Netconcepts, a Wisconsin-based SEO company, has been acquired by San Diego’s Covario, Inc. Many of you know the name Stephan Spencer, he is the Founder and President of Netconcepts. Wanted to wish Stephan and the whole Netconcepts team a huge congrats from us. Here are some quotes from the press release: “With the acquisition of […]
There’s no going back for me now, I’ve made the compulsory switch to the new AdWords interface. While I have my gripes, there are also some useful new features which can help in-house search engine marketers save time and streamline account management tasks. The real question is, do the improvements outweigh the loss of some […]
The Yahoo Search Blog announced there are several features coming to Yahoo search ads, such as a desktop management tool, integrated rich ads, network bidding control and more. Specifically: Yahoo Search Marketing Desktop Tool, similar to Google’s desktop tool to manage AdWords, that will allow advertisers to manage their search campaigns offline. Trust me, this […]
Watching Google and Microsoft lately has been like watching a tennis match: Each company seems to be taking turns hitting back at the other with new announcements, new products, and so forth. The latest volley isn’t strictly search-related, but it’s very notable: Microsoft announced “lightweight” versions of its Office products that will be free and […]
Tomorrow, Thursday June 18 at 1 PM Eastern, Search Marketing Now hosts a webcast “Choosing a PPC Campaign Management Application: 20 Questions You’ll Need to Ask.” Speaker David Rodnitzky has come up with 20 key questions to help you determine what you need and how to evaluate your options and make an informed decision about […]
Microsoft is launching Vine today as a limited beta in Seattle only. It’s an interesting local/social communications and information tool that plays in the same sandbox as both Twitter and Facebook, and also competes to a degree with online news sites. Vine is Windows-only software that’s intended to sit open on your desktop so that […]
Microsoft said it was closing its adCenter Analytics beta program: Our team would like to sincerely thank you for your participation and your invaluable contributions to the program. Our objectives at the outset were to serve the needs of small and midsize self-service customers, as well as evolve the Microsoft strategy to address the Web […]
Video search and SEO services provider EveryZing has introduced MediaCloud, an online service that automatically generates search-friendly metadata for video, audio and other rich media content. One of the big problems with rich media is that without accompanying metadata that describes the contents, video and audio files are essentially “invisible” to search engines. MediaCloud seeks […]
Earlier today Danny blogged the Google Ocean launch event live. It was the “most produced” and Apple-like of the numerous high profile Google announcements I’ve attended — featuring former Vice President Al Gore, singer Jimmy Buffett and several scientific and oceanographic luminaries such as Dr. Sylvia Earle. The crowd was star struck by Gore and […]
VentureBeat reports Google has launched a reseller program for Google Apps. The program is aimed at developers, hosting companies and others to take on the responsibility of billing, support and training, in exchange for a twenty-percent discount on the services. In short, Google will charge you 20% less of the standard fee and you can […]
How would you like to track hot news geographically? Or see where social conversations are happening on a map? Maybe you’d like to find businesses that are open 24 hours a day, or research keywords on a state-by-state basis. If so, read on for a look at five search tools you may not know about, […]
In The Trenches is a spotlight of tips, tricks, and news about the tools search engine marketing professionals use to give them a leg up on the competition. My SEM Wish List: All I Want For Christmas is the Perfect Search Tool, Continued In my last column, I explained how much I want a new […]
Yahoo has announced several enhancements to their continued open strategy. Some of the updates revolve around Yahoo products including Yahoo Mail, My Yahoo, the Yahoo Toolbar and Yahoo Updates.
In The Trenches is a spotlight of tips, tricks, and news about the tools search engine marketing professionals use to give them a leg up on the competition. Today’s in-depth look: Creating a SEM Super Tool and a contest for search engine marketers: Calling all search geeks: PPC management tool vendor Marin is running an […]
Microsoft has expanded and upgraded the suite of software and online services for consumers collectively known as “Windows Live” — not to be confused with Live Search. There’s a whole boatload of stuff here that spans the desktop, online and mobile. The theme of these tools is integration of all your favorite content in one […]
Many in the search industry expect online advertising to take a smaller hit (if any) from the struggling economy than other types of advertising. But that view isn’t shared by all. According to AdAge today, some analysts think online advertising is as vulnerable as other sectors:
Yahoo has announced that they’ll begin to roll out Yahoo Web Analytics (beta) on a limited basis beginning this week. According to Jitendra Kavathekar, Yahoo’s Web Analytics VP, the service has already been made available to select Yahoo advertisers and third-party application developers. The next “big deployment,” Kavathekar says, will be for Yahoo’s 13,000 e-commerce […]
Last night Google released Google Moderator, a tool to organize “tech talks” or question and answer sessions. It is a free service that Google used internally, but now made public. Matt Cutts said Google calls this application Dory “after the fish who asked questions all the time in Finding Nemo).” To me, this seems like […]
NeeTeeVee reports Google is going to be adding video sharing tools to Google Apps for businesses this coming Monday. Paid users of Google Apps will be allowed to upload videos with no time restrictions but a maximum size per upload of 300 MB, for a total of 3GB per account and unlimited video views.
Sigh. Reading Stephen Ballmer’s latest "rally the troops" memo over yet another Microsoft reorganization, I just want to scream at the man and the company in general that they’ll never win at search if they don’t get it through their heads that it’s not about selling ads, but serving searchers.
Kevin Johnson, who was arguably the primary architect of the now apparently failed Yahoo acquisition, is leaving Microsoft to run Juniper Networks. Simultaneously, the company is reorganizing the division that Johnson ran (“Platform Services”) into two: Windows and Windows Live + Online Services. Here’s the official Microsoft announcement from yesterday. The company announced no immediate […]
The Google Webmaster Central blog announced the launch of the Google Webmaster Tools Access Provider Program. The tool is an extension of the GoDaddy Webmaster Tools plugin, which enables hosting service providers to build tools directly into their hosting consoles for their customers to utilize Google Webmaster Tools. Through the use of Google APIs, these […]
Click Forensics, Yahoo take on click-fraud cases from News.com reports that in part of the Click Forensics & Yahoo partnership, they have teamed up to build a new software tool to detect click fraud, named Factr. Factr, Fully Automated Click Tracking Reconciliation, automatically queries Yahoo’s search ad platform when Click Forensics detects click fraud. The […]
Quick question: how do you think of your landing pages? (a) As part of your site. (b) As part of your ads. When you reflect on it, the answer probably should be a little of both. For most online marketing campaigns, landing pages are transitional — a bridge from the ad to the site, or […]
Kevin Johnson, President of Microsoft’s Platform & Services Division, announced the release of the adCenter Desktop Beta during an SMX Advanced keynote speech today. The software application allows advertisers to create, optimize, and manage online campaigns with Microsoft. Previously advertisers were required to manage their campaigns through a web interface, a relatively less efficient means, […]
We all know Social Media Marketing can be pretty time consuming. There are numerous social media communities, each requiring you to sign up, make a profile, and participate, in order to have any success with them. So it is only natural that you would like to have some helpful tools to short cut the process […]
The final quote in Miguel Helft’s NY Times article on the deepening alliance between Google and CRM software provider Salesforce.com says it all, “The enemy of my enemy is my friend, so that makes Google my best friend.” It’s attributed to Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce.com. Basically, in a deal announced this morning, Salesforce is […]
Speaking at the Goldman Sachs Technology Investment Symposium, Microsoft’s Chief Strategy Officer Craig Mundie made the perhaps technically correct but strange remark that Google’s business was essentially derivative of Microsoft’s success. “If we didn’t succeed at the PC, they wouldn’t have a business,” Mundie is quoted as saying. Yet Microsoft didn’t invent the PC, nor […]
Once upon a time, there was a company called Urchin that made web analytics software. As tends to happen, that company was acquired by Google (in early 2005), the software became Google Analytics, and the price became free. Google Analytics grew in popularity, and many people forgot that the original Urchin product was still around […]
On Thursday, January 17, Christine Churchill, president of KeyRelevance, will discuss “How to Select a Paid Search Management Application.” As paid search continues to be the largest segment of online advertising, it’s also become more complex and competitive—and difficult to manage. If you’re still trying to manage paid search using spreadsheets, you might want to […]
In this corner, with a $214 billion market cap, is Google and “The Cloud” (and partners like IBM). In the other, weighing in at $327 billion, is Microsoft and the PC desktop. This is the theme of a Sunday New York Times piece about the high-stakes future of computing. The article explains that “cloud computing” […]
The Google AdWords Blog announced that the AdWords Template Center for My Client Center (MCC) accounts is now live. We first reported Google testing this feature last month. It should now be live for all MCC AdWords companies.
Microsoft took the beta label off Windows Live Services, a mix of desktop and Web apps that are part of the company’s “software + services” strategy to keep those promoting “cloud computing” at bay (e.g., Google). Reuters and eWeek have rundowns of the global launch, while Digital Inspiration complains about the launch of the Live […]
There are a number of stories this morning recapping aspects of the Google Analyst Day discussions, which were overshadowed to some degree by the Microsoft-Facebook announcement yesterday. While most of it appears to have been a basic overview intended to remind financial analysts and some press about the range of Google’s product offerings and their […]
Microsoft announced the beta launch of Microsoft Office Live Workspace. This is Microsoft’s answer to Google Docs and will be a “web-based feature of Microsoft Office that enables people to access their documents online anywhere and easily share their work with others.” Microsoft is currently accepting beta testers over here and will be launching it […]
PowerPoint haters unite! So, Techcrunch says that The Inquirer says that Google is thiiiiiiiis close to launching Presently, a web-based alternative to PowerPoint. With consulting firm CapGemini now pushing Google Apps hard, can we finally say goodbye to Microsoft’s Office Suite? Some speculate that the app will be unveiled next week at TechCruch 40 (formerly […]
Capgemini Backs Google’s Software Push from the Associated Press covers how Paris-based tech and business consultancy CapGemini is going to start recommending and installing Google Apps on enterprise desktops, a move viewed as a big boost for Google’s “office” application aspirations. CapGemini also works with Microsoft and IBM and “influences the type of software used […]
SEOmoz and SEO Book both announced that they have organized their SEO tools. SEO Book organized his SEO Tools page and SEOmoz organized their SEO Toolbox page. SEOmoz also added an easy to use bookmarklet feature named “SEO Dashboard” for premium members.
Microsoft vows it won’t let its core businesses be undermined by “the cloud.” This article from the NY Times (and related discussion at Techmeme) quotes Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer saying that Microsoft will compete aggressively with Google and other online alternatives to Office and will offer Web-based versions of all its core software: “We’re not […]
Apps vs. Office: Google Ups the Ante from BusinessWeek reports that Google is planning a corporate version of YouTube to host training and employee communications videos. It also looks at Google’s move to generate revenue by offering applications for the corporate market. Garett Rogers of Googling Google picked up on the YouTube aspect and looks […]