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September 2007

September 28, 2007

Search Headlines & Links: September 28, 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 6:31 PM | Permalink

Yahoo Podcasts Closing At End Of Month

Another Yahoo service is about to be killed off, according to the headline at the top of the Yahoo Podcast site. It states:
Yahoo! apologizes deeply, but we will be closing down the Podcasts site on Oct. 31, 2007

The service had been available for about two years.

Posted by Frank Watson on 1:51 PM | Permalink

Google Testing Time Elements In Search Results

Seems Google is testing using time elements in their search results, according to results found by Cheezhead, though the first comment was from Danny Sullivan who thinks the results may be related to advanced search.

Time elements could be an interesting filter when dealing with news or blog sites, but beyond that it promotes constantly changing your content. I would like to hear from anyone else that has seen this or people with comments on its use.

I started a thread here.

Posted by Frank Watson on 1:33 PM | Permalink

Google Hack Gets At Personal Data

Philipp Lenssen has discovered a hack to Google's XSS that allows access to personal data, according to Blogoscoped today.

The tests he used with co-editor Tony Ruscoe show that is possible to get access to subject line information and first few words of emails from Gmail, statistical information from Google Analytics, as well as see what Google Gadgets are being used.

The glitch is specific to Explorer, the pair reported, and uses a cross site scripting attack.

The post comes with detailed pics of what is happening. Well worth the read.

Posted by Frank Watson on 1:18 PM | Permalink

Google-DoubleClick Hearings Get Muddled

Google's potential acquisition of DoubleClick is now under scrutiny by a U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee, and based on yesterday's hearing, the closing of this deal could still be a long way off. Senators are hearing conflicting and confusing testimony from Google, Microsoft, privacy advocates, and free-market thinkers, according to ClickZ News. The subcommittee's decision may ultimately be determined by whether or not the companies are deemed competitors or complements.

Google's lawyers argued that DoubleClick is complementary, potentially delivering ads that Google sells. Opponents pointed out that the companies compete for the same ad dollars and share the same viewers, advertisers, publishers and data.

While Google's argument is not exactly accurate, given the fact that Google does deliver ads as well as sell them, the two companies are complementary, since they are delivering different kinds of ads, and serve different needs, for the most part. Besides its ad-serving business, DoubleClick also has other products for advertisers and publishers which Google does not offer.

Lots more coverage on Techmeme.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 11:26 AM | Permalink

Microsoft's New Shopping Search

One of the intriguing things about the Microsoft Searchification event that took place on Wednesday of this week was the new shopping search offering they demonstrated. It truly does offer some unique and interesting stuff. In this post, I will show you a couple of sample screen shots, and talk about some of the more interesting aspects of this new offering from Microsoft.

Let's start with a screen shot for the search "ipod":

MS-ipod-search.jpg

There are two things to observe here:

1. The 4 thumbnails of the most popular related products, which includes pricing and rating information.

2. The Related Searches information on the right rail, above the sponsored ads.

So far this is interesting, but not exceptional. Where it gets more interesting is if you click on one of the thumbnails. When you do that it brings you to a detailed product overview page such as the one in this screen shot:

MS-ipod-shopping.jpg

On this page you get user reviews aggregated from many sources. On the left rail, you can get user ratings across more than 30 categories. The cool thing about this is that it is dynamically extracted by Microsoft from the user ratings themselves. This includes extracting the categories of things commented on by users, as well as whether or not the user rating was positive of negative.

Instead of the single rating per product that is typical of most sites, you get a quick visual blow by blow review of many important product factors. Even if the product has a 4+ star rating, if you look at the details and see that it has a Customer Service rating of 0, you might choose to not buy it.

It all depends on what is important to you, and this quick snapshot allows you to find that level of detail quickly without having to pore through dozens of reviews. The aggregation is important too, because even if you find a review that comments on the attribute you care about, it's only one opinion. The aggregation is what gives you a balanced view of the product.

Unfortunately, the detailed product pages are currently only available for consumer electronics, but, overall, I found the change innovative and interesting. I know that when I next buy some electronic gadget that I will check it out here.

It's a critical step for Microsoft to take - that of differentiating their search offering. This was just one component of their strategy for doing that. It still remains to be determined how the market itself will respond, but it all starts with putting something interesting on the table, and that they have done.

Posted by on 10:08 AM | Permalink

Got IT? Optimized Code + Crawlability ?  SEO

Since Chris Boggs has moved on from a big agency to a small one, he's passing off his column to a former colleague. In today's Outsourced column, "Got IT? Optimized Code + Crawlability ≠  SEO," Avenue A | Razorfish VP of SEO William Flaiz debunks the common IT myth that SEO is all about making a site crawlable, and the thought of bringing an SEO partner into the mix is just a waste of time and money.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: Content Creation About Journey, Not Destination?

Is creating content really the cornerstone of SEO? If so, do you pay your writers, or do you expect them to write for free? In today's Vertical Challenge column, "Content Creation: About Journey, Not Destination?," travel search expert Elisabeth Osmeloski lays out the options, including the road less traveled.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink

September 27, 2007

Search Headlines & Links: September 27, 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 6:17 PM | Permalink

Marchex Connects Its Local-Vertical Network

When Marchex added its OpenList technology to its 100,000 local and vertical sites in June, it marked the beginning of a process to turn a localized domain portfolio into a network of local sites. Today, it launched the hub of that network at OpenList.com, and expanded the network to 150,000 sites.

The OpenList network is made up of sites that are both local and vertical, such as NewYorkDoctors.com, TopekaDining.com, or IndianapolisAutoRepair.com. The sites are filled with local business information from Localeze, as well as reviews and other data crawled by OpenList, as well as content from partners, including the newly added OpenTable, Contractors.com, HealthGrades, and Judy's Book. Much of the content currently centers around restaurants and hotels, which were the first niches OpenList focused on when it started four years ago.

The OpenList technology allows users to search the site, or browse by categories. They can then drill down to filter results by several other factors, such as business type, cuisine of a restaurant, price level, rating level, or other features. Results are displayed on a Yahoo-powered map

Users can search from OpenList.com, or from one of the many local domains, which are powered by OpenList. Marchex displays contextual text ads it sells itself, backfilled by ads from Yahoo. Much of the traffic is currently driven by direct navigation to the local sites, but an increasing amount comes from search engines that index those pages. This is expected to increase as the sites are filled with more local content.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 5:10 PM | Permalink

Happy Birthday Google

Google is celebrating its 9th birthday today. With little fanfare, except for the logo change, the search engine has obviously had more pressing things on its mind - like dealing with the Senate Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights Committee on the Judiciary.

Interestingly though, if you google Google, they have the 9th birthday announcement in their SERP description. I wonder if Larry and Sergey will go to their favorite Burger King store and reminisce about the old days?

Posted by Frank Watson on 2:19 PM | Permalink

Social media vs. "pre-Web 2.0" portals like Yahoo News

Martin LaMonica of the CNET News.com Tech news blog spotted this ironic moment at EmTech. While Kevin Rose of Digg, Tariq Krim of NetVibes, and Garret Camp of StumbleUpon were predicting a growing role for community-oriented sites in the media industry, a survey of attendees done during the panel found the majority of people at the conference said they rely on traditional news outlets and "pre-Web 2.0" portals like Yahoo News. Ironic, ain't it?

Posted by Greg Jarboe on 12:32 PM | Permalink

Overview of Microsoft Searchification

I attended the Microsoft Searchification event yesterday. The most important thing that happened here is that Microsoft has finally suceeded in offering a differentiated search product, and this is what made the day so important.

Brad Goldberg started the day with an overview presentation on some basic facts about the search market. One very interesting data set presented by him was a market share table:

EngineUsersUser shareQuery share
Live Search69M37%11%
Yahoo104M56%23%
Google142M77%56%
Source: comScore

Looking closely at this table you will see that 37% of all people who search, do at least some of their searching using Live Search. However, the query share is only 11%. The observation was then made that this indicated that this was an indicator that Live Search was not suceeding in statisfying its customers.

Then Mr. Goldberg stated that a large part of their intention with this release is to address this issue. This is an interesting focus, although it does assume that simply improving the relevance and quality of Live Search's results will be enough to convert many of those 37% to doing a larger percentage of their searches on Live Search.

Nontheless, it's a compelling notion. Micosoft does capture a lot of search volume as a result of the integration of Live Search into MSN. They also have very large user bases with Microsoft Messenger and Hotmail. So they can keep putting search back in front of their user base.

In fact, the presentations and demos we saw suggested that Microsoft suceeded in accomplishing several things:

  1. Improving basic search quality and relevance. Certainly a number of examples of this were offered. Of course, the acid test of improved relevance will be revealed across tens of millions of search queries
  2. Showing compelling improvements in Shopping Search for consumer electronics
  3. Providing a completely new look layout for Health search. New features included a set of refinements links up top to help users quickly adapt their search. In addition, the page now has a 3 column layout, with the left column providing access to the latest articles related to your search.
  4. Making some great advances in local search, including their 3D mapping technology
  5. Offering a rich Entertainment search experience that allows people to drill deep in searches related to their favorite stars
  6. Providing a rich and engagin Mobile search experience. Microsoft already had a strong mobile product, and has made it even stronger still
  7. Another area where Microsoft already had a great solution was their Image search product, but they made several enhancements here as well
  8. Unveiling their video search solution, including some great technology for componsing 30 second trailers
  9. Expanded their index from 5B pages to more than 20B pages

I will explore some of these items in more detail over the next week. Net-net, it looks like Microsoft has improved their base search results, and then made a huge effort to improve search quality dramatically in a number of major vertical areas.

Posted by on 9:25 AM | Permalink

Live! From Microsoft Live Search: Trovix Search Found?

Trovix grew up in the Googleplex but would thrive down the road at MS SV Live Search.

Searchification of boring resumes made a name for Trovix, leading to the launch of its free, live jobs search (read: white/blue collar) and recruitment site. Now job candidates can find more suitable jobs; and Jobs, more suitable candidates.

Why would Trovix find itself more at home in Microsoft Live Search than even at Google? Simple. Great artificial minds think alike.

Trovix search technology extracts attributes from job descriptions and CVs the way Microsoft Live Search extracts attributes from online content in key verticals (Shopping; Health, Entertainment, Local). In simple terms, by parsing words, phrases and acronyms their search technologies determine a database of intentions on the fly.

Trovix is a vertical search engine (people/jobs). Live Search aggregates vertical search engines in a SHEL game where the Microsoft prize is the searchers' true intentions; the ultimate payout: a bigger slice of online ad dollars.

Key Trend To Watch: Microsoft Live Search bucks the trend of human intervention in search. Sophisticated filters and algorithms improve relevancy.Lately Google has tried to put a human face on search, emphasizing they're more than just an algorithm.

Posted by Kevin Heisler on 2:17 AM | Permalink

Microsoft Updates Live Search

A group of journalists, bloggers, and advertisers spent the day Wednesday at Microsoft's Mountain View offices for a view of several improvements to Live Search. We'll have more coverage of the "Searchification" event itself later today, but I wanted to briefly mention some of the improvements to Live Search that have been made both to its core search technology and in the vertical search areas of entertainment, shopping, local and health. Most of the changes were made to improve the relevance of Live Search results.

"We have made dramatic progress in delivering a better search experience to our customers," said Satya Nadella, corporate VP of the Search and Advertising Platform Group at Microsoft. "We know what kinds of things consumers are searching for, and we have invested in those key high-interest verticals, including entertainment, shopping, health and local search. With the core platform in place we intend to win customers and earn their loyalty one query at a time."

To improve the quality of its results, Microsoft has increased the size of its index fourfold, aiming to serve better results for long-tail queries, which it says account for one in five searches. Microsoft also claims that Live Search now better understands customer intent, and offer more relevant query refinements and query suggestions, to help users get to answers more quickly.

Live Search now uses more clickstream data in its algorithms, in order to return more relevant answers. It is also making use of data extraction to gather information around a topic from unstructured data from multiple sources, like ratings and reviews of products, data and reviews of businesses, and celebrity gossip, photos, and video clips.

An interesting move by Microsoft is the expansion of its Instant Answers product. Because "sometimes people are just looking for a specific fact or answer," Instant Answers provide responses to certain queries that have a clear answer. Examples include weather, stocks, Yellow Pages data, recent sports scores, or facts from Encarta.

We'll have more coverage from the Searchification event later today. You can also check out some responses from other attendees:

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 1:01 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: Knock It Out of the Linkin' Park!

Is the job of an SEO to drum up valueless links, or to be the driver of creative content and content distribution for clients' Web sites? In today's Link Love column, "Knock It Out of the Linkin' Park!," Sage Lewis says it's time for SEOs to move past getting links just to try to game the search engine system. It's two dimensional thinking; and it's the wrong paradigm.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink

September 26, 2007

Viral Recommendations Have Natural Limits

Whether cruising around social networks or shopping online, I do pay attention to friends' recommendations -- ranging from the newest restaurant, to the hippest shoes and most effective plumber. My social circle influences my interests and purchases, and I find myself often passing on suggested links to others or checking out something mentioned to me.

But how effective are friends in actually closing the sale? In a recent study, The Dynamics of Viral Marketing (log-in required), researchers set about trying to debunk the lore of viral marketing. It turns out that each friend can influence me at first, but then loses her impact on my clicks or purchases. After a while, I'm likely to ignore her links altogether.

As marketers, this translates into our needing a constant supply of new recommenders. Sheer volume of shared links does not necessarily correlate with conversions. Based on the study, we may be heading into new territory from what we have seen in the past. Search marketing typically succeeds by having links distributed and exposed as widely as possible. Apparently, asking “related others” to recommend and link for you does not always result in a sale.

There are other dynamics involved in actual person-to-person recommendations and their effectiveness. Just a few of the study's findings concluded that:

* People like to initiate recommendations, with 94% having sent a link prior to receiving one.
* People have sway over some friends, but not all. When an individual sends out more recommendations, conversions decline.
* If more people recommend a product to an individual, it increases conversion at first. There is saturation, however, if too many people send links.
* Influence varies by product type, though more expensive products have higher conversions.

