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March 2008

March 31, 2008

Search Headlines & Links: March 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 5:43 PM | Permalink

Will We Pay More For Google's Fewer Clicks

The drop in AdWord clicks over the past two months has created a bump Google's ongoing success. But not to worry, CEO Eric Schmidt told Business Week, people will eventually pay more for the better quality clicks.

There has been a lot of press about this lately. I think "Google's Gamble" as Business Week called it may be expecting too much. If the cost of their clicks continues to increase through their minimum bid and Quality Score push people may start using Yahoo and Microsoft first.

While their popularity will continue to give them the high volume of traffic, if Yahoo and Microsoft offer lower CPA (cost per acquisition) then the strategy of starting with Google because of that could be changed to get the lower costing conversions first and then test the successful ones over at Google.

If this happens then the edge Google has could drop. It is one thing to be the popular search engine for users, but if they lose their position as the popular engine for advertisers then they are almost back to the days when they had no idea how to monetize their engine.

Obviously in some cases where there is a big enough margin in what is being marketed advertisers will buy the more expensive clicks. But in the case of companies selling small margin items such a move will make it difficult.

Apart from the Quality Score influence, this move suggests Google is using information they are getting from Google Analytics to determine if people will pay more. This is a dangerous step for a number of reasons - one, the privacy issues could be a problems and stop this and two, many people using GA may not be doing so effectively, measuring the wrong thing and thus giving Google information that they use but is not real.

We will all have to wait and see if their hopes are founded.

Posted by Frank Watson on 4:59 PM | Permalink

Standards Is A Dirty Word For Search Marketers

For the past two weeks our industry has been debating the need for standards, many of the regular blogs have weighed in as have most of the major players in our space. The discussion has been heated at times and while the idea has gotten the attention there definitely has not been any accord.

At the end of February, Chris Boggs and I started an exchange on the topic. We had suggested prior to this that there was a need for standard definitions of the various measurement terms and while this may be a peripheral part of the discussion is could have been a good starting point.

In the past week Jill Whalen of High Rankings outlined why we should not or cannot standardize search marketing, stating "Industry market forces and the search engines themselves will eventually dictate what best practices are and are not."

Jill I have to disagree with the statement - never let the fox guard the hen house. The search engines should not dictate our standards - they set their rules and we work with and around them. We work for the client not the engines. You mention that but use it to say no standards... that last point supports not letting the engines set them more than there is no need.

Lisa Barone of Bruce Clay makes the argument that there is a "need to outline what SEO is and what it means to optimize a Web site. We need to establish best practices, what the risk is for abandoning them, and what all these different terms that we throw around actually mean."

From these two articles we have seen many people weigh in with some interesting comments.

Kalena Jordan, a fellow Aussie and founder of Search Engine College, has been very vocal recently on anything about standards. Her blog Ask Kalena came out against the recently launched SEMCompare that gathers user reviews of search firms - "trouble with a capital T" - but she does offer an alternative. "Creating standards is not going to get rid of shoddy SEOs or make them switch hats. Education and publicity has always been the solution".

Kalena while I agree that education is important for maturing our industry, I think your response encompasses where we are right now. We see the issue differently. There are really many parallel areas and some of the discussion has been about definitions which do need to be standardized and then behaviors which may not need a standard given the creativity of our industry.

The ever controversial Michael Martinez of SEO Theory suggests we need to drop the term search engine optimization altogether. Come on Mike we know we are not optimizing search engines but rather the sites the engines rank and include in their databases.

But I do agree with your opinion that "skepticism is important while laying the groundwork for further study by all."

Kim Krause of Cre8asite Forum brings up an interesting question for the topic. "Just out of curiosity, who would enforce standards? How would they be enforced? Are they intended to be?"

Kim I don't think there is a need to police standards, more to outline them so customers can have an idea of what to look for as well as new people in our space have an idea of where to start.

Okay I left many comments and commentators out but hopefully this brings the major views together. Without some guidelines we leave our industry in the "Wild Web" stage that has been there from the beginning when porn and spam was the major effective marketing areas.

We have come a long way... in my opinion it is time to become more structured and accessible.

Posted by Frank Watson on 3:56 PM | Permalink

Google + DoubleClick = 69% of Online Advertising Market

When Google raised concerns over a possible Microsoft-Yahoo merger, it may have just been the pot calling the kettle black. According to new stats released by Attributor, Google's acquisition of DoubleClick gives them a whopping 69% of the online advertising market share. This comes in the wake of news that Google saw 59.2 percent of all US searches in February.

Furthermore, DoubleClick has 48% share of sites with 1 million unique visitors per month, while Google enjoys a whopping 71.38% share of sites with less than 100,000 unique visitors per month.

MSN has a lot of work to do if it wants to catch Google, as Steve Ballmer has declared in recent months. Currently, they only have 9.86% of the total market share. Even adding Yahoo, with an 11.54% market share, they will only come in at 21.4%.

Attributor also shared telling statistics for content distribution. For every article Attributor tracks, there are an average of 20 copies published. 57% of copies do not contain links back to the author, and 64% of copies have ads on them. Most copies are published on sites with less than 1 million unique visitors.

Attributor analyzed 68 million domains for their ad-server crawls and compared it with unique user data from Compete.com.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 1:00 PM | Permalink

Even for Google, Conversions Matter More Than Clicks

Wall Street is acting with caution when it comes to Google based on months of reporting that the search engine giant's paid search clicks are declining. But Google insists that the click reductions are due to improvement in the quality of the ads, not because Google is somehow losing its luster.

The timing for this move may be poor, however. A Business Week article points out that some advertisers may be cutting their ad spend due to a slower economy.

Still, Google is smart to perform quality assurance. As any good search engine marketer knows, the answer lies in revenues, not clicks. Everyone wants their conversion ratio to be as low as possible, and Google is smart to keep their eye on providing quality for the user (both buyers and clickers). A temporary slowdown in growth is far better than ignoring a quality issue and seeing sustained declines down the road.

Q4 2007 revenues showed growth but came in just under Wall Street's expectations. This coincided with news of a slowdown in clicks. We won't see Q1 revenues until sometime next month, but that will give some insight into whether or not Google is on the right track.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 11:28 AM | Permalink

Geary Interactive Acquires Fathom Online

Full-service digital marketing agency Geary Interactive has acquired Fathom Online, a search engine marketing firm. Though Geary already offered search marketing services, the company says it will expand it demographic reach as a result of the merger.

Geary CEO Andreas Roell said, "The combination of Geary and Fathom Online provides a compelling platform for today's digital marketing landscape. Together, we offer powerful capabilities and deep relationships with publishers and engines, expanded end-to-end customized marketing solutions, a national presence and extensive industry category experience."

The acquisition also highlights the need for integrating SEM campaigns with a larger online marketing strategy.

"Search engine tactics are the most popular element of a digital marketing campaign. In order to effectively generate search demand and convert customers' search clicks, the campaign must also include a strong integration with web development, paid and organic digital media planning and data analytics," said Roell.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 10:58 AM | Permalink

Yahoo Wants Women Now

Yahoo just announced Shine, and is hopping on the bandwagon that says women are a great target. Why now?

Just like iVillage, Glam and others, Yahoo knows that getting inventory in home, garden, health and other categories can translate into higher effective CPMs. They developed nine separate content areas and 38 sub-topics that appeal to visitors and advertisers.

What's Been Launched?

Yahoo has licensed decent article content for Shine, from major publishers who already cover this desired content in print and online. Then they hired both editors and bloggers to fill in the rest. There's no focus on video content yet.

Like any respectable Web 2.0 community, Yahoo also encourages contributions by visitors. If you have Yahoo email, then you automatically have access to your own blog. Of course, Yahoo also encourages you to buzz articles shown at Shine.

You can search content across Shine only, which should equate to site search on competitor sites. Given the sparse content so far, the results are fairly limited. So Yahoo isn't trying to create a vertical or women's search engine -- or directly respond to Ask.com, which recently claimed that position.

At launch, the ad inventory seems limited to Crest Whitestrip banners. Some text ads are also shown on article pages. I wonder if this ad mix will be replaced by higher effective CPM units, when Yahoo actively sells them later.

Will Shine Draw Traffic?

I'm not sure which women will be attracted to using Shine. Will visitors stumble here from Yahoo promotional efforts on their email and portal pages? Will visitors switch from other women's sites, due to convenience?

Shine isn't literally a destination, and the Shine domain happens to be an unrelated job site. Instead, this new offering is simply on Yahoo (shine.yahoo.com) and has various channels (shine.yahoo.com/channel/health) to draw more search traffic to the portal overall.

Yahoo is worth paying attention too -- because they can access so many women already. It will be interesting to see how they do here, even if the offering feels a bit "me too" in the implementation.

Posted by on 4:12 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: Content Ad Campaign Keyword Strategy Revisited

The keywords you choose for a content ad campaign should play a different role than they do for search ads. That's a point that's often tough for search advertisers to grasp. In today's Content Advertising column, "Content Ad Campaign Keyword Strategy Revisited," David Szetela outlines a new method for building content keyword lists, that will enable you to gain ultimate control over the destinations for your ads.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink

March 30, 2008

Constructive feedback on online reputation management

Three weeks ago, I wrote an article entitled, “Online Reputation Management Requires Cabinet War Rooms,” that reported on the Brand & Reputation Management session at last month's Search Engine Strategies conference in London.

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Last week, I got some feedback from Dr. Leslie Gaines-Ross, the chief reputation strategist at Weber Shandwick and author of Corporate Reputation: 12 Steps to Safeguarding and Recovering Reputation.

She said: “Thanks for the roundup regarding the panel discussion. I would add that companies probably do not need 'War Rooms' today and instead incorporate reputation monitoring as a regular course of business. Not just when in the throes of crisis. In addition, reputation recovery does not end in six months or when the negative comments leave the first page of Google. From the work we have done at Weber Shandwick on reputation, it takes nearly four years to recover reputation once it has been tarnished. Reputation recovery and management (online and offline) are never-ending. Thanks again for your thought-provoking comments.”

Now, I agree that companies should incorporate reputation monitoring as a regular course of business. But, they often don't – until they are in the throes of crisis.

And, I agree that reputation recovery shouldn't end when the negative comments leave the first page of Google. But, that's often the first sign that a crisis has passed.

So, how do you convince your CEO to include offline and online reputation management as a line item in the marketing budget before it's too late? And, if it takes nearly four years to repair a bad reputation, then how can you earn credibility for yourself and your SEO or PR firm by showing early signs of progress?

As I conducted a few news searches to find some recent information for this post, I was impressed to discover an optimized press release entitled, “Global CEO Turnover Rises 10 Percent in Past 12 Months According to New Weber Shandwick Study.”

“Given stagnant markets, fierce competition and a complex business environment, it is not surprising that CEO turnover has risen sharply,” said Weber Shandwick's Chief Reputation Strategist Dr. Leslie Gaines-Ross in the release.

Wow. Talk about writing a press release that will get found by your target audience for relevant news search terms. And just what should CEOs do to hang on to their jobs?

