SearchCap: Weird Google Quick Answers, Google Maps Ads & Luxury Paid Search Spend

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

From Search Engine Land:

• Top Luxury Brands Spent $22 Million On Google Text Ads In The U.S. Last Year [Study]
  Paid search research firm, AdGooroo, has analyzed the paid search activity by luxury brands and retailers in the U.S. across five categories: apparel, beauty & cosmetics, shoes, handbags and watches. According to the study, five of the top personal luxury companies spent nearly $22 million on Google AdWords desktop/tablet text ads across their brands in […]
• Ads On Google Maps Now Show In New Scrolling List View, In-Map Ads Get A New Look
  Google has formally announced that it is surfacing and displaying ads on Google Maps and Google Maps for Mobile in the scrolling list view it debuted recently. The ads appear above the organic listings and can include location extensions and call extensions. Location extensions are what allow advertisers to include ratings, store hours and the […]
• Hearing The Rhythms Of Human Search Behavior: What We’ve Learned
  Watching people search is great entertainment. It’s not a one-note performance. It’s an all-day, around-the-clock jazz show, with the performers constantly changing their themes, rhythms, even their instruments. Along the way, one gains some great insight into human behavior and how people go about their connected lives. Search marketers that pay attention to this tune […]
• Automated Tools To Help Local Businesses Tackle Online Marketing
  When asked to rate their biggest challenges with managing digital media for their business, 47% of local business owners said they don’t have enough knowledge or expertise; 43% said they don’t have enough time; and 26% said they don’t have enough resources, according to a Local Search Association/Thrive Analytics survey conducted earlier this year. Furthermore, […]
• Some Of The Weird Issues When Google’s Quick Answers Come From Random Sources
  As Google’s Hummingbird algorithm continues to shape the answers within Google’s search results, webmasters, SEOs and searchers ask themselves, why is Google showing this knowledge graph or that quick answer. Often webmasters find themselves at a loss because Google takes their content and puts it at the top of the search results. While searchers ask, […]
• Must-See SMX East Keynote: Jonah Peretti, Founder & CEO Of BuzzFeed
  Everyone likes to talk about creating buzz, but few have mastered the art of making content go viral like Jonah Peretti. He’s the founder of BuzzFeed, the wildly popular social news and entertainment website that has scored huge successes with quizzes, listicles and even long-form content. Peretti also co-founded the Huffington Post, and is well-known […]

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

• Facebook Continues Expectation-Beating Streak With A $2.9 Billion Q2
• Most Consumers Reject In-Store Mobile Tracking — Or Do They?
• How Spirit Airlines Embraced Brand Hatred And Won
• Get To Know: North Lake Tahoe Convention & Visitor Bureau CMO Andy Chapman
• Live @ SMX East: How BuzzFeed Mastered The Art Of Viral Content
• 6 Common Mistakes Of Acquisition Marketers
• Target By Operating System & Browser Type With New Facebook Advertising Behavior Types
• LinkedIn To Acquire Bizo In A Deal Valued At $175 Million
• The Shelf Life Of A Mobile Ad: Shorter Than You May Think
• William Shatner Boldly Goes Into Facebook Mentions App For Celebrities, Calls It “Ill Conceived”
• Microsoft Reports $23 Billion In Revenue For Q4 2014
• Email Deliverability: 4 Horrible Myths On The Rise

Search News From Around The Web:

Industry

• How Google’s Larry Page became a responsible entrepreneur, Guardian

Local & Maps

• Local Business Schema.org Q&A: Tough Questions for David Deering, LocalVisibilitySystem.com

Link Building

• A Manual and Effective Link Audit in 6 Steps, SEMrush Blog
• Dear Google, Links from YouMoz Don’t Violate Your Quality Guidelines, Moz

SEO

• 5 SEO Myths that Still Haunt Us Today, Covario
• Content and SEO are Not Always the Answer, State of Digital
• Debate: Part Two – Are the lines between SEO and content marketing too blurred?, Vertical Leap
• Negative SEO Requests From White Hat Clients, Search Engine Roundtable
• Should You Still Care About Google Authorship?, ClickZ

SEM / Paid Search

• AdWords API – Upgrading to account-level location extensions, Google Ads Developer Blog
• How AdWords Call Extensions and Local Extensions Help Guide Your PPC Strategy, Renegade Search
• How I Structure Paid Search Accounts, ISOOSI Blog
• How to Prevent Your AdWords Ads From Being Displayed in Apps, The SEM Post