Yesterday SEMPO and Econsultancy released the 2011 “State of Search Marketing Report” featuring attitudes and spending behaviors of 920 survey respondents (agencies, advertisers) from more than 60 countries. The full report is over 130 pages. The report came out on the same day that the IAB released its full-year 2010 online ad revenue figures. Interestingly, […]
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 Reports Lackluster $1.5B Revenues, But Display Up 17 Percent Yahoo reported Q4 2010 earnings this afternoon. Revenues were slightly up vs. the previous quarter but down compared to the same […]
Yesterday, Google and Firefox announced new tools to block behavioral targeting across the web. Behavioral targeting are a form of ads that use your online behavior to target specific ads to you, as you browse the web. Google calls these interest based advertising but most of the web calls them behavioral targeting. Google released a […]
Advertisers interviewed by the Wall Street Journal are complaining about Google’s practice of delivering ads within a user’s search session, but beside results unrelated to an advertiser’s purchased keywords. Google says it’s been returning AdWords in this way for years, in an effort to target users in the process of narrowing down their search for […]
Most of you have seen the recent and now semi-infamous quote from Google CEO Eric Schmidt about how Google goes right “up to” what it considers a taboo boundary — “the creepy line” — but not beyond: “There is what I call the creepy line,” he said at an event at the Newseum. “The Google […]
Below is the live blog coverage of the SMX East 2010 coverage that I found throughout the day: Keynote Roundtable: Search Marketing In Age Of Google And Bing, outspokenmedia.com SEO & User Generated Content, outspokenmedia.com SMX East: Bing Webmaster Tools and the Search Alliance, Search Engine Roundtable SMX East: Keynote Roundtable: Search Marketing In Age […]
There’s a funny and satirical 1989 British film called “How to Get Ahead in Advertising.” The movie focuses on an ad executive, played by actor Richard E. Grant, who experiences an ethical and mid-life crisis. He develops a boil on his neck, which grows into a literal head (a kind of evil twin) and eventually […]
If you had the time and resources to personalize every sales pitch, every piece of marketing collateral, every special offer, how would that affect your bottom line? If your customers told you, “I don’t want that, but if you offer me this in a different color, I’ll buy three,” you would listen, right? Onsite behavioral […]
Google is already a major player in display advertising and is poised to become even more formidable in the next few years. Not so quietly the company has amassed or built a huge array of assets that could see it best many if not most other display competitors and networks, including market leader Yahoo. Google […]
Google received a letter from “privacy officials” in 10 countries with a list of complaints and demands surrounding privacy. The letter focuses on Buzz and the privacy fiasco that surrounded its launch, as well as StreetView. Here’s an excerpt from the letter: Buzz is a “hook” for government officials chronically unhappy with Google’s stand on […]
Just in time for this year’s mid-term Congressional elections in November the US Supreme Court opened the financial floodgates by overturning campaign finance rules that prevented corporations from spending at will to oppose or support political candidates. Two of the biggest likely beneficiaries of these new more liberal (not in the political sense) spending rules […]
Yahoo was the first of the major search engines to use search query data to inform and influence subsequent display ad serving. However, as Magnetic CEO Josh Shatkin-Margolis pointed out to me, that only works within the Yahoo network, not across the broader internet. He would know, having worked as a Director of Engineering at […]
Google scheduled a privacy discussion for reporters and bloggers at its San Francisco offices a couple of weeks ago. The timing turned out to be unexpectedly ironic. The idea was to “walk through a short presentation about [Google’s] guiding principles for privacy, how we use data and some of our comprehensive privacy efforts over the […]
We’re just weeks into 2010, and already a host of major tech, online, and mobile companies have made some exciting announcements about their latest plans for local search. In mid-January, Google’s Mobile division announced that it is upgrading its search engine on Android-powered devices and the iPhone to present results reflective of the current or […]
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 […]
Following my last post on behavioral targeting, which was an overview of the field, I will provide a more hands-on approach in this post. To briefly recap, behavioral targeting involves creating multiple “personas” that represent multiple users of your site, and using analytics to create a unique experience for each persona group based on observed […]
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 Goggles Search By Images Google Goggles, which I wrote about this morning, is actually now live at google.com/mobile/goggles. The Google Mobile Blog announced it, saying: In a nutshell, Goggles lets […]
Yahoo has introduced what it’s calling “Ad Interest Manager.” It’s a new kind of privacy and advertising dashboard for consumers where they can opt-out of behavioral targeting or, alternatively, indicate to Yahoo what they’re most interested in. Here are the features according to the press release out this morning: Yahoo!’s new Ad Interest Manager tool: […]
