This day in search marketing history: March 16
Google to sunset Universal Analytics, plus: Google's doorway page penalty, over-optimization, Chrome’s paid link penalty ends and more.
Topic: Steve Ballmer
This day in search marketing history: March 2
Happy 28th birthday, Yahoo!, plus: Semrush plans IPO, click to call ads, Google's About 260 problem, Steve Ballmer yelling at SMX and more.
This day in search marketing history: February 8
Google Chrome's 'not secure' warning, plus: Search Ads 360, Google News and Discover penalties, content farms and more.
This day in search marketing history: January 28
Featured snippets introduced, plus: Hamlet Batista passes away, Google buys DeepMind, Google ad labeling and more.
This day in search marketing history: January 25
Google defuses miserable failure, plus: Topics API replaces FloC, value-based bidding, average search ranking position and more.
This day in search marketing history: January 22
Google deduplicates featured snippets, plus: Facebook and Twitter signals, blacklisting domains, Wikipedia nofollows links and more.
This day in search marketing history: January 17
The Google Speed Update, plus: links important for ranking, cross-device conversions, SOPA, Google Alerts and more.
This day in search marketing history: January 9
AdWords Managed Accounts got shared negative lists, plus: a Google knowledge graph hack, Google’s advertiser growth and more.
This day in search marketing history: January 7
The Spam Clock targets Google spam, plus: link removal request figures, loads of new tools and features, major search deals and more.
This day in search marketing history: January 5
Google AdWords introduces click-to-call ads, plus: IndexNow WordPress plugin, AdWords 2x budget change, search being solved and more.
Goodbye Search Engine Land, SMX and Third Door Media
After more than two decades of writing about search and online marketing, as well as speaking at and organizing dozens of conferences, it's time to hang up my e-spurs and move on to other adventures.
Bing turns 10: Why it’s been more disruptive than you think
A look back, and ahead, at Microsoft's search business.
Microsoft Pulls Funding For Anti-Google Lobbying Group FairSearch
According to a report in Re/Code appearing last week, Microsoft has pulled financial support from FairSearch, an anti-Google “watchdog” or lobbying group that has been at the forefront of advancing European antitrust moves against the company. We sought comment from Microsoft when the report appeared, but the company declined to respond. The FairSearch site lists […]
Nadella Would Bring Search Cred To Microsoft CEO Role
Based on several reports is appears very likely that Microsoft will announce that Satya Nadella will be the next CEO. He brings an engineering background to the C suite. He’s also a B-school grad. For the past three years Nadella has run Microsoft’s Server & Tools business. Before that he was in charge of Bing and online advertising. […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, November 20, 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’s Matt Cutts: Feel Free To Use The Disavow Tool Even Without A Manual Action In a new video answer today from Google’s head of search spam, Matt Cutts, he says […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, November 19, 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: Twitter Improves Search On Mobile Apps By Adding Toggles & Photo Filters Twitter announced they have improved the search capabilities on the iOS and Android mobile apps. Twitter added: A toggle […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, November 4, 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 AdWords Yellow “Ad” Icon Spotted On Desktop SERPs In UK The bold yellow “Ad” icon that started showing up in Google search results on smartphones in September, now appear to […]
Bing Ads Executives Share Plans To Make Bing A Better Ad Platform
Earlier this year, there were questions about where Bing would stand after CEO Steve Ballmer unveiled Microsoft’s reorganization plan in July. It turns out the move has been a good one for the search engine. Microsoft chose to give Bing an enterprise-wide embrace. The company is now integrating search into nearly every Microsoft device including […]
Google, Android Makers Sued By Apple “Rockstar” Consortium Over Search, AdWords
Roughly two years ago Google and a consortium of companies competitively bid for the vast patent portfolio of bankrupt Canadian Company Nortel Networks. Google initiated the bidding with $900 million but ultimately was outbid by the Rockstar consortium, consisting of Microsoft, Apple, Blackberry, Ericsson and Sony. Google’s final bid was $4.4 billion. Rockstar won the patents for […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, October 23, 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: Yahoo-Microsoft Search Tensions On Public Display In Court Ruling Microsoft has essentially had to sue Yahoo to get the company to fully comply with the terms of their 2010 “Search Alliance” […]
Yahoo-Microsoft Search Tensions On Public Display In Court Ruling
Microsoft has essentially had to sue Yahoo to get the company to fully comply with the terms of their 2010 “Search Alliance” agreement. Yahoo under Marissa Mayer had sought to delay rollouts of Bing search results in Taiwan and Hong Kong, awaiting a new Microsoft CEO. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer resigned ahead of schedule under […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, September 23, 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: Bing Ads Gets Extended Validation SSL Ceritificates & Two-Step Verification Process Bing Ads announced today that it has tightened account security measures by adopting extended validation SSL certificates for its website, […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, September 20, 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: When It Comes To Google, Microsoft’s Ballmer Is Still Fighting Old Battles With Old Tactics I’ve watched Microsoft fight Google in search for a very long time. Bing has come a […]
When It Comes To Google, Microsoft’s Ballmer Is Still Fighting Old Battles With Old Tactics
