Everyone ready? Because the big day has arrived! Google’s “Inside Search” event begins today at 9:30am Pacific Time. OK, reset your expectations. It might not be that big. But I’ll be live blogging it, so stay tuned. The event was only announced a few days ago, and it’s anyone’s guess as to what’s happening. I’m […]
At this week’s SMX Advanced show, several sessions touched on a variety of advanced analytics theories and tactical tools to measure the impact of your website traffic, and improve ROI and user engagement metrics. Here’s a quick review of the key issues being discussed. Google Analytics Pilot Integration With Webmaster Tools Generally, there was excitement […]
Twitter has added a new “Top Tweets” search results feature, along with “Top Images” and “Top Videos.” It’s a major shift away from showing Twitter search results where the most recent tweet comes first, regardless of real relevancy or quality. The change is welcome. Unlike regular search engines, which try to show the most relevant […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Size Does Matter: How Retailers Should Manage Campaigns For Big & Small Ticket Items Big retailers with a substantial store presence most often have a big online presence with thousands of […]
There are lots of different ways to speed up searching. Google, Bing and Yahoo all offer browser toolbars — no need to visit their home pages, just search wherever you are. Google and Yahoo both have their own versions of “instant search,” where search results appear as you type. Google’s Chrome web browser lets you […]
Bing has added the Bing Rewards program directly to the top header bar of Bing’s search results. Now when you search on Bing, you will see the “Rewards” link and icon on the right of the “sign in” link. Here is a picture: Bing said that integrating this Rewards link into the header will give […]
Do you remember this video from a few weeks ago? It was probably the funniest of Google’s myriad April Fool’s Day jokes. Part of the joke is actually real, as I found out Monday when my friendly mailman visited Casa McGee. Much to my surprise, and probably to the mailman’s curiosity, there was a non-descript […]
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, gives it a grade (on a score of 0-100) and then offers a potentially long list of ways to make the page faster. The suggestions are divided into High, Medium and […]
The New York Times launched its paywall globally today, and I’ve been putting the barrier through its paces. Visits from search engines like Google, for convoluted reasons, are limited to five per day. But as it turns out, visits from any Google site — search or not — appear blocked. To test how the new […]
Is Google readying several new “connect an account” options in Google Profiles? Today, if you visit the connected accounts settings for your profile, Google offers a dropdown with six options: Facebook, Flickr, LinkedIn, Quora, Twitter and Yelp. But, as James Slater pointed out today, there are several additional social account options that appear to be […]
Google is making good on promises it made to speed its AdSense code, rolling out an overhaul aimed at relieving the drag on publishers’ Web pages. The company estimates that its helping pages load faster by a half a second or more, when, previously, Google acknowledged that its code could delay page loads by 12 […]
Google announced you can now hide or block certain sites from showing up in the Google search results. When you do a search in Google, the search results will show a new link near the “Cache” link when you click a result and then return to Google. The link that Google adds to the search […]
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 Simplifies Site-Specific Bidding on Display Network Google is eliminating managed placement default bids in an effort to simplify bidding on its Display Network. Now Display Network advertisers who use managed […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Super Bowl Sparks Twitter Record For Sporting Event Fans watching the final few moments of the Super Bowl last weekend set a new record for Tweets-per-second (TPS) for a sporting event: […]
Yesterday, we gave you a sneak peek at the Jules Verne Google logo. The logo is to celebrate Jules Verne’s 183rd birthday. Jules Verne is the author of the popular novel 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Google Doodler, Jennifer Hom explained her inspiration for creating the logo. But she also explained how the logo was […]
Part of this week’s debate over whether Microsoft’s Bing search engine is learning from Google involves data that Bing gathers through Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. Google has suggested Microsoft isn’t giving fair disclosure. I disagree. To better illustrate, let’s turn the tables and look at the Google Toolbar and disclosure.
