Ask.com has a long history in TV advertising; some of it has been entertaining and some of it controversial. But the IAC-owned search engine was on a TV hiatus of sorts during the past couple of years. Now, according to AdWeek, the company is running new TV ads in San Francisco and Los Angeles. 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: Search Engines & 9/11: Remembrances Today; Some Thoughts Of Then The major search engines are all memorializing the 10th anniversary of 9/11 on their home pages today. Below, a recap, some […]
After more than a year in beta, Ask.com today opened the doors on its community-based question-and-answer product. It positions Ask as much less search-oriented, and much more Q&A based — not unlike its original incarnation in the 1990s. The Q&A site had been available in beta to a limited number of users since last July […]
Businesses are growing more aware of the need to understand and implement at least the basics of search engine optimization (SEO). But if you read a variety of blogs and websites, you’ll quickly see that there’s a lot of uncertainty over what makes up “the basics.” Without access to high-level consulting and without a lot […]
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 Tweaks Interface For “Keyword Ideas” In AdWords Keyword Tool Google has changed the way it’s displaying “Keyword Ideas” in its AdWords Keyword Tool, breaking them into a separate tab so […]
Demand Media sites have suffered an estimated loss of about 40% of overall Google traffic since the Panda/Farmer update took effect. That’s according to new Experian Hitwise statistics measuring outbound traffic from Google to other sites, and reported today by Forbes. The Hitwise numbers suggest that about 0.57% of all outbound Google traffic went to […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: The Yahoo Search Direct Alphabet: Where Every Letter Starts With Yahoo And you thought Google favored its own properties? Check this out: In Yahoo’s new Search Direct feature, 21 of the […]
And you thought Google favored its own properties? Check this out: In Yahoo’s new Search Direct feature, 21 of the 26 one-letter alphabet queries show a Yahoo property as the first “answer.” If you type the letter “A,” for example, Yahoo Answers is the featured result; type “B,” and Yahoo Bookmarks is the first answer, […]
It has been a little over two weeks since “hell broke loose” with Google’s Farmer/Panda algorithm update. Some sites that had been relying heavily on organic traffic saw that traffic plummet, while others gained. The changes impacted roughly 12 percent of US search results according to Google. The Online Publishers Association estimated that the changes […]
Ah, another SEO is dead post from a non-SEO to get the blood rushing on an otherwise calm weekend. I’ve been ignoring these more and more lately, but in the wake of Google’s Farmer Update, it looks like everyone could use some history lessons. Don’t depend solely on SEO, but don’t neglect it, either.
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Ask Launches Local Conversations iPhone App Ask.com noticed some interesting behavior happening on its Q&A iPhone application. People were trying to have “conversations” in the comments area of the app, according […]
As search industry analysts continue to review the fallout from last week’s Google Farmer update, we’re getting new snapshots of what sites were hurt and which ones have survived the crosshairs of Google’s latest algorithm change. One such analysis from SearchMetrics confirms much of what’s already been reported, but also adds several new names to […]
On Thursday, Google announced a major change to its search algorithm, designed to weed out shallow and low-quality content from its top search results. Content farms were seen by many as the target. Were they hit? Who was hit? Some figures are coming out.
No stranger to controversy, Mahalo CEO Jason Calacanis threw down a gauntlet at his “content farm” competitors, arguing they’re polluting the web and angering Google, to the detriment of searchers and their own companies.
Every content-driven SEO strategy targets a tiny sliver of a giant Venn Diagram, with content that is either a) valuable enough that someone out there will search for it, and b) unique enough that it can rank. There’s one company that has turned that from a guideline to a credo: Demand Media. Demand Media’s financials may be […]
An Ask.com survey, conducted by Harris Interactive (n=1,538 US mobile phone users), finds that user expectations on mobile devices (especially in a local context) are different vs. the PC. The study is intended in part of promote Ask’s Q&A mobile app. But the data also reflect and confirm interesting differences between mobile and PC user […]
This simple guide will break down the different objects on Facebook and a high level overview on how they can (or cannot) be used for marketing. Features tips on hoow to use Profiles, Fan Pages, Groups, Events, Place Pages & more for marketing your business, organization or events.