“In today's uncertain economic environment when information and news are at a premium, CEOs would be wise to actively over communicate and regularly meet employees and customers face-to-face,” said Weber Shandwick President Andy Polansky in the release.

Okay. So, I know several SEO firms that "get" online reputation management, But, here's a PR firm that has gone beyond spouting empty platitudes about the topic and has conducted an ongoing analysis of “CEO Departures” to put “leadership communications” on the agenda.

But wait! There's more!

I conducted another news search and found an interactive case study in BusinessWeek entitled, “The Analysis: Restoring Reputation.” Written by Dr. Leslie Gaines-Ross, it tells the story of how Xerox's reputation has enjoyed a successful turnaround since 2001, with CEO Anne Mulcahy pulling the strings.

Okay. Now, I'm really impressed. Leslie provided constructive feedback on my article about online reputation management. She was quoted in a press release that should catch the attention of CEOs in Fortune 500 companies. And she's written a case study about how Xerox's CEO has turned around that company's reputation – for BusinessWeek.

Online reputation management shouldn't require a crisis to become a line item in the budget. And it can enhance your corporate reputation as well as help you recover from a tarnished one, which can help your SEO or PR firm earn credibility with the CEO.

And, don't just take my word for it. If you need a second opinion, check out what they're doing over at Weber Shandwick.

Posted by Greg Jarboe on 1:03 PM | Permalink

China Antimonopoly Law Could Derail Microsoft/Yahoo Deal, Google

As the New York Times detailed yesterday the Chinese government is activating legislation that may give problems to the possible Microsoft Yahoo purchase. The new Chinese law would "give Chinese regulators authority to examine foreign mergers when they involve acquisitions of Chinese companies or foreign businesses investing in Chinese companies' operations. Beijing could also consider national security issues, according to a report by the official news agency Xinhua.," NYT reported.

Given that China now has the world's most internet users and all three of the major search engines are involved in the country there could be impact for all of them.

Apart from the Alibaba ownership that Yahoo has, Google also has invested money in Baidu. These economic influences on the engine could impact censorship decisions and other actions.

Posted by Frank Watson on 2:13 AM | Permalink

March 29, 2008

Global SEO Makes Bloomberg News Headline

Sure there are lots of global news stories in Bloomberg News today. For example, "Verizon Faces Fight With FCC's Martin Over Rules for Open Wireless Network." Bloomberg.com says Verizon Wireless faces a new challenge after beating Google Inc. in the biggest U.S. mobile- phone airwaves auction: scrutiny from regulators who expect the carrier to build a truly open network.

While we get just as excited about "scrutiny from regulators" as the next guy, that's not the best story of the day.

Nor was it "Houston Topless Clubs May Turn to Pasties After Losing 10-Year Legal Fight" detailing Eric Langan's plans to respond to the U.S. Supreme Court with pasties.

And while we're impressed by Ivy League students with hearts of gold turning Spring Break into a "Guilt Trip" for all the other Spring Breakers in Cabo ("Students on Spring Break Skip Mai Tais on Cabo to Serve at Bowery Mission") we're wondering why Ivy League students need to fly to Cabo to volunteer in a soup kitchen.

The story says "It's lunchtime at the Bowery Mission, and seven Cornell University students are serving rice, chicken and gravy to homeless men staying there to learn job skills and conquer addictions."

They must be serving the homeless with a "Silver Spoon."

Here's the one story we loved:

Global SEO expert Nick Wilsdon and his wife, Anna, starred in the headline news story, Russia's `City of Brides' Triggers Baby Boom After Love Quests by Bloomberg reporter, Yuriy Humber.

It's a great story. Don't miss it. The Bloomberg News photo shows:

nick%20wilsdon.jpg

English-Russian couple Anna and Nick Wilsdon in their home in Ivanovo, Russia, on Feb. 7, 2008. This year in the town of Ivanovo, babies are being born faster then ever, and deaths are slowing down. With any luck, the town known as Russia's "City of Brides'' will start to increase in population for the first time since the Soviet era."

Courtesy of the exceptional photographer, Dmitry Beliakov of Bloomberg News.

Posted by Kevin Heisler on 3:15 PM | Permalink

Is Google's Price Drop A Reflection Of Recent Media Coverage

The value of Google's stock has taken a bit of a beating recently from their high of $747 last year to yesterday's close at $438. After doing my weekly news review, I saw a lot of articles questioning many actions Google has been doing lately.

Is this pervasive critiquing of Google having an impact of investors' confidence?

The articles I read this week came from a wide range of sources - not just limited to the search industry specific ones we all know within the industry. (I was at a offline/online media event on Thursday where the majority had not heard of SEW, AussieWebmaster or for that matter Danny Sullivan!)

The firing of people from DoubleClick supposedly slated for April 1, according to ValleyWag, should show investors that they are lowering expenses and thus increasing profits for them. But the general public usually sees the company laying people off after an acquisition as Gordon Gekkoish. The eventual impact should be seen in the coming week as this actually happens.

I was having dinner one night during SES NYC last week, I noticed a friend there who does angel investing and asked him what Google closed at that day to determine who in my party was paying. He knew to the penny as he told me he was shorting Google (now I know where he gets his seed capital).

Then I see an article this morning from the UK Guardian stating Google's PPC numbers were slowing. Given January had shown zero growth and February's growth was low single digits compared to previous growth being as high as 30-40%, this spending and growth wall could be a major hurdle for the company's valuation.

"Google maintains that the deceleration is a consequence of its strategy of focusing on quality. The Silicon Valley firm has been trying to eliminate accidental clicks and has been working with advertisers to make sure that links relate closely to users' search queries.

But the slowdown has contributed to a 36% slump in Google's shares since the beginning of the year and analysts are divided on whether the company's confidence is justified," the Guardian stated.

This is also challenged a little by recent complaints by advertisers over some of these methods of improving the quality. The $10 Minimum Bid push has lost Google advertisers. The arbitragers squeezing a few pennies from a click have had to drop away (leaving the really good ones at it a cheaper range), but so have the companies that provide legitimate inexpensive products or services very relevant to the people searching from that perspective.

The impact Google is having on other online industries may also be impacting their brand and through that their value. The analytics industry was impacted by Google's purchase of Urchin and the development of the free services of Google Analytics - so even a popular free service gets flak, and their mistakes are made public quickly as was the case with GA information being displayed in the Google organic results..

There will be an additional backlash from the DoubleClick acquisition. It is going to be hard for the soon to be unemployed to find jobs in the industry as Google launched Ad Manager which offers ad serving for free and thus will hurt the job market in the industry as the competitors lose market share.

The words of Larry Page's recent Annual Report letter reflect the perspective the founder sees his realm of "users, customers, Googlers (our employees), and investors who help bring everything that is Google to life".

Part of Google's success has been in its ability to maintain the "church and state" separation of organic listings and paid search ads. While that is to be commended, isolating customers from the users pool is a little naive - people advertise on Google because they have used Google and want to advertise to similar users.

Google would not still be in business if they had not been able to monetize the popular search engine. When they first started the company was nearly sold to Excite.com for a million dollars, because they could not monetize what they were doing.

With revenues of more than $10 billion last year - 90% of which came from paid search advertising - you would think the customers would take top billing, but the behemoth of search still sees search through the eyes of its users.


" We continue our effort to extract more and more real meaning from the web in order to help people find the right answers. We recently improved universal search, integrating different types of relevant information, such as video, maps, news, books, images, and more, right into your search results.

Sometimes you don't get a good answer to a search because the information simply isn't available on the web. So we are working hard to encourage ecosystems that can generate more content from more authors and creators. For example, we recently announced an early version of a tool called "knol" to help people generate and organize more high-quality authored content."

Watch out Wikipedia your space is soon to be seriously invaded.

And one has to wonder if Google is getting into the conference and hotel business next. Their proposal to develop a parcel of land in the Mountain View industrial park for office space, conference center and a hotel is lodged with the local council.

Wonder if they plan on starting their own search conferences, with attendees staying at the nearby hotel? Are we to see a conference advertising tab soon in our AdWords accounts?

The issues of Google's decisions about censorship seem to contradict their "protector of users" stance. The capitulation to the Chinese government;s demands of censoring information about protest has many activists protesting, including shareholders.

The UK Times recently wrote a piece about "Google and the threat to free speech" and mentioned the company's resistance to activist shareholders "anti-censorship proposal by arguing it would do more harm than good to set the terms of use in countries notorious for their hostility to free speech. In other words, a version of the Google search engine that edits out references to the Tiananmen Square massacre or a Tibet-free YouTube is better for the Chinese people, Google brass could just as well have said. Again, the same argument is expected this year at its annual meeting on May 8."

Guess they would rather be the search engine of record for phishers. Seems more than 75% of all phishing efforts use a customized Google search to help in their efforts, according to InformationToday.

Prosecutors around the world must be awaiting their areas' inclusion in Google Maps now that it can be used to find crack dealers. Guess the police industry could be on the horizon.

Publishers and ecommerce sites see Google's action of adding a search box for more results within Google as opposed to going to the site, giving Google the chance to sell advertising for competitors.

Well that was my fill of Google for one week.... now if only my stocks would bounce back to the $700 range I would be much happier.

Posted by Frank Watson on 2:31 PM | Permalink

March 28, 2008

Search Headlines & Links: March 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 5:55 PM | Permalink

Does Google Allow Good Google Bombs?

To some, it appears that Google has painted itself into a corner with its reliance on linking for its ranking algorithm. The lines between legitimate SEO, paid links, and Google bombs are becoming increasingly blurred.

One highly-charged example is the case of Jew Watch News, an anti-semitic hate site that managed to get top ranking for the query "Jew." Several Jewish and anti-defamation groups joined together in a coordinated Google bombing campaign to push that result down in the SERPs, and the results of that bomb can still be seen today.

In today's SearchDay, "Google Bombs, Jew Watch News & the Hypocritical Linking Universe," Marty Weintraub looks at that Google bomb, and tries to find where a Google bomb meets SEO, and where paid links fit into the picture.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 5:29 PM | Permalink

New Google Webmaster Tool Aids Robots.txt Creation

When you have parts of your site that you don't want the search engine spiders to index, you let them know using a document called robots.txt. But for the coding-challenged, creating that document has not always been easy. Thankfully, Google has created a robots.txt generator as part of its Webmaster Tools.

Once your document is created, you can test it with the robots.txt analysis tool. Google points out that not every search engine recognizes robots.txt. They recommend securing truly sensitive material with password protection.

It's a big week for the Google Webmaster team. Today, they're hosting the first ever Google Webmaster chat, which begins at 12pm EST/9am PST. The chat will feature a site clinic and also discuss image optimization.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 11:04 AM | Permalink

Wordtracker Enhance Their Free Trial Offer

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For the first time Wordtracker are offering a 1-week trial of their entire service and have released an accompanying 7 day video tutorial on how to get the best out of your Wordtracker account.

Entitled 'Profit from Keywords', the videos are designed to help new webmasters get the most out of keyword research. The short 5 minute videos are accessible to complete novices to search engine optimisation but detailed enough to provide a useful resource for in-house experts & agencies to educate their brand owners & clients.

