Last week in the Chicago Tribune former judge and scholar Robert Bork (who is also a Google advisor) penned an opinion column arguing that by the accepted standards of antitrust law Google has done nothing legally wrong. Bork says, “There is extraordinary competition in the search engine business. Look at the proliferation of what are […]
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 Maps Traffic Estimates Even For Many Roads Any person who knows their neighborhood well, knows which streets to avoid when driving around town. But for those who are just visiting […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Move Over, Wikipedia: Amazon May Be The King Of Google Rankings While the SEO industry has spent years decrying how well Wikipedia seems to dominate Google’s rankings, it may be that […]
While the SEO industry has spent years decrying how well Wikipedia seems to dominate Google’s rankings, it may be that Amazon.com is the real king of visibility. For most of the past 18 months or so, Amazon has shown up on the first page of Google search results more often than Wikipedia and currently lands […]
Wikipedia doesn’t pwn Google nearly as much as the SEO industry thinks it does. In fact, according to a new Conductor study, Wikipedia showed up on the first page of Google’s search results only 46 percent of the time in a study using 2,000 unique keywords. Conductor used one thousand informational keywords (like “lyrics” and […]
Personalized search? Both Google and Bing will tell you that it provides better results. But two-thirds say they don’t care. They view personalized search as a “bad thing,” a new survey finds. Nearly three-quarters also view gathering data to personalize results to be a privacy invasion. The findings come out of a survey from the Pew Internet & […]
Danny Sullivan, Chris Sherman and Google SVP of Advertising Susan Wojcicki are now seated for her on-stage keynote interview this morning at SMX West. It’s a capacity crowd as Chris Sherman introduces Wojcicki as “one of the 50 most influential business executives” (Forbes). He also characterizes her as someone “you may not have heard of at […]
As Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum loses two primary races to rival Mitt Romney, perhaps he can console himself with, ironically, another loss. Spreading Santorum, the page defining “santorum” as a by-product of anal sex, has finally dropped from the top results on Google. The related anti-Santorum blog, however, remains. And a page from Urban […]
Last month, market research tool provider Ask Your Target Market surveyed 400 US adults about their attitudes toward personalized search on Google. The results were reported today in eMarketer’s email newsletter. We went back to the source to check out the survey and discovered that the majority of respondents expressed ambivalence or outright dissatisfaction about Google’s […]
Google is quietly taking requests from web users who want to get paid to surf the web using the Chrome browser while sharing data with Google. The program is called Screenwise and, though we’re not aware of any official announcement, Google has a signup page at www.google.com/landing/screenwisepanel. The page explains that Google wants to create […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Major Entertainment Groups Accuse Google, Bing Of Directing Users To Illegal Content Several major UK entertainment industry groups are accusing Google and Bing of directing searchers to illegal content, and have […]
I’ve written that Google has plenty of public data to allow parts its new Search Plus Your World feature to be inclusive of rival social networks like Facebook and Twitter. Now, those networks are proving that true, through a new “Don’t Be Evil” tool that lets anyone leverage Google’s own results to see this. The tool […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Yahoo’s Co-founder Jerry Yang Resigns Yahoo announced its co-founder Jerry Yang has formally resigned after 17 years on the job. Yang co-founded the company in March 1995, and has been on […]
Google, the company that has been fighting against paid links and “thin” content, seems to be behind a campaign that’s generating both on behalf of its Chrome browser. File this under “what were they thinking.” “This Post Sponsored By Google” Aaron Wall wrote about the campaign today at SEO Book, spotting how a search for “This […]
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 Instant Costs Google $65,000 In France The Local, a French newspaper, reports Google France was ordered to pay €50,000 ($64,670) to Lyonnaise de Garantie, a French insurance company over a […]
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 Removes Author: Search From Google News You can no longer search for articles from specific authors in Google News. As Barry Schwartz reported this morning on Search Engine Roundtable, using […]
Kantar Media is taking a stab at estimating advertiser spend on Google, and a new report it produced for AdAge shows IAC/InterActiveCorp spent $174 million on paid search ads in the first three quarters of the year. IAC is, of course, the parent company of Ask.com, Match.com and the Newsweek Daily Beast, among many other […]
We’re already well into Black Friday. In many US stores the frenzy began last night at 10 pm or midnight (as opposed to the normal 4 am door-busting start time). People barely had time to overcome the sleep-inducing effects of L-tryptophan before getting out into the melee. And the word “melee” aptly describes the scene […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Bing Evokes Holiday Nostalgia In New Stop-Motion Animation Ads If you know that Hermey the elf longs to be a dentist, that Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer’s girlfriend is named Clarice, 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: Wolfram Alpha Offers New Twist On Flight Search: Literal Answers To What Planes Are Overhead You may not love this as much as I do, but that’s okay. Wolfram Alpha has […]
