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 adCenter Increases Ad Description, Adds Budget Widget & More Mobile Targeting Options Microsoft announced their January 2012 adCenter release update. The update includes three major additions to adCenter: (1) adCenter […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: French Court Fines Google $660,000 Because Google Maps Is Free Google faces a $660,000 fine after a French court ruling that the company is abusing its dominant position in mapping by […]
Story Update: February 3, 2012 – StumbleUpon Responds To Concerns About Links & Iframing StumbleUpon, who happens to be one of the more popular and successful social media sites with over 20 million users (doubling from 10 million in about a year and a half), recently launched one of the biggest redesigns I can remember… basically […]
It sounds great. A program that guarantees top listings for local searches on Google, Yahoo and Bing. An “officially approved” one in “cooperation” with those search engines. But it’s not so, say Google and Bing. The “Local Paid Inclusion” service launched officially today. The site’s home page pitches: Local Paid Inclusion is a Google, Yahoo […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Matt Cutts Convinces Some South Korean Govt. Websites To Stop Blocking Googlebot Matt Cutts, international diplomat? That might be the more appropriate title for Google’s chief spam cop. According to the […]
This week’s tool review focuses on the Link Builder toolset from Wordtracker. Wordtracker has been around since 1998 and is most widely known as a keyword research tool. In 2010, they added Link Builder in response to consumer demand and to help their keyword customers with their link building efforts. Based in London, the Wordtracker staff is […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Yandex Joins Bing, Yahoo In Using Nokia-Navteq Map Data Russian search giant Yandex announced that it will be licensing data from Nokia-owned Navteq to offer better and more comprehensive maps coverage […]
Last November Canadian digital agency Mediative (owned by Canada’s Yellow Pages Group) released an eye- and click-tracking study focused on Google Places and Google Maps on the PC. We wrote up the results when they were published. Mediative then followed up that study with a similar one focused on the Google Places app on the […]
Two weeks ago, Google launched Search Plus Your World. Since then, Google has faced strong criticisms that SPYW is making its search relevancy worse and favoring its Google+ social network too much. Not so, says Google search chief Amit Singhal. Most Google users are happy, Singhal said. Of course, Search Plus Your World isn’t perfect, he admits, […]
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 In Pics: David Beckham At Google, Google’s Moscow Office & Bing Bar In this week’s Search In Pictures, here are the latest images culled from the web, showing what people […]
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.
Marketers have had a couple weeks to digest their fourth quarter numbers and assess their successes and failures from a period that can be a whirlwind, particularly in the retail sector. Now, with Google’s Q4 earnings report and Yahoo’s out, we’re getting a chance to compare our own performance to data put out by some […]
The debate about what should — and shouldn’t — show in a Google search result for “santorum” has been well-documented, at this point. But I’d like to use this now famous search to illustrate something else: how it appears Google is taking its eye off the ball of being a search engine. Searching For Santorum: […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Major Entertainment Groups Accuse Google, Bing Of Directing Users To Illegal Content Several major UK entertainment industry groups are accusing Google and Bing of directing searchers to illegal content, and have […]
Google has quietly added a feature to Google Webmaster Tools that allows you to test your sitemap files prior to submitting them to Google. Google’s Pierre Far confirmed that this is indeed a brand new feature built to help webmasters debug their sitemap files prior to submitting them. One of the most common complaints about […]
Google has confirmed reports of a Panda update with us. The company told us they have done a data refresh of the Google Panda algorithm about a week ago, and added that there were no additional signals or algorithm changes. This was only a data refresh. I saw reports over the past week or so […]
FairSearch.org, a consortium of companies that originally came together to oppose the Google acquisition of ITA and includes Tavelocity, Microsoft and TripAdvisor among others, has added several new members to its ranks and launched an anti-Google print-ad campaign. Entitled “Good to Know,” the ads seek to expose “truths” about Google and its alleged conflicts of […]
The Google Webmaster Blog and Google Analytics Blog announced they are changing how they define the average position in the search query report in Google Webmaster Tools and search optimization report in Google Analytics. The new definition will take the average of the top ranking of your site for all searchers, as opposed to all […]
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 Revamps Submit Content Page Google has updated their URL submission tool page and redesigned their Submit Your Content page. The old URL which was at google.com/webmasters/tools/submit-url/ now returns a page […]