At the recent SES in London, Wordtracker CMO Ken McGaffin raved about the results of "keyword creativity" seminars he has been leading with household brands that were revealing unique market insights into both offline and online customer acquisition and retention strategies. By including other non-SEO staff and stakeholders in the keyword research process, he found that no two seminars produced the same results and these companies were broadening their online vision overnight.

"Wordtracker has always considered educating our clients a prime remit which is why we launched the Wordtracker Academy last year," said McGaffin. "Clients or potential clients need to know the various ways that keyword research can enhance their business online. At the start this can be especially daunting for SMEs, so the videos provide an easy step by step process so that businesses can get up to speed quickly."

Every SEM expert understands the value of educating the market, but it's no secret that as an industry we've never done it very well. Ken hopes that these videos will help small and medium sized businesses nip the cost of mistakes early in the SEM campaign implementation stages. After all, who wants to rank for terms that no one searches for?

Posted by Jonathan Allen on 7:33 AM | Permalink

The Video Search Revolution will be Contextualized

If you've been wondering how online video can be adequately searched or monetized, then video search company Digitalsmiths has some answers for you. At a luncheon hosted by the Triangle Interactive Marketing Association last week, Digitalsmiths CEO Ben Weinberger gave an impressive demo of his company's video search technology. VideoSense is an ad-matching and video indexing system that helps advertisers target audiences. The program uses image and speech recognition to facilitate video search and relevant ad-targeting.

To give people an idea of how powerful the ad matching is, Weinberger showed a clip of the popular NBC sitcom, The Office. Steve Carrell's character was wearing a watch, and the camera zoomed in on his arm. An ad popped up to the side of the video with an ad for a watch. The content was not interrupted and the ad was relevant. As for video indexing, Weinberger said that Digitalsmiths technology can help eliminate redundancies by finding clips that contain the same scenes. Digitalsmiths currently works solely with publishers and ad networks.

With the onset of DVRs and concerns over the slowing ad click rates, companies like Digitalsmiths stand to benefit from providing ads that don't interrupt the user experience. Expect that trend to expand. Weinberger predicted that advertising in online video will eventually become blended into the content. He said that content creators that learn to do this will have a bright and lucrative future.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 7:13 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: Social Media: One Size Does NOT Fit All

Spending time on linkbait or viral ideas can drive traffic to a site. However, if the same attention isn't given to preparing what to do with the traffic, the only remaining value is links, many of which don't pass juice. In today's SEM Crossfire column, "Social Media: One Size Does NOT Fit All," Chris Boggs explains the down-side of linkbait, and how to better use it to your advantage.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: What Matters Most to Travel Search Marketers in 2008?

Now that we're nearly through the first quarter, it's time to check in on the accuracy of the many predictions for the future of search. In today's Vertical Search column, "What Matters Most to Travel Search Marketers in 2008?," travel search expert Elisabeth Osmeloski takes a look at how they're beginning to play out in the travel space.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: The SEO Copywriter: Wordsmithing the Web

Combining both technological know-how and a strong command of the written word, agency SEO copywriters are the front-line troops of any SEO initiative. In today's SEM Agency Issues column, "The SEO Copywriter: Wordsmithing the Web," William Flaiz writes an ode to these front-line troops of any SEO initiative.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink

March 27, 2008

Social Media Pop Quiz: 3 Questions You'll Never Get Right

If you're following the PEW studies on Internet Life and Campaign '08, then you know the Presidential election will be won or lost online - or by whoever drinks the most wheatjuice on the campaign trail.

The election won't quite be "Go Vote at TNA Wrestling!" or counted by the TNAwrestling.com boys. (Except, maybe, in Florida.)

Politics makes strange bedfellows (Eliot, David, Jim) but nothing makes stranger bedfellows than social media and politics.

We're often asked by readers how they can prepare for a career in search engine optimization (SEO), search engine marketing (SEM), and social media optimization (SEO). Well there's one way even we didn't think of: politics.

So here's a quiz you'll never get right without searching online:

1. Which director of social media is the former press secretary to the former Governor of the great state of Florida? (pictured while in office below)

2. Which social media panel is he or she speaking on in the next couple months? (Hint: think Wikipedia)

3. Where and when is the conference? (Hint: $100. off if you register by March 31)

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Posted by Kevin Heisler on 11:59 PM | Permalink

SEO Barry Schwartz AKA RustyBrick Joins Search Engine Journal

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While surfing the seamy underbelly of the Web we tracked down this scoop: former Search Engine Watch news editor Barry Schwartz AKA RustyBrick of SERoundtable fame has joined Loren Baker's Search Engine Journal, according to BlackHat Planet. We were unable to reach Barry, Search Engine Watch Forums member, to confirm the reasons behind his shocking move.

We know. You're as surprised as we are.

CORRECTION: Barry Schwartz DID NOT join Search Engine Journal.

However, the evidence shown (above) clearly indicates Barry Schwartz AKA RustyBrick is the pen-name for Ann Smarty AKA SEOSmarty.

How long SEO consultant Ann Smarty has been blogging as "RustyBrick" is not yet clear.

Exclusive! CORRECTION to the CORRECTION: Ann Smarty did indeed write the referenced post and apparently Barry Schwartz (who does in fact exist) is merely taking credit for Ann's post on Search Engine Journal.

We expect a full apology in writing from CartoonBarry soon.

UPDATE after the jump.

CORRECT CORRECTION to the CORRECTION: The renowned black hat SEO publication, Black Hat Planet, SCRAPED the Search Engine Journal post incorrectly. We patiently await their correction.

Our sincere apologies to all parties. We will (upon request) remove all links to Search Engine Journal, Search Engine Roundtable and SEOSmarty.com.

Posted by Kevin Heisler on 8:51 PM | Permalink

Search Headlines & Links: March 27, 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:

  • Conversion Rates & The Value Of Outsourcing SEM/SEO
    According to a new study, outsourced conversion rates are much higher. It may be that agencies that are specialists in a particular area see a wide cross-section of accounts and industries among their clients, and thus should be able to do a better job.
  • Google Ad Clicks Up, Down and Flat in Feb., Depending on Who You Ask
    According to today's headlines, clicks on Google ads are dropping, flattening and experiencing a slowdown in growth - all at the same time!
  • Google Launches YouTube Insight - Google Analytics Lite
    Today Google video search engine YouTube launched a free Web analytics tool. Think Google Analytics Lite: it's essentially a way to see how popular a video is over time combined with a global map that shows where it's popular.
  • SEW Experts: Creating a Link Building System
    We, as industry insiders, often lose the pulse of the real world. Sometimes, we all need to take a step back and look at things from a new perspective, and realize that the majority of marketers are not immersed in search marketing as we are.
  • SEW Experts: Read Any Good SEO Books Lately?
    Some people are looking for the right book to learn everything there is to know about SEM. Unfortunately, it doesn't exist. Still, there are several books out there that can help further your understanding of search marketing in general, or do a deep dive on a specific sub-topic.

Headlines & News from Elsewhere:

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 5:25 PM | Permalink

Conversion Rates & The Value Of Outsourcing SEM/SEO

I recently got my hands on Marketing Sherpa's newly released Landing Page Handbook. This detailed guide is packed full of industry information and practical case studies.

One of the things that jumped out at me was a table of conversion rate averages for different marketing tactics. The survey data was drawn from over 5000 active online marketers in a variety of settings.

In-house managed PPC Search - 3.84%
Outsourced managed PPC Search - 5.40%
Difference: 40%

In-house Natural Search Optimization - 2.62%
Outsourced Natural Search Optimization - 4.76%
Difference: 80%

As you can see, the outsourced conversion rates are much higher. Before I go any further, I must admit that this is not a scientific sample, and that self-selecting biases of various kinds are bound to obscure these results. We are not given any breakdown by industry or company sizes, or other critical information. However, at a high level the data makes perfect sense, since agencies must perform better to justify their fees and keep their client's loyalty and business.

Agencies that are specialists in a particular area see a wide cross-section of accounts and industries among their clients and should be able to do a better job. This is not a slam at their hard-working and capable in-house counterparts. It is an acknowledgment that our industry moves very fast, and unless you have a whole organization focused on keeping up with the changes, it is very difficult to stay up on the latest developments.

Marketing activities are the engine of growth for a company. They are not administrative cost centers. Many companies mistakenly try to save a little money by running their programs in-house. They do not realize the real cost is in the lost opportunities that they can not capitalize on. If your in-house program is profitable, that is not enough - you must consider the scale of your program and always question how much money you might be leaving on the table. Giant conversion rate differences such as the above can be turned into strategic weapons that let you soundly trounce your competition.

So next time you consider the in-source / outsource decision, consider opportunity as well as direct costs.

Posted by Tim Ash on 2:59 PM | Permalink

Google Ad Clicks Up, Down and Flat in Feb., Depending on Who You Ask

According to today's headlines, clicks on Google ads are dropping, flattening and experiencing a slowdown in growth - all at the same time! New comScore data is being reported and there are more angles on the numbers than there are flavors at Baskin Robbins. So who's right? Everyone is, to a point.

Here's the reported data:

* February 2008 clicks are up 3% to 515 million over February 2007
* February 2008 clicks are down 3% from January 2008.
* January 2008 clicks were down 7.5% from December 2007.

I contacted comScore's Andrew Lipsman for more details and to ask him if these declines were seasonal as opposed to sensational:

"We do not publicly release our paid click data, it is sent exclusively to clients. I can confirm the information you cited is accurate. It's fair to say that all things being equal, February will see sequential declines vs. January because it has fewer days. It is probably more important to look at the y/y trends with this data as opposed to sequential changes."

Certainly these numbers are not as impressive as we've seen for Google in recent years. But how much of this should be attributed directly to Google is uncertain. The broader economic slowdown combined with low consumer confidence is producing a slowdown in growth in many industries.

But Wall Street doesn't like uncertainty, and GOOG was down 11 points at the time of this post. Still, Google dominates the search engine market in the United States.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 12:39 PM | Permalink

Google Continues Paid Links Crusade

According to Dave Naylor, the punishments Google is handing down for paid links appear to be retroactive. On his blog, Naylor outlines the case of a site that was recently penalized for selling paid links more than six months ago. According to Indigo Clothing's founder Alex Walker, the site had sold links in the past, but had removed them from its site about six months ago. The site was recently penalized by Google, and Matt Cutts indicated to Naylor that the cause was likely past sales of paid links.

While sites have been penalized for actively selling links, this case appears to be different. If Walker is indeed being truthful when he says they stopped selling links six months ago, that would mean that Google is punishing sites that have already stopped selling links. It will be interesting to see if this is indeed the case, and what the statute of limitations will be.

UPDATE: According to Matt Cutts, Google is NOT applying these penalties retroactively. "We first took action on this site months and months ago, back in 2007," Matt told me.

So it seems that webmasters that have stopped buying or selling links should not fear retribution by Google for their past actions, as long as they have removed the links from their sites.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 7:57 AM | Permalink

Google Launches YouTube Insight - Google Analytics Lite

Today Google video search engine YouTube launched a free Web analytics tool.

Think Google Analytics Lite: it's essentially a way to see how popular a video is over time combined with a global map that shows where it's popular.

