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April 15, 2007 - April 21, 2007


Search Headlines & Links: Apr. 20, 2007

Want a snapshot of the day's search marketing news? Here we've collected today's top news stories posted to the Search Engine Watch Blog, along with search-related headlines from around the Web:

From the SEW Blog:

Headlines & News from Elsewhere:

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on April 20, 2007, 11:59 PM | Permalink


Google's Long March Towards Taking Over the Advertising Universe

Kevin Newcomb reported earlier on Google's earnings announcement, adding to the never ending string of news from the Googleverse - most recently including the massive DoubleClick acquisition, and the Clear Channel radio ad distribution deal.

It's interesting to note how Google continues to invest in extending its advertising reach to include more formats and mediums. It clearly wants to become a one stop shop for advertisers of all sizes and in all mediums.

The vast majority of its revenues still come from search and the company has received some scrutiny for its forays into these other media, as Kevin Newcomb pointed out (not to mention the antitrust scrutiny it is starting to face for its level of control in the advertising world).

Another way to look at this is a diversification move. Google's bread and butter paid search market is maturing. And like any maturing industry where overall revenue growth begins to slow, it increasingly becomes a zero sum game where growth must come from shifting market share amongst competitors. This effect is compounded in the SEM world by competition from the newly launched and quickly developing Microsoft AdCenter and Yahoo! Panama.

Add to this, rising SEM prices across the industry that will arguably drive many advertisers away from PPC, and towards investment SEO and organic traffic generation. Citysearch's acquisition of InsiderPages is an example of this trend, and data from The Kelsey Group's annual forecast further support it.

So diversification is arguably necessary for Google to appeal to new segments of advertisers and maintain double-digit revenue growth to, in turn, maintain and justify its stratospheric valuation. The display ad capability brought by DoubleClick will allow it to reach this end and, interestingly, enter Yahoo!'s territory (a possible countershot for Panama entering the SEM arena). Beyond diversification, capability across all ad formats and mediums will create synergies, cross selling opportunities and economies of scale.

There is currently no end in sight for Google's continued moves into various ad formats, across various media. CEO (and now chairman) Eric Schmidt confirmed this in the earnings announcement reported by ClickZ's Kate Kaye today;

"Our core business is driving our success," said Schmidt. The prowess of its search ad business, he added, "continues to let us take calculated risks in new markets...and extend our business to new platforms and formats."

A deeper look at these moves is in the works for a possible SearchDay article next week. Stay tuned.

Posted by Mike Boland on April 20, 2007, 1:52 PM | Permalink


Google ranks The Colbert Nation #1 for "giant brass balls"

Stephen Colbert's viewers, who have already been banned by Wikipedia, have now mastered the art of googlebombing. If you conduct a search on Google for giant brass balls, The Colbert Nation ranks #1. If you search for the greatest living American, ColbertNation.com ranks #1. And if you search for truthiness, Wikiality, the Truthiness Encyclopedia ranks #5.

How did this happen?

It all started at Search Engine Strategies last week, when Jonah Stein of The Alchemy of Search attended a taping of The Colbert Report hosted by Stephen Colbert. "During the Q&A period before the show, Stephen said he would like to rank first on Google for Giant Brass Ball, Stein said on Monday of this week. He added, "A quick check on Google shows he doesn't even rank for Truthiness, a word he invented. So, Colbert Nation, we are not -ahem- suggesting a Google Bombing campaign… but isn't it time to start linking to the Greatest Living American?"

That prompted my post, Is Stephen Colbert the Greatest Living American? A day later, Rand Fishkin of SEOmoz posted an item entitled, Help Make Stephen Colbert the "Greatest Living American". His post was dugg by the Digg community, who gave it 217 diggs as of this afternoon.

On Wednesday, April 18, Frank Watson of the Search Engine Watch Blog, Andy Beal of Marketing Pilgrim, Todd Malicoat of Stuntdubl, and other bloggers started covering the story.

The "smart googlebombing campaign" then generated a counter-revolution by Brandon Wirtz of XYHD.tv, who claimed that he was "the Greatest Living American.” The Wirtz effort won the backing of Jake Ludington's Digital Lifestyle.

Meanwhile, over at the No Fact Zone.Net, DB reported, "THE BLOGOSPHERE ERUPTS! - Googlebombing campaign for “Greatest Living American” (and “Giant Brass Balls”)."

On Thursday, April 19, CNET News.com's Caroline McCarthy reported in her news blog, "Stephen Colbert finally drops a Google bomb."

By this afternoon, The Colbert Nation had won (two out of three). So, let's hope that this little blogstorm has run its course. The folks over at Comedy Central should follow former Senator George Aiken's advice during the Vietnam War. "Declare victory and bring the boys home."

Posted by Greg Jarboe on April 20, 2007, 1:51 PM | Permalink


In House Issues: When You Can't Afford an SEO Rockstar

This was a hot topic of conversation at last week's SES - companies are having extreme difficulties finding an hiring qualified SEO talent, and paying higher premiums for an experienced SEO is intimidating to many businesses.

Our resident in-house expert, Jessica Bowman, offers tips on how to go about hiring the right SEO people for your organization in her latest column: You Can't Afford Michael Jordan, But You Can Get a Strong SEO Leader.

Posted by Elisabeth Osmeloski on April 20, 2007, 1:22 PM | Permalink


Video Interview with Avinash Kaushik of Google Analytics

Sage Lewis of SageRock has posted a video interview with Avinash Kaushik of Google Analytics, as part of a series of interviews he did at SES New York. You can see it here:

Sage Lewis also does daily how-to web marketing video that is geared toward the traditional marketer that is doing web marketing.

Sage will be speaking on measuring social media marketing at our upcoming SEW Live! in Columbus, Ohio on May 9th.

