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January 2008


Search Headlines & Links: January 31, 2008

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 January 31, 2008, 6:42 PM | Permalink


Google in Wall St. Matrix: Faces Red or Blue Pill Dilemma

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The message from Wall St. to Google rang as clear as the opening bell today. Unfortunately for Google, it was finally "For Whom The Bell Tolls."

After hours, Google found itself in a Matrix of its own making. Analysts played the role of Morpheus to Eric Schmidt's Neo:

"This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill - the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill - you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes."

The blue pill: Google starts giving guidance to Wall St. and manages expectations. The red pill: have it your way and suffer the slings and arrows of analysts who project exponential growth. Let's face it, it's tough for investors to read the tea leaves.

Look for Google stock to yoyo as investors try to figure out what's behind the deceleration in growth. Mary Meeker received some Homer Simpson-style credit for noting paid search revenues were at the core of Google's problems. D'oh Henry.

Google posted revenue growth of 51% Y/Y and 14% Q/Q with Google properties revenue revenue growth up 58% Y/Y and 14% Q/Q.

Google stated property revenue growth (+58% Y/Y) was driven by "strength in the holiday retail season." We'll look closer at what's really driving Google revenue growth in the coming days. Battelle summed it up: Google...Disappoints.

Google network revenues increased 37% Y/Y and 12% Q/Q. Strong international performance, with $2.3 billion in Q4 international revenue.

Google has added some "dots" to their new slogan: now, "Search.Ads.Apps Strategy." The Street feels they'd be better off dotting their i's and crossing their t's in executing on social media / social search strategies.

Google ecosystem numbers were healthy. Good for the rest of the Internet; not as good apparently for Google. Traffic Acquisition Costs, revenues Google shares with partners in the Google ecosystem jumped to $1.44 billion in the fourth quarter of 2007. Last quarter, TAC of $1.22 billion in the third quarter of 2007.

TAC as a percentage of advertising revenues was 30% in the fourth quarter, compared to 29% in the third quarter of 2007.

Posted by Kevin Heisler on January 31, 2008, 6:37 PM | Permalink


Search Comes Full Circle?

Reading the search headlines these days, it may seem like we've gone a long way to get right back where we started: human-generated search. Well, not exactly where we started; these new breed of search engines aren't human-powered in the same way DMOZ and the original Yahoo were, they're algorithmic search engines that have been human-enhanced by allowing searchers to rank or vote on results, and even to tag or comment on them—much like social bookmarking sites like Digg and Reddit do.

And they are growing in popularity, with some of the biggest names in search behind them. Jason Calcanis, entrepreneur poster-boy and SEO public enemy #1, recently introduced an update to Mahalo , his human-powered engine, that adds aggregation of user profiles and pages from various social networks . Matt Cutts hinted that Google was integrating social interaction into results and we're beginning to see Google test it. And Google's best friend, Jimmy Wales, is making headway with Wikia Search, his admittedly “poor” but improving search engine that integrates the philosophies of Wikimedia and user-generated content.

So are human-enhanced search engines really the future? And if they are, is that a good thing?

As with any search engine, the first criterion that needs to be addressed is relevance. Do social search engines like Sproose, which promises “user-improved” results, really provide better results than regular algorithmic search engines? Looking at most social search engines, including Sproose, Mahalo, Wikia, ChaCha, EarthFrisk and Eurekster's Swickis, it seems that the answer is generally “no.” Social search engines, or any search engine counting on human participation, need a critical mass of said human participation, which none of these engines seem to have (at least, as of yet). For the most part, each engine returns nearly identical results to Google, with the exception of some highly popular search queries.

The second thing to look at is the trustworthiness of the results, or—to be more frank—the excess or lack of spam therein. Do social search engines prevent SEO spam by giving more power to their audience and less to SEO professionals, or do they open themselves up to more spam by allowing regular (registered) users to directly influence rankings? In an ideal world, social search engines would police themselves from spam the same way social bookmarking sites and networks do—by counting on their user base. Social search would then solve the problem of aggressive SEOs pushing irrelevant sites to the top of the SERPs and create an ideal, democratic system of ranking search results.

But it's not an ideal world. These social engines have such small user bases that nearly all search spam that exists in traditional engines gets through to them as well. And on pages where users have contributed, such as gambling and SEO queries, social spam unique to these new breed of engines is rife. If anything, these engines are the worst of both worlds from a searcher's perspective.

But that doesn't mean the idea of social, human-empowered/enhanced search should be abandoned. The theory of allowing users to remove obvious spam and to optimize results pages based on true semantic knowledge (they know what they're looking for, after all) is the light at the end of the tunnel that can truly propel search to its idyllic usefulness. But it is unlikely that a minor player will get there. Social products survive on a mass of willing users. Google, Yahoo and Live Search have those users. No one else does, and it is unlikely that others will acquire them. For social search to really work, Google is going to need to push its experiment beyond Google Labs (which it seems they are doing)—or Yahoo and Microsoft will need to step up to the plate. One thing is for sure: whoever gets there first will be tomorrow's search leader.

Posted by on January 31, 2008, 5:53 PM | Permalink


Search Engine Strategies London Calling

If you register for Search Engine Strategies London by Friday, February 1, 2008, you can save £100 with the early bird special. (Which as everyone on this side of the pond knows is worth almost $200, as everyone on the other side of the Chunnel knows is worth €134, or as everyone North of Hadrian's Wall knows is worth a 750 ml. bottle of Johnnie Walker Blue Label.)

Now, if you haven't decided to attend “The Premier Event for Search Engine Marketing & Optimization” yet, check out the conference at a glance, which has been updated since I wrote Its “Horses for Courses” at SES London back on January 8.

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Fredrick Marckini

There will be an opening keynote by Fredrick Marckini, Chief Global Search Officer, Isobar. Fredrick founded iProspect in 1996 and is recognized as a leading expert in the field of search engine marketing. He has authored three of the SEM industry's earliest books, including Secrets To Achieving Top-10 Positions (1997), Achieving Top-10 Rankings in Internet Search Engines (1998), and Search Engine Positioning (2001). Fredrick is considered one of the pioneers of search engine marketing and was named to BtoB Magazine's Top 100 Marketers in both 2005 and 2006.

Fredrick was a founding Board Member of the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO), where I worked with him during the non-profit organization's early years. He's also from the Boston area, as am I. So, it will be a little “roundabout” to go all the way to England to see someone I know from New England. But, hey, search is that kind of industry.

Other additions to the Search Engine Strategies London conference agenda are two sessions in the Kelsey Group Local Track on Tuesday, February 19. One is entitled, Local Search 2.0, and the other is entitled, Mobile Local Search: A Moving Target.

While I should disclose that SES London is a client, others agree that this is a must-attend event. For example, Lyndsay Menzies, Managing Director UK, bigmouthmedia, says, “If you live and breathe search, or just want to know more about it, then Search Engine Strategies is for you. SES is a great show for anyone who wants to hear experts share their knowledge, find out about the latest developments and future technologies, and hone their search expertise.”

Posted by Greg Jarboe on January 31, 2008, 4:56 PM | Permalink


Google's Marissa Mayer Looks Beyond Universal Search to Social Search

In an interview with VentureBeat, Google VP Marissa Mayer says that social search is one avenue Google is pursuing to improve relevance in future iterations of its search engine. The algorithms could incorporate search history from a searcher's Gmail contacts, or input from human experts, as startups like Mahalo, Search Wikia, Collarity and Eurekster are doing (in different ways).

Some ways to incorporate social data into search results that Mayer mentioned include:


  1. Labeling or annotating search results, similar to the way social bookmarking sites like del.icio.us and StumbleUpon let users add comments and tags to sites they find.

  2. Show results from "users like you," the technique used expertly by Amazon.com to help shoppers discover new products they may not have even known they wanted.

  3. Using aggregate search histories of friends (or Gmail contacts) to influence search results

When asked what Google will look like ten years from now, Mayer replied, "I think one way it will be better is in understanding more about you and understanding more about your social context: Who your friends are, what you like to do, where you are. It's hard to imagine that the search engine ten years from now isn't advised by those things."

Social search is expected by many to define the next generation of search. According to search historian Danny Sullivan, search 1.0 used on-page elements to rank pages, search 2.0 added external linking, and search 3.0 is the current state, with universal search and blended search. Search 4.0 will incorporate these social factors.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on January 31, 2008, 4:22 PM | Permalink


Search Marketers Share Their 2008 Wish Lists

So far, we've shared some New Years resolutions, and predictions from several search marketers and social media marketers. I asked many of those same marketers what they would most like to see from search engines in 2008. Yesterday, we ran part one, and today we share even more wish lists from search marketers in "Search Marketers' Wish Lists, Part 2."

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on January 31, 2008, 3:32 PM | Permalink


Yellowbook Closes Gap in Local Search

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Local search guru Peter Krasilovsky of Local Onliner fame reported on Yellow Pages veteran Pat Marshall's move from Superpages to archrival Yellowbook back in July 2007. As the CNMO (Chief New Media Officer) Marshall assumed operating responsibility for Yellow Book's new media products, including yellowbook.com and search engine advertising. Krasilovsky noted that YellowBook's website wasn't really a priority at the company, and one line of business where Idearc had a strong lead.

So how's he doing? The chart on the left shows traffic through Oct, 2007. Here are the comScore numbers for December:

Yellow Book Network jumped 137 percent to 10.4 million visitors. Visits to Yellowbook.com network sites tripled (up 207 percent to 4.6 million visitors) with the acquisition of a new property.

Yellowbook can't rest on its laurels. AT&T's Yellowpages.com has replaced Yahoo Local Search for AT&T's broadband and Internet customers. (Krasilovsky also reported YellowPages.com recently told analysts it expects to attract two billion searches in 2008, and three billion by 2010.)

Yellowpages.com Network grew by 51 percent to more than 24 million visitors in December, 2007.

Mike Boland of The Kelsey Group explained in SEW Experts why Google, Yahoo, and MSN need to take the IYP threat seriously. Verizon's also reportedly competing with Google for the $4.7 billion C-block for 700 mhz wireless spectrum, according to Saul Hansell of The New York Times.

For search marketers, their clients, and small and medium sized enterprises, that means online-offline integrated search advertising.

Posted by Kevin Heisler on January 31, 2008, 12:53 PM | Permalink


CrazyEgg: Free SEM/SEO Analytics Tool Blows My Mind

I'm constantly on the lookout for software tools and services that help us serve our clients better. Since I've been a closet geek and software junkie my entire life, I get a mild kick when I come across software that's well-designed and provides value and features that really stand out. Yesterday I was tipped off to one that almost literally knocked me out of my chair.

It's called CrazyEgg, and it analyzes site visitor behavior in ways I didn't think possible -- and presents the results in a strikingly powerful, engaging manner.

The thing is so chock full of features that time and blog space don't allow me to go into too much depth. In a nutshell it lets you see exactly what elements a site page visitor clicks on - in various graphically-rich ways - like a scatter-map (they call it "confetti"), or a "heat map," or a variety of other views.

It also allows you to test page variations against each other in novel ways - absolute gold for conversion optimizing.

Best of all, it delivers tremendous value, available elsewhere at a much higher cost. But they're giving away most of the valuable functions for free.

Run, don't walk.

P.S. Rumor has it a search industry luminary is behind the service.

Posted by David Szetela on January 31, 2008, 10:28 AM | Permalink


SEW Experts: Recession-Proof Your Business by Building Links

Can you feel the nervousness in the business community? Even search -- the golden child of marketing -- has been getting pushed around by the market. In today's Link Love column, "Recession-Proof Your Business by Building Links," Sage Lewis warns that search marketers need to wake up and stare reality in the face.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on January 31, 2008, 12:00 AM | Permalink


SEW Experts: How To Educate Search Staff from Scratch

Educating employees in SEO and PPC marketing can seem impossible when they have no search background. In today's SEM.EDU column, "How To Educate Search Staff from Scratch," Ron Jones offers advice for those struggling to organize a program to teach employees the fundamentals of search.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on January 31, 2008, 12:00 AM | Permalink


Is EU Softening On Online Activites, Acquisitions

Seems the European Union is becoming more sensitive to the workings of the internet. Recent rulings have changed their once strong position about its impact on Europe and its people.

Recent reports tell that they are ready to approve the acquisition of DoubleClick by Google - regardless of what had previously been thought to be a move closer to an online monopoly.

The latest is their decision not to make ISPs give the information of users who have used P2P software for sharing files, a battle that has been fought globally for copyright issues of music and film.

"The European Union's highest court ruled this week that Internet service providers in the EU do not have to give entertainment companies the names of Web users suspected of illegal file sharing.

Internet service providers only have to disclose the names of suspects in criminal cases, not in civil lawsuits, the EU court upheld.

EU countries generally provide consumers a broad range of privacy protections," AVN reported today.

It will be worth watching how these new decisions change the internet legal landscape in Europe.

Posted by Frank Watson on January 30, 2008, 10:09 PM | Permalink


Yahoo Strategy from the Yahoo Magic 8 Ball?

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Yahoo's Yodel Turns Into a Whimper. That's how BusinessWeek described the Yahoo earnings call. In his NY Times Tech blog, Saul Hansell savaged Yahoo execs on the conference call for not articulating a strategy, obfuscation, and excessive use of jargon.

I disagree, so we'll let our search industry readers decide for themselves.

Here are the 5 most important questions Wall St. analysts asked and Yahoo executives answered about Search, excerpted courtesy of SeekingAlpha.com, where you read the full transcript of Yahoo's earnings call and tomorrow's Google earnings call (January 31).

Judge the answers for yourself. There are golden nuggets you'll be able to use when developing your search engine strategies.

Brian Pitz, Banc of America: Would you comment on whether you continue to see click-through rate improvements from Panama accelerating since Q3?

Susan Decker, President, Yahoo: Brian, the click-through rate improvements have been the primary driver of the RPS (revenue per search) gains, as we have said in the past. We don't get too specific on all the components, but I did mention that in Q4 a couple of initiatives that will help advertiser ROI actually may have limited our gains and were deliberate moves against coverage. We have seen continued improvement in click-through rates and as I mentioned, the RPS gains in Q4 were pretty consistent with what we saw in the prior two quarters of close to 20%.

Mark Mahaney, Citigroup: You (Susan Decker) made some comments about some macroeconomic uncertainty. What kind of impact in a hard recessionary environment do you think you could see in your display and search advertising, whether one would be more insulated than the other? Specifically in Search, to the extent that you were to see a major negative macroeconomic impact, do you think you would see that more in terms of advertiser demand or a change in user or searcher behavior?

SD: Just going back to some of the comments I made in my script, we have, from time to time, seen pockets of weakness and certainly a couple of pockets in the fourth quarter as I outlined. We've also had areas of strength that have been offsetting.

The challenge in answering your question is clearly the secular trends in online advertising have historically, and even today, very much been overwhelming the cyclical environment. It's early to tell though if the weakness in the housing and financial and travel sectors -- a little bit in retail -- will start to affect the consumer more broadly and the advertiser more broadly and therefore searches in terms of what kind of commercial searches happen.

I don't think we have a crystal ball in that, but we are encouraged, actually, by how much offsetting strength we've seen in some of the other categories which has kept our overall marketing services growth rate in line in display and Search with what we saw earlier in the third quarter, or actually even a little bit better.

Jason Helfstein, CIBC World Markets: Can you give us some color on the affiliate weakness? How much of that was pricing versus volume? What was headcount at the end of the quarter?

Blake Jorgensen, Yahoo CFO: On the headcount front we didn't disclose headcount in this conversation but it is roughly 14,300. As a reminder, we closed two acquisitions during the fourth quarter that added approximately 200 heads to that group.

SD: On the affiliate -- this is Search affiliate, just to be clear on that -- the overwhelming majority of it is price. I said in my comments that the TAC (traffic acquisition cost) rate for the last two years really looking at 2006 to what is implied in our projections for ‘08 has gone from 72% to about 80% on TAC-attributable revenue and that excludes the Yahoo! Japan deal which has been restructured.
…In terms of volume, the only real volume changes have been some traffic quality partners and really not much else.

Justin Post, Merrill Lynch: On query volume, I know market share has been an issue for The Street. Can you talk about how your query volume growth has trended both U.S. and internationally over the last three or four quarters?

SD: On the Search side we talked about our overall revenue being up about 30% plus in Q4 and RPS being up about 20%. You can do the math, but the implied query growth is up about 10% double-digits.

Business Week asked search marketing firms for commentary on Yahoo's dilemma: Didit Executive Chairman Kevin Lee, was quoted as saying, "We give them every dollar we can but if they don't have the traffic, there's nothing for us to spend the money on."

That's the general sentiment of the SEMs managing paid search campaigns. Everyone's rooting for Yahoo, MSN adCenter, even Ask to win back share from Google.

Ellen Siminoff, CEO of Efficient Frontier (whose search spending study was detailed by ClickZ yesterday) noted Yahoo can't cut its way to prosperity and shared an astounding statistic: overall search ad spending on Yahoo by Efficient Frontier clients fell 3.8 percent in Q4 y/y while Google's share of search ad spending rose to 76.6 percent from 70.5 percent last year.

Posted by Kevin Heisler on January 30, 2008, 7:21 PM | Permalink


Search Headlines & Links: January 30, 2008

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 January 30, 2008, 6:18 PM | Permalink


Search Engine Market Share: comScore's December Scorecard

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Google increased its slice of the growing global search pie in just-released search engine market share stats from comScore. In 2007, searches at the five major search engines -- including partner searches and cross-channel searches -- finished with 9.6 billion searches in December, 2007.

The surprise winner? For December 2007, total searches on Google sites increased more than 30 percent year over year, totaling 5.6 billion searches.

Yahoo sites ranked second with 2.2 billion searches. Microsoft sites, third with 940 million searches in December.

Time Warner Network with 442 million searches finsihed neck-and-neck with Ask Network, at 415 million total searches - but lost ground: down 4 percent from this time last year.

Microsoft sites gained 8 percent year-over-year, with Ask (415 million) posting a 5 percent gain on a small base of 396 million searches last December.

AOL (part of the O&O Time Warner network) didn't fare much better than Yahoo, posting a 4 percent decrease in total search volume.

It's important to note that searches conducted on mapping sites, local directory sites, and video sites (read YouTube) are not counted in the core search statistics.

On the Yahoo earnings call, Yahoo President Sue Decker complained about the accuracy of the comScore numbers. Unlikely Eric Schmidt will do the same.

Yahoo's new strategy won't be measured by standard third-party metrics (Web Analytics 1.0) such as page views, reflecting the new dynamics of distributed traffic on the Internet.

"Third-party services such as comScore (that) assess unique users or time spent (on site) may not tell the story of what's happening (in aggregate)," said Decker. "Our internal logs show that metrics we've discussed with (analysts) in the past, such as uniques and page views, continue to grow in the double-digits in Q4, with unique users now topping 500 million and page views about 4 billion per day."

Posted by Kevin Heisler on January 30, 2008, 4:25 PM | Permalink


1,000 Yahoo Layoffs and 4 Key Yahoo Trends for CEOs

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Yahoo Panama posted a 20 percent improvement in RPS (Revenue Per Search) in Q4, following three consecutive revenue growth quarters. "Yahoo O&O" - owned and operated -- was the new search buzzword tossed around during the conference call. More good news: search revenue grew by approximately 30 percent. International search for Yahoo properties showed RPS gains accelerating into the high teens.

Improving the quality of traffic with domain controls and ad quality filtering promise to improve lead quality and advertiser ROI over time. The cleanup, though, limited Yahoo's revenue growth in Q4. Yahoo's stock price dropped below $20 again.

Search marketers, agency owners, CEOs, and CMOs need to know whether Yahoo CTR improved due to Panama; how the recession will affect search and display advertising; and how much Yahoo share of total searches improved.

4 Yahoo Q4 Trends All CMOs Need to Know

1. Search marketers can count on improved click-through rates from Yahoo searchers clicking on paid search (PPC) ads.

2. Search continues to be strong and as close to "recession-proof" as any form of online advertising. Advertisers can expect high ROI unless the recession significantly reduces commercial searches.

3. Yahoo share of searches continue to increase, reassuring major brands and search marketers that the Yahoo spotlight will continue to shine on search.

4. Search marketing agencies who specialize in one vertical would be well-advised to diversify their client portfolio, with weakness in housing, financial services, travel, and to a lesser extent retail.

The bad news: 1,000 Yahoo employees will be laid off, a move that may streamline the company but won't boost stock price or improve client service for search marketers, CMOs, and agencies. With higher revenue per employee than competitors, Yahoo executives may not even see productivity gains.

Posted by Kevin Heisler on January 30, 2008, 11:46 AM | Permalink


Microsoft adCenter Partnering With WSJDN

Microsoft has announced it will provide the advertising for the Wall Street Journal Digital Network (WSJDN), which includes Barrons and marketWatch as well as WSJ.com.

Microsoft signed a deal to be the exclusive third-party provider of contextual and paid search advertising on their sites. WSJDN is a leading provider of business and financial information news and analysis on sites such as WSJ.com, Barrons.com, MarketWatch.com, allthingsD.com and more. WSJDN reaches a savvy worldwide audience of over 20 million unique users and serves over 330 million page views per month on its sites specific to the highly sought-after financial services audience for advertisers. In addition to being a traffic leader in the Business & Finance verticals, the WSJDN reaches a highly qualified audience:

• A larger concentration of C-level Executives than any other original financial news sites
• A higher concentration of affluent males than any online network
• More Business Decision Makers and Technology Decision Makers than any other online publisher of original financial news
• A high number of active investors, both institutional/professional and self-directed
• 983,000 WSJ.com subscribers
• 723,000 C-levels
• Average age: 48 years
• 67% male

The Microsoft press release noted:

“Relevant and targeted digital advertising is important to our business and to the quality of the experience that we deliver to our users,” said Gordon McLeod, president of The Wall Street Journal Digital Network. “Microsoft's state-of-the-art advertising platform will enable us to dramatically improve our revenues from this key sector, and we look forward to working together.”

