Microsoft has seemingly spared no expense on pushing its Bing search engine at star-studded entertainment events, such as the recent Sundance film festival. But those expenses may be key to news today that two Bing executives have been fired for “mismanagement of company assets and vendor procurement,” according to Microsoft. Ad Age appears to have […]
Though most marketers likely think of their SEO activities and their paid search advertising as complementary, you’ve probably wondered, at one time or another, what would happen if you paused your CPC ads entirely or just cut them back dramatically. Google’s research folks covered this topic back in July of last year, when it concluded […]
In the early days of ‘Mad Men’ marketing, half of all Marketing spend was famously wasted – the Marketer just didn’t know which half. Many a Marketer’s sleepless night was spent wondering what levers of their Marketing spend to push forward and which to dial back. Then, along came the Internet, and with it a […]
Several members of Congress continued to express reservations about Google’s new privacy policy after a closed-door meeting on Thursday, with one House member saying that Google’s handling of sensitive medical searches may violate HIPAA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. Members of the House Energy and Commerce committee grilled Pablo Chavez, Google’s director of […]
SEO: one channel to rule them all? A new “merchant confidence survey” from lead-gen company MerchantCircle/Reply.com, among 2,500 US small businesses, finds that search engine optimization is the marketing channel they would choose if they could choose only one. The question asked was: “If you had to put all your marketing time and budget into […]
Cadbury posted on their Google + page a picture of their latest milk chocolate bars named “Dairy Milk+ Bars.” The Milk+ bars come in two flavors, Sergey Brin & Larry Page – i.e. the co-founders of Google. As part of a social media experiment, Cadbury posted this on their Google + page, saying: Remember our […]
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 Leads In Search Engines’ Efforts To Woo TV Viewers Google’s “Dear Sophie” TV spot for Chrome, in which a father creates a Gmail account for his newborn daughter and sends […]
Google’s “Dear Sophie” TV spot for Chrome, in which a father creates a Gmail account for his newborn daughter and sends her multi-media messages as she grows up, earned the top spot in Ace Metrix’ rankings of websites’ TV advertisements. Despite being a recent and reluctant entrant to TV advertising, Google dominated the rankings with […]
I’m happy to announce that next month, Search Engine Land will gain a new sister site: Marketing Land. Search Engine Land will continue to provide all the great coverage about search marketing and search engines that you love. Marketing Land will go beyond into other areas, including social media, affiliate marketing, email marketing and other […]
A question that has not yet been answered is whether 2-D barcodes, also known as “QR codes,” are here to stay or whether they’re an interesting experiment on the way to something else, such as NFC-based marketing. In Japan and elsewhere around the world QR codes are more well established and have been in use […]
Google and Virgin America have teamed up in a clever Chromebook promotion that will benefit both brands. The airline sent out an email this morning that offers a free Chromebook test drive, “From July 1 to September 30 . . . on select flights from San Francisco, Dallas-Fort Worth, Boston, and Chicago, exclusively on Virgin […]
Yesterday members-only site Gilt offered an invitation only one-day sale on a “limited edition” version of the forthcoming Samsung “Series 5” Chromebook — and reportedly sold out of it. The notebook will officially go on sale on June 15th. The model being sold by Gilt was the $499 3G version. The WiFi-only version is $429. […]
Today, Forrester Research unveiled a 6- page report on the utility of SEO automation tools for use in larger enterprises. Six vendors were covered in the landscape report, including Altruik, BrightEdge, Conductor, Covario, SEOmoz PRO, and Yield Software. The report mainly covers key issues in scaling automation across larger enterprises, integration of IT services 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 Vows To Look At Deceptive Cloaking Techniques Google’s Matt Cutts tweeted that Google will be looking more at Cloaking in the first quarter of 2011. Cloaking, as defined by Google, […]
Google is busy using product search and local search to build bridges between online research and offline transactions. Now with its visual search app, Goggles, the company is trying to promote the idea that marketers can use it to connect traditional media (e.g., print or outdoor ads) to “immersive” and dynamic online experiences. This is […]
Over the coming weeks, UK-style phone booths will pop-up around the US in airports and at universities, allowing anyone to make free calls to anywhere in the world. The promotion is designed to spread awareness of the Google Voice service. Below, a look inside the booth, including a video of it in action. Google’s actually […]
Having a well known brand can be a wonderful thing—you have a base of customers who know and trust your offerings. However, marketers often ignore this brand loyal segment, and chase after new customers instead. While developing new business is a necessity, marketers shouldn’t let existing customers get left behind.
Amazing PPC Tactics Presentations from SMX Advanced Seattle, June 2010 What’s hot and happening with paid search? This session will wow you with some new ideas for your PPC campaigns! [flv:https://searchengineland.com/video_assets/adv10/ppt/AmazingPPCTactics.flv 364 264] Moderator: Matt Van Wagner, President, Find Me Faster Speakers: Michael Behrens, VP e-Marketing, WebMetro Lulu Gephart, Paid Search Program Manager, REI Aaron […]
The worst fear of a restaurateur used to be opening the newspaper to find a critical review of his or her food. Same for performances or new products and gadgets. This anxiety could keep business owners up at night—but at least they knew when to expect a review to hit the streets.
