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October 2007

October 31, 2007

Search Headlines & Links: October 31, 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 5:59 PM | Permalink

AviationWeek Launches Vertical Search Engine

If you are looking for anything to do with global aviation, aerospace, and defense industries then AviationWeek.com has just launched a search engine for you.

Bill Hartzer, writing for SearchNewz, discovered the launch information. So now I know where to go if I get work in that area.

The growth of vertical search engines has been extensive this year, but one has to ask wouldn't Google have the information regardless of the fact that they do not niche. When you have a good chunk of the web in your database it comes down to how well you can filter for the niched search queries.

Posted by Frank Watson on 3:16 PM | Permalink

Relevance is Relative

Google is perceived by many as being "the best" search engine, returning the most relevant results. But is it really the best search engine for all applications? While some in the general public may think so, most search marketers know that relevance is relative. In today's SearchDay, "Search Quality Depends on Intention," Leapfrog Online's Steve Haar takes a look at results for some random queries across the top engines to see if one clear winner shines through.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 2:13 PM | Permalink

Google Adds Site Location To Webmaster Tools

Google has finally added the ability to tell them where your site is located. This much discussed topic involving domain extensions, location of hosting and other factors can finally be specified.

Vanessa Fox spotted it and posted a pic of the interface change here.

Posted by Frank Watson on 1:38 PM | Permalink

Yahoo Quietly Making Algorithms Changes

Yahoo announced they have been making changes to their crawling, indexing and ranking algorithms over the past few days. Guess we were all too busy discussing the impact of recent Google changes and buying and selling links etc.

If I am reading their blog numbering system - it was their 500th post. Way to go Yahoo!

What I liked about this announcement is they called for input - the post has link to a form to submit problems or feedback - guess Google does it by reading all the blog and forum noise.

Yahoo wins this round - they avoided the "slap" effect Google's changes have caused, while still changing their algorithms.

Posted by Frank Watson on 1:22 PM | Permalink

Do Not Track List? AOL Letting Users Opt Out of Tracking

The New York Times is reporting that AOL will allow their users to opt out of tracking. This stops the behavioral information collected about visitors activities which is used to determine which ads will be presented.

AOL had a problem with their sharing of this information a couple of years ago when their aggregated information was used to find a specific user by her online activities.

Mention of a "Do Not Track" list similar to the telemarketing "Do Not Call" list could create some interesting developments as people interpret what the do not track is supposed to mean.

If ad tracking cookies become part of this then web analytics and ROI measurements will be difficult to do.

Posted by Frank Watson on 12:14 PM | Permalink

Google to Launch OpenSocial APIs

Shortly after losing out to Microsoft in its efforts to woo social network du jour Facebook, Google has unveiled OpenSocial, a set of common APIs to be backed by Google and an alliance of social sites including LinkedIn, Friendster, Plaxo and Ning.

The strategy is meant to attract developers to an open platform, as Facebook started doing earlier this year. Google is touting the open nature of its platform, and the participation of multiple sites.

"OpenSocial will bring more powerful and pervasive social capabilities to the web because developers will be able to develop and distribute their applications more easily. Users will be able to enjoy new social features faster and in more of the websites, web applications, and social networks they use," a Google spokesperson said.

Google will create a "developer sandbox" on its Orkut network where developers can test the APIs, and will offer resources on OpenSocial at http://code.google.com/apis/opensocial.

Marc Andreessen, whose social media site Ning is participating, has posted some technical details on OpenSocial at his pmarca blog.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 11:55 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: Life after SERP: A/B Split and Multivariate Testing

When searchers find your site, what will they see? If you're using A/B split tests and multivariate testing, they'll see customized results on the fly. In today's By the Numbers column, "Life after SERP: A/B Split and Multivariate Testing," Eric Enge outlines one of the best ways to improve results for your Web site. Sometimes the things that matter to users and increases conversions will surprise you.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: Achieving Brand and Affiliate Harmony in Search

Forget brand vs. brand brawls in the search engines. The new UFC: Affiliate vs. brand. In today's Searching for Meaning column, "Achieving Brand and Affiliate Harmony in Search," Kevin Ryan recaps last week's SES @ A4U event in London, and tells you when you have crossed the line between affiliate or brand advocate and brand adversary.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink

October 30, 2007

Search Headlines & Links: October 30, 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 4:38 PM | Permalink

Do I Hear Butterfly Wings Flapping or Sense a Google Algorithm Update?

The organic search marketer works in an environment where the rules can change at almost any time. Since change can come at any moment, search marketers must constantly be alert and listening for that first flap of a butterfly's wing that will cause the next hurricane. We are always looking for signals of impending changes (or doom, depending on your view), constantly watching for search engine weather reports or blog posts that signal change. Our methods are almost as arcane as those who used to forecast economic change based on Alan Greenspan's briefcase.

Then, changes happen like the recent PageRank update, and the industry watchers gather to inspect the auguries. Well, Google has confirmed one thing -- we can expect the spankings to continue. But, how how many will get slapped, how often and how hard? Will it be, just slaps on wrists for those who have been buying and selling non-Google links (unfortunately, no one will ever convince me that contextual ads are not paid links) or will the changes be broader and far-reaching.

Last week on a weekly podcast The Weekly Insight, I stated my belief that this change is but a signal of broader changes to come. Like many SEOs, including Mike Grehan, I do not put a lot of emphasis on PageRank as reported by little green bars. I do believe though that the changes being reported are a signal that more is yet to come, and I don't just mean selective spankings or tweakings of green bars. So much for my hyper-acute listening for the flap of butterfly wings.

Posted by Amanda Watlington on 3:57 PM | Permalink

Reservation Road: A Study in SEO-based Movie Promotion

As some SEW readers know, some of our experts and bloggers have taken up the challenge to implement a best practices marketing campaign for Reservation Road, a movie released October 19. Carrie Hill and Debby Richman decided to push all the search optimization buttons possible – even with a limited time frame and zero dollars. In today's SearchDay, "Reservation Road: Getting Search-Worthy in Three Days or Less," they share their results.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 3:39 PM | Permalink

Microsoft "Gatineau" Analytics in Beta

Microsoft has begun a beta test of its free Web analytics service, code-named "Project Gatineau." Invitations have gone out to some U.S. advertisers, and other U.S. advertisers can request an invitation, though the wait is long, according to Ian Thomas, project planner on Gatineau.

"If you've requested a beta invite, you'll be on the list and will receive one in due course - but remember, some people have been in the line since January, so please be patient as we ramp up users slowly; there's no need to remind us that you're waiting," Thomas writes on his blog, Lies, Damned Lies....

Thomas provides some details on initial features and reports included in Gatineau. They include demographic segmentation, custom taxonomies, funnel reports, outbound link tracking, inbound referrals, ROI reports, goal analysis, and client system reports.

Gatineau has been in alpha stage for about a year. It's based on technology developed by Canadian Web analytics provider DeepMetrix, which Microsoft acquired in May 2006.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 11:36 AM | Permalink

Search Engines and User Query Intent

In my recent Podcast with Bill Slawski we focused on discussing search engine ranking factors. Bill is known throughout the industry for the great work he does examining and writing about search engine patents, which he does on the SEO by the Sea blog.

One of the interesting areas we discussed was ways that search engines can determine user intent. One of the simplest of these is be looking at the search query itself. For example "buy digital camera" is a very different query from "digital camera reviews". This is the easy stuff.

The search engines can also look at query streams. For example, if the first query was for "seattle hotels", and next query is for "seafood restaurants", the chances are greater that the user is looking for seafood restaurants in and around Seattle.

Next, you can start determining a person's location dynamically. For example, if the IP address from which they are doing the query is in Boston, and they search on seafood restaurants, they may be looking for seafood restaurants in and around Boston. If the user is doing a search from a mobile device, then cell tower triangulation can be used to determine the user's location.

Of course, this can be made even more complex. For example, the user's IP address could be in Boston, and search on "seattle hotels", and then search on "seafood restaurants". So do they want a seafood restuarant in Boston or Seattle? Perhaps the best thing to do here is to show some preference to results from both cities.

There is much, much more that the search engines can do. They can look at preferences that you have specified in other products, such as language. They can see what query patterns other users followed who used similar patterns to the one the user is currently following, and try to anticipate the next query and start presenting some of those results earlier in the process.

For example, if most users who enter "digital cameras", then "sony digital cameras", and then pick a particular model number, the search engine knows that this is an indicator that they should consider highlight pages with information on that model number of camera in response to the "sony digital cameras" query. Ultimately, as more and more signals emerge, the search engines will get better and better at this.

Posted by on 10:54 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: eHobbies and Action Jackson: SEO Quarterly Site Review

Site reviews flesh out advice, best practices, and tips and tricks. In today's au Natural column, "eHobbies and Action Jackson: SEO Quarterly Site Review," Mark Jackson shows readers SEO in action.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: SME Brand Strategy: SEM Tactics, Tips, and Tricks, Part 2

Is building a small business brand online impossible? Not when all forms of online media are converging under search. In today's Little Biz column, "SME Brand Strategy: SEM Tactics, Tips, and Tricks, Part 2," Carrie Hill tells you what to do next once you have a memorable brand. How do you get people to notice it?

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink

October 29, 2007

Search Headlines & Links: October 29, 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 6:26 PM | Permalink

Microsoft adCenter Adds Immediate Editorial Updates, Daily Spend Limits

Microsoft was busy over the weekend upgrading the features at adCenter. The editorial changes you make to ads will now go live immediately similar to Google and Yahoo, according to their blog.

You will also be able to establish daily spend limits for your campaigns - which will help tighten spends.

The Big Three seem to be getting closer and closer to being mirrors - guess that will be easier on us when Google buys Microsoft and Yahoo....

Posted by Frank Watson on 2:50 PM | Permalink

Old Time Spam Tactics Still Work (Sometimes)

I still see old fashioned tricks working from time to time. For example, doorway pages, or spammy hidden text. Granted that the sites I see this working for tend to be smaller sites that are competing for terms that are at best moderately competitive. I have seen it enough times that I finally sat down to think about why this might be.

My best guess is that it relates to the demands that it would place on the search engine infrastructure to try and detect even the obvious tricks on all web sites. This might mean that we are really looking at is a post-processing function of some sort that is run on selected sites or selected portions of the index. This function may even be largely driven by the spam reports that the search engines receive.

So whether or not a trick will get discovered becomes a hit or miss proposition. This fact leads to a continued use of these practices, even though they are clearly not for users, and in some cases reduce site usability. I was contacted just today by someone who found a site they were working with was using doorway pages (sorry, no link will be provided because I am not outing anyone), and it appears to be working for them.

Unfortunately for the site owner, this is likely not a situation that will continue forever. Someone who competes with them will report them once they discover it. At that time, they may pay a heavy price for their short term gains. It's just another example of how far the search industry has to go.

Posted by on 12:02 PM | Permalink

Fox, NBC and Others Testing Online TV With Hulu.com

Hulu is ready to start its test as an online television station - well really it is launching for limited access video feeds from its partners Fox and NBC and others and providing video content for Microsoft, AOL, MySpace, Yahoo and Comcast, according to a New York Times report.

Competition for YouTube offers Google's competitors a way to garner more traffic and possibly improve their search share, while also providing income from ads presented with the online video feeds.

The development of online television and/or the melding of the two mediums is close. How its presence will change things has yet to be determined - though Google is not letting any of these potential giant killers to get away.

Posted by Frank Watson on 11:39 AM | Permalink

Matt Cutts Confirms Google-Slap

With all the guessing and theorizing about Google's recent PageRank update, there's now at least confirmation that the update happened, and why.

According to Loren Baker at Search Engine Journal, one of the affected sites, he received confirmation from Matt Cutts that the move was definitely targeting paid link sellers:

The partial update to visible PageRank that went out a few days ago was primarily regarding PageRank selling and the forward links of sites. So paid links that pass PageRank would affect our opinion of a site.

Going forward, I expect that Google will be looking at additional sites that appear to be buying or selling PageRank.

According to Andy Beard (whose site was also affected), another PageRank update is in progress.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 10:25 AM | Permalink

Content advertising: Search Engine content networks

One of the biggest challenges facing SEMs: making smart decisions about search engine content networks. It's often a problem they can't easily solve. Some would like to understand their choices better. Others would like to know where the industry's headed .

Marketing Sherpa thinks it's a problem too. They went looking for answers before I did. That's why we announced how we'll help marketers at the MarketingSherpa B2B conference today in San Francisco.

When a question was asked in LinkedIn who the best business bloggers are, we let marketers know there's help on the way from an exec who's educated other marketers (in-house and agency). For free. As part of the SEM/SEO community.

If you manage complex SEM campaigns -- or if you're a website publisher -- or you're hiring SEM staff, I'm sure you're looking for answers, too.

When The Wall Street Journal cited the business blog published by Clix Marketing CEO David Szetela last week, there was no question in my mind. He's the business blogger who deserves a column. A guy who already helps marketers do their jobs better.

Let him know how he can help you when Content Advertising debuts next week.

Posted by Kevin Heisler on 7:19 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: Search and Brand Authenticity

CMO life expectancy shrinks. Search for brand authenticity grows. In today's Search Ads column, "Search and Brand Authenticity," Matt Spiegel tries to get to the bottom of this paradox. With the need to market an authentic brand, it's time for marketing to reclaim some of its glory.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink

October 28, 2007

Physical Addresses To Aid Online Targeting?

As online marketers, we have the luxury of reaching our targets based on what they search, browse or click on. That tells us a lot about expressed interests. By contrast, physical addresses provide information about the probability of interests.

Recently, Acxiom announced new services (WSJ article, paid access) which actively connect addresses to online ads. When their customers collect addresses online, Acxiom maps them to lifestyle codes and enables ad targeting using these codes.

Where you live speaks volumes, especially to off-line marketers without other insights. You and your neighbors share demographics, media interests and consumption patterns. For example, affluent Texan neighbors may buy parkas for their ski vacations while most citizens never think about them. (Check out your own zip code at Claritas.)

Admittedly these lifestyle code refinements can help *a little* online, but privacy risks may quickly erase the benefits. Any kind of secondary use of addresses is likely to raise concerns from end-users and privacy advocates. I believe this is a case of "we can connect the dots" but at what cost?

October 31st Update:

Regarding privacy, it's my contention that most consumers don't really pay much attention to how their cookies are used. Still we should expect people to step forward and identify risks, which happens whenever new marketing data's introduced. In a world where even search engines age out cookies, we are simply in a heightened state of alert.

Today, Acxiom reached us about how they protect the privacy of consumers and their Personally Identifiable Information (PII). These details are worth passing along:

* When a consumer registers on a partner site, Acxiom uses his/her address to assign a specific segmentation cluster code.
* This code contains no PII, and consumers are notified that a third-party cookie will be set.
* The cookie that is set is completely anonymous and contains the segmentation cluster code.
* There is no way for either Acxiom or advertisers to access consumers' PII through the cookies.

Also, Acxiom pointed out that they don't redistribute addresses in any way. My “secondary use of addresses” was misleading, as I meant the segmentation cluster codes – not additional use of household information. I hope this clarifies for SEW readers.

Of course, I look forward to seeing how Acxiom and others will aid online targeting, as the posting title suggests!

Posted by on 2:09 PM | Permalink

October 26, 2007

Search Headlines & Links: October 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 5:47 PM | Permalink

The Impact of the Omniture - Visual Sciences Merger

Omniture, Inc. (Nasdaq: OMTR) announced yesterday that they are acquiring Visual Sciences (Nasdaq: VSCN) for a total of $394 million. Visual Sciences consists of two recently merged entities, the original Visual Sciences, and WebSideStory, the company that produced the HBX family of analytics tools.

This move follows closely on the heels of Omniture's acquisition of Offermatica, a leading web optimization company. Clearly, Omniture is moving to consolidate their position as the leading brand in this space. Visual Sciences was one of it's larger competitors. Their is a distinct synergy in the nature of the customer base, as both companies focus on large enterprise customers and high value optimization.

It will be intriguing to see how they go about integrating the product lines and the product development teams. There are many products that overlap in functionality and structure. This will be one of the more challenging parts of the acquisition for them.

Overall, I would expect this type of activity to continue, and not just from Omniture. There are too many players in the space. I will be intrigued to see who steps up in the SMB analytics space. There is plenty of room for consolidation at that level too, and companies like Omnniture and Visual Sciences are not really designed to optimally serve that market.

For search marketers, the consolidation is a good thing. We need to have a few financially stable companies to choose from, not 20. For SEO firms that server multiple clients, having to deal with a smaller set of different analytics tools will make life easier.

Posted by on 9:50 AM | Permalink

Strike Outs or Home Runs?

In honor of the current World Series, we looked at search capabilities delivered by the most popular sports web sites. Nearly all these sites featured stories about the latest games, so there was sufficient content to discover.

After two games, we would expect to see consistently strong search results. After all, the Series is definitely newsworthy and interest levels are high among sports fanatics and more fair weather fans. The sites would need to meet their needs.

The results were surprisingly inconsistent, based on studying outputs from searching “Red Sox” (our favorite!) and the more generic “Baseball” on these sites. Here's how they performed:

* When searching for the Red Sox, who reported on the first or second game in their initial results? Home Runs for ESPN, Yahoo Sports; Base Hits for Fox Sports, CBS Sports, AOL Sports, Sports Illustrated; and Strike Out for MLB.

* When looking up Baseball, which sites produced information on this current Series? Home Run for Fox Sports; Base Hit for Sports Illustrated; and Strike Outs for Yahoo Sports, ESPN, CBS Sports, MLB, AOL Sports.

