The debate about what should — and shouldn’t — show in a Google search result for “santorum” has been well-documented, at this point. But I’d like to use this now famous search to illustrate something else: how it appears Google is taking its eye off the ball of being a search engine. Searching For Santorum: […]
Increasingly over the years, search engines — Google in particular — have given more and more support to SEOs and publishers. But 2011 marked the first significant reversal that I can recall, with both linking and keyword data being withheld. Here’s what happened, why it matters and how publishers can push back if Google and Bing don’t […]
Schema.org, Rel=Author & Meta Tagging For 2012 Presentations from SMX East – NYC, NY, September 2011 The search engines have been kind to SEOs recently, adding a number of new tools that when used properly promise to improve visibility and rankings for certain types of content. Schema.org, a joint alliance between Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Movember SEO Moustache Competition Raises $17,000 For Cancer Research What started out as a friendly rivalry between Bing’s Duane Forester and Google’s Matt Cutts resulted in $17,000 for the Movember, a […]
“I’m standing in front of a Planned Parenthood,” the CNN reporter says, “And Siri can’t find it when I search for abortion clinic.” No, it can’t. It’s not because Apple is pro-life. It’s because Planned Parenthood doesn’t call itself an abortion clinic. Welcome To Search Scandals, Apple It’s been interesting to watch the Siri Abortiongate […]
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 Product Runway: Livestand And IntoNow Yahoo held its second now annual “Product Runway” event, mc’d by product chief Blake Irving. Irving was assisted by some younger executives from companies that […]
Yahoo held its second now annual “Product Runway” event, mc’d by product chief Blake Irving. Irving was assisted by some younger executives from companies that Yahoo had acquired in the recent past. There were four announcements, lead by the formal unveiling of Livestand, Yahoo’s long-promised tablet news reader application. It competes with Flipboard, CNN’s Zite, […]
Almost 20 SEOs have come together to take a stab at deciphering how Google News ranks articles. The result of their collaboration is a survey that’s now been published at GoogleNewsRankingFactors.com. The survey tackles issues such as on-page factors (keyword usage in headlines, keyword usage in page titles, etc.), off-page factors like inbound links from […]
Despite making incremental gains in market share, Bing is still searching for the “secret sauce” that will help it challenge Google’s dominance more quickly. That phrase — “secret sauce” — is how a CNN Money article explains what Microsoft thinks will ultimately set it apart from Google. The article describes a recent meeting in which […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Search Engines & 9/11: Remembrances Today; Some Thoughts Of Then The major search engines are all memorializing the 10th anniversary of 9/11 on their home pages today. Below, a recap, some […]
The search technology behind failed social search engine Worio became the guts of the successful Zite app, which was recently acquired by CNN. Similarly Taptu, which began as a mobile search engine in the pre-iPhone era (2006), did almost the identical thing and is hoping to follow Zite’s lead. Originally Taptu was a search engine […]
As we await for Google+ to figure out however it wants to handle verified accounts, it’s worth reflecting how Google already has a verification system in place that’s been lost and how Twitter’s supposedly “closed” program continues on in stealth mode. Why can’t either of these companies get it right? And why can’t Facebook even […]
Have you tweeted a great photograph that’s gone viral, such as today’s Space Shuttle launch as seen from a commercial airline flight? Getting credit for that, much less getting paid for it, seems to be a mess. It’s been on my to do list to write about this issue for several weeks. It came up […]
Android and iPhone users can now get local news via the mobile version of Google News. It’s accessible by visiting news.google.com from a mobile browser. Google News will ask for permission to use your current location (if you haven’t already given that permission), and if you allow it, a “News near you” section will be […]
Today, Google News did a post about the death of Osama bin Laden. Disappointingly, it offered no statistics on what was most read, shared, topics most covered. The post did share a “sample” of 100 links to coverage about Osama bin Laden from representative sources. So, I decided to go where Google didn’t — 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: Acquisition Marketers And The SEO ROI Dilemma After over 12 years practicing the art of SEO, and selling SEO services to clients, I thought the industry had reached a stage of […]
This morning I read the CNN story that said Google was finally going to incorporate facial recognition technology into its Goggles app or another mobile application. I then wrote an opinion piece that argued Google was courting a major privacy backlash, despite seeming to have privacy controls worked out in the article. Thereafter I was […]
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 Launches Page Speed Analyzer In Labs Google’s fixation on page speed continues with today’s addition of Page Speed, a new analysis tool in Google Labs. The tool analyzes any URL, […]
Contrary to what I reported earlier based on a seemingly very credible CNN report, Google is not planning to release a version of its mobile app Goggles with face recognition technology. Google has had the capability for several years but so far refrained from putting it out in the world other than on Picasa. I […]