Posted by Elisabeth Osmeloski on April 20, 2007, 1:01 PM | Permalink


Where Content's Not Free

In a world where content's not free, there are many professional publishers who meet niche needs. These publishers create private network effects and make enough money to continue serving their online markets for years.

While falling below the radar for consumers, publishers like Thomson and Reed are well known by business readers. Many niches they serve might not be large enough to ever switch from paid to ad-based models.

At this week's SIIA meeting, the publishers were discussing all kinds of interactive capabilities like mashups. Why now? Because they want current subscribers to use their proprietary data in the best ways possible. They also want to find new subscribers as well.

Generally, publishers are still focused on driving demand to their own destinations. During the discussions, some admitted that their small footprints won't ever draw a meaningful crowd.

While nothing new for SEW readers, the publishers were learning how to participate in aggregated sites and get more authoritative rankings. They heard examples about licensing content -- and that it's okay for your destination to show up among external sites in GYMA search results.

At least the traditional publishers are upgrading their online experiences. They know that more interactive elements will help create loyalty. And they know it's a traffic game, even when ultimately selling online subscriptions.

Posted by on April 20, 2007, 4:58 AM | Permalink


Addressing the Rights Holders

At the recent SIIA (Software & Information Industry Association) conference, many traditional publishers heard Yahoo! appeal directly to their interests. Yahoo's Scott Moore explained that more than 80-90% of their content comes from licensing. He touted visitor access to great branded content, and the benefits for publishers.

While Moore was aiming to please, there's no mistaking that Yahoo competes with publishers. Yahoo's top priority is to improve site engagement, by encouraging visitors to stick around before heading to publisher sites and resources. Yahoo can draw on some of its own editorial and user-generated functionality too.

By contrast, these SIIA publishers are off-line powerhouses who often struggle to attract their own site visitors. They have cut licensing deals with Yahoo (and others) to expose their content elsewhere, via these portals.

Yahoo's success with social tools creates a wider gap that's not going to close soon. John Blossom stated this best: “The ability to aggregate both content and communities gives [Yahoo] a powerful edge over most traditional media brands.”

Since Yahoo! has long-standing deals with many SIIA-member companies, Moore seemed to know a lot of people he addressed. Thus I'm not sure why he spent time touting Yahoo's content and capabilities, in a way that was making publishers green with envy. Is this how you treat your friends?

Posted by on April 20, 2007, 3:24 AM | Permalink


Search Headlines & Links: Apr. 19, 2007

Want a snapshot of the day's search marketing news? Here we've collected today's top news stories posted to the Search Engine Watch Blog, along with search-related headlines from around the Web:

From the SEW Blog:

  • Google Income, Profits Up
    Google reported its first-quarter financial results today, with profits up 69 percent to $1 billion, or $3.18 a share, on revenues of $3.66 billion, up 63 percent year-to-year.
  • Google Adds Link Tools, Renames Froogle
    Google made separate announcements today upgrading its recently released anchor text reporting tools, and renaming Froogle to Google Product Search.
  • MySpace to take on Google News and Digg
    MySpace is going into the news search business with a new service that will scour the internet for stories and let users vote on which ones receive the most exposure.
  • Blogging to Gain Back Links
    Beginning a blog as a way to attract links and new traffic is hard work, but your site can reap huge rewards from the effort.

Headlines & News from Elsewhere:

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on April 19, 2007, 11:39 PM | Permalink


Google Income, Profits Up

Google reported its first-quarter financial results today, with profits up 69 percent to $1 billion, or $3.18 a share, on revenues of $3.66 billion, up 63 percent year-to-year.

Google execs spent much of the earnings call emphasizing the importance of its core businesses, search and search advertising. The company has been criticized of late for its apparent lack of focus, exhibited by its dabblings in offline media, intended acquisition of display ad network DoubleClick, and other non-search activities. More details are available from ClickZ News.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on April 19, 2007, 10:22 PM | Permalink


Google Adds Link Tools, Renames Froogle

Google made separate announcements today upgrading its recently released anchor text reporting tools, and renaming Froogle to Google Product Search.

The new anchor text tools feature the return of the report on most common individual words in anchor text, an expansion of the number of phrases to 200 and of common words in anchor text to 100. It's also made the feature available to more webmasters.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on April 19, 2007, 10:19 PM | Permalink


Google Ad VP Spamming Google On The Side?

Threadwatch has outed Tim Armstrong, Google Ad VP, for his involvement with Associated Content, that seems to be a content generating company making money from AdSense on dubious keyword rich content.

ClickZ ran an article about Associated Content earlier this month.

Guess he is not Matt Cutts' favorite Googler given the fact Associated Content was found to be buying links.

Have any comments? Let's add them to the discussion on link buying.

Posted by Frank Watson on April 19, 2007, 11:03 AM | Permalink


Virginia Tech news story increases traffic to Yahoo News

Hitwise has released some new data about online traffic figures surrounding the Virginia Tech news story. Traffic to Yahoo News increased 62% on Monday, April 16, versus traffic on Sunday, April 15. By comparison, online traffic to Google News increased only 6% over the same period.

* Online traffic to the Virginia Tech Facebook website increased 555% on Monday, April 16 versus traffic on Sunday, April 15. Compared to the previous Monday, April 9, traffic was up 407%.
* Online traffic to News and Media websites increased 16% on Monday, April 16 versus traffic on Sunday, April 15. Compared to the previous Monday, April 9, traffic was up 27%.
* Yahoo News was the most visited News and Media website on April 16 receiving 8.69% of all visits to the Hitwise News and Media category.
* The TV Network websites saw big gains as well - ABCNews.com visits increased 245%, MSNBC.com increased 161%, and FOXNews.com increased 64% and CNN.com increased 59%.