Below are additional Search Notes, for these popular sports web sites.

Search Notes:

Yahoo Sports - Somewhat larger than normal search box was located on upper right side, with both site and web options. When searching for Red Sox on the site, the first result was the relevant MLB official team link followed by decent results from AP and Reuters. Also this page displayed image results of Series players at Fenway. After entering Baseball as a search term, however, we saw that Yahoo returned one relevant result mixed with mostly irrelevant results.

ESPN - Search box was located on the upper right, and offered a site search with options for photo, video, audio, local and TV searches. Putting in the term Red Sox led to a perfect response! It first showed a recent scoreboard for the team, with more stats. Then it linked to an ESPN keyword (their term) and very specific Series coverage. The remaining results came from AP and ESPN news. When searching for Baseball, though, we didn't see any relevant results appear for the Series. From there, we could select Major League baseball - but even those results didn't cover the Series.

Fox Sports on MSN - Search box was located on upper right, with both a site and web search. On the site, the Red Sox search brought up a key link to the team including video from the games (since Fox carried them on TV). Yet the rest of these results missed the Series and touched on general team stories, written by Fox columnists or AP. When searching Baseball, the site redirected to its MLB page rather than search results - a good move because it featured the Series and latest game news.

CBS Sports - Small search box (powered by Google) was located at the top right, with both site and web search. The term Red Sox offered up a perfect first result, which linked to a team page with appropriate AP news links and stats. However, the remaining links were quite outdated, with earlier news, message boards and community pages. The term Baseball brought up irrelevant results about fantasy baseball leagues and updates, and no Series links at all.

NFL Internet - Site stays unranked since it's about football. The search was located on upper right, and defaulted to article results as reported by the NFL or AP. When you searched for a team, there was a nice set of team links which appeared first. There were also tabbed options to search for video and images. All results were sortable by relevance and date (also author for articles).

MLB - Ahh, back on terra firma in baseball again. That being said, the search box was quite small, almost hard to find, and powered by Sun Microsystems. The Red Sox search results were irrelevant, at the MLB site! Results were grouped by news from this year and earlier years, team news, ballpark news and shopping. Most were contributed by MLB.com writers, rather than news feeds. The Baseball search also brought forth many non-newsworthy results, from team press releases as well as content from MLB.com writers.

eBay Sports - Site stays unranked since it's related to sports memorabilia. eBay prominently featured its search box in the upper-center of pages. Like all things eBay, you looked at memorabilia for sale and could refine by categories as well as sort by price, timing, etc. (Of course, all kinds of appropriate Red Sox and Baseball items were for sale.)

AOL Sports - Nice big search box was displayed at the top and centered, with web search as an option along with site search for images, video, news, local and more. When searching for sports, the results come from news sources. The Red Sox search produced just a few AP headlines about the second Series game. The Baseball search turned up irrelevant results, even with relevance and recency sort options. All results came from AP feed, and we're still wondering why these results were poor.

SI - Small search box was on homepage, then a more prominent search box on search and article pages thereafter. The Red Sox search was passable, producing relevant Series news in positions 4-6. We didn't know why the first three results had nothing to do with the Series. Most results came from AP, and some others from SI writers. The Baseball search provided better results, as the first six links were about the Series so far before trailing into irrelevant ones.

Turner Sports (NASCAR, PGA, etc) - Sites stay unranked since they're about racing and golf. The NASCAR search was located on the upper right, and produced stories written by NASCAR as well as video matches on the side. Results were sortable by date versus relevance. For the PGA, there didn't seem to be any search present on the site.

Posted by on 3:42 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: Content Creation About Journey, Not Destination? - Part 2

You can waste a lot of time debating whether content is king. For the sake of argument, let's just all agree so we can focus on business decisions. In today's Vertical Challenge column, "Content Creation: About Journey, Not Destination? - Part 2," travel search expert Elisabeth Osmeloski discusses the pros and cons of hiring an in-house staff to transform your travel site.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink

October 25, 2007

Omniture Buying Visual Sciences

The self implosion of the web analytics space continues as Omniture announced it will be buying Visual Sciences. Visual Sciences, bought by WebSideStory in 2006, managed to pull an "Alien" and take over the ship from the inside, when most of the executives left the company.

WebSideStory then changed its name to Visual Sciences. They may want to keep an eye on that over at Omniture.

The press release stated:

Omniture Inc. (Nasdaq: OMTR), a leading provider of online business optimization software, today announced a definitive agreement to acquire Visual Sciences, Inc. (Nasdaq: VSCN) in a stock and cash transaction valued at approximately $394 million.

The combination of Omniture and Visual Sciences creates a company with substantial scale and resources to deliver industry leading products and services that address the rapidly expanding online business optimization market. The combined company will be able to accelerate investments, meet a wider set of customer needs through a richer solution set and have a significantly greater opportunity to grow into new markets.

“With the tremendous growth opportunities we see in the online optimization market, we believe that in addition to being financially accretive to our shareholders, this is a strategic investment that will drive increased value for customers and partners,” said Josh James, CEO and co-founder of Omniture. “We are facing a very significant opportunity defined by the rapid growth of online advertising and online business in general. This acquisition enables Omniture to accelerate our investments in advanced solutions that drive customer success as well as create further opportunities to cross-sell our growing portfolio of products to a combined customer base of more than 4,000 customers.”

Under the terms of the agreement, Visual Sciences shareholders will receive $2.39 in cash per share and a fixed exchange ratio of 0.49 shares of Omniture stock for each Visual Sciences share, on a fully diluted basis. Based upon Omniture's closing price on Wednesday, October 24, 2007, this yields a total consideration of $18.04 per share. Upon the close of the transaction, Visual Sciences stockholders will own approximately 13.7 percent of the combined company on a pro forma basis.

“Omniture is a leader in online business optimization, and absolutely the right company to leverage our technology and resources for the benefit of the industry. The combined company will provide our customers with a richer solution set, faster innovation and greater access to unique industry and business expertise,” said Jim MacIntyre, CEO of Visual Sciences. “We look forward to bringing these two great teams together.”

The acquisition, which is expected to close in early to mid 2008, is subject to customary closing conditions, including approval of stockholders of both companies and regulatory approvals. The transaction will be accounted for under purchase accounting rules.

Due to the absence at this time of estimates of the acquisition-related restructuring costs and the allocation of the purchase price between goodwill, in-process R&D, other intangibles and equity-based compensation expenses related to SFAS 123R, Omniture is currently unable to provide GAAP estimates on future earnings.

The transaction is currently expected to be accretive to earnings immediately after closing on a non-GAAP basis. Due to purchase accounting, the company's target of accretive to earnings on a non-GAAP basis assumes no adverse impact from the loss of deferred revenue following the close.

Posted by Frank Watson on 5:25 PM | Permalink

Search Headlines & Links: October 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 5:21 PM | Permalink

Google Meets the Financial Press

Google held an all-day briefing for financial analysts and press yesterday at the Googleplex. If you're so inclined to listen to the five sessions yourself, you can listen to the webcast.

If you're looking for the high points, you can find some thorough coverage at Barron's blog, Tech Trader Daily:

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 4:38 PM | Permalink

Size Matters in Social Media

While many social media marketers focus on the big social sites, there can be hidden treasure in "micro communities." In today's SearchDay, "Bigger Not Always Better in Social Media," Eric Enge discusses the benefits of these smaller, vertically focused sites.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 2:35 PM | Permalink

A look into the purpose of Google's "PageRank update"

A lot of blogs have been talking about a PageRank update in progress, but if you look under the covers, it really looks like a manually applied update to a set of sites that are being punished. While the majority of these look like they have been selling links, some of the affected sites do not appear to be selling links. You can see a listing of many sites that were affected here on SEOmoz.

There are reports from a couple of the affected sites, Search Engine Journal and Search Engine Roundtable that their traffic has not been affected in any way. Bearing in mind that the PageRank display in the Google toolbar is always out of date, losses in ranking and traffic from Google rankings adjustments would normally occur before a visible toolbar update.

It may be that the purpose of these updates is to make it more difficult for link sellers and link buyers to place a value on a link purchase. The Google tool bar PageRank has been one of the most common ways of measuring a site's value in link sales situations. Perhaps the theory is that obscuring what the tool bar would normally show will affect the text link market.

If this is all that Google intends to do to these sites, I don't think it will meet their objectives. Links can get a value placed on them by a variety of other means. However, I would be very cautious about being complacent about this. Google has demonstrated in the past a willingness to send a warning shot across the bow before taking greater action. For example, many people have seen 30 day penalties (removal from the index) applied to their web site, only to bounce back.

When I discussed this with Matt Cutts, he made it clear that Google uses this approach to provide warnings to webmasters to repent their sins and repair the problems that Google detected. Perhaps this is more of the same. It may be that web sites who continue to leave their paid links up will then be subjected to a greater penalty, such as removal, or a rankings drop comparable to the PageRank drop. Only time will tell us how this will unfold.

As a final note on this update, I have looked over a large number of pages that should have some visiable PageRank when Google next does a general update. For example, this interview with Rajat Mukherjee is listed in the webmaster tools account for the Stone Temple web site as having the highest PageRank for the site for the month of August.

Yet it still shows no PageRank. I have done similar checks on dozens of other pages across various sites that should have had some PageRank changes if this was a general update. No change was visible on these pages. As a result, I believe we are looking at an update that was applied on a manual basis to a set of web sites, and most likely, this was just a warning to those sites.

Posted by on 10:17 AM | Permalink

Judy's Book to be Sold or Shuttered

Local search pioneer Judy's Book is folding to investor pressure and closing its doors, according to CEO Andy Sack:

After 3+ years, our management team and board of directors has decided to scale back our operations at Judy's Book and seek a strategic acquiror.
As a CEO, I know this is the right thing to do for our investors. But as an entrepreneur it's disappointing to stop chasing an idea just when it's beginning to take root in the popular consciousness.

Judy's Book launched in 2005 as a local reviews site, and transitioned in the summer of 2006 to a hub for local shopping deals and coupons.

Although full-time employees will be let go, Sack told ClickZ News that he has gotten at least six inquiries from potential buyers, so the site may not be quite dead yet. It won't be easy for the acquirer, he adds. "There's no question that doing something local on the Internet is really friggin hard," he said.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 10:11 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: Solving the Link Building Puzzle: Do or Die, Part 2

When link building is a life-or-death choice, don't take unnecessary risks. In today's Link Love column, "Solving the Link Building Puzzle: Do or Die, Part 2," Sage Lewis helps you analyze four different options for paid links.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink

October 24, 2007

Search Headlines & Links: October 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 6:11 PM | Permalink

Microsoft Invests $240 Million In Facebook

Seems Microsoft is continuing its push at Facebook. Last year, Microsoft became the banner ad supplier for Facebook in the United States. Today they purchased a 1.6 percent stake in the company for $240 million - making the whole company worth $15 billion - and announced they will now handle distributing banner advertising for Facebook outside of the United States, the New York Times reported.

If Facebook were to add a web search box into their interface the search number could well grow Microsoft's percentage of searches significantly.

UPDATE: For more on the story, see Microsoft Named Exclusive Advertising Partner for Facebook on ClickZ News, or one of the hundreds of accounts on Techmeme.

Posted by Frank Watson on 5:21 PM | Permalink

Page Rank Drops For Popular Digg Sites

Andy Beard reports that following the recent paid link hunt, Google seems to be cleansing their database of sites popular in Digg.....

While these sites seemed to have just had a significant amount of their PR dropped, the impact on SERP positions for their keywords has to have been effected as well.

Posted by Frank Watson on 5:01 PM | Permalink

Developing an In-House Training Plan

Most companies know they need to do search engine optimization (SEO), so they assign the task to one of their employees who they think can "get it." Unfortunately many of the employees do not how to execute properly, and end up frustrated. It is a lose-lose situation.

In today's SearchDay, "Developing a Training Plan for In-House SEO," Melanie Mitchell shares some insights into training she's learned as VP of SEO/SEM at AOL.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 5:00 PM | Permalink

Google Offering Online Seminars For Website Optimizer

Google announced yesterday that it will be offering online seminars about their new Website Optimizer program. The first two seminars are scheduled for next week.

The Introduction To Website Optimizer will be given Tuesday October 30 and registration can be done here.

The second on Creating and Launching Experiments will be held Thursday November 1 and can be registered for here.

Posted by Frank Watson on 4:41 PM | Permalink

AdSense Reporting Problems

A number of forums have noted that Google's AdSense reporting is having problems. Yesterday webmasters were noticing discrepancies in basic impression numbers between AdSense and their log files.

The problems appear to be tied to the Custom Channels statistics, according to most comments.

A comment in Google Groups by a Google employee indicated it had nothing to do with the announced changes to AdSense yesterday. "Our engineers and product
team are aware of this aggregate vs. channels reporting discrepancy.
They're working as quickly as they can to fix the issue, and I'll let
you know as soon as I find out more.

FYI - This is unrelated to the announced product change from the blog
yesterday (that feature hasn't launched yet)".


Anyone seeing the same thing in their accounts can discuss it here.

Posted by Frank Watson on 12:13 PM | Permalink

Some Loose Connections -- Dave Weinberger Featured Speaker at ClickZ Interactive Marketing Excellence Awards

This evening Dave Weinberger author of The Cluetrain Manifesto and a fellow at Harvard's Berkman Institute for Internet and Society will be a featured speaker at the ClickZ Awards being held at Gotham Hall in New York City. I am seriously looking forward to this gala event and was struck by several coincidences -- loose connections so to speak.

Dave Weinberger is very generous with his time and has been a regular attendee (as regular as a very busy schedule allows) at Harvard's Berkman Thursday Blog Group. This group, which has been meeting for several years, gathers on Thursday evenings to discuss a wide range of blogging-related topics. I try to attend regularly, for the conversation is lively and thought-provoking.

In April 2006, I issued an invitation to attend the Thursday meeting during a speech on blogging at a conference in Boston. Taking me up on the invitation was fellow SES speaker Dixon Jones of Receptional in the UK. Dave Weinberger was in attendance and prompted a very stimulating conversation when he asked why he should give search optimizers any credibility whatsoever, given the premise that the search marketer was out to subvert the publics' perception by manipulating search results. We gave him lots to consider, recapped nicely by Dixon.

Now here is the coincidence and some loose connections – Weinberger will be in New York at ClickZ, Watlington will be in NYC at ClickZ, and Dixon will be conducting a Link and Reputation Workshop for ClickZ's sister event at SES @ a4uexpo in the UK.

Posted by Amanda Watlington on 11:47 AM | Permalink

Get It Right Now by Reading "Do It Wrong Quickly"

Do It Wrong Quickly
Mike Moran's Do It Wrong Quickly: How the Web Changes the Old Marketing Rules (ISBN-13: 9780132255967) recently published by IBM Press is a must read for search marketers wanting to play larger more challenging roles in the organizations they work with or in. This book would also make a nice holiday gift to give clients suffering from “analysis paralysis” or “acute planning disorder,” for reading it may help relieve these two common marketing maladies.

This volume goes beyond search marketing and addresses the broader realm of the changed world of online marketing. Grounded in search with lots of search examples, it provides a clear roadmap for navigating in the new marketing paradigm where marketing is a conversation with the customer, and where we as marketers must learn to listen, interpret the data and make rapid course corrections.

Now is not the time for marketers to dither around waiting to get the plan just right. Mike puts that notion to rest rapidly. Now is the time for joining the conversation and learning from the experience.

Readers familiar with Moran's previous book, Search Engine Marketing, Inc Driving Search Traffic to Your Company's Web Site (ISBN -13: 9780131852921), published in July 2005, will find this new volume just as easy to read and comprehend. As I was told many years ago by a very wise professor, don't equate easy-to-read with lack of insight. This book has both.

Do It Wrong Quickly, just like Search Engine Marketing, Inc is packed with practical advice illustrated with numerous examples delivered with a generous dollop of humor. For example, in describing speeding up the process of getting it right through rapid testing, Mike suggests: “So how do you find your prince faster? By finding more frogs and kissing them faster and faster.” He then goes on to offer suggestions for how to find more frogs and improve, well you can guess the rest.

For those who want the details, the book is in three parts with nine discrete chapters, each with a nice summary so that if you put the book down to go back to doing it quickly, you can easily find your place and context. Here is an outline of what is between the covers.

Part 1: That Newfangled Marketing
Chapter 1: They're Doing Wonderful Things with Computers
Chapter 2: New Wine in Old Bottles
Chapter 3: Marketing Is a Conversation

Part 2: That Newfangled Direct Marketing
Chapter 4: Going Over to the Dark Side
Chapter 5: The New Customer Relations
Chapter 6: Customers Vote with Their Mice

Part 3: That Newfangled You
Chapter 7: This Doesn't Work for Me
Chapter 8: This Won't Work Where I Work
Chapter 9: This Stuff Changes Too Fast

If you want to hear Mike speak about this new book, he will be on tour doing a number of speaking engagements across the country. He has posted his schedule on booktour.com.

For most authors the completion of a single book is a personal tour de force. Completing two comprehensive books in two years is positively Herculean. Bravo!

Posted by Amanda Watlington on 11:15 AM | Permalink

Google, Nielsen Establish Strategic Relationship

Google and the Nielsen Company announced the establishment of a multi-year relationship starting with gathering demographic data for the Google TV Ads.

Google will combine Nielsen demographic data with the aggregated set-top box data it is already using, giving advertisers more targeting capabilities. Data derived from Nielsen's TV ratings panels will provide Google's TV Ads advertisers with the demographic composition of the audience.

Google and Nielsen also promise future plans to work together to measure online and offline media.