Shoppers using Google Product Search are sometimes being misled by incorrect tax and shipping information in search results. And that’s despite Google’s recent crackdown on merchants who either omit tax and shipping details, or list false/incorrect data in their product feeds. Back on March 14th, Google announced new rules for Product Search merchants. Among those […]
Exciting! Now you can share full songs from Google Music with others on Google+, like no other service allows. That’s how I heard the pitch watching the Google Music event today. The reality is much different. Nice, but still disappointing in ways. Google Music Vs. Android Market Google Music is Google’s cloud-based music service. Until […]
To virtually no one’s surprise, Google today announced the launch of a digital music store that integrates with its existing cloud-based music storage locker. And that locker service is officially out of beta with today’s announcement. The Google Music Store exists in the Android Market alongside app, book and movie stores. It’s available in the […]
Finding it too much hassle to organize your friends and contacts into circles on Google+? Google may have a solution on the way, thanks to the company’s acquisition of Katango. Katango launched this past summer with an iPhone app that automagically organizes Facebook friends through an algorithmic approach that looks at profile information, past interactions […]
Asked to reflect on the cultural differences between Google and Facebook, current Facebook COO and former Googler Sheryl Sandberg told Charlie Rose that “Google is fundamentally about algorithms and machine learning . . . We start from a totally different place. We start from an individual: Who are you? What do you want to do? What do […]
A new feature of Google+ is Google+ Direct Connect, where typing the name of a company preceded by a + symbol will make that company’s Google+ Page appear as a suggestion in the search box, in the right circumstances. Who are the lucky few, so far? Here’s an alphabetical rundown, which reveals a number of […]
Is Google is a malevolent monopolist or merely the beneficiary of consumer choice in an intensely competitive environment? Has Google created a “network effect” that locks people in or is competition truly just “one click away”? These opposing views are on display in a PR war between Google and its opponents, such as anti-Google coalition FairSearch.org (which includes […]
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 Says SEO Is Not Spam Matt Cutts, head of the Google’s web spam fighting team, has gone on record by saying Google does not consider SEO to be spam. Matt […]
Last week speculation arose about a new cloud based Google Music Store that could compete against Amazon and Apple. This week more news broke including the social integration that the Google Music Store may bring. The Wall Street Journal reported that Google Music will tie in closely with the Google+ social network. Users will reportedly be able […]
We already knew that Steve Jobs felt betrayed by Google’s launch of Android but wow, was he really mad. But oddly, despite vowing nuclear war against Google, as his forthcoming bio reveals, he kept Google as the search default in Apple products. The AP obtained a copy of the authorized Jobs bio that comes out […]
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 Shuttering Buzz In Favor Of Google+; Farewell To Labs Buzz was a great learning experience, says Google, but in a few weeks it will be shut down and all such […]
In May Google launched Google Music, a cloud-based streaming music app that allows for music backups and streaming to phones and other devices. Rumors have been swirling that Google will use this product to create an online MP3 store to compete against Apple and Amazon. The WSJ reports that Google has been in licensing talks […]
Google now has its own version of the Yahoo “peanut butter” manifesto, where Google staff software engineer Steve Yegge wrote a “family intervention” memo about Google’s failure to build accessible platforms, leaving it vulnerable to the likes of Facebook. There are some harsh words about Google+, but the memo is broader than that. It offers an intriguing look […]
Mozilla released its annual report (PDF) yesterday and reports came in that 98% of the foundation’s revenue comes directly from search partners, including Google, Microsoft and Yahoo. Mozilla said it earned $121.1 million in revenue in 2010, up 19.3% from 2009’s $101.5 million. Even with the growth of Google Chrome, Mozilla increased revenues through this […]
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: Low PageRank & Bad Spelling May Go Hand-In-Hand; Panda, Too? If your website and/or web pages have low PageRank, it’s possible that they also suffer from poor spelling and grammar. […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: How You Can Build Links Easily With Product Reviews The art of building links to increase search rankings has been a big topic in the SEO community for a long time. […]
Amazon’s new “Fire” Android tablet is an incredible act of audacity that thumbs its nose at Google, while using Google’s mobile OS in the background. Nowhere does the Google or Android brand appear on the device. Amazon has even created its own browser (“Silk”) for mobile web access. Fire is an Android tablet without the […]
Good morning! Welcome to day two of our SMX East Conference in New York City. We’re beginning today with a keynote conversation with Eli Pariser, author of The Filter Bubble, a book in which Pariser argues that search personalization leads to users being unaware of viewpoints and opinions that are different than their own. We […]
Here we are, five months after Panda and the only publicly confirmed Panda recovery stories are those that followed the Panda 2.3 update. This is notable because this particular update was one in which Google took actions to help restore some sites that were unfairly hit by the earlier versions of Panda. Google told Barry […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Nearly 90% Of Twitter Users Follow Brands & Just 10.9% Of Users Find Promoted Tweets To Be Annoying In a new article from eMarketer and Lab42, information was released around brands […]