Viral recommendations do still work, and can be an effective way to get the word out about a new product or offering. Beyond the old “send to a friend,” they are even more potent on social sites as the links linger for all to see and share. We simply need to readjust our expectations about possible outcomes.

Posted by on 6:34 PM | Permalink

Search Headlines & Links: September 26, 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 6:10 PM | Permalink

Google Tops 125 Sales Organizations For Client Satisfaction

The 2007 Myers Survey of Advertising Executives found Google to top client satisfaction for the 125 websites used in the survey.

Google had been second last year. "Knowledge, trustworthiness and responsiveness of the sales organization were the top three attributes influencing advertisers' opinions about their relationship with a specific sales organization," Myers reported.

Cnet placed second behind Google.

Posted by Frank Watson on 3:50 PM | Permalink

Copyright Procedures for Search Marketers

Search marketers will almost certainly run into copyright issues at some point in their careers. They may be the victim, finding their own optimized content duplicated without permission and showing up in targeted search results. Or they may be an infringer, stealing copyrighted content from others and finding themselves subject to penalties by the search engines and the courts.

Thankfully, most online copyright infringement issues can be handled with some simple legal procedures. In today's SearchDay, "Copyright Law: What Search Marketers Should Know (Part 1)," Grant Crowell outlines the basics of cease & desist letters, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), and other tactics to help search marketers protect their content.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 3:33 PM | Permalink

Ask To Launch New PPC Platform October 2

Ask has announced it will launch its new Sponsored Listing platform October 2. ASL 2.0 - in keeping with the world's love for the 2.0 extension - promises improvements in cost and budget controls, and other benefits.

The addition of average positioning information should help determine how much to bid. The allowance of multiple ads will help test different creatives against the same keywords - though the delivery will be optimized only - there will not be the ability to opt out of the CTR impacting the delivery.

ASL 2.0 Overview (as reported by Ask)

* Improvements in cost and budget controls.
* New ad structure improves content management.
* Streamlined UI simplifies common tasks.
* More flexible reporting.
* Enhanced Bulk Upload tool.

Posted by Frank Watson on 3:24 PM | Permalink

Google Group Promises Five Solid Answers

In the Google Webmaster Help group, Google's Search Evangelist Adam Lasnik has promised users that five big questions would be thoroughly answered in that group in the next two weeks.

Got questions? We've got answers: at least five (5) substantive responses to your picks on webmaster'y topics over the next two weeks.

We invite you to ask questions in this thread that:
- don't deal with a specific site or sites
- are likely to be of interest to a great many webmasters around the world
- aren't already covered in one of our recent blog posts or in our Help Center

And in turn we will do one of the following for each response:
- Start a thread in this group with a detailed answer.
- Add new Help Center documentation or substantially revise an existing doc to cover your question.
- Do a blog post on the topic.

Now's your chance to get those hard questions answered.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 11:52 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: Mobile Search Fortune Seekers

The year of mobile search seems to be forever a few months away. In today's By the Numbers column, "Mobile Search Fortune Seekers," Eric Enge shows that even if mobile search doesn't hit the ad revenue jackpot this year, marketers need to know how to secure a seat at the table.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: Halo 3 as Meta4

With the release of Halo 3, it's worth your while to take a look at what can be learned from the big launch. In today's Searching for Meaning column, "Halo 3 as Meta4," Kevin Ryan explains how you can entice searchers with the right marketing message.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink

September 25, 2007

Search Headlines & Links: September 25, 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 6:08 PM | Permalink

Google Trends Now Updated Daily

Google has increased the frequency that it updates its Google Trends service, so that trends are now updated daily, instead of monthly. Trends launched in May 2006, and has been updated a few times since then. Most recently, Google added a Hot Trends feature a list of the queries that are being searched on more than they usually are. Google has also made available an RSS feed and iGoogle gadget for Hot Trends, which is updated in "very near to real time."

The tool is vulnerable to the vagaries of Internet fame, as well as offline events or media. Google attempts to explain some of the posts by providing a list of news stories about the keyword. For instance, among the hot trends as I write this are "Daily Oklahoman," a newspaper involved in a well-publicized spat with Oklahoma State football coach Mike Gundy; and "Nikki Sixx," the bassist for 80s hair metal band Motley Crue, who recently wrote a book chronicling his drug use.

For those phrases that defy an easy explanation, Google has created a Hot Trends group to let users add their facts and theories about the trends, such as whether a topic was mentioned on Oprah, or showed up in last night's popular sit-com.

For search marketers, the tool can be used to gauge the interest in certain keywords, as long as they have been queried enough times. It can also give bloggers fodder for their posts, to take advantage of the rise in searches for a given topic.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 11:56 AM | Permalink

Google to Offer AdWords Conversion Optimizer

Google is making cost-per-acquisition (CPA) based bidding available to AdWords advertisers through a new Conversion Optimizer tool. Advertisers specify a maximum CPA bid, and then the tool will use historical information about the campaign to automatically generate an optimal CPC bid for each auction.

Advertisers still pay per click, but no longer have to manually adjust their bids to reach CPA goals.

Conversion Optimizer requires that a campaign currently uses AdWords Conversion Tracking and has at least 300 conversions in the last 30 days. Ads can appear on both the search and content network.

Google also offers CPA-based pricing on its pay-per-action (PPA) beta, where advertisers pay only when an action they define occurs, such as a purchase on their site or newsletter sign-up.

Tried Conversion Optimizer? Share your thoughts on it in the Search Engine Watch Forums.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 11:34 AM | Permalink

Universal Search Coming to Microsoft's Live Search

In a blog post last Thursday, originally described by the press as a leak, Akram Hussein, Program Manager of Windows Live Platform, detailed a number of new features of Windows Live Search 2.0 that are expected to be rolled out on September 26th at Microsoft's Searchification 2007.

Searchification 2007 is a half–day event that will include a general session with senior product leaders, demos, and a webmaster tools session. In a later blog post Hussein clarified that his post was not a leak but rather the result of the confluence of an early test rollout and an astute and enthusiastic user.

All of the cloak and dagger, leaky plumbing stuff aside, here are some of the features that early test users (Akram Hussein) have spotted. Although he removed his original post, Liveside.net captured the changes already being tested “live,” so to speak.

They are yet another spin on universal search. For example, images and news will be moved directly onto the search page along with product popularity ratings and reviews for products pulled from review sites. Searches for people will include more search results, images, and a celebrity rating. Searchers will soon be able to see just how “hot” or “not” those headline-grabbing celebs really are.

Where there is video, it will begin to play a preview as soon as the mouse is rolled over it without the usual delay. This feature should appeal to the growing number of video enthusiasts.

Overall there will be more search results found. Do note that more search results do not necessarily translate to more relevant search results. That is to be seen as more users come in contact with this new version of Live Search 2.0. For search marketers, this is yet another example of why it is important to optimize all types of Web files – images, news, video, and audio.

Posted by Amanda Watlington on 9:45 AM | Permalink

Hey! Nielsen Wants You

After all these years, Nielsen has decided to compete (a little) with those it measures online. HeyNielsen.com invites everybody to share their opinions about entertainment directly. The operating premise is that YOU can influence online and offline media through this new social site.

Nielsen has created a new Hey! Nielsen score which reflects visitor opinions. The score is also based on news and raw data from The Hollywood Reporter, Billboard and BlogPulse -- all properties owned by Nielsen. We'd like to learn more about how this stew is mixed together.

The site looks like it's been carefully constructed, yet the site search isn't up to par. When I looked for "Brad Pitt,” he showed up below a few dozen non-Brads from the music arena. If I'm going to be encouraged to contribute my opinions, then search should be put on the fix-it list.

As announced yesterday, Nielsen has rolled out an A-Z social site here. So I checked out Brad's page, his scores, other opinions, and even external blog postings. I also noticed ways to connect to other members, and learn about their interests. While all these and other features seem nice, it's hard to predict whether Hey! Nielsen will become a social hub.

In the meantime, Nielsen succeeds when it pulls me in, gets my opinions, and makes me available for research. It's not a bad bargain, if visitors get a little something in return.

Posted by on 2:21 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: Roadblocks Sidetrack Search

The larger the company, the bigger the roadblocks. In today's Big Biz column, "Roadblocks Sidetrack Search," Aaron Shear explains that diplomacy may be one of the most useful tools in your SEO toolbox. To advance your search marketing strategy, you need to be less SEO and more politico with the head honcho.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: Top 10 Reasons SEO Rocks: "SEO is Dead" Is Dead

Many have claimed "SEO Is Dead." In today's au Natural column, "Top 10 Reasons SEO Rocks: "SEO is Dead" Is Dead," Mark Jackson gives the first half of his list detailing why that's not the case, and why SEO remains alive and well.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink

September 24, 2007

Search Headlines & Links: September 24, 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 6:40 PM | Permalink

IMNY Charity Event Scheduled for October 15

The Internet Marketers of New York are holding another charity event, so keep the 15th of October open.

The event will help raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. It is scheduled for October 15, between 7pm and 10 pm at the Town Tavern at 134 W. 3rd Street and 6th Ave. Tickets are $40.

The Best Of The Web guys are the sponsors who are covering all costs so that ticket sales money will go directly to the charity.

The group is gladly accepting donations for things to give as prizes for the raffles that will be held at the event. For more information contact Greg Niland.

Posted by Frank Watson on 4:15 PM | Permalink

Compete Search Analytics Now Live

Compete's new Compete Search Analytics service, which was announced last month at SES San Jose, is now live.

The pay-as-you-go service is designed to give users access to competitive research data for a per-usage fee. Users will pay online by credit card, purchasing $2 credits, which might be good for the first 50 results of a report, for example. Compete sees the service appealing to smaller companies, as well as small groups within larger agencies or corporations.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 1:23 PM | Permalink

DoubleClick Launches Mobile Ad Serving

Like its soon-to-be parent company Google did last week with AdSense for Mobile, DoubleClick today launched a new mobile ad serving product, DoubleClick Mobile. The new platform integrates with its DART for Publishers (DFP), providing support for all functions involved in mobile ad sales, trafficking, and reporting.

DoubleClick plans to release a mobile ad management product for advertisers sometime in 2008, Ari Paparo, DoubleClick's VP of rich media and emerging technologies, told ClickZ News.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 11:22 AM | Permalink

Google's Growing Searches? FT(P) That.

Ever FTP'ed a news analysis? Transfer this to Financial Times Piffle file: "Growing Google searches for the right balance."

FT reported Google withdrew a bid for DoubleClick in 2005 "amid concerns" that cookies conflicted with "Don't Be Evil" credo. Deal-busting cookies? Does FT really believe Larry & Sergey looked in a mirror and saw the reflection of Dr. Evil?

Unnamed FT sources (Deep Search 1 & Deep Search 2, natch) offered conflicting testimony:

"However, another person familiar with (Google's) internal deliberations says that, while some executives expressed strong reservations about the impact on privacy, this was not the main reason the deal was called off."

What's worse, FT buried the "minority opinion" in the virtual black box of a grey sidebar.

We still don't know whether BrinPage scotched playing DARTs under the glare of spotlight tags. The FT cop-out (misleading lede?) may leave a bad taste in readers' mouths. In a prescriptive news"paper" analysis, ambiguity can be a bitter pill to swallow.

The smart money: Cookies crumble real deal?

Don't Be E-tarded.

Posted by Kevin Heisler on 10:32 AM | Permalink

Yahoo Under-represented at IAB

One unintended consequence of the departure of Wenda Harris Millard from Yahoo is that Yahoo no longer holds a seat on the board of the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB). Harris Millard, now president of media at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, was just named vice-chair of the organization, and Google's Tim Armstrong, and Microsoft's Mike Hard are on the executive committee. Representatives from InterActiveCorp, AOL, Seevast, MySpace, and Idearc are among the 37 members that sit on the board of directors...but no Yahoos.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 10:16 AM | Permalink

Interview of Usability Guru Jakob Nielsen

I recently had the privilege of sitting down and speaking with Jakob Nielsen. Known as one of the foremost usability gurus in the world, Jakob showed me that he also has a keen understanding of SEO. As the world of web marketing matures, it will be increasingly obvious that you can't do long term SEO without considering usability at the same time.

One of the most interesting aspects of this is the use of keyword research tools. SEOs routinely use these tools to find the highest volume keywords people use related to the site they are currently working on. Often, we think of this as a purely mathematical numbers game. We see the highest volume keywords, and related words, and put them in the title tag, a header at the top of the page, and work some references into the text on the page.

Sounds like a straight forward concept. However, there is far more to it than that. The reason why some keywords are more popular than others is because those keywords reflect the most common way users think about their topic matter.

Placing these intelligently on the page does far, far more than just help you get search volume. It also tells the user that they have arrived at the right place to get what they want. Ultimately, keyword research should be more than an SEO exercise - it needs to be a usability exercise as well.

Once you have the keywords you are interested in, you can place them, and related words in key elements of the page. You can also provide your copy writers with general guidelines for how to produce copy for the page.

I always prefer to give the writers high level instruction, rather than trying to micro manage keywords into their text. Ultimately, telling them that the article is about "Circular Red Widgets", and how they are better than "Square Blue Widgets", is about all the instruction you should provide.

Then let them write a solid piece of quality content. The article quality will drive conversions, in addition to links and search engine traffic, making it a win-win-win situation.

Posted by on 9:00 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: Branding Steers Search Beyond Direct Response

In today's Search Ads column, "Branding Steers Search Beyond Direct Response," Matt Spiegel discusses the myths of direct response advertising. If CMOs build brands, who does direct response? White mice, search marketers, and Pavlov's dogs?

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:53 AM | Permalink

September 23, 2007

Google SERPs Promoting Google Book Links

I was alerted to this by a thread at WebMaster World, seems Google search results are promoting Google Books product. To see an example of this do a search for "building wealth" and go to the page four and beyond results.