"As we continue to expand our TV advertising program, it is important that we provide advertisers and agencies with data that will help them reach their target demographic with the right ad," Eric Schmidt, Google CEO, said in a statement. "Working closely with Nielsen, the industry leader, improves our measurement capabilities by adding a demographic layer on top of existing set-top box data. We're pleased that Nielsen is working with us in this endeavor."

Posted by Frank Watson on 10:36 AM | Permalink

Large Scale Link Building

Got a site with tens of thousands of pages? Chasing a lot of long tail terms? If you do, you are probably already aware that this means you need a lot more links than a smaller site, and you need to get deep links as well. In fact, it's likely that you need tens of thousands of links. You also need to obtain some really high quality links to boot.

This means that the rules of the game are quite different for you, and the only way you are going to win is through achieving some serious visibility. You also need to plan for a much higher level of investment in your web promotion strategy than smaller sites. It also goes without saying that the great majority of those pages need to contain interesting and different unique content. Assembling this horde of great content is by itself a hard task, but not the subject of this post.

To win at this game, you need to get to a place where your visibility produces links for you. Here are a few ways that can be done:

  1. Main Stream Media: Become the darling of one or more major publications, such as Newsweek, Time Magazine, or any other of these larger magazines. Of course, focus on the major publications that are related to your space. How do you reach these people? The old fashioned way, and perhaps still the best way, is to use a PR agency to help you. Making headway with writers and editors are major publications is best achieved by leveraging trusted relationships. However, social media campaigns as outlined below, can help you get some visibility in these circles as well.

  2. Blogs: Here the goals is to reach the major influencers among the bloggers (you could say the same about main stream media above). These are people who reach a large audience of people relevant to your product or service. Developing a relationship with them is exactly like a business development process. You need to earn their trust. You can try to do this directly, or, once again, there are many PR agencies that have trusted relationships with significant portions of the blogoshpere.

  3. Social media: This has been one of the hottest areas in web marketing for a while. Sites like Digg, Reddit, and del.icio.us can deliver a lot of traffic and links. But there are hundreds, maybe even thousands, or social media sites out there. Many of these are targeted sites, and finding ones relevant to your site or business would be a great thing to do.

    Getting to the home page of Digg can net you hundreds, or even thousands of links. So this can help with the volume game in a limited sort of way. It's limited because all the links go to one page, and ultimately, you want thousands of deep links to pages all over your site. So once again, it's a visibility game that you playing here. You need to reach the influencers, in main stream media, and in the blogoshpere, and a smart social media strategy can help you do that.

    One last point about social media is that you can't just write and article that is good enough to make a social media site's home page. It also has to be good enough that an influencer will be interested in linking to it. This is a somewhat higher bar. The best social media strategies depend on content that is good enough for both purposes.

  4. Facebook Applications, Widgets, and/or Gadgets: This is a relatively new hot area. A successful Facebook Ap/Widget/Gadget (referred to as a "Widget" from here on out) can achieve an awesome level of visibility. Many people are able to get their Widget installed by millions of people. That's impressive.

    What makes the best type of widget is the subject of a long post all it's own, but for purposes of obtaining links, the visibility by itself is very helpful. A really good widget design could draw content from pages all over your large site, and expose that content to a huge audience. Used this way, it can help with drawing links to the deep pages on your site.

Even while you are doing all these great things to get lots of links, you also need to focus direct attention on getting very high value links. These are the sites that are potentially treated by the search engines as authority sites, and you need links from them to win. This is also a business development type effort, where you build a relationship with a major influencer, and get them to link to you.

Ultimately, if you have unique, great content, the search engines will be a help as well. As you start getting basic rankings in search engines people will begin to find you there. Then the content can do the selling for you, and help you get great deep links too.

The key is to find a balance of the types of strategies outlined above that will net you the high volume links, the influencer links, and the authoritative links. Once you have this process humming, you should be in good shape.

Posted by on 10:13 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: Raising Search Standards and the Compliance Bar

New IAB/DMA standards will change the way interactive agencies, SEMcos, and solo search practitioners do business. In today's Searching for Meaning column, "Raising Search Standards and the Compliance Bar," Kevin Ryan explains why you need to know what a SEMco is and how your business will change.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: Data Segmentation: Web Site Analytics for PPC

Web site analytics is one of the foundations of search marketing. In today's By the Numbers column, "Data Segmentation: Web Site Analytics for PPC," Eric Enge shows you how to segment data and act on it, rather than stare at charts and graphs.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink

October 23, 2007

Search Headlines & Links: October 23, 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 6:03 PM | Permalink

New CBS/Medio Mobile Search Deal: The Start of a Revolution?

CBS Mobile is teaming up with Medio Systems to add mobile search capabilities and search advertising opportunities to CBS Mobile sites. Is this "the shot heard round the world" of mobile search? In today's SearchDay, "Will the Revolution in Mobile Search be Televised?," Greg Jarboe argues that this signals the opening salvo in a revolutionary war to deliver easy-to-access mobile content to a growing mobile Internet audience. It's also the launch of an ad-supported search solution that is optimized for the mobile experience.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 4:22 PM | Permalink

Keyword Specific Domains Grabbing Google Real Estate

The ability for a keyword specific domain name to have Google site links at the bottom of their - what now seems default - top listing is creating an interesting real estate bonanza for the people holding such domains. Add a reduction in the cost of clicks for that term since the domain contains the keyword and that increases the Quality Score, and top position for paid search can be added to further push competitors off the page.

Aaron Wall wrote a detailed piece on this issue today with pics and everything. Makes you want to bid a little higher for those domain names. His reference to Frank Schilling's article on domain values adds even more reasons to grab up domains wherever you can.

Between the extra space for top ranking - and the traffic just the number one spot brings, the lowered QS, and the typed in traffic it is a winning combination.

Posted by Frank Watson on 3:27 PM | Permalink

Mozilla Should Be Renamed Googzilla or GoogleFox

Mozilla released their income numbers recently and it seems 85% of their income is from the partnership with Google, according to ZDnet.

In 2006 they made $66.8 million, up from $52.9 million in 2005 - and 85% of that came from Google. "As in 2005 the vast majority of this revenue is associated with the search functionality in Mozilla Firefox, and the majority of that is from Google," wrote Mitchell Baker in her blog following the financial release.

With expenses below $20 million, Mozilla has a lot of left over cash compliments of the search giant. They increased their assets to $74 million, about $22 million over 2005 numbers.

It is hard to see the two companies parting ways any time soon. Google gets a great deal of traffic from the arrangement.

The Mozilla Project seems to be cashing in on the Google alliance.... name change anyone?

Posted by Frank Watson on 1:00 PM | Permalink

AdSense To Launch Ability To Change Displayed Ads From Interface

Today's Inside AdSense blog announces the ability to make changes from the interface that will impact ads already coded on your pages. No more make the changes at the interface and then change the code on the pages.

While some elements can be done if you know the code without using the AdSense interface, you still need to make the on page changes which can at times be more difficult.

Posted by Frank Watson on 12:45 PM | Permalink

Google Sheds Light on Ad Quality Score

Ever since Google implemented Quality Score as a criteria for AdWords ad placement, advertisers have been clamoring for more transparency into how Google calculates the score.

In the "good old days," an advertiser could boost an ad's ranking just by bidding more. Now, Google and other search engines incorporate a quality score, which takes into account elements like historical performance of a given keyword, relevance of keyword to ad text, landing page quality, and other factors.

While Google is not eliminating the black box that is the quality score algorithm, it is pulling back the curtain a bit with a new Keyword Analysis page in the AdWords console.

The page will offer advertisers clues about why a keyword is not triggering an ad, and rate the quality score as "Great," "OK," or "Poor." It will also dig deeper and show how the different components that factor into quality score are performing.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:18 PM | Permalink

Google Now Using Own Translation Software

Google has replaced the Systran software it had been using on its Google Translate service with its own translation software, according to Ionut Alex Chitu at Google Operating System.

Google had been using its own translation system for Arabic, Chinese, and Russian translations, but now uses it for all 25 languages it translates.

The difference between Google's system and other systems is the use of statistical learning techniques to massive amounts of text, rather than building a complex rules-based approach, according to the Google Translate FAQ.

"Google's approach works better for some languages and worse for others, but at least Google can expand to other languages without having to know them and manually create models for each one," Chitu writes.

At Google Blogoscoped, Philipp Lenssen compares Google Translation to Systran and a human translation of a German paragraph into English, and vice-versa. "I couldn't see a clear winner yet (though I get the feeling Google's results are slightly superior), but a lot of garbage results on both ends," he writes.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 11:53 AM | Permalink

Search Strategy: Best Practices

"Any search for information no matter how 'high' or 'low' the purpose--whether it is baseball statistics or philosophy--is valid because it is a search for truth."

The New York Times Guide To Reference Materials: Revised Edition
-- copyright 1971, 1985 by Mona McCormack

A lot has changed in the past 21 years since the NYT reference guide was published and last updated (1986). The above quote? Taken verbatim from:

Search Strategy: Chapter 1

What's changed the most? Search Strategy.

What hasn't changed:

All searches are a search for truth.

Posted by Kevin Heisler on 9:20 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: SEO versus Branding: Clash of the Titanic Egos

SEOs, meet brand gurus. Brand gurus, meet SEOs. Talk (don't fight) amongst yourselves. In today's au Natural column, "SEO versus Branding: Clash of the Titanic Egos," Mark Jackson explains how to avoid conflict with brand gurus, and get your CEO to think about SEO.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: Machines In Translation: Do MT Engineers Dream of Selectric Sheep? Part 2

The battle for search engine supremacy in machine translation rages on. In today's Search Engine WarGames column, "Machines In Translation: Do MT Engineers Dream of Selectric Sheep? Part 2," Search Engine Watch Executive Editor Kevin Heisler discusses globalization, machine translation, and written communication. Part 2 in a series for search marketers with multinational momentum.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink

October 22, 2007

Search Headlines & Links: October 22, 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 6:11 PM | Permalink

E-consultancy offers free social media briefing for the UK

The folks at e-consultancy have put together a free briefing on social media in the UK. There are lots of interesting items scattered throughout the 11-page briefing. Here's just a sample of the ones that caught my eye:

• Growth of social media, blogging and User-Generated Content has spawned a range of social media optimisation (or optimization) technologies and services.
• The challenge for companies is to find a natural way of starting conversations about their products and services online.
• There is a lot of potential for companies to get things badly wrong if they go about their social media strategy inappropriately, for example by trying to dictate a message or appearing on a forum of social network where they are not welcome.
• Although many of the principles of offline PR apply to online PR and social media marketing, there is a “real opportunity to do something that is new in a completely different way”.
• There is a difference between popularity and influence. It is important to find out who the real influencers are in a particular niche or sector.
• Building relationships with influencers can be very time-consuming and resource-intensive. It is important to have a skilled PR person doing this work. (Hear, hear.)
• Social media is becoming a very important search tactic because of the opportunities for generating links.
• As companies generally become more adept at making sure their websites meet the technical requirements necessary for good search engine optimisation (or optimization), the focus on good content (which also leads to links) becomes even more important.

Whether you spell optimization with a z, as we do in the US, or an s, as they do in the UK, you'll want to read this social media briefing. It's "brilliant" as they'd say in London -- or "wicked smart" as we'd say in Boston.

Posted by Greg Jarboe on 5:07 PM | Permalink

Google, DoubleClick: Myths and Facts

The ups and downs of Google's purchase of DoubleClick has created a lot of misinformation. Detailing what is happening may help people get a better grasp on the situation and an understanding of the inner fight going on in the industry.

DoubleClick is mainly an online advertising serving platform. It is helps supply the ads of many of the major online advertisers - giving the code to the publishers running the ads - and providing a third party that is the arbitrator of real clicks and impressions. An invaluable tool for the continued success of internet advertising. And one that has been getting attention lately as articles in the NYT and others can attest.

Microsoft had been a bidder for DoubleClick but stopped well before the $3.1 billion Google has offered. That makes DoubleClick twice as valuable as YouTube....

While Microsoft is fronting the Congressional inquiry into the purchase - conflict of interest and anti-trust issues seem to be getting bandied about - it should be noted that Microsoft owns DoubleClick's biggest competitor Atlas (acquired when they bought aQuantive).

Meanwhile in Europe Yahoo is heading the push with the EU. Yahoo has longer online advertising standing in Europe.

``Combining Google's search business with DoubleClick's ad technology will strengthen Google's dominant position in Europe,'' Andrew Cecil, head of public policy for Yahoo! Europe, said in an e-mailed statement today, Bloomberg reported. ``The end result will be higher prices for Internet publishers and advertisers and less choice for European consumers.''

Is Google moving towards being a total online advertising resource? Absolutely, they have search, analytics, content publishing resources both with AdSense and the newly added YouTube, and now an ad serving platform with video and rich media expertise - but also tracking abilities for the source of the pageviews, and more importantly the ability to monitor behavior across all sources of traffic.

Add DoubleClick and Google now has access to the bulk of the world's online behavior. Not only search behavior, but anywhere they are controlling the ads. Impression and click counts are not the only thing they gain buying DoubleClick.

They tried to get the world to give them access to online behavior when they bought Urchin and started giving away online analytics. Fortunately the majority of online companies decided to keep paying independent third parties - though Google would have had no problem forcing out all the web analytics companies that needed to have their customers pay for their programs.

The buy of DoubleClick is another end run - sure Google is claiming they will not use this information - bit hard not to collect it - but with each step Google is fast becoming Big Brother.

While Microsoft has had its own battles over their Big Brother aspirations and Yahoo may just be trying to protect their financial security - will the US government or the EU be able to pull Google back if they are allowed to add DoubleClick to their arsenal.

Posted by Frank Watson on 11:24 AM | Permalink

Kim Krause Berg Podcast, Usability and SEO

Recently I had the pleasure of doing a podcast with Kim Krause Berg. It was a great chat, primarily focused on usability issues with web sites.

It reminded me though of the strong link between usability and SEO. For example, clear easy to use navigation is one of the things we talked about during the podcast. This is also something that helps the flow of page rank through a site from an SEO perspective.

For example, one problem I have seen with web sites is that publish some content on a regular basis (daily, weekly, or monthly), and when they first publish it, the articles are linked to from the home page (for reference, we will call this first group of articles "Batch 1". Then the next batch comes out, and the Batch 1 content moves to a location one click from the home page. So far not a big deal.

However, when the batch after that comes out, Batch 1 now gets pushed yet another click from the home page. In fact, over time the content gets pushed further and further down. When Batch 21 comes out Batch 1 is 20 clicks from the home page.

This is bad usability because no user will ever find that content. It's also bad SEO, because no crawler is going to go down that many clicks from the home page to find that content. The same holds true for many other aspects of usability.

In addition, usability addresses that other major concern of web site owners - conversion. For many web site owners, it just might be easier to double their conversion than doubling their traffic - yet the both bring the same benefits to the bottom line performance of the web site.

Posted by on 10:51 AM | Permalink

Best of the SEW Forums: Greg Hartnett BOTW

We'd like to welcome our newest Search Engine Watch Forums moderator.

Greg Hartnett has been helping SEOs and SEMs navigate the web for years. Not only that, he's president of one company and CEO of another: now. At the same time.

That makes him a "serial entrepreneur" but more important -- one of the best experts to help all SEOs and SEMs who run their own business, or dream of running their own business.

Greg heads up Best of the Web a comprehensive web directory focused on providing users with quality resources.

In addition to his responsibilities there, he's also the CEO of HotelHotline ,an online hotel wholesaler catering to the budget traveler.

Greg's also a frequent speaker at WebmasterWorld conferences and occasional writer on his personal blog, GregHartnett.com

Greg's joining the aussiewebmaster crew on Search Engine Watch forums. See you there.

Posted by Kevin Heisler on 10:30 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: Inside Google Zeitgeist: Google's Annual Partner Summit

If you're just now starting to think about how search and your organization (or internal search department) impact the 2008 planning process, you're a little late to the game. In today's Search Ads column, "Inside Google Zeitgeist: Google's Annual Partner Summit," Matt Spiegel shares details from Google's very exclusive annual partner summit. Rather than focusing on search and ads, the event was a two-day feast of brain food on topics ranging from world hunger and environmental protection to the shortage of digital marketing talent.

Several video clips of the event are available on the Google Channel on YouTube.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink

October 19, 2007

Search Headlines & Links: October 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 6:16 PM | Permalink

Yahoo CMO Resigns, Heading for Big Consumer Brand?

Yahoo chief marketing officer Cammie Dunaway will leave Yahoo on November 2 for a new opportunity, which may be a large consumer brand, according to ClickZ News. She reportedly told colleagues she will not share details about her new position until the middle of next week. Dunaway, who joined Yahoo in 2003, formerly managed interactive advertising for Frito-Lay.

Yahoo's VP of Global Brand Marketing Allen Olivo "will serve as the acting leader" and report to Yahoo President Sue Decker. Kara Swisher broke the news on the BoomTown blog this morning.

UPDATE: Dunaway announced that she is joining Nintendo as executive vice president for sales and marketing, effective on Nov. 5.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 5:12 PM | Permalink

Microsoft Claims Google Gets Too Much Credit

Brian McAndrews, senior vice president of Microsoft's Advertiser Publisher Solutions Group stated during a panel discussion at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco Thursday that Google is getting too much credit for conversions when they are the last place someone visits before making a purchase etc. - when the person usually visits numerous places before the final search is made.

McAndrews was talking about Microsoft's plan to launch conversion attribution tracking - where the user's previous ad exposure etc. is attached to longer tailed tracking.

