Call it “privacy 2.0.” Last year Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg famously (and incorrectly) said that privacy is no longer a social norm. However one has only to witness the uproar this week over Facebook Messenger and the exposure of phone contacts to see that privacy isn’t dead. In Europe — Spain in particular — privacy […]
Do you find link building to be the most difficult SEO tactic to employ? Do you find content creation to be the most effective SEO tactic? What about conversions? Are you looking for website visitors to complete a form, or make a purchase? You can compare your answers to those questions and many others in […]
At the recent SEMPO LA Mobile Event (sponsored by AT&T interactive) moderator Danny Sullivan told a story about the early days at Google. As early as 2000, Sergey Brin was telling everyone who would listen about the incredible applications of his search engine on cell phones. Even for a forward thinker like Danny, this seemed […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: PPC Campaign Management Tools in the Facebook Era Trying to select a PPC Campaign Management Solution? This new Market Intelligence Report from Search Marketing Now will help you navigate through 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: Catholic Priest Advises Engaged Couples: Don’t Use Google Maps You know it’s rough going when even the clergy can’t recommend your service. That’s what’s happening to Google Maps, which is listing […]
You know it’s rough going when even the clergy can’t recommend your service. That’s what’s happening to Google Maps, which is listing a Catholic church/school in Short Hills, NJ, at the wrong location. The church is located at 50 Short Hills Ave., but when you search Google for that address, it instead shows a similar […]
A new study released today by Roost, a technology company that helps companies with social media, determined that: “…only 15 percent of the average local business’ fans are actually in the city where the business is located.” This data was uncovered using proprietary scorecards that analyzes audience distributions and other SMB business metrics. The report […]
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 For Hotels With Google Hotel Finder Forget using Google Maps when you want to find a hotel to stay at for a business trip or family vacation! You can now […]
Forget using Google Maps when you want to find a hotel to stay at for a business trip or family vacation! You can now use Google’s Hotel Finder. Google Hotel Finder is a search tool specifically designed to make it easier to find and compare hotels for your trips. The features include: Draw simple shapes […]
Searchmetrics has conducted a data analysis on what type of content appears most often in Google Universal Search results, as well as which sites are most visible in them. Video and image content wins, as does content hosted on Google’s own properties. Universal Search Loves Video, Images The most revealing data from the study, which 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: Google Search Testing New “Clean” Design: For Tablets Only? Google is testing yet another design, this one is the same gray and black bar look but places the search filters and […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Tech Celebs Most Followed On Google+ While “Real World” Rules On Twitter & Facebook How do you measure the success of a social media site? One of several ways might be […]
Further consolidating the products (or at least their names) in the local and mobile space, Google has re-named Boost as AdWords Express, also stepping up marketing efforts and consolidating sign-up for Express and Google Places. “We’ve seen great success with the product, but we want to change the product name to better emphasize the ties […]
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 Tests Ads Within Organic Search Results? The RKGBlog blog posted a screen shot of Bing testing search ads directly in the organic results. Honestly, I almost cannot believe it – […]
Local searchers and local businesses will see a fairly substantially different Place Page the next time they’re poking around Google Maps/Places. The company announced a new look Thursday and promises more changes to come. The new layout of Place Pages puts a heavy emphasis on reviews. More specifically, it emphasizes reviews from Google users and […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: StumbleUpon Testing New ‘Explore Box’ Search Tool Some StumbleUpon users have been opted in to a new feature that seems to be aimed at helping them search and find interesting web […]
Google may currently “own” search, but local search is a different story. Mapping sites, specialized local sites, general search engines and deals, as well as mobile browsers and apps constitute the distributed landscape of local, according to a new report, “The State of Local Search,” released yesterday by the Local Search Association (LSA), with data […]
Google’s latest effort to increase small business adoption of its products and services is a program called Texas Get Your Business Online that offers a free website, free hosting, domain name, a business listing on Google Places and additional marketing help. The effort is being accompanied by an aggressive promotion campaign, like the heavy and […]
Do Internet users in the southern US do more local searches than the rest of the country? Are searchers in smaller cities more likely to conduct local searches than those in New York City, Chicago and the San Francisco area? The answer to those questions is “yes,” at least according to recent data compiled by […]
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 Testing URLs Above Descriptions In AdWords Google is testing a variation on AdWords display that has the URLs shown above the two lines of description, but under the headline. Representatives […]
