You knew it was coming: Google+ now includes games. According to a screenshot posted on Google’s announcement, there are currently 16 games available at launch, including popular titles like Angry Birds, Bejeweled and others. Games are rolling out “gradually” starting today, Google says. Users will see a colorful, new button at the top of the […]
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 […]
Google has made some changes to its My Client Center (MCC) for agencies that allow up to five different MCCs to be linked to a single AdWords account. The new feature, called multiple links, is meant to allow a variety of entities — agencies, SEMs, API developers and others — working for a single client […]
Over the last few months, Microsoft has been tweaking the daily budget capabilities in its API in an effort to make its system simpler and easier to use. As of earlier this month, any new or edited campaigns included the Daily Budget with Monthly Maximum option, which calculates a monthly maximum based on advertisers’ daily […]
Are you ready! We’ve got Google Music coming! Maybe. Certainly some Android or Chrome announcements to come, here at the first day of the Google I/O developers conference. The keynote begins at 9am PT. So does my live blogging. Seriously, there is some expectation that Google Music 3.0, a cloud-based music system, will get aired […]
Yahoo has just launched version 2 of BOSS (Build Your Own Search Service). When they announced this version in February, I wrote about the history of BOSS and detailed the changes. The big changes are: The web and image search results are now sourced from Microsoft’s search index Yahoo branding attribution is now required (the […]
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 Says Activity Levels Are Soaring With the five-year anniversary of the first tweet approaching, Twitter says user activity is soaring. In a blog post that details tweet and account activity, […]
Google today announced the first upgrade to its AdWords API this year, touting features like the ability to run reports across clients, better filtering, improved geo-targeting, and the ability to deploy and measure “experiments,” or A/B split testing. In coming weeks, API v201101 will also feature the ability for agencies to use interest-based advertising at […]
Content sites that once benefited from raucous discussion in comments have complained that some of the conversation has been drained off by social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. Facebook today announced changes to its Comment Box widget that will plug the hole a little and keep at least some of the comments next 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: Google Forecloses On Content Farms With “Farmer” Algorithm Update In January, Google promised that it would take action against content farms that were gaining top listings with “shallow” or “low-quality” content. […]
TechCrunch reports Google has intentionally dropped the phonebook data sync from Facebook. The reason Google cites is because Facebook contacts “cannot be exported from the device” and thus do not allow users to “control their data” as freely as Google would like. This topic has been going on for months, starting back in November when […]
Today at the Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona, deCarta announced a set of free developer tools intended to challenge Google Maps and Places. I received a briefing last week and was impressed by the suite of products and tools, which include the following: White Label Maps Application White Label Local Search Engine Maps APIs […]
Yahoo has just announced that they’re about to launch a new version of BOSS with a fee structure based on query volume. (The initial version launched in 2008 was free, and a fee structure for high volume use was first talked about in 2009). Yahoo BOSS (Build Your Own Search Service) provides an API that […]
Google is retiring its Base API and replacing it with two shopping-centric APIs, requiring developers to modify applications that manage and search product data. Google Base will be shuttered permanently as of June 1, 2011. The Content API for Shopping will be used for uploading data, and the Search API for Shopping for accessing product […]
Bing has received a good deal of coverage for its integration of Facebook Likes into search results. In its Bing Search Summit last week, Microsoft said that Likes will influence ranking and create more personalized search results over time. As Microsoft’s Satya Nadella said, it’s “search quality foundationally influenced by the social graph.” Despite its […]
Continuing on from Danny’s Facebook: You’ve No Right To Export Email Addresses , it appears Google has upped the ante. ReadWriteWeb noticed that when you try to export your contacts to Facebook, Google gives you a big warning. This warning stems from Google recently changing their terms of service of their contacts API to prevent […]
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 Does Away With “Sponsored Links” Label, Now Ads Are Labeled “Ads” A month ago, Google began testing labeling the AdWords ads as “ads”. Prior, Google labeled those AdWords ads as […]
TechCrunch reports Google has made a small but significant change to their Google Contacts API terms of service that technically prevents Facebook from using it to improve their friends database. When users sign up to Facebook, they are prompted to add friends. They can do so manually or by uploading their contacts or email lists. […]
The world of location-based services changed dramatically today. And the changes that Facebook announced place the company firmly in the center of that very dynamic universe and ecosystem. Toward the end of becoming a “platform” for mobile, Facebook made several significant announcements aimed at developers. There were also announcements aimed at consumers and marketers, “Deals” […]
Last week’s news that OneRiot had shuttered its search engine left something of a void in the real-time search space. Numerous developers and companies that had come to rely on OneRiot’s API were suddenly out in the cold. Today, Topsy has announced that it’s taking on OneRiot’s former real-time search partners via the Topsy API, […]