"This situation has unfairly benefitted Google because many times someone will see a display ad on a site and go to Google, search for the vendor's name, and then click on the vendor's text ad served by Google," McAndrews said during the conference.

With "conversion attribution" "advertisers get a more complete understanding of how effective their marketing campaigns", he said.

"Along the way, advertisers will get a more balanced view of the value of their ads across a wider trail of Web sites and via a variety of ad formats, not just the last ad displayed by the last publisher, which is often Google", PC World reported.

"We'll introduce conversion attribution to give [more publishers] credit and it will devalue search [advertising]," McAndrews said.

The major drawback I see for this is when does the tracking start? Is all activity cookied? What will the privacy issue people say about this?

The concept is great if you don't mind all activity on the web being monitored. The actuality of being able to really attribute and filter what sparked what will be a huge undertaking.

Posted by Frank Watson on 2:00 PM | Permalink

SEW Experts: Searching for a Better Local Ad Model

The epic battle fought by "online pure-plays" and "brick and mortar" companies moves to a new frontier: local search. Local search products from online pure-plays eventually hit a wall: their ad models rely on self-service. In today's Vertical Challenge column, "Searching for a Better Local Ad Model," local search expert Michael Boland looks at some alternative ad models better suited to the local search market, like combining a comprehensive bundle of ad products with the right high-touch sales force.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink

October 18, 2007

Search Headlines & Links: October 18, 2007

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

From the SEW Blog:

Headlines & News from Elsewhere:

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 5:43 PM | Permalink

Search and the Law: Trademarks

Since search became monetized, trademarks have been a front-and-center issue for legal debate. Today, with the proliferation of paid and organic search listings, search and trademarks have led to growing dilemmas for search engines and advertisers alike.

In a two-part SearchDay series, "Trademark Law – What Search Marketers Should Know, Part 1" and "Trademark Law – What Search Marketers Should Know, Part 2," we look at the guidelines that search marketers should be aware of, both to protect your own trademarks from unauthorized use, and to enforce trademark infringement against others.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 3:25 PM | Permalink

11 Guidelines to Social Media Success

I return today from spending the last 2 days in NY at SMX Social Media. A lot of great speakers were present, and this post will summarize a set of 11 guidelines for putting together a successful social media strategy:

  1. Know your audience / Pick the right social media site to target - This is first for a reason. You need to know what type of audience uses a given social media site. If you are interested in marketing to seniors it may not make sense to spend too much time on MySpace for example.
  2. Discover their needs - Study the site and learn what type of content prospers in their environment. This acts as a second check to tell you that you have targeted the right social media site, and it also tells you something about how to present your content within their environment.
  3. Learn the lingo and value system - This is just important. According to Rob Key, who spoke on Wednesday, each social media site begins to develop their own unique dialect. If you don't understand the basic dialect, you will stick out like a sore thumb to the regular users of the site.
  4. Make friends - In particular, make friends with the influencers on the site. On a site like Digg, these are the top 100 users. The best way to do this is a corollary to the next point - add value to that power user. Comment on their stuff. Reference their stuff from your site, or in comments elsewhere. Suggest related things to them (that is not your own content).
  5. Add unique value to the community - Become a member. Social media, oddly enough, is social. People who take, and don't give, are not popular in any social community. Note that adding value does not mean contribute your own stuff. Find other people's great stuff and contribute that.
  6. Don't self promote - There are almost no social media environments that are keen on self promotion. Even if the site terms of service say that self promotion is OK, the community itself tends to frown on it (this is true on Digg and Reddit, for example.
  7. Make sure the information you provide is accurate - Don't be lazy about fact checking. Make sure your contributions will stand the examination of hundreds or thousands of people looking at it. You don't want to be outed for providing lousy info.
  8. Be transparent - This is another biggie. If you are saying something about a company that you have some association with, be open about it. You definitely do not want to be outed for this either.
  9. Be patient - The big wins may well take some time to achieve. You are going to need to make up front investments to become a part of the community and figure out how to fit in. The right way to get the content you are trying to promote on the community site varies by social media site, but following the above guidelines will cause the people who come to know you to start following your stuff. You can also learn from them what is appropriate for that particular community.
  10. Be prepared to let go - Once some of your content is taken into the community, the community will begin to redefine it. This is one of the trickiest parts of social media. However, if you have created something of value, this metamorphosis is extremely powerful. Those who participate in these actions will begin to take ownership for what they have created - and they will drive the success of your content / brand for you.
  11. Don't spam - The above points should already make this clear, but social media communities tend to be very fast in acting on spam. Just don't go there.

There is a high level of intolerance for bad behavior in a social media community. Unlike search engine optimization, every single item is reviewed by humans, many of them in fact. Any inaccuracy, or problem with what you are doing will be discovered rapidly. In addition, you may have people challenge you who themselves are completely inaccurate and off base. You just have to deal with that.

The above guidelines should provide a good start, but as always, the devil is in the details. That's where you come in.

Posted by on 8:58 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: Top Rankings, Secrets, and Lies - Part 2

When linkbuilding, as with any task, your time is worth money, and that time needs to be focused on effective strategies. In today's Link Love column, "Top Rankings, Secrets, and Lies - Part 2," Justilien Gaspard shares some link building tactics that will maximize results by focusing on the links that will deliver the most value.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink

October 17, 2007

Search Headlines & Links: October 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 5:40 PM | Permalink

YouTube video appears in Google News

A YouTube video from AlJazeeraEnglish appeared on the home page of Google News today. It features an interview with Kurdish separatist leader Murat Karayilan. See below.

YouTube%20video%20in%20Google%20News.jpg

Back on May 23, 2007, IDG News Service asked Nathan Stoll, the product manager of Google News if he had any plans to add a video component to Google News. Stoll said then, "We don't want to preannounce any features, but our Google News philosophy is to give users access to all the perspectives on a news story. To the extent that a lot of those are in video and becoming available online, we'd certainly love to make those perspectives available and easily discoverable." Well, those perspectives are now available and easily discoverable.

Posted by Greg Jarboe on 10:38 AM | Permalink

Yahoo Adds Cars.com, Forbes.com and Ziff-Davis to Publishers' Network

Yahoo announced it has signed agreements with Cars.com, Forbes.com and the Ziff-Davis publications.

The press release stated:

Yahoo announced significant display advertising agreements with Cars.com, Forbes.com and Ziff-Davis Media. These agreements represent the continued build-out of Yahoo!'s network of premium publishers, which will benefit advertisers, publishers and users. These relationships enable marketers to reach their target audiences with high-value inventory on Yahoo! and across the Web, improving reach, frequency and relevance.

"Yahoo! is developing a new marketing ecosystem where premium publishers can deliver relevant marketing messages to their users on their owned and operated sites, or on Yahoo!'s sites, while also giving marketers the ability to reach their desired audiences across the entire network," said Todd Teresi, senior vice president of the Yahoo! Publisher Network. "When you put the breadth of Yahoo!'s owned and operated properties together with these vertically-focused leaders, advertisers will be able to reach a high-quality audience with greater relevance and scale."


Cars.com

The alliance between Yahoo! and Cars.com, one of the nation's leading online destinations for people in the market for automobiles, creates increased opportunities for advertisers to reach a highly qualified, specific audience of in-market consumers interested in purchasing cars. This alliance gives advertisers the ability to extend their access to those consumers on both Cars.com and the Yahoo! network, creating highly valuable inventory for both partners.

"It's exciting to partner with Yahoo! to give our advertisers the ability to reach their target audiences not only on Cars.com, but also on the breadth of the family of sites and services on Yahoo.com," said Mitch Golub, President of Cars.com. "This alliance with Yahoo! will significantly enhance our ability to sell a lot more advertising inventory."

Forbes.com

The Yahoo! - Forbes.com relationship gives Forbes.com the ability to extend the reach and frequency of targeted display advertising to its consumers across Yahoo!'s network of leading Web sites. This will enable Forbes.com to continue delivering to advertisers qualified business decision-makers wherever they appear across the Yahoo! network. Additionally, Yahoo! will include some Forbes.com display inventory as part of Yahoo!'s finance package to advertisers looking to reach users interested in finance, including key business leaders. Forbes.com will continue to sell its own inventory to its advertising partners on a stand alone basis.

"Yahoo!'s network of publishers offers an intelligent and cutting-edge opportunity to monetize our premium unsold inventory at Forbes.com," said Jim Spanfeller, president and Chief Executive Officer, Forbes.com.

Ziff-Davis Media

The Yahoo! and Ziff-Davis Media relationship will provide advertisers with additional opportunities to communicate with, and engage some of the most involved and influential technology and video game buyers who are active across Yahoo!'s network of premium Web properties. These audience extension opportunities will enable marketers to further support their strategies to create a voice with influential consumers.

"Extending the reach of our PCMag.com Network and 1UP.com network audiences via Yahoo!'s extended network of Web properties creates more opportunities for advertisers to reach these valuable, proven buying communities," said Jason Young, Chief Executive Officer, Ziff Davis Media. "It's an incredibly compelling proposition that's a win for Ziff- Davis Media, Yahoo!, and marketers alike."

These important relationships with Cars.com, Forbes.com and Ziff-Davis Media are the latest developments in Yahoo!'s strategy to create the largest and most effective network of premium publishers online. The advertiser - publisher ecosystem will transform how advertisers engage with customers on and off the Yahoo! network. Yahoo! provides significant added value to these publishers, and all the companies participating in its growing network of premium publishers.

Posted by Frank Watson on 8:26 AM | Permalink

Yahoo To Provide Paid Search For WebMD Properties

Yahoo announced it will provide the sponsored search results for the WebMD properties. The sites include WebMD Health, MedicineNet, eMedicine Health and RxList.

The press release stated:

In addition, WebMD will extend its advertising reach to include WebMD users across Yahoo! properties and services. WebMD will be the only significant online health publisher to represent Yahoo!'s advertising inventory.

With online advertising spending in the health and pharmaceuticals category expected to top $1 billion next year, this agreement provides both Yahoo! and WebMD with additional reach and targeting that will benefit advertisers and consumers alike. Yahoo!'s robust ad platform coupled with effective targeting capabilities will enable advertisers to reach an even larger engaged audience and consumers will receive more relevant and timely health-related marketing messages. Additionally, should WebMD choose to make its inventory available to a third party advertising network, Yahoo! will have the opportunity to extend its advanced advertising products across the WebMD network of consumer sites on competitive terms.

"This strategic agreement dramatically extends WebMD's ability to uniquely reach health-involved consumers across the breadth of both WebMD and Yahoo! properties," said Wayne Gattinella, President and CEO of WebMD. "We're pleased to bring Yahoo!'s world class sponsored search capability to WebMD users as they seek credible health information on our network of consumer sites."

"Yahoo! couldn't be more thrilled to power sponsored search for WebMD's users. WebMD is the premier destination for health information," said Todd Teresi, senior vice president of the Yahoo! Publisher Network. "This agreement ushers in a new era of collaboration and value creation for marketers seeking qualified audiences, consumers demanding relevant experiences, and for our collective organizations as we look to build upon our unique strengths."

Posted by Frank Watson on 8:19 AM | Permalink

Competitor Analysis

Competitive intelligence is very often taken for granted in the search industry. We rarely spend any time getting to know our competitors. We seem too busy dealing with our own stuff.

Unfortunately, leaving the competition to fend for themselves leaves so much on the plate.

Many people assume search is basically measured with ROI. While this is the end it should never be everything. By studying your competitors you learn so much. You are not going to be breaking all the new insights into marketing for your industry. Watch and pick up tricks and new methods.


So don't miss the opportunities. Sign up for your competitors' emails, read their content and get to know their sites as well as your own.

There are many tools out there you can use of various pricing. I use SpyFu – great for checking bids and daily spends – Arelis and SEO Elite for indepth link information – they can be used to get more links, find anchor text as well as PR, Alexa rankings and other assets.

Google Alerts is a good tool for being notified when something changes for your competitive keywords as well as when you and your competition are mentioned online. AdGooRoo is great for notifications of new competitors for your keywords as well as the ads they are using.

Using these tools and some skill you can develop great new keywords. They are found in PPC campaigns and in the inbound text links used by competitors or even in their page optimization efforts.

You should also check out what analytics programs – if any – your competitors are using. It reflects the level of sophistication they have, and also what they can measure.

Beyond that you need to develop this into a process. It is not a one time thing but a regular process needed to stay ahead. Beyond that read, read, read. Our industry is always changing and you can only stay on top by putting in the effort.

Posted by Frank Watson on 8:01 AM | Permalink

Globalization of Search: US Hispanic Marketing

Metrics and measurement: not the exclusive purview of search marketing and web analytics.

CNN's Taylor Gandossy takes a look at what the word "Hispanic" (US-government issue, circa 1970s) means in cultural terms: The complicated measure of being Hispanic in America.

Gandossy notes the U.S. Census allows people of Hispanic or Latino origin to choose one of four listed categories of origin: Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban or "other Spanish, Hispanic or Latino." .The "other" category allows fill-in-the-blank specific descriptions, such as Salvadoran, Argentinean or Dominican origin.

Maria%20Lopez%20Knowles%20MRM%20Worldwide%282%29.jpg
Search marketing strategies "targeting" people of Hispanic or Latino origin can be complex. For some of the reasons why, SEW Expert Eric Enge turns to Maria Lopez-Knowles, SVP at MRM Worldwide for a global agency perspective.

Posted by Kevin Heisler on 12:27 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: The Real Impact of Blended Search

Since the major engines have introduced blended and universal search results, they have seen increased traffic to their video and image sites. Are searchers warming to the blended search concept? In today's Searching for Meaning column, "The Real Impact of Blended Search," Kevin Ryan looks at data from comScore to get the real story.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink

October 16, 2007

Reservation Road: A Study in how NOT to launch a movie on the 'net

By Carrie Hill, SEW Expert, Little Biz

Our Editor at SearchEngineWatch, Kevin Heisler, threw down the gauntlet – he wants the blog contributors and SEW Experts to collaborate on a project. The goal? We need to "get the word out" about Reservation Road, a new feature film from FocusFeatures.com and director Terry George starring Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Ruffalo.

After poking around and seeing what's already existing around the 'net? We found the studio to be lacking a few basic "musts" for setting their film up for success in the online market and blogosphere.

Homepage

First of all, there is no site dedicated solely to the movie and the news surrounding the movie. When you visit the site "ReservationRoad.net" you're redirected to the FocusFeatures.com homepage that talks about a variety of movies they're producing. If you select the link for "Reservation Road," you're taken to a page with a note saying "website coming soon" and a pic of the movie poster – oops.

MySpace

The film didn't have a MySpace page – something I think is probably a must for any movie that wants to attract a large audience. If you look at the homepage of MySpace today, you'll see a huge layout and ad for the new National Treasure movie starring Nicholas Cage – score one for Disney.

I set up a MySpace page for Reservation Road and threw some movie trailer clips on and a few photos. That seems to be another issue, as there aren't that many great photos out about the movie for people to share and talk about. I found a few here and there, and there is a photo gallery at FocusFeatures.com – but the photos aren't really promotional, just movie stills and somewhat dull.

Search

Because there are so many varied critical opinions associated with movies, I think it's important to have good search engine saturation from the get-go. To be honest, Reservation Road doesn't deliver. I just did a Google query (see below) for "Reservation Road" and a new news item is showing in the #1 position Рbasically a review saying it's clich̩ and to skip it from MSNBC Рoops again.

You can also see Focus Features is buying PPC ads (again, see below). This is great but the ad isn't really saying what the movie is about and who is starring. For a movie with little to no buzz, my opinion is they should really be talking about who is starring, what it's about and some other text about the Oscar buzz I've been hearing about but can't seem to find online.

resroad%20serp.JPG


So – what are the lessons here?

1. Be prepared and have a site ready to go and live at least a week before your film premieres – I'd probably even have a site as soon as you have a title and put updates on filming, timeline and some blog posts from the stars of the film to age the domain and the "power" it can create.

2. You're going to get some bad reviews, that's the nature of show business – so be ready and have your film saturated across the web with news items, press releases, Web site mentions, and social media blitzes (MySpace et. al.)

3. A new movie is like a new brand – you need to get it out there, use paid search to your advantage and keep in mind that you have limited real estate available to get your point across.

We'll keep you updated on our progress and if (and when) you've seen the movie, let us know what you thought about it at the Reservation Road MySpace page.

Posted by on 5:22 PM | Permalink

Search Headlines & Links: October 16, 2007

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

From the SEW Blog:

Headlines & News from Elsewhere:

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 5:05 PM | Permalink

Microsoft Rolls Out More Live Search Updates

Following up on the major updates rolled out in September, Microsoft today made another round of updates to Live Search, this time focusing on local and mobile search.

At the top of the list of new features is the launch of Live Search 411, a voice search product built on technology acquired from Tellme earlier this year. Features are similar to what Google offers with GOOG-411.

Besides Live Search 411, Microsoft improved its driving directions, and expanded its coverage area for bird's eye and 3D images. It also launched mobile versions of Live Search for Windows Mobile and Blackberry devices.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 3:50 PM | Permalink

Search and Politics: Made for Each Other?

Search engines are playing an increasingly important role in the education of voters in the U.S. And according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, there is a statistically significant correlation between using the Internet to get political news and information and the actual act of voting.