Of the 24 percent of Americans who get most of their political news from the Internet, 20 percent cite Yahoo.com as their main source of news, and Google comes in next at 13 percent. Only CNN.com, at 22 percent, came in higher than the two search-centric destinations in the latest study from the Pew Research […]
What does lead U2 singer Bono and Google co-founder Sergey Brin have in common? They are both in the running for a new award named the Gorbachev Awards. The Telegraph reports the former Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, is holding an international award designed for honoring “people capable of changing the world.” The award will be […]
President Obama is reportedly considering Google CEO Eric Schmidt for the soon-to-be-vacant position of US Commerce Secretary. That position is currently occupied by Gary Locke who is becoming US ambassador to China. Current ambassador Jon Huntsman, a Republican, is considering a 2012 presidential run and leaving his post on April 30. According to Bloomberg: 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: Instant Replay: Where To Find The Super Bowl Ads Are you one of those people who get upset when the Super Bowl gets interrupted by football or corny half-time events? You […]
TechCrunch reported that CNN’s news anchor Hala Gorani tweeted that the Egyptian PM, Ahmed Shafiq said Google’s executive based in Egypt will be released today at 4pm Egyptian time. Being that it is after 4:30pm local time in Egypt, I’d hope he has been released. Although I still do not see any confirmation from Google […]
I’m here at the Googleplex in Moutain View, where any minute, Google plans to update the world on all things Android. We expect news about Android 3.0 — “Honeycomb” — and perhaps Android tablets. Stay tuned. Andy Rubin, leader of all things Android is up, saying we’re going to hear about Honeycomb, the Motorola tablet […]
Industrial Strength SEO Presentations from SMX East, October 2010 Managing SEO for a large web site isn’t for the faint of heart. You’ve got major technical challenges, such as dealing with content management systems, optimizing for thousands or millions of keywords, multiple domains, often in multiple countries, constantly changing content… and those don’t even factor […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Schmidt’s “Just Move” Joke About Google Street View & How It Went Missing Don’t like Google Street View taking pictures of your house? “Just move,” joked Google CEO Eric Schmidt, in […]
Don’t like Google Street View taking pictures of your house? “Just move,” joked Google CEO Eric Schmidt, in a CNN interview on Friday. A controversial joke, no doubt — one made even more controversial for later seeming to disappear from the interview. Don’t blame Google, the company says. It didn’t ask for the quote 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: How To Help Clients Through Link Building Confusion This is my first column since returning from SMX East. Thank you to Debra, Danny, Chris, Karen, Elisabeth and everyone else who made […]
The Internet is buzzing about the latest Google announcement about Google TV. Google shared with us their content partners for Google TV and their new web site for Google TV at google.com/tv. The content partners and providers include Twitter, Netflix, the New York Times and USA Today, VEVO, Pandora and Napster, blip.tv and their very […]
Do a search for politics on Bing Social Search, and its new “who to follow on Twitter” feature offer exactly one person: Sarah Palin.
After a couple months of beta testing with invited Digg members, the new version of Digg — they’re calling it “v4” for Version 4 — is now live and open to all. Digg founder Kevin Rose announced it here, but that blog post is down as I write this. In that announcement, Rose says 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: Inside The Google Voice Phone Booths Over the coming weeks, UK-style phone booths will pop-up around the US in airports and at universities, allowing anyone to make free calls to anywhere […]
Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt has quite famously been on record many times talking about how the web is full of garbage. It’s a cesspool out there, he’s said. Today, a short fast look at how his own company pollutes the web. Right now, one of the “trending topics” on Google is the word “chocomize,” as […]
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 Web Report: Average Page Size 320 KB Google released a report on general statistics of web pages on the Internet. The report lists basic information they retrieved over the course […]
I attended the F8 Facebook developer event this morning and might have live blogged it but the public WiFi connection was extremely slow. Maybe that’s a good thing; aspects of what were announced had me confused, especially the privacy issues raised by the announcements. I’m not a developer and this event was geared toward them; […]
What’s happening with all those inactive and deleted usernames that Twitter has? Some of them will continue to be held back for a few more weeks; some likely for much longer, Twitter cofounder Ev Williams said yesterday. I caught Williams between sessions at the Chirp conference yesterday and put to him a question that Les […]
Brian Clifton (PhD) is an independent author, consultant and trainer who specializes in performance optimization using Google Analytics. Brian has been involved in web design and SEO since as far back as 1997, when he built his first website and started defining best practise to advise clients. From 2005-8 he was Head of Web Analytics […]
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 […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Facebook Passes Google (Again) As Most-Visited US Site: Hitwise Facebook.com was the most-visited web site in the U.S. last week, surpassing even Google.com. And this is not the first time it’s […]