You know that rumor about Microsoft shopping Bing to Facebook? It sparked lots of speculation about whether that would be a good move for both companies. Turns out it did happen, according to a report in the New York Times citing executives who made overtures to Facebook on behalf of Microsoft — but without 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: 8 Products That Might Be On Yahoo’s Chopping Block Yahoo’s product teams are officially on notice. Shortly after announcing Q1 earnings yesterday, new Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson dropped a bomb during […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Traffic Estimates Return To Google Maps About a year ago, Google dropped traffic estimates from Google Maps driving directions and now they are back in the form of “current traffic conditions.” […]
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 Says Panda 3.4 Is ‘Rolling Out Now’ Google has announced the latest in its ongoing updates to the Panda algorithm that targets low-quality websites. And they’ve taken the somewhat novel […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: 5 Common Tracking Problems: How To Troubleshoot & Fix Them I spend a lot of time trying to figure out exactly what is wrong with some clients’ analytics installs. Unlike types […]
In this week’s Search In Pictures, here are the latest images culled from the web, showing what people eat at the search engine companies, how they play, who they meet, where they speak, what toys they have, and more.
I’ve written that Google has plenty of public data to allow parts its new Search Plus Your World feature to be inclusive of rival social networks like Facebook and Twitter. Now, those networks are proving that true, through a new “Don’t Be Evil” tool that lets anyone leverage Google’s own results to see this. The tool […]
The new Google “Search Plus Your World” feature — which I’m now simply calling “Search Plus” — has just gone live for me. Huge debate erupted yesterday over whether it somehow favors Google+. I can see now that it clearly does, even more than I thought. Here’s a closer look at the changes, including how […]
That didn’t take long. In my coverage today about the new Google “Search Plus Your World” feature, I detailed how part of it gave hefty ammunition to claims that Google is abusing its dominant position in search. The anti-trust charges have now already started. Here’s the short story why. Imagine, Sending People To Other Stores! One of […]
That’s a trick question. Of course the answer should always be yes. Hopefully your website conversions in 2011 have already resulted in a banner year. But if you feel like you have room to improve (and there always is), then it might be time to review what advice our conversion experts shared with readers throughout […]
Facebook and the US Federal Trade Commission announced their formal privacy settlement today. Facebook and the federal agency each put their spin on it, with Facebook saying it was very similar to “agreements” previously reached with Google and Twitter: Recently, the US Federal Trade Commission established agreements with Google and Twitter that are helping to […]
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 Evokes Holiday Nostalgia In New Stop-Motion Animation Ads If you know that Hermey the elf longs to be a dentist, that Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer’s girlfriend is named Clarice, and […]
Google+ took a big step toward being a more “normal” social network today, as Britney Spears passed Larry Page to be the most followed person on the service. Move Over, Tech Celebs Until now, the most popular people on Google+ have been technology celebrities, in particular first Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg (who never posted to […]
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 […]
Asked to reflect on the cultural differences between Google and Facebook, current Facebook COO and former Googler Sheryl Sandberg told Charlie Rose that “Google is fundamentally about algorithms and machine learning . . . We start from a totally different place. We start from an individual: Who are you? What do you want to do? What do […]
A new feature of Google+ is Google+ Direct Connect, where typing the name of a company preceded by a + symbol will make that company’s Google+ Page appear as a suggestion in the search box, in the right circumstances. Who are the lucky few, so far? Here’s an alphabetical rundown, which reveals a number of […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Brands & News Sites Among Winners From Google’s Freshness Algo Update, Report Says Major brands and a variety of news sites — from established outlets to internet-only gossip sites — are […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Mobile Traffic To Retail Sites To Hit 15% During Holiday ’11 More evidence of the growing importance of mobile comes this time from IBM, which predicts that “an unprecedented 15 percent […]
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 Says SEO Is Not Spam Matt Cutts, head of the Google’s web spam fighting team, has gone on record by saying Google does not consider SEO to be spam. Matt […]
It looks like adding a suggested user list to Google+ has finally paid off in solving its “Mark Zuckerberg problem.” Facebook’s CEO is no longer the most popular person on Google+, having just now been passed by Google CEO Larry Page. Zuckerberg has been the most followed user since the first week that Google+ launched. That’s […]
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: Hot At Sphinn: Digg’s Irrelevance, Facebook’s Timeline, Marketing Diversity & More One thing’s for certain in the online marketing industry: change. That was the frame for our “Discussion of the Week” […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Confirmed: Google Panda 2.4 Update Arrived This Week Google has confirmed that the latest iteration of its Panda algorithm update is live. Based on our tracking of the algo changes, this […]
Mark Zuckerberg at F8, the Facebook developer conference held last week, exhorted people to “tell their life story” on Facebook via its new Timeline feature. Facebook also promoted new Open Graph apps integration and so-called “frictionless sharing.” But frictionless sharing is already creating a great deal of friction for Facebook in privacy circles and with […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Old AdSense Interface To Be Retired in November Google has worked the most-requested features from its older interface into its new one, including creating scheduled reports and viewing channels on 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: 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. […]
I’m sitting in the large hall in the SF Concourse awaiting the F8 keynote from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, now a wealthier man (on paper) than Google co-founders Brin and Page. We expect a series of announcements around music and movies but there will be a ton of stats about Facebook usage and growth. If […]
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 — […]
Good morning! Welcome to day two of our SMX East Conference in New York City. We’re beginning today with a keynote conversation with Eli Pariser, author of The Filter Bubble, a book in which Pariser argues that search personalization leads to users being unaware of viewpoints and opinions that are different than their own. We […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Game On: Google+ Now Offers Games You knew it was coming: Google+ now includes games. According to a screenshot posted on Google’s announcement, there are currently 16 games available at launch, […]
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 […]
It’s hard to believe that it was just one month ago today that Google+ launched. So much has happened to the fledgling service in this short time. Here is a look at both the highlights and lowlights of Google’s newest social network! Launch & Usage Google+ came out of the gate swinging, amassing 10 million […]
How do you measure the success of a social media site? One of several ways might be how “real world” celebrities gravitate to it. By that measure, Google+ still has a long way to go versus Twitter and Facebook, according to most followed lists. Below is a side-by-side of the top ten most followed accounts […]
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 […]
Below is today’s top news relating to Google+, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. Googler Shares How Google+ Is Built I’m a technical lead on the Google+ team is an “ask me anything conversation” with Google engineer Joseph Smarr, Technical lead for Google+. Smarr answers 20+ questions on 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: 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 today’s top news relating to Google+, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. Adoption Rates & 10 Million+ Users? Google+ Vaulting Past 10 Million User Mark by eWeek’s Clint Boulton covers the stats behind Google+’s massive user influx. This report comes on the heels from Paul Allen’s report of 4.5 […]
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 […]
Facebook announced three new “awesome” changes to the Facebook platform during a press event today. A great deal of Facebook information was displayed along with the announcement of three new elements . The new features and functionality include: Video Calling Facebook’s biggest announcement today was the partnership with Skype which will allow for video calling from within Facebook. This […]