“This deal is a significant win for Microsoft for two key reasons. First, it makes the extended Microsoft advertising network the premier destination for advertisers interested in reaching financially minded users, as it complements our offering in this vertical through MSN Money and other syndication partners,” said Brian McAndrews, senior vice president, Advertiser and Publisher Solutions at Microsoft. “Second, this deal is a strong indicator that we're gaining significant traction with our advertising platform. The Wall Street Journal Digital Network is one of the largest financial services publishers in a very dynamic vertical segment, and we're delighted to add it to our portfolio.”

Posted by Frank Watson on January 30, 2008, 11:25 AM | Permalink


Who Are The Real Online Influencers?

The prominent players in our space may not have the impact they think they have, if you follow the ideas explored in Guy Kawasaki's recent blog post.

Having read the article and the stories it links out to, I have to say that the dynamic of the web may have changed who and what has sway and how things become popular in the internet age. With the myriad of social networks and fun interactive tools everyone has access to these days, is it any wonder that authority is a fleeting thing and the power of influence can fall in the hands of flip teenagers and cranky seniors who can turn a creative phrase.

Trendsetters may no longer be the term of the new millennium - maybe hip is giving way to hap - as in happenstance. I am waiting for my 15 year-old to use that term - "he is so hap" and I will know I am on to something.

I read a lot of different blogs and occasionally read Guy's - but it was so 'hap' that I found this one today.....

Posted by Frank Watson on January 30, 2008, 10:56 AM | Permalink


Where's The Online TV Search?

FutureTV.JPGAs consumers, we should be thrilled the TV networks have started delivering nice, deep inventories of video clips and longer-form videos online. That's great until you want to explore the current and archived stuff on each domain.

Maybe I should cut some slack to our beloved cable and broadcast networks, who are used to having audiences find their fare through on-air guides and remote controls. After all, TV audiences don't conduct free-form searches to find shows. But I don't think any video providers deserve this break.

So where's the online TV search? Last week, I asked many Future TV Show 2008 attendees about findability matters.

Their responses were very interesting, at least to me. While I won't name names, I heard several executives flatly say their site searching and browsing capabilities were terrible. The rest I would classify as apathetic, which probably comes from years of limited options and lack of control.

Yet these TV networks are not different online, and sound like other web publishers these days. They are paying attention to acquiring and keeping visitors on their domains.

At the NYC show, I heard many familiar questions: How do I get people to my site? How can I get more video streams and page views? How can I really make money online? How do I measure our success?

We're all learning that online video isn't exactly the same animal as its on-air cousin. There are differences in terms of consumption patterns, for starters. The destinations that succeed will learn how to engage and optimize their new online audiences through effective video search, discovery and sharing mechanisms.

Posted by on January 30, 2008, 2:10 AM | Permalink


SEW Experts: The Day the Agency Model Died

Endless possibilities might not be the best way to label the latest round of partnership redefining. It will end, just maybe not how the agencies would like. In today's Searching for Meaning column, "The Day the Agency Model Died," Kevin Ryan explains how the recent Google-Publicis relationship reflects a sea change in the current ad agency model.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on January 30, 2008, 12:00 AM | Permalink


SEW Experts: The New Age of Search Marketing

One of the more misunderstood parts about the Web environment today is just how much the user is in control. In today's By the Numbers column, "The New Age of Search Marketing," Eric Enge offers three reasons this shift in control to the consumer is happening.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on January 30, 2008, 12:00 AM | Permalink


Hospitality Social Media Marketing: Influence Critical Customer Reviews

UGC (User Generated Content), especially in the form of customer reviews, can send scads of excited visitors to your door credit card in hand, or destroy your business's reputation overnight by polluting SERPs. It's certainly a double edge sword.

More and more search marketers lay awake at night, in pools of sweat, freaking out about losing brand control in light of UGC. Hospitality industry SEM success can be the stuff of peaceful dreams or horrible nightmares. Unfortunately/luckily it's all in the hands of actual customers-or well placed shill reviewers.

What sites does Google mine hospitality reviews from, many of which are submitted by the public? How does a hotel or restaurant business get a grip and influence reviews? What major travel and review sites should hotels and restaurants point happy customers (or savvy stand-ins) towards in order to bolster, cleanse, and protect reputation?

Miriam Ellis has published an extremely practical case study over at SearchEngineJournal, profiling websites from which Google harvests reviews showing up in the ever dominant (and now 10-list) “one box” results. She profiled “1000 reviews listed in Google Maps for hospitality industry businesses" and shared results.

If you're objective is to “finesse” reviews from your restaurant or hotel's happy customers, the majority of the 34 sources listed accept public reviews and are therefore susceptible to (at least) some level of manipulation by pleased patrons or savvy local search marketers. Aol.com to Zagat.com, Google's predominant hospitality site sources are listed along with suggested strategies and tactics.

In the rollercoaster world of Google SERPs, especially in light of Universal Search and ever-expanding local search, the landscape is frighteningly fluid. Sites like Yelp appear, disappear, and reappear in Google reviews practically overnight, leaving narrowly targeted review-writing campaigns subject to overnight obsolescence.

Hedge your bet. Miriam's post lays priceless groundwork to cast a wide net, understand, and influence the multi-headed Google review SERP monster to your hospitality business's benefit.

Posted by Marty Weintraub on January 29, 2008, 11:40 PM | Permalink


Search Headlines & Links: January 29, 2008

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 January 29, 2008, 5:53 PM | Permalink


SEO for Reputation Management

Even after many years of clean business practices, a single negative event can stain your brand image in the public eye for a long time. Simple things like a negative product review in a blog can be detrimental to your brand, especially when competitors are standing close by to snatch up customers. In today's SearchDay, "Using SEO for Reputation Management," Apogee Search's William Leake shares some best practices for creating a reputation management strategy built on search engine optimization.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on January 29, 2008, 5:47 PM | Permalink


Google Bar Codes and Three Martini Lunches

Google is now the network that connects the social graph of the advertising industry. From global AAAAs to interactive agencies to SEM firms and SEO consultants, there are less than six degrees of separation. Last night was deja vu all over again, reminding me of AdWords early days when Google just wanted parity with Overture (Yahoo Search Marketing) in corporate search budgets.

Peter Grill, Mimeo.com vp of marketing AKA The Rogue Marketer emceed the panel and mentioned that Mimeo is now a client of Efficient Frontier.

Two of the leading authorities on search marketing joined me last night at Google: SES Chair Kevin Ryan and SEW Forums Editor Frank Watson, AKA aussiewebmaster. Frank's take on Google products and Google exec panelists differs from mine.

Ryan, Watson and I were in the distinct minority based on folks I chatted with and questions from the floor. (Exceptions: Sendtec and Dani of DaniWeb.com IT forum) More proof? Witness upcoming Ad Club of NY events: Magazine Day Forum and Radio Forum 2008.

Search marketing firms have a tremendous competitive advantage over traditional ad agencies. Managing campaigns based on ROI is second nature. Analytics and technology platforms, a necessity. They understand the dynamics of online auctions and advertising exchanges.

If Google is Goliath, ad agencies would be foolish to think of themselves as David.

Google's success in moving beyond the "self-serve" model will depend on the buy-in not only of global ad agencies like Publicis Groupe, but the AAAA clients who drive their decisions. For years in SEM, Google has had a vertical industry focus with corporate clients, providing consulting to executives who make agency decisions. Google's vertical sales team will win the day.

Last night at Googleplex East, Google execs outlined the future of Google TV, Google Audio, and Google Print Ads in an Ad Club of New York Meetup. In my Search Engine WarGames column, " Future of Search: All the Media That's Fit To Be Googled ," Google shares how you can produce ads on Google TV, when you can buy a spot on "WWE RAW," and why Google Print Ads 2D Barcodes won't fly.

Dan Frommer shares his take on Google 2D bar codes, while Michael Learmonth shares his on self-serve Google AdWords TV Google TV ads from a Silicon Alley Insider perspective.

The key takeaway for Madison Avenue: Google has warned you. Google has publicly stated -- and again, last night -- that your model is broken. Your clients say so, according to Google executives. Last night, Google director of agency relations Derek Kuhl said, you know it too.

The Google Publicis Digitas alliance will shape the future of advertising both online and offline.

Humans are winning the search engine WarGames, for now. Agencies will cling to clients through long-standing relationships that originated in the era of the three martini lunch.

Only technology can produce scale and efficiency in advertising. And it will.

Welcome, traditional advertisers, to the Google Ecosystem.

Posted by Kevin Heisler on January 29, 2008, 5:26 PM | Permalink


Balogh Named New Yahoo CTO

Aristotle "Ari" Balogh, 43, was named CTO for Yahoo! today, according to the Yahoo press release.

"World-class technology development is a critical part of Yahoo!'s strategy. Bringing a strong technology leader on board to drive engineering and operational excellence across our technology group has been a significant priority for the company," said Yang. "In Ari Balogh, Yahoo! is adding one of the industry's most talented leaders to our bench-strength of technology experts. With a proven track record for successfully leading large scale engineering initiatives and driving rapid cycles of technology innovation, Ari's leadership skills are well suited to leading Yahoo!'s development efforts as we continue in our mission to deliver the best, most indispensable experiences on the Internet."

Seems like this was good timing. CEO Jerry Yang gives his quarterly earnings report very soon.

Posted by Frank Watson on January 29, 2008, 4:43 PM | Permalink


Marchex to Distribute Ads from Superpages Advertisers

Advertisers who buy placements on Idearc's Superpages.com local search site will now be able to get the added distribution over Marchex's network of more than 200,000 vertically-focused local sites, as well as more than 50 partner ad networks and vertical sites. Under the new distribution deal, ads will be served and tracked by Marchex's Enhance Interactive subsidiary.

Enhance Interactive also distributes ads from several large interactive agencies and advertisers, including Avenue A | Razorfish, Reprise Media, Carnival Cruise Lines, Cox Auto Trader Publishing, FXCM Forex Capital Markets, Roto-Rooter and Reunion.com. Through Marchex Connect, a private-label search marketing platform, Marchex also distributes ads sold by AT&T's YellowPages.com.

Ads can appear on Marchex's OpenList network of local sites, as well as search engines like Yahoo, Dogpile, Snap, and Verisign.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on January 29, 2008, 1:45 PM | Permalink


Google So Big They Don't Know Their Own Products

The presentation of various Google products detailed by Kevin Heisler may have given a bunch of people a little insight into the various advertising products Google now offers, but the lack of connection between them and the lack of knowledge a few showed of their own products questioned how long this expansion can last.

The Ad Creation Marketplace to develop rich media ads for Google advertisers was a side project the speakers were not aware of. How designers can be outsourced through Google - a major coup for people recognized by Google as worthy of recommending - was unknown when the Q&A period asked for more details.

The cross over of measurement and how detailed analytics could get was another thing no one seemed to have handy.

Don't tell me "you just hype it... but really never use it so how could I have such knowledge".

I never did get the chance to ask how the bar code technology being used by print would allow tracking.... and I was intrigued by the thought it could.

Events like these are an important part of making people aware of the variety of Google's reach in media... it would just be nice if the information was a little more detailled.

Kevin noted there were no engineers present... maybe there should have been. I know the guests were savvy and knowledgeable.... but then again we use the products.

Posted by Frank Watson on January 29, 2008, 11:55 AM | Permalink


Measuring PR in cold, hard cash

If you haven't read Mike Grehan's ClickZ article, "Search and the changing face of public relations," read it now. Among the many pithy and insightful comments within his article is this one: "I think traditional PR firms may be on their way out." Go, read it now. This will be on the mid-term exam.

When you're done reading that, read Sally Falkow's post in the Search Engine Watch Blog, entitled, "Search not understood and used in PR campaigns." Do we begin to see a trend yet?

Now, go back and read my article in Search Engine Watch, entitled, "Blogs Are the New Trade Press." Yep, the experts agree. "The world of public relations has changed dramatically over the past five to 10 years – or, at least it should have."

But it often seems like the folks over in PR didn't get the memo.

Well, they're not the only ones who didn't notice that the world was changing. On March 27, 2007, The Project for Excellence in Journalism noted in The State of the News Media 2007, "The press is no longer gatekeeper over what the public knows. Journalists have reacted relatively slowly. They are only now beginning to re-imagine their role. Their companies failed to see 'search' as a kind of journalism."

And many (but not all) people failed to see "blogging" as a kind of journalism. Or, at least some percentage of blogging. As the Pew Internet & American Life Project reported on July 19, 2006, in a report entitled, "Bloggers: A portrait of the internet's new storytellers, "34% of bloggers consider their blog a form of journalism" and "56% of bloggers spend extra time trying to verify facts they want to include in a post."

Now, that's a couple of paradigm shifts at the same time. So, don't blame your public relations people if they didn't connect the dots.

Who do I blame? Well, it's the Chief Marketing Officer in some companies or the Vice President of Marketing in others who is responsible for measuring the results of various elements of the marketing mix. And if the CMO or VP of Marketing is still content with a getting a stack of press clippings at the end of each month, can you blame his or her PR people from thinking that they've done their job?

Okay, so counting press clips has been a bogus PR metric for more than 20 years. I've told the story in "Measuring PR in Cold, Hard Cash" of my first month as Director of Corporate Communications at Lotus Development Corp. -- way, way back in 1986.

After my first month on the job, I took a very thick book of about 700 magazine and newspaper clippings that we'd received, walked down the hall to CEO Jim Manzi's office, and casually dropped it on his desk. Manzi took a quick look and said, "Jarboe, if I could deposit these in a bank, I'd know what they were worth. But, until you can measure the impact of PR in cold, hard cash, don't waste my time with these so-called reports."

And, I have to admit, Manzi was right.

So, what are the right PR metrics?

In MarketingSherpa's Search Marketing Benchmark Guide 2008, you'll find more than half a dozen, including:
-- Press mentions,
-- Blog mentions,
-- Ranking of a press release in news search engines,
-- Click through rate (CTR) from links in a press release,
-- Rise in site traffic around launch, and
-- Track leads from click through conversion.

That's the memo that most CMOs and Marketing VPs haven't received. They can measure public relations in both PR outputs and business outcomes. And they had better get the memo before the CEO does.

And, trust me on this: When the big boss starts asking for "real" measures of success, then the traditional PR people will start learning about SEO, blogs and web analytics.

One last note: There are other PR people who know how to do this. Sally Falkow is one. Lee Odden, the founder of TopRankResults.com, is another. And Katie Paine, my predecessor at Lotus, is a third. She writes The Measurement Standard Blog.

She and I both started looking for ways to measure PR in cold, hard cash -- before search, blogs, and web analytics -- but after the big boss started asking for "real" measures of success.

See the trend?

Posted by Greg Jarboe on January 29, 2008, 7:01 AM | Permalink


SEMPO Nominees for Board of Directors

SEMPO, the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization, has announced the nominees for its 2008 board of directors. The 2008 board will consist of 13 individuals who will each serve a two-year term. Voting runs from February 6 to February 15. Candidate profiles are available to SEMPO members on the SEMPO site.

Twelve of the 13 current board members are running for re-election: Chris Boggs, eMergent Marketing; Massimo Burgio, Global Search Interactive; Fionn Downhill, Elixir Systems; Dave Fall, DoubleClick; Duane Forrester, Microsoft; Sara Holoubek, Free Agent; Gordon Hotchkiss, Enquiro Search Solutions; Bill Hunt, Global Strategies International; Kevin Lee, Didit; Jeffrey Pruitt, iCrossing; Dana Todd, Newsforce; and Tanya Vaughan, Hewlett-Packard. 360i's Dave Williams opted not to run again.

There are 21 other candidates for the board seats: Damien Anderson, Blowfish Digital Limited; Jay Berkowitz, Ten Golden Rules; Lindsay Blankenship, Avenue A | Razorfish; Jessica Bowman, Yahoo; Paul Bruemmer, Red Door Interactive; Luar Buso, Getupdated; Bruce Clay, Bruce Clay, Inc.; Chris Copeland, Outrider; Marc Engelsman, Digital Brand Expressions; Mark Fiske, Bazaar Advertising; Mark Jackson, Vizion Interactive; Mike Jacobs, iMarketing LTD; Ron Jones, Symetri Internet Marketing; Max Kalehoff, Clickable; John Koehler, VML; Chris Kramer, NETexponent; Robert Murray, iProspect; Steve Riegel, Faction Media; Farukh Shroff, Solid Cactus; David Szetela, Clix Marketing; Lori Weiman, Click Forensics.

You'll recognize many of the names of the nominees as SEW Experts and ClickZ Experts columnists, including Chris Boggs, Fionn Downhill, Kevin Lee, Mark Jackson, Ron Jones, and David Szetela. Congratulations, and good luck to them and to all the nominees.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on January 29, 2008, 12:55 AM | Permalink


SEW Experts: The Future of Search: All the Media That's Fit to Be Googled

The battle between search engines and human beings has moved to a new stage where online advertising and search ads are overtaking the search engine. In today's Search Engine WarGames column, "The Future of Search: All the Media That's Fit To Be Googled," Kevin Heisler looks at Google's forays into TV, radio, newspapers.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on January 29, 2008, 12:00 AM | Permalink


SEW Experts: Online Retail SEO: Holiday Shopping Seasonality

The Q4 holiday season makes or breaks the success of online retail. Yet many companies don't realize how important the holidays are for SEO. In today's Big Biz column, "Online Retail SEO: Holiday Shopping Seasonality," Aaron Shear outlines a variety of factors revolving around seasonality that retailers must take into account for SEO to be successful.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on January 29, 2008, 12:00 AM | Permalink


SEW Experts: SEO Millionaire: Who Wants to Be One? - Part 2

Last week, we challenged SEOs to identify which of the big three travel sites has a canonical issue? In today's au Natural column, "SEO Millionaire: Who Wants to Be One? - Part 2," Mark Jackson provides the answer, and responds to voluminous reader response.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on January 29, 2008, 12:00 AM | Permalink


Search not understood and used in PR campaigns

The Public Relations Society of America's Los Angeles chapter holds an event in January of each year where they have a panel of the top PR experts look at what the state of PR is and where it is headed for the next year. All five panelists mentioned social media and how it has changed the practice of PR this year.

Search, however, is not part of the PR lexicon yet. In answer to a question from the floor Joe Kessler of SS & K said that search is an area every PR person should understand and use, but it is a gaping hole in the PR toolset.

When Greg Jarboe saw the importance of search for PR and started to optiimize press releases four or five years ago he called his agency SEO-PR. But it was not the PR industry that adopted the practice, it was SEO agencies. So we had the odd situation of non-PR folk writing press releases.

And here we are in 2008 and one of the top agency CEOs says search is something of value and should be an integral part of all PR campaigns.

What makes search so important to PR?

* Studies have shown conclusively that page one positioning in the search engines affects your brand value. In many cases the SERP is the first contact someone has with your company. How you appear on that page influences their perception of your business.
* If a searcher persistently sees your business on page one for the key phrases they're searching it leads them to believe you are a major player in this field
* User-generated content has given the power of voice to consumers. Peer reviews and comments are the number one influencer prior to action or purchase today. Blogs and comments are showing up in search results pages.
* If there is negative content on the page it can damage your reputation.
* Journalists are using search engines to find information when they research a story. Being highly visible in the search engines could increase your media coverage.

These are all very traditional PR areas of expertise. And search is influencing every one of them. It is tool PR professionals have to master.


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Posted by on January 28, 2008, 7:25 PM | Permalink


Search Headlines & Links: January 28, 2008

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 January 28, 2008, 5:33 PM | Permalink


Property of Google? No! The Google of Property

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While many startups aspire to become "The Property of Google," UK-based DotHomes wants to be "the Google of property."

Just when you thought the days of aspiring Googles had ended, vertical search took on a life of its own. In real estate, Zillow, Trulia, Craigslist, Redfin and other sites have become classic disruptors in the marketplace.

In the UK, the disruptor was DotHomes.co.uk. After conquering South Africa, DotHomes (free for consumers and realtors) has crossed the pond to the U.S.

Greg Sterling of Screenwerk is all gloomy about survival prospects for 10-12 real estate search engines. He likes the Bob Tedeschi POV in his NY Times E-Commerce Report today, Despite Housing Slide, Real Estate Sites Sell . Tedeschi quotes Nielsen Online that the number of ads displayed on real estate sites are down, though the number of visitors is up.

The DotHomes press release notes in big caps that it "DOES NOT" host realtor listings on its site, only result summaries. Users are directed to the agents' original listings, from the more than 1 million broker listings aggregated.

Other Googly features: one-box search, customized for natural language queries, and the potentially dangerous “I'm Feeling Wealthy” button to view the most expensive U.S. homes on the market.

I may have found an error in the pricing of a home. See if you can find the sky-high property in a town not known for $40 million properties in the "I'm Feeling Wealthy" New York, NY listings and let me know if I'm way off base.

A couple great Web 2.0 benefits of the DotHomes site for real estate brokers:

Heat maps of local prices per square foot may not be as popular with brokers as "On-the-fly video uploads" designed to make updating DotHomes easier.

Now DotHomes and the Flip video camera may give a whole new meaning to "flipping properties."

Posted by Kevin Heisler on January 28, 2008, 3:33 PM | Permalink


Facebook Ads & Applications: Critical SEM Learning Curve

The New York Facebook Social Advertising Event Nov. 6, 2007 introduction from boy-wonder Mark Zuckerberg was a millennial harbinger of marketing-things-to-come. If your business or agency's search marketing department has dismissed Facebook applications & paid ads, as outside of your product's demographic, think again. Though advertisers are making millions now on the Facebook platform, the revolution is far more important than Facebook.

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Not Your Father's PPC
The SEM concepts employed on Facebook's fledgling paid ad platform embody a methodology which will be likely be embraced by mainstream search engines and communities. Keyword research has always been the staple of classic “pull” search marketing. When configuring Facebook paid campaigns, marketers research and target buzz pockets of user interests, as expressed by their dealings with friends. It's called the “social graph.”

As an example, now it's possible to target ads to “Woman between 24-29 years old, interested in gardening, organic food, wine, cooking, live in Minnesota or Wisconsin, and are in a relationship.”

Last week Google responded by (re)announcing beta-testing of an enhanced AdWords feature, called demographic bidding. Advertisers will target gender and age groups on some sites within the Google content network. The feature is being tested over the next few weeks with a select group of advertisers in the U.S. and the U.K.