Initially this was being shown on the first page and beyond but it seems they have pushed it back a little. Google has been known to test changes to the algorithm without announcing the tests. Hey we are all part of their testing pool.

The highlighths of the conversation at WW were:

*PPC listings were also used briefly - guess they wanted to test the impact of double listing in organic and PPC.

*The Google Books listings have no backlinks - so obviously are being placed there using a boost or value that the algorithm has had set to help the listings (could be something that could be hacked!!!)

*Book listings have been noticed since May - obviously it has been pushed just recently.

*Single word terms seems to be the major area being tested - could be a reflection on the fact that US searchers generally use 2-4 words when searching.

f anyone has noticed this and has some insights please join the conversation here.

Posted by Frank Watson on 11:33 AM | Permalink

September 21, 2007

Search Headlines & Links: September 21, 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 5:00 PM | Permalink

Women Execs Have Better Online Presence

An online career survey indicates female executives at the VP and C-levels have a considerably better career presence online than male executives at the same level.

Results from the Career Distinction Online Identity Calculator showed that female, VP-level executives had an average score of 6.26 out of a possible 10, compared to 5.86 for their male counterparts. At the C-level, the female scores were slightly higher: 6.59 compared to 6.33.

The results of the survey were based on input from over 2,500 executives. The entire sample included over 25,000 professionals at all levels.

Users Google themselves, then answer the survey questions, and the Online ID system calculates the score. The score is based on both the volume of results about the user and the relevance of those results. Although the volume of results for women was significantly lower than for their male counterparts, the relevance of their online IDs was much higher.

There is of course more to reputation management than looking at the first 30 Google results, but it's a good place to start for anyone that hasn't taken a good look at their online presence.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 10:03 AM | Permalink

Custom Search Business Edition

Google has created a new version of its Custom Search Engines which it calls Custom Search Business Edition. This version offers business owners the option to turn off the ads, and complete customization of the way the search results are presented. The result is that they can create a truly customized experience for the user.

Of course, obtaining this additional capability comes at a price. The pricing model offered by Google is as follows:

  • Search less than 5,000 web pages: $100 per year
  • Search less than 50,000 web pages: $500 per year
  • Search less than 100,000 web pages: $850 per year
  • Search less than 300,000 web pages: $2250 per year

The customization of the look and feel of the search results is enabled because the results are made accessible through an XML API. This enables you to control the look and feel of the presentation. Ultimately, this new product provides web site owners with additional flexibility in using Custom Search Engines on their sites.

Posted by on 9:55 AM | Permalink

Google Offers Print Ad Creation Tool

Google Print Ads just became more accessible to small advertisers with the addition of a Print Ad creation tool. Using the free online tool, advertisers can create a newspaper ad by entering headlines and text, and uploading images. The tool then creates a range of options in six ad sizes that are ready to be published in the newspaper.

The Print Ads program has been in extended beta since May, with hundreds of newspapers now participating in the program. Newspapers are able to sell their unused inventory at the last minute, advertisers are able to get a reduced rate, and Google makes money, so everyone's potentially happy.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 9:05 AM | Permalink

Google: Search Key to Auto-Buying Cycle

Google's vertical industry teams have been taking a very consultative approach to ad sales. So far, Google has focused its efforts on five verticals: automotive, retail, financial services, entertainment & media, and healthcare.

Instead of just presenting advertisers with a list of options, the teams work closely with top advertisers to come up with packages that work best for them and others in their industry. Google is also undertaking industry-specific research to share with advertisers.

At a press event yesterday at Google's New York office, Bonita Coleman Stewart, director of Google's automotive industry team, shared preliminary details of a study Google undertook with Compete that looked at online shopping and research behavior in the six months leading up to the vehicle purchase.

In short, the buying cycle for autos has condensed from up to six months to one month, with 65 percent of buyers making a decision in one month or less, and only 17 percent taking more than 3 months to make a buying decision. Automobile marketers are more used to planning their marketing activities around a six-month cycle, but they must now adjust to the new speed of online marketing, Stewart said.

Another common misconception some marketers have about search is that it's only good for the "lower funnel" activities of driving leads and sales. The study found that was not the case, since most consumers start their vehicle purchase cycle with search, and continue to rely on search through the entire funnel, from awareness, to intent, to consideration, then to a test drive and purchase at a local dealer.

Google has been reaching out to the auto industry to educate them on these kinds of findings, Stewart said. Google is working with automakers, agencies, regional dealer groups, and individual dealers, as well as parts resellers and service vendors, to help them understand which of Google's products would work best for them, and to show them metrics that prove that it will be worth their while, she said.

Google is also stressing the availability of its non-search ads, including display ads on its content network, audio ads, and site targeting and maps ads for better targeting. The biggest factor that is expected to drive the auto industry to the Web is the combination of search and online video, Stewart said. She shared that 382 million videos were viewed in YouTube's auto category in July, out of a total 9 billion videos viewed that month – that's about 4 percent of all videos.

She stressed the idea of mobile devices becoming like "portable TVs" that automakers can use to engage potential buyers wherever they are. As more video-friendly devices, like the iPhone, enter the market, there will be even more opportunity in online video, she said.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 8:49 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: Think Local, Act Social

In today's Vertical Challenge column, "Think Local, Act Social," local search expert Michael Boland asks what bars, lawyers, restaurants and dog washers have in common? Answer: They all meet at the intersection of local and social search.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:29 AM | Permalink

September 20, 2007

Getting Vertical Key to Google's Ad Success

Today, Google hosted an Industry Press Day at its New York offices, inviting mainstream and trade press to learn more about its efforts in five verticals: automotive, retail, financial services, entertainment & media, and healthcare. Several members of the SEW/ClickZ team were there, which made it possible for us to cover all five breakout sessions. See "Google's Vertical Ad Honchos Talk Campaigns and Results" at ClickZ News for a wrap-up of what those sessions contained.

Tim Armstrong, president of advertising and commerce in North America, opened the event with a short history of Google's industry-specific efforts, and the changing face of the online ad industry. He outlined three main factors that mark the new reality of Google's ad model: the ability to market all products all the time, incorporating customer insights into marketing plans, and letting the economy drive ad efforts, instead of the other way around.

With performance-based pricing and more automated and dynamic ad creation, Google's ad model has shifted from broad-based targeting to a model that harnesses consumer interest into small buckets. This fundamental change has allowed some advertisers to expand from advertising 8 to 10 products a year five years ago to more than 12,000 products today, Armstrong said.

The idea is to take an inventory of all of your company's assets and create an "asset map." When Google undertook this exercise internally, there was not a single person that could name all of Google's consumer-facing offerings, he said. That's how the company knew it was time to streamline its offering, and do a better job of articulating what was available to advertisers, he said.

Another key change in the industry is the idea of "letting customers into your meetings," or using customer insight to drive marketing decisions instead of making decisions in a closed boardroom. Customers, through their search and other online behavior, can teach a marketer what features of a product are important, how they like to talk about a product, and how to connect with them, Armstrong said.

The third main change in Google's advertising product strategy is the idea of letting the economy drive ad efforts, instead of the other way around. It's what Armstrong calls "knowing the GDP (gross domestic product)," which involves localization of ads, and the creation of industry-specific ad programs. Back in 2000, Google created industry-specific ad sales teams at a time when naysayers thought they were over-investing in infrastructure.

That investment has paid off in spades, Armstrong said, with Google taking its place at the table with CEOs and CMOs, ad agencies, and other decision-makers in these industries that see search advertising as an integral part of their business model.

A typical ad cycle ten years ago might have consisted of blasting a message for six weeks, measuring and repeating. Today, campaigns are running all day, every day, creating an ecosystem that mimics what's happening in the broader economy.

Advertisers are learning to be more open-ended with their ad budgets, letting customer behavior lead the way. For instance, instead of assuming that users might be interested in learning about a product during a certain six week period, an advertiser can let consumer actions – manifested through search behavior – show them when it's the right time to push a certain product.

This is a key aspect of Google's strategy, Armstrong told me afterwards. Since the goals of many advertisers are outside of the traditional direct response strength of text ads in search results, Google's efforts to bring in more big brands include steering them toward ad units they are more comfortable with, such as video ads on YouTube or display ads on its content network, while stressing the new measurements and new levels of understanding afforded by search. In this way, advertisers can apply what happens in search to these other areas, improving their results across the board.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 5:50 PM | Permalink

Search Headlines & Links: September 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 5:00 PM | Permalink

Google Launching New Custom Business Search Engine

The new business edition of custom search comes with a sliding scale price tag, the Google site details.

According to the site, Custom Search Business Edition is available in a number of plans:

Search less than 5,000 web pages: $100 per year
Search less than 50,000 web pages: $500 per year
Search less than 100,000 web pages: $850 per year
Search less than 300,000 web pages: $2250 per year

Posted by Frank Watson on 2:59 PM | Permalink

Viacom Would Rather Not Sue, Chief Counsel Claims

The Chief Counsel for Viacom, Michael Fricklas, stated at the Convergence 2.0 conference today, that Viacom would rather not sue, according to JackMeyers.com.

He hopes that a firm set of usage rules are developed and adhered to, he told the audience. The right filtering by companies like YouTube (that Viacom is suing for illegal content usage) would make sure content copyrights would not be violated.

Posted by Frank Watson on 2:30 PM | Permalink

Microsoft Having Bad Week, Court Rules Against, Google and Lotus Giving Away Tools

They must be feeling a little punchy at Microsoft this week. First the European High Court upheld the fines and sanctions given to Microsoft in 2004 and then Google rolls out a free "power point-like" app, while IBM unveils a suite of free office tools, Lotus Symphony.

"The European Court of First Instance this week upheld fines and sanctions that antitrust officials had levied against Microsoft Corp. in 2004. According to the court in Luxembourg, Microsoft improperly used its dominance in computer operating systems to stiff-arm competitors in two other markets. As a consequence, Microsoft must pay more than $1 billion in fines, offer European computer vendors a version of Windows without its media-playing program and help competing makers of server software work with Microsoft's products," the LA Times reported today.

Posted by Frank Watson on 1:58 PM | Permalink

Google To Stop Preannouncing Quality Score Algorithm Changes

The insights into the changes being made to Google's Quality Score algorithm will no longer be pre-announced - if they are detailed at all - according to a recent post at Inside Adwords blog.

"Since our systems frequently visit landing pages and update Quality Scores on a regular basis, we will no longer post advance notice of upcoming updates. We will, however, continue to inform you of any significant changes to landing page quality guidelines or the factors which are considered in calculating landing page quality," the post reported.

The part of this that shows we will not be getting all the details is in "continue to inform you of any significant changes to landing page quality guidelines or the factors which are considered in calculating landing page quality".

Posted by Frank Watson on 1:37 PM | Permalink

Marketing to the U.S. Hispanic Market

I received an email from the PR agency Weber Shandwick telling me about marketing to 2nd generation Latinos. In particular, the email let me know that Microsoft and MRM Worldwide are participating in an Advertising Week 2007 panel focused on this topic.

It got me excited because when I think about ways to find big wins in web marketing, I always try to find things that represent large opportunities, but where the environment has not become completely saturated by competition. It strikes me that targeting the Spanish speaking population of the U.S. represents such an opportunity.

Of course, you have to deal with the issue of translation, and you would need to have a real understanding of the market. If you can handle those two problems, however, there could be a very interesting opportunity here.

Posted by on 7:34 AM | Permalink

Zillow Lands ex-Googler and Zestimated $30M Follows

Probably sheer coincidence: Zillow has raised another round -- $30 million -- on the heels of ex-Googler Vanessa Fox's arrival in June. Fox founded Google's Webmaster Central after joining Google in 2005.

The Wall St. Journal broke the Zillow story early this morning, noting the capital infusion will be used for Local Search.

WSJ reports "businesses such as plumbers, architects or real-estate agents can deliver targeted ads" to potential buyers searching for homes in specific zip codes.

Sound familiar? Then you must have read this week's Link Love: "Link Building For Local Search" in SEW Experts.

Posted by Kevin Heisler on 12:33 AM | Permalink

Is Your Search Integrated Like Chunky Monkey?

Integration in search is like integration of Ben & Jerry's ice cream flavors. If you're in the market for a search vendor, you might have something to learn from the boys in Vermont. In today's SearchDay, "Searching for Options: Integration Spells Sweet Success," John Tawadros writes that while options abound, successful integration has its rewards.

However you decide to engage in search, be sure to choose your search marketing vendor wisely, and give careful consideration to the importance of integration in the process. Otherwise, you could end up with a melt-down on your hands, and a sticky mess that could take more than a few napkins to clean up.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:05 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: Link Building for Local Search

In today's Link Love column, "Link Building for Local Search," Justilien Gaspard imagines a search engine-free world. Would you still build "links" to increase local traffic? He shares some radical link building strategies for local search.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink

September 19, 2007

Search Headlines & Links: September 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:

Headlines & News from Elsewhere:

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 10:38 PM | Permalink

Google Webmaster Tools Update

The Google Webmaster tools announced new changes to Webmaster Tools. Ths biggest change was the addition of subscriber stats from various Google services, such as: Google Reader, iGoogle, and Orkut.

One of the biggest questions in the comments on the post was about a potential integration with Feedburner itself. This would provide great additional value, and many users seem to want that. This would provide subscriber data on services other than Google services.

In one of the comments, Google employee Susan Moskwa offered some clarification on this point:

"the subscriber number in webmaster tools reflects all known subscribers to feeds that are on your verified domain only. FeedBurner sees all requests for your feeds, whether they're to www.yourdomain.com/feed or feeds.feedburner.com/yourfeed. If a Google user is subscribed to the FeedBurner version of your feed, the webmaster tools number will not include them."