In today's SearchDay, "Search About to Upset the Political Applecart," Greg Jarboe examines data from Pew that shows press release optimization for news search engines may be three times more valuable to presidential campaigns than website optimization for web search engines.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 2:33 PM | Permalink

Google Analytics Update

Yesterday evening I was briefed by Brett Crosby about the latest Google Analytics update. Net-net, this is more cool stuff from Google on the analytics front. Coming soon to a Google Analytics account near you (i.e. yours) is the following:

  1. Improved Site Search Reporting. While you could get some data on site search previously, this has been simplified and expanded significantly. You now can get data on keywords, categories, products across time and user segments.
  2. Web 2.0 Event Tracking. This is new, and very exciting stuff. Now you can tag and track Flash and Ajax events. With this announcement, Google Analytics is unveiling a new paradigm, based on an Objection (e.g. a Flash player), Action (Play, Pause), Label (did the user skip a step, start at step 3, ...) model.
  3. Tagless outbound link tracking. Currently, you need to add an "Onclick" tag to your exit links if you want to track them. With this announcement, this is no longer necessary. In the near future you only have to append a tracking parameter, and Google Analytics can still track it without your having to run Javascript when someone clicks on an exit link.

Accessing the Web 2.0 and tagless outbound link tracking will require a change to the basic Javascript placed by users on their sites. The traditional "urchin.js" file called by the Javascript tags will need to be changed to call "ga.js".

There have been several updates from the Google Analytics team this year. The great majority of the prior updates have been focused on catching up to the other products in the industry, namely the paid ones. With this announcement, Google is moving past the catch-up model, and establishing some leadership positions in a few key areas that many webmasters will find compelling.

Additionally, Google has also announced that they are simplifying the pricing model for the Urchin software version of the product. For those of you who are not familiar with this, this is the version of the product which pulls its data from server log files, instead of log files created by Javascript tagging.

The new product offers upgrades and enhancements to the current Urchin 5 version of the product, and is available for $2995. Current Urchin 5 customers who purchased Advanced Support will be upgraded for free, and those who purchased Urchin 5 without Advanced Support will be able to upgrade by paying the difference in price between what they paid and $2995.

Ultimately, the significance of this announcement is that it should lay to rest those rumors in the industry that Google was planning to abandon support for the Urchin Software product.

Posted by on 12:00 PM | Permalink

Is Yahoo Gaining Momentum?

While Google clearly retains the dominant market share among search engines, it appears that Yahoo showed some strength this summer with "impressive momentum," according to a report by SearchIgnite and RBC Capital Markets.

"Relative to its own market share, it was an impressive gain," said Roger Barnette, president of SearchIgnite. "It appears marketers are becoming more comfortable with the Panama platform. We expect this trend to continue in the fourth quarter."

The research shows that Yahoo posted significant quarter-to-quarter gains in both share of search ad impressions and percentage of media spend. At the same time, Google's share of impressions dropped considerably during the summer, but rebounded due to back-to-school traffic in September. Yahoo was apparently unaffected by the seasonal shift.

Spending on Yahoo outpaced the overall spend increase, showing that as marketers increase their ad spend, they are more likely to allocate that budget to Yahoo. Overall spend increased by 1.8 percent from the second quarter, while spending on Yahoo was up by 7.8 percent, and spending on Google was up just 0.8 percent.

"This should tell marketers that if they're not looking at other engines, they might want to consider doing that. Many of their competitors are," Barnette said.

The data comes from more than 500 clients of SearchIgnite and its sister company, 360i. This is the fourth quarterly report, intended to measure the changing budget allocations between Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft Live Search/MSN. SearchIgnite is especially interested in tracking the effects of Yahoo's implementation of Panama as well as changes Google has made, such as the shift to universal search.

One surprising point for Barnette was the lack of a noticeable uptick following Google's algorithm adjustment that tweaked the way the top ad position is calculated. Both Google's average cost-per-click (CPC) and effective CPM were flat after the late August move, where previous changes had boosted those metrics more dramatically, he said.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 9:29 AM | Permalink

The Reservation Road Challenge

Last week, our esteemed SEW editors threw out a challenge. There's a new film getting released this Friday, called Reservation Road. It's based on a best seller from a decade ago. It's got a great director and cast. How could we grow traffic as quickly as possible? How could we share the fine art of search marketing, too?

Here are a few tactics to get started:

1. Point all the traffic home. Even though the book and movie may be found in many places online, we want Reservation Road to lead somewhere. Our only bet seems to be the .net domain which re-directs to the Focus Features studio site. When you get there, you land on a page about several films including this release. There are some interesting previews and clips when you click on the movie. So it's a start.

2. Act like a movie fan. We wanted to join the fans who already are linking Reservation Road to their sites about Joaquin Phoenix and others in the film. As part of priming this pump, we spent less than a day creating these pedestrian fan sites (and it shows). Note they all have different takes on the upcoming entertainment:

> Video Clips site – acts as a billboard, with simple reviews and links to clips (Reservation Road)
> General blog – links to movie premieres, books (Reservation Road)
> Actors blog – waxes enthusiastically about the movie and its actors (Reservation Road)
> Movie Reviews blog – links to all reviews, nothing edited (Reservation Road)
> Photos site – shows selected pix of the lead actors, from red carpets (Reservation Road)
> Book blog – links to original book reviews and more (Reservation Road Book)

3. Ask for your help! Please go online and learn more about Reservation Road. Feel free to click on these fan sites above, contribute to the blogs (at least the more modern ones), link to them, or tag whatever interests you about the movie or book. Or dispense with these lovely sites entirely, and just share anything about Reservation Road.

The SEW bloggers and writers are trying to push for *only* a few days, as a model for what happens over longer timeframes. We'll report back on what succeeds and fails here.

Posted by on 12:53 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: The Perils of Duplicate Content

Duplicate content can be a huge challenge for SEOs and their clients. But what qualifies as duplicate content? In today's au Natural column, "The Perils of Duplicate Content," Mark Jackson runs through five of the more common forms.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: SME Brand Strategy: SEM Tactics, Tips, and Tricks, Part 1

They said it couldn't be done. You can't build your brand online with search marketing tactics. In today's Little Biz column, "SME Brand Strategy: SEM Tactics, Tips, and Tricks, Part 1," Carrie Hill debunks that myth with tips and tricks to prove them wrong.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink

October 15, 2007

Search Headlines & Links: October 15, 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 6:23 PM | Permalink

Debby From The Block: U Penn Long Tail Blockbuster

No way I could pass on pointing to the Debby Richman blockbuster post. blockbuster.jpg

Wharton says: Online recommendation engines may chop off Long Tail of Search.

Prick up your ears, Chris Anderson Your Long Tail doberman (below) is under attack:

chris%20anderson%20long%20tail.jpg

Wharton to Chris: "Long Tail? That dog don't hunt."

When the Wisdom of the Crowd wags the dog, Beware of Wharton's Dogs.

wharton%20doberman%282%29.jpg

Cry Havoc! And let slip the Dogs of Wharton.

Posted by Kevin Heisler on 2:36 PM | Permalink

Newsforce Launches Standalone SEO Tool for Press Releases

Newsforce today launched a new standalone service for SEOs and public relations pros looking for an automated way to optimize press releases for search engines.

The tool does not create an optimized release, so much as it guides users through the process of doing so themselves, Greg Jarboe, partner in Newsforce and in SEO-PR, a full-service PR optimization agency.

"There's no such thing as faerie dust to make a press release optimized," he said. "What the tool does is ask the hard questions, and then give expert advice and feedback."

Once a user submits a press release for Newsforce to analyze, the tool asks a series of questions, beginning with which keywords the user is trying to target. It will then offer data from Trellian's Keyword Discovery tool to show how often those terms have been searched for in the last month, to help users decide if those are the best words to target.

The tool will then point out some of the important areas where keywords should be located, such as in the release's title and first paragraph. The user can choose to heed the list of suggestions, or ignore it.

"Sometimes, a user is happy to just optimize for one keyword, if they're under a tight deadline," Jarboe said. Using the tool often helps a user know if they've done "good enough" given their time constraints, or if it's worth pushing back the schedule to improve the release, he said.

The tool cannot replace the skills of choosing the right keywords, or telling a clear story in the release, warns Jarboe. "We automate what's easy to automate, but we don't do the strategic thinking for you," he said.

Newsforce's tools have been available to Business Wire clients within their suite of tools for more than a year. With today's beta release, a user can subscribe to the service for and then distribute the finished product on any news wire. After an optimized press release is distributed, Newsforce provides ranking reports on Yahoo News and Google News at three intervals: the first hour, the first day and the first week.

Newsforce is available as a one-off service for $20 per press release. Monthly subscription fees start at $59 for four press releases per month.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:17 PM | Permalink

Twitter and Search

In my recent inverview with Twitter's Jack Dorsey we talked for a while about the integration of search into Twitter. The obvious notion is to integrate some type of people search functionality.

Twitter has already launched funtionality that allows you to search profiles and find people of related interests, or whom are near you. But more than that is possible. Twitter is actively working on adding text based search as well. Here is what Jack had to say about it:

Another big aspect is text-based search. That's next, where you will be able to search through any of our updates and search for activities like search for who is reading right now, or who is walking right now, or who is eating right now, who is in San Francisco right now, etc. It really opens up some very interesting possibilities of how this system benefits you, what you can do with it, when you know that five people in your general radius are eating Mexican food right now. It's a different world.

The idea gives a whole new meaning to the concept of "site search". Now we are talking about a custom search application designed to process a dynamic data stream in real time.

Posted by on 9:00 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: SEO SEM Budgets: Define Success Beyond Direct Response

If you're just now starting to think about how search and your organization (or internal search department) impact the 2008 planning process, you're a little late to the game. In today's Search Ads column, "SEO SEM Budgets: Define Success Beyond Direct Response," Matt Spiegel shows that it's not too late to expand search beyond direct response in the 2008 budget.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink

October 12, 2007

Search Beats Recommendations, By The Long Tail

We're all familiar with recommendation systems, due to Amazon's early efforts as well as current entertainment and e-commerce sites. You visit a particular product page and find related products that might also be of interest to you.

Apparently these recommendations don't really work as well as search results, in exposing the long tail. According to a recent Wharton School study, current recommendation systems drive less diverse product selection overall. That's just the opposite effect which so many online retailers are striving for in the first place!

It turns out that simple popularity, an oldie but a goodie, is the biggest driver of recommendations. Says the study, “As long as a product has modest sales, recommendations have the potential to make it a near hit. However, the lower selling products stand little chance at being made famous by the recommender.”

The irony is that recommendation systems may actually expose individuals to more products, with roughly one-third learning about new offerings. However, the perception of diversity may actually be due to search engines themselves, as “consumers have difficulty separating their effects from recommendations.”

Of course, Search is all about the long tail. It's true that popularity feeds into relevancy as well, based on keywords. While favored URLs may appear first, there are pages and pages of search results available without limitation. There's no consolidation taking place, as with recommendations.

Still, with the newer collaborative technologies on deck, it's possible that both Search and Recommendations can further shake out their popularity biases. This way, both can continue to improve their delivery of long tail results.

More: Sign up at the Social Science Research Network and access the complete findings.

Posted by on 7:13 PM | Permalink

Search Headlines & Links: October 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 5:58 PM | Permalink

Google Earth Moves Out of the Silent Era

YouTube videos continue to get more and more portable as Google integrates them into other search products, and approaches a semblance of return on the $1.65 billion it paid for the video site.

The latest is today's announcement that Google will imbed YouTube videos throughout Google Earth, where geographically relevant. This comes days after the announcement that it will scale YouTube's universe of addressable inventory across the AdSense network. Together, these give YouTube content more places to live, and and more places to be monetized (more directly with the latter).

Today's announcement basically means that any video uploaded to YouTube that is geotagged will automatically show up on that location in Google Earth. Though this will attract an early adopter-sized following, it could eventually open up lots of possibilities for travel videos and also small business video advertising which is gaining steam all over the place.

For any small business or individual that does get on board, there would seem to be an opportunity to upload existing video creative to YouTube, geocode it with the precise location of the business and have it be among the first score this map real estate.

The real opportunity in a local search sense, however, is if this is brought to Google Earth's online cousin, Google Maps. Similar functionality already exists there through the MyMaps personalization feature, but it requires users to upload videos to personalized maps.

The Google Earth/YouTube integration, by comparison, has a lower barrier to build overall video content by having YouTube uploads to be geotagged for everyone to see. Although again, there won't be people lining up to do this initially.

This is also analogous to functionality in Flickr that lets photos be geotagged and show up in Yahoo! Maps. And of course there are scores of map mashups for more static media to be represented on a map in a thematic way (the Google Maps Mania blog does a good job chronicling these). Greater video integration just takes this to the next step.

With the growing popularity and portability of online video, it could begin to tie closer together with local search. Involving YouTube, a household name, in the process could lower the barrier for businesses (and anyone else) to get themselves and their videos "on the map" in a more meaningful way.

Posted by Mike Boland on 2:52 PM | Permalink

For Teens, Mobile Search Doesn't Register Yet

We have all observed teens in their native habitats -- one hand glued to junk food while the other is attached to a mobile phone. Mobile phones have become their lifelines, by helping them to stay connected, providing a source of entertainment and enabling them to multitask.

One activity they aren't using their phones for much is searching. Some do want to find their way, with 16% currently using GPS and 14% coveting this feature. Yet, despite all the great benefits associated with geo-location, teens don't view local search, directories or shopping aids as being a high priority for them.

According to OTX Research, nearly three-quarters of teens sent text messages or used wallpapers, while more than half took digital photos, played games, sent photos, downloaded ringtones, or IM'd each other. When asked what features they most wanted, nearly half said texting -- with everything else paling in comparison.

On the upside, teens do surf content that requires search tools. Currently, around 30% view websites and 22% download videos on their phones. As with other devices, they seek music videos, user-generated clips, TV shows and movies. (These kids don't care about news, with only 12% reporting they view news clips.)

Given the intensity of teen phone use, it's easy to conclude that there should be more effort placed on search functionality and its ease-of-use. With limited screen size, there are surely better ways to highlight video or site results. As scrolling through multiple results is untenable, the relevance of top results increases significantly too. Let's get to it.

Posted by on 1:59 PM | Permalink

Local Search and Universal Search

Recently I was trying some searches out on Google, and I decided to try out "San Francisco Pizza". It was neat, because it came back with a nice Google map at the top of the results, as follows:

Local-SF-Pizza.jpg

So I then moved on to the next search, "Boston Pizza". The results were quite different:

Local-Boston-Pizza.jpg

During my recent visit to the Googleplex, I spoke to Carter Maslan, the Director of Product Management, for Local about this. He indicated that there are still some triggering issues with the integration with Universal Search. I believe this refers to the underlying relevance algorithm in Universal Search that weighs the relevance of search results from several vertical search properties, and then integrates those into the web search results.

For some reason the Boston local search results don't pass muster in this analysis. However, Carter also indicated that this is something that Google is working on, and you can expect to see a far greater penetration of web search results by Local search in the future.

Posted by on 10:10 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: SEO and User Experience Fusion

So, you want to build a Web site. Do you start with Web 2.0 goodies, or a "visually appealing" Web site that "meets the needs of the business?" In today's Outsourced column, "SEO and User Experience Fusion," William Flaiz answers "none of the above." He suggests the first place you should go when planning a new Web site is straight to your user experience team.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: Voice Search: Mobile Tactic Here. Now. 2DAY.

Mobile has long been called marketers' next emerging opportunity. So, from a local search standpoint, how do you prepare for the opportunity? In today's Vertical Challenge column, "Voice Search: Mobile Tactic Here. Now. 2DAY.," local search expert Gregg Stewart explains that a very old offering is hot once again: directory assistance (DA), and its new subcategory of voice search.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink

October 11, 2007

Search Headlines & Links: October 11, 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 3:57 PM | Permalink

Will Accessibility Become Mandatory?

While more search marketers are becoming aware of usability and accessibility concerns, the numbers are still very small. In today's SearchDay, "Don't Ignore Accessibility," we explore how a class-action lawsuit filed in California has the potential to change that, and require Web sites to comply with accessibility laws.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 3:33 PM | Permalink

Expect More Finger Pointing on Copyright Protection for Video

In an News Corp stated that Google 'could do a better job' at preventing illegally copied video from appearing on its YouTube site.” Chermin also stated that there is no reason Google could not track and filter copyrighted material as well as MySpace, which is owned by News Corp and overseen by Chermin. Was this just finger-pointing and corporate sparring? What about Viacom's billion dollar lawsuit lodged against Google in March over copyright infringement, and all those other pesky lawsuits?

Let me put on my foil hat for just a moment. I can feel some serious vibes coming in. This finger pointing and posturing about who does copyright protection better is going to continue and get even more intense as the promise of advertising on video becomes a revenue-gushing reality.

Tuesday, Google announced the launch of AdSense for Video program which will let publishers embed YouTube videos on their websites using a customized player and then make money from overlaying text ads that fade in and out as the videos play. Watch those dollars winging through the broadband.

Then, Wednesday, following close behind, comes the announcement by video search engine blinkx of a new service that they are offering which allows people to make money when they embed video clips on their Web sites. The Blinkx program, entitled AdHoc, is particularly interesting in that it allows users to monetize, through revenue sharing, video garnered from a number of video-sharing sites including YouTube, GoogleVideo and DailyMotion. The video ad space is clearly booming with the options for advertisers and publishers ballooning. The ground trembles as another revenue gusher is about to blow and start pumping even more revenues toward some well known search engines.

Now, why the foil hat vibes? Isn't this ‘my copyright detection beats your copyright detection' just more of ‘my algo is better than your algo' that we've known for years. Not quite. In an article entitled “The Cost of Copyright” Danny Bradbury discusses copyright detection technology, why the various parties do not seem willing to develop and adopt a single detection methodology which would yield a recognizable digital fingerprint for copyright materials. He points out that it's about the advertising benjamins that await the advertising network that can provide pinpoint targeting based on viewing patterns. Fingerprinting on video has the promise of delivering lots of potential revenue-producing information on viewing patterns.This information will become ever more valuable as advertisers seek to hone in on their prospects.