There has been industry debate regarding the long-term value of demographic targeting. MSN has had similarly rudimentary demographic targeting features for quite some time.

Facebook Applications: Fad or Future?
INC Magazine recently published a celebrated case study about quick scores. Whether you believe in Facebook apps or not, Google has already responded with Open Social developers' platform, "a set of common APIs for building social applications across many websites,” and inked deals with prominent social sites. These next-gen social apps and widgets are coming. Early adopters, who figure things out now, will clearly have the advantage.

“Facebook Ads represent a completely new way of advertising online,” Zuckerberg imparted to more than 250 advertising and marketing executives on that day in New York. “For the last hundred years media has been pushed out to people, but now marketers are going to be a part of the conversation. And they're going to do this by using the social graph in the same way our users do.”

Facebook ads and applications represent marketing early adopters' first opportunity to dapple in, what will clearly be, a significant wave of future viral techniques and media buys. Study Facebook and practice marketing to points on the social graph in order to prepare for a future which is already here.

Posted by Marty Weintraub on January 28, 2008, 7:30 AM | Permalink


SEW Experts: Inside AdWords and Contextual Advertising: The Tipping Point

Once the ugly stepchild of online ads, contextual advertising has shed its "remnant inventory" reputation. In today's Content Advertising column, "Inside AdWords and Contextual Advertising: The Tipping Point," David Szetela looks at the evolution of online content advertising, to help you understand where the category has been, and where it's going.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on January 28, 2008, 12:00 AM | Permalink


Google NYC and Digitas Lead Google-Publicis Partnership

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Google's Tim Armstrong, president North American advertising and commerce, and Penry Price, vice-president of North American sales, with Digitas Chairman and CEO David Kenny will lead the global Google-Publicis partnership.

Abby Klaasen broke the news late last night in Advertising Age. The news tops off a terrific week for Digitas, which won the P&G Crest digital account. Crest is P&G's second biggest spending brand online. Should be interesting to see what products Google engineers can build to help digital agencies scale their business.

At the World Economic Forum in Davos, the Google Publicis partnership elicited a scathing exchange between WPP CEO Sir Martin Sorrell and Publicis CEO Maurice Levy. (Google CEO Eric Schmidt was, in effect, switzerland.)

Nikki Sandison of Brand Republic reported the barbs traded by Sorrell and Levy this weekend. Sir Martin Sorrell told Reuters:

"Next time I meet with Eric Schmidt, I think we'll send out a press release. This morning I met with Maurice Levy, does this mean we're putting together a joint venture?

"What Publicis is doing represents a little bit of a concern that they didn't get the technology right. I think Maurice is acknowledging a bit of an Achilles heel when it comes to technology."

No comment from CEO-engineer Eric Schmidt, but technologist/engineer CEO Maurice Levy didn't take the slight lightly, telling Reuters:

"I'm sorry Martin said that -- it's really cheap, but it's probably the result of his lack of understanding of technology.

"He's a financier, I'm an engineer, and you can see the difference. I'm pleased with what we have done, and I'm sorry that my dear friend has not understood it."

With "dear friends" like that, who needs frenemies?

Posted by Kevin Heisler on January 27, 2008, 10:18 PM | Permalink


SES Paris is Burning in flickr

sesparis.jpg

While some may think of SES Paris as hors d'oeuvres before the lavish SES London banquet, there was no shortage of fun in the City of Lights. SES Global VP Kevin Ryan (pictured here) plans to launch new coverage of worldwide SES events on media sharing sites.

You can get a taste of Paris in the photo collection posted by burningmax.

If that doesn't whet your appetite, then stay tuned to your video player for exclusive coverage of SES Chicago.

Remember, if you didn't attend SES Paris this year, we'll always have SES Chicago.

Posted by Kevin Heisler on January 27, 2008, 6:12 PM | Permalink


Souljah Boy to TellMe: Search, Listen and Obey

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Machine translation from voice to text promises to be the grail of local mobile search. Michael Fitzgerald in The New York Times today highlights voice search and voice recognition software in gadgets that "Listen and Obey."

For example, with the new Vlingo app (Microsoft TellMe competitor), searchers can speak into their mobile phones send SMS messages to find and download Souljah Boy Tellem songs. Instead of texting a friend to decide on a sushi restaurant, Vlingo Find (integrated with Yahoo Maps) lets you talk it over and pinpoint the restaurant of choice.

Listen and obey? That's optimistic. Voice recognition still can't guess users intentions easily. Om Malik discussed Vlingo way back in August 2007, but we're glad the Times is highlighting innovations in mobile search and local search.

Plus, voice search won't achieve ubiquity until it's faster to talk than type.

Posted by Kevin Heisler on January 27, 2008, 10:48 AM | Permalink


Facebook Drops Another Hurdle

Facebook.JPGStill looking for some attention from the social networks? Facebook delivered a new client library on Friday afternoon, which makes your widgets easier to launch in their ecosystem. While this library isn't exactly the second coming, it's welcome news.

According to Facebook developer Wei Zu, “This JavaScript client library allows you to make Facebook API calls from any web site and makes it easy to create Ajax Facebook applications. Since the library does not require any server-side code on your server, you can now create a Facebook application that can be hosted on any web site that serves static HTML.”

Facebook also encourages developers to install applications outside its domain, which I understand was possible (if more difficult) before this release anyway. Blogger Nick O'Neill is ebullient about the social connections to be made across the web, if you place these applications on your site.

My reaction is just more measured, that's all. When someone arrives on your site, they can connect with others only if they are signed into Facebook. Will you attract people or turn them off? This entirely depends on your business and whether joining up is an important attribute right now.

Here's a gameplan for your Facebook interactions. Since the widget hurdle has been virtually dropped, it's worth thinking about what kind of traffic (or links) you might get from Facebook overall. Like any social network, it's not under your control -- but you should try to become more available and present there. Consider the following approaches for engagement.

Groups: As a start, you can simply set up a group that attracts people who identify with your site or services. Try setting up an open group for some specific purposes, like sharing opinions or news, having events, etc. Of course, the postings there can link back to your site too. You can be a more active moderator, or let interested group members start to communicate and drive the agenda.

Widgets: In addition, you can create widgets that people insert on their pages. Look at what works on your site, and see what's transportable to a widget. Don't assume that since interactivity matters, your quiz or poll idea will be a runaway success. If you're a content site, then consider options like headlines and stories. If you're an e-tailer, then try sharing your latest arrivals or bargains.

Domains: Although this is a alpha or pioneering effort, consider inserting your Facebook widget back on your domain. This widget should be a tool that helps people connect, rather than a dominant site feature. Also make sure you mention this in your policies, since you'll be using external cookies on your site too.

With this latest Facebook news and hype, one thing is clear: it's time for you to test communications and interactions through this "coin of the realm" social network. Just as you have placed pages on MySpace to drive traffic, there's more to be gained by injecting into Facebook too.

We just don't have the metrics and stories to share with you yet, so let us know what you learn. What kinds of traffic do you see? Are the engines picking up things differently for you? We're all learning about optimization from this latest social network together.

Posted by on January 26, 2008, 10:30 PM | Permalink


Google Enigma: Code Cracked by Carr

NickCarr.jpg

'Some say Google is God,' Sergey Brin once said. 'Others say Google is Satan.' The confusion about Google's identity may not be quite that Manichean, but it does run deep."
- Nicholas G. Carr, in strategy + business

Nick Carr asks the question every forward-thinking executive has top of mind: Should innovation-minded managers view Google as an examplar — or a freak?

He cautions business execs to think twice before making "Google-ize" a strategic imperative. Why not?

1. Google is a young company and hasn't been tested by adversity. (see Yahoo) Is Google's approach to innovation a cause of its success? Or a result of success?

2. No one knows how well Google's model would transfer to other companies.

Read the article in the new issue of strategy+business.

Then check out Nick's Rough Type take on Google's new $600 million data center in North Carolina.

The key question: how many jobs does $600 million create?

To discuss, go here.

Posted by Kevin Heisler on January 26, 2008, 5:08 PM | Permalink


Search Headlines & Links: January 25, 2008

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 January 25, 2008, 6:00 PM | Permalink


Google Position 6 Smack-Down: Filter, Penalty, or Bunk?

google1.jpg Since late December, best-of-breed search marketers have been chattering about a supposed and creepy “Position 6” Google SERPs punishment pattern where pages which, by all indications, should dominate the organic SERPs somehow place at lowly #6. Google's Matt Cutts has previously dismissed the notion that Position 6 is real.

Yesterday the debate amongst search marketers flared to full blown public jamming in major SEM blogs and virulent comment threads. Aaron Wall, venerable blogger-purveyor of SEOBOOK, restarted the conversation with his post, “How I Got My Google Ranking #6 Filter Removed.” The post was bookmarked in Sphinn and SEO scientists argued about Position 6 throughout the day, resulting in passionate posts (and even arguments) in trade publications.

Is Position 6 real?

Respected SEM technician Sebastian reflected the position of many SEM pros and noted a lack of studies that that provide ”proof instead of weird assumptions based on claims of webmasters jumping on today's popular band wagon that aren't plausible nor verifiable...such beasts don't exist.”

Danny Sullivan joined the fracas with an SEL post and his impression that Position 6 is real. “Well, I've personally seen this weirdness. Pages that I absolutely thought ‘what on earth is that doing at six' rather than at the top of the page. Not four, not seven -- six. It was freaking weird for several different searches. Nothing competitive, either.”

Is Position 6 an actual Google penalty or fodder for SEMs who are imagining patterns where none exist? Have you experienced Position 6? Real or imagined, it's certainly generating a lot of attention and links amongst search marketers and webmasters. Stay tuned and watch your Google organic SERPs.

Posted by Marty Weintraub on January 25, 2008, 7:10 AM | Permalink


SEW Experts: Mobile Local Search: A Perfect Storm

Last week's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) showcased the first few devices that run Google's much anticipated Android operating system. In today's Vertical Challenge column, "Mobile Local Search: A Perfect Storm," local search expert Michael Boland explains how these are the first physical signs of what will be a major inflection point in the history of mobile devices and mobile local search.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on January 25, 2008, 12:00 AM | Permalink


SEW Experts: PPC 101 Writing Successful Creatives

Writing ads for search engine advertising is almost like writing headlines. It requires an ability to distill information into attention-grabbing, character-restricted words. In today's SEM Crossfire column, "PPC 101 Writing Successful Creatives," Frank Watson outlines a plan to write ads that will grab attention, and convert.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on January 25, 2008, 12:00 AM | Permalink


SEW Experts: Win the Right Search Marketing Clients - Part 2

For a search marketing agency, especially one just starting out, choosing the right clients can make or break your business. In today's Business of Search column, "Win the Right Search Marketing Clients - Part 2," Fionn Downhill follows last week's look at targeting start-ups and small business owners with a discussion about what mid-size and larger companies have to offer.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on January 25, 2008, 12:00 AM | Permalink


Search Headlines & Links: January 24, 2008

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 January 24, 2008, 5:58 PM | Permalink


Google Takes Gold and Silver in Japan: NTT DoCoMo and KDDI

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Soon 80 percent of the mobile phones in Japan will feature the Google search engine.

That doesn't necessarily mean Google will have an 80 percent share of all Japanese local mobile searches. Google partnerships with the #1 and #2 mobile carriers in Japan forces Yahoo and MSN to compete for the bronze.

Here's the math: Google (NTT DocCoMo + KDDI) = 80 percent of the Japanese mobile phone market. Not a bad equation.

Google announced today a partnership with NTT DoCoMo to place the Google search box, apps and services on 48 million mobile users in Japan.

Nothing extraordinary here -- bigger share of searches, ubiquity of Gmail -- all in search of local mobile ad revenue, and of course, indexing all the world's information.

The partners aren't strangers: Google NTT Docomo are shooting for 10 billion yen (only 942 million USD) in shared ad revenue (split undisclosed) with a Linux-based mobile handset in Japan.

Expect more partnerships post-Davos and pre-Google earnings announcements.

Posted by Kevin Heisler on January 24, 2008, 1:38 PM | Permalink


What search engine marketers should know about event marketing

Yes, yes, I know we're search engine marketers. So, event marketing isn't our department.

But, Don E. Schultz, Professor (Emeritus-in-Service) of integrated marketing communication at Northwestern University, said something in his opening keynote at SES Chicago back in December that every SEM should understand.

He said, “For search to ‘get respect' among senior management and marketers, we must align and integrate with traditional marketing. We must provide ways to build holistic marketing systems.”

To do this effectively, here's what search engine marketers should know about event marketing: One plus one equals three.

In other words, if one of your executives gets accepted to be a conference speaker and your company is already a tradeshow exhibitor, doth both. You'll discover that the synergy created by this holistic marketing system outweighs any so-called savings by eliminating your booth once you've nailed down a speaking slot.

Now, I should disclose that Search Engine Strategies London and SES New York are clients. But, I'd give the same advice if you got accepted to be a conference speaker at another search marketing conference and your firm was also exhibiting at that event.

In fact, I gave this very advice in the 1980s when I was the director of corporate communications at Lotus Development Corp. And I gave this advice in the 1990s when I was the director of corporate communications at Ziff-Davis. So, why should I stop giving it now?

Just as media companies insist on a separation of church and state between their editorial and advertising departments, event organizers also insist on a church-state separation between the organizers who select conference speakers and the sales department who signs up tradeshow exhibitors.

So, if one of your executives gets invited to be a conference keynote speaker and your company already has a tradeshow booth, it's a rare opportunity to deliver a one-two punch.

Besides, your executive won't be able to give the sales pitch that your booth staff can. In fact, your executive will be given a set of speaker guidelines that say something like this:
Audience members react badly if they think they are being sold something. If you are too “salesy,” they definitely let us know in the feedback, and that can impact whether you'll be invited to speak at a future event.

And, taking the high road as a conference speaker works. I can't tell you how often I've seen smart executives, who focus on a “real life” example of how their products have been used by customers, drive more conference attendees to their company's booth than dumb ones who give a more sales-oriented explanation of their product's features.

Now, if you have trouble getting your executives to “buy” this holistic marketing system, try this SEM analogy. Back in August 2003, I was a speaker in the “Balancing Paid & Organic Listings” session at Search Engine Strategies San Jose.

I presented a case study from the University of the Pacific, which indicated that getting top ranking in both organic and paid listings had tripled our click-through-rates. I surmised that finding both an organic and a paid listing from the same site was like getting a second opinion.

This case study quickly became an urban legend and I was frequently asked for a copy of my marketing research. When I explained that the “3X effect” was based on anecdotal evidence, people would invariably say, “Please let me know if anybody ever does such a study.”

Well, on March 1, 2007, iCrossing published a Search Synergy Report, which found a “symbiotic, or synergistic, effect between natural and paid search on online performance.”

For this report, iCrossing asked, “Does running a natural search campaign and a paid search campaign together create more value than running them in a non-integrated manner?” In other words, does one plus one equal three?

And, iCrossing's statistical analyses conclusively demonstrated that “running an integrated natural and paid search campaign leads to improved online performance over running either a natural search or paid search campaign alone.”

I wrote about their findings in an article entitled, "Yes, Virginia, there is a natural and paid search synergy," for the Search Engine Watch Blog.

So, if there's a positive synergy between natural and paid search, then why wouldn't there be a similar symbiotic, or synergistic, effect between a conference speaker and tradeshow booth? In other words, if one plus one equals three for search engine marketers, then why wouldn't the math work for event marketing, too?

Posted by Greg Jarboe on January 24, 2008, 12:44 PM | Permalink


Ghoulish Gawker Post: Heath Ledger Tom Cruise Translation

My colleague, ClickZ Executive Editor, AnnaMaria Virzi, tipped me off to a Gawker.com post online that's only received a little more than a thousand views and very few comments this morning. Gawker.com is the Nick Denton Web site where bloggers are paid "per post" to blog about pop culture and media gossip.

The ghoulish post slams MT (machine translation) of foreign languages. Yes, somehow Google made an error translating the phrase "Heath Ledger is Dead" into Spanish. Everyone in the search community knows machine translation isn't perfect and global Web sites require localization. For an intelligent discussion, click here.

The Gawker post by Joshua Stein appears to be a blatant attempt to pump up traffic to the Gawker-hosted Tom Cruise Scientology video.

Yes, the link above takes you to Hitwise analyst Heather Dougherty who best explains the Gawker traffic-building strategy and its results.

Posted by Kevin Heisler on January 24, 2008, 10:25 AM | Permalink


Google AdWords Beta Testing Demographic Bidding

Seems Google is taking advantage of some of the DoubleClick features already. Demographic bidding is now being beta tested, according to the latest entry at Inside AdWords.

"Demographic bidding is a way to help your ads reach audiences of a certain age or gender. If you want your ads to be seen by women aged 18-24, or people over 55, demographic bidding can help," the AdWords Help Center states on the page you can sign up for the beat test.

This will prove to be an interesting addition - though the MSN offering has not proven outstanding as yet - given the amount of traffic Google has to sort in to age demographics.

Have a product that is particularly of interest to women between the ages of 21-35 - give it a shot. Why pitch to a male searcher when they would not be interested.

We will follow this addition with interest. A thread to discuss it has been set up here (thanks beu for bringing this late breaking news).

Posted by Frank Watson on January 24, 2008, 12:02 AM | Permalink


SEW Experts: Why Search Is Still Prehistoric

Search is evolving as universal search or blended search results crawl into the SERPs, but it's still primitive. In today's Brand Equity column, "Why Search Is Still Prehistoric," Eric Qualman outlines how user feedback, personalization, and other nascent technologies will lead to changes for search marketers, and search engines.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on January 24, 2008, 12:00 AM | Permalink


SEW Experts: Link Building Case Study for Luxury Hotels

Opportunities for creative link building solutions are plentiful. Just solve a user problem, like a concierge at a luxury hotel. In today's Link Love column, "Link Building Case Study for Luxury Hotels," Justilien Gaspard shows how a hotel's Web site can improve guest satisfaction and branding.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on January 24, 2008, 12:00 AM | Permalink


Search Headlines & Links: January 23, 2008

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 January 23, 2008, 6:53 PM | Permalink


Search Engine Stocks Taking A Beating

Across the board, the search engines are being hit just as bad as every other stock on the international exchanges. Guess the ability to measure profitability for the buyers of search products, the growing numbers of users and the attraction of Fortune 500 companies to their usage has not kept our industry's lights from dimming.

The only saving grace is that it is not a dotcom bubble.... we are possibly on the brink of a global recession.

The last two weeks have been particularly rough on Google and Yahoo - with both at serious lows.

It will be interesting to see what Yahoo has to say at their quarterly report January 29th, considering they are supposed to be making major layoffs over the next couple of weeks. Even Alibaba - the Chinese Ebay - could not sustain the jump of their initial IPO late last year and help one of their major investors (Yahoo owns 35 percent of Alibaba). The layoffs are also being done by Yahoo China which Alibaba owns in the deal the made with Yahoo.

"Yahoo is navigating the waters of Internet advertising like a goldfish evading a shark, in the form of Google," the Wall Street Journal commented.

Funny Google has not been faring any better. They have fallen back from 741 late last year to under 550 today.

The surprising thing about this is search can be measured better than any other form of advertising, so users can be proactive - a major plus that can be a great plus for companies even if a major recession unfolds.... let's see what Jerry Yang has to say next week.

Posted by Frank Watson on January 23, 2008, 6:09 PM | Permalink


AdSense Adds Help in Hebrew

Just received this from the AdSense crew so no doubt it is in the official blog.

"We're all about numbers and international launches this week, so we're excited to tell you that we've recently launched our (sweet) 16th AdSense Help Forum, this time in Hebrew. If you're a Hebrew-speaking publisher, visit the new forum to ask your questions about the AdSense program or share your advice with other publishers. You may also see occasional posts from a Google representative nicknamed AdSensePro.

With the ever-growing number of forums in a wide variety of languages, now's a great time to join the AdSense community in your language! Our forums are also available in Arabic, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Turkish."

Posted by Frank Watson on January 23, 2008, 6:01 PM | Permalink


Interview: Craig Newmark on Online Real Estate Part 2

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Craig Newmark is famous for more than Craigslist. I first heard him speak at Brad Inman's real estate conference in New York the year Zillow launched.

He promised the audience he wouldn't sell out or sell Craigslist. Recently, Rajan Sodhi of the big marketing for small business blog heard him make the same promise.

So far, Craig hasn't disappointed anyone. He's kept his promises.

As a competitor, it's tough to get on Craig's radar. Even eBay doesn't scare him.

Here's Part 2 of Promediacorp CEO Avi Wilensky's one-on-one with Craig Newmark on online real estate. Part 1, here.

The Interview Part 2

Avi Wilensky: Do you have a problem with people using Craigslist to promote their sites using search engine optimization?

Craig Newmark: If they break guidelines and spam us, big problem, and I'm escalating our investigations.

AW: What are your thoughts on the SEO community in general?

CN: I think it's important to get the word out about search engine optimization. SEO is more ethical and less obtrusive than many other online marketing methods. In comparison to many other marketing tactics, SEO is appropriate and not spammy, and it uses sites in a positive way. With time, people get a lot smarter about SEO.

AW: Is link spam a huge Craigslist problem?

CN: It's not a huge problem, but it is significant and annoying.

AW: You are heavily focused on entrusting the community with the ability to police spam. How does it work? While self-policing is fair, how would you deal with those who intentionally attempt to flag legitimate listings as spam?

CN: If you see anything wrong, spam or otherwise, please flag. If enough people flag, the ad is removed automatically. We do have people who try to game the system, and have some protection regarding that, improving continuously. However, our system does have flaws. Like some guy said, democracy is a lousy system, but it's better than anything else we've tried. (I don't think he's doing much these days.)

AW: In real estate, I'll often run into real estate agents who spam their Craigslist postings with every single city they provide services in, even if the listing they've created is not related to that city. Ultimately, this creates a poor user experience, especially if a person is performing a search for "New York" but not Queens ("New York -Queens"). What actions, if any, have you taken to prevent this kind of exposure?

CN: People flag them away a lot. We need more of that, and people can email me the occasional link or posting ID and I'll dig in.