Posted by Greg Jarboe on April 19, 2007, 8:27 AM | Permalink


MySpace to take on Google News and Digg

The Times Online and AP report that MySpace is going into the news search business with a new service that will scour the internet for stories and let users vote on which ones receive the most exposure. This approach combines elements of Google News and Digg. It also indicates that the social networking site has ambitions to become a portal like Yahoo.

Posted by Greg Jarboe on April 19, 2007, 8:08 AM | Permalink


Blogging to Gain Back Links

In Link Love columnist Justilien Gaspard's latest article, he points out the difficulties of beginning a blog as a way to attract links and new traffic is hard work, but your site can reap huge rewards from the effort.

Posted by on April 19, 2007, 2:15 AM | Permalink


Search Headlines & Links: Apr. 18, 2007

Want a snapshot of the day's search marketing news? Here we've collected today's top news stories posted to the Search Engine Watch Blog, along with search-related headlines from around the Web:

From the SEW Blog:

Headlines & News from Elsewhere:

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on April 18, 2007, 11:54 PM | Permalink


SEOMoz Declares Stephen Colbert "Greatest Living American"

Rand Fishkin, founder and CEO of SEOMoz, is attempting to brand Stephen Colbert as the greatest living American. It's an exercise in link building and a test of Google bombing.

Greatest Living American is a fun way of tipping your hat to a great political and cultural comedian.

So grab the link and have some fun.

Posted by Frank Watson on April 18, 2007, 2:18 PM | Permalink


Interview with blinkx CTO & Founder on blinkx remote

I recently did an exclusive interview with Suranga Chandratillake, founder and CTO on blinkx, on their new technology tool for watching television online – blinkx remote. Here are some excerpts of that interview, and why Suranga is betting that his company's new tool will revolutionize people's viewing habits on the web.

Grant: In your press release, you meantion that blinkx's search technologies are better than keyword-only searches, claiming that they not only listen and decipher audio, but that they "see" - the Web, "helping users enjoy a breadth and accuracy of search results not available elsewhere." Can you explain how blinkx's search techologies “see” the Web, and mix that in with the speech recognition experience?

Suranga: We use visual analysis to have software actually watch the video and infer meaning from its visual as well as aural properties.

Grant: Will blinkx be able to provide a directory of, or search by, networks and entertainment companies featuring television shows?

Suranga: Yes. To see a directory of the currently shows available, one can go right to the blinkx site and click on the icon in the upper right corner of their site – "Watch TV Online." The search function for TV shows is available in our advanced search page.

Grant: How are the short clips derived? Does blinkx use its own criteria, and what would that be? Or are they chosen by the actual content providers?

Suranga: All previews are auto-generated by blinkx.

Grant: Will there be free a well as paid downloads of these long-form shows?

Suranga: Yes, assuming they are available on the Web.

Grant: Will these shows be accessible on all major media players? Even including the new MacTV?

Suranga: Yes, they should run on any standard web device. content is generally in windows media, mpg4 or flash, depending on the source.

Grant: Can the shows be downloaded directly to portable media players with WiFi or Bluetooth capability?

Suranga: Yes.


Coming tomorrow: Testing the technology

Posted by Grant Crowell on April 18, 2007, 12:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)


Does Ask Need Soul - Launching 'Black' Online Community

First an ad featuring Jesus, now Ask (IAC Interactive) has announced it will launch a 'Black' online community in January 2008.

The community, and the initiative IAC is making into this specific ethnic niche, will be headed by Johnny C. Taylor, Jr. and headquartered in Charlotte, NC., the company press release detailed.

The press release is an interesting read and continues Ask's controversial branding campaigns. It cites 40 million AfroAmericans as its target audience and 20 million 'Blacks' from the rest of the world. No citation or mention of where these numbers came from and how and what they represent.

The press release states:


IAC announced today that it will launch an online destination for the Black community featuring topical content, relevant services and a platform for community interaction. Johnny C. Taylor, Jr. has been appointed CEO of the initiative, which is scheduled to launch in January 2008 and will be based in Charlotte, NC.

The yet-to-be-named site aims to bring the best the Web has to offer to the U.S. Black population, specifically catering to the community's distinct needs and interests. It will be part of IAC Programming, created in 2006 to grow branded online content properties that engage passionate communities.

"There exists enormous opportunity in today's online landscape to provide Blacks with an experience that engages their unique communities through a collective voice," said Mr. Taylor. "There are 40 million African Americans in the U.S., and we estimate an additional 20 million Blacks from Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. IAC - with its superior technology, operational expertise and more than 60 brands - is poised to provide exceptional content and services for this growing and underserved population."

Michael Jackson, President of IAC Programming, said, "Johnny has superb experience in talent acquisition and an exceptional track record in business strategy and execution. He is also a passionate advocate and leader for the Black community. With his intelligence, business acumen, and people skills, Johnny is the best person to launch this important Programming initiative - the first ethnically focused property in the IAC family of brands."

For the past year, Mr. Taylor has served as IAC's SVP of Human Resources in New York. Previously he was SVP of Human Resources at LendingTree, an operating company of IAC. Before joining LendingTree, Mr. Taylor was President of McGuireWoods HR Strategies LLC, and served as Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary for Compass Group
USA, Inc. Mr. Taylor also spent more than eight years in senior executive human resources and legal positions with Viacom subsidiaries Blockbuster Entertainment and Paramount Pictures.

Posted by Frank Watson on April 18, 2007, 11:53 AM | Permalink


TV Fans Can Now Reach for blinkx Remote

Video search engine blinkx has just introduced a tool, blinkx Remote that will let TV users find full-length TV programming available on the Web. The tools uses blinkx's speech to text recognition algorithm to identify TV shows by season and episode. The results are supplemented with information from several online sources including the Wikipedia and the Internet Movie Database.