In addition to the subscriber stats, the user interface was revamped. The tabbed look is gone, and not there is a left side menu that expands and contracts dynamically, depending on where you go in the site. When I first saw it, it took some getting used to. I suspect, however, that it will ultimately be easier to use, and it probably makes it easier for the menu to be expanded to include more additional features in the future.

Posted by on 10:52 AM | Permalink

Google Makes Brand Advertiser Push

Google has launched a new format for AdWords advertisers: Gadget Ads.

Gadget Ads are an interactive ad unit that will appear on sites in the AdSense content network. Gadget ads can include things like data feeds, images, or video and can be developed using Flash, HTML or a combination of the two. They support both cost-per-click (CPC) and cost-per-impression (CPM) pricing models, and offer a variety of contextual, site, geographic and demographic targeting options.

The units are a clear attempt to woo more brand advertisers to Google's platform. To help in that regard, Google has also hired Andy Berndt as managing director of a new "Creative Lab," according to a Wall Street Journal report. Berndt was most recently co-president of Ogilvy & Mather's New York office. The New York-based Lab will look for ways to work more closely with traditional agencies, according to the report.

While the move may seem like a push into the agency business, a spokesperson told ClickZ News that was not the case: "We are not in any way setting up our own agency. We want to be very clear about that."

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 10:24 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: Split Traffic, Raise Conversion Rates, Repeat, Multiply

In today's By the Numbers column, "Split Traffic, Raise Conversion Rates, Repeat, Multiply," Eric Enge reminds marketers that site optimization doesn't begin or end with landing page testing. A/B splits don't give marketers splitting headaches anymore. What's the next step? Multiply your variables.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: Skyrockets In Flight, Google to the Moon?

In today's Searching for Meaning column, "Skyrockets In Flight, Google to the Moon?," Kevin Ryan wonders if Google has officially jumped the shark with its outer space projects. Hey Sergey, are you goofing on Elvis? Has Google left the building?

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink

September 18, 2007

Search Headlines & Links: September 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:

  • The Key to Getting Answers: Be Prepared
    The obvious way to learn at SES is to attend the sessions. But you can learn a whole lot more by going in with a plan and thinking like a Boy Scout: Be Prepared.
  • Archives Mean Ad Dollars
    Publishers have always guarded their archives, as one of the last bastions of online, fee-based revenues. But with a search-optimized site, revenue from ads can outweigh subscription fees.
  • Google AdSense for Mobile
    The program is targeted at people who have created websites targeted at mobile browsers, allowing them to make money on contextual advertising using the same model used by Google on the traditional web.
  • SEW Experts: Think Small, Win Big: Social Media Marketing
    Carrie Hill asks if social media has arrived, or if it's still middle school for Web sites. See how your small business can make sense of it.
  • SEW Experts: Google Dance in Aeon Flux
    Mark Jackson explores the "Google Dance." Some SEO experts say the Google don't dance. Others claim the Google Dance never ends. What does it mean for SEM, ranking reports, and site analytics?

Headlines & News from Elsewhere:

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 11:43 PM | Permalink

The Key to Getting Answers: Be Prepared

When it comes to getting answers that can directly help your business, industry conferences like Search Engine Strategies can't be beat. The obvious way to learn at SES is to attend the sessions. But you can learn a whole lot more by going in with a plan and thinking like a Boy Scout: Be Prepared.

In today's SearchDay, "Ten Lessons From SES San Jose," John Biundo shares his preparation methods, along with some of the more interesting things he learned at the recent SES San Jose conference.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 4:25 PM | Permalink

Archives Mean Ad Dollars

Publishers have always guarded their archives, as one of the last bastions of online, fee-based revenues. There's been a nice and reliable revenue stream, but the rules are changing. There's even more money to be made in advertising now.

Today, the NYTimes opened up its TimeSelect business. Lost in the headlines was some interesting news: all archives back to 1981 will be freely accessible. Plus all public domain archives between 1851 and 1922 will be opened too. NYT will continue charging for articles from 1923-1980, which are likely wrapped into previously arranged re-distribution deals.

This is big news, at least if you're a publisher with any archives. Several key points of advice as you compete in the ad-based world:

* Accept the gauntlet that's been laid down. Think hard about whether you should continue with any paid or premium access at all.
* See if you are operating with any restrictions. Look at your old library or business deals, with Lexis-Nexis, Gale/Thompson and ProQuest.
* Take control of your distribution now. Figure out your widget strategy and other ways to make content searchable or available off-domain.

Most importantly, have all your domain ducks in a row. As you open the doors, make sure you optimize your organic and site search traffic. Actively feature or make content from your archives more "findable" when visitors arrive on your site.

If you're a publisher with archives, you possess ideal content for targeted, contextual advertising. That's a gift not to be squandered!

Posted by on 10:38 AM | Permalink

Google AdSense for Mobile

Recently I wrote that Google Mobile was starting to run AdWords ads. This initiative has been expanded to now include Google Adsense(TM) for mobile. This program contextually targets ads to mobile website content.

The program is targeted at people who have created websites targeted at mobile browsers, allowing them to make money on contextual advertising using the same model used by Google on the traditional web. The program is available in the following countries: US, Australia, China, England, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Russia, Spain, and will soon also be available in Japan.

For AdWords advertisers that currently do contetual advertising with Google, this will expand the reach of that advertising further onto the mobile platform.

A word of caution is in order for all Google AdWords advertisers. Participation in this program defaults to opt-in. If your content is not appropriate for a mobile environment, you need to go into your AdWords account and manually opt-out.

I have heard some criticism of this policy, as many AdWords account holders will not know that they need to do this, and their ads will be running in a mobile environment, even if that is not what they want. This will result in added expenditure that they will not have anticipated.

The Google FAQ page for the AdWords for Google Mobile initiative states that the procedure to opt out is:

You can opt out your eligible search ads from running on Google Mobile Search pages at any time. On the Campaign Summary page, select the link that says 'View performance data for these ads' from within the alert message or below the table that contains your campaigns. On the bottom of the page that reads "Performance Data: Search Ads on Google Mobile Search," click on the link that says 'Yes, opt me out' to stop running your search ads.

It appears that the procedure is a bit different than that. I went into an AdWords account this morning, and could not find the link Google refers to on the Campaign Summary tab. After about 10 minutes, I finally found the following text: "There are 61 days left before we will begin charging for search ads on Google Mobile Search. View details". The View details text was a link to a page where I could opt out of the program.

For the client whose account I was using to research this, my opinion was that the mobile platform was not a fit, so I opted out of the service. Note that Google does say that they try to algorithmically determine the fit of content and landing pages for the mobile platform, but my opinions is that it's better to be safe than sorry.

Posted by on 10:05 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: Think Small, Win Big: Social Media Marketing

In today's Little Biz column, "Think Small, Win Big: Social Media Marketing," Carrie Hill asks if social media has arrived, or if it's still middle school for Web sites. See how your small business can make sense of it.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: Google Dance in Aeon Flux

In today's au Natural column, "Google Dance in Aeon Flux," Mark Jackson explores the "Google Dance." Some SEO experts say the Google don't dance. Others claim the Google Dance never ends. What does it mean for SEM, ranking reports, and site analytics?

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink

September 17, 2007

Search Headlines & Links: September 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 9:59 PM | Permalink

Yahoo Showcases Tools for Teachers

Yahoo today gave a sneak peek of a new research-focused service aimed at making life easier for teachers, Yahoo Teachers. The new service, highlighted at the TechCrunch40 conference, is part online clipping service, part lesson planner, and part collaboration tool. Yahoo Teachers is currently in closed beta.

Also from TechCrunch come rumors that Yahoo will acquire Zimbra, an online/offline office suite. If that's true, it wouldn't be much of a surprise, given the moves Google and Microsoft have been making in that area.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 3:18 PM | Permalink

Idearc Buys Switchboard, Other Assets from InfoSpace

Local search and directory publisher Idearc has acquired Switchboard.com and other directory assets from InfoSpace for $2 million in cash. Switchboard.com was acquired by InfoSpace in 2004 for $103 million. The directory products will be folded into Idearc's Superpages.com, and monetized through its existing ad products, giving advertisers access to more inventory and a new audience, according to a statement.

"With the addition of Switchboard.com and its associated networks, we are increasing the scale of our fast-growing local search platform, enabling our advertisers' content to reach even more consumers and boosting our high-quality organic Internet traffic base," said Kathy Harless, Idearc's president and CEO.

InfoSpace's online directory business offers directory services through InfoSpace's branded Web sites, such as Switchboard.com and InfoSpace.com, and through private-label distribution partners. The vast majority of the revenue is generated from Switchboard.com. For the first half of 2007, the business had revenues of $17.2 million, and employs approximately 50 people.

That would leave InfoSpace with a mobile business and a few metasearch engines like Dogpile and corresponding toolbars. But, as Andy Beal points out: "The Triangle Business Journal–yes we do have a tech industry in North Carolina folks–suggests that InfoSpace is also set to sell its entire mobile division to Durham-based Motricity."

Superpages.com's network had 21.3 million unique visitors in August 2007 and InfoSpace Directories and Resources had 7.7 million unique visitors in the same time period, according to comScore's Media Matrix for August 2007.

The latest in a string of product launches and investments by Idearc in local search.

UPDATE: According to Kate Kaye at ClickZ News, Idearc is touting the buy as a way to get more organic Web traffic, thereby limiting the need to rely on traffic from search engines.

"We want to be able to control our own destiny," said Idearc President, Internet Eric Chandler, during a press conference call this morning. The acquisition, which will include InfoSpace's mobile application Find It, will provide Idearc with "more high quality organic traffic," he added.
Existing agreements Switchboard has in place with search partners have caps on the amount of traffic that can be driven to its directories. "Once we own the traffic there are no caps for us," said Chandler.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 1:32 PM | Permalink

DCLK: Google's Double Data Dealing Digital Destiny?

Released today, "Google's DoubleClick Takeover: Double Data-Dealing" is Jeff Chester's latest polemic against the proposed $3 billion merger with DCLK. As the FTC moves closer to a decision on the deal, the executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy hosted a press conference showcasing privacy advocates.

"No piracy of privacy" groups EPIC, US PIRG and other GOOGOpponents also discussed (advocated) challenges to the merger and restrictive remedies the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) might impose to protect (what's left of) Internet privacy and preserve (what's left of) online competition.

Of course the Right might say there's nothing left of Jeff Chester, executive director of The Center for Digital Democracy (CDD) and frequent contributor to The Nation. Antitrust and consumer privacy issues don't warrant fear mongering.

Chester's recently published book, "Digital Destiny: New Media and the Future of Democracy" (The New Press, 2007) presupposes the existence of U.S. democracy and, in turn, its presumed demise. Some may argue that new media and search engines foster faith in democracy's digital resurrection. If so, those lucky few weren't invited to today's piracy of privacy party.

Posted by Kevin Heisler on 1:07 PM | Permalink

Cybersquatting defined for search marketers

cybersquatting.jpg Intellectual property and ecommerce attorney David Adler discusses the legal definition of cybersquatting, and the legal remedies for search marketers.

Alder explains that cybersquatting can fall into a trademark infringement issue when a competitor purchases a domain that includes the trademark in domain, or even just similar enough to be confusing to the intended audience (whereas people will mistake the domain to be from the trademark owner).

Much cybersquatting revolves around what Adler explains as a "bad faith" intent. Evidence of bad faith includes the following:

1. Registration of the domain name in order to prevent the owner of the trademark or service mark from reflecting the mark in a corresponding domain name, provided that you have engaged in a pattern of such conduct;

2. Registration of the domain name primarily for the purpose of disrupting the business of a competitor; or…

3. Use of a domain name intentionally to attract, for commercial gain, Internet users to a web site or other on-line location, by creating a likelihood of confusion with the complainant's mark as to the source, sponsorship, affiliation, or endorsement of a web site or location or of a product or service on a web site or location.

Some unscrupulous search spammers have attempted to subvert the search engine's own guidelines against using competitor trademarks in their search ads copy, by instead including it in the domain, appearing right below.

Posted by Grant Crowell on 11:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Set the Context in your Custom Search Engine

Last week the Google Custom Search blog posted about a couple of Custom Search Engine updates. One of these is a change I have been asking about for a long time, and it's great to see it.

Now the keywords that you program in the Basics tab of the control panel have a stronger effect on results. In a sense, they allow you to assume a context. Here is the example they provided in their post:

Compare the results on this yoga search engine when looking for a "mat" with and without the keyword "yoga" -- with keywords:
http://www.google.com/cse?q=mat&cx=005239880967462049052%3A412vkh_dcla

without keywords:
http://www.google.com/cse?q=mat&cx=005239880967462049052:mdwcyik6y9m

The reason that this is a really important change is that users get set in the context of the site. When they are on a yoga site using a yoga search engine, they don't expect that they will have to type in "yoga mat". The data I have seen shows that they want to type in "mat".

Every time you force a user to redo something because of a mismatch between their expectations and what you provide, some of them lose interest in going further and leave. This is not a good thing, but now you can address it with Google Custom Search Engines.

Posted by on 10:56 AM | Permalink

We Like ‘Em Both

Both SEO and SEM are equally effective online tactics, according to nearly 2,500 marketers surveyed by Marketing Sherpa. Some 54% said SEO produced strong/good returns while 51% claimed the same thing about their SEM spends. Online display ads did not perform well, with only 19% of marketers reporting decent returns.

While that trust in search optimization and marketing is commendable, it supports what we already know about the value of targeted, online tactics. On the other hand, there's a sizeable group who aren't satisfied yet.

Over a quarter, or 28%, of marketers discovered their SEM returns were highly variable vs. 17% who found SEO returns varied too. Meanwhile 21% of respondents claimed SEO results were hard to gauge; by contrast, just 9% said SEM created any tracking challenges. Online banners again were non-performers, with 43% of marketers calling them a low-value tactic.

How to react to these outcomes?

Well, consider the sources. These respondents “conduct or supervise search marketing for their own companies” and likely have a vested interest in producing decent SEO and SEM results. It makes sense that over half of marketers are pleased with their efforts -- though we may wish for more.