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, Twitter Flaunt Social Stats … It’s Like 2003 All Over Again Whether on purpose or not, Google and Twitter are having a little back-and-forth this week about the size of […]
Barry discovered that Google had dropped its in-traffic travel estimates from Google Maps on the PC. This is apparently due to some inaccuracy or dissatisfaction with the methodology Google was using to determine travel time. “We have decided that our information systems behind this feature were not as good as they could be. Therefore, we […]
WhitePages.com has launched a couple of new local search products this morning. Both are focused on neighborhoods and “hyper-local” information (hate the term). One is effectively a neighborhood-based social network called WhtePages Neighbors. The other, the subject of this post, is a new Android search app called “Localicious” I won’t go into WhtePages Neighbors except […]
Following a relatively successful launch in Portland last month Google is now rolling out Google Offers in two more markets: San Francisco and New York. Google has also updated its Shopper Android app to include deals. The app is generally focused on products but now contains tabs that allow users to access the featured daily […]
Last week Google bought a company called Punchd (first reported by TechCrunch). It was a small acquisition but may turn out, in several respects, to be more significant than it looks. Loyalty Card on a Smartphone Essentially Punchd enables small businesses (SMBs) to run loyalty programs on smartphones, very much like paper punch cards (e.g., […]
The New York Times’ interest in the underbelly of SEO continues today with an article that details Google’s struggle to fight locksmith spam in Google Places. While not as deep as the Times’ recent articles on J.C. Penney’s SEO tactics and floral industry SEO, it nevertheless casts Google — again — as unable to keep […]
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 Realtime Search & The Aftermath Of The Google-Twitter Split Last Friday, Twitter quietly shutdown its “firehose” of tweet data that was being piped to Google. Like a gas station no […]
The Google Blog announced that you can now download maps on your Android device so that you can access maps and directions even without a data connection. The feature is a Google Labs feature currently available for Android users who are willing to experiment with new, beta features. It is called “Download map area” and […]
Google is currently considering its options after a federal judge gave the go-ahead for a group of consolidated lawsuits to proceed against the company over a potential violation of the Federal Wiretap Act. Wednesday’s decision by US District Judge James Ware, first reported by Wired, actually dismissed two of the three claims against Google, but […]
Local SEOs have another tool to add to the “citation belt,” as it were: MapQuest has announced its own Local Business Center, a place where local businesses can add and/or manage their listing(s) on MapQuest. As the video below shows, the MapQuest LBC functions very much like Google’s and Bing’s and offers many of the […]
Google continues to tweak and adjust the presentation of local search results on Google.com. I’ve stopped trying to monitor and track all the subtle changes and experiments. However yesterday Mike Blumenthal caught two different presentations of the Places “Onebox,” which appear when you do a business name search (e.g., “Toast Wine Bar”). The first example […]
Google is now showing the Google +1 counts for logged out users. When the Google +1 feature launched in March, searchers were only able to see who in their Google network +1’ed a search result. Now, if you search while logged out, Google will show you the total +1 count for some search results. This […]
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 Use Occupational Targeting In Facebook For B2B Leads & Sales For many B2B marketers, mainstream social channels a la Facebook (FB) and LinkedIn remain the proverbial Wild West of […]
Carter Maslan has been the patient and good-natured face of Google Maps and Places at innumerable conferences and events over the past several years. He’s endured a regular onslaught of questions about missing features and local SEO frustrations surrounding Google’s increasingly important suite of local products. Now he’s leaving Google. I got word of this […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Comparing Facebook Like vs. Google +1 Google’s new +1 feature was one of SMX Advanced Seattle most engaging sessions and, as a speaker, I have received a wide variety of feedback […]
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: Automated Tweeting Pros/Cons, Deleting PPC Keywords & More Another busy week of discussion last week on our sister site, Sphinn, with more than a third of the published […]
Businesses are growing more aware of the need to understand and implement at least the basics of search engine optimization (SEO). But if you read a variety of blogs and websites, you’ll quickly see that there’s a lot of uncertainty over what makes up “the basics.” Without access to high-level consulting and without a lot […]
Remember the woman in Utah who used Google Maps’ walking directions, was hit by a car and sued? The case is Rosenberg v. Harwood and Google was successful in getting almost all the claims against the company dismissed last week. When last we left our story the plaintiff, Lauren Rosenberg, was walking from 96 Daly […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Up Close With Google’s Search By Image: Hits, Misses & More Earlier this week at its Inside Search event, Google announced a new way to search the web called Search By […]
This week Inside Facebook revealed that Facebook was planning on bringing a few new features to their Places product. Facebook Places launched almost a year ago, a product which has seen decent usage to date. The new features that are reportedly launching should make it much easier to market places, especially for those with small […]