With television networks rushing to make their programs available to Internet audiences, this is a timely launch. The tool makes it easier for viewers to go beyond the clips currently available by giving preference in the results to the full-length versions. If a user specifies an episode from a specific season, blinkx Remote can retrieve it. The searcher then has the option to watch the episode online or download it, if it is available, from sites such as Amazon and iTunes. It is even possible for the user to send it to their TiVo. Since blinkx has indexed over seven million hours of video and audio content, TV fans should be able to sit back and use the blinkx Remote to look for their favorite shows.

Posted by Amanda Watlington on April 18, 2007, 10:04 AM | Permalink


The “Bon Mots” of Social Search

Check out these well-chosen words about Social Search, from experts and attendees at the SES-NY show last week:

- Social search is about people creating trust with each other.
- No, it's not about trustability.
- We can detect junk through social knowledge.
- If we had to create accountability, then results would improve.
- Most tools encourage anonymous participation, where anything goes.
- Money eliminates anonymity.
- We praise content unmotivated by commerce.
- There are hundreds of ways to game.
- The web will mature and spam will go away.

Admittedly there's some poetic license taken with these bon mots, which were part of longer expert perspectives. Still it's clear we're wrestling with how to define and then motivate effective participation in socially-driven search.

Posted by on April 18, 2007, 12:06 AM | Permalink


Ask CEO Explains "The Algorithm"

Ask.com's CEO Jim Lanzone issued a statement explaining the new campaign that includes the intriguing ad copy:
The Algorithm Constantly Finds Jesus.

“Ask.com has launched an advertising campaign focused on ‘The Algorithm.' The goal is to incite a consumer conversation around the importance of a search engine's algorithm and its integral role in making one engine different from another, Lanzone said.

‘The Algorithm' is the single most important ingredient that determines the relevance of search results, yet its impact on the overall search experience is taken for granted by most consumers. At Ask.com, we feel that in order to drive consumer awareness and use of our engine, it is important to highlight the uniqueness of our algorithm, which takes a different approach to ranking than our competitors. The Ask.com algorithm's relevance methodology goes beyond the popularity focus of Google, Yahoo and MSN's, and is the only one to break the Web down into topic clusters and determine community-based relevance in real time.”

Posted by Frank Watson on April 17, 2007, 10:53 PM | Permalink


Search Headlines & Links: Apr. 17, 2007

Want a snapshot of the day's search marketing news? Here we've collected today's top news stories posted to the Search Engine Watch Blog, along with search-related headlines from around the Web:

From the SEW Blog:

Headlines & News from Elsewhere:

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on April 17, 2007, 10:34 PM | Permalink


Yahoo and PayPal Join To Challenge Google Checkout

As part of their earnings call today, Yahoo announced a new partnership with EBay. Joining with PayPal, Yahoo will offer an express check system that can be seen as a solid challenge to the Google alternative.

The press release stated:

As an extension of the strategic relationship between Yahoo! and eBay, the two companies are partnering to improve the online shopping experience for consumers. Beginning today, April 17, Yahoo! Sponsored Search results will feature a blue shopping cart icon linking to merchants that accept PayPal Express Checkout as a method of payment. The program enables a streamlined purchase process for the more than 100 million PayPal customers on the Internet, and helps extends the value of Yahoo!'s new search marketing platform (Project Panama).

"

This is great news for online shoppers and for merchants. Both want the online shopping and buying process to go smoothly and quickly, and connecting Yahoo! Search with PayPal Express accomplishes that," said Rich Riley, Sr. Vice President, Online Channel & Small Business Services, Yahoo! Inc. "Yahoo!'s new search marketing platform delivers consumers more relevant search results, and now, with the shopping cart icon, a clear and simple path to making purchases."


Yahoo! and PayPal are launching this new program with a series of special offers for merchants, including:
· PayPal Express Checkout merchants will receive nine months of free processing from PayPal
1 Yahoo! Merchant Solutions customers using PayPal Express will receive six months of free processing
2 a $100 credit toward ad campaigns using Yahoo! Search Marketing

In addition, participating merchants' search listings on Yahoo! will be enhanced with the shopping cart icon, pointing consumers to a bright orange button on the merchants' checkout page, which links the consumer to the clear, simplified path to complete purchases using PayPal Express.

For more information. visit: http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/paypal

"Offering the PayPal's shopping cart icon in Yahoo's sponsored search listings is one example of how Yahoo!'s new advertising system was designed to launch new features on an ongoing basis," said Riley.

Posted by Frank Watson on April 17, 2007, 10:21 PM | Permalink


Yahoo Profits Up, Search Percentage Down

March was a bad month for Yahoo though their stock price is not being effected by it. They were the only one of the top tiered engines whose search usage percentage dropped last month, according to comScore reports.

Google picked up 0.2%, as did Ask, while Microsoft picked up 0.4%. Time Warner (AOL) grabbed 0.1% more than the previous month. Yahoo dropped 0.6%.

Interestingly Yahoo just released their financials for Q1 2007 and they actually increased revenues by 7% compared to the same quarter last year.

The interesting part of this is that virtually all of the increase in profits came from International revenues. There was a 22% increase from the same quarter last year. Great job Yahoo International.

The fact international was responsible for the increased profits also reflects the importance that people should be placing on international traffic.

Another coincidental fact - Yahoo revenues for the quarter were a little more than what Google paid for YouTube.

Posted by Frank Watson on April 17, 2007, 5:21 PM | Permalink


Yahoo, United Online Renew Contracts

Yahoo and United Online announced they have extended their contract today. Yahoo will provide sponsored search and web search results for NetZero, Juno and BlueLight (United Online properties).

