Google now has its own version of the Yahoo “peanut butter” manifesto, where Google staff software engineer Steve Yegge wrote a “family intervention” memo about Google’s failure to build accessible platforms, leaving it vulnerable to the likes of Facebook. There are some harsh words about Google+, but the memo is broader than that. It offers an intriguing look […]
It’s as you would have expected — searches for Steve Jobs skyrocketed at Google, after news of his death spread. Oddly, Google Trends — which shows spiking search queries — failed to show this activity until hours later. Google, Yahoo Didn’t Show Spike Yesterday, I had some people ask me why Steve Jobs wasn’t showing […]
Apple cofounder, chairman and former CEO Steve Jobs has died today at age 56. Apple’s board issued the following statement about his death: We are deeply saddened to announce that Steve Jobs passed away today. Steve’s brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives. 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: How You Can Build Links Easily With Product Reviews The art of building links to increase search rankings has been a big topic in the SEO community for a long time. […]
It’s the Google Zeitgeist conference, Google’s big event for major partners and advertisers. Last session of the event? A talk with Google CEO Larry Page and chairman Eric Schmidt. Here’s my live blog, ending with the Page’s answer that Google has nothing to fear but Google itself. Larry says he hopes everyone is inspired by […]
The search industry is getting a little more mainstream recognition every day, as tonight’s episode of The Colbert Report picked on Google’s handling of the Spreading Santorum situation. This time the target was software engineer Matt Cutts, long known to search industry insiders as head of Google’s Web Spam and search quality team, he doesn’t […]
I swear, it’s like watching the Titanic having run into that iceberg, as Bing and Yahoo try to figure out what to do with their sinking ships of search. Except that the Titanic was big, and Bing and Yahoo are like small — and they haven’t run into an iceberg. They’re being run over 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: Why So Many Blogs Fail (And What to Do About It) It’s a safe bet that right this minute, someone, somewhere, is advising a small business owner to start a blog. […]
Scoreboard: Facebook guy – 1, Google guys – 0. Or, more accurately: Facebook guy – $17.5 billion, Google guys – $16.7 billion (each). Those are the estimated net worths of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, as reported in the latest edition of the Forbes 400 Rich List — […]
Google has just announced the closure of several well-known products, including Fast Flip, Sidewiki, Aardvark and Subscribed Links. Some of these are part of the ongoing purge of Google Labs products, while others that are being shut down were not part of Labs. And Google has also announced that other Google Labs projects have “graduated” […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Microsoft Tightens Relevancy And Quality Requirements In AdCenter Microsoft has announced changes that tighten up its adCenter Relevancy and Quality policy for ads served to the U.S. and Canada. Changes are […]
Last week the bombshell announcement came that Google was admitting liability and forfeiting roughly $500 million in profits and fees from accepting illegal ads from Canadian pharmacies targeting US residents. This is a historic “fine” according to the US Department of Justice (DOJ). But new information revealed over the past few days suggests that Google may […]
In a bid to build up its patent arsenal and get a stronger foothold in the mobile phone and tablet business, Google has agreed to acquire Motorola Mobility Holdings for around $12.5 billion in cash. Motorola Mobility Holdings is one of the entities that resulted when Motorola split its business in two earlier this year. The […]
Twice this year, Google’s been fairly frank and vocal about something competitors have done that it feels is unfair. Twice, I’ve watched the technosphere largely react by beating the company over the head with a “You do whatever you want and copy everyone else” stick. Does that measure up, and more so than for Google […]
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 […]
Is Google TV testing Larry Page’s patience? With his renewed focus on streamlining Google’s product roster, this news surely isn’t going over well in Mountain View: Logitech has reported that its Logitech Revue console had more units returned than sold in the company’s latest financial quarter (Q1 2012). Ouch. As a result, Logitech says it’ll […]
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 Labs To Be Closed As Larry Page’s Product Streamlining Continues Is there any doubt that things at Google have changed under new CEO Larry Page? Today the company has announced […]
Is there any doubt that things at Google have changed under new CEO Larry Page? Today the company has announced the impending closure of Google Labs, its experimental playground where many popular Google products were born. In its announcement, Google says the decision to shut down Google Labs is part of its new focus on […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Study: Insurance, Loan-Related Keywords Are Google’s Cash Cows Insurance-related keywords are the source of 24% of Google’s AdWords revenue, with the highest CPC coming in at a whopping $54.91, according to […]
Whether on purpose or not, Google and Twitter are having a little back-and-forth this week about the size of their social networks — or, maybe more accurately, about the activity levels on their social networks. Google+ has X amount of users and the +1 button gets served Y times per day. Twitter delivers N tweets […]
