Topic: Data and information visualization

SMX West 2011 Slide Video: Visual Analytics

Visual Analytics: Conversion Juice For The Whole Brain Presentations from SMX West, March 2011 SEOs are constantly pulling data from analytics programs, keyword research and ranking tools and other tools, but the sheer quantity of numbers can be a challenge to master. A new generation of data visualization tools distill data into images that reveal […]

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Yahoo Clues: New Fun Search Keyword Tool

Today, Yahoo announced a new tool named Yahoo Clues. Yahoo Clues basically gives you insight into the types of people searching for specific keyword phrases and shows related terms based on those searches and searchers. The tool allows you to plug in one or two keyword phrases and it then plots the search trends of […]

Wolfram|Alpha Query Widget Builder

Wolfram|Alpha, the fact engine has released a neat new feature today. Wolfram|Alpha is allowing anyone to build query driven widgets that can be embedded on any web page. The purpose is to enable publishers, bloggers, professors, teachers and so on to easily build quick widgets to add to their content and materials. You can build […]

Bing, Google Offering Dueling “Health Maps”

Microsoft and Google both have ambitious electronic health records initiatives. But today both introduced “health maps” that enable data visualization on a mapping interface. Bing was first with its announcement: Today along with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Institute of Medicine, the Bing Health team is participating in the Community Health […]

Social Engagement: Making Content Interactive

Last year, I wrote an article, Using Infographics in Social Media to Promote Content and Visualize Data; it discussed taking data and visualizing it in an aesthetic manner to attract more votes, bookmarks, and links from the social media sphere. This year, I want to discuss taking it a step further. “Engagement objects“, as defined by […]

Google Adds Public Data Search Tool To Labs

Google has announced a new tool called Google Public Data Explorer that’s now available in Google Labs. The tool is a follow-up of sorts to last year’s announcement that a limited amount of public data would be used in response to certain Google.com search results. The Data Explorer tool includes data from the original three […]

Google Adds World Bank Data To Search Results

Not wanting to be overshadowed by today’s Bing / Walfram Alpha collaboration, Google has announced the addition of World Bank data to its search results … or, as Danny Sullivan said on Twitter, “we got structured data, too.” Google says it’s now pulling in 17 World Development Indicators from the World Bank, and uses a […]

Google Adds Keyword Forecasting To Insights For Search Tool

Google has announced a few new features in its Google Insights for Search keyword research tool. The most important, in my opinion, is a new forecasting feature that aims to extrapolate future popularity of keywords (based on historical trends and search patterns). Google says this forecasting feature is only available on a certain set of […]

Want Solid SEM Benchmarks? This Report Has Them By The Boatload

Each year, Marketing Sherpa compiles an exhaustive look at the state of search marketing. Each year, these reports grow more comprehensive, reflecting the continuous change and evolution of our industry as it grows up. This year’s report is no exception. The Marketing Sherpa 2009-10 Search Marketing Benchmark Report is 213 pages, and is divided into […]

Cuil Maplines: A Good Idea That Needs Work

Cuil has announced an interesting new map-based tool called Maplines. On some queries, the Mapline shows in the right column of Cuil’s search results above the Timeline feature. What’s a Mapline. Here’s Cuil’s explanation: “Just as our Timelines show a concept across time, our Maplines show a concept across a map.” It’s an interesting idea, […]

Tracking The Swine Flu Epidemic With Maps & Search

It was less than a week ago that health officials alerted the media to a possible pandemic of swine flu in humans. Since then, authorities have moved quickly to track the outbreak and reassure the public with precautionary measures. Here’s a look at some of the best sources of online information about swine, avian and […]

Google AdWords Testing New Interface

Tim Cohn writes about a new user interface beta that Google is offering to some AdWords advertisers. As you can see from Tim’s screenshot below (which was probably left small to protect personal data), the new interface looks similar to the charting/graphing system that Google Analytics uses: (It also looks somewhat similar to the Yahoo […]

Google Analytics Upgrade: AdSense Reporting, Visualization Tools, & More

A day after announcing a slight touch up, Google Analytics is rolling out what it calls a “significant upgrade” to its feature set. The new tools include AdSense integration, “Motion Charts,” advanced segmentation, an API, custom reports and an updated user interface to highlight these new tools better. Google is calling this an “enterprise class” […]

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What Are Search Blogs Talking About?

Lee Odden wrote Word Visualization on Search Marketing Blogs, where he used a tool named Wordle to show what the search blogs are actually talking about. Wordle forms a tag cloud of the most used words and phrases on a particular blog. The neat part is that Wordle allows you to select different fonts, layouts, […]

Google Insights For Search Launches

Google has launched Google Insights for Search, a tool that helps advertisers and marketers understand searcher behavior. The tool offers a comprehensive set of statistics based on search volume and patters. You can compare seasonal trends, geographic distributions, and category-specific searches, and you can group all these variables together to get extremely specific. In addition, […]

Google Trends Comes To Web Sites: Trends For Web Sites

Google has launched a major addition to Google Trends named Trends for Web Sites. Trends for Web Sites extends Google Trends by enabling you to search for web site addresses, as opposed to just searching for trends by keyword. R.J. Pittman, Google’s Director of Product Management, told me that by entering a domain name into […]

Google Adds Numeric Scale And CSV Downloads To Google Trends

Google Trends has been a popular tool since its launch in 2006. It is one of several free tools that provides some helpful insight into search query popularity and by extension search volumes (although the tool doesn’t explicitly report on search volumes). Since launch Google has added features, such as “hot trends” and country/city where […]

Real Time US Presidential Primary Results In Google Maps

Political and news junkies take note: Google mapped the results of yesterday’s New Hampshire U.S. presidential primary by candidate and county for both parties. There are also videos from YouTube of candidate victory or concession speeches. According to the Google LatLong blog, the results were presented last night in real time. You can also see […]

Google Meme: Hot Trends Added To Google Trends

Google has launched a meme-like feature to Google Trends. The Google Trends home page now has a section named “Hot Trends,” which shows the hottest queries for the day. You can also look back historically and see the hottest queries for that day. Plus, Google Trends upgraded the trends history to show not only country […]

Search Illustrated: New Column From Search Engine Land

Our newest Search Engine Land column, Search Illustrated, launches today. Search Illustrated differs from our other columns in that it uses graphics to illustrate complex topics in search marketing by breaking them down into easily understood pictures and diagrams. Today’s debut features a graphic with a visual depiction of Google PageRank Explained.

GOOG Acquisitions: Trendalyzer & Adscape Media

A quick heads-up on two new Google acquisitions. First, Google has announced the purchase of Gapminder’s Trendalyzer software. Second, it confirms the purchase of Adscape Media, an in-game advertising company, following rumors of a buy last month.