Even without a foil hat, it's easy to see that the finger pointing over who has the better copyright detection capabilities will continue. It is not just my detection routines beat your detection routines, but rather I can target prospects better. In fact the it is now no longer just about the copyright material; it is all about advertising revenues.

Posted by Amanda Watlington on 6:34 AM | Permalink

Google Buys Social Messaging Vendor Jaiku, Where Is This Leading?

Google has purchased a social instant messaging company, Jaiku, though how it is planning on using it is being kept secretitive, according to reports.

The company in essence provides the technology for creating social portals and networking applications. Where this will lead will be interesting to watch.

The Google blog describes the acquisition this way:

"Technology has made staying in touch with your friends and family both easier and harder: living a fast-paced, on-the-go lifestyle is easier (and a lot of fun), but it's more difficult to keep track of everyone when they're running around at warp speed. That's why we're excited to announce that we've acquired Jaiku, a company that's been hard at work developing useful and innovative applications for staying in touch with the people you care about most -- regardless of whether you're at a computer or on a mobile phone."

Posted by Frank Watson on 12:21 AM | Permalink

Blinkx Showing Google How To Monetize YouTube

Andy Greenberg over at Forbes has written an interesting article about how Blinkx - the European based video platform - has rolled out a monetization process that could help Google with making money on YouTube.

Blinkx launched a method for providing contextual ads that go along with the video content embedded on a site.

"Blinkx released a tool Wednesday that lets online publishers place targeted text ads in any video embedded on a Web site based on the actual content of the video. That's a big contrast to Google's approach: Google figures out what ads to pair with a video based strictly on the video's title and any keywords attached to the clip. Blinkx software "listens to" and "watches" the video, then inserts text overlay ads based on the spoken words and to some extent, the images in the clip. That technology depends on algorithms developed by a longtime Google competitor, search engine Autonomy," Forbes reported.

It is definitely an article worth reading.

Posted by Frank Watson on 12:11 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: Solving the Link Building Puzzle: Do or Die.

Link building is a puzzle all search marketers are trying to solve. In today's Link Love column, "Solving the Link Building Puzzle: Do or Die.," Sage Lewis helps you learn where all the pieces of that puzzle fit, so you can move from page 4 to page 1 in organic rankings.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink

October 10, 2007

Building A Search Team

I did a panel about SEM Campaigns and Project Management at the Miami SES conference earlier this year and used the opportunity to compare the needs of multilingual search marketers and the essential core of any search team. A few people liked it and I have been asked to resurrect the presentation or at least what I remember of it.

Basically what I suggested is that multilingual search focuses you in the way every good search marketing campaign should be.

It requires a subtlety of mind – not a rocket scientist's mind – but one that understands that language is fluid and will mean different things to different people. This is especially pertinent to people marketing into other countries with languages they do not know. But it is also true of local marketing.

Picking a Search Marketing Team

What you need to be aware of is that you can't grab something that has been successful in one language and just translate it – or for that matter apply it to another niche or another skill set without testing and being aware of possible problems.

Picking a team is like picking the right keywords. There are pitfalls and some times you may need to try again, but with the right knowledge and a good methodology you can be a lot more successful than going it blind.

The elements that make up a good search team are:

  1. Knowledge of Organics
  2. PPC Expertise
  3. Copywriting Skills
  4. Solid Web Designing
  5. Advanced Analytics Experience
  6. Some Programming Knowledge
  7. The Five Senses

Obviously knowledge of the known elements of organic optimization is a major element. You need to be on top of both on-page and off-page elements – since they are always changing and have been listed in numerous places, I will not detail them. But be sure you can determine if the potential team member knows them.

PPC expertise requires a diverse skill set. There is ability to make keyword selections, AB testing and ROI measurement, as well as knowledge of the ever-changing engine rules. Experience with large and small engines is something I have a preference for, but is not essential.

I always look for copywriting skills, though they don't have to be specific. Good writers can adapt, and in our space that is very necessary. One minute we are writing text for pages – content that sings and closes, yet contains the right repetitions of our chosen keywords – the next we are writing headlines, or Google ads (they seem the same to me). Using 25 characters and then two lines of 35 is not natural. Finding the person who can make them get your attention, hold it and push you to action is the "Holy Grail" of any good marketing team.

Solid web designing may seem something that search marketers can leave to other departments... Never happens. We have to know enough to make sure the design elements include the behind-the-scenes on-page elements. If you can't look at source code and understand what is happening, you can miss a simple mistake that is costing you organic placement. Understanding the way elements of design change between different industries, languages, or cultures is important for success.

Analytics is the one area that you need to truly be on top of. It shows you what needs to be done to correct problems in all the other areas, and focuses marketing in the right ROI-positive direction. Yes, you can hire someone who shows they have a math- and analytical-focused mind and train them. Just make sure it is with a number of different programs so those little differences between programs are in the person's head. They come in handy when developing advanced measurement methods and interpretation.

Some programming knowledge is really essential. I know successful marketers that leave it to others, but if you want to stay well ahead of the competition, you need to be developing new methods. Programming knowledge will help when working with your developers, and will also allow you to think of ways to use your other areas of knowledge for creating new tools.

Lastly there are the five senses – well, the ones we need for successful marketing.

  1. Sense of Humor
  2. Sense of Camaraderie
  3. Sense of Purpose
  4. Sense of Dedication
  5. Common Sense

Without all five, it is extraordinarily hard to build that stellar team. Most successful companies rely on them.

The skills can be combined into a team as small as two, but as the project grows, so should the team. Also remember to always reward creativity, and constantly be training.

It is not hard, but I have seen too many departments that did not grasp that we are generally odd-shaped pegs that never fit in neat holes.

Posted by Frank Watson on 11:03 PM | Permalink

Search Headlines & Links: October 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 6:08 PM | Permalink

LiveDeal, the Latest to Blend Local Search and Video

Local search and classifieds site LiveDeal announced today that it will integrate video content in its listings. This will allow individual sellers and businesses to upload videos to enhance their classifieds or directory listings.

This follows closely behind many local search and internet yellow pages sites that have blended local search and video over the past year, such as Yellowpages.com, Superpages, and Citysearch. Every major U.S. IYP in fact now has video capability in some form, as there is a clear trend towards video integration in local search.

Google's video addition to AdSense earlier this week meanwhile expand its own video efforts by scaling the distribution of YouTube videos beyond YouTube alone, to the expansive AdSense publisher network. This has local implications as well, with the speculation that Google could integrate video to AdWords by letting users and businesses upload video that is then placed with contextual and geographic targeting throughout AdSense and local search results (i.e. Google Maps).

LiveDeal is a decidedly smaller local search play, but nonetheless joins this video trend in local search. For LiveDeal, video likewise joins a set of content formats it has brought into the fold in the past six months to improve its site experience and expand its monetization opportunities.

This includes most recently, the launch of social features such as community discussion boards around classifieds and topics of local interest. This came weeks after the acquisition by YP.com which brought the site a unique combination of classifieds and directory content; complementary buckets of content that can be blended in certain kinds of searches (i.e. used cars + local dealerships).

Now adding video to the mix makes the site more compelling for users and advertisers. Various combinations of these elements -- social, video, business listings, etc. -- are differentiation strategies we're beginning to see more of in the crowded local search space. The expanded corpus of content these features bring also has SEO benefits.

But LiveDeal, unlike many other local search sites, has an edge in classifieds, one element of local search that has yet to see its potential integrations with video content and directory listings. We've seen classifieds blend with social media (i.e Craigslist), but video could be another element to expand the appeal of both.

This has also been seen to a limited degree lately in Buy.com's recently launched Facebook application for video classifieds. But look for various types of content to converge in more meaningful ways in the local search space -- a microcosm of the larger search world where parallel trends are happening, such as universal search.

Posted by Mike Boland on 4:12 PM | Permalink

Nielsen: Search Ads Score Low on Trust

A recent study from the Nielsen Company found that word of mouth was the most trusted form of advertising worldwide, while search ads are more trusted than only banner ads and text ads on cell phones.

Based on a survey of 26,486 internet users in 47 markets from Europe, Asia Pacific, the Americas and the Middle East, the results showed that online media, like search ads, may not be the most persuasive way to sell something.

Recommendations from consumers are trusted by 78 percent of respondents, followed by newspapers at 63 percent. The most trusted forms of online advertising are consumer opinions posted online, trusted by 61 percent of respondents, and brand websites, trusted by 60 percent.

Search engine ads are trusted by just 34 of respondents: less trusted than television (56%), magazines (56%), radio (54%), brand sponsorships (49%), opt-in e-mail (49%), and ads before movies (38%). Search ads beat out online banner ads (26%) and text ads on mobile phones (18%)

These findings don't mean that search ads are useless, obviously. But they do point to some interesting ways to utilize search marketing, according to Justilien Gaspard. He offers marketers some questions to reflect on:

Is your company
...investing advertising dollars in “trusted” sources of information?
...making use of link development with editorial content?
...utilizing consumer opinions for links and sales?
...encouraging consumers to talk about your product/service online?

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 3:41 PM | Permalink

Are Your Media Efforts Making a Mess of Your PPC Campaigns?

Your paid search campaigns do not exist in a vacuum. A PPC campaign is affected by other, non-search media efforts. A consistent focus on coordinating your paid search with other media efforts can yield great dividends for a savvy marketer.

How difficult that will be depends on the complexity of your non-search media plan. In today's SearchDay, Is Your Paid Search Campaign Part of a Mix or a Mess?, Impaqt's Pat Stroh gives you a quick quiz to determine your MESS, or Media Energizing Search Score.

Your MESS score depends on the amount and complexity of your historical data; your ability to handle the data complexity with analytical specialists; the extent to which your organization is oriented toward learning and testing; and the extent to which an opportunity exists for better results.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 1:25 PM | Permalink

Google's Ajax Search API

The Ajax APIs are one of those services from Google that I think does not get the attention it deserves. For example, Google's Ajax Search API allows a web master to integrate search results within their web page, with complete control over the look and feel. In addition, you are also able to dynamically pull in results from several sources, including:

  • Web Search
  • Blog Search
  • News Search
  • Video Search
  • Local Search

During my recent visit to the Googleplex, I spoke with Mark Lucovsky, Google Technical Director, and Chris Ulbrich from Google's PR department, about recent developments. I learned some new cool things you can do with this API:

1. The NY times blog has integrated a Ajax search of a set of blogs it call the "opinion blogs" on it's site. Look for the phrase "from the opinion blogs" on the right column of the page. The major thing you notice - no trace of Google branding in the results. None.

2. They have a project they are working on for a Local Search Control. This feature allows you to embed local search directly into a Google Map. Very, very cool. Better still, in the future you should expect to see AdSense integrated into this functionaliy, although this feature is not yet available to the general public.

If you are looking at how to integrate search results into your site, and want to present those results as content, the Ajax Search API provides you with a great range of capabilities for doing just that.

Posted by on 10:13 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: The Year Search Makes Contact With Everything

Every major search engine now has its own flavor of universal, or blended search results. In today's Searching for Meaning column, "The Year Search Makes Contact With Everything," Kevin Ryan declares that 2007 will go down as the year we were bombarded with everything we want and a whole bunch of things nobody wants.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: The Tarot of Search Engines: Demographic Data Divining

What if you could gauge a company's marketing strategies by delving into Internet statistics? In today's By the Numbers column, "The Tarot of Search Engines: Demographic Data Divining," Eric Enge shows you how you can read search engine tea leaves using public data.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink

October 9, 2007

Search Headlines & Links: October 9, 2007

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

From the SEW Blog:

  • Google AdSense for Video
    Video Units allow publishers to incorporate YouTube videos onto their site, while monetizing them through the AdSense program.
  • ReachLocal Scores $55M Funding
    The local search fulfillment agency offers advertisers packages of local ads from Google, Yahoo, MSN, Superpages and others, sold through its own local sales forces.
  • Yahoo Panama Morphing Into Google
    Yahoo is changing to the max bid and quality score method of bid pricing in Sweden. Is Yahoo starting to look a lot like Google's little brother?
  • SEW Experts: How to Avoid Hiring a Bad SEO
    Do you know the tell tale signs of an inept search engine optimizer or SEO company trying to pull a fast one?
  • SEW Experts: How to Avoid Seasonal Search Ranking Wreckage
    Search engine traffic is always unpredictable. From algo updates playing havoc with organic rankings to quality score changes flummoxing your paid listings. The impact of these changes are especially critical around the holidays.

Headlines & News from Elsewhere:

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 6:19 PM | Permalink

Yahoo Panama Morphing Into Google

Yahoo announced today that it is changing to the max bid and quality score method of bid pricing in Sweden - interesting place to beta.

Okay Yahoo is starting to look a lot like Google's little brother. Google makes changes and within a month or two Yahoo does the same thing. Easy really when you know Yahoo is using the same platform as Google.... Panama is a Yahoo tweak of the Google AdWords platform.

I asked this question when Yahoo adopted the Google 'black box' method - how much of the money Google paid to Overture for using their PPC concepts did Yahoo give back?

I was told it was all worked out when they first made the settlement arrangement. Guess 'The Blob' as Yahoo called the Overture platform was just too much for them to fix.

The announcement today came in the following email:

Bid Amount and Ad Quality will Determine an Ad's Rank in Search Results in Sweden the week commencing October 22nd, 2007.

Dear Advertiser,

With new features like ad testing, geo-targeting and fast ad activation, the new Sponsored Search gives you more ways to connect with customers searching for what you sell.

During the week commencing October 22nd, 2007, we are introducing a new ranking model in Sweden that considers an ad's quality and bid amount. The new model is designed to help you spend less time in bidding wars with other advertisers and more time creating the most relevant, effective ads, which can help drive better results for your business.

Here's a quick summary of this important change:

Both bid amount and ad quality will determine an ad's rank in search results the week commencing October 22nd, 2007.
This will replace the current method, in which ads are ranked by bid amount only (bid-to-position).
This is designed to allow you to focus less on competitive bidding practices and more on the quality of your ads.
By improving the quality of your ads and making them more relevant to users, you may be rewarded with a better ranking and/or a lower cost for your ads.
Example of How Ads May be Ranked
The graphic below helps illustrate a scenario that may result from this change:


Note: The graphic above is provided for illustrative purposes only, and will not actually appear in your account.

What is "Ad Quality"?
Ad quality is determined by:

The ad's historical performance - its click-through rate relative to competitors and normalised for position.*
The ad's expected performance - determined by various relevance factors considered by Yahoo! Search Marketing's ranking algorithms, relative to other ads displayed at the same time.
Overall ad quality is displayed in a graphical form by the quality index.

Posted by Frank Watson on 12:48 PM | Permalink

ReachLocal Scores $55M Funding

Local search marketing firm ReachLocal announced a $55.2 million round of funding today, led by Rho Ventures. ReachLocal, like Marchex and WebVisible, is a local search fulfillment agency, according to Marchex's view of the local search landscape. They offer advertisers packages of local ads from Google, Yahoo, MSN, Superpages and others. For the past year, ReachLocal has been building out its sales force to reach local advertisers. Its 11 sales offices in the U.S. are set to expand dramatically with the new infusion of cash.

"Essentially the company is building a yellow-pages style sales force without the directory publication (Weblistic and Yodle are attempting something similar). It's an audacious but possible enterprise," writes Greg Sterling of Sterling Market Intelligence. "There's clearly an SMB appetite for Internet distribution and a need for someone to educate and help SMBs get from where they are to the various consumer points of entry on the Internet."

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 11:44 AM | Permalink

Google AdSense for Video

Google has announced a new initiative designed to help them monetize YouTube content. The new program is called Video Units, and it allows publishers to incorporate YouTube videos onto their site, while monetizing them through the AdSense program. The AdSense ads display in the video player both above and below the video.

The publisher is able to configure the basic look and feel of the player through a selection of colors and player size. The publisher can also exercise control over the nature of the videos shown. The choices they can make are:

  1. Automatic - let Google/YouTube figure out what content to show on your site
  2. Automatic with keyword hints - Still decided by Google and YouTube, but you get to give the algorithm some hints
  3. Choose categories - You can steer the process further by selecting the specific categories you want your video content to come from
  4. Choose specific providers - You can also choose the providers you want to get your content from

Once the publisher has made their configuration choices, they can click a button to generate code for the player to put on their web site. One of the key steps is to provide Google with your AdSense ID and your YouTube ID (you need both).

The program is being pitched primarily as a method of incorporating content into your site. The idea is that the embedded videos will provide increased stickiness for your site traffic. Of course, it's also nice that you can monetize the video right on the spot as well.

You can read more about the program on the AdSense Blog. The video in the blog post provides a great overview of the program.

Posted by on 11:14 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: How to Avoid Hiring a Bad SEO

Do you know the tell tale signs of an inept search engine optimizer or SEO company trying to pull a fast one? In today's au Natural column, "How to Avoid Hiring a Bad SEO," Mark Jackson offers some tips to separate the wheat from the chaff.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: How to Avoid Seasonal Search Ranking Wreckage

Search engine traffic is always unpredictable. From algo updates playing havoc with organic rankings to quality score changes flummoxing your paid listings. The impact of these changes are especially critical around the holidays. In today's Big Biz column, "How to Avoid Seasonal Search Ranking Wreckage," Aaron Shear shares what to do when holiday dips in traffic threaten to dampen profits.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink

October 8, 2007

Search Headlines & Links: October 8, 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 5:08 PM | Permalink

Yahoo's Sale Of Overture Japan Questioned

The sale by Yahoo! of Overture Japan to Yahoo Japan - a separate entity owned largely by Soft Bank (41%) and Yahoo (34%) - has been questioned by Eric Jackson at Seeking Alpha. The price of $13 million seems low and the decision to sell the PPC engine of the largest search engine in Japan seems interesting.

