Topic: MSN

A Small Business Search Marketing Thanksgiving From A-Z

Thanksgiving is almost here, and as the McGee family sits down at a table full of turkey, stuffing, and potatoes next week, we’ll do our regular Thanksgiving tradition: From A-Z, each family member takes a letter and shares something s/he’s thankful for this year. In that same spirit, here’s a list of things that small […]

Verizon Wireless Moves Closer to Choosing Microsoft As Default Search Provider

Last week the Wall Street Journal reported that Microsoft was trying to “steal away” an almost-done default search deal between Google and Verizon Wireless that would have given Google a high-profile presence on Verizon handsets. Verizon is the largest wireless carrier in the US with more than 80 million subscribers (post Alltel acquisition). Reuters now […]

Election Results From The Search Engines & Beyond

Today, the United States is electing a new president, voting on one-third of the seats in the U.S. Senate, and voting on all 435 seats in the House of Representatives. An important election? To say the least! And interest in the election results is higher than many of us “experienced” voters can ever remember. Tonight, […]

PPC

Search In Uncertain Times

Successful paid search marketing is an ever-moving target: bid prices and placements are constantly changing, auction rules shift from one day to the next, and your keyword mix is constantly in flux due to seasonality, new promotions, and changing campaign needs. It’s no wonder your search engine marketing ROI also fluctuates with all this confusion. […]

SEO

SearchBiz: Mehdi Moves Up At Microsoft; Should MSFT learn from Ask?; Top 25 People On The Web; Google & The NSA

With Microsoft’s current advertising campaign still leaving many people shaking their heads in wonder, TechCrunch has an idea: follow the lead of Ask.com. Jason Kincaid confesses that Ask’s ad — the one that shows a young woman “exercising” (ahem) on a stripper pole in her house — actually made him curious enough to click through […]

How To Walk A Mile In A Search Engine’s Shoes

Small business owners are often curious, and sometimes desperate, to understand why their web sites are doing well — or doing poorly — when it comes to search engine visibility. Online forums and message boards are filled with questions like “Why is my competitor outranking me?”, “Why doesn’t my new product page bring me any […]

Q&A With Google’s Insights For Search Senior Product Manager

In The Trenches is a weekly spotlight of tips, tricks, and news about the tools search engine marketing professionals use to give them a leg up on the competition. Today: News from the search engines, today’s in-depth look, “Q&A With Google’s Insights for Search Senior Product Manager” and this week’s free tips and tools.

Google Offers New Content Hub For US Presidential Elections Home Stretch

Many millions of people saw Hillary Clinton speak last night at the Democratic National Convention. If you didn’t (and are interested), you can see the speech on YouTube. Indeed, Google has been doing various things in various places — on Maps, YouTube, iGoogle and elsewhere — to offer news, content, video and visualization tools throughout […]

An Overlooked Niche: Marketing To Hispanics Online

There is no doubt Hispanics are online. And for most of them, the Internet is about connecting with their friends and family and keeping in touch with the latest happenings in their world. However, advertisers have fallen short in actively targeting this portion of the population, in particular with search marketing. Marketers are missing a […]

Survey Says: Google Leads In Consumer Satisfaction

Google Leads in Search Satisfaction from adAge.com reports that Google not only is leading in the University of Michigan and ForeSee Results in American Consumer Satisfaction Index, but is also “surging” in growth. Google scored an 86 in the index, up 10.3% in consumer satisfaction from last year. While Yahoo was down 2.5% to 77, […]

News Video Research Offers SEO Opportunities

In a previous article titled New Online Video News Search Study – Is the Business Case Made?, I discussed a DoubleClick Performics study that looked at how consumers interact with online video news, how they use search in the process, and their desire to see more video search results on the mainstream search engines. To […]

Mr. Search Marketer Goes To Congress (Part 2)

Going to Washington, D.C. to represent our industry to Congress was a great honor and the highlight of my career as an online marketer. It happened so fast, I never really had time to think about it, and I’m glad I didn’t because I probably would have freaked out. We had fun, saw the sights, […]

Everything You Wanted To Know About Google’s Android

Well, sort of. If you’re a developer you can get that information on the Android site. But if you’re interested in the history of Android, how much Google may have paid for the platform, and its hypothetical outlook, you can read this long Wired article. (You can also read my short riff on it in […]

SEO

SMX Advanced: Black, Blue, And Read All Over

Learning is a fundamental and highly adaptive function in human beings. More than any other species, humans are designed to be flexible learners and active agents in how we go about acquiring knowledge and skills. Yet much of what people learn happens without any formal instruction. Think about it. When we’re kids, we learn not […]

Hey Firefox – Let Us Pick Our Own Search Engine!

So Firefox 3 has a new release candidate making news, suggesting that the browser is nearly done. May I suggest that the browser is nowhere near being done until the Mozilla Foundation drops its favoritism to Google and allow users to pick their own default search engine? And that Microsoft ought to be among those […]

Human Hardware: The Subconscious Side of Search

In the last column, we explored some studies that indicate that conscious will might not be the cause of our actions, but instead might be just one of the effects of a motivator still undefined. Conscious will could simply be a feedback mechanism that helps us keep track of our actions and hides the degree […]

Today’s MicroHoo Roundup: Google Considers Its Response, Google Says It Would “Hire” Yang, Icahn Might Be Thwarted By Slimmed-Down MicroHoo, & MSN Reorgs

Yesterday at Google HQ in Mountain View, during the Q&A session following the discussion of Google Health, a reporter sneaked in a question about Microsoft-Yahoo. Marissa Mayer declined to answer the question, as Google CEO Eric Schmidt and co-founders Brin and Page were mulling their collective response to the new and reduced Microsoft overture (pun […]

Abandoning The Yahoo Deal: Microsoft’s $5 Billion Mistake?

If Microsoft’s walkaway from the Yahoo deal is indeed a ploy to save $5 billion, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer may have proven himself pennywise and pound foolish. He was prepared to spend billions to finally make Microsoft a serious rival to Google. For a bit more, he may have destroyed Microsoft’s chance to get there. Despite what I’m about […]