The joint press release stated:


"United Online has been a trusted partner for many years and provides a highly engaged user base providing an excellent source of quality traffic for our advertisers," said Sue Decker, executive vice president, head of Advertiser and Publisher Group and acting chief financial officer, Yahoo!, Inc. "Extending this relationship is a testament to Yahoo! and United Online's shared commitment to offering the best online experience to users and advertisers worldwide."

"Being able to conduct a search and receive meaningful results is extremely important to our users," said Mark R. Goldston, chairman and chief executive officer of United Online. "After exploring several options, we decided that Yahoo's new search marketing system was the best platform for us to provide our ISP users with enhanced, even more relevant search capabilities. We strive to provide our NetZero, Juno and Bluelight members with a high-quality experience and we are confident that this agreement with Yahoo! has helped us to achieve that goal."

Posted by Frank Watson on April 17, 2007, 5:20 PM | Permalink


The Algorithm Constantly Finds Jesus

No I have not been born again. Apparently the Ask crew knows something the rest of us don't.

They are running that statement on billboards across the country. Another is "The Algorithm Killed Jeeves" - and I thought he was safely encased in carbonite - I was at the event where it happened. Guess the old butler's heart could not hold up to the process.

This is either going to be the best viral marketing effort for a search engine since GMail or Barry Diller is going to have a lot of problems.

The ads have only been running for a few weeks. I noticed "The Algorithm Constantly Finds Jesus" billboard as I was driving into Manhattan from Brooklyn today. The "killed Jeeves" one I was told is at 23rd and 10th in the city.

I also found a blogger that caught it on the west coast.

The campaign comes from Crispin Porter + Bogusky - of the truth commercials (the effective and shocking youth antismoking ads) - and seem to be pushing the envelope.

The funny part of this is when you look at the recent advertising Ask has done. Remember those monkeys on the TV commercials - where Ask was laying claim to making you more human?

Was this new campaign a response to the backlash about their support of evolution? And are we now to think that Ask is a Christian search engine?

The problem with pushing the envelope is the fringes always take things the wrong way. I expect tthis one to blow up very soon.

Posted by Frank Watson on April 17, 2007, 4:02 PM | Permalink


Pizza Search Engine Slow To Deliver

A new niched search engine announced its launch today: Pizza.net - the pizza search engine.

Artistically it looks decent, but as far as giving you what you need fast and clean, lets just say, in the old days you would be getting the free pizza.

The homepage uses the colors of the ingredients for pizzas. Tomato reds, pepper greens etc - clever and hunger eliciting.

One big problem is the initial search is a little slow and then the results do not give you a phone number or if they deliver until you click on the individual result.

Come on guys I really love the concept but like pizza delivery - we always look for fast and fresh. Fine tune this and I am sure you will be the number one site of college kids across the country who are tired of the obligatory Dominoes.

Posted by Frank Watson on April 17, 2007, 2:58 PM | Permalink


Microsoft Announces Changes To adCenter

The changes were announced at the adCenter blog.

The most intriguing part of their announcement is that they are basing the changes on "user's likely intent". How you measure intent is one I will have to get the Microsoft people to explain to me. I would love to apply that to my exwife!

A copy of the announcement is below:

On the 16th April we improved how we establish the quality and relevance of ads and landing pages in relation to the search user's likely intent. This improvement will ensure that we maintain a high quality of ads and relevance to the Live Search user and is not a radical change, but an enhancement to our existing guidelines around relevance and quality. To ensure that we are delivering maximum benefit to the search user, we are doing the following:

* Assessing the content of the ad and landing page in relation to the user's likely intent.
* Assessing the keywords that an advertiser selects in relation to the advertiser's landing page content, to confirm that they are substantially relevant to both the landing page and the user's search query.
* Trying to ensure that there is substantive content on the landing page to fulfill the user's query.
* Assessing the duplicative nature of content in overall search results. In cases where there may be content that is duplicated within search results (including landing pages) Microsoft reserves the right to limit advertising of the duplicate content when it lessens the user experience.

In addition to this blog post, to ensure that our advertisers are aware of this upcoming change, we have contacted customers who we think may be affected by this update. However, even if you have not been contacted, we recommend using the following resources to ensure that ads you submit in the future are of the highest quality.

Posted by Frank Watson on April 17, 2007, 2:51 PM | Permalink


Yahoo Analytics Getting Attention

Though they have owned Keylime - an early analytics and bid management company - since buying Overture, Yahoo has not really pushed this product until now.

Jennifer Leclair, a writer in the search space who seems to be everywhere lately, has summarized the Google Yahoo analytics situation at NewsFactor.

"Our Web analytics program," Paul Apodaca, director of program management for Yahoo Search Marketing explained, "was developed from the standpoint of someone trying to understand their Web site's performance, whether that be a marketer or an IT person. But our Full Analytics program doesn't show all of those reports. We have tailored the display to suit the specific needs of search engine marketers."

"The way we deliver information to search engine marketers is different from Google," Apodaca said. "We aren't reporting on natural searches. We only report on campaign-related activity. We have the ability to provide something similar to Google Analytics but our philosophy is to arm advertisers with appropriate campaign information."

Posted by Frank Watson on April 17, 2007, 2:27 PM | Permalink


AdSense Adds Greek and Romanian

Just received the annoucement that AdSense is now being offered in Greek and Romanian.

We're happy to announce that we've just expanded our product offerings for two long-awaited languages: Greek and Romanian. Starting today, Greek and Romanian publishers can monetize their content by displaying targeted AdSense for content ads on their pages. As an added bonus, Romanian publishers can now implement AdSense for search as well.If you're ready to get started with these languages, just log in to your AdSense account and follow the wizard located under the AdSense Setup tab. You can also contact the Greek team at adsense-el@google.com and the Romanian team at adsense-ro@google.com with additional questions.