The survey asked about marketing tactics independently. Thus any connections among the different online (and offline) tactics aren't here. I'm not ready to throw in the towel on the ROI non-performers quite yet. As we know, any awareness can also drive search activities down the line.

Posted by on 10:55 AM | Permalink

SMA-NA Dissolved

Ian McAnerin, president of the Search Marketing Association of North America (SMA -NA), announced on Saturday that he will be dissolving the organization due to lack of resources.

SMA-NA, like the UK (SMA -UK) and European (SMA-EU) counterparts, was founded in 2004 as an alternative to SEMPO, the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization. The SMA-EU seems to have disappeared as well, but I'll update this post when I find out more about that.

The SMA groups formed when several search marketers felt that the year-old SEMPO was not serving their needs.

McAnerin notes that SEMPO has addressed many of the concerns that led to the formation of SMA-NA, which was another factor in his decision. "In short, I'm fighting a problem that really doesn't exist with an organization that in most practical aspects also doesn't exist," McAnerin writes on his blog. "No matter how strongly I feel about the goals of the SMA, it's come to the point where I feel I can make more of a contribution to the industry using other methods and processes, and this is where I feel I should focus my efforts to promote and engage this industry I love and am so deeply a part of."

Share your thoughts in the SEW Forums.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 10:16 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: Search Marketers Stock in Trade? Not Trading Stocks.

In today's Search Ads column, "Search Marketers Stock in Trade? Not Trading Stocks.," Matt Spiegel discusses why portfolio management no longer strikes fear into the hearts of search marketers. Find out why changing bids doesn't make the marketer.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink

September 15, 2007

Does Apple offer a crisis communications 2.0 case study?

Brian Solis of FutureWorks PR has written an article for Internet Financial News entitled, "Crisis Communications 2.0 - Apple And The..." It is a must-read for anyone involved in online public relations, consumer generated media, or universal search.

Solis takes a second look at the recent "iPhone Price Bomb" and analyzes what went right and what went horribly wrong. I strongly endorse his advice, which is: "Crisis Communications 2.0 will have a plan, ready to go, that combines traditional and social activity that each place people at the center of the discussion - the rest are just the tools to execute. But nothing can go live without first listening to the conversations taking place."

Posted by Greg Jarboe on 11:06 AM | Permalink

September 14, 2007

Search Headlines & Links: September 14, 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 6:05 PM | Permalink

Yahoo Acquires News Aggregator BuzzTracker

Yahoo has acquired BuzzTracker, a news aggregator combining editorial judgment and algorithms taking into account how many times the story was blogged, and how recently.

BuzzTracker founder Alan Warms joins Yahoo as the general manager of News, along with his team. He is tasked with using the BuzzTracker technology to help improve the breadth and relevancy of Yahoo News content,regardless of the source.

"The decision to sell the business and move to Yahoo! was relatively simple. As anyone playing in the online space understands, online media is all about scale. The ability to garner real CPMs, the ability to sell ads directly, the ability to provide innovative solutions to advertisers, all depend on having tens of millions of unique visitors," Warms wrote on his Participate Media blog.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 3:58 PM | Permalink

Affordable video production for search marketers – interview with TurnHere

bradley-inman.jpgIn this recent interview conducted with online video solutions provider TurnHere, Founder and CEO Bradley Inman elaborates on project management aspects of preparing online video content for search engine distribution.

Posted by Grant Crowell on 10:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SEW Blog Ranks #3 in AdAge Power 150

AdAge Power 150Allow me to toot our horn for a moment.

Search Engine Watch has been ranked #3 in the AdAge Power 150, a ranking of the top English-language media and marketing blogs in the world.

I'm very proud of the work that we've done this year. Our team of bloggers has done a great job of consistently churning out top-quality work. Thanks to all of you, and congratulations.

The list uses objective data from Google; Bloglines and Technorati, as well as subjective "Todd Points" from marketing executive and blogger, Todd Andrlik. Each blog can get up to 15 Todd Points (we got 11), which Andrik gives for sites with frequent, relevant, creative and high-quality content. The use of audio, video and graphics is also heavily weighted in the Todd Points.

OK, so the Google data is toolbar Page Rank, which many would argue is not exactly "data" as much as an "estimate." But counting Bloglines subscribers and Technorati links has some comparative value, at least.

With an overall score of 69, we came in just behind Micro Persuasion, also with 69, and Seth Godin, with 70 points. Just behind SEW with 68 points were Online Marketing Blog, Pronet Advertising, and Search Engine Land.

It seems search marketing blogs are kicking some butt compared with more general marketing blogs, but that's no surprise, given the high quality of blogs in our space. Other search blogs on the list include Marketing Pilgrim (#8), SEOmoz Blog (#13), and Search Engine Guide (#31). Our sister site ClickZ made the list at #46.

Congratulations to all the blogs on the list.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 10:38 AM | Permalink

Forbes Looks at Click Fraud – and Doesn't Sensationalize It!

Most of the time, when a mainstream media publication writes a story about click fraud, it's filled with sensational attempts to instill FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) into the hearts of advertisers. That's not the case in a new story from Andy Greenberg at Forbes.com, "Counting Clicks."

Greenberg interviews Shuman Ghosemajumder, business product manager for trust & safety, and manages to tell Google's side of things and striking a reasonable tone to the story. Some will say the article leans toward Google propaganda, but it's not often that mass media take that tone instead of the "big, bad Google" tone.

I'm not saying click fraud isn't a problem, or that Google doesn't need to do more work on it, especially in areas of openness with advertisers. It's just nice to read about it in a general business publication and not come away shaking my head at the misrepresentations and errors.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 10:13 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: Real World Trumps Online in Local Search

In today's Vertical Challenge column, "Real World Trumps Online in Local Search ," local search expert Gregg Stewart reminds you that if you don't know what your customer is doing, your customer will probably end up someplace else. Tracking local search online and offline is key.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: Baking SEO into a Full Fledged Interactive Work Plan

In today's Outsourced column, "Baking SEO into a Full Fledged Interactive Work Plan," Chris Boggs discusses where SEO belongs in a strategic online marketing plan. If you think you know the answer, you may be surprised by this week's Outsourced column.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink

September 13, 2007

Search Headlines & Links: September 13, 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 11:15 PM | Permalink

AOL Moves Social News from Netscape.com to Propeller.com

In an anticipated move, AOL has announced that it will move the social news site provided at Netscape.com (a Digg type site) to Propeller.com. The new site is not live yet. Users going to Netscape.com will currently still find the social news site; however, they will soon be redirected to the new Netscape portal that is already available. The Netscape portal offers a traditional look, some news blended with other features including the opportunity to engage with the news through the social news site.

According to Netscape, this move is to empower users to choose how they want to consume the news and participate in the community. In short, although the social news site had a active group of supporters, this just simply did not meet the needs of AOL's broader audience. Will this move propel AOL's social news experiment into oblivion or spur new growth and innovation? This remains to be seen.

The social news site was launched with Jason Calcanis on board to thump the drum and encourage staying the course. It was originally thought that this site might challenge Digg for supremacy in the social news space. However, with the departure of Calcanis to his new venture Mahalo, the site lost an influential internal social networking supporter, and traditionalists, wanting to bring back features that users missed, held the day.

A look at the new portal site suggests that the new blend may have a lot to offer – a news portal at Netscape.com that provides users a with a traditional look and feel but includes the opportunity for users to participate in the process through Propeller. To make this work there are challenges that Propeller.com will have to overcome. First, if it is to survive, the site will need to encourage current users to continue using the social news features available at the new domain. The more daunting task will be encouraging new users to join the community. Users and their dedication to the process is the lifeblood of any community. Will the community stay intact? Will it garner new users from those using the more traditional portal site? This will depend on how AOL communicates the change to its multiple audiences and user enthusiasm.

Posted by Amanda Watlington on 12:05 PM | Permalink

The Benefits Centralized SEM Management in Large Organizations

What would you need to do to convince the necessary people in your large organization that a unified, integrated approach to paid search marketing will have a stronger financial impact if centrally managed? And, once you have built a consensus, what would you have to do to get the plan moving?

AOL's VP of SEO/SEM answers those questions in today's SearchDay, "Laying the Foundation for Paid Search Success in Large Organizations."

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 11:31 AM | Permalink

Using Google's Date Parameters to Find Newly Indexed Pages

Matt Cutts recently posted about better date searching on Google. It was pretty intriguing, because there are some interesting things you can do with this from an SEO perspective.

For example, if you have just added a new section to your site, and you want to find out if the new pages have been indexed yet, you might start with a "site:yourdomain.com" query. This can work fine for small sites, but if you have a site with even a couple hundred pages it starts to get a bit complicated.

What if you could tell Google to show you how many new pages it has found in the past 7 days? Or, 8 days? Or 9? You can do all these things by adding a parameter to the end of the URL of the search results page.

Let's look at the example that Matt provided, a query that shows how many new pages were added to the Google index for mattcutts.com in the past 7 days:

http://www.google.com/search?q=site:mattcutts.com&as_qdr=d7

The key is the "&as_qdr=d7" at the end of this URL. It tells Google to limit the search to the last 7 days.

Here is a summary of the various parameters you can set, straight from Matt's post:

d[number] - past number of days (e.g.: d10)
w[number] - past number of weeks
y[number] - past number of years

You can get the results over the past 2 weeks, for example, as follows:

http://www.google.com/search?q=site:mattcutts.com&as_qdr=w2

Unfortunately, you can't simply add the parameter to the end of your query. In other words, you can't simply try "site:mattcutts.com?as_qdr=w2". You need to do your site:yourdomain.com search, get the results, then add the parameter to the end of the URL and refresh the page.

Nonetheless, this procedure is manageable, especially when you are really trying to find out about the indexing of those new pages on your site.

Posted by on 10:43 AM | Permalink

blinkx and Utarget partners in online video advertising deal

blinkx, the video search engine, today announced its partnership with the UK's online video advertising network Utarget, to place video advertising around its content for UK audiences. Utarget will focus on monetizing blinkx's video inventory including ITN News and ITN Celebrity.

Suranga Chandratillake, founder and CEO of blinkx, says his company is looking to develop more geo-targeted matches between content owners and advertisers to better monetize their output, and that "working with Utarget will offer their partners the simplest way of getting in touch with UK advertisers."

“blinkx is easily the most advanced search engine for users to access video." said Phil Cooper, Utarget CEO. Partnering with blinkx will offer our advertisers quality video inventory and a large, well-informed audience.”

Exclusive: blinkx has also informed me that uTarget's ads will be pre-roll, and run before user-selected video. According to a YouGove study commissioned by Utarget Networks, UK Internet users are far more receptive to pre-roll online video advertising than U.S. internet users.

Read the commentary on this story at the Grantastic Designs blog.

Posted by Grant Crowell on 8:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Popcorn Search Disappoints

The popcorn lung news has been water-cooler talk around here recently. In case you haven't heard, it can be unsafe to consume vast quantities of microwaved, buttered popcorn. Of course, I wanted to learn more and entered “popcorn” as my search term. The results were not particularly interesting or relevant to me.

All the engines returned similar things about the edible treat from sites like Wikipedia, the Popcorn Board, Factmonster, and retailers of all stripes. A product called Roxio Popcorn also made the grade, which helps you copy DVDs.

Google did produce two relevant results in positions 7/8, from The Pump Handle and Scientific American. There were none returned from Yahoo, Ask or MSN. Yahoo suggested “popcorn lung” for searching, while none of the others made relevant suggestions. In the paid column, Revolution Health bought ads which linked to its Reuters story about popcorn lung.

Why can't a popcorn search reflect our collective interests better? We know this specific interest may be short-lived, but there's been a lot of news coverage. Thus it's disappointing that nothing much is shown -- unless you consciously think about adding keywords to popcorn.

The next time someone says that search and semantic approaches work perfectly well? Just offer this example to them. Fortunately, there are technologies that either personalize or share community interests, so we won't be disappointed forever.

Posted by on 2:21 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: I, Google: No Halo for Aggressive Linkers

In today's Link Love column, "I, Google: No Halo for Aggressive Linkers ," Sage Lewis asks, "If you were Google, would paid links be tagged as resident evil?"

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink

September 12, 2007

Search Headlines & Links: September 12, 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 4:00 PM | Permalink

Google Leaks Info on Google Reader, Social Networking Efforts

Seems an internal presentation on Google Readre and their planned social networking efforts was leaked, according to Philipp Lenssen at Blogoscoped.

The video presentation that a number of people online now have passed around was for Nooglers - new employees of Google, according to reports.

Among the details discovered:
Google is developing a "standard for feed publishers to tell aggegrators about changes in the feed".
"The Reader team is going to integrate more social features."

Posted by Frank Watson on 3:02 PM | Permalink

Adam Bosworth Leaving Google

Adam Bosworth, who was charged with developing health information for Google Health, will be leaving the company to pursue other opportunities, the Times Online reported.

John Batelle notes that Marissa Mayer will take over the position.

Bosworth helped develop XML - the Extensible Markup Language - before joining Google three years ago.

Mayer has held many senior positions with Google. In 2002 she was a product manager, but by 2005 Mayer was Director of Consumer Web Products, though ended the year as VP of Search Products & User Experience.

Got to wish them both the best.

Posted by Frank Watson on 2:43 PM | Permalink

AmericanTowns Gets Idearc Backing, Sells LocalSearch.com

IYP publisher Idearc has invested in AmericanTowns, a collection of local city guides that aggregates content from various sources about local businesses, events, news and other resources. Idearc has also purchased the LocalSearch.com domain from AmericanTowns. Combined, the deal is worth $3.3 million.

Idearc will work with AmericanTowns to develop hyper-local content for its own local search offerings, and will take an equity interest and board seat at the start-up.