Yahoo Japan is the most popular engine in Japan with a 65% market share, according to Forbes magazine.

I have a hard time figuring out how things are priced.... remember the $1.65 billion for YouTube and it is not making the same kind of money PPC in Japan must be.

Posted by Frank Watson on 2:25 PM | Permalink

Ask.com Providing Celebrity Search Info For Entertainment Tonight

Ask seems to be making use of television aggressively of late. The commercials doing direct comparisons to Google and now they are sponsoring "celebrity search" at Entertainment Tonight.

The popularity of celebrity helped the development of a segment on ET about the top three celebrity searches. I have yet to see a segment but I am thinking that the search numbers may not be a big issue.

"Product integrations, in my mind, perform a different task than a pure advertisement," Ask.com CEO Jim Lanzone told Advertising Age. "An advertisement is part of a larger brand campaign where you control the message and you control the creative. With product integrations, it's more of a real-life example of your product in action, which has the positive of actually demonstrating the benefits of your product."

Posted by Frank Watson on 2:12 PM | Permalink

AP Examines Growth Directions Of Major Search Engines

An Associated Press article in the New York Times today discussed the development of more niched verticals at the major search engines.

Seems AP sees the retention times of the engines to be declining - with the exception of Google - and that all of them are reaching out to vertical portals and other means of grabbing larger audience share.

It is an interesting read, and a good insight into how other major media see the industry growing. The accuracy of the viewpoint is open to interpretation and I would love to get opinions from readers here.

Posted by Frank Watson on 1:56 PM | Permalink

GPhone a Linux-based Mobile OS?

While rumors of a mobile device in the works by Google pop up every few weeks, those speculators may be off the mark. In a New York Times article today, "For Google, Advertising and Phones Go Together," sources have allegedly confirmed what others have guessed: that GPhone is a mobile operating system, rather than a device.

The OS will be based on Linux, and free to hardware providers, since it's supported by Google ads. It will also include rich mobile versions of its applications, including mobile search and maps. According to the article, "Google is expected to unveil the fruit of its mobile efforts later this year, and phones based on its technology could be available next year."

They're not likely to be welcomed with open arms by the carriers, who've spent millions to develop their own content to keep subscribers on their own mobile properties. Many are also using a white-label version of a mobile ad platform from startups like JumpTap and Medio Systems. It will also face competition from Microsoft, whose Windows Mobile OS is distributed by 48 handset makers and 160 carriers around the world.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 11:48 AM | Permalink

Matt Cutts Interview

During my recent visit to the Googleplex, I sat down and interviewed Matt Cutts. One of the things I wanted to get a handle on was how Google handles links encoded in Javascript, or that go through redirects.

A lot of time people implement click throughs so they can analyze the outbound link traffic. Matt told me that there is a recent proposal someone made to add a ping attribute to links, which would allow for that type of tracking without having to send the link through a redirect. Interesting idea.

More importantly, the bottom line is that Google does try to track these links, and still pass PageRank appropriately. This is good news for SEOs who groan when they get a great link from a .gov or .edu site that goes through a redirect. Google will still try to pass PageRank for that link. However, as always, the best practice is to try and get the link as a direct link.

Posted by on 8:25 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: Getting a Jump on the Business Intelligence Imperative

There's gold in all that business intelligence you possess, and it's the key to besting your competitors. In today's Search Ads column, "Getting a Jump on the Business Intelligence Imperative," Matt Spiegel will help marketers learn to love charts, graphs and data.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: Machines in Translation: Do MT Engineers Dream of Selectric Sheep?

The battle for search engine supremacy in machine translation rages on. In today's Search Engine WarGames column, "Machines in Translation: Do MT Engineers Dream of Selectric Sheep?," Search Engine Watch Executive Editor Kevin Heisler wonders what you would do if handed the war game weapon capable of massively destroying the once and future Tower of Babel?

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink

October 5, 2007

Search Headlines & Links: October 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 5:37 PM | Permalink

Discussion with Sep Kamvar About Gadgets

Last week I traveled out to California for a series of meetings at Google, and also so I could be at the Searchification event. One of the people I sat down with at Google was Sepandar Kamvar (aka Sep Kamvar). While Sep is well known for his work on personalization at Google, our conversation focused on another area, that of Google gadgets.

I learned a few important things about the Google Gadget world. One of these is that getting a large number of gadgets you have developed installed by other users is not something that will help with your web search rankings. This is consistent with a conversation I had later with Matt Cutts, where Matt told me that this signal was simply too noisy.

On another note, promotion of gadgets is something that requires some effort as well. It's easier to get something to go viral if you nudge it along by getting the word out. Sep suggested that one way to do this is to buy Google Adwords ads to promote the gadget.

Another thing I learned is that placement in the Google Gadget Directory is based on popularity. You can get a lot of visibility here, but only if you achieve a high ranking. Note that user deletions of gadget installations also count as a negative signal for purposes of ranking in the Google directory.

We also talked about what makes a really good gadget. Here are the 3 main points I took out of the conversation:

  1. The content changes daily or more than daily. Freshness is a big reason why people install a gadget. Trivia, time, and weather gadgets all have done well (don't necessarily rush off and do these, many of them already exist).
  2. The gadget needs to be useful in a small space. No matter how useful the information is, users are not going to ties up en entire screen to get it.
  3. It should deliver useful content in the gadget itself. In other words, don't make the user click through to your site to get the information they want. Such a structure is not likely to get particularly much interest. Put it right there in the gadget where they get what the need most of the time. Of course, when they want additional information, they can click through to your site, and you always get the branding benefit.

Posted by on 10:50 AM | Permalink

Report: Online Ad Growth Slowing

During the first six months of 2007, online ad revenues grew by 26.4 percent over the same period last year to nearly $10 billion, according to the latest report from the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

According to ClickZ News:

Little has changed in the distribution of revenues across search, display and other channels. Search spending during the year's first half accounted for 41 percent of all revenues, compared with 40 percent for the year-ago period. In raw dollar terms, search grew 29 percent to $4.1 billion. Display advertising meanwhile increased from $2.4 billion, or 31 percent of the pie, in the first half of 2006, to $3.2 billion, or 32 percent, for the 2007 period.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 10:24 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: Is Optimization Key to Local Video Ads?

Internet Yellow Pages (IYP) providers have the customers and sales infrastructure to succeed at selling local video ads. But so far, they're overlooking the search optimization component. In today's Vertical Challenge column, "Is Optimization Key to Local Video Ads?," video search expert Grant Crowell explains why a video search optimization program could be just what IYPs need.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink

October 4, 2007

Search Headlines & Links: October 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 6:09 PM | Permalink

Blind Person Suing Target For No Alt Tags

What started as a student suing target.com this time last year, has now grown into a class action lawsuit that just received certification from a federal court judge in California, Reuters reported.

"Judge Marilyn Patel of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California also rejected Target's motion for summary judgment in the case, according to the ruling filed October 2.

According to the ruling, plaintiffs -- including the National Federation of the Blind -- claim Target.com violates federal and state laws prohibiting discrimination against the disabled," Rueters stated.

Guess including alt tags takes on a whole new meaning now. I respect their battle and appreciate what they will do for overall optimization of websites in general.

Posted by Frank Watson on 5:43 PM | Permalink

Krugle Announces Deal with IBM

Code Search Engine Krugle continues to rock and roll. Their latest announcement is a deal that will IBM. Under the terms of this deal, IBM will incorporate Krugle search within IBM's developerWorks site. In addition, the IBM code has notw been incorporated into the Krugle index.

Both of these are significant, but I believe that the visibility on the developerWorks site is the more important development. This includes a statement with the search results as follows: "Code results provided by Krugle". This provides exposure to IBM's developer community incorporates 2.5M developers, out of a worldwide community of about 14M.

There are plans for IBM to begin to use the Krugle appliance in the near future. According to Laura Merling, Krugle's VP of marketing, down the road IBM and Krugle are in discussion of how to integrate Krugle into more of IBM's products.

Ultimately, the two most important points about this deal are:

  1. The endorsement by IBM. IBM takes all the product evaluations it does very seriously. This is a very significant accomplishment for Krugle.
  2. Expanded reach into the world of enterprise developers. Given that the core revenue model of Krugle is the sale of the Krugle appliance into the enterprise, this exposure is a big win.

Posted by on 4:22 PM | Permalink

SEMPO Running In-House Salary Survey

While the search marketing industry has done much growing in the last few years, it's also lagging behind other industries in certain areas. One thing the industry lacks is credible information about salary and structure of in-house search marketing teams. Part of this is due to the esoteric nature of the job compared to other corporate functions, and part of it is just the relative newness of in-house search marketing and myriad ways in-house teams can be structured.

To help shed some light on the compensation and common reporting structures of in-house search marketers, SEMPO, the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization, is conducting an online survey of in-house marketers.

"There's no firm grasp on what's out there. You have people who have heard stories, but it's all third-hand information," said Duane Forrester, co-chair of SEMPO's In-House Committee and search marketing manager of Sports Direct. "For most other positions, you can find out the average compensation for that position, including bonus packages, broken down by geographic area. None of that exists for search."

Forrester came up with the idea for a survey after returning from SES New York earlier this year. He had spoken to several in-house marketers at the event, and inevitably the topic of salary came up. Urban legends of someone who knew someone who got a $300,000 a year job mixed with stories of large companies looking to hire a director of search marketing for $80,000 a year, he said.

The survey began running among SEMPO members earlier this week, and so far the results do not seem to be tied to geography or size of company, he said. What does matter is how vested in an online presence a company is – those who rely on search traffic for their business know the value of a top-shelf SEM and SEO team.

The 20-question survey is open to in-house search marketers, both on the organic and paid search sides. Results will be tallied anonymously after the survey is completed at the end of October. A preview of the survey can be downloaded here (PDF).

"SEMPO's goal is to go beyond anecdotal material and obtain data points that will add some clarity to the entire topic of compensation of in-house SEM professionals," Forrester said. "We want to provide professionals with a sense of their value in the marketplace, and businesses and employers with a greater understanding of SEM's valuation as they recruit for SEM professionals."

Join the discussion in the SEW Forums.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 4:00 PM | Permalink

ComScore Launches Search Marketing Intelligence Service

Market research firm comScore has launched a search marketing-specific intelligence service, comScore Marketer. Using data collected from comScore's panel of more than 2 million consumers, the service can offer search marketers insight into their own visitors, as well as their competitors and partners.

"We have this rich base of panelists where we pick up online behavior, and we pick up search behavior too," said Dan Lackner, senior VP at comScore. "It made sense to harvest the data we collect to help our customers allocate their marketing dollars more efficiently."

ComScore Marketer is a subscription service, with data updated monthly. It presents the marketer with site-specific data, such as traffic and keyword referral data, as well as comparisons within a site category or among competitors' sites.

It also presents visitor data based on the search query, identifying other sites and categories frequented by others who typed in that query. That information will allow a marketer to find other sites to consider for advertising to increase their reach, or excluding sites that are being overexposed to control frequency, said Steve Dennen, comScore's senior director of market research.

"Over the last six to nine months, there's been a movement in the industry to get search out of the silo, and make it work together with other advertising," Dennen said. "This lets them reach people at different touchpoints, and find other places to reach similar people."

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 10:37 AM | Permalink

Microsoft Adds SEM Services to Office Live

Microsoft has added a search engine marketing offering to the suite of services available to its Microsoft Office Live Small Business subscribers. Through a partnership with The Search Agency, a Santa Monica-based SEM firm, Microsoft's customers, typically very small businesses with less than 10 employees, can sign up for three levels of service ranging from online training to full service campaign management.

"The needs of entrepreneurs in this space are very diverse. Some are do-it-yourself oriented, and want to learn to do everything, while others want to completely offload certain aspects of their business to vendors," said Louise Rasho, senior manager of marketing communications for Microsoft Office Live Small Business. "Then there are the folks in the middle, who need consultative help getting started, so they can take over from there."

Microsoft already offers a service for the DIY set: the adManager service that allows subscribers to buy and manage PPC ads from Microsoft Windows Live Search and Ask Sponsored Listings. For the hands-off approach, Microsoft has an existing arrangement with Website Pros to handle full-service Web development and search needs.

The new services from The Search Agency will fit the needs of those users at either end, as well as those who fall somewhere in the middle, Rasho said.

The first service, TSA Learn, consists of three online training modules that teach the essentials of SEM and search engine optimization (SEO). Next is TSA Launch, a selection of more than 20 one-off, a la carte SEM and SEO services. For example, a user can fill out a questionnaire about their business and get a list of potential keywords to use in their search campaign, or enter their existing keywords and get a list of expanded keywords to consider. The third offering is TSA Grow, which is a full-service option where The Search Agency manages all search marketing activities for the subscriber.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:42 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: Link Value: Top Rankings, Secrets and Lies - Part 1

What's a Link Worth? Priceless? In today's Link Love column, "Link Value: Top Rankings, Secrets and Lies - Part 1," Justilien Gaspard encourages you to consider some simple techniques and strategies to help determine the value of a link.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink

October 3, 2007

Search Headlines & Links: October 3, 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 5:08 PM | Permalink

Future for Kelkoo with Yahoo! Cloudy

As Yahoo! continues to redefine its business, Financial Times reports that Yahoo! is considering divesting Kelkoo, the European shopping comparison engine purchased in 2004 for $575 million. At the time of its purchase, Kelkoo was Europe's largest e-commerce service, operating in nine countries. Purchased to leverage this base and enhance Yahoo!'s search-and- advertising opportunities , the site has failed to meet expectations. Although Yahoo! has never broken out revenues from Kelkoo specifically, it has clearly not accomplished its mission, for Yahoo! today is third behind Google and MSN in European search visits according to ComScore.

With the return of Jerry Yang to the helm of Yahoo!, the search giant is reviewing its entire portfolio and seeking opportunities to enhance performance. As Yahoo! told the Financial Times, it is starting a process to give Kelkoo more independence - while evaluating strategic options for its long-term future. This is the business equivalent of handing the business unit a saw and inviting it to chop off the limb it is sitting on. When I consult the plastic magic 8 ball on my desk, it returns “Try again – future is cloudy” for this once bright acquisition.

Posted by Amanda Watlington on 2:01 PM | Permalink

Google Hits Snag in Monetizing Orkut

Google removed ads from its Orkut social networking service in August after facing complaints filed with a Brazilian advertising body, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Brazilian nonprofit group SaferNet lodged a complaint alleging that Orkut contains child pornography and other illegal content on some users' pages. Google removes such content when it's found

According to Google, the ads were part of a test, and only appeared on only 1% of Orkut pages. A Google executive in Brazil, Alexandre Hohagen, told the WSJ that the company was working closely with Brazilian authorities, and future plans for ads on Orkut were unclear.

Lack of control over the content ads appear near has been an issue for advertisers, especially big-brand owners. Add to that the reported poor performanceof ads, along with the risk of offending the core audience by disrupting their user experience, and it makes one wonder how sites like Facebook will ever be "the next Google," or why folks like Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer think the hype around social networks is going to die down.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 11:30 AM | Permalink

Yahoo Gives More Details To Panama Changes

I received another email with the updated press release about new changes to Panama so figured I would pass it along for everyone to read:

Yahoo! Inc., a leading global Internet brand, today announced the introduction of Blocked Domains within its Sponsored Search system, known as Panama. The new feature provides site blocking capabilities for advertisers enabling them to have greater control over where their sponsored search and contextual ads appear. Since these ads can appear outside the Yahoo! network, the Blocked Domains feature will allow advertisers to specify websites and/or sections of websites on which they don't want their ads to appear. This feature is designed to better enable advertisers to block their ads from appearing on websites that don't meet their business needs. This is just one of several ways Yahoo! is working to improve the value of traffic that is delivered to advertisers.

“This domain-blocking feature is yet another way for us to provide greater advertiser control,” said Reggie Davis, Vice President of Marketplace Quality, for Yahoo!, “Now, by enabling advertisers to control the placement of their ads, they can partner with us to help drive traffic quality. We believe this is welcomed news for advertisers.”

This year, Yahoo! introduced pricing discounts so that advertisers may be charged less based on Yahoo!'s assessment of the quality of its partners' traffic, as well as Yahoo!'s Click Protection System which automatically filters out potentially invalid and poorly performing clicks .Yahoo! has also launched enhanced geo-targeting, blocked continents, and most recently the Traffic Quality Center (trafficquality.yahoo.com).

With the new Blocked Domains, advertisers will be able to block up to 250 domains per account, including an entire domain, a subdomain, and up to two directories within a particular domain. Yahoo! plans to introduce the Blocked Domains feature in October 2007.

A forum discussion on this topic can be found here.

Posted by Frank Watson on 11:19 AM | Permalink

.EDU domains and links

Links from .edu domains are commonly thought to be higher quality links than links from other top level domains. There is truth to the notion, but not because the domain has the magic letters (.edu) in the domain. The reason why these types of domains tend to offer better quality links is that they often receive better quality links, and in significant volume.

Philipp Lenssen at Google Blogoscoped provides an example of this with his recent post .Edu and Spam, where he provides the example of America.edu, a site filled with Google Ads. In spite of 941 third party back links (according to Yahoo), the site has a Page Rank of 0.