Posted by Frank Watson on April 17, 2007, 2:11 PM | Permalink


RightDot Awarded US Patent for Web site Verification Process

A U.S. Patent (#7,191,210) was recently awarded to RightDot, a “computer implemented system and method for registering websites and for displaying registration indicia in a search results list”. The new technology would allow search engines to clearly distinguish between official and non-official Web sites through visual, audio or embedded identification on Internet search page site descriptions.

This could potentially impact search results, should the major search engines decide to use the technology as a method to compare valid or official sites with sites consistenting of autogenerated or questionable content, in an effort to protect consumers and provide greater relevancy.

Among the patent's most significant claims are:


  • Web-Site Search Result Identification and Validation – On search page result site descriptions, Web sites of legitimate, official validated organizations or individuals are identified in any of a variety of visual, audio or other methods.

  • Inclusion of Immediately Actionable Information Within Search Results – Either through verifiable seal display, visual scroll over or other techniques, useful information about a verified Web site is made instantly available on the search page site description itself. This could include specific product or retail location information, third party recognition, affiliated Web site identification, immediate email contact/response links and additional branding and marketing tools to facilitate the immediate exchange of information.

“Search engines have failed to provide Internet users with a way to verify that they've really found what they're looking for when conducting a search,” said James Grossman, RightDot inventor. “In addition to clearly indicating legitimate, “official” sites, RightDot enables verifiable, faster, actionable and more useful searches, providing new tools that improve the experience for users, businesses and the search engines themselves,” Grossman added.

A key component of RighDot is the visual, audio or other representation on a Web site search result description that a Web site has completed a registration process and been designated as an “official” site. As outlined in the RightDot patent, this may include distinctive markings consisting of a:


  • Seal
  • Color
  • Symbol
  • Embedded Data
  • Hyperlink
  • Highlighting
  • Biometric Data
  • Type Font
  • Type Size
  • Graphical Layout
  • Graphical Data
  • Audio Data
  • Video Data
  • Product Identification
  • Product Model
  • Logo
  • Slogan
  • Combinations of above

Posted by Elisabeth Osmeloski on April 17, 2007, 12:33 PM | Permalink


AdWords Announces Preferred Bidding Feature

A new feature at Google AdWords has just been released globally, and will be known as 'preferred cost bidding' or 'preferred CPC bids'. This new feature allows advertisers to specify the average cost per click or CPM (cost per thousand impressions) they want to pay within their AdWords campaigns.

Google says the feature was added in response to "advertiser demand for greater control over how they manage their bids and costs", and expects that advertisers will be better able to maximize ROI.

The AdWords algorithm will work constantly to achieve the target price set by the advertiser. The average price model is designed as an alternative to the existing maximum bid system, which often forces advertisers to pay more up front, based on the competition, and aim for an average cost per conversion instead.

By agreeing to an average cost per click or impression, advertisers should be able to feel more confident in their CPA targets. However, this could potentially mean advertisers will have slightly less control over positioning, which may also affect conversion rates.

Only time and testing will tell for many advertisers.

Posted by Elisabeth Osmeloski on April 17, 2007, 12:00 PM | Permalink


Will Filtering Solve YouTube Copyright Problems?

Eric Schmidt in an interview with John Seigenthaler, a former reporter with NBC's Nightly News, at National Association of Broadcasters conference noted that Google is close implementing a filtering service that would prevent copyright content from being uploaded to YouTube. According to Schmidt, the new system called Claim Your Content, will automatically flag copyright material so that it can be removed. The system was supposed to have launched last year. Google is surely feeling a certain urgency in getting effective filtering in place given the $1 billion lawsuit against filed by Viacom against Google last month that accused Google of wholesale intentional copyright infringement. It remains to be seen if this new system does in fact weed out copyright materials.

Posted by Amanda Watlington on April 17, 2007, 10:43 AM | Permalink


Today's Featured Expert Columns

In case any of you missed it, we recently launched a new series of daily columns, with expert writers covering several topics in search marketing. You can sign up to receive the latest SEW Experts headlines via XML/RSS feeds, or subscribe to each column individually to receive email newsletters. We will send these as each column publishes, beginning May 1.

Today's featured columns are:

Organic Search by Mark Jackson of Vizion Interactive
Compliance Continued: Creating Internal Links for Organic Success
Considering internal link structure and keyword rich anchor text makes your Web site more accessible to users and search engines, and lead to strong rankings naturally.

Little Biz by Carrie Hill of Blizzard Internet Marketing
Branding Isn't Just for Big Businesses
Search advertising can be intimidating to small businesses, but buying your company name in PPC ad programs can be both affordable and profitable.

Posted by Elisabeth Osmeloski on April 17, 2007, 2:28 AM | Permalink


Search Headlines & Links: Apr. 16, 2007

Want a snapshot of the day's search marketing news? Here we've collected today's top news stories posted to the Search Engine Watch Blog, along with search-related headlines from around the Web:

From the SEW Blog:

Headlines & News from Elsewhere:

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on April 16, 2007, 9:05 PM | Permalink


Is Stephen Colbert the Greatest Living American?

Jonah Stein at the Alchemy of Search blog is wondering if Stephen Colbert is the Greatest Living American. Stein says this is not -ahem- a googlebombing campaign -- and, according to Google, pranks like this aren't supposed to work anymore.

So, can a group of bloggers with a lot of authority get The Colbert Nation a higher ranking for Giant Brass Balls, a term that Colbert would like to rank #1 on Google, or Truthiness, a term that Colbert coined?

