginny Marvin
  Advertisers can monitor video campaign performance and make bid and budget adjustments.

• Bing Maps Adds Traffic Cameras To Map
  Nov 24, 2015 by Barry Schwartz
  You can now see live traffic cameras directly on Bing Maps.

• Who Is Lucy The Australopithecus? Google Logo Marks 1974 Discovery Of Early Human Ancestor Fossils
  Nov 24, 2015 by Amy Gesenhues
  Discovered in Ethiopia, the skeletal remains uncovered by Yves Coppens, Maurice Taieb and Donald Johanson date back 3.2 million years.

• Modern Marketing Essential Guide To Social Marketing
  Nov 23, 2015 by Digital Marketing Depot
  Social media has evolved. From super-sensitive sentiment detection to data-driven channel charges, the technology is here to actually use social engagements in repeatable, business-building ways. Get Oracle’s Modern Marketing Essential Guide to Social Marketing to learn how to fortify your marketing programs with social media with the five pillars of social marketing: Listening, Engagement, Marketing […]

Recent Headlines From MarTech, Our Sister Site Dedicated To Internet Marketing:

• Google Announces New Advertising Support For AMP Pages
• Inbound Marketer Moz Adds A New Content Tool For SMBs
• Volvo Owners In Sweden Can Get Holiday Shopping Delivered To Their Cars
• Google Drops Display Of Local Business Reviews in New Google+
• Even If A Brand Can’t Do SEO, It Can Still Do Local SEO
• Our SERP Sentiment Score For A Person’s/Brand’s Online Reputation
• SEO For Featured Snippets Leads To Big Gains
• What Bernie Sanders Can (Kind Of) Teach Us About SEO In 2016 & Beyond
• E-Commerce Conversion Rate Rose To 71% Higher Than October Average Last Week
• Google Shows Offline Analytics Capabilities With Holiday Store Traffic Data
• New Google Play “Warning”: App May Contain Advertising
• Marketing And The Gravitas Issue
• Programmatic’s New Tenants: Brand Marketers
• Snapchat Launches Story Explorer, A Swipeable Way To Get Different Visual Perspectives
• MarTech Today: Fluent + IDI, Google’s Star Trek Pin & Databox’s Uber-App
• Social Media And The Data Management Platform

Search News From Around The Web:

Industry

• Google Parent to Ask Subsidiaries to Pay for Corporate Services, Wall Street Journal
• Google and PwC to establish joint base in Belfast, BBC News

Local & Maps

• The New Google Plus – All About Collections Not About Business, Mike Blumenthal
• Yelp’s Top 20 Cities to Shop Local in 2015, Yelp Official Blog

Link Building

• A successful link building strategy in 6 steps, Yoast
• Google: The Next Penguin Update With Be Real-Time & A Huge Change, Search Engine Roundtable

Searching

• Answer: A couple of odd questions, SearchReSearch

SEO

• ‘User Experience’ is Not A Ranking Factor But Is Mentioned 16 times in Google Quality Raters Guide, Hobo
• 12 Major Brands on Where SEO Fits in the Digital Marketing Mix for 2016, Online Marketing Blog
• Boosting Your SEO by Helping Googlebot, koozai.com
• Google Search Console Crawl Stats For Time Spent Downloading A Page Is The HTTP Request, Search Engine Roundtable
• How to Seek Out Content Ideas with Low SEO Competition, State of Digital
• Is a potential eCommerce update upon us?, Branded3

SEM / Paid Search

• How To Integrate Structured Snippets, PPC Hero
• How to win on Black Friday: insights into store traffic trends, Inside AdWords
• How We Increased Android App Installs By 5% In 6 Weeks, PPC Hero
• Reach your most valuable customers with Customer Match, Google Ads Developer Blog