AmericanTowns.com will use proceeds from this transaction to continue growing its database, to develop new tools for community groups, and to add more user-generated content tools for its local sites.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 11:22 AM | Permalink

Google Reader Not Yet in Universal Search

Google Blogoscoped reports that an internal video titled Nooglers And The PDB: Reactor (Ben Darnell, September 6, 2007) was leaked from Google. Nooglers is the internal term for new Googlers, and Reactor is the internal code word for Google Reader.

There were a number of interesting points that Google Blogoscoped extracted from the video. One particularly interesting one was that there is no plan to integrate Google Reader with Universal Search: "This is because Universal Search doesn't provide its backends with user IDs (so Gmail results can't be shown either), and because it requires a lookup time of less than 1/4 second".

My own suspicion is that while there may be no short term plan to do this type of integration, Google would like to do this over the longer term. There is a strong commitment to Universal Search and Personalization within Google, and taking advantage of user specified feeds makes a lot of sense. After all, by subscribing to a feeed, a user is indicating that they trust that feed as a source of information.

Posted by on 10:35 AM | Permalink

A Look at the Local Search Landscape

Are you confused by the myriad local search options popping up every other day? Wondering what you need to worry about, and what to tell your clients about local search? Marchex has attempted to simplify that for you with a new primer on the local search space, outlining the landscape of ad providers and publishers.

We break down the report in today's SearchDay, "The Local Search Landscape."

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 10:23 AM | Permalink

Google.org investing in plug-in hybrids

Google's philanthropic arm, Google.org, has issued a call for investment proposals. Specifically, they are looking for entrepreneurs to propose ways to develop plug-in hybrid vehicles. Google.org is prepared to invest $10M in such proposals. They indicated that they were treating this like an RFP process, rather than a typical investment process, because they wanted to encourage "new ideas and new entrants".

This continues the trend of major Internet companies getting directly involved in environmental issues. For example, earlier this year, Yahoo! committed to becoming carbon neutral. It's all good stuff guys. Keep it up!

Posted by on 9:32 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: The Search Marketing Human Capital Problem

In today's Searching for Meaning column, "The Search Marketing Human Capital Problem," Kevin Ryan tries to help both HR execs hunting for human "search marketing" resources and SEM pros hunted by executive recruiters. Find out what human capital is worth.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: Surfers, Crawlers Find Bloated Pages Hard to Digest

In today's By the Numbers column, "Surfers, Crawlers Find Bloated Pages Hard to Digest," Eric Enge discusses page bloat. How fast a page loads still clinches whether a visitor stays or clicks away. Can page bloat also deter search engine crawlers and raise ranking issues?

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink

September 11, 2007

Search Headlines & Links: September 11, 2007

Want a snapshot of the day's search engine 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 6:34 PM | Permalink

Australian Watchdog Suing Google Gets Judical Criticism

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission was told its legal briefs were unclear and were ordered to submit summaries of their main allegations by the Australian judge overseeing the case, The Australian reported.

Google contends that it did not mislead advertisers or readers and "Google Australia spokesman Rob Shilkin said the company had said from the outset that the case was wrongly based," the Australian newspaper stated.

Posted by Frank Watson on 6:08 PM | Permalink

Newsknife finds dramatic changes in Google News ratings

On August 31, 2007, Google announced that it would start hosting material produced by The Associated Press (AP) and three other wire services on Google News. "After just 9 days, it looks like this is already having a big effect on the relevance rankings of news sites there," Newsknife has just reported.

Newsknife, which is based in New Zealand, compared its pre-wire-service rankings for all of August with its wire-services-included rankings for the first nine days of September. While the September sample is small -- only 9,010 listings by 1,092 sites for 72 news stories -- Newsknife finds the changes are dramatic.

In August, the top news sites at Google News were:
1 Forbes
2 New York Times
3 ABC News
4 Reuters
5 Washington Post
6 Guardian Unlimited, UK

Looking at September 1-9, the top news sties at Google News were:
1 Guardian Unlimited, UK
2 New York Times
3 Washington Post
4 The Associated Press
5 BBC News, UK
6 Voice of America

So, within nine days, AP has jumped into the top 6 ratings. And Agence France-Presse, another one of the wire services now hosted on Google News, wasn't far behind.

According to Newsknife, "Such a strong showing by the wire services suggests this is the new reality. Some others sites will presumably move down the Google News rankings to make way."

On August 31, Josh Cohen, the business product manager for Google News, said, "This change will provide more room on Google News for publishers' most highly valued content: original content." And it appears that Google News is rewarding original content.

As evidence, Newsknife pointed to "the other remarkable feature of our September-to-date ratings: the rise of non-wire-service site Guardian Unlimited."

According to Newsknife, "Surely, we can infer here that Google News is rewarding originality. In Newsknife's opinion this is a long-awaited reward."

Newsknife's "Wire Services Watch" will continue tracking the ratings rise and fall for individual news sites over the next few months -- including the wire services. I plan to follow up when it becomes clear who the winners and losers are.

Nevertheless, the early returns indicate that the advice I provided in my SEW blog post on September 3 was on target, "Pitch your next big story directly to one of the 3,000 AP journalists in one of the more than more than 240 AP bureaus worldwide. If they write a story, it has a better chance of appearing in Google News than any of the 'duplicate articles' that might appear in one of the thousands of daily newspaper, radio, television and online customers that AP serves."

Posted by Greg Jarboe on 5:50 PM | Permalink

Google Mobile to Start Running AdWords

Google will shortly begin showing AdWords ads within Google Mobile Search. According to the email I received, this will start up in the next few days, and will be free to users of the service through November 18th. Google indicated that they will only show ads for sites whose landing pages that can be adapted for showing on a mobile phone screen.

The announcement made it clear that AdWords account holders could opt out of the service at any time. This is reitirated in the AdWords on Google Mobile FAQ. As a result, it seems that if you want this new service, there is really nothing you need to do. However, if you don't want it, you need to go into your AdWords account and turn the feature off. This will be something you need to remember to do.

The other interesting thing to speculate on is how and where the ads will show up on the mobile devices. All that the FAQ indicated is that the ads will show up on Google Mobile Search pages. The FAQ does indicate that "Ad displays with more than 70 characters are adapted so that only the Headline and URL is displayed when the ad appears on a mobile browser".

It's interesting to see this step take place, as the perennial "year of mobile search", as highlighted in this article by Kevin Newcomb, depends on the proper commercialization of the medium. One of the big challenges is how to manage the usability of ads in that medium. The mobile browser has large space challenges already.

Posted by on 1:23 PM | Permalink

Firefox Reaches 400 Million Download Mark

Firefox announced it has reached 400 million downloads, PC Pro reported today. The browser's popularity has reached 28% market share in Europe and 15% globally, PC Pro noted.

The number is significant since Firefox/Mozilla has a deep working relationship with Google. The fabled GBrowser came to the surface when a couple of senior employees at Mozilla joined the Google team.

Posted by Frank Watson on 10:53 AM | Permalink

Details Of MSN adCenter Changes

I missed this when it came out at the beginning of the month, but I have not seen a blog about it here.

MSN did an interesting release about the recent changes to the adCenter.

Nothing like getting it from the source with pictures and some details.

Posted by Frank Watson on 10:45 AM | Permalink

The Year for Mobile Ads is Here...Really

It seems like every year, an industry analyst or pundit declares that this year will be the year of mobile search, and mobile advertising in general. According to a Kelsey Group report, a confluence of factors may mean that now really is the time for mobile advertising to take off.

Google is looking for more places to put its text ads and more formats to sell advertisers. Microsoft is looking to combat Google's online dominance by beating them at mobile search. Mobile devices, especially the iPhone, are making the mobile browsing experience more accessible to mainstream users.

The Kelsey Group's U.S. Mobile Advertising Forecast predicts that the U.S. mobile ad market will grow from $33.2 million in 2007 to $1.4 billion in 2012, a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 112 percent. At the same time, the number of mobile Internet users will grow from 37.9 million in 2007 to 91.7 million in 2012, a CAGR of 19 percent.

I spoke with Matt Booth, VP and program director of The Kelsey Group's Interactive Local Media practice, about these and other factors. Read more at ClickZ News in "Could This Be the Year for Mobile Ads?"

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:18 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: Should You Worry About Site Speed?

In today's Big Biz column, "Should You Worry About Site Speed?," Aaron Shear explains that concerns about page load times are not a thing of the past. Optimizing your site and addressing site speed can make a big difference in your search rankings.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: Reach Today's Search Users With Long-Tail Optimization

In today's au Natural column, "Reach Today's Search Users With Long-Tail Optimization," Mark Jackson discusses the evolution born of necessity which has led search users to come so far in such a short time. He tells you how you can reach today's educated search engine user by optimizing for the long tail.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink

September 10, 2007

Search Headlines & Links: September 10, 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 9:16 PM | Permalink

TurnHere announces new video distribution partnerships and products

Today TurnHere, the online video enterprise, announced their expansion in the video search space new distribution partnerships with book-centric sites and an enhanced video gadget for improving on the book search experience.

My new blog features an interview with TurnHere's CEO Bradley Inman, along with in in-depth review of TurnHere's claims of "deep partnerships" with the major search portals, along with a review of their new book widget technology.

Posted by Grant Crowell on 4:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Overhaul, or Tune-Up at Yahoo?

According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, the "major overhaul" in progress by returning CEO Jerry Yang may turn out to be less than major after all.

Yang is about halfway through a 100-day plan he announced in July, saying, "I intend to spend the next 100 days mapping out a game plan and working with Sue, Filo, Blake, and the team to put the right organization in place and make any necessary changes. We need to invest in areas that are most critical to our success and de-emphasize those that are underperforming or match up with our priorities. There will be no sacred cows."

However, sources have told the WSJ that "Yang has internally played down the significance of the 100-day timeline and that no big strategic announcements are planned at the end of that period next month."

One likely outcome of the review is a trimming of activities, such as Yahoo Music, in favor of increasing focus on traffic-driving efforts like the Yahoo home page, Yahoo Finance, and Yahoo Mail.

One thing that Yahoo will not do is outsource its search advertising business, according to the WSJ. Sources tell the Journal that the possibility of partnering with Google or Microsoft for search ads was seriously looked at, but Yang decided against it. A source claims that Yang did so in order to keep control of all marketing channels as a "marketing operating system," which would be hard to do without controlling the search advertising that makes up nearly half of online spending.

Some changes have already been made. At the end of August, Yahoo restructured its sales group, putting Hilary Schneider in charge of a group overseeing ad sales and publisher relationships, and giving back some responsibilities for local and commerce sites to Jeff Weiner.

Last week, Yahoo announced plans to acquire BlueLithium, a provider of behavioral targeting technology that could be used to better target Yahoo's display ads.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 3:14 PM | Permalink

Online PR roundtable finds identifying online influencers is key

E-consultancy has just posted its latest roundtable briefing about Online PR and it tackles the tough challenge of identifying online influencers. One of the key points of the briefing is: "There is an important difference between popularity and influence online. There is a tendency for people to over-value popularity and under-value influence."

The roundtable briefing also reconfirms something that was said during the "SEO Through Blogs & Feeds" session at SES San Jose: "It's very difficult to listen to every conversation which is going on about you online."

The e-consultancy briefing also looks at measurement of online PR benefits and success. It says, "To a certain extent, the value of online PR can be understood in terms of how search engine rankings are improved." But, it adds, "A lot of online PR is measured in terms of how many people you have reached or how much traffic you have driven to your website."

Finally, the September 2007 briefing also contains this news nugget: "Online PR budgets are typically coming from e-commerce rather than from PR." While this is based on market trends in the UK, I've seen similar trends on this side of the pond.

Posted by Greg Jarboe on 9:24 AM | Permalink

Gary Price on Mobile Search

A while back I sat down with Gary Price and talked about mobile search. One of the interesting discussions was about the decision to not include a search box on the initial screen of Ask's Mobile Search

What Ask found in their user testing is that users would immediately go to the search box and start trying to use it. While this sounds like it offers what the user wants, the fact is that accomplishing simple things like finding our the weather in San Francisco can take 70 keystrokes if you are on a mobile device without a QWERTY keyboard (for example entering the letter C requires you to hit the 2 button 3 times).

This does not sound like the pinnacle of usability does it? So Ask focused it's efforts on providing a streamlined interface that provides link based navigation to the functions of greatest interest to mobile users. This type of approach allows the user to get the information they are looking for much faster. It's an interesting lesson in making sure you understand the user's environment.

Posted by on 9:00 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: Everything You Assumed About Search Is About to Change

In today's Search Ads column, "Everything You Assumed About Search Is About to Change," Resolution Media's Matt Spiegel ponders the constant change in the world of search marketing. Sometimes it's as simple as a search engine algorithm update. More often, people drive change by challenging the assumptions we make about search ads: how they work, who sees them, and what they really mean to consumers, advertisers and search marketers.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink

September 7, 2007

Search Headlines & Links: September 7, 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 5:00 PM | Permalink

Search Records Requests under Patriot Act Ruled Unconstitutional

Yesterday controversial elements of the Patriot Act were ruled unconstitutional by federal district court judge Victor Marrero. The Patriot Act, passed shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks, broadly expanded the government's powers to conduct anti-terrorism investigations. In its original form the Patriot Act granted the FBI, among other things, the power to issue “national security letters” (NSLs) that would compel search engines, ISPs, phone companies, libraries and other public sources of information to turn over their customer records. Because the Patriot Act also permanently barred targets from disclosing to their customers that information had been requested, we have no idea how many of these requests have been made to search engines. We do know that thousands of NSLs have been issued in service to counter terrorism efforts.

U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero ruled portions of the Patriot Act unconstitutional. Marrero said the non disclosure provisions for NSL recipients violated their First Amendment rights (freedom of speech). He also ruled that the process for issuing the letters undercuts the role of the courts, a violation of the principle of separation of powers under the Constitution. This is not the first challenge to the broad provisions of the Patriot Act. A previous ruling in 2004 resulted in revisions when the Patriot Act was renewed this year that give recipients of the letters a limited right to challenge in court the non disclosure gag orders.