This will be interesting test case to follow. Stein thinks that Stephen Colbert is the Greatest Living American. And many of his viewers would agree.

A new survey of 1,502 adults released on Sunday, April 15, by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press found that those who scored the highest in "knowledgeability" (correct answers) were regular watchers of Comedy Central's The Daily Show and Colbert Report. They tied with regular readers of major newspapers in the top spot -- with 54% of them getting 2 out of 3 questions correct. Watchers of the Lehrer News Hour on PBS followed just behind. Close to the bottom of the heap were regular watchers of Fox News. Only 1 in 3 could answer 2 out of 3 questions correctly.

So, the users with the highest "knowledgeability" should be able to judge for themselves if Stephen Colbert is the Greatest Living American, shouldn't they? Who knows, maybe -- just maybe -- googlebombing can still work if it is used to reward truthiness instead of to punish miserable failure.

Posted by Greg Jarboe on April 16, 2007, 5:01 PM | Permalink


PR.com adds Yahoo News to press release distribution

PR.com has announced several upgrades and enhancements to its press release distribution service. This includes distribution to Yahoo News, social bookmarking, enhanced distribution via industry regional distribution channels, file attachments, and a PDF version of the press release.

While other press release distribution services offer similar features, the pricing for PR.com ranges from free to $199 a year for its high visibility option and $499 a year for its maximum visibility option.

Here are some of the enhancements and upgrades now available at PR.com:

? Yahoo News
PR.com already distributed press releases to Google News, Topix.com, and other smaller news search engines. Now, it has added Yahoo News, the #1 visited news site, for those selecting the enhanced visibility level for their release.

? Social Bookmarking
PR.com now provides the ability for people to add a press release to social bookmarking sites, such as Digg and Del.icio.us. While the Digg community rarely promotes press releases and tends to bury them, most of the other press release distribution services offer this feature. So, PR.com has jumped on the bandwagon.

? Industry Distribution Channels and Regional Distribution Channels
By default, each press release is distributed globally. However, for those seeking industry focused news, each press release may now be additionally distributed to “Industry Distribution Channels” selected for the release. And, for those seeking relevant local news, each press release may now be additionally distributed to “Regional Distribution Channels” selected for the release. Of course, if you really want to reach targeted online media, there's no substitute for pitching them personally by email or phone. No online press release distribution newswire can replace the art of the schmooze.

? File Attachments
You can now attach .gif, .jpg, .pdf, audio or video files, or Word documents to a press release. Again, other press release distribution services offer this feature -- but, generally, at higher prices.

? PDF Version of the Press Release
A PDF version of the press release is automatically generated and made available for use for readers to download. While this creates duplicate content for the regular search engines, some people who want to forward an press release to others like this option.

Posted by Greg Jarboe on April 16, 2007, 12:51 PM | Permalink


Yahoo! and Newspaper Consortium Expand Ad Partnership

Today,Yahoo! and 12 leading U.S. newspaper companies announced a formal agreement to use Yahoo! as their exclusive paid search partner, and bring local newspaper content to 150 MM U.S. visitors per month.

The latest addition to the consortium is the McClatchy Company, making it the 12th member of the newspaper publishing group. This group represents more than 264 newspapers across 44 states.

The McClatchy Company is among the latest newspaper groups to join the consortium, currently participating in all aspects except the HotJobs component. Other new members since November 2006 include Calkins Media, Inc.; Media General, Inc.; Morris Communications Company, LLC; and Paddock Publications, Inc.

Consortium members announced last November include: Belo Corp.; Cox Newspapers; The E.W. Scripps Company; Hearst Newspapers; Journal Register Company; Lee Enterprises; and MediaNews Group, Inc.

The newspapers in this consortium include major market dailies such as the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Commercial Appeal (Memphis), The Dallas Morning News, The Denver Post, The Florida Times-Union, Houston Chronicle, The Miami Herald, New Haven Register, Rocky Mountain News, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The Sacramento Bee, San Francisco Chronicle, San Jose Mercury-News and The Tampa Tribune.

Key points of the partnership from the official release:

-- Enhancing newspaper online advertising revenue using Yahoo!'s graphical advertising technology. For more than a decade, Yahoo! has been a leader in online graphical advertising. Advertisers and newspapers will be using Yahoo!'s sophisticated ad-serving, targeting and inventory management capabilities. This strategic alliance creates the newspaper industry's most comprehensive and integrated online advertising network.

-- Leveraging leading local and national online sales forces. This relationship creates an all-in-one buying opportunity for local advertisers, allowing newspaper sales representatives to offer the combined aggregated reach of local newspaper and local Yahoo! online audiences. Yahoo!'s sales force may sell newspaper inventory to their portfolio of national advertisers and newspapers' sales forces can sell Yahoo!'s local online inventory to local advertisers.

-- Integrating Yahoo!'s paid search technology across newspaper sites. Yahoo!'s search functionality will be deployed across hundreds of newspaper Web sites and exposed to more than 50 million users on a monthly basis. Additionally, users will benefit from having access to a customized Yahoo! toolbar which will be distributed on local newspaper Web sites, providing newspaper Web site users with easy access to the most comprehensive Internet search.

-- Distributing high-quality newspaper content broadly across the Yahoo! Network. Newspaper content will be fully integrated within local news modules and delivered to Yahoo! users interested in local news, sports, finance and other content in Yahoo! vertical areas. This will give readers superior local content developed by credible news professionals and community contributors across the country. Additionally, this strategic partnership paves the way for mobile distribution of newspaper content.

Posted by Elisabeth Osmeloski on April 16, 2007, 10:55 AM | Permalink


Google Audio, Clear Channel Ink Deal

Getting buried under the DoubleClick deal, Google and Clear Channel Communications Inc. also announced a long-term agreement Sunday to place advertising for its online customers on more than 675 Clear Channel radio stations. The financial terms of the deal are not available at this time.