AW: Do you feel there are any threats to Craigslist at all? Which online properties do you perceive as a threat?

CN: Probably our only real threat would be to grow complacent. Sometimes people indulge in mythology regarding our effects on newspaper revenues, greatly exaggerating. That's always annoying.

AW: Do you have a problem with the competition in the space?

CN: We don't think about competition, it's only a distraction

Posted by Kevin Heisler on January 23, 2008, 5:09 PM | Permalink


Microsoft Launches New Ad Campaign for Live Search

In the spirit of its Ms. Dewey experiment, Microsoft has launched a new site, Left vs. Right, which pits opponents from two sides of the political spectrum. Left-leaning "Patrick O'Neil" and right-wing "Britt Hayes" trade barbs about each other's hygiene, political views, and intelligence.

As with Ms. Dewey, when a user does not type anything into the search box, the characters wait patiently for a while and then will begin a new skit. When a user types in a keyword or question about certain issues, the two characters will share a humorous exchange about the topic.

Left-vs-Right

Microsoft is also promoting the site with a snarky ad campaign. The press release from the right leads off, "Hybrid-hugging liberals beware. Conservative truth is on the march." The release from the left asks, "Is Dick Cheney planning on shooting you?

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on January 23, 2008, 3:08 PM | Permalink


Google Turns to Publicis to Increase its Madison Avenue Savvy

Google CEO Eric Schmidt was in Paris this week to visit Maurice Levy, chairman and CEO of ad agency holding company Publicis. The two shared few details, but said that Google and Publicis were more than a year into a relationship where Google's technology smarts and Publicis' media planning expertise are being shared to the benefit of both companies, according to a Reuters report.

"This collaboration, underway for over one year, is based on a shared vision of how new technologies can be used to improve advertising," reads a cryptic statement from Publicis.

According to an AdAge report, the relationship includes an exchange of talent between the two companies, with plans to "embed" employees at each others' company for months at a time. Publicis will also use Google staff and materials for training programs, and the two companies will work together on new products, platforms and tools. Google has also reportedly established a dedicated global account team for Publicis Groupe.

Google has been looking for inroads to big brand marketers for years. It opened a 300,000-square-foot New York Googleplex in October 2006, primarily to have a base of operations near the media companies and Madison Avenue agencies that control the media budgets of large brand advertisers.

"Our main wish is that we're able to leverage Madison Avenue combined with Silicon Valley to create the largest advertising platform in the world," Ad Sales President Tim Armstrong told ClickZ at the time.

Armstrong, Penry Price, Google's director of North American sales, and David Kenny, chairman and CEO of Publicis' Digitas unit, are reportedly leading the current initiative. Publicis acquired Digitas for $1.3 billion in December 2006. The digital shop brought with it an extensive Fortune 500 client base and relationships with the top players online, including Google.

To better serve these advertisers, Google has created industry-specific teams in verticals like automotive, retail, financial services, entertainment & media, and healthcare. These teams conduct research and work closely with top advertisers in each sector, and "letting customers into your meetings," or using customer insight to drive marketing decisions instead of making decisions in a closed boardroom, according to Armstrong.

Google has also been is poaching from the top ranks of agency creative talent, such as hiring Ogilvy & Mather co-President Andy Berndt as managing director of its Creative Lab.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on January 23, 2008, 11:12 AM | Permalink


Baidu Sets Out to Conquer Japan

China's most popular search engine Baidu has finally launched its long anticipated Japanese portal. Baidu Chairman and CEO, Robin Li expressed excitement upon entering the Japanese search market.

“With Baidu's strengths in developing user-focused Chinese language search and the qualified team we have on the ground in Japan, and given the success we have already encountered after nearly one year of testing our beta site, we are confident that we can provide a high quality Japanese language search.”

Baidu, a monolithic presence, has about double Google's search share in China and dominates the landscape. In China there is much less focus on organic search results, requiring advertisers to pay and making for a strong search profit model for the search engine.

The Japanese portal will offer blended (Universal) search including web search, image search, video search and blog search services.

This is Baidu's first venture outside of China, which portends a commitment growing a more global footprint.

Posted by Marty Weintraub on January 23, 2008, 7:07 AM | Permalink


SEW Experts: There's More to Keyword Strategy Than the Long Tail

Choosing which keywords you want to chase in your SEO strategy can be a challenging task. Go after terms that are too competitive, and you might not get there in time, or at all. Go after terms that are easier to rank high for, and you're likely to get there much faster, but at what cost? In today's By the Numbers column, "There's More to Keyword Strategy Than the Long Tail," Eric Enge suggests adopting a keyword strategy patterned after an NFL quarterback, with lots of options for short, medium, and long passing routes.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on January 23, 2008, 12:00 AM | Permalink


SEW Experts: A Gloomy Searchonomic Forecast

A step back shouldn't equate to repeating past mistakes. Much in the same way our weak dollar and inevitable recession can't be remedied by short-term tax rebates and cutting interest rates, Yahoo can't get fixed by cutting off its arm to spite its face. In today's Searching for Meaning column, "A Gloomy Searchonomic Forecast," Kevin Ryan suggests that long-term thinking may be Yahoo's best approach.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on January 23, 2008, 12:00 AM | Permalink


Interview: Craig Newmark on Online Real Estate

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How did Craig become craig of craigslist fame? At Pubcon, Craig Newmark told the audience how he and Craigslist became famous enough to get tips on how to flush out Al Qaeda. In 1994, while still working as a web developer at Charles Schwab, he began using computer network communications systems such as Usenet, a technology developed at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University. But he didn't find them very efficient at combating spam. Instead of utilizing Usenet, Newmark opted to start his own mailing list using Pine.

The mailing list was intended to inform people of everyday events in San Francisco. Word of mouth led to more and more people requesting invitations to join the list.

Eventually Pine emerged as a list that not only announced San Francisco happenings but extended to buying, selling, and swapping; free job hunting, personals, and help wanted ads; plus more gimme shelter options: housing, roommates, apartment sales and rentals.

When Pine proved unable to handle the huge number of subscribers, Craig extended the list to a majordomo mailing list. Eventually a Perl script that could process the mailing list into a Web page enabled the full-fledged craigslist Web site to launch.

In 1997, Craigslist hit three milestones: 1 million page views per month; an offer from Microsoft to advertise on the site (Craig declined), and volunteers who offered to turn Craigslist into a social community. In the end, the volunteer operation didn't become a success but two years later, Craigslist became a company.

Since then, there have been a few tweaks of the code but not much else has changed in the past eight years or so.

SEW real estate guru Avi Wilensky sat down with Craig Newmark at the Real Estate Connect NYC 2008 conference in NYC and learned a bit more about Craigslist, social media, and Newmark's views on SEO.

The Interview

Avi Wilensky: What's your favorite social media site and why?

Craig Newmark: I don't use social media sites. However, I do have a Facebook account. I've had close to 1,000 people who have opted to friend me.

Although I don't actively participate on Facebook at this time, I plan on using Facebook to promote my charities. I'm currently planning on promoting IAVA.org, a veterans' rights site. While I can do this on Craigslist, I think it causes confusion and is a conflict of interest, so Facebook would be a better venue for this type of marketing.

AW: What are your thoughts on social media beyond Facebook?

CN: My guess is that they'll evolve into normal and usual ways people connect, but I intuit that no one's found quite the way to do it.

AW: Do you find that social news sites like Digg (which often promote your Best of Craigslist content) help your traffic or user involvement at all?

CN: We don't have the stats for referrers, so no real clue, but I'd guess they don't help significantly.

After the jump, Craig Newmark on his plans for Craigslist Web 2.0, the most popular Craigslist cities in the world, and what happened in Vegas that he wished stayed in Vegas.

AW: Do you intend to make Craigslist a bit more "social" and less "web 1.0" in the future, or do you intend to keep it the same?

CN: We're more like Web 0.1. We make incremental improvements, but we've gotta stay simple, usable, and fast.

AW: What are your most popular US cities?

CN: US cities: SF Bay Area, New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, Portland OR.

AW: What about international?

CN: International: London, Manila, Paris, Tokyo, Amsterdam

AW: What were your thoughts on Pubcon Vegas where were you the keynote speaker?

CN: Well, I wish the PA system worked better because the people in the back of the room couldn't hear me.


Tomorrow: Craig on search engine optimization, SEOs and the SEO community, and who his biggest competitors are in online real estate.

Posted by Kevin Heisler on January 22, 2008, 9:55 PM | Permalink


Search Headlines & Links: January 22, 2008

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 January 22, 2008, 5:51 PM | Permalink


Two New Ways Google Teaches You to Market on Google

Google has come out with two new tools for advertisers and search marketers. The first is a Google Webmaster Tools Quick Start Guide. This 10-page guide walks webmasters through the features available in Google's Webmaster Tools. Hat tip to beu in the SEW Forums for spotting this one.

The second is a 156-page AdWords textbook, "Marketing and Advertising Using Google." As David Szetela notes, the book is part of Google's Online Marketing Challenge program launched last week to train/indoctrinate college students to market using Google's AdWords product.

UPDATE: I just came across a third new educational tool from Google (must be a common New Year's Resolution at the Googleplex). This one's an update to Conversion University, a resource center for learning about Google Analytics.

It seems like Google's on top of their game when it comes to educating new advertisers. What are Yahoo, Microsoft, and others doing to catch up? Share your thoughts in the SEW Forums.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on January 22, 2008, 11:41 AM | Permalink


SEW Experts: SEO Millionaire: Who Wants to Be One?

What separates the winners from the search engine losers? That's the one question you need to ask SEOs who give you the standard advice you hear again and again. In today's au Natural column, "SEO Millionaire: Who Wants to Be One?," Mark Jackson brings you an SEO quiz show. By the end, you'll understand two overlooked factors in SEO: size and depth of site.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on January 22, 2008, 12:00 AM | Permalink


SEW Experts: HTML Title Tag Defines Your SEO Strategy

Search engine optimization for small business starts with a title tag. In today's Little Biz column, "HTML Title Tag Defines Your SEO Strategy," Carrie Hill explains that crafting the perfect title tag is a lot of art, and a little bit of science. She looks at three types of page titles to see what works and what doesn't.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on January 22, 2008, 12:00 AM | Permalink


Yahoo Layoffs Downsized to Hundreds

Yahoo job cuts won't be as severe as rumored this weekend. Kevin Delaney of The Wall Street Journal reports sources close to Yahoo put the estimated number of layoffs in the hundreds. The New York Times chimes in with a similar figure and equally anonymous sources.

No one seems to know the exact extent of any future layoffs.

Paul Kedrosky of Infectious Greed knows one thing for sure: "When Yahoo does deliver the layoff numbers ... the company's stock will likely be sold, with the numbers not matching the whisper and therefore disappointing investors with its lack of aggression."

Miguel Helft in the NYT reports today on weekend blog reports of the layoffs: "During the weekend, some blogs reported that Yahoo was considering layoffs of 10 to 20 percent of its work force. But the people close to the company, who discussed Yahoo's layoff plans on condition that they not be identified, said the cuts would most likely be in the hundreds."

Posted by Kevin Heisler on January 21, 2008, 11:44 PM | Permalink


StumbleUpon Death Threats in eBay Social Network

sapient-12mohighROI.jpgSearch marketers can enrage diehard members of social communities who want to keep marketers at bay. The result? Death threats, cyberterrorism, obscene language, cyberharassment, and calls for suicide.

Social media marketers see StumbleUpon and social networking sites like Facebook as theirs to mine for traffic, links, and sales. A just-released Sapient study shows marketers plan to increase spending on social media marketing this year, where they anticipate higher ROI than both digital advertising and email marketing (see chart).

A covert war is raging between search marketers engaged in social media optimization and long-time members of social networks that could spoil everyone's plans. The impact goes beyond search marketers engaged in SMM. If not resolved, the vicious attacks could spread to corporate brands testing the waters of social media marketing.

On popular eBay-owned social bookmarking and networking site StumbleUpon, I've received death threats and calls for suicide. StumbleUpon death threats may not be dangerous. Perhaps they're no more "real" than the death threats exchanged by "griefers" and "goons" with participants in Second Life and online gaming, as described by Julian Dibbell in Wired this month.

There's no doubt, though, that Second Life holds no appeal for brand marketers who don't want to risk virtual world attacks of flying phalluses. The question is why eBay allows death threats in StumbleUpon.

eBay condones anti-social user behavior by not enforcing obvious violations in the StumbleUpon Terms of Service (TOS). StumbleUpon moderators appear largely ineffectual in preventing death threats or policing members. Death threats against bloggers aren't new. They've been investigated by the Feds.

So I turned to the Minneapolis field office of the FBI.

First, let me tell you how it all began. My first big mistake: posting to a search marketing blog about how much I love StumbleUpon. Friends soon pointed out that long-time members of StumbleUpon were publicly calling for my suicide by methods I choose not to republish here. The feeling was reminiscent of historic book burnings because of violent and Nazi-laced symbolism and hyperbolic rhetoric.

Turns out that bands of longtime-member roving thugs, angry that search marketers have diluted the StumbleUpon content pool (which is true), leave violent and obscene public reviews in droves. SU is slow to react, if at all. After chronicling the experience in several StumbleUpon blog posts, the attacks on my public SU profile increased (must be logged into SU to view). Moderators stepped in and booted a single user for an unrelated TOS violation.

Then all hell broke loose.

Not For the Faint of Heart.
I started receiving more obscene online attacks in StumbleUpon: expressions of hatred and threats of physical harm.

I talked to the Minneapolis FBI Field office about the legality of cyber-harassment SU seems to allow users, nearly always with minimal moderation. Internet harassment is a crime. The field agent took my report, the URLs, and said little can be done when offenders violate United States laws from Warsaw, Poland, which the most egregious attacker listed as his home.

StumbleUpon's TOS reserves the right to remove content which, at their “sole discretion” is “threatening, libelous, defamatory, obscene or otherwise objectionable” and subjects violators with “termination.” Prohibited content is defined as “(i) is offensive or promotes racism, bigotry, hatred or physical harm of any kind; (ii) harasses or advocates harassment of another person.”

What actually goes on in the unmentionable corners reflects very badly on eBay, proud owner of the StumbleUpon cesspool. The FBI suggested I contact the moderator of the community at issue and question the TOS and moderator rules.

The thugs post known violations just long enough for their hateful purposes, then backtrack and remove the most damning "evidence" before SU admin gets around to assessing the complaints.

Visit “Justice Reigns: Stumble Troll BANNED by SU, “and follow all the links while logged into SU. They reveal a glimpse of the nastiest seamy underbelly of any social community on earth.

It is true, some social media marketers "game" the system with automated hacks to tilt the table for their clients' profit. Then some StumbleUpon users shout in public for the death of all search marketers, indicating the greater problem.

Social search marketers must ask themselves, "Do I really care about the effect our infiltration has on social communities?" Social site users must not over generalize. Many marketers are fine people who participate whole heartedly to the community's benefit.

There's a war. There needs to be a truce.

My social media conscience, Tamar Weinberg, has taught me that “wisdom of the mob” is community ethic to the point where tinkering (let alone gaming) social sites is downright sacrilegious. Sure, everybody knows that Facebook, MySpace, StumbleUpon, and LinkedIn are there for Internet marketers to harvest to their clients advantage. Marketers have been infiltrating wherever and whenever folks congregate to disseminate marketing messages forever. It's called PR.

That said, literally the only pathway to success and longevity in social media is to actually participate and bring value to the community. That type of holistic commitment is why a person's “recommendations” in social media can come to matter so much.

If the problem continues then many people will leave. eBay might be left holding a $75 million investment with limited value to big brands. That would make many folks like me sad. We've loved and contributed to StumbleUpon for months and years.

eBay, your customers and the world are watching. It's time to clean up your social club.

Posted by Marty Weintraub on January 21, 2008, 11:19 PM | Permalink


Ripoff Report Legal Problems: Dissection Of Culpability Online

Sarah Bird, a recent addition to the SEOMoz crew, has shown us that her legal education was not wasted. Her article today about the legal problems RipOff Reports faces is truly insightful.

The value in this piece of indepth analysis is what it can teach all website owners about what they are legally responsible for. Read it and take notes.

Posted by Frank Watson on January 21, 2008, 9:03 PM | Permalink


Say Goodbye To WebSideStory: Omniture Shareholders Approve Visual Sciences Purchase

Last week Omniture shareholders approved the acquisition of Visual Sciences and in essence started the burial process for WebSideStory. Remember WebsideStory bought Visual Sciences and then VS took over from within.

The press release announcing the approval details the demise of WebSideStory:

"HBX Analytics will be rebranded as Omniture SiteCatalyst HBX, and will continue to be supported until the key features have been integrated into Omniture SiteCatalyst. ... A migration program is available for all HBX customers—providing a package of complimentary migration services and technology tailored to the specific needs and requirements of each customer. Omniture has formed an HBX Migration Consulting Services team staffed with experts who have thousands of hours of experience migrating HBX customers to SiteCatalyst."

Posted by Frank Watson on January 21, 2008, 3:20 PM | Permalink


AT&T iPhone Google Deal Pits Apple Against Blackberry

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Pitting Apple against Blackberry, AT&T will offer a corporate plan for iPhone users, Engadget reported today.

The iPhone Google AT&T alliance made news at MacWorld with the launch of new Google apps and features for the iPhone.

Today's announcement, though, may be the biggest search engine industry news to come out of MacWorld. If the iPhone succeeds in dislodging Blackberry from the enterprise -- and Google maintains its iPhone-Apple ties -- then Google's share of local mobile searches could increase significantly over the next two years.

Google doesn't enjoy the same dominance in local mobile search as in desktop search. Google's strategic business development deals a couple years ago bundled Google desktop search with Dell computers and made Google the default home page on the computer's pre-installed browser.

Engadget blogger Thomas Ricker notes the move by AT&T iPhone comes in lieu of a 3G announcement by Apple. 3G, with service at 5-10 Mb per second, would make wide-area wireless voice telephony and broadband wireless data available in mobile.

With faster speeds and more bandwidth, 3G would likely increase the total volume of local mobile searches.

Increasing the number of searches is the only win-win for the search industry. Slicing and dicing search inventory increases the long tail of searches. With Yahoo, Microsoft and Ask battling for small gains against Google's dominant share of searches, local mobile search -- and the enterprise -- may be the final frontier.

Posted by Kevin Heisler on January 21, 2008, 12:06 PM | Permalink


SEMDirector Rebrands as Covario In Race for Interactive Advertising Platform

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Search engine marketing technology firm SEMDirector today rebranded as Covario to reflect the depth and breadth of its performance management technologies. Covario's platform enables global brands to manage not only search advertising but other interactive media, including display advertising. For the search industry, it's a wakeup call that "SEM" as a specialized service faces increasing competition from interactive advertising.

The race for a comprehensive online marketing platform includes the search engine platforms that will likely incorporate elements of recent technology acquisitions. Microsoft, for example, will leverage its investment in Aquantive's Atlas technology to improve the capabilities of MSN AdCenter. Google's recent acquisition of DoubleClick gives the search giant the ability to close the marketing loop with DART, Google AdWords, and Google Analytics in an enterprise marketing platform.

Covario enables advertisers to understand the relative effectiveness of paid search advertising, natural search optimization, and interactive advertising in a single dashboard.

“Covario,” a play on the word “covariance,” a measure of the strength of the correlation between two or more sets of random variables, reflects one of SEMDirector's competitive advantages: proprietary technology that enables marketers to make intelligent decisions in 24-7 search auctions with myriad variables. Those decisions are based on actual performance in the search engines, rather than media buyers' intuition.

Last week Russ Mann, Covario CEO, told me too many prospective clients and executives thought "SEM" referred only to paid search or PPC. Covario, along with a handful of leading search firms, offers a window into organic search performance too.

Covario focuses on designing products and solutions which bring unity and order into the interactive marketing management process. “Today interactive marketing is a fragmented discipline in which marketers work with many different vendors to develop and execute marketing programs," said Suresh Vittal, Forrester Research senior analyst. "But as the number of channels and programs grow, this situation becomes untenable.”

Forrester Research is placing its bets on the preeminence of online marketing suites to provide a single view of all marketing channels to centralize ad optimization and create an online partner ecosystem.

Covario as SEMDirector focused on building out technologies to manage paid and natural search. Covario's strategy focuses on the estimated 40 percent of online marketing budgets currently spent on display advertising.

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) accidentally tipped savvy search marketers to the company name change by listing SEM Director CEO Russ Mann as CEO of Covario, Inc. in their committee rosters.

Social networkers may have seen the employees who made the switch earlier, too.

Posted by Kevin Heisler on January 21, 2008, 7:58 AM | Permalink


Update: 1,500 to 2,500 Yahoo Layoffs Confirmed in Writing?

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Yahoo may have taken a Sanford C. Bernstein analyst recommendation to heart -- or heartless -- depending on whether you're an activist investor or Yahoo employee.

This weekend, Former Wall St. Analyst Henry Blodget reports Yahoo has a hit list of 1,500 to 2,500 employees targeted for layoffs by division heads, at the behest of Jerry Yang, Yahoo's co-founder and CEO.

Search guru John Battelle has long advocated the type of search spinout advocated by the WSJ this weekend, as shown by his prescient May 2007 post. (No surprise to Search Engine Watch readers.)

Our sources indicate the only safe place at Yahoo right now: Right Media.

No doubt a leaner and meaner -- or kinder and gentler -- Yahoo will emerge before Jerry Yang's January 29 analyst conference call when all shall be revealed to Wall Street and the search world.

Potential alliances between search engines -- Yahoo and MSN? Google and Yahoo? MSN and Ask? -- will continue to play out in '08.

Posted by Kevin Heisler on January 20, 2008, 11:23 AM | Permalink


Blackle Is the New Google, Plus Greener Gadgets

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Blackle is the new Green Google. Last year ecoIron blog reported Google would save mega megawatts by converting its famous whitespace to a black background. With the advent of Google Custom Search Engine, Mark Ontkush's brilliant idea became a reality. Blackle was born.

Joining the black is the new green search revolution: Blackoogle.