The NSL has been a popular counter-terrorism tool since it can be issued without court approval or subpoena. It has, however, been the subject of substantial controversy and criticism.

It is expected that the Justice Department will strongly challenge yesterday's ruling. The lawsuit which resulted in this ruling was brought by the American Civil Liberties Union and for those with a legal interest or extreme insomnia will find the entire report here on the ACLU site.

Posted by Amanda Watlington on 4:29 PM | Permalink

AOL announces changes to Netscape

The Netscape blog announced yesterday some upcoming changes to their service. Basically, they announced that they are going back to offering a more traditional news experience, much like the one that the Netscape site used to offer.

The post states that this is in response to user input which told them that people did want a social news experience, but that they did not expect to find it at Netscape.com. The announcement did say that they plan to move the social news site to a new URL, and that they would make an annoucement once the switchover was made. Based on this, the social news service does sound like something they will continue to operate.

Over at TechCrunch, Duncan Riley wrote that the Netscape Digg Clone is Kaput. It's hard to disagree, as this move by Netscape is clearly not a sign of a runaway success story. This potential has been visible for a while.

The traffic and voting volume on Netscape is quite a bit lower than that on Digg. For example, there is a story on Netscape's home page as I write this that has only 8 votes. You are not making the Digg home page with 8 votes. Also, the site is just too similar in structure. People are naturally going to focus their efforts on the bigger fish, which is Digg.

The first thing it will be interesting to see is how the transtion is managed. Will they move the social news site over, or will they simply discontinue it? AOL would not be making this move if they thought that there was a potential for a large return on the property. And, if that's the case, why continue it all?

Posted by on 2:31 PM | Permalink

Google discusses multimedia ads in Universal Search results

Google executives discussed the possibility of bundling image or video ads into Google Universal Search, during the CitiGroup Technology Conference in New York this past Thursday.

As reported by Tameka Kee at MediaPost, Google's group business product manager Nicholas Fox says that Google has had internal discussions on how to incorporate visual advertisements in search engine results pages (SERPs) that best match search query relevancy.

According to Sundar Pinchai, Google's director of product managment, Images and video have the potential to be more relevant than simple text ads in at least some situations, but cautions that "the images and video ads you see today on content networks are not what will work." Incorporating these type of ads in SERPs could lead to ad blindness and hurt business in the long-term.

While Google's comments suggest that multimedia advertising will eventually be established to some degree in universal search results, they are not something for advertisers to include in their plans for this year. Google says that any approach they undertake with incorporating multimedia ads will be slow, cautionary, and incremental.

Currently, Google allows advertisers to run both video and image ads in their Contextual network, which is separate from search. Those ads, along with text ads, have been claimed by search advertisers of having lower content relevancy than with SERPs. While Google has been making some appeasements with adjustment ad pricing and network placement control advertisers in the contextual program, advertisers already feel their multimedia creatives would be much better suited directly to search.

Will all things considered, Google is correct in determining that ad relevancy for multimedia will have to be higher when showing up on its own search pages than how they currently have them on 3rd party sites.

Posted by Grant Crowell on 12:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Omniture Acquires Offermatica

Web analytics company Omniture has agreed to acquire landing page optimization and A/B testing specialist Offermatica for $65 million. The deal includes OTTO Digital, the marketing agency division of Offermatica, and a wholly owned subsidiary. In February, Omniture acquired Touch Clarity, a site-side behavioral targeting firm that will complement Offermatica's multivariate testing capabilities, for $50 million.

As PPC prices continue to rise, and the quality scores of landing pages affect bid prices, many marketers are turning to firms like Offermatica, Optimost, SiteTuners, and others to improve the conversion rates of the visitors their campaigns are already sending them.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 9:48 AM | Permalink

Uncle Sam Says: Thumbs Down on Net Neutrality

Yesterday, the Department Of Justice (DOJ) issued comments rejecting any Net Neutrality proposals. They are clearly siding with keeping an open economy, where the broadband providers are not controlled or regulated in any manner. DOJ says this viewpoint ultimately helps the consumers, who may then elect their preferred level of service.

Yet other consumer proponents say that's what Neutrality does too, by enabling equal access to all online services. When Congress floated Neutrality legislation earlier this year, the main point was to keep services consistent and open. Also it didn't burden the online content providers and publishers, who might be affected by additional toll-roads.

Who's right? As consumers, our broadband fees finance light and heavy users alike. It's nicer to get what you pay for, and vice versa. However, it's going to be hard to convince me that anyone saves money in a tiered environment. We all seem to have opportunities to pay higher tiered fees instead, much like cable or satellite bills.

If paid tiers were introduced, then they would negatively impact organic and paid search outcomes. First, searchers could find a range of gated or restricted search results, depending on access levels. Second, publishers with heavy-bandwidth requirements could experience large dips in traffic and paid search revenues. Finally, some of the larger advertisers might end up adjusting their buys, further hitting the paid search economy.

I wish the Net Neutrality debate boiled down to something this simple: free economy or free access. However, it's really about many different lobbies at this point, and I don't believe that legislation or regulation is going to progress quickly. Though the DOJ filing does prove there are high stakes here.

Posted by on 3:13 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: Will Search Marketers Change Their Spots?

In today's Vertical Challenge column, "Will Search Marketers Change Their Spots?," Grant Crowell shows you some ways to promote video creation services, and stand out from the pack.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink

September 6, 2007

ShopLocal Adds a Personal Touch

Local product search site ShopLocal announced today that it will integrate a set of social tools that will allow its users to form an identity on the site, and share commentary on products.

These tools specifically will let users create a profile, view product reviews, and join discussion forums on local products and promotions. Part of this will include personalizing an account where users can save and share deals they've found, track prices on certain products, and set up email alerts.

This is an interesting move for ShopLocal, which has already been known for some clever marketing tactics, particularly with viral video. It could be a valuable addition or user retention tool for its product, which is one of the handful of increasingly important sites that focus on driving offline conversions with online search.

Essentially this makes the site part CNET, part Yelp, and part Craigslist, (among other things). And as the value of social media outlets are tied to the principles of the network effect, the success of this integration will hinge upon how well this resonates with its current user base or how well it can attract new, possibly younger, users.

Social media is in fact becoming a competitive necessity in local search, and these features could create stickiness and keep users coming back to see what deals have fallen into their price alerts, or what others are saying about local deals. It must be recognized however that getting users to participate in social media is no easy feat -- as echoed in an interesting session on ratings and reviews at SES San Jose.

One of the keys is to know your audience and offer it the right tools and features. The poster child for this strategy so far has, no doubt, been Yelp in playing off the egos of twenty or thirty-something urban foodies, their desire to be social, speak out, and their general and proclivities for a social networking format.

This of course is easier said than done, and is easier to do in the restaurant vertical than others (who out there is clamoring to write a review about their plumber?). But Yelp's strategy still beat the heck out of giving away Starbucks cards which is what some local social search sites did to try to get users to participate.

Know your audience and what they like. We'll see if ShopLocal can execute on this formula.

Posted by Mike Boland on 11:05 PM | Permalink

Search Headlines & Links: September 6, 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 9:21 PM | Permalink

Understanding the Paid Links Debate

The debate over paid links is complicated. The arguments for and against the practice are often heated, with webmasters defending the practice, and search engines condemning it, in certain cases. The argument often turns to why Google, and other search engines, should care at all, and whether they have a right or ability to police the buying of links between webmasters.

Stone Temple Consulting's John Biundo tries to put some of the argument in perspective in today's SearchDay, "The Paid Links Debate: Shades of Gray."

And yes, we do appreciate the irony.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 2:36 PM | Permalink

Windows Live Offering Services Pack

In a move similar to Google Pack, Microsoft is now offering a package of its services and apps through the newly announced Windows Live Services.

These are always handy to find everything in one spot where you can opt in and out of what you want to have.

Posted by Frank Watson on 2:30 PM | Permalink

Google Reader Adds Search Box...Finally

I'm finding it hard to get excited by the news that Google Reader now has a search feature to allow users to search in all of their feeds. It's certainly useful and all, but it just seems so un-Googley that it hasn't had a search box before now. It's something that Bloglines has had since June 2006.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 1:30 PM | Permalink

Superpages Gets Local Mobile App

Idearc's Superpages.com has launched a mobile version of its local search product, Superpages Mobile for BlackBerry. The application is designed to help mobile users, especially business travelers, find local information easily with a BlackBerry mobile device. For example, users can search for local businesses, map directions, get local movie showtimes, find a person or check the local weather.

Idearc is the latest of many search companies to offer a downloadable application for mobile users. While mobile users who will go to the trouble of downloading an application are a minority, they are an influential one, which search providers look to in order to spread the word about their services.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 10:36 AM | Permalink

Usability and SEO. Which comes First?

There is an incredibly strong link between Usability and SEO. First, you have to start with the knowledge that the business of the search engines is enhanced by having the most relevant results in their index (the ones that do in fact answer the user's question quickly), and this means that usability matters to them. Therefore it is in their strategic interest to develop an understanding of a site's usability.

There are many ways that the search engines can collect basic usability data. For example, do users bookmark your site at major sites such as del.icio.us? Do you have a high bounce rate (people who view only one page, or who don't stay long on the site)? These are just a couple of basic things that a search engine can look at to measure usability.

Second, usabilty is a key factor in driving the acquisition of high value links. Trying to get a major university or a government site to link to yours? What do they see when they come to the page you are trying to get them to link to? Do they understand it right away? Or does it confuse them?

At an architectural level, having a clean site hierarchy and an easily understood navigation structure also benefits both usability and SEO. This means things like a logically thought through hierarchy that matches up with the nature of the content you are providing in an easy to understand way. It means having a consistent global navigation structure, and a breadcrumb bar.

There are many great resources on usability. For example, there is Jakob Nielsen's usetit.com and Kim Krause Berg's Cre8PC that delve into the specifics of good usability then I will attempt to do here.

What I want to emphasize here is one key point: Usability comes first, and SEO comes second. Don't get me wrong, I am not short selling SEO here. I think it's incredibly important (well, OK, it's a key part of how I make my living). But when you are looking at a new site design, or are re-evaluating an existing site, you need to start with some basic questions. Here are some examples:

  1. What is the purpose of the site? There are many good answers to this, such as generate leads, sell products, reduce support costs, or sell advertising. Understanding the answer to this question is where it all starts. Fulfilling this purpose can be thought of as a conversion.
  2. What types of visitors do you want to attract to the site? Who are the people you can bring to your site that might convert, either in the short term or the long term? For many sites, there are many distinct groups of visitors. They can be divided into groups such as repeat visitors and first time visitors, visitors from different geographies, shoppers and researchers, etc.
  3. For each group of visitors, think about the types of information and products and services they want to see on your site. What would make it useful to them? What are their goals, and how can you help them meet them?
  4. For each group of visitors, now that you know what they are looking for, what will their experience be like when they arrive at your site? Will they know where to find what they are looking for? Or will it they arrive at your site, be one click away from converting, and simply leave because they don't see what they are looking for?

These are some of the most basic questions that every site owner needs to consider. Advanced companies do usability design and analysis, including live usablity testing with real users on their sites. Some companies get more sophisticated still, and incorporate the use of eye tracking gear, to really get down to the nitty gritty details of how people see their web pages.

While you may not be in a position to take your pursuit of usability quite that far (although you should if you can), you need to be thinking about it. Getting tons of search engine visitors and a low rate of conversion will not help you much. In addition, if the search engines have their way, a low rate of conversions (then sites in comparable markets) will also lead them to lower the amount of traffic they send you.

Posted by on 8:36 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: The Power of Link Building and Public Relations

In today's Link Love column, "The Power of Link Building and Public Relations," Justilien Gaspard offers advice for gaining links in local search while creating positive public relations opportunities.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink

September 5, 2007

Search Headlines & Links: September 5, 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 5:44 PM | Permalink

People Search Engine, Spock Has Danny Breaking Up Larry and Sergey

Spock, the recently launched beta people info search engine, seems to think that Danny Sullivan as the perfect buffer for Larry and Sergey.

Do a search on Spock for search engineand Sergey gets top billing, followed by Danny with Larry coming in third.

The results for the term search engine gives a list of well known search figures. Technoratti founder David Sifry is fourth in front of Matt Cutts followed by Marissa Mayer. Four of the top six are Googlers and there are no Yahoo or Microsoft people on the front page.

Dave McClure, Brett Tabke, Bruce Clay and Jill Whalen round out the top ten.

Posted by Frank Watson on 4:43 PM | Permalink

Local.com Renews With Yahoo As Search Partner

Local.com announced it is renewing its contract to have Yahoo provide its sponsored search results, Big Mouth Media reported.

"The result is even more relevant content that helps visitors to Local.com and our network of local publishers find the businesses and services they are looking for," the CEO of Local.com Heath Clarke stated.

Posted by Frank Watson on 4:22 PM | Permalink

Google Files GPay Patent - Mobile Payment Method

Seems Google is getting ready to launch another of their G ideas. This time it is GPay - a mobile payment method that seems similar to that used in Europe and Asia already.

The patent outlines "a computer-implemented method of effectuating a payment, comprising: receiving at a computer server system a text message from a payor containing a payment request comprising a payment amount sent by a payor device operating independently of the computer server system; debiting a payor account for an amount corresponding to the amount of the payment request; and crediting a payee account that is independent of the computer server system," according to PC World.

Using a mobile device to make payments has been around Europe and Asia for some time. If the other people who started this have not filed a patent in the US it will be interesting to see if Google gets it by just being the first to register it here.

Philipp Lenssen does a great job with diagrams at BlogoScoped.

Posted by Frank Watson on 3:58 PM | Permalink

Yellow Pages Provider Testing Voice-Enabled Local Search

Print and online Yellow Pages provider R.H. Donnelley is testing a new voice-enabled local search solution, dubbed "1-800-CallDex." The service, currently available in the Denver, Phoenix, Spokane and Tucson markets, provides free directory assistance (free DA) and local category search for consumers seeking businesses. The service provides addresses, phone numbers, business descriptions, hours of operation, payment methods and other information.