Never before has it been easier for local business to generate leads for their businesses. There are many, many resources available to help businesses get customers in the door and on the phone. Many advertising options—online and offline—are performance-priced including pay-per-click, pay-per-lead, and pay-per-call. From search engines, traditional yellow pages publishers, newspapers, local ad agencies […]
Let’s give Microsoft’s marketing folks some credit for thinking inside the box. Literally. They’ve taken their Bing promotional efforts inside Microsoft’s own Xbox gaming platform with free codes that let Xbox Live users outfit their avatars in Bing t-shirts. That’s what you’ll see when you search Bing with the magic search phrase. As Bing said […]
Microsoft wants people to download (or update Sliverlight) so they can use the new and improved Bing Maps. To create that incentive, as well as to get people to explore the new Bing Maps, Microsoft is offering chance to win a $100 gift card as part of the “Bing Maps Challenge.” The challenge game takes […]
Here’s a common experience for anyone who sells products and services to businesses. A prospect is moving toward becoming a customer, and then inexplicably becomes unresponsive. Why? B2B buying is not a rational process. That straightforward yet profound conclusion makes reading The BuyerSphere Project by Search Engine Land Just Behave columnist Gord Hotchkiss worthwhile.
Congress’ debate on healthcare has sparked many different opinions about the right path for the future of healthcare insurance. Regardless of where that debate is headed, all Americans share the same challenge at one point or another: finding good healthcare. And that’s where local search comes in—to help connect medical professionals with patients. Recently, Dennis […]
After giving a preview of its new “It’s You” marketing campaign last week, Yahoo formally begins the global push today. Yahoo says the campaign will cover “online, television, radio, print, and outdoor” advertising, all focused on selling the company’s focus on its users. If you’re watching TV today, you may see this new “Anthem” ad: […]
Google’s outreach last week was all about Street View. This week it appears to be Google Maps’ turn in the spotlight, thanks to a new page that touts the benefits of using Google Maps on your web site, and shows the various ways to do it. The mini-site offers step-by-step instructions with two options — […]
I wrote earlier that it was probably driving Google crazy to see people “amazed” that Bing is doing stuff that Google itself has long offered. Now Google’s fighting back. The first shot? A new Explore Google Search page. Google’s had help pages like this before. For example, this one still remains, showing various special features […]
All web sites, whether large or small, have many of the same search engine optimization challenges. Since the beginning of interactive time, it has been a struggle for many business websites to find their voice and to provide meaningful content to the Internet audience. At Agency.com we see this struggle every day, particularly in an […]
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) covers Google’s slow, ambivalent move toward traditional marketing. During its first 10 years, the company grew almost entirely on user word of mouth and PR-driven news coverage. That has helped create a culture that is somewhat biased against traditional advertising. Yet we’ve seen more traditional ad buys from Google in […]
Photo by Mike Blumenthal. Used with permission. People tend to squeal with delight or its opposite when they see advertising in the wild for Google the company. It has happened precious few times: for Google Checkout, Goog-411, and most recently Google Transit, among a couple of other isolated cases. AdAdge covers Google advertising for Transit […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
SEO, SEM, PPC, keywords, AdWords, analytics — what does it all mean for you as a marketer when you’re just starting out with search? You know you need to incorporate search into your marketing mix, but where do you begin? We’ll help you get started with this introductory webcast about search engine marketing. Industry veteran […]
According to the Guardian, Yahoo has named former BlackBerry and Orange executive Kristof Fahy to be vice president of marketing for Europe. Fahy is a seasoned executive facing a challenging time for Yahoo, which has properties across Europe that are performing in an uneven fashion. The article goes on to say, “poorly performing parts of […]
This Associated Press article chronicles how Google has been able to build a multi-billion dollar consumer brand largely without advertising. That’s the part everybody knows. But the article also compares the annual ad spending of Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, and eBay. It points out that when Google does buy any advertising, it’s typically to recruit employees.
Local destination site AmericanTowns.com owned the URL LocalSearch.com but has now sold it to Idearc (publisher of Superpages) for roughly $3.3 million. That figure includes a strategic investment in AmericanTowns, which Superpages will help further develop. This article is part of Local Search Week here at Search Engine Land, a special look at local search […]
Just two days after Yahoo released research that showed how the Internet is driving offline retail transactions in increasing numbers, ad agency TMP Directional Media conducted an online survey with comScore that showed a parallel phenomenon in the service sector. The survey, which had 3,000 respondents, sought to capture consumer attitudes and behavior toward traditional […]
Google ‘the most improved brand’ from the BBC covers an Interbrand report showing that Google’s brand has increased in value by 44% over the past 12 months. The 44% increase makes Google the most improved brand when compared to the other brands that were evaluated in this report. Google’s brand is valued at $17.8 billion, […]
As pointed out on Bruceclay.com — Ask.com thinks you’re an idiot — Ask can sometimes be an irritating company. I like the new Ask3D interface, and they’re doing a lot of good things in the search arena. However, when it comes to how Ask is marketing itself, I’m completely baffled.
We’re getting to the time of year when many small businesses are thinking about hiring summer help. Kids and young adults will be finishing school and looking for work, and there’ll be plenty of openings behind cash registers and at empty desks with a telephone. Most of these are temporary hires that make everyone happy: […]
Are you treating your PPC campaign as an advertising outlet or a marketing opportunity? Many PPC advertisers treat the engines as advertising distribution, but fail to create marketing messages. PPC engines have many features that let you have control over ad display, however, if you just use these features to serve ads—then you’re not taking […]