Core77 design network blogger Jeannie Chloe named Heap Media's Blackle one of the industrial design highlights of the year. Now Core77 is teaming up with Greener Gadgets to hold the Greener Gadgets competition (enter here by Jan 27, 2008) culminating in the Greener Gadgets conference on February 1st in NYC.

You can read more about Blackle and Blackoogle on some great blogs here, here, and here.

Posted by Kevin Heisler on January 20, 2008, 12:01 AM | Permalink


Yahoo Outsource Search to Google! Today WSJ

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Pressure on Yahoo to outsource search to Google or MSN continues to mount. Breaking Views in today's WSJ slams Jerry Yang's strategy to remake Yahoo into the front page of the Internet. The column calls for activist investors to shake up "discredited management," outsource search, and spin off Asian investments in Alibaba and Yahoo Japan.

The BreakingViews guys can't decide whether they think Yahoo is "the Hamlet of the Web" in existential crisis or "navigating the waters of Internet advertising like a goldfish evading a shark."

Google as Jaws. Now we know who really ate the goldfish in Steven Spielberg's pond.

Yahoo has heard the criticism before. It echoes advice from Sanford C. Bernstein research analyst Jeffrey Lindsay back in September, 2007: outsource search to Google and cut staff by 25 percent, as reported by Barron's Tech Trader Daily columnist, Eric Savitz.

(full disclosure: my brother, Jon Heisler, is a vice-president with Sanford C. Bernstein in private wealth management.)

Only last week, The Motley Fool picked Yahoo as the worst stock for 2008.

How's your weekend going?

Posted by Kevin Heisler on January 19, 2008, 4:53 PM | Permalink


Search Headlines & Links: January 18, 2008

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 January 18, 2008, 5:47 PM | Permalink


$100,000 First Prize: Universal Search Engine Survivor Singapore

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Universal Search will reach an inflection point when video and audio files are fully searchable. The best and brightest minds in the search industry will one day solve the problem of multimedia meta tag "hit-and-miss."

Until then, Meta Tag, you're it.

Singapore is offering a $100,000 grand prize as an incentive to promote the opening of Fusionopolis. Enter here.

The Star Challenge 2008 pits teams and individuals "in a global competition to complete search engine challenges with the ultimate goal: develop a "universal search" engine that goes beyond universal search to get inside rich media.

The race: a total of 4 Challenges and 3 Knockout rounds.

The searchable media? Available to search teams in July-August 2008. Finalists will be announced on August 23, 2008.

I saw the story first in Channel News Asia (via Yahoo News), but the lede didn't quite capture the concept of universal search, multimedia search, or even who wants to be a billionaire:

If you have an idea for the next YouTube or Facebook, you could win US$100,000.

Posted by Kevin Heisler on January 18, 2008, 4:24 PM | Permalink


Google Generation A Myth: Here's Why

When people are looking for reliable information, they don't trust and use search engines quite as much as you think. According to USC's Center for the Digital Future, only 51% of people currently believe that “most or all of the information produced by search engines is reliable and accurate.”

So does everyone settle for the engines anyway? No, it's only part of the mix. Recently the British Library asked people about the specific ways they searched for reliable articles. Regardless of age, personal recommendations were always cited as an important source -- beating out Google Scholar every time.

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Younger students between 17-21 relied on recommendations, journal publisher sites and electronic tables of content, along with Google Scholar somewhat less frequently. Libraries were used more by the time researchers reached age 22, and spiked for the Baby Boomers. So there's clearly a mix of discovery tools used in the research process today.

This British study claimed that social networks were still experimental and not a meaningful factor in research. With the sheer volume of participants on Facebook and social functionality on publisher sites, I think there's more activity than is acknowledged here.

Through social networks, it's natural for students to discuss their assignments and everyone to share their interests -- and they will receive informal help from their friends or online groups. It's definitely a more organic and informal approach to recommendations, but draws on the advice of others either explicitly or implicitly.

With the success of Wikipedia, social sharing is gaining additional acceptance among researchers and librarians. Even the U.S. Library of Congress proudly announced their Flickr Pilot Project, which makes several thousand archived images available on the photo site. The Library hopes that Flickr users will tag and annotate the images, so that others can search and learn more about these national treasures.

Based on this evidence, let's abandon the notion that people only use Google or other engines, click on results, and then finish their research quickly. When there's serious exploration and study underway, people use many sources and touch points. They care if their sources are worthwhile and credible, and also depend on others to let them know.

Posted by on January 18, 2008, 1:23 PM | Permalink


Yahoo Search Spotlight Awards Live in New York

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Do you want to hear search engine strategies from four of the best search marketing campaigns from 2007?

Yahoo hosts the 3rd Annual Yahoo! Searchlight Award showcase on February 12th in New York City. It's a "winner take-all" competition. There's only one 2008 Searchlight Award. Past winners include AvenueA/Razorfish and RPA.

To attend: register here.

The judges:

Kevin Ryan, Global Content Director, SES and Search Engine Watch
Abbey Klaassen, Digital Editor, Advertising Age
Brian Morrissey, Senior Reporter, Adweek
Greg Sterling, Founding Principal, Sterling Market Intelligence

The keynote:

Rob Norman, CEO of Group M Interaction: what's hot in global search in 2008 and beyond.

Click here for details from Ron Belanger, Yahoo's VP, Agency Development.

2007 Yahoo Spotlight Award recap here.

Posted by Kevin Heisler on January 18, 2008, 9:58 AM | Permalink


RSS Feed Subscription Bonanza Was Fool's Gold…Bummer!

Imagine the unbridled joy last night as RSS publishers went to bed absolutely giddy over massive boosts in RSS subscriptions to their website or blog. Too bad it wasn't real. RSS feeds are a critical measure of website's popularity and the impact of marketing. An increasing feed subscription count can be a key metric, speaking to the success of search marketing efforts-or not.

My company blog, aimClearBlog, jammed from our normal RSS subscription count to around 2700 subscribers in about 3 hours, resulting in our opening a slightly better bottle of wine than usual as congratulations emails from supporters trickled in.

Popular RSS to email-blast subscription service FeedBlitz is to blame. The subscription tally is getting back to normal though the FeedBlitz subscription count is still somewhat inflated.

Similar reports are rolling in from all over the Internet. The phony Feed count bonanza is covered in this support posting from FeedBurner.

Posted by Marty Weintraub on January 18, 2008, 8:19 AM | Permalink


Microsoft Expands its PPC adCenter Content Network

Launched with little fanfare late last year, Microsoft's adCenter Content Network initially only included Microsoft web properties. Now there are signs they're opening up the network to include high-quality publishers like financial data provider EDGAR Online.

As far as I know, this is the first non-Microsoft web property to carry adCenter ads. Microsoft execs told me early last year that they were planning to build their Content network slowly and selectively, to ensure publishers were high-quality so that advertisers would achieve better ROI than they now do on Google and Yahoo's Content networks.

Though its click inventory is miniscule compared to Google's, adCenter's Search network regularly produces astronomical conversion rates. If Microsoft can deliver the same kind of ROI advantages as it grows its Content network, advertisers hungry for click inventory will flock to it.

Microsoft's entry into the PPC advertising fray has been quiet and cautious - but never underestimate the behemoth's capability to come from far behind and win. Anybody remember former titans Visicorp, Lotus and WordPerfeect?

Posted by David Szetela on January 18, 2008, 7:06 AM | Permalink


Kickin' Off the SEM Crossfire with Frank the Tank

SEW Forums Editor and fellow Expert columnist Frank Watson is one of the people I most respect in this business, both for his technical and social skills. An opportunity for us to collaborate on a column was a no-brainer. When coming up with ideas, Frank and I pushed for incorporating other industry expert opinions in our column and providing commentary and analysis of our own; hence, "SEM Crossfire."

We both have sizable networks. We identified a hopefully exciting way for us to give to back to the community we love: sharing our networks virtually. Over the course of SEM Crossfire, we'll take hot button issues and provide a cross section of opinions – ideally allowing our readers to make more informed decisions. A lot of non-fact based information and opinion about search topics exist out there…so maybe we can be occasional “noise guard” technology for researchers and practitioners alike.

We'll take time each week to comment on each others previous weeks topic.. In today's column reviewing the reciprocal linking issue, I provided my brief thoughts on the two-parter Frank wrote as a kickoff, starting at the link above and concluding last week with insight on paid search landing pages. As we go forward, not only will be provide our own thoughts about the last week's column, but we may also include comments and opinions from forum discussions related to the topic. We hope to keep it civil. I certainly don't want to get blindsided one night by an angry Frank or forum member.

We hope you enjoy!

Posted by Chris Boggs on January 18, 2008, 6:50 AM | Permalink


CMS Watch says Google Analytics and Omniture are “over-hyped”

Earlier this week, CMS Watch said that Google Analytics and Omniture are “over-hyped.” This is a distant echo of the classic complaint by the Brits during World War II that the Yanks stationed in their country were “overpaid, oversexed and over here.”

In a press release, CMS Watch said that it “rejected the snowball of hype suggesting that Google Analytics and Omniture are the only remaining solid choices for Web Analytics.” The vendor-independent analyst firm said there are many established vendors who can provide advanced analytics functionality, particularly for mid-sized and larger enterprises and buyers in the UK and Europe.

Now, it's perfectly understandable why CMS Watch would try to stir up a little controversy. It was releasing the 2008 edition of its Web Analytics Report, which evaluates 15 major Web Analytics suppliers based on vendor research, interviews with customers across a range of industry sectors, and hands-on testing of solutions. A little controversy goes a long way to get someone to pay closer attention to a report that costs $1,175 to $1,850.

But, the 340-page report addresses several hot issues. As Phil Kemelor, lead analyst for the report, said in the press release, “The web analytics marketplace has seen some instability and consolidation -- such as ClickTracks and SageMetrics being acquired by larger entities, and Omniture's imminent acquisition of Visual Sciences -- and this has led some to believe that web analytics has become a two-party system. But don't believe the hype that Google Analytics and Omniture are your only choices, because that's hardly the case.”

While Omniture is the largest pure-play web analytics firm and Google is both a noun and a verb, CMS Watch research finds that enterprises can select from a broad selection of established vendors, including:
SaaS-only vendors
• Coremetrics: Online Analytics
• Digital River: Fireclick Advanced Warehouse
• Google: Google Analytics
• Nedstat: Sitestat
• Omniture: SiteCatalyst
• VisualSciences: HBX Analytics
Hybrid: SaaS and Traditional Software
• 24/7 Real Media: Open AdStream Analytics
• Auriq Systems: RTmetrics
• Foviance: WebAbacus
• Indextools: Web Analytics 9.0
• Lyris: ClickTracks
• SageMetrics: SageAnalyst
• Unica: Affinium NetInsight 7.1
• VisualSciences: Visual Sciences Platform 5
• WebTrends: Analytics 8

And with Microsoft planning to enter this space later in 2008, the web analytics market is far from limited.

Now, if you're not ready to plunk down big bucks to buy the CMS Watch Web Analytics Report, you can review a free, 40-page sample excerpt. And, if you want a second opinion, I recommend reading Stone Temple Consulting's 2007 Analytics Shoot Out.

Nevertheless, the timing of CMS Watch's announcement was fortuitous.

As Kevin Newcomb reported last week, Google's Conversion Optimizer is out of beta.

And yesterday, Omniture announced the completion of its acquisition of Visual Sciences.

Finally, on Tuesday, Feb. 19, there will be an Orion Panel with the All Star Analytics Team at Search Engine Strategies London.

Kevin Ryan, Vice President, Global Content Director, Search Engine Strategies and Search Engine Watch, will be moderating a panel of thought leaders in the field of analytics, who will discuss everything from bounce rates, improving conversion, spotting trends and generally elevating your SEO/PPC analysis to a whole new level.

The panelists include:
• Brian Clifton, Head of Web Analytics, EMEA, Google
• Bryan Eisenberg, Co-Founder, Future Now Inc.
• Steve Jackson, Senior Consultant, Web Analytics & Search Marketing, SATAMA, & International Co-Chair, Web Analytics Association
• Jim Sterne, Target Marketing & Chairman, Web Analytics Association
• Ian Thomas, Director, Customer Intelligence, Microsoft Advertiser & Publisher Solutions

Who knows, maybe someone will complain that the big, American web analytics vendors are “overpaid, oversexed, and over here.” And, who knows, maybe someone else will have the cheek to remind everyone of the come-back that the Yanks had for this good humored banter back during World War II -- pointing out to their hosts that they were “underpaid, undersexed and under Eisenhower.”

This is all speculation, of course. Who knows what will actually happen at SES London. But I'm glad that I'm going to have a front row seat.

Posted by Greg Jarboe on January 18, 2008, 1:23 AM | Permalink


SEW Experts: Top 5 Search Engine Marketing Trends 2008

With 2008 in full swing, the game is already starting to change for the SEO (define) community. In today's Outsourced column, "Top 5 Search Engine Marketing Trends 2008," William Flaiz reminds agencies that many of the trends in 2008 will mean more competition – and more opportunity.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on January 18, 2008, 12:00 AM | Permalink


SEW Experts: Online Reviews: Tips, Tricks, and Secrets for Advertisers and Publishers

The importance of reviews and ratings – positive and negative – can't be overstated in local search. In terms of consumer motivation, it's all about informing others or rewarding a business for its excellent product/service. In today's Vertical Challenge column, "Online Reviews: Tips, Tricks, and Secrets for Advertisers and Publishers," local search expert Gregg Stewart notes that how you react and interact with the online version of word-of-mouth referrals can have important implications for your business.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on January 18, 2008, 12:00 AM | Permalink


Search Headlines & Links: January 17, 2008

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 January 17, 2008, 5:53 PM | Permalink


Is Google Having Severe Growing Pains?

Seems our nine-year old is having severe growing pains lately. Come on, everyone reading this considers Google part of their lives, so why not a nine-year old child. And fellow relatives, we are all being impacted by the growth spurts lately.

Here are just a few of the things that have been mentioned in the past week or so.

Seems the bulk upload for Adwords is throwing a 502 error - had not heard of a 502 before.
Others are seeing a lot of time outs when searching.
I have had a lot of problems staying logged in to GMail especially the GChat part.
Google Analytics is having timing problems also.
Other countries are still dealing with pervasive spam in the search results.
The #6, -50, 950 penalties - to name just a few - seem to be a little too aggressive.
Long turnaround time for removing submitted URLs.
Being overly generous to new sites.

And don't get me started on the WiFi efforts or Docs etc. They just seem to be pushing so hard at the envelope they have forgotten about the letter inside.

But we have to be patient after all Google is only nine years old. And if we are not able to deal now think of what the teenage years are going to bring!

Posted by Frank Watson on January 17, 2008, 3:05 PM | Permalink


Searchable Social Media and Adding to the Global Conversation

Rising Voices, a citizen media outreach initiative of the Global Voices, has just released the first of a series of planned guides, An Introduction to Citizen Media. This brief guide offers context and case studies which show how ordinary citizens across the world are using blogs, podcasts, online video, and digital photography to engage in an unmediated conversation which transcends borders, cultures, and differing languages. This unmediated conversation is of course available to the world through search. As search marketers, we have witnessed the growth of alternative media and the need to consider it in our search campaigns. This gives a global perspective.

As the introduction states: “The purpose of this guide is to show that anyone with an internet connection can participate in the emerging global conversation. Our understanding of the world is now shaped not just by the newspapers and television, but also by each other.” This first edition of An Introduction to Citizen Media is available in English, Spanish, and Bengali. Future editions will also be available in Swahili, Malagasy, and Aymara.

This guide with its examples of how citizens around the world are using these tools of social engagement to provide a global context to the political and social events in their country provides proof positive of the power of these tools. For those wanting more in depth information on citizen engagement will also find interesting Public Deliberation: A Manager's Guide to Citizen Engagement. Anyone who works with non-profits, political or mission-driven organizations will find this document a convincing argument to use for expanding the use of these communication tools.

Posted by Amanda Watlington on January 17, 2008, 12:22 PM | Permalink


Google.org Reveals Five Focus Areas

Google's philanthropic arm, Google.org, today announced the five core initiatives that it plans to focus on over the next five to ten years. The programs will receive more than $25 million in new grants and investments to initial partners from Google.org. Google's founders have made a commitment to devote approximately 1 percent of the company's equity plus 1 percent of annual profits to philanthropy, as well as employee time.

The five initiatives Google.org will focus on:


  1. Predict and Prevent – using technology to predict and prevent the spread of diseases before they become local, regional, or global crises, by identifying "hot spots" and enabling a rapid response. Focus areas include global health threats, humanitarian crises, biological threats, and climate variability.

  2. Inform and Empower to Improve Public Services – improving the flow of vital information to improve basic services for the poor in India and East Africa.

  3. Fuel the Growth of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises – creating programs to support small and mid-sized businesses in developing areas, beginning with Ghana and Tanzania.

  4. Develop Renewable Energy Cheaper Than Coal (RE<C) – working toward a goal of producing one gigawatt of renewable energy capacity that is cheaper than coal, within years not decades. This program was launched in November, and will focus initially on advanced solar thermal power, wind power technologies, enhanced geothermal systems and other potential breakthrough technologies.

  5. Accelerate the Commercialization of Plug-In Vehicles (RechargeIT) – an initiative launched this fall that aims to reduce CO2 emissions, cut oil use and stabilize the electrical grid by accelerating the adoption of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and vehicle-to-grid technology.

"These five initiatives are our attempt to address some of the hard problems we as a world need to face in the coming decade," said Dr. Larry Brilliant, executive director of Google.org. "We have chosen them both because we think solving them will make a better, fairer, safer world for our children and grandchildren – and the children and grandchildren of people all over the world – but also because we feel that these core initiatives fit well with Google's core strengths, especially its innovative technologies and its talented engineers and other Googlers, who are really our most valuable assets."

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on January 17, 2008, 11:39 AM | Permalink


Measure Blog Success without Spending a Fortune

world.jpgSearch Marketers reach for blog style content management systems more and more these days for marketing applications. Free open source blogging software like WordPress make publishing viral content and interacting with social communities turnkey and easy. That said, measuring the success of the effort can be an expensive and daunting task. Making things more complicated, Google Analytics web stats is not always the most useful package for on-site blog metrics.

Leading business blog-evangelist Lee Odden has posted a killer list of 20 blog analytics tools, ranging from free to very inexpensive, that his TopRank Marketing crew use internally and with clients. It's a must-read metrics primer for anyone serious about (or even considering) blogging as a marketing tool.

Posted by Marty Weintraub on January 17, 2008, 10:29 AM | Permalink


Selling CEOs on Search Engine Marketing

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What's the biggest mistake any search engine marketer can make? Blowing a presentation to decision-makers. Even with phenomenal results and ROI, a search marketing campaign has little value unless your CEO understands why you're investing millions of dollars online.

Search marketing agency OneUpWeb announced the launch of a new eye tracking service today that builds on the agency's search engine optimization and usability practices.

Selling to the C-suite -- CEOs, CMOs, CTOs -- is one of the toughest jobs for any search marketing agency, consultang or VP of Marketing presenting a strategy for SEM.

Jakob Nielsen, one of the world's leading Web site usability experts, has done extensive work on eye tracking you can see here. Eyetools features studies by agencies (Sendtec) and Yahoo here.

Eye tracking and heat maps aren't magic bullets that will explain SEM tactics used to achieve ROI goals. Heat map and eye tracking pioneers in search marketing like Gord Hotchkiss of search marketing and research firm Enquiro and Lisa Wehr, CEO of OneUpWeb have a competitive advantage in the boardroom.

The Didit Enquiro heat map is used more in search engine marketing sales presos -- by all agencies -- than any other chart or graph.

In search engines, eye tracking heat maps illustrate the value of SEO and paid search. Combined with a click map overlay, a heat map gives companies better insight into the searchers' database of intentions.

That proves the value of search throughout the sales, research, and lead generation funnel.

Posted by Kevin Heisler on January 17, 2008, 9:18 AM | Permalink


SEW Experts: Search Engine Year-End Predictions: 2007 Scorecard

Last year, many industry watchers made search predictions for 2007. So how did some search gurus do? In today's Link Love column, "Search Engine Year-End Predictions: 2007 Scorecard," Sage Lewis takes a look back at 2007 to see how many predictions came true.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on January 17, 2008, 12:00 AM | Permalink


SEW Experts: PPC.edu: Learn AdWords, Yahoo Search, adCenter Online

SEO can take months or longer to get the results you're looking for. What's the alternative? PPC advertising. In today's SEM.EDU column, "PPC.edu: Learn AdWords, Yahoo Search, adCenter Online," Ron Jones explains how to use a combination of aggressive bidding, relevant keywords, landing page content, and ad copy to win a top spot in search engines.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on January 17, 2008, 12:00 AM | Permalink


$25 Million Google Giveaway

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When one of the Fortune 50 Most Powerful Women in Business leads a conference call, you can bet Search Engine Watch will be there. Sheryl Sandberg, Vice President, Global Online Sales and Operations, Google Inc. and Board Member, Google.org will join top Google executives to discuss the launch of five strategic Google.org initiatives.

No hints in the press release on how much green will be found in the initiatives outside of the color of money. When Google Sales and Operations leads the way, the smart money's on an innovative program.

From the Google press release:

WHEN: Thursday, January 17, 2008, 9:00am PST/ 12:00pm EST

WHY: In its continuing effort to use the power of information and technology to help people better their lives, Google.org tomorrow will roll out five core initiatives that will be the focus of its philanthropic efforts over the next five to ten years.

The $25 million? Earmarked for new grants and investments to initial Google.org partners.

Posted by Kevin Heisler on January 16, 2008, 11:12 PM | Permalink


Hugo Guzman: Ode To Search Optimization

Guest SEOBook blogger Hugo Guzman of Zeta Interactive wrote an inspiring ode to our industry today. He inspired me who is launching his own interactive agency next month.

I will not try to paraphrase and take away from the article. It is a must read.

Posted by Frank Watson on January 16, 2008, 8:02 PM | Permalink


Search Headlines & Links: January 16, 2008

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 January 16, 2008, 6:19 PM | Permalink


Coolest 3D Search Engine Ever? Ergo Social Media Search

Sure, Google and Yahoo were in Vegas. The keynote takeaway: Bill Gates. Unlike Arnold Schwarzenegger in The Terminator, he likely won't be back.

MSN and Yahoo keynotes launched mobile search platforms—operating systems like Windows Mobile and platforms like Yahoo! Go—that promise to be the new Mini-me of search in 2008.

Mike Boland of The Kelsey Group will tell you why CES 2008 changed the Local Search game forever. Next week, in SEW Experts. The promise of true mobile search is the ability to find things when you need them: the closest restaurant, driving directions, phone numbers.

Google Android? Not exactly iRobot yet. Or iSoftware for that matter.

CEO of RankAbove, Eli Feldblum, said the show did showcase some cool new technologies for the search marketing world.

Eli: "The newest products from Microsoft and Yahoo! seem to deliver these things, along with some other cool features, like the ability (which I use all the time) to take photos with my phone and upload them to Flickr with Yahoo! Go or edit full Office docs from my phone with Windows Mobile.

One thing that CES really brought into the forefront was cool, new search technology platforms, offering amazing, 3D visualized search using multiple sources.

Ergo, from document management company, InVu, combines desktop search with web and photo search, and organizes the results in a number of intuitive, visually-stunning displays. It also offers the ability to annotate and share results. Currrently in beta for Windows Vista users."

Cogito, ergo sum. Add it to your list of cool search engines.

Posted by Kevin Heisler on January 16, 2008, 5:43 PM | Permalink


SEMPO State of the Search Marketing Industry Survey Now Open

SEMPO, the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization, is once again gathering feedback from search marketers for its annual State of the Search Marketing Industry Survey.

The survey collects data on respondents' PPC and SEO spending habits, measurement techniques, and other topics to create a yearly snapshot of the search industry, as it did in the 2006 report.

The deadline for participation is February 1, 2008. Any search marketer in North America is eligible; SEMPO membership is not required. Respondents will receive the preliminary survey results before they are released, and will be entered to win a random drawing for an iPod Touch or a free pass to any Search Engine Strategies event in North America.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on January 16, 2008, 12:47 PM | Permalink


Google American Idol: Competition For AdWords Local Search Talent

Search marketing firms and in-house teams often have a hard time finding qualified PPC employees. Now Google may change all that by challenging students all over the world to compete with others in an AdWords marketing competition, indoctrinating college students to the PPC culture and boosting SME participation in local search.

Professors and over 8000 students (724 US teams) from all over the world are already signed up to participate before the Feb 1 deadline for entries.

What's the Google grand prize? And how much Google "monopoly" money do students and local businesses get to play with?

The lucky winners will compete to visit Google's Mountain View, California headquarters and connect with the acclaimed AdWords team. Each student group will receive $200 in AdWords credits and will set out to market local businesses after crafting a strategy.

After submitting a report, a global panel of experts will judge the competition. “The Challenge is open to any higher education institution from anywhere in the world. To participate, register before Feb 1st 2008. Please note that to register, you must be an academic employed by a higher education institution and conducting lectures or seminars for students. Students cannot register”

Professors and over 8000 students (724 US teams) from all over the world are already signed up to participate. More details can be found at http://www.google.com/onlinechallenge/index.html

Posted by Marty Weintraub on January 16, 2008, 10:51 AM | Permalink


SEW Experts: Search Doesn't Matter

Is Google the Microsoft of the new millennium? Does search matter the way IT did four years ago? In today's Searching for Meaning column, "Search Doesn't Matter," Kevin Ryan looks at how Nick Carr's new book, The Big Switch: Rewiring the World from Edison to Google, and his previous one, Does IT Matter? Information Technology and the Corrosion of Competitive Advantage, apply to search engine marketing today.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on January 16, 2008, 12:00 AM | Permalink


SEW Experts: What's Your Link Building Marketing Mix? - Part 2

If you've been following the search industry at all for the past year, you probably heard about Google's war on paid links. In a nutshell, Google banned paid links; and SEOs split in two camps over the move. What's a CMO to do? In today's By the Numbers column, "What's Your Link Building Marketing Mix? - Part 2," Eric Enge explains why you should never buy links, and why you should almost never swap links.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on January 16, 2008, 12:00 AM | Permalink


Search Headlines & Links: January 15, 2008

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 January 15, 2008, 5:43 PM | Permalink


Experienced InHouse SEM Getting the Big Bucks

SEMPO published an interesting report about average salaries for inhouse search marketers, with experienced SEMs getting mid-to-high $100,000 salaries, as reported in SEW SearchDay.

The SEMPO report said that mid-to-high $100K to the $200K salaries usually go to those with 5-7 years' experience. The survey the report came from was a "cross-section of global entry-level, mid- and upper-level in-house managers and in-house analysts completed the online survey during the fall of 2007," SEMPO noted.

The actual report can be read here.

Posted by Frank Watson on January 15, 2008, 2:42 PM | Permalink


Cheap Computing Will Change Everything

Nick Carr, author of The Big Switch: Rewiring the World from Edison to Google, is the keynote speaker at Search Engine Strategies London, which will be held February 19-21, 2008, at the Business Design Centre in Islington.

In his book, Carr discusses how cheap electricity changed society 100 years ago, and cheap computing is in the process of changing society today.

"Cheap power delivered over a universal grid revolutionized the processing of physical materials. Cheap computing delivered over a universal grid is revolutionizing the processing of informational or intellectual goods," says Carr in today's SearchDay, "Q&A with Nick Carr, Author of The Big Switch."

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on January 15, 2008, 2:38 PM | Permalink


Wired Or Tired: West Coast SEMers Infighting Getting Attention

So Danny posted an article about how Wired was allowing direct links in their wiki - no big deal I thought - I figured it would get their attention and the hole would be closed. End of story.

Well apparently Wired was inundated with link drops over the weekend and people saw the post as a little irresponsible - even though Danny posted a quick apology. I worked with Danny here at Search Engine Watch for a bunch of years, as well as attended and spoke at SES conferences and consider him a friend - maybe not mates but definitely someone I like and admire.

I believe Danny when he says the post was a mistake and not done to cause Wired problems. I have posted things like that over the years.... sending an email and writing about things that need to be addressed. Readers look for bloggers to keep them informed.

But it was the strong reactions of a number of West Coast SEMs that made this story more than a footnote in things quickly fixed in our industry.

Everyone loses in this type of bickering situation. I know all the major people involved and respect their talents - but I had to laugh when I saw one of those "East Coast vs West Coast" rapper things last night after having read a bunch of this.

The discussion about no follow usage that is interspersed in the comments and posts is one worth reading.

Personally I am hoping it is just like the rapper wars more for the publicity than actual animosity. There has been a fair amount of comments and posts written about it over the past two days, but not that amount you would expect given the players. But I think it is who is involved that has most people correctly sitting this one out.

I am not taking sides. I just thought the dynamics of it all was worth taking a look at - hopefully so we can gain something from it and maybe avoid similar backlashes in the future.

Posted by Frank Watson on January 15, 2008, 1:23 PM | Permalink


Yahoo Yang Interview Exclusive Avi File

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The most highly-anticipated webcast in the search engine world: Yahoo's Q4 and full year 2007 earnings conference call (Jan. 29, 5 pm Eastern; 2 pm Pacific). Jerry Yang will outline his vision for Yahoo. We'll hear how Yahoo Panama is performing. We may even learn what Yahoo's global search engine strategy is.

Vertical search engines (Yahoo Real Estate, Shopping, Finance, Games etc) will drive one of the most important metrics for Yahoo: share of search.

Yahoo Real Estate traffic increased by 80% year-over-year, according to Michael Yang, General Manager at Yahoo Real Estate. I asked Avi Wilensky, CEO of Promediacorp search marketing firm to get the lowdown on rising real estate traffic and search marketing competition.

Avi, who specializes in SEO for real estate sites, asked Yang (in NYC for the Real Estate Connect NYC 2008 conference) about the competitive nature of the real estate market, the distinguishing characteristics that make Yahoo Real Estate stand out, and Yahoo search engine marketing strategies.

Avi Wilensky: What are your plans to overtake the tough competition in the real estate vertical?

Michael Yang: In November, we became the #1 most visited real estate site, surpassing Realtor.com ... We have a good aggregation of listings; homes for sale, rentals, for sale by owners, foreclosures and new construction. Our goal is to be the best research site for people in the market for new homes.

AVI: How do you stand out from other Real Estate vertical search sites?

MY: We integrate news and info from Yahoo News and Yahoo Answers. We recently launched a "How To" on home buying and we're also heavily integrated with Yahoo Maps and Yahoo Local.

We also show you home evaluations online. Based on where you're searching from, we provide a list of offline appraisers as well.

AVI: What marketing strategies is Yahoo Real Estate engaging in?

MY: Well, first off, we've grown 80% year to year because we have new products coming out all the time such as guides and educational centers. We're also open to feedback. At any time when we release new features, people comment on it. Further, we index everything everywhere within our other properties.

(After the jump: Yahoo's secret search engine strategy)

AVI: Does Yahoo! Real Estate advertise with PPC on any other search engine?

MY: No, most of our traffic comes from organic search, press releases, and is product-based. We don't advertise Yahoo! Real Estate via PPC on any other search engine.

Posted by Kevin Heisler on January 15, 2008, 11:15 AM | Permalink


Google Pet Video, LOLCats and SES New York Mystery

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If you're a Matt Cutts Gadgets Google and SEO blog reader, you know the feline Amy Cutts, his pet video co-star. To see her, click here.

To get SEW Expert Eric Enge's description of Amy and the vid, click here.

Sure, Amy can act, but can she learn search marketing?

At SES New York, apparently Amy can in this mystery Super Session.

Search for LOLCats?

Posted by Kevin Heisler on January 15, 2008, 10:20 AM | Permalink


Today is deadline for SES New York early bird special

If you are planning to attend Search Engine Strategies New York, which will be held March 17-20, 2008, you can save $600 on a Platinum Passport if you register today. And, if you aren't sure whether to attend SES New York, check out the Conference at a Glance, which has just been posted.

On Monday, March 17, there will be an Orion Panel on "Getting Vertical Search Right." That will be followed by an SES Super Session entitled, "How to Train Your Pets to Search." This is a restricted session and you must register separately to attend. (No, I didn't make this up.)

On Tuesday, March 18, the opening keynote will be given by Nick Carr, author of The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, from Edison to Google. Later that afternoon, there will be another Orion Panel on Universal Search.

On Wednesday, March 19, there will be another keynote by Gordon McLeod, President, The Wall Street Journal Digital Network, entitled, "Search Has Changed Everything... And So Can You."

"But, wait! There's more!" More than 60 conference sessions, including new ones like "Widgets and Gadgets are taking over, but what are they?"

So, if you decide to go, decide today to take advantage of the early bird special.

(While I should disclose that Search Engine Strategies New York is a client, I've been speaking at and writing about SES New York since 2004. And, in keeping with last week's article, "It's 'Horses for Courses' at SES London," I should also disclose that no early birds were harmed in the writing of this post.)

Posted by Greg Jarboe on January 15, 2008, 12:22 AM | Permalink


SEW Experts: Google Universal Search Makes SEO More Powerful

Universal Search, a.k.a. blended search, is changing the SEO game. In today's au Natural column, "Google Universal Search Makes SEO More Powerful," Mark Jackson warns that search marketers need to understand universal search before their competitors do. Universal or blended search will be the SERP of the future.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on January 15, 2008, 12:00 AM | Permalink


SEW Experts: Search Engine Conferences: Where CMOs Meet Social Media

Most companies have little to no understanding about social media optimization and what it can do for their organizations. In today's Big Biz column, "Search Engine Conferences: Where CMOs Meet Social Media," Aaron Shear pins the blame on the outdated SEM education most marketing executives got in business school, if they got any at all.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on January 15, 2008, 12:00 AM | Permalink


SEW Experts: Search Engine Marketing on the Efficient Frontier - Part 2

Mention the word "algorithm" and media buyers and online marketers flee for cover. But the list of SEM firms and technology providers that offer proprietary technology with sophisticated algorithms is growing. In today's Search Engine WarGames column, "Search Engine Marketing on the Efficient Frontier - Part 2," Kevin Heisler shows that while algorithms are not online marketing's silver bullet, they are pushing traditional ad agencies and some interactive agencies in the right direction.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on January 15, 2008, 12:00 AM | Permalink


CMOs & VPs: Beware of IT Fiefdoms Ruling Marketing Roost

Have your inadvertently created an IT marketing fiefdom?

Is your IT department in charge of seach engine marketing (SEM)?

Have you got a little nagging ishy feeling in the back of your throat? I thought so.

Don't feel bad, we see the same sad mess in lots of mid-to-larger size companies. It's not your fault. VP types just have to trust someone.

Who better to trust than the ladies and lads over in the IT department, who've been coming through tirelessly for years. They do tech over there; they must be good at Google right?

Reality Check
In too many cases, you're wasting loads of money on elaborate systems with no vision; well-installed machines absent timeless marketing principles; and fiefdoms of executive elves who need some basic training in SEO 101.

Don't get me wrong. Some of my best friends are IT Department gear-heads: really smart tech-savvy people.

We actually even have some I absolutely couldn't live without. So many of us depend on IT for priority setting propensities, research skills, and willingness to crawl around like snakes on their bellies to connect broken things in an emergency. We even know search marketers who are serious technical masters.

There are young programmer rock stars who are way into search and know what to do. Guess what? They're smart enough to call a professional search marketer to build a credible in-house department or outsource SEM.

Let's Call it What it Is
It just breaks my hearty-har-heart when large companies blindly trust hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars to part-time SEM types who coordinate technology in a building. Some actually oversee Marketing and IT. They're called vice presidents.

Don't cave in to IT fiefdoms. Trust that nagging little voice in your head. It will pay in the end.

Posted by Marty Weintraub on January 14, 2008, 8:00 PM | Permalink


Search Headlines & Links: January 14, 2008

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 January 14, 2008, 5:35 PM | Permalink


Search Engine Optimization 2008: Silence of the Lambs?

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Search engine optimizers, or SEOs: experts in the art and science of SEO or search engine optimization.

So are we hearing the Silence of the Lambs in response to SES London chair Mike Grehan's ClickZ Experts column "The Diminishing Value of the SEO Shop ." Claims SEO is stuck in a time warp and not keeping up with the search engines themselves. Does that make Mike the Hannibal Lecter of Search?

Whether universal search is a rocky horror picture show for SEOs remains to be seen. Do you think Mike means simply "Meta Tag" SEO?

My take: SEO isn't dead. It's growing faster than any analyst firm is reporting. I'll tell you why soon.

But is SEO as a service really losing value?

If so, what does that mean for in-house SEOs?

How does that jibe with the SEMPO salary survey results?

Posted by Kevin Heisler on January 14, 2008, 3:35 PM | Permalink


Search Engine Watch Welcomes Great New Blogger

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Search Engine Watch would like to welcome a new SEO blogger to our team of search marketing and social media optimization experts.

We think of him as the F. Scott Fitzgerald of bloggers, since he's a great writer from Minnesota, too. Search Engine Watch will guarantee, though, he'll be more prolific than Fitzgerald.

I first met Marty Weintraub, president of AimClear search engine optimization (SEO) Internet marketing firm, at fund raiser for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, sponsored by the Internet Marketers of New York and Best of the Web before the SMX social media conference in New York.

If you spend any time online in the social search space, you'll recognize Marty by his trademark baseball cap.

Marty's battle with cancer spurred the search community to raise more than $5,000 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

We're pleased to report Marty just received news from the Mayo Clinic that he's winning his battle.

You can meet Marty at SearchFest 2008 where he'll present: Marketing 2.0 Issues: Online Reputation Management

I can't think of anyone with a better online -- or offline reputation. Welcome, Marty.

Posted by Kevin Heisler on January 14, 2008, 12:44 PM | Permalink


iPhone Google Search News and Google iPhone Search News

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Google announced new improvements to the "integrated Google experience" on iPhone. Call the GOOGiPhone upgrade what you like. It's still all about search.

iPhone Google 1.0 UI -- only 30 something days old -- combined Google web applications (Google Search, Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Reader for RSS feeds) in a single interface.

Now Google has streamlined the UI, making apps faster and improving usability.

Google promises a slicker look-and-feel and speedier applications on the iPhone touch-screen.

Here's a quick overview of updates to Google iPhone search:

Faster Gmail: In a nod to Blackberry, new emails are pushed to inboxes. Auto-complete works for contacts.

Faster Google Calendar? Not sure if Google's new "month view" qualifies as faster.

Google iPhone users can access their iGoogle home page for weather, stocks, and news feeds. That's one more step toward making Google the home page for Gen X, Y, Z.

Key takeaway: Google's share of searches will see hockey stick growth with iPhone users driving massive amounts of traffic to Google Search and Google Search Apps with the built-in Google Search box.

Click here to discuss at the Search Engine Watch Forums

Posted by Kevin Heisler on January 14, 2008, 12:05 PM | Permalink


Facebook: Not Where To Search For All Lost Buddies

During last night's 60 Minutes segment on Facebook, CEO Mark Zuckerberg set up Lesley Stahl's profile -- and an old colleague reached out quickly to her delight. Thus one of the major benefits cited was finding all your lost buddies or colleagues.

Yet I don't believe that people-search is the key strength of Facebook, until critical mass is reached. This has happened for College students, because Facebook's the place where you literally declare your existence on campus. However business people are still joining up -- and you can actually find more people (and their news) through Google or LinkedIn instead.

As a contender to Google, there are other advantages worth noting about Facebook. The segment mentioned that staying in touch is a main differentiator. Other types of connections can be made here, by learning about and joining other groups/affiliations you discover through friends. You also can meet friends-of-friends with common interests, and expand your social network. Plus it really doesn't take very much time or effort to check into the network.

The fact that social networking has become mainstream news is significant -- whether on Facebook, MySpace or other social sites. To me, social networking is already valuable but searching elements remain more rudimentary at this stage. I'm expecting more over time.

Posted by on January 14, 2008, 3:10 AM | Permalink


SEW Experts: How To Use Google Site Exclusion Tool to Increase ROI

All Google AdWords content campaigns have dead wood. Google Content Network sites that display your ads but deliver few clicks or conversions rob you of profits. In today's Content Advertising column, "How To Use Google Site Exclusion Tool to Increase ROI," David Szetela shows you how to use Google's Site Exclusion to increase ROI.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on January 14, 2008, 12:00 AM | Permalink


Search Headlines & Links: January 11, 2008

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 January 11, 2008, 6:31 PM | Permalink


Google Conversion Optimizer Out of Beta

Google has expanded its Conversion Optimizer bid management feature to make it available to all advertisers whose campaigns have enabled AdWords Conversion Tracking and accrued at least 200 conversions in the past 30 days.

Advertisers specify a maximum CPA bid, and then the tool will use historical information about the campaign to automatically generate an optimal CPC bid for each auction. Advertisers still pay per click, but no longer have to manually adjust their bids to reach CPA goals. The product launched in beta in September.

There are some limitations to campaigns using Conversion Optimizer. According to the AdWords Help Center, the features that are not compatible with Conversion Optimizer include position preference, budget optimizer, placement targeting, advanced ad scheduling, preferred cost bidding, and separate content bids. Also, Conversion Optimizer campaigns may not be modified using the AdWords Editor or the AdWords API.

For campaigns meeting these criteria, the product can be a real time-saver, doing the heavy lifting to ensure ads are shown when they are most likely to convert. Conversion Optimizer takes into account factors like the conversion history of a given search query, location of the user, and conversion history of particular sites in the Content Network.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on January 11, 2008, 10:44 AM | Permalink


Is the AdWords Competitor-bidding Party Over?

1-800-Contacts is trying to force a legal ruling that could put a chill on the widespread practice of PPC advertisers bidding on competitors' trademarks.

According to this article in MediaPost:

IN THE LATEST EXAMPLE OF a marketer suing about search ads, 1-800-Contacts this week filed a lawsuit in federal court against LensWorld for purchasing search links triggered by the term "1-800-contacts." The company, which has brought several other similar cases, says it's trying to guard against confusion. "The worry that they have is that these advertising methods will make consumers think there's an affiliation between these other companies and our client," said 1-800-Contacts' lawyer, Bryan G. Pratt.

Many advertisers experience great conversion results bidding on competitor terms, so the impact on the search advertising community as a whole could be huge.

Posted by David Szetela on January 11, 2008, 8:17 AM | Permalink


Don't Worry About That Economic Slowdown

The Search Ad marketplace “sky” won't fall when our economy slows or possibly kicks into a recession this year.

Lately, we have all heard confirmations about the downturn. Jim Zarroli reported “hiring is down, real estate is in a coma and banks have suddenly become a lot more skittish” on NPR. Some 42% of surveyed economists (WSJ, paid access) believe there's a chance of recession, and the Fed's talking about lowering interest rates to stave it off.

Are search ads in some protective cocoon? Let's leave aside the well-worn argument that these ads are the safest due to ROI tracking and accountability. I think it's more important to consider other influences that could protect them from this downturn.

* Search Ads As Smaller Line Item -- Even if a company wants to cut ad dollars, search isn't where they would save the most. While each industry's mix varies, these ads typically represent 2% of all advertising revenues -- simply not a substantial savings.

* Search Ads Could Increase -- According to Kevin Lee, “If a mere 10 percent were reallocated from the top three media line items to SEM, most search budgets would double.” Should marketers decide to cut their ad dollars, then they might consider shifting some of those savings into more productive search ads.

* Financial Industry Still Spending -- While "bell-weather" financial services are clearly getting challenged, they continue spending online. At Efficient Frontier, Leann Prescott says they've experienced substantial sector growth this year. Ongoing clients (more than one year old) even increased spends by 35% between November 2007 and 2006.

*Search Ad Prospects Look Good -- According to Forrester projections, search ad revenues are forecast to grow from $4.5 billion (2007) to $10.1 billion (2012). It would take a lot for the Google juggernaut to switch gears as well.

So there's no need to be Chicken Little. Recession or not, the search marketplace might shift around but seems pretty stable. You won't see any search ad retrenchment this year.

Posted by on January 11, 2008, 8:01 AM | Permalink


Bitten by Sarah Jessica Parker in Google Checkout

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You can buy "Sarah Jessica Parker" but you can't get Bitten by her.

Sarah Jessica Parker (the keyword phrase, not the actress) can be found in Google Checkout Trends. "Bitten by Sarah Jessica Parker?" You're out of luck with Google Labs' new tool.

The revenue for "Sarah Jessica Parker" is, according to Google, "(Price x Quantity Sold) Over Time." Imagine that.

Google Checkout now shares retail revenue trends with anonymized Google Checkout shopping cart sales data.

Tony Ruscoe of Google Blogoscoped posted the news with a big chart showing some product comparison trends.

David Wurtz, Google Checkout product manager, announced the new Google Labs competitive intelligence tool. Google Checkout Trends promises to give insight into products that people are buying and selling online. GCT "aggregates sales data of Google Checkout merchants and charts it in a matter of seconds."

My hunch: Google doesn't have permission from some of the big box and multichannel retailers to include their data. That's bad news for fans of Sex In the City.

So if you've been bitten by the "Bitten by Jessica Parker," bug, take Google Checkout Trends with a grain of salt.

Posted by Kevin Heisler on January 11, 2008, 12:00 AM | Permalink


SEW Experts: Google AdWords 101: Landing Pages

Last time, we looked at the basic steps to set up a Google AdWords campaign. In today's SEM Crossfire column, "Google AdWords 101: Landing Pages," Frank Watson shows you how to use A/B testing to improve it.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on January 11, 2008, 12:00 AM | Permalink


SEW Experts: Local Search Lives or Dies by User Reviews

In the old days, consumer opinions regarding personal experiences with businesses were passed around in a practice known as "Word of Mouth" marketing. In today's Vertical Challenge column, "Local Search Lives or Dies by User Reviews," local search expert Gregg Stewart explains that the Internet has transformed word of mouth referrals into user reviews and ratings.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on January 11, 2008, 12:00 AM | Permalink


Search Headlines & Links: January 10, 2008

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 January 10, 2008, 6:19 PM | Permalink


Search Marketing Makes an Attractive Career

A position as an in-house search marketer is not necessarily a quick path to riches, but it's worth considering, according to a new survey from SEMPO. In today's SearchDay, "Search Marketing: A Rewarding Career Path" We take a look at the results. Are you getting paid what you're worth? Share your thoughts in the SEW Forums.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on January 10, 2008, 4:56 PM | Permalink


Google Showing Update Time By Minute

I was doing a site:domain search last night and noticed Google is now giving the time of the last update or visit - by the minute. I will call over to Google and get a clarification but it is interesting either way.

One shows when the site may have been last spidered or updated, or when someone last visited the page.

I did a screen capture but they are still there. Though it seems to be for the more visited sites, I am still playing to get an idea of what is causing this.

Update: Barry Schwartz showed me this.... guess I was six months late on this one.

Posted by Frank Watson on January 10, 2008, 3:18 PM | Permalink


Google Entertains Real Estate Industry At NYC Offices

The Real Estate Connect conference is in New York this week and participants were invited to hang out at Google HQ East last night, Their invitation says it all:

Google would like to invite you to an evening at our New York office. While you are
in town for the 2008 Inman Real Estate Connect, we want to make you feel at home.
So we're turning our Caf into a sports bar where everyone will feel like a local.
Stop by after the conference and join us for fun, food, and drinks.

Fun - We'll keep you entertained with music and sports highlights. There will be foosball, shuffleboard, hoops, and classic video games. In addition we will be raffling off Flip video cameras, the simple way to shoot and share videos, so you
will never have to say "you should have been there" again.
Food - We'll be serving a variety of bar friendly fare including wings, mini hamburgers, nachos, and more.
Drinks - A sports bar would not be complete without a full bar, wine, and beers on tap. We'll also have soda, juice, and water if you don't want to indulge.

The event was fun. Google put aside their 8th floor cafeteria and balcony area for their visitors.

I have been to a bunch of Google offices and I like the new NYC space. It is spacious - so much so that they have razors scooters that you use and leave for the next person.- and the facilities reflect that youthful aspect of many of its employees. Industrial space gives it a retro feel, while the foosball and other games reinforce it.

Though there was a Wii that proved popular, the older games seemed to be popular. Drinks, snacks and good company made for a cool event. Thanks for the invite Google.

Posted by Frank Watson on January 10, 2008, 1:51 PM | Permalink


Will Newspapers Compete with SEOs and SEMs?

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The Kelsey Group analysts get Search. Today their analyst team published 2008 Local Search trends and developments. Breaking news you can use in your search engine strategies all year long. Highlights:

Rise of Vertical Sellers : vertical sales will saturate big ad spend categories.

What does that mean for SEOs and SEMs?

Newspaper groups will offer SEO/SEM solutions.

That's right. Imagine competing with The New York Times for search marketing clients. Internet and vertical resellers will target auto and real estate via SEO/SEM. Lots of new start-ups will announce plans to enter these categories.

In the real estate vertical: MLS listings will start creeping into non-Realtor.com sites.

Expect rapid dev in real estate and auto verticals online, expansion of local search inventory. The move toward search on specialized devices grows. UGC (user-generated content) will make an evolutionary leap in consumer decision-making

Matt Booth, Kelsey's SVP of Interactive Local Media, had a stellar track record for 2007 predictions -- perhaps an even better batting average than Battelle. And that's saying alot.

Booth and his Interactive Local Media analyst team (including SEW Expert Mike Boland) also predict:

1. print Yellow Pages advertising products will feature call-tracking numbers
2. call tracking numbers will enable variable pricing
3. merchants and call tracking online and offline to increase call volume

That's news CEOs will love: proven ROI online and offline.

Posted by Kevin Heisler on January 10, 2008, 1:11 PM | Permalink


YouKu.com: Online Video-Sharing Strong in China

As reported yesterday, in Pew Survey Finds Increased Use Of Video-Sharing, Sites, there has been a 45% year-to-year growth in the United States for the number of users visiting video-sharing sites. Similar strong growth is being experienced in China.

Youku.com, the leading online video sharing website in China reports strong growth in video-sharing and viewing in China. This site has seen a 20-fold increase in its daily video views and daily unique visitors since its formal launch in December 2006. This includes an increase of 30 million daily video views since October 2007 alone with December stats showing 12 million daily unique visitors to the site.
Today, the drivers for growth of online video-sharing in China are similar to those in the United States: interest in finding timely event coverage and the sharing of user-generated content.

According to Victor Koo, Founder and CEO of
Youku.com. ". . . online video has quickly become a mainstream application for users in China, just as it has in the U.S."

It will be interesting to check back in a year to see how the US vs. China numbers compare. Will the meteoric growth continue for online video-sharing? I would not bet against it.

Posted by Amanda Watlington on January 10, 2008, 11:46 AM | Permalink


Ask Shuffles Management

Jim Lanzone, CEO of Ask.com since April 2006, has left the company to serve as an entrepreneur-in-residence at Redpoint Ventures, a venture capital firm.

Lanzone will be replaced by former Match.com CEO Jim Safka, who has been leading IAC's venture capital arm, Primal Ventures, since April. He will retain that role as well.

Lanzone had been VP of product management at Ask.com since 2001, and was promoted to CEO in 2006 when previous CEO Steve Berkowitz jumped ship to join Microsoft.

Ask.com also named a new president, Scott Garell. Since 2005, Garell has been CEO of IAC's consumer applications and portals business, which includes Fun Web Products, IAC's portals, Evite and Pronto. He joined IAC Search & Media in April 2004 as SVP of marketing. He's also served as EVP of domestic sites and search, where he managed Ask.com, iWon, and My Way. John Park will replace Garell as president of IAC Consumer Applications and Portals.

Ask parent IAC is in the midst of splitting into five separate companies.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on January 10, 2008, 11:02 AM | Permalink


SEW Experts: Top 5 SEO and Link Building Challenges for 2008

Google's public attack on paid links has caused a flood of scared Webmasters who are scared to link to other sites. In today's Link Love column, "Top 5 SEO and Link Building Challenges for 2008," Justilien Gaspard outlines the top five trends and challenges SEOs, link builders, and Webmasters face.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on January 10, 2008, 12:00 AM | Permalink


SEW Experts: Free Big Brand Marketing and Other Facebook Problems

Even successful third-party applications don't generate a dime for Facebook, leaving the social platform cut out of the revenue loop. In today's Brand Equity column, "Free Big Brand Marketing and Other Facebook Problems," Eric Qualman shares various ways that advertisers can get involved with Facebook.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on January 10, 2008, 12:00 AM | Permalink


Search Headlines & Links: January 9, 2008

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 January 9, 2008, 6:02 PM | Permalink


Choose your Racecourse at SES London

They say that every horse has an ideal course they like to run. In today's SearchDay, "It's "Horses for Courses" at SES London," Greg Jarboe outlines the various tracks available to the many kinds of search marketing horses at SES London, coming to Islington February 19-21, 2008.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on January 9, 2008, 5:57 PM | Permalink


Pew survey finds increased use of video-sharing sites

The Pew Internet & American Life Project has just released a new report which has found that 48% of Internet users have been to video-sharing sites such as YouTube and the daily traffic to such sites on a typical day has doubled in the past year.

The findings of Pew's national phone survey in December show:

-- 48% of internet users say they have visited a video-sharing site such as YouTube. A year earlier, in December 2006, 33% of Internet users said they had visited such sites. This represents growth of more than 45% year-to-year.

-- 15% of respondents say they used a video-sharing site "yesterday" -- the day before they were contacted for the survey. A year ago, 8% had visited such a site "yesterday." Thus, on an average day, the number of users of video sites nearly doubled from the end of 2006 to the end of 2007.

If you go to YouTube, the featured videos are "The Phone Call" or "The Pickup." But, "how to" videos are a growing category, too.

If you conduct a search on the site, you'll find 254 videos for "pay per click advertising," 873 videos for "search engine optimization" or 11,100 videos for "search engine marketing." Check back a year from now to see how those numbers have growth.

Posted by Greg Jarboe on January 9, 2008, 4:55 PM | Permalink


What's Next for Terry Semel?

When Terry Semel joined Yahoo as chairman and CEO in May 2001, he left behind the investment firm he started, Windsor Media. According to a report from paidContent.org, Semel is reviving that company, after losing his job as CEO in June 2007. Semel still sits on Yahoo's board of directors as non-executive chairman.

He's reportedly taking a couple of Yahoo execs with him: Drew Buckley, who headed Yahoo Originals, and Jeff Karish, head of media strategy. It remains to be seen how Windsor Media will take shape, either as an investment firm or media company.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on January 9, 2008, 11:22 AM | Permalink


SEW Experts: Local Search Revelations

News flash: people buy stuff on the Internet. It's too bad people still buy a lot more stuff anywhere but on the Internet. In today's Searching for Meaning column, "Local Search Revelations," Kevin Ryan shares new research from Nielsen/NetRatings and local interactive advertising firm WebVisible that seeks to shed some light on the developing local world.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on January 9, 2008, 12:00 AM | Permalink


SEW Experts: What's Your Link Building Marketing Mix?

Do you have a linkbuilding plan that can be integrated into your comprehensive marketing strategy? In today's By the Numbers column, "What's Your Link Building Marketing Mix?," Eric Enge explains the need to understand the value of inbound links to your Web site, and the need to develop a cohesive strategy for building links.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on January 9, 2008, 12:00 AM | Permalink


Microsoft adCenter Add-in for Excel - Keyword Research Gold

Microsoft released a monster 64-mb keyword research tool tonight - download it here. The free tool, still in beta, is a culmination of research conducted at their Pac Rim adLab. It's called the Microsoft adCenter Add-in for Excel 2007 - and (obviously) you'll need Excel 2007, which Microsoft offers as a 60-day free trial.

Plans for the product were discussed in December at Search Engine Strategies Chicago.

Posted by David Szetela on January 8, 2008, 11:31 PM | Permalink


Search Headlines & Links: January 8, 2008

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 January 8, 2008, 5:57 PM | Permalink


Microsoft Offers $1.2 Billion For Norwegian Search Company

They may not have Google's market share but Microsoft does not seem to be stopping its acquisition of more properties in the search space, having offered $1.2 billion for Norwegian company, Fast Search and Transfer, according to the New York Times.

The Olso-based company "is a specialist in search technology used inside companies and government agencies to cull for information in documents, databases and software applications. Its software helps teams of workers quickly search the corporate storehouse of information for answers about procurement, marketing, manufacturing and product design," the NYTimes.com reported.

NYT reporter Steve Lohr examines the relationship of this acquisition with Google's push into the office services business with the launch of more products at Google Docs.

"Microsoft has already offered enterprise search from SharePoint, a product in the Office family designed for groups of workers to collaborate on projects. And Microsoft already has a partnership with Fast, for providing enterprise search.

But by purchasing Fast, Microsoft can more fully integrate the Norwegian company's technology into its Office technology. Jeff Raikes, president of Microsoft's business division, which includes Office, pointed to advantage of having “a single vendor with solutions that span the full range of customer needs," Lohr wrote.

The Microsoft move is seen as one aimed at adding to their Office products and services, NYT reports, The Microsoft bid "represents a 40 percent premium over the closing price of the Norwegian company's shares on Tuesday," they added.

Posted by Frank Watson on January 8, 2008, 1:59 PM | Permalink


The Paid Search Presidential Primaries

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In honor of today's New Hampshire primaries, we decided to hold our own Paid Search Presidential Primaries. Let's see how campaign dollars flowed to paid search, through buys on Google, Yahoo, MSN Live and Ask.

Our winners? In New Hampshire, the Republican race is too close to call. Both John McCain and Mitt Romney continued to battle it out without a front-runner by posting time. On the Democratic front, we'll have to sit tight too. Those candidates have been relatively quiet, though Barack was emerging by press time. As we move nationally, Rudy Giuliani has already declared an early lead because he's been buying candidates (names) from both parties.

Interestingly, these leaders were similar in the related display ad race. According to ClickZ's presidential reporting, McCain, Romney and Barack have spent the lion's share there too.

Returning to the Paid Search Primaries, there were also other advertisers that appeared on the stage. These included hawkers of t-shirts and memorabilia, particularly CafePress; as well as media outlets like ABC and NYTimes, who sought more audience.

Anyway, we began the Paid Search Primaries by conducting more general searches:

* New Hampshire – McCain (G,A), Gravel (G,A)
* New Hampshire Primary, Primaries – Romney (G,Y); McCain (A)
* President – McCain (G,Y)
* Democrat – Barack (G,Y), Paul (Y)
* Republican – No ads

Then we moved the to the main Paid Search Primary races, by searching for candidates. It was amusing that some candidates bought their own names, as if the organic results just weren't enough. These included Barack, Rudy, Huckabee, McCain and Thompson. Here were results for all candidates.

Democrats:
* Hillary Clinton – Rudy (G,A)
* John Edwards – Rudy (G,A)
* Barack Obama – Barack (Y,A); Rudy (G)
* Other Candidates – No ads

Republicans:
* Rudy Giuliani – Rudy (G,Y,A); McCain (G,A)
* Mike Huckabee – Huckabee (A); Rudy (G,A)
* John McCain – McCain (G,A); Rudy (G,A)
* Mitt Romney – Huckabee (G,A), Rudy (G,A)
* Fred Thompson – Fred (G,A); Rudy (G,A)
* Other Candidates – No ads

Our expectation after these Paid Search Primaries? That candidates will follow Rudy's lead and jump on board in coming months. After all, these names aren't brands -- and that means the candidates are allowed to buy and advertise against other candidates.

Posted by on January 8, 2008, 11:51 AM | Permalink


Google Inks PPC Deal with ReachLocal for SMBs

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Google's local reach rarely exceeds its grasp. Google signed a new partner that raises the stakes in local search and puts IYPs on alert.

ReachLocal, a provider of local online marketing solutions for small and medium-sized businesses (SMB), will announce a strategic alliance with Google today to become an authorized reseller of Google's AdWords PPC advertising program.

The deal gives ReachLocal a leg up on competitors in local search who won't benefit from the same status in the Google ecosystem. There's a long track record of authorized resellers of search engine advertising products succeeding in the hyper-competitve PPC channel.

While ReachLocal, like many SEMs offers customer service and AdWords account set-up, management, and optimization, the firm's competitive advantage in the marketplace is a dedicated direct sales force. Many companies in the highly-fragmented local search space -- including the search engines -- cannot market to local search prospects cost-effectively.

Small and medium-sized enterprises enabled Google AdWords to leapfrog past Overture (now Yahoo Search Marketing) as the leading pay-per-click (PPC).

AdWords user-friendly interface and self-serve model gave local businesses a national platform to market their products and generate leads.


Then big brands and national advertisers woke up. Small and medium-sized enterprises felt the squeeze of higher keyword costs and lower ROI. Bid management platforms gave national advertisers an advantage with sophisticated bidding tactics based on ROI.

Now even small and medium-sized enterprises can manage PPC with return on advertising spend goals.

The Google AdWords reseller agreement won't solve the problem of cost-effectively managing search marketing campaigns for business owners who have small PPC budgets but high ROI expectations.

ReachLocal's Google agreement steps up the competition for SMBs -- and that's great news for local search.

Posted by Kevin Heisler on January 8, 2008, 9:46 AM | Permalink


SEW Experts: Small Business SEM New Year's Resolutions

One of the big challenges to gaining search rankings and marketing yourself online is deciding "what's next." In today's Little Biz column, "Small Business SEM New Year's Resolutions," Carrie Hill looks back at 2007 to provide a road map for your search marketing strategy in 2008.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on January 8, 2008, 12:00 AM | Permalink


SEW Experts: There is no Guaranteed Search Engine Ranking

If a company ever finds a way to guarantee organic search engine rankings, that company will undoubtedly go public and have a market cap approaching that of Google's. In today's au Natural column, "Yes, Virgin SEO, There is no Guaranteed Search Engine Ranking," Mark Jackson explains that while selling organic SEO efforts to the executive team can be tough, you can help them understand how this process works and how much it will cost. But you've also got to tell them that results can't be guaranteed.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on January 8, 2008, 12:00 AM | Permalink


Search Headlines & Links: January 7, 2008

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 January 7, 2008, 5:33 PM | Permalink


Yahoo CEO Says They Want To Become Internet's Indispensable Starting Point

Yahoo CEO Jerry Wang outlined his vision of Yahoo's future as the "internet's indispensable starting point" at the 2008 International CES Industry Insider Series today.

"In his speech, Yang said "from the newest to the most experienced user, Yahoo!'s goal is to be the simple starting point for a much richer and more complex world so you can get more out of it. Whether you're looking for fun, information, entertainment or social connections, you want to experience everything to the fullest - this is living life with an exclamation point," a Yahoo press release noted.

"To be the best starting point, it's clear that we need to open the Yahoo! experience to any device or user. Mobile is a perfect example since more consumers are soon expected to come and go from the Net via their phones rather than desktops," he said. "We're committed to creating the best and richest mobile experience for all consumers - making it extremely personalized to their individual style and needs while opening up the Yahoo! mobile platform to allow anyone to participate," it continued.

There was to be a video available by 4 pm EST but has not been put up yet. I will add it later when published.

Posted by Frank Watson on January 7, 2008, 4:56 PM | Permalink


Wikia Search: Wikia Dream? Or SEO Wake-Up Call?

Debbie Richman posted two social search engine analyses reviews of Wikia Search that didn't bash Wales and his Build-A Bare Engine Workshop.

VentureBeat's Saumil Mehta (product manager, vertical search engine competitor) has the most thorough user review of Wikia Search here that makes others superfluous. Bloggers, If you haven't reviewed the features yet, wait until the next release.

We say "Wikia Search", Saumil says "Search Wikia." Should Wikia Search call the whole thing off?

Jimmy Wales weighed in at TechCrunch where a great debate is brewing. So we'll give Jimmy's comments a wider audience here.

After the jump, Eli Feldblum will explain why SEOs (and corporations using SEOs) could make Wikia Search grow exponentially -- thru better search results -- but may stay on the sidelines, along with hundreds of millions of searchers.

Wikia Search will likely take the advice of Ask exec and former Search Engine Watcher Gary Price: in short, watch out for "manipulation." (by SEOs? by webmasters of the world? We'll look for more from Gary since Wikia Search will be a (4th Place) Ask.com Killer before it ever gives Google the Sweeney Todd treatment.

In TechCrunch, Jimmy Wales said: "(Wikia Search) is a project to *build* a search engine, not a search engine ... So the comparison to Google on day one is just mistaken. Google didn't launch a project to build a human-powered search engine, they launched an algorithmic search engine with a clever new idea. So they didn't have to wait for the humans to come in and start building it. We aren't even running with a real index yet, just a placeholder index. Yeah, the search sucks today. But that's not the point. The point is that we are building something different."

Eli agrees with Jimmy, kind of:

"So I tried the new Wikia Search today, and it is awesome. Well, it's awesome for SEO people. I think it kinda sucks ..." (more after the jump)

"..or is just unnecessary, for everyone else. What's revolutionary about Wikia Search: it's completely transparent, explaining in complex detail why a certain page was ranked where it was.

The algorithm behind your results is yours to see. If you don't come up number one for a desired search term, you can easily compare on- and off-page elements used for ranking your site against those of the top-ranking sites.

If that sounds exciting, you could've been as excited years ago, when Nutch, which powers Wikia Search, was launched in 2005.

Searches in Nutch return results which can be analyzed to see what on-page elements were factored and weighted to give a specific site it's ranking. Nutch also provides a list of in-bound anchors for each result, which Wikia Search does not, which can give you a further idea of why a specific site is ranked where it is.

Wikia Search does include a few features over Nutch, like “mini-articles,” which quickly summarize the topic you're searching for.

Future iterations include the ability to rate results, and possibly alter the rankings, although the feature isn't ready yet. Still, the best thing I got from Wikia Search, being an SEO guy, was an introduction to Nutch, which is bound to be an invaluable tool in gauging the SEO power of a site.

Posted by Kevin Heisler on January 7, 2008, 2:37 PM | Permalink


How Will Wikia Grow The Index?