Free DA is a growing area, with limited consumer adoption and even more limited advertiser pick-up. The field is wide open to grab market share, with Jingle's 800-free411, AT&T's 1-800-yellowpages and Goog411 among the competitors.

R.H. Donnelley teamed up with Toronto-based Call Genie to power the service with its Enhanced Voice Directory (EVD) product. The latest release of the product allows consumers in 1-800-CallDex markets to refine their searches by referencing landmarks, neighborhoods and intersections. The system continuously updates itself to reflect how local residents refer to specific landmarks or locations.

R.H. Donnelley has made several moves to bring its offline dominance online. In July, the company announced its intent to acquire Business.com. This follows its 2005 acquisition of Dex Media, and the September 2006 acquisition of SEO/SEM firm LocalLaunch.

Just last week, the company announced an expanded relationship with Yahoo Local, distributing its online yellow pages data on Yahoo's network and streamlining the Yahoo Local ad-buying process for its print yellow pages advertisers.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 10:59 AM | Permalink

Stone Temple Consulting Publishes Web Analytics Shootout Results

What started as a great idea for linkbait turned into a comprehensive analysis of Web analytics packages rivaling research from the largest firms.

Stone Temple Consulting has published the 55-page 2007 Web Analytics Shootout, the results of a nine-month study of seven top Web analytics packages on four sites. The report looks at performance, accuracy, and capabilities of Clicktracks, Google Analytics, IndexTools, Omniture SiteCatalyst, Unica Affinium NetInsight, Visual Sciences' HBX Analytics, and WebTrends.

The report is not intended to identify a "best" package, but rather to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the various applications so that potential buyers can understand how their own site structure might work with or against them, according to Eric Enge, president of Stone Temple Consulting. A major section of the report is a qualitative comparison of the various packages to help webmasters find the right fit for their situation.

I spoke to Eric about the results for today's SearchDay, "Comparing Web Analytics Packages."

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 10:19 AM | Permalink

Facebook Profiles to Become Searchable

Facebook is opening up its user profiles to be crawled by search engines, allowing limited information to be available unless users change their privacy settings, according to the Facebook blog. Users will be notified of the changes, so they will have time to mark their profile as private before the changes are implemented later this month.

When I logged in to my Facebook account today, I was greeted with a message saying:

Since your search privacy settings are set to "Everyone," you now have a public search listing. This means that friends who aren't yet on Facebook will be able to search for you by name from our Welcome page. Public Search Listings may only include names and profile pictures.
In a few weeks, these public search listings can be found by search engines like Google. No privacy rules are changing; anyone who discovers your public search listing must register and log in to contact you via Facebook.

The move will bring Facebook profiles in line with other services, such as LinkedIn, which make it easier to find a user's profile when searching on their own site, or in general search engines. These social media profiles are a popular tool for reputation management, since they usually appear high in the results for a person or company's name.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 8:07 AM | Permalink

Japan Begins Government-led Search Research

The Japanese government is leading a research initiative to help 10 Japanese technology companies shift from electronics hardware to search-related services. According to a report in the Financial Times, the project "hopes to use Japan's strength in developing devices, such as mobile phones and car navigation systems, to create proprietary search and information retrieval functions."

The project teams 10 companies together to build a specific type of search function. For example, NTT Data, Toyota InfoTechnology Center, and Toyota Mapmaster are charged with developing a car-based search and navigation system. The government has allocated Y14bn-Y15bn ($121m-$130m) to the project.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 7:54 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: 7 Tips for High Value Analytics

In today's By the Numbers column, "7 Tips for High Value Analytics," Eric Enge gives you 10 key steps for maximizing your analytics investment, explaining how to overcome some of the limitations of analytics.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: How Search Will Save Online Advertising... Again!

In today's Searching for Meaning column, "How Search Will Save Online Advertising... Again! ," Kevin Ryan says that the credit crunch might have some casualties, but search won't be one of them.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink

September 4, 2007

Search Headlines & Links: September 4, 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 6:37 PM | Permalink

Yahoo to Acquire Behavioral Targeting Ad Network

Yahoo has entered an agreement to acquire BlueLithium, the fifth-largest U.S. ad network, for approximately $300 million in cash. Much of BlueLithium's offering centers on its behavioral targeting technology, including a search retargeting version of its AdPath solution.

BlueLithium will fit into the newly formed Global Partner Solutions division under Hilary Schneider along with recently acquired Right Media. BlueLithium will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Yahoo. CEO Gurbaksh Chahal will remain with BlueLithium for an undisclosed period through the integration.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 6:35 PM | Permalink

Mastering Yahoo Panama

When Yahoo Panama launched in the U.S., some Wall St. analysts practically cheered at the arrival of the much anticipated but oft-delayed ad buying platform.

The Big Question: did any of them kick the tires?

Most search marketers don't care whether Panama generates more revenue and higher profits for Yahoo. Search marketers care how quickly they can master the nuances of a new platform. Can they optimize campaigns more effectively? Can Yahoo Panama generate more revenue and profit for their corporate clients?

Mona Elesseily, internet marketing strategist with Page Zero Media, just published an informative user's guide that answers the above questions and more. It's called "Mastering Panama", available through the Page Zero Media store.

Before marketers complain about the cost ($87 USD), consider the amount of time and research invested by a search professional to kick the tires on Panama. Elesseily's handbook benefits from her experience with real, live campaigns for real clients. Plus, she's done extensive research and in-depth interviews with Panama engineers and executives.

"Mastering Panama" boasts 87 magazine-sized pages filled with screenshots, callouts for helpful hints, specific action items, and even warnings about using content match.

There are lots of ways to learn about search marketing: tradeshows, conferences, workshops, online tutorials, SEMPO's extensive curriculum. But it's tough to find an authoritative

Criticisms? Only minor ones. More direct comparison with Google and MSN Ad Center would make a nice addition. Some readers might accuse Elesseily of at times cheerleading for Panama. Other search marketers may debate the strategy and tactics she recommends.

They'll all have to agree on one thing:

She's put it out there and put it in writing. Check it out.

Posted by Kevin Heisler on 12:35 PM | Permalink

Interview with Kevin Ryan of SES

Now that SES San Jose 2007 is past, it seems like a good time to publish the interview I did recently (just before the show) with Kevin Ryan. Kevin has picked up the reins for SES, and at SES Chicago he will be exclusively responsible for programming the show.

Kevin has a background in a wide range of agencies and media, and is collecting lots of input on what to do with the show series in the future. For one thing, Incisive has assembled an advisory board to provide oversight and input on the future of the show. Kevin has also been actively attending events, and collecting input from past attendees, and speakers.

Kevin does plan to put a new emphasis on fresh content, and does expect the show series to broaden its horizons going into the future. The interview with Kevin did reveal quite a bit about his approach to things and expanding show content. In general, it looks like it's full steam ahead for SES.

Posted by on 9:18 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: Optimizing Pages for New and Improved Search Engine Users

In today's au Natural column, "Optimizing Pages for New and Improved Search Engine Users," Mark Jackson takes a look at changes in the way people search, discussing updated methods for reaching today's search-engine-savvy users.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: Say "Bah Humbug" to Holiday Marketing Stress

In today's Little Biz column, "Say 'Bah Humbug' to Holiday Marketing Stress," Carrie Hill tells you how to avoid holiday stress by getting a jump start on your holiday marketing campaigns.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink

September 3, 2007

Was Google's AP announcement a PR disaster?

On the Friday before the long Labor Day weekend, Google announced that it would start hosting material produced by The Associated Press (AP), The Canadian Press (CP), The Press Association (PA) in the UK, and Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Google News.

Josh Cohen, the business product manager for Google News, made the announcement by posting an item at 10:48 a.m. on the Google News Blog entitled, “Original stories, from the source.” At 3:45 p.m., Cohen told AP, “This may result in certain publishers losing traffic for their news wire stories, but it will allow more room for their original content.”

Is it conceivable that the folks at Google didn't realize that their deal with AP was going to generate a lot of controversy?

Someone, somewhere in the Googleplex should have known that AP is owned by 1,500 daily newspaper members in the US and its news is currently used by 1,700 daily, weekly, non-English and college newspapers as well as 5,000 radio and television outlets. Removing all their “duplicate articles” from Google News results wasn't likely to be welcomed as “good news” by thousands of AP's customers.

And you'd think that at least one Googler would have Googled “AP” and found the Wikipedia listing for Associated Press, which includes the following sentence, “The explosion of media and news outlets with the arrival of the Internet has posed a threat to AP's financial structure.”

Well, at least Cohen didn't say, “We had to destroy the daily newspaper order to save it.”

Now, I've been in public relations for more than 25 years. And up until five years ago, if I had to announce something controversial, I couldn't have picked a better day to do it than the Friday before a long Labor Day weekend.

Most of the content for the big Sunday newspapers would have already been put to bed on Thursday. And at least some of the senior journalists who might have normally grilled me had taken Friday off, so they could beat the rush to the beach, lake or mountains.

Even if some of the reporters left behind covered the news, their stories would have been missing more than a couple of caustic comments from a few industry analysts, who were off helping their kids move into college dorms. Plus, these controversial stories would have appeared in print on a Saturday morning at the beginning of a three-day holiday when fewer readers than normal were around to see them.

But that was then. And this is now.

Everything in the PR playbook changed five years ago this month when Google launched Google News. And over this year's long Labor Day weekend, I was able to use Google News to find more than 275 articles about Google's AP announcement. This included:

• “Google News Becomes A Publisher” by Thomas Claburn of InformationWeek, who wrote on Friday, August 31, 2007, “If most people end up reading the source material on Google News, publishers who buy widely syndicated content may find that Associated Press articles, for example, are bringing in less traffic.”

• “Google (GOOG): All the news that fits” by Douglas A. McIntyre of Blogging Stocks, wrote on Saturday, September 1, 2007, “News providers to Google now have to worry about whether Google will end up highlighting a small number of news providers who will license to Google all of their content.”

• “Google becomes a newspaper” by Nick Farrell of the Inquirer in the UK, who wrote earlier today, “Search engine outfit Google has decided that it is better to become a newspaper than it is to be sued for nicking all of its content.”

Something else has radically changed the PR playbook over the past few years: The blog. According to Technorati, there were 100,000 blogs in March 2003. By the end of July 2007, there were some 93.8 million blogs worldwide.

And unlike most journalists, most bloggers tend to do more writing over the weekend than they can squeeze into weekdays, when they have to spend at least eight hours doing their day job.

For example, over this long Labor Day weekend, I used Google Blog Search – which was launched two years ago this month – to find more than 12,996 posts about Google's AP announcement – from just the past few days. This included:

• “Google Now Officially Competing with Newspapers; So is AP” by Dan Gillmor, who wrote on Saturday, September 1, 2007, in the Center for Citizen Media Blog, “The deal is another proof that Google's insistence of non-competition with news organizations is utter garbage, and has been for some time.”

• “Google deal uncovers truth that AP is now a competitor to newspapers, and papers are suckers for being members of it” by Steve Boriss, who wrote on Sunday, September 2, 2007, in The Future of News, “The question AP member papers should now be asking is not how Google could be so mean, but how they, themselves could be so blind about their relationship with the AP.”

• “Google is the Clown Suit Rental Store” by the head lemur, who wrote earlier today in Raving Lunacy, “Reporting and reporters on the local levels have been eviscerated by the quick fix of the wire service, which is an editorial and corporate decision to reduce those pesky human resource costs, like reporters….”

So, who was around this weekend to respond to all these criticisms?

Earlier this afternoon, I emailed a couple of my PR contacts at Google, but I hadn't received a reply by the time I posted this item. I guess they were off for the holiday.

So, what are the lessons that PR professionals can learn from Google's AP announcement? There are two.

First, pitch your next big story directly to one of the 3,000 AP journalists in one of the more than more than 240 AP bureaus worldwide. If they write a story, it has a better chance of appearing in Google News than any of the “duplicate articles” that might appear in one of the thousands of daily newspaper, radio, television and online customers that AP serves.

You may have sympathy for those pesky newspaper reporters, but you job is to get publicity for your corporate clients and their commercial products. And Google News has just announced -- as the Onion once did -- that this "scrappy band of lovable misfits is no match for rich kids."

Second, don't plan to spend time with family and friends over the three-day weekend if you announce something controversial on the Friday before Labor Day. Google News and Google Blog Search have rewritten the PR playbook. A surprising number of different sources are cranking out original stories – with different perspectives – even you deserve to take some time off.

My advice is to announce controversial news early on the Tuesday morning after Labor Day, when you at least have a shot at managing the response from 9 to 5. Hey, the last thing you want to do is come to work tomorrow morning to discover that hundreds of news articles and thousands of blog posts have grilled your organization while you were attending a cookout.

Posted by Greg Jarboe on 9:55 PM | Permalink

September 1, 2007

Don't Sue Over Keywords

When it comes to trademark protection, don't sue over keywords. Eric Goldman, who follows search and related tech cases closely, says "it's often irrational to bring lawsuits over keywords." Not to mention the waste of time and money, too.

Yesterday, one of the better-known cases was settled between American Blind & Wallpaper Factory and Google. American Blind wanted to prevent competitors from buying keywords which they had previously trademarked. If the case had gone to trial, then it would have been over the matter of consumer confusion.

This means there's been no U.S. based test about trademark protection for keywords, at least not yet. Google clearly states its position, in its trademark policy: "Please note that we will not disable keywords in response to a trademark complaint."

If your company owns trademarks, free and clear, then remember they won't be protected when advertisers want to buy them as paid links. However if the trademarks appear in ad copy, you have recourse. Follow the current procedures with Google or other paid search providers, to file complaints for removal.

More here: Merc News (Log In); American Blind Settlement and Background; Google's Policy

Posted by on 5:58 PM | Permalink

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