Google had a huge Q2, with revenues of $9.03 billion — a new record. This represents growth of 32% over 2010. Net income was $2.5 billion vs. $1.84 billion during the same period last year. Here are some more highlights from the release: Revenues – Google reported revenues of $9.03 billion in the second quarter […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Why The Search Engines Still Need Display Search ad revenues remain the driving force behind the big search engines, Google and Microsoft’s Bing. However, the rise of display advertising and the […]
The irony of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg being the most followed person on Google+ is over. He’s disappeared from the top rankings, along with Google CEO Larry Page who was the second most followed and other Google execs. It’s down to a glitch, Google says. Google+ allows you to show the number of people you […]
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 Shutting Down Site Explorer This Year Yahoo has announced they are shutting down one of the old and beloved SEO tools, Yahoo Site Explorer, later this year. This isn’t unexpected, […]
It turns out that Google will testify in September before the Senate Judiciary Committee Antitrust subpanel, according to The Hill. Before the formal initiation of the FTC’s antitrust investigation Google had declined to send Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt or new CEO Larry Page to testify following an informal request by the Senate subcommittee. Utah Senator […]
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+ has been live for a full day now, and there’s plenty going on within the service, even with the limited number of people in there. Curious to see? Here’s a guide on peeping into Google Plus. Anything that happens with Google+ can be made public with the world, if someone chooses to do so. […]
We’re another step closer to the US Federal Trade Commission launching an expected antitrust investigation of Google. If it does, the FTC will join the EU and Texas in doing broad investigations. But Google’s been examined for antitrust issues many times before this and mostly come through OK. Here’s our comprehensive guide to Google 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: Google Tweaks Interface For “Keyword Ideas” In AdWords Keyword Tool Google has changed the way it’s displaying “Keyword Ideas” in its AdWords Keyword Tool, breaking them into a separate tab so […]
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 […]
Everyone knows that Facebook is going public. When was the only question. Now it appears that it will be early next year. Facebook apparently is being compelled go public by an obscure SEC rule that requires companies with 500 or more shareholders to start disclosing financial information even if they haven’t gone public. Thus Facebook […]
Day one of our SMX Advanced conference is wrapping up with a late afternoon tradition: Danny Sullivan’s “You & A” conversation with Google’s top spam cop, Matt Cutts. The session is due to start at 5:00 pm PST but, just between us, it’s bit hectic up front and gut feeling is that we’ll be a […]
It sure sounded like Google’s SVP of advertising Susan Wojcicki was promising phone support for all AdSense publishers “in the next quarter,” at yesterday’s annual shareholder meeting, but a Google spokesman now tells me it’s only “testing additional phone support” for AdSense publishers. Wojcicki’s statement regarding a timeline is said to have referred to 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: Introducing: The Periodic Table Of SEO Ranking Factors SEO — search engine optimization — is one of the most important marketing activities available to companies and publishers, but it’s too often […]
Many on Wall Street think that Larry Page hasn’t been visible or accessible enough. In part because of investor uncertainty about the former and current Google CEO (and a number of other factors) Google’s share price has dropped about $100 since Page took over from Eric Schmidt in April. During the company’s first quarterly earnings […]
Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt just finished being interviewed at the D Conference by Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg, and there were a number of interesting revelations that came out. I thought a list of highlights was in order. The highlights below are roughly listed in the order they came up during the interview, rather being […]
Skyhook’s lawsuit against Google, for unfair competition, interference with contract and patent infringement, has survived a substantive and procedural challenge to end the case. Google had sought to terminate the litigation before all the factual discovery was completed. Skyhook Gets to Dig More One of the byproducts of earlier discovery in this case was the […]
Google’s no longer in the “search” business — it’s now in the “knowledge” business. OK, not exactly. TechCrunch points to a April 11, 2011 SEC filing that discloses a job-title change for Alan Eustace, Google’s Senior Vice President, Engineering & Research. He has become Google’s Senior Vice President, Knowledge. It was widely believed that Eustace was […]
Former Googler, Andrew Norman Wilson posted a very interesting video on his blog about a group of Google employees who were portrayed as a “lower class” of Googlers. These Googlers were primarily responsible for the Google Book project where they manually scanned books all day. Andrew Wilson documented how these Googlers worked, starting their day […]
Following the revelation last week that the iPhone stored user location data a consumer class action was filed. This kind of disclosure/revelation-class action cycle is now familiar. And because Google also collects location data it is now also the subject of a similar class action (Brown et al v. Google) seeking $50 million in damages. […]