The map? It's identical to Google Analytics. Hmmm, wonder if it will ever be integrated into the Google Analytics platform?

Google announced the tool in a blog post after midnight EDT stating Insight enables anyone with a YouTube account to view "detailed statistics" about the videos they upload.

So what insights will YouTube Insight provide?

1. how often a video's viewed in different geographic regions
2. how popular it is relative to all videos in a market over a period of time
3. how long until a video becomes popular (the fuzziest of fuzzy metrics)
4. what happens to video views as popularity peaks

What happens to video views when popularity peaks?

They go up? Then they go down?

If anybody knows for sure, ping me.

youtube%20analytics%20insight.jpg

Posted by Kevin Heisler on 12:54 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: Creating a Link Building System

We, as industry insiders, often lose the pulse of the real world. Sometimes, we all need to take a step back and look at things from a new perspective, and realize that the majority of marketers are not immersed in search marketing as we are. In today's Link Building column, "Creating a Link Building System," Sage Lewis goes back to link-building basics and offers a seven-step plan to get beyond linkbait and start getting ranked in the SERPs.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: Read Any Good SEO Books Lately?

Some people are looking for the right book to learn everything there is to know about SEM. Unfortunately, it doesn't exist. Still, there are several books out there that can help further your understanding of search marketing in general, or do a deep dive on a specific sub-topic. In today's Search Marketing Education column, "Read Any Good SEO Books Lately? Try These," Ron Jones offers some suggestions to add to your search marketing library.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink

March 26, 2008

The Smartest Marketer at SES New York?

Here's a tough question: Who's the smartest marketer of the 8,000+ attendees at SES New York?

My first nomination: Jennifer Laycock who did a terrific training session post-SES and spoke eloquently at the conference.

What caught my eye during the conference: a ripped-from-the-headlines post-click search retargeting campaign that Search Engine Guide did during the height of the Eliot Spitzer scandal - and the topic everyone was cracking jokes about during panels and at the bar(s).

I was on Graywolf's blog and clicked thru to a New York Times article and here's what appeared, courtesy of Casale Media.

Who cares about contextual relevancy when your ads appear on the #1 story in the New York Times?

More important, who's your nomination for the smartest marketer at the show?

spitzer%20unleashed.jpg

Posted by Kevin Heisler on 4:13 PM | Permalink

Good to be Google, Apex Aviation and Pilot Eric Schmidt

apex%20google.jpg


It's good to be Google, CEO/Pilot Eric Schmidt and Apex Aviation. Big-spending AdWords advertiser and vertical search engine Virgin Charter? Not so much.

Apex gets the Google gold.

Eric Schmidt has the use of a corporate jet that he makes available from time to time to Apex Aviation Corporation for charters by Apex to its customers. This aircraft has been chartered by Google from time to time and made available to certain Google executive officers for time-critical business trips.

In 2007 Google paid Apex $7,000 per hour for use of this aircraft.

(That's more than some SEOs charge for hourly consultations!)

The Google board of directors approved this hourly reimbursement rate based upon a competitive analysis of comparable chartered aircraft and which Google's board of directors determined was at or below market rates for the charter of similar aircraft.

In 2007, Google used Schmidt's aircraft for business-related travel services for certain of our executive officers and we paid Apex approximately $1,107,938 in fees through December 31, 2007.

Bluestar Jets must be singin' the Blue Star Blues to Google. Great SEO and position in Google. Great Google paid search results. Blue Star follows the 10 Golden Rules of SEM.

It's not all that bad though. Google runs an auction and doesn't show any favoritism in this case to big spenders in the Google ecosystem.

Plus, Blue Star Jets reportedly posted their most profitable month ever in February for customers of private jets (46% increase on the month, and 27% increase on the year).

That's not proof of recession. That's recession-proof.

Posted by Kevin Heisler on 3:24 PM | Permalink

Maybe Google's Not Becoming a Portal?

Last week at SES NY, new comScore data on universal search showed that Google was sending more traffic to its own properties than it had been in the past. That led some people (including me) to wonder if that meant Google was becoming more like a portal than a search engine.

But that data appears to miss the larger picture, where Google is sending even more traffic to news sites than it does to Google News. In today's SearchDay, "Is Google Not So Portal-Like After All?," Greg Jarboe digs into the subject, and finds some surprising results.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 1:05 PM | Permalink

Searchers Beginning to See Google Video Ads in Sponsored Listings

If you look carefully in your next Google search, you might just see a video ad included in the sponsored listings along side your organic results. It's not obvious at first. You have to look for a version of the PlusBox, used for things like local search results and video in the organic listings, in the ads column.

In February, word came that Google was testing video ads, and searchers began noticing the ads on live searches this morning.

I did a search today for [smart phone] (since [smartphone] didn't return a video), and found an ad with an invitation to "Watch Commercial" under it:

Google video ads

When you click on the plus sign, the listing expands to display a video right there in the results. You also may need your grandmother's magnifying glass as the video ads are tiny! They're just 160x140 pixels, including the player navigation.

Google video ads

So far, it looks like only searches for "tech" terms like laptop or cell phone will trigger a video ad. Searches for cat food, personal finance, and luggage did not return any video ad results.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 12:31 PM | Permalink

Hearst Jumps on Answers Bandwagon, Acquires Answerology

Searchers want answers, not just results. That's something Hearst Magazines is apparently abundantly aware of with its acquisition of Answerology, a relationship advice site. With Google becoming more of a destination site than a portal, companies like Hearst need to compete online by offering a robust destination site of their own. Hearst is poised to do just that with the addition of Answerology, which allows users to post questions anonymously and select specific demographics in which to seek answers from.

"Service journalism is all about helping people find answers to their questions, from trusted experts. That's what we do in our magazines and on our magazine-branded web sites every day. Answerology offers us a new type of service journalism, using a 'wisdom of the masses' model built on the expertise of users who are like you," said Chris Johnson, VP, content and business development, Hearst Magazines Digital Media.

If wisdom of the masses proves to be more valuable than wisdom of the algorithm, companies like Hearst stand to benefit monumentally. Answers sites saw significant percentage increases in traffic last year.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 11:36 AM | Permalink

New SEOmoz Report Features Data from 3,000+ SEOs

Search engine marketers are getting more sophisticated, still don't trust search engines, and keep spending on PPC. Those are some of the findings in a new SEO Industry Survey from SEOmoz.

Seattle-based SEOmoz has released findings from their SEO Industry Survey. The survey was conducted in February 2008 and includes answers from over 3,000 search engine marketing professionals from all over the world.

According to SEOmoz, the biggest takeaways are:

  • The vast majority of respondents from SEM agencies use tools to aid their marketing efforts.

  • Marketers are still unsure about things like the potential of negative effects from registering with Webmaster Central, or the use of nofollow.

  • From the 2,060 people responding, we see at least $73 million is spent on PPC a month. That's more than $35,000 per respondent per month. This assumes all our respondents are from different companies.

For the full SEO Industry report, click here.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 10:34 AM | Permalink

Citigroup Upgrades Yahoo, Predicts Microsoft Bid Increases to $34 a Share

Citigroup analyst Mark Mahaney upgraded Yahoo from hold to buy, based on the belief that Microsoft will increase its bid to $34 per share for the Sunnyvale search engine. The bank said that Yahoo's dates with other suitors will likely force Microsoft's hand. However, with no firm offers on the table, and NewsCorp having said no to the possibility of acquiring Yahoo, this statement is a bit of a stretch.

Still, Yahoo recently tried to boost its cred by releasing 3 year projections estimated at $8.8 billion. And Citigroup thinks that Yahoo is Microsoft's best bet for scalability in its grand plan for catching Google. Mahaney doesn't think antitrust concerns would ultimately kill the deal but provided no insight on how culture clashes could stall or interrupt scalability.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 10:08 AM | Permalink

Free Google Live Chat - First Time in History

google%20chat.jpg


For the first time ever Google will host a worldwide live chat, where everyone will have a chance to hear and see Google Webmaster Central answer your questions.

If you own a blog, a Web site, or just want to move your company into the 21st century, do not miss this call.

Here are the details.

WHEN: Friday, March 28, 9am PDT / noon EDT / 16:00 GMT

Google will pay for the call. It's free.

No strings attached.

The only 4 things you need to join the Google WebEx chat:

1. Phone
2. "Sufficiently-modern" Web browser
3. Internet connection
4. Search Engine Watch Membership

(Okay - just kidding (Google) about #4 - but a Search Engine Watch membership will help you prepare to ask Google the toughest search engine optimization (SEO) and paid search (PPC) questions).

Seriously - all you need is a phone, browser and Internet connection.

The call will be hosted by Google Search Evangelist and SES London speaker, Adam Lasnik, the heir-apparent to Google's one-and-only Matt Cutts.

We know this isn't an early April Fool's Joke from Google because it's signed off by Adam himself - and we quote:

"Talkatively yours,
Adam and the English Webmaster Help Guides"

We love the Google English Webmaster Help Guides. They have such cool accents. (Maybe Google will let the American Webmaster Help Guides answer a few questions too.)

Stay tuned for more on this historic Google event. All the techo-geek requirements for the WebEx chat? After the jump.

Google's WebEx Requirements:

Windows 98, 2000, XP, 2003 and Vista

* Internet Explorer 6/7
* Firefox 2
* Mozilla 1.7 or higher
* Netscape 8.1 or higher
* JavaScript and cookies need to be enabled
* Recommend ActiveX be enabled for Internet Explorer
* Vista supports Internet Explorer 7 and Firefox 2 browsers only

Mac OS X 10.3, 10.4, 10.5 (PowerPC/Intel)
* Safari 1.3 (Mac OS 10.3)
* Safari 2.0 (Mac OS 10.4)
* Safari 3.0 (Mac OS 10.4,10.5)
* Firefox 2
* JavaScript and cookies need to be enabled
* Requires Apple Java Runtime Environment (JRE) 5.0 or higher
* No support for Remote Access

Solaris 10 (SPARC/x86)
* Mozilla 1.7 or higher
* Firefox 2.0 or higher
* JavaScript and cookies need to be enabled
* Requires Sun Java Runtime Environment (JRE) 5.0 or higher
* No support for Sales Center and Remote Access

HP-UX 11.11 (PA-RISC)
* Mozilla 1.4 or higher
* Firefox 1.0 or higher
* JavaScript and cookies need to be enabled
* Requires Sun Java Runtime Environment (JRE) 5.0 or higher
* Only Meeting Center supported

Ubuntu 7.04, Red Hat 4.0, SuSE 10.0 Linux
* Firefox 2
* Mozilla 1.7 or higher
* JavaScript and cookies need to be enabled
* Requires Sun Java Runtime Environment (JRE) 5.0 or higher
* No support for Sales Center and Remote Access

AIX 5L 5.3
* Mozilla 1.4 or higher
* Firefox 1.0 or higher
* JavaScript and cookies need to be enabled
* Requires IBM Java Runtime Environment (JRE) 5.0 or higher
* Only Meeting Center supported

Posted by Kevin Heisler on 12:33 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: Search Within a Search: Where's it Leading?

