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 Congratulates Watson On Twitter; IBM Says Thanks Among those watching IBM’s Watson win Jeopardy last night were folks at Google, which just tweeted congrats over to IBM. In response, IBM […]
The effort to get Google to disclose more information about how it ranks sites and the details of its algorithm is nothing new. However that information, among other things, is now being sought by the Texas Attorney General’s office in conjunction with a broad antitrust investigation against Mountain View. According to Bloomberg: Texas Attorney General […]
The phrase “Obamacare” was intentionally concocted by health care opponents to create a negative impression or connotation in an attempt to defeat the program. The phrase stuck and is now widely used by some in the media. That’s all according to Wendell Potter, a former health care industry PR executive who’s written a disturbing book […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: What Every Search Marketer Needs To Know About Web Security All too often web site security is somebody else’s problem. It shouldn’t be. If you work on websites, you should know […]
Andrew McLaughlin, one of several former Google employees who joined the Obama admninistration, resigned last week as Obama’s number two tech expert. The news was first reported last week by Politico, which says McLaughlin was leaving to launch two start-ups. USA Today, however, reports today that McLaughlin isn’t sure what his future plans will include. […]
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 Voice Search Adds Personalization Traditional search on Google is already personalized (and has been for some time), and now the company has announced that its Voice Search service can also […]
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: Now Likely Using Online Merchant Reviews As Ranking Signal Earlier this week, the New York Times spotlighted how a merchant with bad reviews nonetheless was ranked well in Google. Today, […]
Will 2011 be the “year of privacy”? There are many reasons to think so. In the US, the Obama administration is planning to establish a committee or “czar” to oversee potential new internet privacy rules. Republicans and Democrats alike seem to be concerned about online tracking and privacy issues. The question would appear to be […]
Sound the vuvuzelas! In what surely will take top honors for the list(s) to end all lists this year, Yahoo! has unveiled its annual Year in Review for 2010, featuring at least 25 categories of Top 10 most searched for topics. This year’s special searches cover everything from the usual celebrities and gossip headlines, 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 AdWords Gets New ‘Click Type’ Report If you take advantage of some of the relatively new AdWords features like click-to-call, Sitelinks, and Product Ads, there’s a new report in your […]
It’s not even December yet, and already at least one of the search engines is ready to get a jump on the annual round up of the things we searched for most in 2010. Today, Bing sent over a brief list for us to preview their most popular overall searches, tallied from the last 11 […]
The New York Times has a great, detailed story out today about a merchant with an unusual marketing strategy: be mean to customers. Any publicity, even negative publicity, means a win with Google’s ranking algorithms. Is he right? Maybe. Certainly the story illustrates the fallacy of Google’s “gold standard” search results. Rank Well With Bad […]
The New York Times is reporting that FBI Director Robert S. Mueller met this week with executives from several tech firms — including Google and Facebook — to talk about a plan to make Internet wiretapping easier. The Times says the US government is looking to expand a 1994 law, the Communications Assistance for Law […]
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 For Android Now Available To Everyone Bing for Android was previously only available on selected Verizon Android handsets. Now, according to Microsoft, it’s available to everyone with an Android handset, […]
Although the FTC ended its investigation into Google’s collection of personal data via unsecured WiFi networks, Google’s not necessarily in the clear with the Obama administration. According to the Wall Street Journal, the FCC is looking into whether Google broke the law when its Street View cars collected personal data between 2007 and May, 2010. […]
In a six-page letter to House Oversight Committee leaders, a watchdog group has called on the government to do a “thorough investigation” of both Google’s WiFi data collection and the FTC’s recent decision to end its investigation without penalizing Google. In a blog post announcing the letter (PDF download), Ken Boehm, chairman of the National […]
Last year, we covered Google Analytics’ launch of Google Analytics Intelligence, an engine that helps the analyst by applying data mining and other techniques. Today, Google Analytics announced a major upgrade to the intelligence engine through a feature called “Major Contributors.” From the Google Analytics blog post: “When Google Analytics detects causes to a major […]
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 Appoints Privacy Director & Adds New Privacy Measures Google has announced they have increased their privacy controls within Google to better secure user privacy. Google has done this in response […]
President Obama paid a visit to Google’s Marissa Mayer’s home on Thursday night. Mayer was holding a charity event, selling seats for $30,400-per-plate at the fundraising dinner. Obama gave a speech at the event, where he reportedly said: My task has also been to try to figure out how do we address some of the […]
Jason Calacanis was a bit upset with Facebook’s new Facebook Groups feature, after he discovered someone added him to a supposed NABMLA group on Facebook. But it wasn’t some stranger that added Jason. It was one of his own Facebook friends. Facebook: Where 5,000 Friends Know Your Name Jason has nearly 5,000 friends on Facebook. […]
Do a search for politics on Bing Social Search, and its new “who to follow on Twitter” feature offer exactly one person: Sarah Palin.
