AOL’s MapQuest remains the top brand in online mapping and is still the most visited mapping site, despite recent gains by Google Maps. However, as the “incumbent” MapQuest has been somewhat resistant to experimentation and slower to adopt new features. But this morning the site is launching what promises to be the first of many […]
Aaron Wall noticed Google is testing a new location for “related” search results. This time, the location appears to be directly under each individual search result’s URL. Here is a screen shot of it in action, from Aaron’s blog:
Microsoft just announced the official U.S. launch of their new home page. The home page was seen in test mode a few months back, but now it is officially live. The home page contains a background image which contains “hotspots” used to show off some of the search queries available at Live Search. The home […]
Google Maps (Earth) is far and away the company’s most successful product after search. It is now the second most popular mapping service online (Mapquest still leads) and the most popular mobile mapping tool (Mapquest Mobile is second), according to comScore. Every few months, it seems, Google “tweaks” the service, adding new features here and […]
About two years ago, I wrote an article called Why Search Sucks & You Won’t Fix It The Way You Think. In it, I explained various ways people have tried to make search "visual" and why those have largely failed. That’s mainly because "list view" or "10 blue links" still works for lots of search […]
A few years ago, I wrote a three-part article series about the different levels of SEO skills: beginner, intermediate, and advanced. I placed copywriters at the beginner level, information architects and interface designers at the intermediate level, and web developers and programmers at the advanced level. At the time, I was pretty confident at the […]
Google Maps recently introduced a new user interface for the Local Business Center. There were some issues with the upgrade and Carter Maslan, Google’s Director of Product Management for Local, agreed to answer some of my questions about the process in a phone conversation. Below, selected excerpts from our conversation:
The Google Local Business Center is undergoing a redesign from within, as Mike Blumenthal reports. The main differences that I see are on the add and edit listing screens. The add listing screen seems to have consolidated much of the information retrieval process onto fewer screens. You can see a previous write up to see […]
The LiveSide Blog reports that Live Search is testing out a new feature that allows users to customize the skin or background of the Live.com home page. The LiveSide Blog has a screen capture of one of the skins, a couple in a lake. If you look at the right-bottom corner of the page, you […]
Sick of sites that force you to sit through a Flash splash screen? Now Google’s offering a “Skip Intro” link to save you that annoyance. Plus, Google’s also offering to translate your queries into other languages. More on both, below.
We’re all guinea pigs in Google’s search experiment from News.com covers Google’s Marissa Mayer presentation at the Google I/O conference. In her speech, she discusses the various tests they perform to increase searcher activity and responsiveness. Here is a bullet list of what I found to be the most interesting insights from that presentation:
The Yahoo Search Marketing blog announced that they have released several minor updates to make the use of the search ad console easier for advertisers to work with. Here is a list of changes and enhancements made to the system:
iCrossing reported noticing that Google is showing a green user interface within the Google Directory search results and also, in some occasions, for main Google web search results. The most shocking green interface is when you look and compare the typical blue bar to a green bar when Google is showing yellow ads. Here are […]
The image above shows how Google seems to be testing placing product images in lieu of the Google Product shopping bag on the web search results. It seems like Google is showing the first product result’s image in that location. For example, the jordan almonds search returns the image from the first result in Google […]
The Get Elastic Blog noticed Google testing displaying the AdWords URLs above the ad description. Typically, the AdWords URLs are displayed below the ad description. Here is a compare and contrast picture:
Danny has written extensively about the past and potential future of search. And this past year we saw the introduction of “blended” or “universal” search. Among other developments, search results became much more “multi-media” and visual. In particular, video became part of organic and, most recently, paid search results. Accordingly, I believe that the future […]
Google Blogoscoped reports that Google is testing the placement of one box results within the middle of the search results. We have seen Google test “search refinements” within the middle of the search results, but never really one box results, at least not in this separated form. Here is a screen shot, courtesy of Google […]
Google Operating System noticed that Google will increase the width of the search box if your query is long enough to warrant a wider search box. Note that Google does not expand the search box as you type. It only happens after you search. I measured Google’s search box on my Safari browser at the […]
The Google News Blog announced that they have made two changes to the commenting feature, in order to make it more visible to their users.