When Wikia Search was released last night, Jimmy Wales explained they used a "placeholder index" for the search. While this may be appropriate for the alpha search, I'd like to ask Jimmy exactly how Wikia plans to crawl and index a significant portion of the web.

The Grub distributed crawler, which was acquired from LookSmart, appeared to provide most of the solution. At the O'Reilly Open Source Convention, Wales announced that he would immediately release the crawler to the open source community.

By downloading the client, Grub allows “the site owners the option of crawling their own data, with their own bandwidth. The client...is designed to connect to a central coordinating server, grab a batch of URLs, and then proceed to crawl them.” It claims 20:1 savings in bandwidth for both Wikia and the hosting website.

Since the summer, I'm not sure how much progress Wikia has made here. Within Grub's site stats, there's a "Wikia Search" team that crawled around 918k URLs so far. That seems far too low.

Site stats about Grub members tell a more complete story, as the top 100 members crawled 350 million URLs so far. The remaining 293 members aren't shown, but if we assume 250k on average, then 425 million URLs would have been crawled in total.

There are other planning considerations too, regarding what belongs in the index. Will they be able to include the "right" domains or exclude the "wrong" domains? Will they be able to crawl some domains more or less frequently? Will video, images or other media be included?

We would be interested in knowing the game plan for developing a substantial index over time. It's not just about numbers, although a billion or two could help with a 2009 launch.

Posted by on January 7, 2008, 9:12 AM | Permalink


Wikia Search Requires Your Help

After midnight on the West Coast, Wikia made its alpha search available. Our heightened interest stems from the early pronouncements by Jimmy Wales, who co-founded Wikipedia. This time, his plan is to apply collaborative tools to build a better search engine than Google.

Right now, Wikia is more concept than reality. Undaunted, I conducted the classic “java” search. While the results were only about technology, there was a mini-article listing multiple meanings for java. In addition, there were people who matched this search. I clicked on a profile, and discovered a Wikia team member who had been hard at work.

After a few hours live, very few people have signed up or shared anything. You see skimpy search results, along with empty mini-article and discussion features for each search. There are few profiles, and thus almost no people who searched before you.

Wikia%20Search.JPG

The overall concept is interesting, as relevant search results will ultimately come from the Wikia searchers. I'm curious about what will motivate us to slow down, and take the time to share our rankings or write down our opinions. Most of us want to search and then get over to the destinations quickly. Will that behavior change for most of us?

Some people will spend an awful lot of time influencing results. In today's New York Times, Miguel Helft reports “the Wikia search engine is likely to be susceptible to people who try to game the system, by, for example, seeking to advance the ranking of their own site. Mr. Wales said Wikia would attempt to ‘block them, ban them, delete their stuff,' just as other wiki projects do.”

There are plenty of thumbs down reviews of the Wikia Search, based on this alpha release. I want to give this a chance to develop, as searchers provide help on the front end. Still I have healthy skepticism about how all these explicit social tools will get put to good use -- for search alone.

Posted by on January 7, 2008, 8:20 AM | Permalink


SEW Experts: Increase ROI: Google Performance Placement Reports

As an advertiser, you're always looking for perfect insight into how well your Google content ad campaigns are performing. In today's Content Advertising column, "Increase ROI: Google Performance Placement Reports," David Szetela shows how Google's new Placement Performance report can help you fine-tune your content campaigns to make sure you're getting the most out of your ads.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on January 7, 2008, 12:00 AM | Permalink


China Limits Video, Audio Podcasts To State Run Sites

The Chinese government will restrict all video and audio content on sites starting next month, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

"From next month, only state websites will be allowed to carry film or radio programs, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) said," they reported.

In an effort to control video sharing programs, the government makes the operator remove uploaded content.

"The new rules will put many private video providers in China out of business as only websites fully or for the most part in state ownership will be allowed to offer films and other audiovisual products.

It remained immediately unclear, what consequences the regulations would have for international providers such as YouTube, who operate their servers outside China, or the popular China-based Tudou.com website. YouTube has been repeatedly blocked in China in recent months," SMH noted.

With 150 million internet users, China will soon surpass the US as the largest online market. But with the tight restrictions imposed by the government it will be hard for many to develop normal marketing. Though no doubt many will try. How they do will be watched closely.

Posted by Frank Watson on January 5, 2008, 11:14 PM | Permalink


Search Headlines & Links: January 4, 2008

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 January 4, 2008, 6:09 PM | Permalink


InfoSpace Seeks Search Engine Market Share

Now that InfoSpace has cleared away other business lines and staff, they just re-committed to online search. The company aims to grow through white-label distribution, which includes over 100 partners so far. In addition, they seek growth through through consumer traffic -- and that strikes me as quixotic at best.

Remember Dogpile? Last summer, this InfoSpace search destination garnered about 0.3% share or under 26 million searches (per Nielsen, July 2007). The company also reported 6.7 million unique monthly visitors worldwide (per comScore, December 2006).

InfoSpace embraces the current search ecosystem, from both organic and paid perspectives. Dogpile has garnered J.D. Power's top satisfaction award for two years running. It's a nice interface that fetches results from Google, Yahoo, MSN Live and Ask engines simultaneously. Beyond the organic search results, InfoSpace has ensured both Google and Yahoo ad sources through 2011.

Yesterday's strategy release mentions “significant product enhancements” and we'll have to wait to hear more. In the meantime, the company touts the benefits of metasearch and non-duplicated results. In their April 2007 study of 19,000 random queries, over 75% of what each engine returned on page-one results was unique. In addition, the first three results returned for these queries didn't overlap at all. Thus unifying and organizing different results seems to be the core value proposition.

So what will drive consumer demand? Well, InfoSpace appointed a new CMO yesterday to figure this out. Bruce Allenbaugh has held top-spots at bigger companies like Safeco and Nextlink. His experience leading marketing at Avenue A, as it went public, seems most relevant because he's been involved in the Search and Search marketing business before. And since he is from the industry, we'd like to know what attracts Bruce to this role.

InfoSpace has such a storied history! Let's see how they do in differentiating their offerings, and balancing between business partnerships and consumer opportunities.

Posted by on January 4, 2008, 6:30 AM | Permalink


SEW Experts: Google AdWords 101

The Internet is overflowing with high-level discussion of how to plan a search advertising campaign. But sometimes, a new advertiser needs to know the actual steps of setting up an AdWords campaign and look into the methodology of setting up ads and A/B testing. In today's debut SEM Crossfire column, "Google AdWords 101," Frank Watson, aka AussieWebmaster, gives new advertisers a lesson on how to launch their first ever Google AdWords campaigns.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on January 4, 2008, 12:00 AM | Permalink


SEW Experts: Win the Right Search Marketing Clients

As a new search marketing firm, what kinds of clients will best fit your business? In today's Business of Search column, "Win the Right Search Marketing Clients," Fionn Downhill breaks down the benefits and drawbacks of working with start-ups and small businesses, mid-sized businesses, and large organizations.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on January 4, 2008, 12:00 AM | Permalink


SEW Experts: New Search Engine Trends, Old SEO Troubles in 2007

With advances such a universal search and the explosion of social media, 2007 was quite a landmark year for search marketers. For all of its breakthroughs, a few bad habits still remain from years past. In today's Outsourced column, "New Search Engine Trends, Old SEO Troubles in 2007," William Flaiz reminds us that it's the human component that matters most, and clients are finally beginning to understand the value of SEO.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on January 4, 2008, 12:00 AM | Permalink


Search Headlines & Links: January 3, 2008

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 January 3, 2008, 5:30 PM | Permalink


ChaCha launches text service at Sundance Film Festival

ChaCha, a “human-powered search engine”, today announced a new service that allows users to text questions of any kind to 242242 (which is ChaCha on a phone keypad) and receive text answers on their cell phone. The answers are sent by a live person, called a ChaCha guide.

The service is currently available as a free trial and, as part of the launch, ChaCha will be the “Official Text Answers Service of the 2008 Sundance Film Festival.” This will allow festival goers to text in questions about screenings, festival events, local restaurants – anything connected with the Sundance Film Festival – and get dynamic, relevant answers from ChaCha guides. As the “virtual information booth,” ChaCha will provide exclusive real-time information about the audience pulse, length of wait lines and other dynamic and relevant information.

I spoke with Brad Bostic, president and co-founder of ChaCha, who said festival goers can even ask questions like “How long is the wait line?” and get answers from ChaCha guides.

ChaCha's new mobile answers service offers answers that people can't easily find otherwise when they have questions on the go. For example, Bostic's daughters asked him yesterday to find the name of the 2008 American Girl doll.

To get a brief answer from his cell phone, Bostic simply texted their question to 242242 as if messaging a friend. Because the questions are being answered by skilled people who are trained to use ChaCha's powerful internal search tools, users don't have to remember any special formatting or rules and questions can be asked even with typical text shortcuts, misspellings and slang.

Within three minutes, he got the answer from a day-old post on a blogger's site: The 2008 American Girl doll's name is Mia, and she's a 10-year-old hockey player-turned figure skater from upstate New York. Oh, and she has long, silky red hair.

With ChaCha, users can ask questions on a variety of topics, including:
• Dynamic information – sports scores, movie times, airline delays, weather, etc.
• Local information – cheapest gas, shopping, recycling, pharmacy locations and more
• Current events – business news updates, stock updates, world news, etc.
• General information – names and phone numbers for local businesses and residences
• Trivia -- movie quotes, song lyrics, celebrity gossip and more

With the world's biggest community of real-time guides in place, ChaCha has put its powerful technology platform to use with mobile devices, Bostic added. On the cell phone, users benefit from the assistance of another knowledgeable human who can do research for them – especially when they don't have the resources, such as a computer, to do the research on their own.

So, what do you want to find out about the films, world premieres, panels, discussions, deals, and, of course, parties at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival? ChaCha is there and, thanks to text alerts, you'll be the first to know whatever is worth knowing.

Posted by Greg Jarboe on January 3, 2008, 2:00 PM | Permalink


Ask and LookSmart Send Out Click Fraud Settlement Letters

Seems Lane's Gifts are not the only ones getting money back from LookSmart and Ask for click fraud, letters were sent out yesterday for the class action suit that both companies are trying to put behind them.

Both seem to be written by the same law firm and were from the suit lodged in the Circuit Court of Miller County, Arkansas. LookSmart is dealing with the period between January 1, 2002 and the present; while Ask is covering claims beginning August 1, 2005, when it began licensing LookSmart's technology for its Ask Sponsored Listings product.

Claims must be filed to LookSmart by February 11, 2008 and to Ask by February 2, 2008.

Payment seems to be in advertising credits as opposed to cash. Guess if you have gotten out of the online business you could sell the credits.

Copies of the two letters are below.

LookSmart's letter read:

"If you purchased online advertising from LookSmart between January 1, 2002 and the present, you may be a class member in a class-action lawsuit, Lane's Gifts and Collectibles et al. v. LookSmart, Ltd. et al., Case No. CV-2005-52-1, in the Circuit Court of Miller County, Arkansas. The Settlement Notice informs you of the Court's certification of a class for settlement purposes; the nature of the claims alleged; your right to participate in, or exclude yourself from, the class; a proposed settlement; and how you can claim an award of advertising credits under the settlement or object to the settlement.

- The proposed settlement will provide advertising credits to class members who certify that they were the victims of "click fraud" or other invalid or improper clicks on online advertisements purchased from LookSmart on or after January 1, 2002.

- The proposed settlement will resolve claims that LookSmart breached its contracts with advertisers and violated other laws by failing to adequately detect and stop "click fraud" or other invalid or improper clicks on online advertisements.

- If you are a member of the class, your legal rights are affected by whether you act or do not act.

For a copy of the Settlement Notice, click on the link, or visit the case website at LooksmartSettlement.com

To file a claim for your award of advertising credits under the settlement, click on the following link: LooksmartSettlement.com/claim

Note: You should review the Settlement Notice as soon as possible as there are several important deadlines that you must meet to take certain actions in connection with this proposed settlement. As indicated above, your legal rights are affected whether you act or do not act. The deadline for filing an objection or excluding yourself from the proposed settlement is January 29, 2008, and the last day to file a claim under the proposed settlement is February 11, 2008. For further information, please refer to the Settlement Notice."


The Ask letter reads:

"If you purchased online advertising from IAC Search & Media, Inc. and/or Ask Jeeves, Inc. (collectively "Ask") between August 1, 2005 and the present, you may be a class member in a class-action lawsuit, Lane's Gifts and Collectibles et al. v. Ask Jeeves, Inc. et al., Case No. CV-2005-52-1, in the Circuit Court of Miller County, Arkansas. This notice advises you of your legal rights.

You should review the detailed Settlement Notice as soon as possible, as there are several important deadlines that you must meet to take certain actions in connection with a proposed settlement of the class action lawsuit. Your legal rights are affected whether you act or do not act. The deadline for filing an objection or excluding yourself from the proposed settlement is February 2, 2008, and the last day to file a claim under the proposed settlement is February 2, 2008. For further information, please refer to the Settlement Notice.

The Settlement Notice informs you of the Court's certification of a class for settlement purposes; the nature of the claims alleged; your right to participate in, or exclude yourself from, the class; a proposed settlement; and how you can claim an award of advertising credits under the settlement or object to the settlement.


The proposed settlement will provide advertising credits to class members who certify that they were the victims of "click fraud" or other invalid or improper clicks on online advertisements purchased from IAC Search & Media, Inc. and/or Ask Jeeves, Inc. on or after August 1, 2005.


The proposed settlement will resolve claims that IAC Search & Media, Inc. and/or Ask Jeeves, Inc. breached its contracts with advertisers and violated other laws by failing to adequately detect and stop "click fraud" or other invalid or improper clicks on online advertisements.


If you are a member of the class, your legal rights are affected by whether you act or do not act.

For a copy of the Settlement Notice, click on the link, or visit the case website at www.AskSettlement.com.

To file a claim for your award of advertising credits under the settlement, click on the following link: AskSettlement.com/claim. Each advertiser will be allowed one claim per account."

Posted by Frank Watson on January 3, 2008, 11:19 AM | Permalink


Ask.com introduces voice-activated capabilities to mobile search service

Ask.com has just added voice-activated capabilities to its Ask.com Mobile Directions service. Called "Click to Speak," the new feature lets people speak their location and desired destination to receive directions on their web-enabled mobile devices.

Users of the Directions service on Ask.com Mobile will now see a new "Click to Speak" option. After clicking it, they will be prompted to speak where they are and where they want to go, either by specific address or closest intersection. Then, they'll receive a text message with a link to directions that can be viewed in either a traditional list or a turn-by-turn step format, with an additional option to switch between "Driving" or "Walking" routes.

Click to Speak builds on other features of Ask.com Mobile.

For example, the Ask.com Mobile home page offers links to key mobile categories, minimizing thumb strokes and making it easier to navigate to relevant results.

Its Smart Answers feature provides shortcuts to answers and tools at the top of the search results page and Zoom Related Search provides conceptually-related suggestions to narrow or expand queries.

In addition, Ask.com Mobile works on any mobile web browser so users don't have to worry about which carrier they are signed up with or which mobile device they have.

Finally, Ask.com Mobile doesn't require a download to get started, yet still offers features like street and aerial map views.

However, voice input still doesn't handle wit, irony or humor very well. So, don't try testing the new 'Click to Speak' service by asking it to "open the pod bay doors."

Posted by Greg Jarboe on January 3, 2008, 11:11 AM | Permalink


SEW Experts: Search Engine Marketing 21st Century Manifesto

As Web marketers, our time has come. We must stand up to our clients and demand they build sites worth linking to. In today's Link Love column, "Search Engine Marketing 21st Century Manifesto," Sage Lewis explains how to recover from a link building strategy that has been obsessed with the links and completely ignores what we're asking people to link to.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on January 3, 2008, 12:00 AM | Permalink


SEW Experts: SEO.edu: Can You Learn SEO From a Book? - Part 3

Search engines give SEOs the 4 PRs for submitting sites: press releases, product releases, proper rules, and PageRank. But these alone won't solve SEO problems. In today's SEM.EDU column, "SEO.edu: Can You Learn SEO From a Book? - Part 3," Ron Jones takes a look at where to find more information online when things go wrong.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on January 3, 2008, 12:00 AM | Permalink


SEO Company CEO Arrested, Jailed: Accused of Foreclosure Scam

trafficpowerCEO.jpg

Traffic Power earned an infamous reputation as a search engine optimization firm, allegedly using "black hat" tactics that may have resulted in bans by Google, Yahoo and other search engines.

Now Traffic Power's CEO is behind bars, jailed for allegedly running a housing foreclosure scam.

Search Engine Watch reader Julie Vazquez tipped us off to the online news story and video by KVBC investigative reporter Mitch Truswell.

Truswell interviewed Carolyn Ellsworth with the Nevada Secretary of State's office, who said at least sixty homeowners thought Marlon -- at times using four different aliases and 45 corporations to allegedly buy homes -- could help save them from foreclosure. But he didn't really buy the house or pay off the mortgage, according to Ellsworth, who told KVBC that Marlon would get the rightful owners out of the house under false pretenses and would, instances, rent the houses to tenants.

KVBC's report invites viewers who recognize Matt Marlon as the person who tried to buy their house or they thought bought their house, to call the Nevada Secretary of State's Securities Division at 702-486-2440.

Matt Cutts confirmed that Google has removed traffic-power.com and domains promoted by Traffic Power from Google's index because of search engine optimization techniques that violated Google webmaster guidelines.

Cutts advises clients or former clients of Traffic Power with site(s) not in Google, to learn what steps to take to be reincluded in Google's index.

In December, Traffic-Power's litigious CEO, Matt Marlon, was profiled by Dave Kesmodel in The Wall St. Journal , while the SEO firm's tactics have been discussed in the Search Engine Watch Forums, Threadwatch and other industry forums.

Posted by Kevin Heisler on January 2, 2008, 11:25 PM | Permalink


Wikia Search Engine To Launch Test Version Jan. 7

The Jimmy Wales' search engine experiment will launch its test version January 7. The engine - - Wikia - which Wales had stated last year would eventually challenge Google is an open source community driven program.

"Wales says pretending search results come from "some magic algorithm" doesn't help the concept of democracy or transparency, which goes against the characteristics the Web embodies. "All of these things are parts of the puzzle, but it's all going to be released under free license," he says. "The amount of human editorial influence will be much higher than anything we've seen before," CM.com reported.

Posted by Frank Watson on January 2, 2008, 8:45 PM | Permalink


Search Headlines & Links: January 2, 2008

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 January 2, 2008, 6:00 PM | Permalink


Which Industries Really Like Sponsored Links

When advertising on destination sites, some industries prefer sponsored text links while others are less focused on them. For text links, about 18% of all ad impressions are from Retailers while another 47% come from Web Media advertisers -- and that makes sense.

However, straight reporting of text link placements doesn't tell the whole story for industries who participate at lower levels. To understand all industry results better, we compared each industry's sponsored text link activity to all online ad units. Here are top-level findings, based on Nielsen Online monthly data:

* HIGHER than median ad levels: Business-to-Business; Entertainment; Public Services; Retail; Web Media
* MEDIAN ad levels: Health; Software; Travel
* LOWER than median ad levels: Automotive; Consumer Goods; Financial; Hardware; Telecom

The pecking order of industries may seem a bit surprising, because it's all volume based -- and without CPC/CPM rates or click throughs entering the picture. While it's true that companies control their overall activity levels, no company or industry controls match rates per se. Those with higher text impressions may simply be "better matched" to the 2,000 destinations tracked by Nielsen.

At this point, the lion's share of text links are served across the whole Google network. It's possible that industry participation levels could shift, especially when advertisers are able to make more placements based on verticals or destinations (i.e. through Quigo, Pulse 360, others).

Other explanations? You could chalk up the preferences due to the nature of these industries and the types of products/services sold, but that's a reach. Or you could say these industries are more “direct marketing” driven, but that doesn't work too well for Entertainment.

Let's start looking at these industry relationships over time. We would like to understand if industry activity levels are stable, dynamic or beginning to change -- based on new text link ad opportunities or other factors.

For those interested in "drilling down" to actual industry percentages, please see the spreadsheet and calculation details below.

Text%20Ad%20Percentages.JPG

How the calculations work: Nielsen Online reports ad placements monthly, based on over 2,000 sites and subsites. They track impressions for five different ad units, namely sponsored text links, flash, rich media, standard images, and standard images with text links. For each type of ad unit, we divided each industry's volume by total volume. Then we calculated industry medians across the five types of ad units.

Posted by on January 2, 2008, 5:45 PM | Permalink


AdSense Adds Newbie Central

In their ongoing efforts to help educate their users the Google AdSense team has added Newbie Central - "the complete resource center for newly approved AdSense publishers," their blog announced today.

The introductory page supplies links to what AdSense must know are the most Frequently Asked Questions. It is a great idea - centralizing these questions.

Earning expectations, ad formats, how to filter ads etc. are all the things new users want to know.

Now if you could just increase the payouts I would really be happy!!!

Posted by Frank Watson on January 2, 2008, 4:39 PM | Permalink


Presidential Candidates in Need of SEO Help

The Range Online Media SEO team completed an audit of the political candidates' sites, and found glaring holes in search strategy on virtually all of the sites of major candidates and minor players on both sides of the aisle. In today's SearchDay, "SEO for President," Range's Herndon Hasty breaks down the biggest search-related issues on the candidates' sites.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on January 2, 2008, 11:22 AM | Permalink


SEW Experts: Vertical Search: B2B Survey Says ... Blazing Hot

A survey gives us a viewpoint into how audiences are thinking. As a result, we can learn their collective mindset. In today's By the Numbers column, "Vertical Search: B2B Survey Says ... Blazing Hot," Eric Enge looks at Convera's recently released Vertical Search Report.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on January 2, 2008, 12:00 AM | Permalink


SEW Experts: 2008 Wish List: Search Engine Hangover Cures

The new year is always a time for looking forward, and while last week's column focused on the old, we kick off the year with a wish list for 2008. In today's Searching for Meaning column, "2008 Wish List: Search Engine Hangover Cures," Kevin Ryan offers abridged, but uncensored cures for pseudo-search engines, link baiting bloggers, and stupid press release tricks.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on January 2, 2008, 12:00 AM | Permalink

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