There are plenty of celebrities on Twitter, and it easy to find lists of those who are most popular according to the number of people following them. But here’s a twist. Who are the most popular celebrities on Twitter that people are trying to find, in order to follow them? Below, a top ten list […]
Google announced they have acquired Metaweb. Metaweb is a search company that figures out entities and not just words. I have a video from the company explaining exactly what that means. In short, Google seems to want to explore and leverage Metaweb’s technology to bolster their rich snippet initiative and Google Squared project. As you […]
We’ve covered earlier how both BP and legal firms are advertising on Google. Now Google itself is targeting oil spill related terms to drive people to its “Crisis Response” page. A search for [gulf oil spill] returns an ad from Google that reads “Latest Oil Spill Update: Watch live video of the oil spill cleanup […]
I’m at TWTRCON today, where “Terry” — AKA “Leroy Stick” — the mystery man behind the wonderfully entertainly parody @bpglobalpr account is speaking. Will we learn his real identity? I’m not expecting this. CBS News had a video interview with him where his identity was kept hidden. That was also true of his statement to […]
I’m at TWTRCON today, where Martha Stewart is being interviewed during a keynote conversation by David Pogue of the New York Times.
It’s been a little while since we’ve done a Search Biz column. So it’s time to dust off the old snark machine and get right into it. First up there’s a very entertaining post on some new, unsealed records from the YouTube-Viacom litigation featuring a range of colorful expletives as both sides insult one another […]
It’s Day 2 of Google I/O, Google’s annual developers conference. The morning keynote gets underway at 8:30AM Pacific. What to expect? How about Google TV? An Android Tablet? TechCrunch found evidence that’s what we may be hearing about. We’ll see shortly. My liveblogging begins, below. Those at home can also watch live. I/O sessions are […]
The Pew Internet & American Life Project has issued a new report about how Americans access government information. They found that 82% of online adults in the United States have been to a government website within the last 12 months, and that 44% started at a major search engine. While social media has become increasingly […]
Google has launched a Twitter archive service, giving it a more comprehensive index of tweets over time than even Twitter itself. (See Danny’s Where Have All The Old Tweets Gone?) Meanwhile, Twitter gets a logo presence in Google’s search results, the first time Google’s featured a partner like this.
The new jazzy Google user interface that Google has been testing since November 2009 has been showing up more on user screens. It resurfaced in February, and now we have been hearing more reports of people noticing the new interface and our very own Vanessa Fox also has been seeing it on her browser. NOTE: […]
The Pew Internet & American Life Project recently undertook a massive task (for the fourth time): predicting the future of the internet. They surveyed hundreds of technology experts, who not unsurprisingly, had varied opinions about what the future might hold. Of course, it’s highly unlikely that any of these perspectives is the exact future 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: Bing Gets Dedicated Button On New Windows (7) Phones This morning in Barcelona, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer delivered a keynote address at the GSM Mobile World Congress trade show. I’m not […]
Google continues to flirt with being an ISP or carrier. Several years ago the company was part of the aborted municipal WiFi bid for San Francisco with Earthlink. Google is also one of the major forces behind the White Spaces initiative (“WiFi on steroids“) that seeks unused TV spectrum for broadband purposes. In addition, Google […]
Yesterday, Mark Cuban warned media owners in a keynote speech that Google is a vampire trying to suck them dry, giving them nothing back and daring owners to block it. This is the same Mark Cuban who is an investor in Mahalo, which touts to advertisers how it taps into Google to generate page views. […]
Not a month goes by without someone launching a new real-time search engine; but after trying out most of them, there are few I use on a regular basis. Factery Labs is about to change that with today’s launch of its real-time fact engine at 1:00 pm ET. Where other real-time search engines focus on […]
The Wall Street Journal and Reuters are reporting that Google has hired Jill Hazelbaker to replace Matt Furman as head of corporate communications. Most recently Hazelbaker worked for New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg during his successful re-election campaign. Google has historically hired people with Washington experience, but bringing on Hazelbaker may anticipate a somewhat more […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Behavioral Targeting & Google Analytics: How To Create Personas Following my last post on behavioral targeting, which was an overview of the field, I will provide a more hands-on approach in […]
Make no mistake. I think real time search is indeed one of the most exciting developments that’s happened in the search space in years. But I also think search engines are acting a bit like cats getting a sniff of catnip. They’re high on real time search and acting kind of crazy. This week, Google […]
Live from the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, I’ll be liveblogging what Google has dubbed “an inside look at the evolution of Google search.” As it turns out, it’s the unveiling of Google’s new Real Time Search, shown above, as well as search by voice and search by picture improvements for mobile. Real time […]