ChaCha has announced that its Q&A engine has reached several milestones — the most notable perhaps being that the Q&A engine answered its billionth question. The question, which I believe can be seen here, was asked on Saturday by a 14-year-old Minnesota boy, and answered by Kenny and Spencer, two ChaCha guides: Q: How do […]
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 Image Search Now With Leaderboard Ads The Google AdWords Blog announced a new ad format available on the image search vertical. The new ad format is the old-style leaderboard display […]
Google Blogoscoped pointed our attention to Google’s Baraza, a Yahoo-Answers-like Q&A site for Africa. The expressed rationale behind Baraza is that it will help generate “local content” across the continent. There’s a relatively elaborate point system (a “currency”) used to pay for answers and as a reward for participation otherwise. Because it’s globally available 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: Bing Says Its New Facebook Like Integration Really, Really Is Live The Bing Search Blog officially announced that the Facebook integration on Bing is live. Last week, we reported some were […]
What’s immediately clear from conducting a lot of searches on both Blekko and Google in a concentrated period of time is that the upstart has built a credible search engine that people can use today with a good success. (For a general overview see Blekko, The “Slashtag” Search Engine, Goes Live.) However in a head-to-head […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Canada’s Yellow Pages Group Acquires Enquiro Canada’s Yellow Pages Group has acquired the well-known search marketing agency Enquiro and folded it into a new entity known as Mediative. As explained 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 Appoints Privacy Director & Adds New Privacy Measures Google has announced they have increased their privacy controls within Google to better secure user privacy. Google has done this in response […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Why Google Can’t Count Results Properly It’s a long-standing complaint of mine with Google. You can do a search, then repeat the same search and “subtract” a word from your original […]
ChaCha, which was one of the early Q&A or social search sites, is something of a survivor. It started out in late 2006 audaciously challenging Google with chat-based human-powered search and then reinvented itself in 2008 as a mobile site, with voice and SMS search. Repeatedly dismissed and even ridiculed it has defied critics and […]
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 Make Paid Social Media Ads Effective And Engaging While advertising on social media makes sense for advertisers, the owners of ‘free’ sites like Twitter and Facebook still need to […]
The days of search engines merely being a middle man are over. Search isn’t about sending users to the right web page, it’s about getting them the information they want as soon as possible — sometimes it’s a web page, but it might also be a sports score, movie showtimes, election information, or some other […]
“We celebrate our failures,” Google CEO Eric Schmidt said yesterday when speaking at the Techonomy confernce, in response to the surprise closure of his company’s Google Wave product. When it comes to failures, Google’s celebrating more than you might realize.
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: The Twitter Celebrities We Seek The Most, According To Google There are plenty of celebrities on Twitter, and it easy to find lists of those who are most popular according to […]
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 […]
That’s one of the big questions people are asking after yesterday’s launch of Facebook Questions. While many have assumed the answer would be “yes,” a Facebook spokesperson tells us that assumption is wrong. Currently, search engines cannot access questions and answers through our Questions product. That may be something we consider for the future but […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Street Slide: Microsoft’s Next Killer Maps App? At the SIGGRAPH 2010 event this week in Los Angeles, Microsoft researchers showed off a next-generation tool for browsing street-level imagery. It’s called Street […]
At one time, IAC’s CEO Barry Diller thought his Ask.com search engine could take on Google. But Diller effectively threw in the towel yesterday on an investors call. Diller downplayed Ask.com’s role in the over IAC company but said he ultimately failed at thinking Ask.com can compete with Google. Diller said: But one thing I […]
Facebook Questions is the latest in a long line of question-and-answer services online but, as Danny Sullivan mentioned in his news article earlier, it’s the only one with a community of 500 million users behind it. For comparison’s sake, Yahoo Answers, the recognized leader in the Q&A space, announced in late 2009 that it had […]
Long expected, Facebook’s new Facebook Questions service is now being offered. It allows Facebook users to specifically ask question to and get answers from others in Facebook’s now 500 million strong community. The service just went live at 1pm Pacific Time today, and we’re working on a detailed look at all the features (this is […]
As Matt posted earlier this evening Ask is in beta on a new approach to search, or perhaps more accurately: a return to an earlier approach but with greater experience and sophistication. The IAC-owned company is returning, conceptually, to its origins as a question & answer engine, when human editors were involved. This has been […]
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 Buys Metaweb To Bolster Answers, Google Squared & Rich Snippets Google announced they have acquired Metaweb. Metaweb is a search company that figures out entities and not just words. I […]
Yahoo Answers, the number one Answers/Q&A search engine on the web, has announced a series of improvements to the search experience on the site. The new search options are a welcome addition to what was long one of the site’s Achilles heels. Here’s an overview of some the new tools: Search results can now be […]
Ask.com was arguably the original Q&A engine. Now the site is seeking to introduce a new product, which leverages both its search assets and the community. We were approached but we’ve yet to formally speak to someone from IAC about the forthcoming launch. However, Silicon Alley Insider today exposes the PR email outlining the plan: […]