Google announced they have purchased Teracent, a company that uses machine learning to show the different display ad creatives based on dozens of factors. Google bought them to improve and better automate the display ad side of their ad serving technology. Google said: We think that this technology has great potential to improve display advertising […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: NAR Changes Its Mind: Google Is Not A Scraper Site Backtracking on a controversial decision earlier this year, the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) has adopted a new policy that allows […]
Here’s a change of pace: Some newspapers are making money online and crediting a search engine with making it happen. AdAge writes about the Yahoo-Newspaper consortium, and cites multiple cases where individual papers or newspaper groups are using Yahoo’s ad targeting technology to increase online-only ad sales. The consortium has sold an estimated $50 million […]
We’ve known for some time, based on a number of studies from Microsoft, Yahoo, SEM firms and ad networks, that an online ad campaign that includes both display and search performs better than one that features only display or search. In another version of that same theme, Yahoo recently said that it was using search […]
It’s now a cliche to point out that consumer audiences have fragmented. However, once mighty media have seen audiences dwindle over the past five or so years. Accordingly almost all traditional media are struggling, exacerbated by the recession to be sure but caused by the rise of the internet (mobile will fragment audiences further). Many […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
Google today is launching a form of behavioral targeting advertising named Interest-Based Advertising. Interest-Based Advertising allows advertisers to deliver ads based on hundreds of interest categories and previous interactions with those users. The beta is opening to select advertisers at first but will be expanded in the upcoming months. Brad Bender, Google’s Product Manager in […]
When the Yahoo-Newspaper consortium was announced in early 2007 both Yahoo and the newspaper industry were stronger and in better shape than they are today. (That’s certainly true for newspapers.) Since that time Yahoo has suffered through the MicroHoo episode, gone through a couple reorgs, laid off a meaningful chunk of its workforce and gained […]
Will the recent introduction of paid ads on Google News lead to legal issues for Google? That question is discussed today on ClickZ, where Sandra Baron of the Media Law Resource Center says publishers will be looking at what Google is doing: “A significant issue for content providers is whether or not what Google provides […]
Yahoo to Offer Tools To Match Users, Ads from the Wall Street Journal reports Yahoo is set to launch new ad features and tools today. What is expected to launch today is the ability for advertisers to show graphic ads to users based on their previous search history. Plus, Yahoo will allow those graphic ads […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
The Yahoo Search Marketing Blog announced they have improved the targeting and relevancy of their content match product. The improvements will lead to a higher click through rate on ads and higher satisfaction. The specific improvement is that they now not only target the ads based on the content of the page, but also based […]
The initials for British Telecom (“BT”) might now come to stand for “behavioral targeting” as the company prepares its opt-in trial with Phorm. Phorm is a UK-based firm that seeks to tap ISP behavioral data in an effort to serve more relevant ads to end users. The BT-Phorm “Webwise” test begins tomorrow and promises both […]
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer tried to present his company’s underdog position in search — and in mobile — as opportunities “to grow” in remarks at Silicon’s Valley’s Churchill Club. But he added, “I don’t like not being number one” in his interview with VC Ann Winblad.
Both Reuters and CNET report on a Securities and Exchange Commission filing by Yahoo that contains many of the details of its paid search deal with Google. It’s a redacted version of the agreement the two companies signed. The omitted portions of the document are deemed confidential.
Privacy has re-emerged as one of the most pressing and complex issues for everyone online, including search engines, after a sustained period of relative calm. However, the rise of behavioral targeting, domestic spying/wiretapping by the Bush administration, attempts by states to regulate privacy, and more aggressive moves by Europeans to protect consumers have created conflicting […]
Saul Hansell from the New York Times reported on an interesting discovery that uncovered that Google may look at more than just your previous query to tailor the ads you see on the search page. Now, Google may look back several past queries to tailor your search ads. Yes, this is a major difference – […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
Privacy is dead, get used to it. In the effort to rescue display advertising from its historically dismal performance and so-called “banner blindness,” behavioral targeting (BT) was born a few years ago with Tacoda. It has both increased in popularity and infamy since that time. Consumers prefer more “relevant” ads but they also dislike being […]
According to SEMPO and its Annual State of Search Survey 2007, SEMs largely remain focused on search fundamentals: traffic, conversions, CTRs, and ROI. Very consistent with percentages in last year’s results, marketers and agencies are interested in direct sales (58 percent) and brand awareness (61 percent). But there’s new interest in video and mobile, as […]
Yesterday travel search engine Kayak announced that it had built a display ad platform to leverage search queries and serve more relevant graphical ads across its network. These display units will potentially replace the text ads currently shown on search results and other pages on Kayak.com and its affiliate sites. Reportedly, however, consumers can turn […]