This day in search marketing history: March 4
Sheryl Sandberg leaves Google for Facebook, plus: new GA4 homepage, Wikipedia turns PPC into SEM, goodbye Scroogled and more.
Topic: Google Buzz
This day in search marketing history: February 23
Google penalizes Natural News, plus: Google AdSense separates YouTube earnings, BrightEdge acquires Oncrawl, florist war on AdWords and more.
This day in search marketing history: February 22
Google page experience update for desktop rolls out, plus: Google’s Pirate Update impact, Google Shopping experience scorecard and more.
This day in search marketing history: February 17
Microsoft introduces the Bing Network, plus: Standard Shopping campaigns, Google Panda eats Demand Media, Google Social Search and more.
This day in search marketing history: February 16
Google says avoid link building, plus: Conductor buys ContentKing, Google shows less than 10 results, Forbes paid links, and more.
This day in search marketing history: February 11
Yahoo officially rejects Microsoft, plus: passage ranking goes live, Google's SEO consulting services, Google Japan's link penalty and more.
This day in search marketing history: February 10
Google refreshes Page Layout Algorithm, plus: Google's ads impact on advertisers, poor grammar, Google Buzz reaction and more
This day in search marketing history: February 9
Google Buzz launches, plus: Bing Ads outage, Google search time capsule, Adwords yellow ads return, Yahoo rejecting Microsoft and more
This day in search marketing history: January 5
Google AdWords introduces click-to-call ads, plus: IndexNow WordPress plugin, AdWords 2x budget change, search being solved and more.
SearchCap: The Day In Search, July 12, 2012
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: A Google Marketplace? New Google Shopping Is One Indicator Imagine if Mall of America had unlimited space and let all merchants setup shop for free. Now imagine if Mall of America […]
With ROCKZi, Blekko Dips Its Toes Into Social Waters (And I Don’t Get It)
Search engines seem to be inexorably drawn to social platforms. There’s Google+ and there was Google Buzz. Yahoo has Flickr and Yahoo Answers, and had Yahoo Buzz and Yahoo Meme (among others). Microsoft/Bing has So.cl. And now Blekko has a social content platform of its own: ROCKZi, where the tagline is “Read. Vote. Rock.” It’s […]
Google Redirects Patent Search, Shuts Down Google Related Toolbar, One Pass & Vaccine Finder
After only eight months, the Google Related toolbar is headed to the dead pool. That’s one of several Google products being phased out in the company’s latest “spring cleaning” announcement, along with the One Pass payment system for news publishers, Google Patent Search losing its own home page and Google Flu Vaccine Finder. Google Related is […]
Google Is Watching You (Or Not): New Privacy Policy Takes Effect Today
With several governments and regulatory bodies around the world saying that Google’s new privacy policy may violate their domestic rules (Europe, Japan), it goes into effect today. Advocacy group EPIC has been trying to block it saying that the consolidated privacy policy violates Google’s earlier settlement with the FTC in the Buzz case/investigation. However that […]
Now It’s Facebook’s Turn For 20 Years Of FTC Privacy Audits
According to the New York Times and Wall Street Journal the world’s largest social network is nearing a settlement with the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) that will subject the company to 20 years of “privacy audits.” A nearly identical punishment was imposed earlier this year on Google over “deceptive privacy practices in Google’s rollout […]
Google Shuttering Buzz In Favor Of Google+; Farewell To Labs
Buzz was a great learning experience, says Google, but in a few weeks it will be shut down and all such efforts will be focused on Google Plus. The move will likely come as no surprise to Google-watchers, who noted that Buzz integration with Google+ was minimal. Additionally, the Google Labs page, as previously announced, […]
Why You Can’t Compare Google+ User Figures To Facebook & Twitter
Google announced that Google+ has 40 million users today. Woo-hoo! That’s nearly half what Twitter claims, right? And while it’s below Facebook’s 800 million, Google’s getting there, right? Wrong. The number simply can’t be compared to Facebook and Twitter. Active Users Vs. Sign-Ups Let’s start with Facebook. At various points, Facebook has given out a […]
Google Removes Mashable, Sesame Street & Other Prominent Accounts From Google Plus
Some of the biggest company/brand accounts on Google+ have now — finally, some might say — been removed. The Google Plus pages for Mashable, Ford and Sesame Street are all gone. Our own Search Engine Land page has also been removed. Mashable was, according to SocialStatistics.com, the No. 4 most popular account on Google+ with […]
Google+ Vs. Twitter: A Personal View
As Google+ goes into its second week of life, how’s the service doing? I could quote some numbers. I will, below! But I wanted to do a personal take contrasting it against another social site that I find essential. Not Facebook. Twitter. Me & Facebook Yes, I have a personal Facebook account. But I do […]
Welcome Monica Wright, Search Engine Land’s New Community Editor
Search Engine Land has a thriving community of readers, and I’m happy to announce that we’ve added Monica Wright as our new “community editor” to help support that community. Monica is a long-time search marketer, known to many throughout the industry. Many have met her at our SMX search marketing conferences or other industry events. […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, July 6, 2011
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 Announces Video Calling, Group Chat & Redesigned Chat Facebook announced three new “awesome” changes to the Facebook platform during a press event today. A great deal of Facebook information was […]
One Week In, Google+ Users Are Growing Followers, Getting Traffic
Just over a week old, how’s Google+ doing? Comprehensive stats are hard to come by. But from our own experience, along with some other stats out there such as a new top Google+ accounts list, it seems to easily be eclipsing its Google Buzz predecessor. Google Buzz Never Really Buzzed Search Engine Land has been […]
Google+ Profiles Will Be Public: Google To Terminate All Private Profiles After July 31st