Here at Search Engine Land we regularly hear from people who have created “radical,” innovative,” “next generation” search technology, promising to “fix” the “broken” search we all allegedly pitifully struggle with today. In virtually every instance that I can remember, these promises over-hype and under-deliver, rarely offering something that becomes part of my regular search […]
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 […]
Is Facebook’s third largest advertiser really a site that tries to trick people into switching to Bing? Apparently not. Still, Bing’s not happy with the tactics and is ending its relationship with the publisher. The site, Make-My-Baby.com, now appears to have gone down. But earlier today, it was suggesting that people needed a plug-in to […]
Google’s Android smartphone operating system is poised to overtake Apple’s iPhone for market share, and its Chrome browser has reached a major milestone, capturing 10% of the market. The smartphone figures come from Nielsen in November, while the browser numbers were measured in December by Net Applications, an Aliso Viejo, Calif. company that tracks market […]
I generally enjoy John Gruber’s writings, but today he’s dishing out SEO advice about HTML title tags. Some of it is bad advice. So with respect, here’s how I’d suggest you write page titles in a way that can please search engines and humans alike. What Is An HTML Title Tag? Let me go back […]
I’m in San Francisco waiting for the start of the Bing Search Summit. There are a huge number of things rolling out this morning. It will be interesting to see what they emphasize and demonstrate here at the event. I’m not the master of live blogging that Danny is but I’ll do my best to […]
My Google Chrome Cr-48 notebook has just arrived. For my first day with it, I decided a good torture test would be to unplug my Windows 7 machine and see how the Google laptop worked in its place. Let’s go!
Google has announced that Chrome OS laptops are now available to consumers through a pilot program for early adopters who prove themselves to be “right” in various ways. A Chrome Web Store has also launched to allow an easier way to run web apps within the Chrome browser itself.
One of the things that people do with their smartphones in stores is take pictures of products and send them to friends and family for feedback and advice. A version of that process has been developing in parallel online through the numerous “social shopping” sites and has existed forever in good old-fashioned email. Now Bing […]
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 […]
Last week we wrote about Google testing some new UI elements on Google Maps. Today these showed up for me (in Chrome, but not Firefox). Replacing static buttons for traffic, terrain, satellite and so on, the new controls and “legend” make the range of Google Maps features and content more discoverable. They also make Google […]
Flipping through my Los Angeles Times newspaper today, I came across an unusual ad — one placed by Google, to push its Chrome browser: The Chrome Ad Google’s “20 Things” Book In particular, the ad covers one of the 20 “things” that are part of the “20 Things I Learned About Browsers And The Web” […]
Bing has announced a series of updates to the Bing Maps interface, including a very welcome move to make its collection of Map Apps easier to find. Map Apps is a growing collection of tools that expand the capabilities of Bing Maps; some — like the Taxi Fare Calculator and Parking Finder — are extremely […]
SMX Boot Camp: Search Engine Friendly Web Design Presentations from SMX East, October 2010 "I’m not designing my site for search engines," is a common designer objection to SEO suggestions. But when search engines collectively have more users than either Internet Explorer or Firefox, how can you afford to ignore how they interact with your […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Hot At Sphinn: SEO’s Bad Reputation, Google ‘Pollutes’ The Web & More A news article about Google from The Guardian was popular last week on Sphinn, as was last week’s member […]
I’ve been using the new RockMelt browser since late last night, but this is not a review. I’m merely interested in pointing out that users can search the toolbar (as with Safari or Firefox) and get Google results — but they’re ad free in this case. There’s no SERP with ads, just a list of […]
Until recently, I’d never heard of Roku, a little box that makes it easy to download TV shows and movies through the internet, for viewing on your TV. But as part of my Life With Google TV series, I’m looking at other internet-to-TV devices. Roku is pretty cool, and a no brainer for anyone who […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Firefox To Add Bing As Search Option Bing announced that in the upcoming version of Firefox, Bing will be added as one of the standard set of search provider options. This […]
Bing announced that in the upcoming version of Firefox, Bing will be added as one of the standard set of search provider options. This will be on both the Mac and PC versions of Firefox 4. Bing said: We’re very excited to be included in the search engine choices in the upcoming version of Firefox. […]
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 Integrates Visual Search Into Mobile App For iPhone Google Goggles is an imperfect but promising technology that allows users to search with their cameras instead of their keyboards. It’s 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 Pulls Dead Body Images From Street View Brazil Google has removed Street View images in Brazil that showed dead bodies on local streets. One image showed a partly-covered body lying […]
Prior Microsoft search loyalty programs, SearchPerks and Cashback, were retired. But maybe the third time’s the charm: today Microsoft is rolling out Bing Rewards Preview (beta). It’s a credit card or airline-style loyalty program that offers users credits that can be redeemed for products, gift cards or charitable donations. People must first install the Bing […]
Google Instant promises to change the way people search. Speaking at today’s announcement, Google’s Marissa Mayer called it a “fundamental shift in search.” As with any big Google announcement, there are questions: Who can use Google Instant? Can I opt out or turn off Google Instant? Why am I not seeing it when I do […]