Some publishers are getting up in arms over a new feature from Google, which allows users to search a publisher's site without leaving the SERP. In today's Searching for Meaning column, "Search Within a Search: Where's it Leading?," Kevin Ryan points out that their concerns may be misdirected, and they should be thinking a bit more about the big picture, and Google's evolution into a destination site.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: Yahoo and the Future of Search

Because of spam, search engines had to stop trusting Webmasters to tell them about their site. Now, Yahoo is looking at new ways to get information from Webmasters. In today's Web Analytics and ROI column, "Yahoo and the Future of Search," Eric Enge explains the ways Yahoo is putting webmaster trust back into its search results.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink

March 25, 2008

Search Headlines & Links: March 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:

  • World's First Search Engine for Meetings: Worktopia
    The only thing worse than attending a corporate meeting is planning one. For those with the thankless job of planning corporate meetings, there's Worktopia.
  • Yahoo Gets REAL About Job Searches
    In an effort to improve access to job seekers and assist recruiters, Yahoo announced today the launch of "R.E.A.L., a patent pending search ranking system that is based on Relevance, Engagement, Availability and Location," for Hotjobs.
  • How to (Actually) Earn Money (Now) with Social Media (Really): Part 1
    Leveraging digital assets and hot social channels for long-term SEM benefit has now become SEO 101. However, your boss or client may need to be convinced that investing in another layer of content management system (CMS), content, and conversational networking WILL in fact yield measurable financial results soon.
  • Microsoft Tries to Compete with OpenSocial
    Microsoft has announced a partnership to create data portability across 5 social networking sites. Facebook, Bebo, Hi5, Tagged and LinkedIn are all part of the arrangement, which will "exchange functionally-similar Contacts APIs."
  • Google, Yahoo & MySpace Team Up for OpenSocial
    Yahoo, MySpace and Google have pledged their support to open standards for social media development and data by joining together to form the OpenSocial Foundation.
  • Google's New Wifi Push Will Drive Mobile Search
    There's unused "white space" lying between the regulated TV signals and Google has big plans for them. In new lobbying effort, Google is asking the FCC to auction the unused airwaves to establish faster internet access that has a wider reach. Expanding Wifi will have major implications for mobile search.
  • Twitter: Welcome to my Google Nightmare
    Twitter may give Google a run for its money. Twitter's one more way, though, that Google knows everything about you.

Headlines & News from Elsewhere:

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 10:25 PM | Permalink

World's First Search Engine for Meetings: Worktopia

worktopia.jpg

The only thing worse than attending a corporate meeting is planning one. For those with the thankless job of planning corporate meetings, there's Worktopia.

How many times have you wanted to schedule a meeting at or near an airport while you cool your heels waiting for a connection? Perhaps you've experienced one of those rare flight delays that occur so infrequently in the airline industry? Or ,maybe you just prefer meeting your clients someplace else besides the airline club where all your competitors are lounging around?

While not Utopia (a world without meetings), the Worktopia search engine provides a real-time database of available meeting spaces by geographic location. There's even the ability to see room layout, order A/V equipment and order catering.

If you're a fast-growing search marketing agency (is there any other?) then Worktopia offers an alternative to "booking" one of the local Starbucks--and battling the new class of virtual office workers fighting for space in 'Buckies.

Posted by Kevin Heisler on 9:01 PM | Permalink

Yahoo Gets REAL About Job Searches

In an effort to improve access to job seekers and assist recruiters, Yahoo announced today the launch of "R.E.A.L., a patent pending search ranking system that is based on Relevance, Engagement, Availability and Location," a company press release detailed.

Yahoo explained the process thus:

R.E.A.L. is an industry-first search algorithm that builds on an innovative set of principles derived from Yahoo!'s research in Web search technology. Leveraging Yahoo!'s behavioral targeting and search optimization strengths to rank job listings based on user engagement, R.E.A.L. has moved Yahoo! HotJobs' job search rankings beyond the traditional category-based, date-sorted experience. With the launch of R.E.A.L., "applies" per job listing have increased by 25 percent, a key success metric for recruiters.

"R.E.A.L. is a key pillar in our strategy to deliver the best in performance and value for recruitment advertisers," said Jeff Kinder, senior vice president and general manager, Yahoo! HotJobs. "Yahoo! has shown that relevance matters in search results, and it's powerful to apply Yahoo!'s search technology to HotJobs and see immediate and significant performance improvements. We believe Yahoo! HotJobs has a distinct advantage as online recruitment evolves and insights and technology play increasingly important roles."

The principles of R.E.A.L. are described in a newly released "Playbook" for recruiters, a compilation of best practices for posting, editing and managing job listings, designed to deliver optimal quality and performance. By aligning the goals of recruiters and job candidates, R.E.A.L. creates an indispensable experience that is defined by four critical characteristics of high-performance job listings:

R - Relevance: Matching text in job titles and descriptions to the keywords candidates use

E - Engagement: Measuring how well candidates respond to the job listing

A - Availability: Determining that the positions displayed are still unfilled

L - Location: Showing jobs in a location of interest to the candidate

These four characteristics are part of an insights-driven search algorithm that will continually improve on itself.

"We've started following the principles of R.E.A.L. and have already seen a significant increase in the number of applies per job listing," said Kathryn Jordan, chief financial officer, Fishpond Recruiting. "By applying Yahoo! HotJobs' best practices, we've not only expanded our candidate pool but we're seeing matches with high-quality candidates that are far more relevant to our job openings."

R.E.A.L. also benefits Yahoo!'s Newspaper Consortium partners who have implemented Yahoo! HotJobs as their exclusive online recruitment solution. R.E.A.L. includes location-based job searching features which enhance the ability to narrow or broaden relevant job search results by zip code, city, nearby cities, full metro areas, or entire states. The Newspaper Consortium now reaches 30 percent of all U.S. daily newspapers, and Yahoo! HotJobs has launched co-branded career sites serving more than 425 newspapers with strong local presences.

As part of its effort to be the "must buy" solution for recruitment advertisers, Yahoo! HotJobs has increased job candidate traffic by more than 50 percent over the last year while competitors remained largely flat. As a result, Yahoo! HotJobs has become the fastest growing Web site among the leading job boards and has surpassed Monster.com in the U.S.(1)

For more information about R.E.A.L., please visit http://hotjobsresources.com/ and click on the 'Library' section.

Posted by Frank Watson on 3:47 PM | Permalink

Go to Search Marketing Salon SF Launch Party

searchmarketingsalon.jpg

If you're anywhere near the Bay Area, Silicon Valley or Alcatraz, mark this event on your search marketing calendar: Search Marketing Salon. It's free. No cover charge. 21 and over to drink.

When: Thursday March 27, 2008 -- 6:00pm - 9:00pm
Where: Otis Lounge, 25 Maiden Lane (bw Grant & Kearney) nr Union Square, downtown.

Wear your favorite hat...because if there's one thing SES has proved over the years: the industry boasts Awesomely Bad SEO Celeb Fashion.

Black hats, white hats, and grey hats all welcome.

Meet other SEOs, SEMs, and Web 2.0 social marketers, trade tips and share advice. In NYC, we had over 100 attendees at the SEMPO SEO Meetup last month.

Why Go? To meet:

Lorna Li (no relation to Li Evans), SEM Networking Maven, Web 2.0 blogger, Green activist and rainforest crusader. What's not to like? Plus you may meet cshel and Brian Solis.

When Lorna's not getting all Amazon with the Indians in the Amazon Basin, she can be spotted at SF Bay Area tech events, Green events, and conscious lifestyle parties.

That beats SES New York SearchBash: Webmaster Radio.FM's "Unconscious Lifestyle party" for SEOs and SEMs. (Yep, the party where Kevin Ryan officially became a RockStar with guys hi-five'ing him on the street outside the club, "Yo, Kevin Ryan, you rock. Love your sense of humor.")

The "Search Marketing Alchemist" AKA Jacob Morgan who works for an undisclosed marketing agency in SF and does marketing consulting gigs for private clients. Tell Jacob he needs to quit acting and start blogging more. (Just kidding).

The "Minister of LinkedIn Viral Marketing" Jose Nunez. He's an SEO consultant and PhD in Computer Engineering Technology. He's a dozen years in to SEO and the CTO of HiRank. Tell Jose to stop making the big bucks as a world-famous DJ and blog more. (Just kidding.)

Seriously, guys, seize the #1 position for your name in Google, Yahoo, and MSN. That's the first rule of "Search Marketing Salon."

Posted by Kevin Heisler on 3:46 PM | Permalink

How to (Actually) Earn Money (Now) with Social Media (Really): Part 1

OK, everyone knows the nearly mythological powers of social media to help grow long term site equity. Link building comes to mind immediately to most. Traffic waves can carry motivated visitors who might subscribe to your feed, engage in comment threads, complain about how bad your company sucks, and/or rave about fantastic customer service. It's all good.

True, leveraging digital assets and hot social channels for long-term SEM benefit has now become SEO 101. However your boss or client may need to be convinced that investing in another layer of content management system (CMS), content, and conversational networking WILL in fact yield measurable financial results soon. There is no better way than to set and achieve short term goals for immediate social media cash flow, to get folks excited about the long-term.

Here's a few ways to get hands plenty dirty and flow cash in the first quarter of your initial social media forays:


  1. Social PPC starts with Facebook if your demographic includes 14-26 year olds. Make no mistake; savvy clients are making millions of dollars in the space. Drill down into the Facebook social graph and you'll find fascinating PPC categories (aimClear has charted about 10,000 preset interest-categories on the USA Facebook PPC social graph.)

    Anything in the pop culture, sports, music, education categories fly really well. Software, games, kissy, and in some cases even an emerging young corporate mindset can work. FB is noisy, applications are really annoying, and sometimes carefully crafted PPC works very sweetly amongst the clutter. Make it go Ka CHING$$$ the first day with landing pages segmented by interest categories (Buzz Pockets) rather than keywords.


  2. Other communities have different gateways to insert paid advertising.  StumbleUpon, Digg, MySpace, and LinkedIn have advertising options. Whatever the community there is nearly always some paid method to insert advertising by way of a the site's own and/or major ad platform partners like Google, MSN and/or Yahoo. Some communities use multiple ad platforms, both internal and third party.

  3. Open a door with outbound linking for your boss or client to make a sale right away    . You'll find an abundance of blogging-tips in the SEM trade pubs regarding the incredible value of outbound linking as a PR mechanism. At base, link out to bloggers and corporate sites to benefit your clients and customers. Any marketing department quality enough to warrant your outbound link will soon discover that you did it. Identify 30 authority-writers in your product or service's space (who don't directly compete) and ping them with an outbound link on compelling anchor text.

    After linking out to them in properly published content, have your VP send an email to alert your target site's VP to the link. Tell your sales department that you've "made a new friend." Suggest they invite the friend out for gruyere and Fume Blanch. This tactic is a more aggressive version of linkbaiting and can work really well. A) The social media department softens the target up. B) The sales staff at corporate follows. Case in point, here I invite distinguished CopyBlogger Brian to the table @ SEW Blog. He'll hear about it in a daily alert. "Hello there" Brian Clark! Use this technique and make a goal of directly associating a SINGLE sale in the first 60 days from which the conversion can be directly attributed at least in part to a social media tactic.

