DuckDuckGo. the search engine known for protecting the privacy of its users, announced a new “reimagined and redesigned” beta site today. According to the announcement, the new site will deliver smarter answers and have a more refined look. DuckDuckGo has also added new features, including an image search, auto-suggest and places. The new site is […]
Google Head of Search Spam Matt Cutts posted a video today answering how Google goes about evaluating which new search algorithms they use and which they throw away or adapt. The question was posed by James Foster of Sydney, Australia who asked: What are some of the metrics that Google uses to evaluate whether one iteration […]
A month ago, Microsoft started testing a new search feature named Bing Saves. This feature enabled searchers to save URLs and searches to their personal Bing/Microsoft account, in order to build an index of their own saved searches. That feature seems to now be available as public beta for anyone who wants to try it. […]
Taking action after a completing a test in Google AdWords may just have become a whole lot easier. An new “undo” button was spotted last night in the Change History reporting by Heather Cooan, director of client services at Clix Marketing. Here’s a screenshot from Heather’s account after she clicked on the “undo” button next […]
Google has updated the process for setting up AdWords Test Accounts. Test accounts are used by developers to execute AdWords API requests without serving ads or affecting actual account performance. Starting today, instead of having to complete a web form application for account approval, developers can now create an MCC (my client center) test account […]
Bing Ads has made several announcements about upcoming feature updates over the past few weeks (see below in Related Articles), and they’ve made another today. Soon, the Ad Preview Tool will get a new name and added functionality. In its current form, you can use the Ad Preview Tool to validate whether your ads are […]
Google News may soon be getting a nice upgrade on its mobile/iOS/iPad versions. The company is testing a new look and feel that also includes additional functionality not present on the existing mobile/iOS/iPad version of Google News. (Disclaimer: The reason I keep writing “mobile/iOS/iPad” is that we don’t know if this test is limited only […]
Microsoft AdCenter advertisers have longed for some way to verify that their ads were running, and a solution is coming, promises a blog post from Microsoft Advertising. The fix will come in the form of an updated ad preview tool, which will let advertisers see whether their ads are showing generally, or to a targeted […]
Precision evaluations. Side-by-side experiments with human focus groups. Click evaluations. All of it led to more than 500 algorithm changes in 2010. Eric Schmidt is speaking today at a Senate subcommittee hearing in Washington, DC, about Google’s business practices, and answering claims that Google’s business practices are anti-competitive. As part of his appearance, Schmidt (as […]
Some StumbleUpon users have been opted in to a new feature that seems to be aimed at helping them search and find interesting web pages more easily. StumbleUpon calls it their “Explore Box” and, if you’re part of the test, it can be accessed at www.stumbleupon.com/explore. The page, shown above, is currently very Googley with […]
Below is today’s top news relating to Google+, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. Updates For Business Pages Official Google Update For Businesses from Christian Oestilen, ads manager of Google Plus, covers the current state of businesses on Google+. Google is currently selecting their chosen set of businesses for […]
Twitter is working on an analytics tool, but the company tells Search Engine Land that there’s no estimate when it’ll be widely available. Earlier today, Mashable shared a couple screenshots of the tool. A Twitter spokesperson tells us that there’s “a strong corporate demand for better monitoring and analytics tools,” and explained the analytics tool’s […]
Around 6pm tomorrowPacific Time, YouTube will be making YouTube Topic Search available through its TestTube “labs” area. The new feature allows people to easily explore videos by topic. I got a demo of this about three weeks ago, and it’s pretty cool. For example, you can search for videos and then narrow them down into […]
The Google Operating System blog has a picture of a possible maps experiment for testing how users interact with the layers available in Google Maps. The new buttons seem to be cleaner and easier to read and use. Here is a picture of the new test: Here is the existing user interface: As you can […]
The big buzz last night was from Yahoo releasing the Yahoo Mail Beta globally. The new beta vastly improves speed, security, email search while offering a “more social email experience,” said Yahoo. The Yahoo Search Blog briefly explained “you’ll find a faster email search using Yahoo’s wealth of search science and technology.” The new left-hand […]
I reported this morning via a WebmasterWorld thread that Google is testing a new AdWords Preview Tool at this URL. I do not believe Google has announced this new version yet, but from what I can see there are a few minot functional changes. Plus the user interface looks a bit cleaner. Here are before […]
For some searchers, Google seems to be forcing them into 20 or more search results on a page. By default, Google shows searchers 10 results on a page, but even if that searcher specified 10 on a page, some may be seeing twenty or more per page. Andy Beard and myself are in that test […]
Launched last week, Facebook Questions has a great opportunity to become the most popular question-and-answer destination on the web. With a built-in audience of 500 million users worldwide, Facebook could surpass Yahoo Answers and its 200+ million users in relatively quick order. But for all of its interesting features (see my article, Up Close With […]
Google announced a new tool named the AdWords Campaign Experiments tool or ACE. The tool aids advertisers in testing their campaigns. Google said “ACE allows you to perform faster, more accurate tests by executing your experimental campaign alongside your original campaign. By performing this type of simultaneous split test, we can tell you precisely if […]
Microsoft introduced some impressive new features and imagery in Bing Maps at the TED conference yesterday. With its new Silverlight version Bing has advanced online maps to a kind of “next level” (albeit one right now for power users perhaps) that jumps ahead of Google in terms of innovation (i.e., deep zoom, Photosynth integration, video […]
Over at the Search Engine Roundtable I reported that Google said they will be adding a “trustworthy” indicator to the new site performance report in Google Webmaster Tools. The reason behind adding this is because of the complaints and questions coming in from webmasters on the accuracy of such reports. As I explained, a Google […]
Though the level of discourse in YouTube comments will never win awards, Google appears to be quietly testing a comment search feature. You won’t find it anywhere obvious in the YouTube interface — not on a video page, not even in Advanced Search. It’s available at this URL (you can change the query at the […]
uTest released a study they named “Battle of the Search Engines” which measured the relevancy of Google, Yahoo, and Bing based on “search results accuracy, page load speed, real-time relevance and usability.” The report found that there were over 600 “bugs” found in the test. By “bug” I believe they mean links that lead to […]
The Google AdWords Blog announced they are expanding the limited opportunities tab beta to more advertisers in the US, UK and Australia. And in the next “few days,” Google will make this new tab available to all “English-language accounts.” If you see the new tab and are a bit confused about where the tools and […]
Google announced they have removed the beta label from the new AdWords interface. Google has been testing the new interface since November 2008. They continuously expanded the test to more and more advertisers over time and are now confident enough that it works right. Google added that along with removing the beta label, they will […]
Ars Technica reports Microsoft’s new possible search brand, Kumo, is testing features in the public space. The features of Kumo are being seen in Live.com by some users. This can mean that Live Search might remain the brand of Microsoft’s search engine. It can also mean that Microsoft is looking for a way to test […]
Wolfram Alpha, the much anticipated fact engine, is now live. That means, you can go to wolframalpha.com and test it out for yourself. Keep in mind, Wolfram Alpha is not a Google competitor, it is a beast of its own. Do comment and let us know your thoughts. For more about this new search engine, […]
Like many others, I saw the mention that came out on LiveSide earlier today about Microsoft’s new search interface and potential “Kumo” brand change. Now we, along with others, have received an internal memo about the changes along with some further screenshots Before jumping in, let’s talk about the brand change. I’ve lost track of […]
You’re already using your smartphone to search and surf the web. You’re using it to read and write email. You might be using it to tweet, post to your blog, or network on Facebook. If your smartphone is an iPhone, you can also use it to keep an eye on all the sites in your […]
Tim Cohn writes about a new user interface beta that Google is offering to some AdWords advertisers. As you can see from Tim’s screenshot below (which was probably left small to protect personal data), the new interface looks similar to the charting/graphing system that Google Analytics uses: (It also looks somewhat similar to the Yahoo […]
The Google AdWords blog took the proactive approach and blogged about a beta test they are running on a small group of AdWords users. The beta is a new user interface for the AdWords management console.
These days, you can’t go anywhere without hearing about multivariate testing so I thought I’d walk through a landing page test. Along the way, I’ll provide testing pointers and leave you with several testing considerations. I’ll highlight the importance of multivariate testing and show it can yield significant improvements in pay per click (PPC) accounts. […]
I have been tracking a WebmasterWorld thread that has reports of weird Microsoft Live Search referral strings that come from Microsoft-owned IP blocks but show irrelevant keywords in the adult and pharmaceutical space. Today I reported that these findings are indeed valid and are official Microsoft tests. A Microsoft representative explained that these referral strings […]
Tony Ruscoe discovered more signs that the GDrive, a long-rumored storage service from Google, actually exists. After Tony tried messing around with some URL parameters, he stumbled upon a screen that looked like this: Image from Google Blogoscoped
Gary Price reports that Microsoft adCenter Labs has launched a new tool named Ad Text Writer. You basically plug in a URL, Microsoft will read the site and come up with search ads based on the content of the site. So I figured I give it a try.
Gary Price reported that AOL Local Search
StoneTemple Consulting is in the process of conducting a 2007 Web Analytics Shootout where they are comparing five different web analytics packages. The software packages included in the comparison are Clicktracks, Google Analytics, IndexTools, Unica Affinium NetInsight, and WebSideStory HX Analytics. Most people have their own preference, but what I am hoping to see come […]
Brian Smith reports that Windows Live Shopping has been taken offline. The message on the Windows Live Shopping says: This beta test has now ended. Thank you for visiting the Windows Live Shopping beta and helping us test the site. Our vast product selection and user-created content, such as guides and reviews, continues to be […]
Philipp Lenssen reports that Google launched a new blog named the Google Test Blog. The Welcome to the Google Testing Blog by Google Engineer, Allen Hutchison, explains that Google will be sharing their debugging and testing experiences with the public.
In Search of… Better Ways to Search at the Wall Street Journal goes through the different ways search engines like Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and Ask.com use “spin off” sites to test new features. We have reported about all these in the past, but the article offers a nice overview of many of the methods search […]