A quick look at the site reveals the problem. In addition to the Google ads, the rest of the content is in the form of news feeds. The site is not going to draw a whole slew of high quality links. They actually do have a couple of decent links in the batch, which appear to have been obtained by writing and syndicating articles.

Ultimately, there is no magic fairy dust here, or with .edu domains in general. However, there are a couple of reasons why looking to colleges and universities is still a really good idea:

  1. Real colleges and universities do get a lot of trusted links, and therefore and provide a more trusted link
  2. These schools also do like to point their students to helpful resources

These factors make this a useful direction for link building efforts. However, be sure that you do have something very, very useful. These types of entities tend to shine a harsh white light on all such requests to make sure that they truly have merit, and are useful for their students.

Posted by on 10:05 AM | Permalink

Search Ads Fared Poorly in Trust Study

We're disappointed to learn that search ads fared poorly in Nielsen's survey of over 26,000 internet users worldwide. Just 34% of these respondents trusted search ads!

Let's see how well the remaining online vehicles performed. Only banners were judged more harshly, with 26% saying they trusted them. These other ad sources did far better:

* Emails I signed up for - 49%
* Brand websites - 60%
* Consumer opinions posted - 61%

Most likely, these results reflect the degree of user control. When you decide to check out products or services directly, you have some faith in the messages. When your fellow consumers weigh in, that's what you believe the most. However, when unknown or unwanted services are targeted online to you, that trust can start eroding.

It's a plausible explanation, anyway.

Posted by on 12:15 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: Get Your Web Site in Good Working Order: Google Website Optimizer

GWO is the newest search engine acronym. What does it mean for you? In today's By the Numbers column, "Get Your Web Site in Good Working Order: Google Website Optimizer," Eric Enge tells you how to optimize your site in five easy steps.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: Halo 3 as Meta4 Redux

Last week, the big launch of Halo 3 enticed gamers in droves. In today's Searching for Meaning column, "Halo 3 as Meta4 Redux," Kevin Ryan describes a whole new kind of fight gamers are taking to the search results pages this week.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink

October 2, 2007

Search Headlines & Links: October 2, 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 11:55 PM | Permalink

Henry: Portrait of a Search Engine Serial Killer

It's hard to pimp your Website in the city that never sleeps.

Especially when you're the Internet Outsider Insider.

The who? A man without fear: Blodget. No beta blockers needed!

On a two day killing spree, he slashed MSN, leaving Live Search Sucking Wind After All These Years. (Or days.)

Henry's Panama hat? Strategically dipped (hannibal lecter-like) below one eye. His corpse? Had a familiar face:Yahoo's Revenue Per Search Stinks.

Some search engines call him a space cowboy. Some call him the gangster of love.

Blodge The Ripper: Ripped Google's stock price a new one today: Google to $2,000 a Share?

A (stock) picker? A grinner. A joker? A sinner.

Henry: Portrait of a SErial Killer. Who's behind the Metamorphosis of Blodget's in-beta blogger's digi-bizWeb2.0site?

Stay 'tooned.

Posted by Kevin Heisler on 10:28 PM | Permalink

Better Search: Libraries or Engines?

The Engines win by a landslide, at least according to current college students.

They preferred searching on Google or Yahoo versus their college library systems, based on the attributes of: speed (90%); convenience (84%); ease of use (87%); cost-effectiveness (71%); and reliability (63%). Libraries, however, won on more trustworthy measures including credibility (77%) and accuracy (76%).

While students prefer library sources, they also heavily count on the engines. Over half (53%) say the results from engines are as trustworthy as libraries. Google, Yahoo and Ask all rank about the same, without much differentiation.

And, as for those people sitting behind the library desk, here's your wake-up call. It turns out that over two-thirds (67%) of students believe that librarians performed either the same as or worse than the engines. Even though librarians were valued and considered helpful, they apparently don't compare to indices and algorithms.

Interestingly, the survey sponsor is OCLC, a library services organization best known for its worldwide catalog which helps libraries make their holdings more searchable and available to patrons. They contacted several hundred students last year to determine their views on libraries, and recently made the results accessible online.

Of course, the major engines already acknowledge the importance of libraries and their holdings. We see this playing out in myriad initiatives underway, ranging from Google's Scholar and Books efforts to Microsoft's think-tank gatherings.

Libraries are still filled with treasure troves, holding everything from special collections to rich databases. Years ago, librarians made progress in providing electronic islands for their patrons. Now, their challenge is to make the holdings as searchable as possible -- following their "self-service" patrons into the larger search ecosystems.

Posted by on 3:12 PM | Permalink

Study Shows Many Plan to Spend More on Search in 2008

A significant number of advertisers plan to increase both their search ad spend and SEO budgets next year, according to a MarketingSherpa report. In a survey of more than 2,400 marketers who conduct or supervise search marketing in-house, as well as more than 700 agency executives,

Many marketers say they plan to increase their PPC budgets by at least 11 percent next year. For average search spenders, 33 percent plan to do so on Google AdWords; 23 percent plan to do so on other top-tier PPC engines (defined as Yahoo, MSN/Live Search, Ask.com and AOL); and 10 percent plan to boost their budgets on second-tier PPC networks (including Miva, Kanoodle, and Business.com).

Search is also seen as providing a strong return on investment by many marketers. More details on the Search Marketing Benchmark Survey can be found in today's SearchDay, "Search Budgets to See Double-Digit Growth."

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 3:10 PM | Permalink

iHeard.com: Web Radio Search Engine

A specialized search engine for finding internet radio stations has just been launched by Fusa Consumer Search Network, Eric Ward reported today.

The site, iheard.com, organizes a directory of online radio stations by genre, language and country, and allows users to search through their database of thousands of stations, Ward noted. Fusa also has specialized search engines for podcasts, news and videos.

Posted by Frank Watson on 12:04 PM | Permalink

Microsoft Acquires Shopping Search Site Jellyfish

Microsoft has acquired Jellyfish, a comparison shopping site that launched in June with a pay-per-action ad model.

Jellyfish acts like a reverse auction through which retailers are ranked according to the amount they agree to lower their prices. The more they drop the price, the higher up in the search results advertisers appear.

On the Live Search blog, a Microsoft rep said, "We think the technology has some interesting potential applications as we continue to invest heavily in shopping and commerce as a key component of Live Search."

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 9:48 AM | Permalink

Yahoo Search Gets Blended, Helpful

Yahoo today launched what it's calling the "new Yahoo Search." The biggest changes are the introduction of Search Assist, a pre-search query refinement tool that Yahoo has been testing since July; and blended search results that include more photos, videos, and Shortcuts.

Search Assist refines queries by providing related topics as searchers type to assist them in finding the right search term. It's similar to Yahoo's Search Suggest feature, which as the name implies suggests alternate queries, but Search Assist goes further by offering related topics as well as specific suggested queries as searchers type. This kind of recommendation and discovery tool is part of the Ask 3D interface, which offers pre-search query refinement suggestions and post-search related categories.

Yahoo Search Assist

Blended search results are now available on all the top engines, with recent launches of Google Universal Search, Ask 3D, and Microsoft Live Search. Yahoo's version is closer to Microsoft's and Google's in that it includes multimedia results within the main results, instead of in designated areas like Ask uses.

Yahoo Search

Results are pulled from Yahoo properties, like Flickr, Upcoming, and Yahoo Answers; as well as third-party sites like YouTube. New today are the video inline results and Flickr inline results, as well as the Upcoming.org shortcuts.

"One thing we've learned since launching our own algorithmic search engine back in 2004 is that at the end of the day, people really don't want to search; they want to get things done," Tim Mayer, VP of search products, wrote on the Yahoo Search Blog. "Today, we're launching an all new Yahoo! Search experience that gets users the answers they're looking for quickly and easily, and often in one search."

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 8:42 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: Top 10 Reasons You Must Do SEO

Many have claimed "SEO is Dead." In today's au Natural column, "Top 10 Reasons You Must Do SEO," Mark Jackson offers the final five reasons why that just ain't so.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: Taking the Offline Business Online

Is your small business hiding offline? In today's Little Biz column, "Taking the Offline Business Online," Carrie Hill shows you some ways to make it easier for you to be found in search engine results.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink

October 1, 2007

Search Headlines & Links: October 1, 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 6:14 PM | Permalink

Yahoo Sponsored Listings Allowing Site Blocking

Yahoo announced it is broadening its Traffic Quality Features for its sponsored ads in an email today.

Apparently you are now able to block up to 250 web sites you do not want your ads to appear on Sponsored Search and Content Match, according to the email.

The email stated:

As an advertiser, you want quality traffic—qualified clicks from the users who are most likely to become customers. Our new blocked domains feature, planned for launch later this month, will provide you with greater control of where your ads appear. This is just one of several ways that Yahoo! is working to improve the value of the traffic that we deliver to you.

• Blocked Domains (New!)
Now you can specify websites in our partner distribution network where you don't want your ads to appear.
• Pricing Discounts
You may automatically receive pricing discounts based on our assessment of the quality of traffic coming from our partner distribution network.
• Click Protection System
We track click and search patterns across many data points to identify clicks that we believe shouldn't be billed to our advertisers. The click protection system generally discards charges from 12 percent to 15 percent of clicks.
• Blocked Continents
Yahoo! automatically excludes traffic from continents other than North America. If global traffic is important to your business, you can opt into this traffic.
• Traffic Quality Center
This site is our home for traffic quality tips, tools and news. This is the place to go, for instance, if you want to learn how to submit click investigation requests.

Posted by Frank Watson on 5:07 PM | Permalink

Microsoft Updates Top Ad Algorithm on Live Search

Along with the recent organic ranking improvements Microsoft has made to Live Search, it has also tweaked the algorithm it uses to rank ads. The quality-based ranking algorithm is now less rigid, according to a post on the adCenter blog. This will allow more advertisers to get their ads into one of the top positions above the organic results, which Microsoft refers to as "the mainline."

071001-Live-mainline.jpg

Ads must meet a certain quality score to be considered for the top spots. Among those contenders, the algorithm will consider a combination of click-through rate and maximum bid. Microsoft warns advertisers that ads may move in and out of the mainline position, which may or may not be affected by max bid.

All of our quality-based ranking improvements have been made in the context of the overall search experience -- we will take both the paid and organic listings into account when assessing the overall experience for the searcher, while at the same time endeavoring to balance the needs of the advertiser.

Over time, we will continue to improve the paid search listings on Live Search, specifically focusing on:

* Quality of ads – that the ad copy aligns with offer, landing page and search term

* Quality of advertisers – that the advertiser is offering unique and valuable goods, services or information

* Quality set of overall listings – that the overall result set is unique, extremely relevant, high quality and the best value for the searcher

Google made a similar move to change the way it calculates ad placement for its top ads in AdWords. For Google, the Quality Score continues to be weighted heavily in the calculation, but now the formula uses the advertiser's maximum bid CPC instead of the actual auction-driven CPC to determine which ad will be shown in the top spot.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 4:59 PM | Permalink

Has Change In Google PPC Algorithm Created New Budget Busting Possibilities?

The current cost jumps in cost per clicks at Google may have created a way of pushing a bunch of your less savvy competitors out of the mix. If they have unlimited funds then you are out of luck, but I have noticed that not many people really do have or want to use a "zero sum game" approach.

So how do you do it?

First you want to spend some time looking at your traffic numbers. If you can determine your best hours of lead acquisition - I know all of them are decent etc. - generally there will be a couple of hours a day where you get high clicks and impressions and either don't get the click or it does not convert as well as other hours.

These would be the first things I would turn off. This pushes that traffic to your competitors and pushes them to the top, sending them many more impressions and many more clicks. The CPCs are going to be impacted by improved CTRs - but not like it used to be - so it is still going to cost them more especially when there are a few of them.

Dropping some of your bids during the other hours so that you are at number 3 as opposed to 1 will also give the competitors the higher and more costly spots.

This all works if they have daily and monthly budgets.

The increases will bring them a lot of garbage traffic as well as converting traffic but the increase in volume and cost will sooner or later impact their bids.

Budgets can be busted easily using this method and when that happens you are back on top at a much reduced rate.

If you have any comments on this let me know here.

Posted by Frank Watson on 2:19 PM | Permalink

Yahoo Calls In Steve Jobs to Inspire VPs

Instead of the rumored mass firing expected to take place at last week's all-day meeting of top Yahoo execs in Sunnyvale, attendees were treated to real goals and concrete plans from company leadership, and a guest appearance from Apple CEO Steve Jobs to provide an extra burst of inspiration, according to Kara Swisher.

What do you do when you want to inject a little inspiration into a company that needs a lot of it? Do you hold an all-day meeting of top execs where you actually outline specific goals and exhibit better leadership? Do you admit your corporate culture is a little weak and promise to focus on strengthening it? Do you trot out all the senior execs and let them talk about their concrete plans (and, better still, actually prepare them to deliver their spiel with some level of quality)? Do you do some post-lunch touchy-feely group exercises to get people talking?

Best of all, if you really want to send things over the top, do you bring out an icon so beloved as to give goosebumps to explain to the troops how he managed to turn his once-beleaguered and now-soaring company around?

All that and more occurred on Friday at Yahoo HQ as CEO Jerry Yang and President Sue Decker really put on a show that seemed to resonate with the 300-plus top Yahoo executives (vice president and above) gathered there, capped by an appearance by Apple's Steve Jobs, who is apparently now Silicon Valley's equivalent of Oprah.

The company is 76 days into the return of Yang as CEO, following the departure of Terry Semel from that role in June. While Yang had promised a "100-day review," he has since backed off from a concrete timetable. Regardless of the timetable, it's clear that changes are already afoot, and more are planned at Yahoo, the perennial second-place search engine.

According to Swisher, much of the focus of Yang's plans revolve around an "ecosystem" that centers on the interplay of advertisers, publishers, and consumers. Plans include building out Yahoo's ad network, using its "consumer insights" to improve ad targeting, creating a corporate culture open to new ideas, and a more open developer network, Swisher said.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:07 PM | Permalink

Yahoo Expands Reach of OneSearch in Europe, Latin America

Yahoo has doubled the reach of its oneSearch mobile search application by partnering with mobile provider Telefonica to make oneSearch the main search service on Telefonica's mobile portals.

OneSearch, a mobile-specific interface and algorithm, was launched in January with the Yahoo Go for Mobile downloadable application, and expanded in March to be available to all WAP-enable devices on the Yahoo Mobile site. OneSearch was launched in Canada and five countries in Europe in May, and to six mobile operators in Asia in June.

Through the Telefonica partnership, OneSearch is now the main search service for users in 15 countries in Europe and Latin America. Global expansion of its mobile search offering is a priority for Yahoo, according to Steve Boom, SVP of broadband & mobile at Yahoo, who posted on the Yodel Anecdotal blog:

We plan to continue this great global momentum for oneSearch. We're working to make oneSearch one finger away through a host of high-quality carrier and device partnerships. As of today, oneSearch is the priority search service for over 200 million mobile consumers through seven major mobile operators in nearly 30 countries across Europe, Asia, and the Americas. Our ultimate goal is to connect one billion mobile users worldwide, so you can count on more to come.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 11:30 AM | Permalink

Why Index Size is Important

UPDATE: There is an update from Microsoft at the end of this post.

One of the interesting things about Microsoft's new Live search update was the announcement that Microsoft had expanded its index from about 5B pages to about 20B pages, a 4x increase. At some level, the exact index size is not a big issue, unless, your index is simply too small.

Google has stopped reporting its index size, but reportedly has about 24B pages in its index. In my opinion, there is little significance in the difference between 20B and 24B pages in your index, but there is a significant difference between 5B and 24B pages in your index. In short, Microsoft needed to make a move of this type to improve their relevance.

What's at issue is coverage. People increasingly search for a highly specialized set of things on the web, and if you don't have the related sites in the index, you can't return the right result. During the announcement sessions, Microsoft demoed many search queries, but one that illustrates this point particularly well was a search for shelli segal.

A search for this term on Live Search will being up the designer's website. This happens even though the site has a relatively small number of third party web site links to it (106 according to Yahoo).

UPDATE: I got an email from Matt Cutts letting me know that the laundrybyshellisegal.com web site is out of operation, and has been that way for several months. This makes the specific example provided here invalid, but nonetheless the underlying point of this post is unchanged. I have asked Microsoft to provide a new example, and will update this post when I get that.

By comparison, if you search on Google, you quickly discover that Google does not have this web site in its index. Note that many counter examples are possible to show - sites in the Google index that Microsoft has in its index. Ultimately, the point is, you can't return the right result if the site you should be returning for a given search is not in your index.

Update from Justin Osmer of Microsoft:

"We crawled the site and did not receive any redirects, Like many other engines we rely on redirects and other Webmaster Tools help us stay fresh (like our URL removal process) but we know we can't rely on that alone and are still building out as scalable, broad, and updated of an index as we can and are continuing to improve.

As you state, we still stand by our original point and intention that a user won't get the relevant site if it isn't indexed and this particular (poor) example was used to illustrate the point that before we never would of have had it, then we did with the larger index...however, unfortunately in the time we built the index the most relevant site is no longer available and we hadn't re-crawled it yet. We have removed the site from the index now and are returning what we believe to be the most relevant set of results for that query. Our larger index will speed up its crawl frequency in time and situations like this will hopefully be minimized.

You had asked for some additional examples from the presentation Ramez gave so here they are:

Bigger index helping us: search for janet Buxman kurihara.

Core ranking examples:

Hottest temperature in the state of az:

Safeco building address Redmond: