Problems & Solutions: Analyzing The EU’s Antitrust Charges Against Google Over Shopping Search
The EU has raised four concerns about how Google has dominated shopping search. A close look at each charge and possible fixes that might emerge.
Topic: NexTag
SearchCap: The Day In Search, March 14, 2014
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 Penalizes Two German Link Networks; One Being efamous Google’s head of search spam, Matt Cutts, announced on Twitter today that they have penalized and taken action on two additional German […]
Shopping Comparison: TheFind Finds Lowest Price More Often Than Google, Bing, Others
In December, Danny Sullivan sought to determine which of the major shopping search engines found the best prices for common products. The shopping engines compared in Danny’s articles were Nextag, Shopzilla, PriceGrabber, Google, Bing and TheFind: The Test Begins: Do Google Shopping & Other Shopping Search Engines Give You The Best Deals? The Test Continues: Which […]
The Test Continues: Which Shopping Search Engine Finds The Best Price For A Blu-Ray?
It’s time for our second test of how well Google Shopping and other shopping search engines find the best prices on products. For this installment, what’s the lowest price from a major retailer for a copy of “Red 2” in the Blu-ray, DVD and digital download combo pack? Is The Featured Price The Lowest Price? […]
Brand Bias: 70% Of Consumers Look For Known Retailers When Doing Product Searches
New research from Search Engine Land and SurveyMonkey shows that consumers have a definite brand bias when it comes to searching for products online. According to data from a survey conducted last month, almost 70 percent of US consumers said they look for a “Known retailer” when deciding what search results they click on. That […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, December 5, 2013
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: The Test Begins: Do Google Shopping & Other Shopping Search Engines Give You The Best Deals? It sounds pretty damning. Two recent surveys suggest that Google Shopping isn’t leading searchers to […]
The Test Begins: Do Google Shopping & Other Shopping Search Engines Give You The Best Deals?
It sounds pretty damning. Two recent surveys suggest that Google Shopping isn’t leading searchers to the best prices on products. But the surveys weren’t well documented, nor did they include competitors like Bing, Shopzilla, PriceGrabber and Nextag, which have similar issues. So, Search Engine Land will be running its own fully documented tests. Every few […]
The Searcher’s Guide To Black Friday, Cyber Monday & Holiday Shopping
This year, U.S. shoppers now have more opportunities than ever to join the throngs scrambling to secure holiday bargains, thanks to many brick and mortar stores opening ever earlier and staying open ever longer. Black Friday, the traditional post-Thanksgiving sales lollapalooza, has become a 24-hour slog for many retailers. And some retailers, impatient to lure […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, October 14, 2013
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 Images: Search By Image Not Working For Many Google’s Search By Image feature is currently not functioning for many searchers. The search by image feature allows a searcher to take […]
Revealed: The 17 Other Search Engines The FTC Warned Over Paid Ad Disclosures
In June, the US Federal Trade Commission warned seven “general purpose” search engines — including Google, Bing and Yahoo — about the need to ensure they were properly disclosing paid ads. But 17 other “specialty” search engines were also warned. Which ones? The FTC wouldn’t say. Thanks to a Freedom of Information Act request, Search […]
Report: Google PLAs Dominate CSE Channel Like Never Before [CPC Strategy]
CPC Strategy’s latest Shopping Comparison Engine report shows Google’s grip on the market only tightened in Q2. Across performance metrics, Google PLAs (product listing ads) continue to outperform other CSEs by wide margins. For example, in Q1, Shopping.com, Pricegrabber and Amazon Product Ads all drove roughly half the traffic of Google PLAs. In Q2, the […]
Search Engines Keep The Lights Out On Fireworks Ads, Mostly
Happy 4th of July! It’s fireworks season here in the US, a time when online searches for “fireworks” skyrocket. Yet, ads for explosives and pyrotechnic devices like “firecrackers,” “bottle rockets,” and “fireworks” are not allowed per the advertising policies of Google and Bing — and their respective search partners like AOL, Ask, Yahoo and DuckDuckGo. Sam […]
FTC Updates Search Engine Ad Disclosure Guidelines After “Decline In Compliance”
In 2002, the US Federal Trade Commission issued landmark guidelines to search engines, to ensure they were make a clear distinction between their paid and unpaid listings. Now, the FTC has updated those guidelines, saying it has seen a “decline in compliance” since they were first issued. The FTC posted the news today on its […]
Bing Attacks Google Shopping With “Scroogled” Campaign, Forgets It’s Guilty Of Same Problems
Bing is attacking Google over its shift to a pay-for-play shopping search engine through a new “Scroogled” site, pledging that Bing has “honest search.” Great campaign, if it were true. It’s not. Bing itself does the same things it accuses Google of. It’s also another indictment of how little the FTC is doing to protect […]
Report: FTC Likely To Abandon “Vertical Search” Antitrust Claims Against Google
There are now enough indications to suggest that any antitrust settlement between the FTC and Google — and the FTC would much prefer to settle than test its case in court — won’t involve “vertical search.” An earlier Reuters report, probably resulting from an internal FTC leak, suggested that vertical search wasn’t the core of […]
A Black Friday & Cyber Monday Shopper’s Guide To Comparison Shopping Search Engines
The holiday shopping season is almost upon us. Black Friday comes at the end of the week, followed by the increasingly popular Cyber Monday. While there are plenty of deal sites, there also remain traditional shopping search engines that consumers may wish to use. Shopping search engines, or perhaps more properly, product and price comparison […]
Google Widens Test Of Affiliate Advertising In New Pay-For-Play Shopping
After last month’s major change to Google Shopping, making the service solely pay-for-play, the company is exploring ways for affiliates to participate via Product Listing Ads (PLAs) in the US. Google Shopping has been testing ways of working with affiliates for nearly six months in alpha and is now opening up the beta to additional […]
SEMPO: FTC Is “Strongly Considering” Review Of How Search Engines Disclose Paid Listings
According to SEMPO, a search marketing industry association, the US Federal Trade Commission is “strongly considering” a review of how well — or poorly — search engines are compliance with its 2002 guidelines on disclosing paid listings to consumers. The news comes in a letter that SEMPO — the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization — sent to […]
On Google Earnings Call, Google Ignores FTC Definition Of “Paid Inclusion”
On its earnings call today, an analyst asked Google about the new paid inclusion model for Google Shopping. The analyst got corrected. Google doesn’t call what it’s doing paid inclusion, he was told. That’s because Google is comfortable continuing to ignore the US Federal Trade Commission’s definition of what “paid inclusion” is. It’s yet another […]
RKG Report: Search Growth Declines Slightly; Shakeup In Store For Shopping Space
Paid search’s growth rate slowed a bit in the second quarter of 2012, but it still increased 29% year-over-year — down from a 32% year-over-year growth rate in Q1. That’s according to the RimmKaufman Group’s latest report on digital marketing, released this week. Generally speaking, CPC’s were down (6%) as compared to the same period […]
After A Month, Silence From The FTC On Search Engine Disclosure
A month ago, I sent a letter to the US Federal Trade Commission asking it to review how search engines are complying with its guidelines on disclosing listings where payment is involved. The silence since then, as the saying goes, has been deafening. That’s a pity given how important that review is to the on-going antitrust […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, June 29, 2012
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’s “Voice Assistant” Not Quite Siri-Smart But Most People Won’t Notice At Google I/O this week Google introduced spoken search results, which mimic Siri’s functionality on the iPhone. Siri had been […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, June 11, 2012
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Apple Siri To Add Sports, Restaurants, Reservations, Movies & App Search Apple at their World Wide Developer Conference today announced iOS6 with some really nice features to Siri, their voice search […]
Settlement Of Google-Europe Antitrust Claims Might Involve Labeling “Google Products” In SERP
This morning I read Danny Sullivan’s letter to the FTC about paid inclusion and search engine disclosures. It was prompted by NexTag CEO Jeffrey Katz’s article last week in the Wall Street Journal complaining about Google’s market dominance and alleged abuse of that position. Contained within Danny’s article is a potential face-saving solution to the […]
A Letter To The FTC Regarding Search Engine Disclosure Compliance
In 2002, the US Federal Trade Commission created guidelines on how search engines should disclose paid placement and paid inclusion listings. It’s become clear to me over the past two weeks that the search engine industry has either largely forgotten these guidelines or is ignoring them. That’s why I’ve written a letter today to the […]
Given Nextag’s Lack Of Transparency, Its WSJ Opinion Piece Asking For Google Transparency Isn’t Wise
Nextag CEO Jeffrey Katz is out today in the Wall Street Journal with an opinion piece taking Google to task over a lack of transparency and fairness. Perhaps it’s not the smartest move, given that all his arguments can be neatly turned back against Nextag. Moreover, unlike Google, NexTag is probably in violation of US […]
Dear Congress: It’s Not OK Not To Know How Search Engines Work, Either
Did watching elected representatives debate SOPA last week without understanding some fundamentals of the internet rattle your nerves? Welcome to my world of watching the same thing happen about Google and search. In September, the US Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights held a hearing called “The Power of Google: Serving Consumers or […]
The Big Roundup: Finding Black Friday & Cyber Monday Deals & Specials
We’re already well into Black Friday. In many US stores the frenzy began last night at 10 pm or midnight (as opposed to the normal 4 am door-busting start time). People barely had time to overcome the sleep-inducing effects of L-tryptophan before getting out into the melee. And the word “melee” aptly describes the scene […]
Does The FairSearch White Paper On Google Being Anticompetitive Hold Up?