I’ve watched Microsoft fight Google in search for a very long time. Bing has come a long way, and I’ve been pleased to see a strong competitor emerge. But Microsoft hasn’t actually hurt Google’s share. It’s only robbed from its partner, Yahoo. So how’s Microsoft going to beat Google? Comments from departing CEO Steve Ballmer […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, August 23, 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: Bing Says Goodbye to Bing Shopping, Hello Product Search With Rich Captions & Product Ads Today, Bing announced that Bing Shopping is being replaced by Product Search, which simply integrates product […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, October 30, 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: Yelp Adds Restaurant Menus (And Images) Following on the heels of Foursquare, YP and a few others in the local segment Yelp is adding restaurant menu information and pricing. With the […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, October 10, 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: Tracking Changes To Google’s 50 Webmaster Guidelines Pages Shaun Anderson created a tool to keep track of changes made to 50 of the top Google webmaster guidelines. The tool shows you […]
Microsoft Hires Hillary Clinton’s Former Campaign Chief Mark Penn For Bing Strategy Role
By all accounts Microsoft is struggling. It’s true that Bing is growing, but only slightly, while partner Yahoo continues to lose search share (to Bing) keeping the “Search Alliance” in the doldrums. Microsoft also recently took $6+ billion write-down on its 2007 aQuantive acquisition, resulting in a loss for its most recent fiscal quarter. Its […]
Report: Microsoft Did Shop Bing To Facebook
You know that rumor about Microsoft shopping Bing to Facebook? It sparked lots of speculation about whether that would be a good move for both companies. Turns out it did happen, according to a report in the New York Times citing executives who made overtures to Facebook on behalf of Microsoft — but without the […]
“Grand Theft” Android: Jobs Bio Reveals Intense Anger At Google, But Didn’t Block Search Deals
We already knew that Steve Jobs felt betrayed by Google’s launch of Android but wow, was he really mad. But oddly, despite vowing nuclear war against Google, as his forthcoming bio reveals, he kept Google as the search default in Apple products. The AP obtained a copy of the authorized Jobs bio that comes out […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, October 19, 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: Taking a Closer Look at the Google’s Panda 2.5 “Flux” On around September 27th, Google launched what’s being called 2.5 of its Panda algorithm. On October 5th, Google’s Matt Cutts tweeted: […]
Having Won The Land War, Google Is Now After “Hearts And Minds” With Ice Cream Sandwich
With a wide array of new features and upgrades, Android 4.0 (“Ice Cream Sandwich”) launched last night in Hong Kong. The new version of the operating system unites Android for tablets and smartphones, though there are not yet any Ice Cream tablets. Honeycomb, which proved to be tablet-only, was largely a failure. (Android boss Andy Rubin says […]
Ballmer: 70% Of The Time, Google & Bing Are The Same, So Try Bing!
It’s perhaps one of the strangest product pitches I’ve heard. Asked on stage at Web 2.0 Summit by John Battelle about his Bing search engine, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer encouraged the audience to try Bing because, well, it’s pretty much the same as Google. The Ballmer 70/15/15 Challenge “I would issue you all a kind […]
Apple’s Steve Jobs Has Died
Apple cofounder, chairman and former CEO Steve Jobs has died today at age 56. Apple’s board issued the following statement about his death: We are deeply saddened to announce that Steve Jobs passed away today. Steve’s brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives. The […]
Zuckerberg Passes Brin & Page On Forbes’ Rich List
Scoreboard: Facebook guy – 1, Google guys – 0. Or, more accurately: Facebook guy – $17.5 billion, Google guys – $16.7 billion (each). Those are the estimated net worths of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, as reported in the latest edition of the Forbes 400 Rich List — […]
Google Lashes Out Against Apple, Microsoft Patent “Conspiracy”
Google’s Chief Legal Officer David Drummond has lashed out at rivals Apple, Microsoft, Oracle and unnamed others for waging what he says is “a hostile, organized campaign against Android,” using “bogus patents.” Drummond asserts that Google’s rivals have joined together in an “anti-competitive” cabal of sorts that uses patent law almost as a pretext to […]
This Is Facebook’s “Awesome” News: Group Chat & 1-to-1 Video Calling
Today, Facebook has promised us something “awesome.” The press has assembled. I’m here with them, and the live blogging will soon pour forth from my finger tips! The event is supposed to start at 10am Pacific, but I think it will be a bit late. When it starts, you can tune-in through the live stream […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, June 16, 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: Google Expands Use & Display Of Related Searches Google has announced an interesting expansion of its related search capabilities. The updates to Google’s search results will show up in a number […]
Bing Maps To Be Powered (Replaced) By Nokia?
I had a chance lunch with a person with close connections to Nokia about a week ago. Naturally we began talking about the outlook for the Microsoft-Nokia Windows Phone deal. He was hopeful but mindful of the risks for both companies. Our conversation eventually turned to a discussion of Nokia’s mapping division Navteq and what […]
Microsoft Buys Skype For $8.5 Billion, Now What?
Over the past week there were rumors that Google and Facebook were both interested in buying Skype. Then Om Malik reported that Microsoft was really the one interested and the Wall Street Journal confirmed yesterday that Microsoft would be paying a remarkable $8.5 billion for the company, making it Microsoft’s largest acquisition to date: At […]