  4. Increase conversion on traditional (AdWords/Panama/AdCenter) PPC landing pages by mashing in headlines from feeds of corporate or customer activities. In other words, take the top 3 headlines each from the corporate media and community relations feeds and display them just above or below the conversion goal mechanism you're trying to get users to bite on. aimClear's data shows that when PPC landing pages display mashed-in headlines radiating from true community activity, conversion rises in a measurable way. Ka CHING$$$ again!

    BTW, yes it's certainly OK to moderate what excerpted content is allowed to bubble into PPC landing pages, or any pages for that matter. If you've not incited much user generated content yet, prime the pump by originating the mashed-in feed content as "push PR" from a department of your company I.E. like customer support and relations. There's nearly always good recurrent content available to source somewhere which will prove interesting to potential clients.


Money Talks, BS Walks
Methods to immediately quantify the value of investment in social media are limited only by the creativity of the SEM team. With social PPC and other paid SMO, financial objectives are immediately attainable. If cash matters and you're used to PPC, the first questions to ask of any potential social value are "what are these folks chattering about" and "What Ad Platforms insert ads into the SMO stream?"

Outbound linking targeted to savvy customers (who monitor their reputation) can be a terrific door-opener. Partner with your sales department and upper level executives to maximize the "overture of friendship" embodied in giving a high quality outbound link.

After priming community activity within your own site's data flow, mash-in community feed content to traditional PPC landing pages and watch how the authentic nature of the content spurs conversion. Show your boss or client the cash-money early in the game in order to achieve buy-in for long term link, traffic, and community building CMS and content building investments.

Posted by Marty Weintraub on 12:34 PM | Permalink

Microsoft Tries to Compete with OpenSocial

Microsoft, in an clear attempt to compete with Google's OpenSocial, has announced a partnership to create data portability across 5 social networking sites. Facebook, Bebo, Hi5, Tagged and LinkedIn are all part of the arrangement, which will "exchange functionally-similar Contacts APIs." Microsoft says the move will allow them to create a safe, secure two-way method for users of the sites to move their relationships among the respective services.

Microsoft is including Windows Live Messenger in the mix. Invite2messenger.net was developed to help users invite their friends from the five social networks to join their Windows Live Messenger contact list, if they have one.

What's unclear is what Microsoft would do with Yahoo if the proposed acquisition takes place. Earlier today, it was announced that Yahoo has joined Google's OpenSocial. And AOL's Bebo is now part of Microsoft's data portability network, which should fan the flames of some analysts' commentary that Microsoft should buy AOL instead. The soap opera continues.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 11:37 AM | Permalink

Google, Yahoo & MySpace Team Up for OpenSocial

OpenSocialYahoo, MySpace and Google have pledged their support to open standards for social media development and data by joining together to form the OpenSocial Foundation. The group will ensure that OpenSocial continues as an open, community-governed specification.

OpenSocial is a specification, launched by Google last year, that defines a common API for social applications across multiple Web sites. It has implications for search marketers and application developers, since it will speed up the development of cross-platform applications. It could also force the hand of non-members, such as Microsoft and Facebook.

Using JavaScript and HTML, developers can create applications with OpenSocial that access features in a social network, like friends and update feeds. By using a common API, developers can build one application that will work across multiple social platforms, extending the reach of their applications and making it easier to add more functionality for users.

The formation of the foundation is not entirely altruistic. By uniting the interests of three of the largest Web entities, the group will have a strong voice in the development of future standards and specifications.

According to Yahoo, "The foundation will provide transparency and operational guidelines around technology, documentation, intellectual property, and other issues related to the evolution of the OpenSocial platform, while also ensuring all stakeholders share influence over its future direction."

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 10:35 AM | Permalink

Google's New Wifi Push Will Drive Mobile Search

There's unused "white space" lying between the regulated TV signals and Google has big plans for them. In new lobbying effort, Google is asking the FCC to auction the unused airwaves. The search giant hopes to use any airwaves it wins to establish faster internet access that has a wider reach.

Expanding Wifi will have major implications for mobile search. If the FCC goes along with the request, and if Google wins airwaves, then devices supporting the technology will be out as early as next year. Should all of this happen, get ready for mobile monetization.

Google has some obstacles in convincing the FCC of its plan. The government agency has concerns about the use of this "white space" interrupting existing TV signals. But Google doesn't want to touch all of the signals, and recommends that some be left alone.

The other FCC concern has to do with the devices. Microsoft had an embarrassing flop when its prototype broke during FCC testing. Google again, has done its homework, backing a Motorola plan that would require a device to receive permission from a local transmitter before using one of these wave lengths.

This effort comes less than a week after Verizon and AT&T were the big winners in the 700 megahertz spectrum auction. But Google didn't bear a complete loss. They were able to get a requirement for one part of the spectrum to open its network to any devices and internet services.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 9:27 AM | Permalink

Twitter: Welcome to my Google Nightmare

twitter.jpg

Twitter may give Google a run for its money. Twitter's one more way, though, that Google knows everything about you. Speak now, and Google listens.

That may not be good for business. Yours, not Google's.

In the past, IM conversations and text messages were private.

Now Twitter has made text messages public.

If you don't believe me, change your Google search preferences:

Go to Google.com - Preferences
SafeSearch Filtering
Do not filter my search results.
Save preferences.

Then do a site search (the Google "search-within-a-search" that now appears in a box below some Web sites) and search Twitter for your choice of inappropriate language, unfortunate insults, or bad behavior. Type in "site:twitter.com (fill in the blank)."

Yahoo's striving to make search more resemble the Semantic Web. Google's indexing it. Either way, Twitter's the Romper Room of chat rooms -- preschool with money. That's the subject of this week's SearchEngine WarGames.

Read now - or forever pay your online reputation management consultant.

Posted by Kevin Heisler on 12:47 AM | Permalink

March 24, 2008

Search Headlines & Links: March 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 5:25 PM | Permalink

Stupid SEO Spammers

Generally, I like to write about what to do in SEO. Today, I want to write about what not to do.

Lesson #1: Don't spam people with your SEO services.
Lesson #2: Definitely don't spam people who write for SEW and have close relations with spam blacklist owners about your SEO services.

This morning I got an email (my tenth) from a company that hadn't read my rules: National Positions, an “SEO” firm out of California, promising me “five times the RELEVANT traffic at a substantially reduced cost.” The site, which I've linked to above using a 302 redirect so as not to give out any of my link juice, said they could place my “website on top of the Natural Listings on Google, Yahoo and MSN” using their “proprietary techniques” and “valuable closely held trade secrets,” without using “link farms or black hat methods.” And they charge “less than half of what other companies charge!” Awesome.

So I checked out their site, and their SEO service includes: nplogo.jpgKeyword Market Intelligence (umm…keyword research), Meta-Data Optimization (sweet), Title Optimization and a Best Practices Doc. Considering most companies give away most of that info for free, their prices must be excellent. Their “proprietary trade secrets” don't seem to include, as far as I can tell, any blackhat techniques, so there is no need to worry about National Positions being the next Traffic Power (who cold-called me back in the day), but it's still a rip-off. They're charging people who know nothing about search to do nothing about search for them. And they're advertising through pure spam methods; they contacted me via an email posted on my site that I have never used to sign up for anything.

The email came from npseocompany.org, which I already submitted to URIBL and SURBL, the major spam blacklists. Check your inbox, and report the email if you get it too.

One of the latest emails claimed that “Our services and proven strategies are all ethical.” Perhaps no one bothered to tell them SPAM is unethical—and illegal. I've received 10 emails from them so far, without ever opting in. According to the law, any company that "harvest[s] email addresses from Web sites or Web services…for the purpose of sending email,” as National Positions did to me, is liable for a fine up to $11,000. I opted out after the first email I received, and I continue to receive emails from them—some from Gmail accounts! The law gives 10 days to honor an opt-out, and prohibits “another entity send[ing] email on your behalf to that address.” It's been more than 30 days; that's another $11,000.

I'm going to do all I can to make sure they get hit with those penalties—and I urge you to help me out if you get spammed too. Look out SEO Spammers—you pissed off the wrong group.

Posted by on 4:48 PM | Permalink

Lifetips Escalator Pitch, SES NY 2008

Byron White, the president and founder of LifeTips, helped us launch a new feature at SES NY 2008: The Escalator Pitch. The brainchild of Kevin Heisler, the Escalator Pitch is like an elevator pitch – except the escalators at the Hilton New York moved much faster than the elevators.


Lifetips Escalator Pitch, SES NY 2008

Byron White is the president and founder of LifeTips.com. He is an active speaker at various Search Marketing conferences and co-hosts the weekly LifeTips radio show on WebMasterRadio.FM every Wednesday at 5 PM EST. Byron's entrepreneurial success has been well documented in Inc. magazine, Adweek, The Boston Globe, The Boston Business Journal, Portfolio Magazine and numerous other publications.

Find out everything you need to know about LifeTips, a content design and development company with more than 500 freelancers, in about 30 seconds.

You can find other Escalator Pitches from SES NY 2008 on the Search Engine Strategies conference and expo channel on YouTube.

Posted by Greg Jarboe on 3:58 PM | Permalink

Matt McGowan in Times Square, Day 1 SES NY 2008

John Connor Mulligan of SEO-PR interviewed Matt McGowan, the Global Vice President of Marketing at Incisive Media, on the first day of SES NY 2008 – which happened to fall on Saint Patrick's Day.

The interview was conducted at Times Square, where you could see banners promoting the Search Engine Strategies conference. Matt discussed attendance at the event and some of the featured sessions – especially the social search track – that were developed by Kevin Ryan (another son of Ireland) for this show.


Matt McGowan in Times Square, Day 1 SES NY 2008

Matt McGowan oversees all marketing activities for the ClickZ Network and Search Engine Watch in addition to their respective trade show series, ClickZ Specifics and Search Engine Strategies.

There are plenty more videos from SES NY and London on the SES Conference & Expo channel on YouTube.

For full coverage of last week's Search Engine Strategies conference, check out SES NY 2008: Day 1 Coverage Roundup, SES NY 2008: Day 2 Coverage Roundup, SES NY 2008: Day 3 Coverage Roundup, and SES NY 2008: Day 4 Coverage Roundup on the Search Engine Strategies Blog.

Posted by Greg Jarboe on 3:31 PM | Permalink

Google News Unveils Two Updates to Comments Feature

Google has just made SEO-PR (that's Public Relations, not PageRank) harder and easier at the same time! Two updates have been made to the Comments feature in Google News. Comments allows people in the news to, well, comment on stories about them or their company.

Comments have to be verified by Google, which is good since we can only imagine how this service could be abused. To make that process easier, there is now a contact form in case you find yourself in the midst of your 15 minutes of fame.

Also, there is now a link to all Google Comments in the main Google News page. Once on the page featuring all of the comments, you can search the comments as long as you put your keyword with "source:google_news." You can subscribe to an RSS feed of those specific results or create a Google Alert for them.

An SEO's job is never done, and these updates to Google News Comments has made sure of it! Universal search made online reputation management an ever more important task. At least with these updates, Google News offers users an outlet for telling the flip side of the story.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 12:24 PM | Permalink

New Google Mobile Search Feature Gives Your Thumbs a Rest

Do you dream of searching Google for local information with your mobile phone without having to use your thumbs? Soon, you may be in luck. It seems that Google is working on such a feature.

A new and curious listing in their robots.txt file prevents spiders from indexing http://www.google.com/m/lcb. Go to the site, type in a city, and you can see the top searches for that town as well as browse categories. The page won't be winning any juried art competitions anytime soon. And the results would be far more relevant if Google took into consideration your exact location, which always brings cheers and jeers depending on how freaked out you get about privacy issues.

So far, this is a bit of a slow way of doing local search, as it requires so much effort on the part of the searcher. But hey, you could just call 1-800-GOOG-411 instead.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 11:29 AM | Permalink

Yahoo Cloud Computing with 4th Largest Supercomputer in World

internet%20gods.jpg

Yahoo announced an agreement today with Computational Research Laboratories (CRL) to support cloud computing research. At Search Engine Strategies (SES) New York last week, Yahoo Chief Scientist Andrew Tomkins previewed the future of search in his keynote address. (For a video of his keynote click here soon.) No doubt cloud computing will one day make search engine innovations possible that we can only dream of today.

CRL, a wholly owned subsidiary of Tata Sons Ltd., a Mumbai, India-based industrial conglomerate, will lend one of the world's top five supercomputers to Yahoo for joint research. The CRL supercomptuter has "substantially more processors than any supercomputer currently available," according to Yahoo.

The first Data-Intensive Computing Symposium held at Yahoo's campus this week will bring together leading industry and academic experts from all aspects of data-intensive distributed computing.

The symposium is part of a larger effort to explore opportunities for research and application of large-scale computing to benefit applications ranging from machine translation to genomic medicine.

So who in the world are CRL and Tata?

Tata Sons Limited--founded in 1868--could be the poster boy for The Big Switch, a brilliant book by SES keynote speaker, thought leader, and Mike Arrington BFF Nick Carr on the transformation of corporations and computing leading up to the Age of the Internet and beyond Google.

Tata Sons Limited has reinvented itself to keep pace with global changes in technology. The privately-held company, founded in 1868, provides voice and data-based business outsourcing services through one of its subsidiaries.

Tata, through its subsidiaries, provides solutions for projects in water supply and wastewater, industry, power, and chemicals; identification of land, project conceptualization, designing, construction, marketing, and management of residential and commercial complexes; financial consultancy services, financial planning, investment banking and strategy consulting services.

The company also engages in the exploration and production of crude oil and natural gas.

Tata companies include Tata Chemicals, Indian Hotels, Tata Motors, Tata Steel, Tata Tea, TACO, Tata Technologies, Titan Industries, and Tata Communications.

That's a lot of computing power to put in the clouds. The Yahoo/CRL effort promises to leverage CRL's expertise in high performance computing and Yahoo's technical leadership in the Apache Software Foundation's Hadoop, an open source distributed computing project. The benefit: enables scientists to perform data-intensive computing research on a 14,400 processor supercomputer.

The first ever Hadoop Summit (sponsored by Yahoo! and the Computing Community Consortium (CCC), funded by the National Science Foundation), brings together Hadoop developer and user communities to discuss current projects and future directions of the cloud computing environment.

Posted by Kevin Heisler on 11:15 AM | Permalink

Is Twitter the New Google Alternative?

When searchers can't find something on Google, they might turn to another search engine like Yahoo, Windows Live or Ask. Or they might turn to one of the growing answers sites.

But lately, more and more people are turning to Twitter.

Yes, Twitter.

Brian Clark, author of the popular Copyblogger.com, turned to Twitter when searching for software recently. "I'd been looking for a photo editor, and Google wasn't really giving me what I need. [I'm] not sure any other search engine would have either."

Clark was looking for was direction on which product to choose. "What I needed was a personal recommendation, either from someone I knew and trusted, or by consensus from multiple people."

He's not alone. Lisa Creech Bledsoe, director at Calvert Creative, a social media consulting firm, has been using Twitter for both business and personal use. She's finding that Twitter offers her something that the search engines can't: human interaction.

"Because I deliberately cultivated a Twitter community of my industry peers, I knew they could give me the answer quickly. I can also 'refine' my 'search' on Twitter because I'm talking to actual people, as opposed to posing questions to an algorithm," said Bledsoe

Human feedback is what Wendy Piersall needed recently when launching the process of rebranding her site, eMoms at Home. Her reader base had expanded beyond moms, and she wanted her site to reflect that.

"I just needed real input from real people, which obviously Google can't provide like that," said Piersall. "It was more important to determine what our readers thought of this word -- that's when I turned to Twitter."

Twitter has certainly not replaced Google. Instead, Piersall finds that the two complement each other. When Piersall was looking for a new word that reaches her audience, she needed to research what was already out there. "I certainly first Googled it to determine how [a] word is already being used by other companies/sites."

Lisa Creech Bledsoe shares that sentiment. "Searching for the right information isn't necessarily an 'either/or' situation (either I use either Google or Twitter), it's sometimes a 'both/and.'"

But where are Yahoo, MSN, AOL or Ask in this discussion? A recent comScore report showed that Google has increased its dominance over the search landscape. And that is reflected in Bledsoe's search behavior. "I use Twitter for search and for business reasons all the time now, and I go to all four major search engines when I'm doing research for my clients, but interestingly, I rarely use Yahoo, MSN, or Ask.com for personal use."

Some of the major search engines are expected to begin adding more social media elements to their sites. Until then, Twitter and other social sites, may well be on their way to being the Google alternative.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 8:38 AM | Permalink

Google's Demo Targeting: No Panacea

Last week, Google announced its full demo targeting offering. They also provided a limited list of sites where you can buy ads today based on demographics, including notables like MySpace, YouTube, Fotolog and others. On the surface, it's worth a try by advertisers who want to reach or exclude, say, 18-24 year-olds.

It's not a targeting panacea. First, demographics are error prone, and only as reliable as what people submitted when they signed up for services. Second, we know that age is a common factor but not the only one. The targets are expressing many interests and behaviors, yet Google can't easily leverage them on social or multimedia sites.

Where does this leave contextual ads? Since Google targets contextual ads based on page content and semantics, this is a difficult problem to solve with sparse text. Demographics represent a refinement, given these challenges. Google will need to keep developing other approaches or workarounds for social or multimedia pages, to improve monetization.

Anyway, let's keep an open mind about demographic targeting. Targeted buys represent a balancing act, between cost/acquisition and overall acquisition volume. Advertisers will be able to refine their buys on these social sites now -- and then judge results for themselves.

Posted by on 3:46 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: Non-Text Contextual Ads: Quality Score and Bidding Strategy

Running banner ad campaigns on Google's content networks requires different thinking than text ad campaigns -- thinking that's surprisingly counter-intuitive. There's no way for a content-matching algorithm to judge the relevancy of an ad group to a landing page, when there's no text in the ad copy. In today's Content Advertising column, "Non-Text Contextual Ads: Quality Score and Bidding Strategy," David Szetela outlines a bidding strategy for "buying CTR" as a way to possibly influence minimum bid price and ad rank for non-text ad groups.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink

March 21, 2008

LinkedIn's New Company Profiles: Will They Rank in the SERPs?

LinkedIn has announced the creation of 160,000 company profiles as part of their career social networking site. But as recent Google rater guidelines show, LinkedIn profiles are considered relevant in search results, at least for individuals.

If this translates now to company profiles, will the select 160,000 businesses get a free boost in the SERP's by LinkedIn? Will companies with keywords in the name of their business be able to get their LinkedIn profile to rank in the top 10 results in Google? It's too soon to tell, and LinkedIn Company profiles are only visible to registered users.

According to IRS data, there were 5.7 million firms with employees in 2002. The implications for a LinkedIn company profile being favored in the SERPs has definite implications for millions of excluded businesses.

The advantage of a potential boost lies in online reputation management. Google tends to give preference to the official site of a company. But many executives are concerned about negative reviews and bad press. The prevalence of a LinkedIn profile could bump at least one of those results to the second page.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 2:04 PM | Permalink

Is Microsoft Offering a Rose to the Wrong Bachelorette?

While Yahoo plays games with Microsoft's acquisition bid, some are beginning to ask, "Why isn't Microsoft buying AOL?"

One of the biggest concerns about a Microhoo is the expectation of a significant culture clash. The same sentiment does not exist when pondering a Microsoft/AOL marriage.

Additionally, Microsoft's bid was unsolicited. Time Warner, on the other hand, has publicly said that it's open to selling off AOL.

AOL recently doubled its audience with the acquisition of Bebo. Together, the social network and AOL's instant messaging platform, AIM, reach 80 million users worldwide. Additionally, AOL has spent $1 billion building a display ad network. With online advertising the driving force behind Microsoft's desire to catch Google, an AOL acquisition could make more sense for the Redmond-based software company.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 12:20 PM | Permalink

Election Year Brings New Efforts to Regulate Search Engine Data Collection

New York State Assemblyman Richard Brodsky has introduced a bill aimed at regulating the way search engines collect private data of its users. Similarly, in Connecticut, the General Law Committee of the State Assembly has a bill that seeks to tighten data collection rules on companies that serve ads on sites they do not own.

State laws attempting to restrict data collection are nothing new. Both Alaska and Utah have laws on the books preventing adware from serving up targeted ads based on the behavior of searches, specifically on trademarked keywords. And California State Senator Liz Figueroa tried to stop Google from placing targeted ads in Gmail based on email content.

Eric Goldman, Assistant Professor, Santa Clara University School of Law, said that states don't really have the authority to pass these laws because they involve interstate commerce. Instead, the federal government should have jurisdiction over these matters.

"My experience is that state legislators usually ignore any dormant commerce clause defects in their laws and let the courts strike down the laws; after all, I'm guessing no politician was ever voted out for passing a law that courts later declared unconstitutional."

Privacy expert Alan Chapell, of Chapell & Associates, said that state bills that are passed still have an effect on consumers nationwide. He cited California SB 1386, which requires companies to inform California citizens when a data security breach has occurred. Chapell points out that if citizens of another state find out about a breach affecting California citizens, they're naturally going to worry about their own data.

But the kind of data search engines collect is not necessarily personal information such as addresses and telephone numbers. Search engines are primarily interested in what people are searching for, and providing them with ads and search results according to historical searches. Because consumers and even politicians don't truly understand how search engines work, many of these state bills are "attempts by lawmakers to get their name in the news," according to Chapell.

Assemblyman Brodsky is up for re-election this year. Meanwhile, companies are lobbying Brodsky to preserve their best interests.

According to the New York Times, Microsoft supports - and seeks to expand - the New York bill, drafted by State Assemblyman Richard Brodsky. The bill would force search engines to get permission from users before displaying ads targeted towards their search behavior.