''This radio partnership with Clear Channel is a pretty big statement that Google is in the radio industry to stay and have a big impact,'' said Drew Hilles, Google Audio's national sales director.

Google Audio advertisers will have the ability to access Clear Channel's national distribution system within a simple interface, which would offer access to 1,600 stations though the Audio Ads service. Targeting options will include location and specific time slots, as well as provide feedback on the campaigns.

Posted by Elisabeth Osmeloski on April 16, 2007, 10:22 AM | Permalink


Google Goes to War on Paid Text Links

Google engineer Matt Cutts posted a series of blog posts on Saturday, attacking hidden links, links in Wordpress themes, and paid links. I'm sure his intention is noble: to remove irrelevant links from the serps. But has he gone too far? Judging by the firestorm of protest in the blogosphere, that may be the case.

There are certainly paid links that affect search result quality, and Google has every right to deal with those. But to say that human-reviewed, relevant paid links will be punished is another situation entirely. That makes it look like Google is flexing its muscles as the dominant search engine to take out competitors of its own text ad program.

The call for submissions of paid links is also fraught with problems, most obviously that of competitors sabotaging each other by buying ads for them and reporting them to Google, and secondly of just how Google expects to be able to detect paid links without access to a webmaster's bank account.

Many are irked by Cutts' framing of the paid links argument within the context of hidden, deceptive links to porn sites. His post segueways immediately from a description of such deceptive behavior, and then discusses the practice of paid links, a legitimate advertising model.

As long as we're talking about links, this seems like a pretty good opportunity to talk about a simple litmus test for paid links and how to tell if a paid link violates search engines' quality guidelines. If you want to sell a link, you should at least provide machine-readable disclosure for paid links by making your link in a way that doesn't affect search engines. There's a ton of ways to do that. For example, you could make a paid link go through a redirect where the redirect url is robot'ed out using robots.txt. You could also use the rel=nofollow attribute. I've said as much many times before, but I wanted to give a heads-up because Google is going to be looking at paid links more closely in the future.

The other best practice I'd advise is to provide human readable disclosure that a link/review/article is paid. You could put a badge on your site to disclose that some links, posts, or reviews are paid, but including the disclosure on a per-post level would better. Even something as simple as “This is a paid review” fulfills the human-readable aspect of disclosing a paid article...To make sure that you're in good shape, go with both human-readable disclosure and machine-readable disclosure, using any of the methods I mentioned above.

One of the major concerns with this is the basic idea of whether it's really Google's problem, for having an algorithm that relies on links for ranking. Should webmasters be forced to change the way they do business to adjust for a shortcoming in Google's relevance algorithm? Outside of Google's algo, there's nothing inherently evil about selling links as ads. Even within the algo, many people argue that people that go the the trouble to buy links are likely selling a relevant product related to that link, so it should count just as much to Google as an unpaid link would.

There are, of course, plenty of sites that sell irrelevant links, that perhaps are the ones Cutts is really targeting. But he is not saying that relevant paid links are OK either, and that is where Google is crossing a line, dictating that certain kinds of advertising (outside of its own paid text links) will lead to punishment of the publisher's site. Is it really fair for Google to say that an advertising program that reviews links for quality is bad?

Another issue entirely is Cutts solicitation of reports of sites using paid links.

Google may provide a special form for paid link reports at some point, but in the mean time, here's a couple of ways that anyone can use to report paid links:
- Sign in to Google's webmaster console and use the authenticated spam report form, then include the word “paidlink” (all one word) in the text area of the spam report. If you use the authenticated form, you'll need to sign in with a Google Account, but your report will carry more weight.
- Use the unauthenticated spam report form and make sure to include the word “paidlink” (all one word) in the text area of the spam report.

As far as the details, it can be pretty short. Something like “Example.com is selling links; here's a page on example.com that demonstrates that” or “www.shadyseo.com is buying links. You can see the paid links on www.example.com/path/page.html” is all you need to mention. That will be enough for Google to start testing out some new techniques we've got — thanks!

That seems like an accident waiting to happen. Already, several bloggers have joked that they've followed his advice, and to be helpful, have reported everyone above them in the serps. Others say they'll plan to buy ads for their competitors and report those. I doubt it's a joke, in many cases. And how is Google going to determine which links are paid or not? Will Google become judge, jury, and executioner, deciding that a link is paid without really knowing for sure, and punishing a site accordingly?

I'm hoping that Matt will clarify his position after reviewing some of the feedback, and reach a position that makes more sense and accomplishes the goal of improving search result quality, without making the reporting process easy to game, or making it look like Google is trying to crush its advertising competitors by punishing their customers in its search engine.

Here's a partial list of responses to Matt Cutts' posts:

I've also started a thread on the SEW Forums, Matt Cutts Goes After Paid Links. Please share your thoughts on this topic there.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on April 16, 2007, 2:07 AM | Permalink


Google/DoubleClick Deal Shakes Things Up

As has been widely reported, Google has announced plans to acquire DoubleClick for $3.1 billion. Details from Google can be found in the official press release, on the Official Google Blog, or in a five-page FAQ Google created.

Google also held a brief press conference on Friday, which paidContent has available as an MP3 for download.

Besides the display ad-serving side of DoubleClick, the deal also includes Performics, a search and affiliate marketing agency. There's also the idea of an ad exchange that DoubleClick recently announced, though there's nothing concrete there to speak of.

The deal is being lauded by some as a strategic imperative, while apparently already facing pressure on the anti-trust and privacy fronts.

A few more interesting viewpoints:

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on April 16, 2007, 1:48 AM | Permalink

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