Google has updated their URL submission tool page and redesigned their Submit Your Content page. The old URL which was at google.com/webmasters/tools/submit-url/ now returns a page not found (404) error. The issue with that is, Google should really use a 301 redirect because it ranks in the top position for [google webmaster tools] and [google […]
DuckDuckGo, the upstart search engine that’s challenged its bigger competitors on privacy issues, has had a couple straight days of record-setting traffic. But the numbers show just how much the major search engines dominate the search space. First, let’s recognize how cool it is that DuckDuckGo actually has a public web page that shows 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: Infographic: How Much Does SEO Cost? How much does SEO cost? How much time do you have to discuss the various models and prices out there! However, a new survey sheds […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Projecting 2012 Google Mobile Revenues: $4 or $6 Billion? On Google’s Q3 2011 earnings call CEO Larry Page casually mentioned that Google had a mobile revenue “run rate” of more than […]
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 invasion of Google+ into Google’s search results continue. The latest Google+ification? Now Google’s encouraging people at the end of its search listings if they “Want to ask your friends about” what they were Googling. Want To Ask Your Friends? Tom Critchlow tipped me off to spotting this in his search results. I checked, and I found […]
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’s New Ad Campaign: Bing Is For #Doing Bing is set to launch a new ad campaign this weekend that includes a subtle change from its previous messaging. Rather than promoting […]
Bing is set to launch a new ad campaign this weekend that includes a subtle change from its previous messaging. Rather than promoting the idea of making decisions, the new campaign is about people doing interesting things and uses the slogan, Bing is for #Doing. More specifically, the new TV campaign focuses on winter sports […]
Google webmaster tools data is helpful stuff, but has been somewhat tough to download and use. Last month, Google made things a bit easier by providing a Python script for downloading search query data (as this report isn’t available as of yet through the API). Now, they’ve added new download options that significantly add to […]
Since at least 2005, Google has been using a large, worldwide focus group to help review its search results and the quality of the web pages that rank well in its algorithm. The people in this program are called Quality Raters and, as you can imagine, the work they do is important to search marketers […]
More than 300 Billion searches were made in the US in 2011, according to ComScore. In December each year, the Big Three search engines publish the most popular searches of the year. In 2011, the top ten searches from the three search engines added up to more than 250 million searches alone. We thought it […]
Want to be better at search engine optimization? What all SEO professionals should know about website usability.
Do you shove lots of ads at the top of your web pages? Think again.
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: Paid Clicks Up 34% While Cost Per Click Down 8% YoY Google just posted their Q4 2011 earnings resulting in a massive quarter but not meeting expectations of investors. In […]
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 5th “Doodle 4 Google” Contest Opens For K-12 Students Google has launched its fifth annual “Doodle 4 Google” contest, and this year’s version appears to be bigger than ever and […]
As you know, there are many sites going black to protest SOPA and PIPA. Google has already offered blackout SEO advice but they decided to take it one step further by slowing down their spiders today. Pierre Far from Google posted on his Google+ that Google is slowing down GoogleBot’s crawl activity to reduce 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: Yahoo’s Co-founder Jerry Yang Resigns Yahoo announced its co-founder Jerry Yang has formally resigned after 17 years on the job. Yang co-founded the company in March 1995, and has been 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: How To Blackout Your Site (For SOPA/PIPA) Without Hurting SEO A number of websites are (or were) planning to “go black” this week while the U.S. Congress discusses issues related to […]
A number of websites are (or were) planning to “go black” this week while the U.S. Congress discusses issues related to the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA). The website blackouts are part of a larger social media effort against the bills that our Greg Finn wrote about this morning […]
Our next Search Engine Land conference, SMX West 2012, comes to San Jose from February 28-March 1. This is my preview of what we’ve got on the agenda, over 50 sessions covering all aspects of search marketing. Consider it a personal invite of why you should come. SMX: All Search, All The Time SMX West […]
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 SPYW, Kenya Imbroglios An “Ink Blot” Test For Google As Good Or Evil? I woke up this morning to discover some fairly outrageous allegations against Google in Kenya. Local search/directory […]