FairSearch, a group of search companies including Microsoft which lobbies that Google is too dominant, has sent a white paper outlining its anti-trust concerns about Google to the 50 state attorneys general in the US. Below, a review and some fact checking of the paper. You’ll find the paper here, if you wish to read […]
Sen. Franken Criticizes Google In Hearings, Praises Google In Promotional Video
Politics are messy and often riddled with ethical potholes and challenges. One illustration of this is Senator Al Franken’s apparent “conflict of interest” where Google is concerned. Discovered by Mike Blumenthal Franken did a “commercial” on behalf of Google’s “Get Your Business Online” initiative in Minnesota. Blumethal characterizes Franken as “shilling for Google.” It’s not […]
Google Senate Hearings: The Post-Game Show
Earlier this morning I predicted that today’s three-hour Senate subcommittee hearing on Google and competition would be more theater than fact-finding. (You can read Danny’s live blog here and here.) And while there were lots of numbers and statistics thrown around by the witnesses (many of them inaccurate) there were few new facts; it was […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, September 21, 2011
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 “Action Buttons” Lets You Book Flights, Rent Cars & More Bing announced a new feature in the search results named “Action Buttons.” Action buttons give you quick links to perform […]
Live Blog: Yelp, NexTag & Others At The US Senate Hearing
OK, it’s round two. And I can tell you no, don’t expect much. How do you clear the press table when Google competitors are about to testify at a Senate hearing? Have Eric Schmidt do a post-game recap in the hearing room hallway. He’s done, I’m back, will catch up as best I can. NOTE: […]
Live Blog: Google’s Eric Schmidt At The US Senate Hearing
Today’s the day. Google chairman Eric Schmidt is being called on the carpet in front of a US Senate subcommittee, to talk about whether his company is a monopolistic orge. I’m here, live blogging. Fun starts at 2pm ET. NOTE: Our follow-up article, which covers the entire hearing with highlights and without live blogging typos […]
Google Expects A Black Eye At Today’s Senate Antitrust Hearing
We’re apparently not going to hear anything new at today’s Senate subcommittee hearing on Google and competition. (Danny Sullivan and Gary Price will attend and blog the live testimony.) What we’re likely going to get are very polarized views of Google and how it operates: Google the benign promoter of consumer-centric content and Google the […]
Google, Yelp, Others To Appear At Antitrust Hearing Wednesday
Next week on Wednesday the Senate Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights will hold antitrust-related hearings on Google. This is a proceeding separate from but broadly related to the wide-ranging FTC antitrust investigation. The title of the hearing is “The Power of Google: Serving Consumers or Threatening Competition?” This title perfectly anticipates the two […]
Winners & Losers As Panda 2.0 Goes Global? eHow, Bing’s Ciao.co.uk & More
It’s only been 48 hours since Google expanded the Panda/Farmer update to all English language searches outside the US, and we’re already seeing reports about who the early winners and losers are. In some cases, the names are familiar if you followed the original reports when the algorithm change first hit in the US in […]
eBay Buys Local Products Search Engine Milo For $75 Million
Shopping.com parent eBay has reportedly acquired local product inventory site Milo.com for $75 million in cash. Milo was aspiring to become the “Google of local product data.” The acquisition is a bit of a surprise to me but problably came out of discussions about a strategic investment. I believe Milo and Shopping.com were in discussions […]
Search Tips For Black Friday & Cyber Monday
Ladies and gentlemen open your wallets — and start your smartphones. The holiday shopping season is upon is. This year more than ever there are scores of sites, apps and online tools to direct you to the right product at the best price. It can all be a bit overwhelming in fact. Below I’ve tried […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, November 8, 2010
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: SEO’s Bad Reputation, Google ‘Pollutes’ The Web & More A news article about Google from The Guardian was popular last week on Sphinn, as was last week’s member […]