There was speculation back in March that Google was going to launch a social network when it was announced that there would be no more private Google profiles after July 31st. The launch of Google+ solidified this stance as on Google’s public profiles page it states: The purpose of Google Profiles is to enable you […]
As Deal With Twitter Expires, Google Realtime Search Goes Offline
Yesterday, we reported that Google Realtime Search had mysteriously disappeared. Today comes the reason why: Google’s agreement with Twitter to carry its results has expired, taking with it much of the content that was in the service with it. Google sent us this explanation: Since October of 2009, we have had an agreement with Twitter […]
Google Plus: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly
When I first logged into Google+ I was a bit underwhelmed, but the more I used and explored the site, the more I liked it. While it has already been deemed Google’s Facebook competitor, it is quite different. I want to share my opinion on the pros and cons of the site to help shine […]
First Look: “Hands On” With Google+
I’ve been manically playing with Google Plus for about an hour now and, while there is disagreement here among the editorial team at Search Engine Land, I give it a qualified “thumbs up.” At first glance many people will dismiss Google Plus as redundant and derivative of Twitter and Facebook, in particular. This was also […]
Google’s Facebook Competitor, The Google+ Social Network, Finally Arrives
Google’s long expected second shot at taking on Facebook in the social networking space has arrived in the form of the Google+ Project. It has some interesting twists on the social networking model but is far from a Facebook-killer. That Name The terrible name is a bad start. Google+? Google+! I can’t even question or […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, June 8, 2011
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’s “Honey Badger” – An Upgrade To Webmaster Tools This morning at our SMX Advanced conference, Bing’s Stefan Weitz announced “Honey Badger” — Bing’s latest upgrade to its Webmaster Tools. Weitz […]
Google, Smartphone Contacts & Social Graphs: Has Eric Schmidt Crossed The Creepy Line Again?
Things have been a little quiet — perhaps even boring — since Eric Schmidt stepped down as Google’s CEO to become the company’s Executive Chairman. The strange quotes and not-so-funny attempts at cracking privacy-related jokes have slowed down in the past couple months. But Schmidt may have just added another one to his collection of […]
How Facebook Enables The Google Social “Scraping” It’s Upset About
I wrote a very long examination of the issues that Facebook employed a PR firm to publicize, about how Facebook feels Google may be violating privacy with its Google Social Search product. Here’s a shorter look, especially from the angle of how Facebook itself has enabled Google to do what Facebook is now complaining about. […]
Examining Facebook’s “Smear Campaign” Concerns About Google Social Circles
I read the news today, oh boy. The Facebook army had just declared a war. Well, a smear campaign against Google. For the record, Facebook denies that it actually ran such a campaign, but it does confirm it has issues with how Google is using some of Facebook’s social data. Do those allegations stand up? […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, April 27, 2011
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Baidu Squeezing Google Out On Chinese Android Phones Open source is a double-edged thing. Whereas the free and “open” Android platform has been a boon to Google in most places around […]
Google Real Time Search Adds More Sources: Quora, Gowalla & More
A Quora thread noticed that Google Real Time Search is now including more sources beyond Twitter, Google News, Buzz and other sources. The new additions appear to be from Quora.com, Gowolla, Plixi, Me2day, Twitgoo and some others. Public Facebook profiles and fan pages have been included for a while. So to update our Google Real […]
Google Q1 Revenues $8.58 Billion, Some Investors Unhappy
Google had a strong Q1 with $8.58 billion in gross revenue. Net revenue was $6.54 billion. Both figures were somewhat better than some expected, although many are calling them “mixed.” Growth was 27 percent year over year. Expenses and costs were higher and some investors are expressing disappointment; Google shares are down almost 5 percent […]
Reports: Google CEO Page Ties Bonuses To Social Success, Reorganizes Google Mgmt. Team
2011 bonuses for Google employees are reportedly being tied to how well the company fares in its efforts to integrate social elements across Google products. That’s according to two reports from Silicon Alley Insider — reports that say the news first spread in a company-wide memo last Friday from co-founder (and now new CEO) Larry […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, March 31, 2011
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, […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, March 30, 2011
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Meet +1: Google’s Answer To The Facebook Like Button Nearly a year after Facebook Like buttons spread out across the web, Google has announced its own rival, the +1 button. It […]
Meet +1: Google’s Answer To The Facebook Like Button
Nearly a year after Facebook Like buttons spread out across the web, Google has announced its own rival, the +1 button. It launches today as part of Google’s search engine, allowing you to “+1” the search results and ads that you like. And in a few months, it’ll be arriving at a web site near […]
Twenty Year FTC “Privacy Audit” Intended To Punish, Make Example Of Google
As you read earlier the US Federal Trade Commission concluded its investigation of Google over the company’s supposedly “deceptive privacy practices in Google’s rollout of its Buzz social network.” My view after talking to people at Google following the Buzz launch is that Google was not intentionally seeking to deceive users. Rather it was overzealous […]
Google Settles FTC Charges Over Buzz, Agrees To 20 Years Of Privacy Audits
Google has agreed to have independent privacy audits over the next 20 years, to settle an FTC investigation into wrong doing over its Google Buzz product. The FTC has release a statement where Google agreed to allow independent audits of how Google handles privacy controls. After Google Buzz launched there was a lot of concern […]
The New York Times Paywall Meters All Google Visits, Not Just Search Visits
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 […]