The Yahoo Search Blog announced BOSS is switching, as expected, to a paid model. BOSS which launched in July 2008 has become a favorite of many developers when building their own search engine off of Yahoo’s data. With the organic Yahoo results being powered by Bing now, and the Microsoft deal closed, Yahoo has decided […]
If Twitter were like an old-style McDonald’s, the sign outside would have changed to “1 Billion Queries Served” today. And to keep serving up those queries to humans and machines alike, Twitter is now using a new underlying search technology. The news was announced in a post on Twitter’s Engineering blog today. Let’s take the […]
In a bid to give users more tools and control over the sharing of information (and perhaps preempt Google) Facebook introduced a new way to create and communicate with small private groups of people. Through an API this same functionality will be extended to publishers and third party developers like Facebook Connect is today. The […]
The Google AdWords API Blog announced a new version of the AdWords API. The new version is v201008 and it adds missing features of the previous version, where advertisers/developers had to reply on the older v13 API. What’s New: Reports: Now out of beta, the ReportDefinitionService service has what you need to receive detailed reporting […]
I’m at Twitter HQ in San Francisco eating cheese and guacamole in anticipation of the announcement. No one will talk but TechCrunch has reported that it’s video and inline images. I’ll make an attempt at live blogging, though I don’t like it much. The room is full of press. Ev Williams and Biz Stone have […]
I’m at Facebook HQ in Palo Alto where CEO Mark Zuckerberg is on stage in a jam-packed room that more resembles a wedding or luau than a press conference. He’s now announcing Facebook Places. He says Facebook Places seeks to accomplish three goals. Helping people share where they are See who’s around you See what’s […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Hunch: Traffic Down, Registrations Way Up & We’re Smarter Even though its traffic is down, Hunch says new user registrations have risen dramatically recently. And as more users register, Hunch says […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Study Calls Google ‘King Of Malware’ Google has twice as much malware in its search results as Yahoo, Bing, and Twitter combined. That’s one of the findings in the Barracuda Labs […]
Google previously announced (at its I/O developer conference) the creation of a Places API as part of the Google Maps API. That Places API is now open for business and being made available to third party developers. Booyah’s MyTown “check-in” app is one that has already been using it. In short all the information and […]
With Google announcing new Google Buzz API features today, real-time search engine OneRiot has followed up by announcing the inclusion of Google Buzz data in its real-time search products. OneRiot says it’s one of the first companies to get access to the Google Buzz “firehose” — the full stream of all public activities on Buzz. […]
There have been many search “preview” tools, plug-ins and add-ons that try and give users a peek at what’s behind a link on a SERP. Their objective is to circumvent the click and enable people to more quickly get to desired information. Almost all of these tools have failed to deliver on the promise 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: Google No Longer Redirecting Google China To Google Hong Kong Google announced they are no longer allowed under Chinese law to redirect Google.cn to Google.com.hk. The Chinese government told Google that […]
Microsoft announced today that app developers can now download the Bing Map App SDK and start building applications to submit to the Bing Map App Gallery. Developers can download the maps SDK at connect.microsoft.com/bingmapapps. Then once you start developing your apps, you can test the app in the new maps developer sandbox. Make sure to […]
Just about a month ago Google shut down v13 of the AdWords API for v200909. Now Google announced the next version of the AdWords API, v201003 beta. Google explained that v200909 is not going away anytime soon. But they want to release this new beta to enhance the current offerings of their AdWords API. The […]
Earlier today, Twitter posted new rules about how third party ad companies can insert ads into the Twitter “timeline” of tweets. Is this a death knell for those third party companies? Not necessarily, but it’s sure a crimp in some of their plans. Below, what the new rules seem to ban and allow. The Background […]
A battle appears to be brewing over the promise of monetizing Twitter and, more specifically, over the placement of ads on the Twitter platform. NOTE: See our follow-up post to this article, FAQ: Twitter’s New Rules On Third-Party Ads In a lengthy blog post today, Twitter’s Chief Operating Officer, Dick Costolo, announced that the company […]
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 May Finally Disclose AdSense Split … If You’re An Italian Newspaper, That Is How much money does Google keep for itself from AdSense ads that publishers carry? Unless you’re 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 Search Funnel Reports—Tunnel Vision? On March 19, 2010 Google unveiled Google AdWords Search Funnel Reports via this YouTube video. This was a great day for proponents of multi-attribution marketing analysis. […]
Local search destination Center’d has launched a new site, The DealMap. Its objective is to be a comprehensive engine for local deals and coupons. Beyond a range of sources and partners, it also employs game dynamics to encourage users to identify and upload local deals they find in the “real world” that would otherwise never […]
Google announced Monday about upcoming changes to its AdWords API fees. This change has been a long-time waiting for many agencies that have often had a constant battle gaining respect from Google. The Google API platform is structured to allow developers to interact with AdWords. This permits agencies to create their own bidding and reporting […]