Spotted over the weekend by Garrett Rogers, Google has quietly introduced a new, experimental mobile interface called “LCB” that emphasizes browsing instead of search. Something of a radical approach for Google, which is synonymous with search, the site allows users to get to results in top “local search” categories such as restaurants, travel, transportation, retail, […]
It’s just over a half-year since Google launched Universal Search, its method of blending results from its own various topically-focused or “vertical” search engines. Since that time, the system has evolved. In particular, Google Universal Search now fills more than just 10 spots on the page, while shopping and blog search results are among new […]
For ages — through OneBox results and its successor of Universal Search — Google Local results have sometimes shown on regular Google search pages, with three local listings and a prompt for more results. Except now that seems to be changing, with 10 results showing. Last week Paul Jahn at Search Engine Guide discovered that […]
Ask 3D was the name Ask gave to the “three pane” user interface rolled out earlier this year. Now Google seems to be copying Ask, at least to the second degree, with the right-most column being used to show vertical results similar to how Ask does it. Google Blogoscoped and Valleywag both have pictures of […]
I got a tip from Scott Edwards that Google has quietly improved the “target customers by location” feature in the AdWords console. You can see old screen captures of the multi-step process at the Search Engine Roundtable, but the new method is much more intuitive. You are given four tabs that include “Search,” “Browse,” “Bundles,” […]
For the past few years, I have been silently listening to and observing other search engine optimization (SEO) professionals speak and write about the topic of search-engine friendly web site design. I’m the one in the back with the black wig, sunglasses, mustache, and trench coat. All joking aside, I am genuinely interested in how […]
If you load up
Google Blogoscoped reports that Google has dropped the “video” link within the main top navigation at Google and replaced it with a “products” link. You can now find the “video” link by clicking on the “more” link, which will expand and show the video option at the far bottom of that drop down.
The Google Base Blog has announced that they have cleaned up and streamlined the Google Base Bulk Upload Dashboard. Google said the new dashboard provides “a better overview of the status of your bulk uploads and your items.”
Trying to figure out the impact of last week’s oil spill in San Francisco Bay, which happened after the container ship Cosco Busan hit the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge? There are maps to the rescue! Links to them below, along with some observations on the difficulty in finding community-built maps like these in Google Maps. […]
Next week, Microsoft takes a page from the Google Searchology Day book and is planning a special day of its own to talk about its search efforts. Called Searchification, Microsoft has invited a number of bloggers and journalists for the event next week, on September 26. But Microsoft apparently can’t wait to release some things, […]
Google’s Universal Search was definitely a buzz generator at Search Engine Strategies in San Jose. Universal was tagged as probably the most significant development in search this year, and its effects are just starting to be felt throughout the industry, by both searchers and search marketers alike. It’s particularly timely that this week’s guest columnist […]
The LocallyType blog noticed that Yahoo has updated their Yahoo UK home page. The new design has more clean space around the search box. The Yahoo content and services don’t truly begin until after the search box is displayed. I am told that the Yahoo UK home page looked more like the current Yahoo US […]
Part one of this article is here. “Big money goes around the world” – Rush When we left off, I had shared the results of a first test for the home page of a small business ecommerce site. My colleagues and I went through a systematic process to work with the business owners (like us, […]
Yahoo has been building out much richer Shortcuts, rolling out new ones almost daily. Here are recent additions, sports and music, for example. Yahoo has also done this for some time with restaurant reviews (e.g., “Sushi, San Francisco“) and more recently travel (e.g., “London“). Locallytype noticed that some hotel searches are now starting to show […]
If I ever had to build a search engine, or more precisely, the interface of a search engine, this would be the team I would want to bring together. When I came up with the idea of looking forward three years and speculating on what the search results page may look like in 2010, these […]
I chuckled a bit over the buzz Yahoo got when they launched Yahoo Search Suggest earlier this month because I knew something even better was coming: Yahoo Search Assist. Finally, it’s going live and in the wild for lucky people who are selected at random for testing. If all goes well, eventually everyone will get […]
As part of adding our new "Lands" tabs to Search Engine Land last month, I cleaned up our feed page that helps people understand how to add our feeds to various feed readers. The biggest challenge was dealing with the inconsistent sizes of feed buttons from the different providers. I wanted to share how we […]
Ask.com Takes Lead In Designing Display Of Search Results by Walter Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal reviews Ask.com’s new 3D look. Mossberg gave Ask.com great reviews, comparing Ask.com’s three-pane approach to Google’s Universal Search approach. Mossberg said Ask.com “took greater strides” than Google with their user interface. The new Ask.com user interface makes for […]
The Inside AdSense Blog announced that they have added corner styles as a method of customizing your AdSense ads. Corner styles currently come in three styles, the default square, slightly rounded, and rounded corners. Here are images of all three:
Keep the needs of consumers at the forefront. In my last couple “Locals Only” columns, I’ve mentioned the importance of this in passing, and this month I’m dedicating this space to expanding on this notion and offering specific tips. Much of what is said and written about the emergence and growth of local search focuses […]