Microsoft's intentions seem all too clear, with recent declarations by Steve Ballmer to catch Google in the search game. Yahoo sees things differently, and sent lobbyists to meet with Brodsky, apparently to express their opposition. There are obvious implications for how this will affect any merger of the two.

The software giant's ambition fails to address the question at the root of internet privacy battles: "Who owns the data?" While there are no clear answers, one thing is certain. Many a politician and businessman will attempt to climb their career ladders waging a battle in these murky waters.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 9:00 AM | Permalink

The Other PR that influences search ranking

Our panel at SES NYC yesterday was about how to get authoritative links and what that can do for your search ranking. The moderator was Sage Lewis, panelists were Lee Odden, Chris Boggs and me.

Chris took the more traditional approach and explained how to leverage directories, associations and sponsorships.

Lee and I spoke about the other PR - public relations. SEO-PR is a term that has been around for about 4 or 5 years now. When optimizing press releases first became an option the PR industry did not adopt the practice. SEO firms immediately saw the value, but they lacked the PR and 'newshound' skills needed to create a great news story.

Those who attended this session really got how using PR skills to create great content and then pitchi that news story to relevant online news sites and bloggers can have a huge influence on your search ranking.

When you understand that Google's PageRank and "links as votes" system is basically a PR model of third party endorsement and trust, this makes perfect sense.

What is an authoritative site?

* One with a large number of pages
* One that has themed content
* One that has links in and out to similarly themed content.
* One that has a high PageRank

News or media sites are authoritative sites. And as any PR person knows, mentions in the media carry a lot of weight as a third party endorsement..

So the trick is to find a news angle in some piece of content you already have, or some activity within your company. Here are a few examples:

A company that supplies business phone systems had a product that assists call centers to track who they call. When the Do Not Call list became an iaaue and the Supreme Court ruling came out they sent out a press release about how their software could keep a call center compliant with this new law. It got a lot of coverage and built them a ton of links.

HerRoom.com a leading online retailer of lingerie, had a series of videos on their site that show how effective various makes of sports bras are at reducing breast movement while exercising. A bit of PR digging to find the news angle in this content turned up the fact that Dr. Joanna Scurr, a professor at the University of Portsmouth in the UK, has been doing scientific research in this field and some large media sites covered the story.

HerRoom contacted Dr Scurr and hosted a live interview with her about her research. She spoke about breast movement during exercise and the probl;em of breast pian. She also shared results from a medical study in the Uk that found that the best way to deal with breast pain is with a good sports bra.

HerRoom tied in their Bounce Test Videos as a service to women. Now they can see which bras offer the best support, reducing movement and breast pain.

A good press release with the links, podcast and video gor picked up in some major media sites. Bloggers wrote about it. - mommy bloggers, exercise bloggers and health bloggers..Women recommended it.

The podast was registered at podcast sites.

The result in terms of SEO? That page on their site has moved from not in the first 100 a month ago to #14 on page two. And it is still climbing. We have a few big media sites and influential blogs we expect to run the story in the next few weeks. Those links should push it onto page one.

The moral of ths story? Next time you hire an intern look for one who has a PR background, a nose for news and can write great content. You can teach her the SEO part.

Posted by on 7:45 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: Does A Close By Any Other Name Sell As Sweet?

Not all conversions are created equal. Capturing an e-mail address, delivering a free white paper, or converting using other non-sale-related measurements can create varying values of a close. In today's SEM Crossfire column, "Does A Close By Any Other Name Sell As Sweet?," Frank Watson discusses the need to take into consideration more than just the raw number of conversions.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:01 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: Sales and Your Search Marketing Agency - Part 2

A typical search marketing sales plan differs from other kinds of sales plans. The way to approach customers, close the deal, and structure the payment terms must all be considered in light of the unique demands of search. In today's Business of Search column, "Sales and Your Search Marketing Agency - Part 2," Fionn Downhill looks at these issues, including the pros and cons of performance-based relationships.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink

March 20, 2008

Top ten stories from SES New York – Day 4

It's Day 4 at SES New York 2008 and the folks from Pan Communications found more than 20 stories about the Search Engine Strategies conference that had been written before 1:45 p.m. when the press room was closed. So, I may be missing some of the additional coverage of the event that appeared later in the day.

Plus, Kevin Ryan, VP, Global Content Director, SES & Search Engine Watch, added a morning keynote to the schedule along with new sessions like “My Search is Better than Your Search.” So, there were plenty of sessions to cover.

Plus, there are so many search engine marketing news sites and SEO blogs that have been covering SES New York that I'm sure I've missed some of stories from the event – because its been called “SES New York,” “SES NY,” “SES NYC,” “Search Engine Strategies New York,” “Search Engine Strategies NY,” “Search Engine Strategies NYC,” the “Search Engine Strategies conference,” and the “Search Engine Strategies expo.”

So, while watching the NCAA Mens Final Four in my hotel room, I've looked through the news articles and blog posts that I could find from Thursday, March 20, 2008. Here's the best list that I could assemble of the top ten stories on Day 4 of the event:

1. Yahoo Wants Sites to Play Ball on Semantic Web
Kenneth Corbin of InternetNews.com says, “In his keynote address here at the final day of the Search Engine Strategies conference, Andrew Tomkins, chief scientist of Yahoo's (NASDAQ: YHOO) search division, described an industry at a tipping point. The search engines are only now beginning to adapt to the explosion of content and the increasing complexity of the tasks people perform on the Internet, he said.”

2. My Mahalo preview at SES New York
Jason Calacanis of Calacanis.com says, “Had a blast at SES New York this week... at the conference we previewed some new features called My Mahalo that build semantic relationships between our users and object in our database (fancy way of saying you and the thing you own, have seen, want to see, want to read, etc.).” He adds, “We also spent some time doing interviews with the SES team. I'll post a couple here.”

3. WSJ Digital Network gets aggressive with search: SES NY Keynote
Ellen Keohane of DMNews says, “Gordon McLeod, president of the Wall Street Journal Digital Network, spoke at Wednesday morning's keynote session at the Search Engine Strategies conference in New York, sharing insights about the network's efforts to grow its site traffic and search presence.”

4. John Battelle on Google Universal Search at SES NY 2008

John Battelle, Founder/Chairman/CEO, Federated Media, is interviewed by Pauline Ores, SES Advisory Board and Senior Marketing Manager, Social Media Engagement, General Business, IBM Corporation.

5. Search Goodness in Bite-sized Chunks
Jason Lee Miller of WebProNews summarizes the highlights from the Search Engine Strategies conference, “Or, SES you can put in your pocket.” He says, “There's a ton of information pouring out of the Search Engine Strategies Conference in New York City, but we've done our best to bring you the best of it so far, via text and via video. Below is a representation of all of that knowledge, boiled down until each little bit fits into its own little nutshell.”

6. Live from Search Engine Strategies New York 2008
Andrey Milyan of Search Marketing Standard summarizes the 16 sessions that his The SES conference in New York has begun and our correspondent, Kent Lewis, is on the scene, bringing you the latest from one of the biggest events of the year.

7. My Search is Better than Your Search
Charles Knight of AltSearchEngines says, “The entrepreneurs and those who dare to do things differently have shaped the web and search as we know it. Is innovation dead? We at Search Engine Strategies and AltSearchEngines don't think so. Though most experts agree there will be no 'Google Killer,' there will be several emerging technologies that will shape the way we search, find and retain content.”

8. Blogging Boogeyman:WHAT Is Social Media Good for? PART 2
http://www.aimclearblog.com/2008/03/20/blogging-boogeymanwhat-is-social-media-good-for-part-2/
Charlene Jaszewski of the aimClear Blog says, “Are you afraid of bloggers? Sleep with the light on? You'll find reasons to sleep above the covers after you read the next installment Social Media: What Is It and What Is It Good For? from Search Engine Strategies New York.”

9. Search Engine Strategies NYC 2008 Recap - my own thoughts
Marshall Sponder of The Analytics Guru says, “Many people are already familiar with Search Marketing and SEO and there needs to be a way to present material satisfying to all levels, but that might not always be possible.” He adds, “The Social Media/Social Search Tract was the most interesting for me this year and was more expanded than in the past.”

10. Totally Plugged In @ SES New York: 13 Undeniable Symptoms
Marty Weintraub of Search Engine Watch says, “Search marketing conference attendees seem to be the most plugged-in-public group of techno-comrades on earth. We rove in packs of iPhone and laptop-totting pied-pipers evangelizing link love, holistic patterns, authentic participation, conversion tracking, and good will.”

Posted by Greg Jarboe on 9:33 PM | Permalink

Totally Plugged In @ SES New York:  13 Undeniable Symptoms

4:00AM morning outside the New York Hilton: the city wakeup-crowd stirs pre-dawn Manhattan lights. From the 53rd St. lobby the regal doorman guides me to Kennedy International-bound taxi and deli coffee black...impeccable New York service in hand. The cab ride provides the necessary 30 minute Internet-access window to post aimClear Blog conference coverage waiting in WordPress.  Then it occurs to me: “Dude, I must be pretty screwed up to be blogging in a TAXI.”

Search marketing conference attendees seem to be the most plugged-in-public group of techno-comrades on earth. We rove in packs of iPhone and laptop-totting pied-pipers evangelizing link love, holistic patterns, authentic participation, conversion tracking, and good will. These SEMS, SEOs, PPCs, Mr., Mrs. & Ms are such beautiful people. I love the search marketing industry because ya’ll are SO plugged into the grid, running remote marketing machine empires from Blackberries.

We’re a curious and over-stimulated group, resulting in behavior that will have future anthropologists mumbling to themselves. It’s a great time to be alive and so many incredible ways to connect for business and pleasure. Here’s 13 Undeniable symptoms of total communications-grid immersion.  These are not listed in any particular order of severity.

  • Blogging in a taxi, blogging in the Mens Room, blogging on the bus to the Microsoft Party, in the Thai restaurant, answering comments on my Blackberry, editing POSTS on my Blackberry, blogging instead of sleeping, forgetting to eat, blogging, blogging, Blogging, BLOGGING!
  • Talking on a cell phone (using an earpiece) in the elevator with other people. I’ve noted that these days such behavior is becoming condoned common place in New York and Chicago. In Duluth, Minnesota it totally creeps out fellow elevator passengers and makes one  feel ostracized, as if it’s bad manners to behave as such a way.
  • The whole world has become one giant laptop lounge. At SES conferences there actually are places labeled as such. Moving from one seminar hall to another, many don’t even bother to put notebooks away while walking from room to room. The world is always at our fingertips.
  • Watching Lee Odden and Kevin Heisler’s frenetic inside-Twitter Buzz tick down over shoulder on laptop screen.  Is there any channel these guys can’t leverage?
  • Having the honor of speaking on the Social Media Track @ SES New York, and afterwards dealing with my 12 year old’s flipping guinea litter pig crises by BlackBerry Facebook.
  • Transferring YouTube video files for upload from 4 gig thumb drive (worn around the neck) over Shrimp Scampi, raw oysters on the half shell (with Tabasco mmm), perfectly chilled Fume Blanc, and crab puffs.
  • When “essential travel gear” includes an extension cord, power strip, duct-tape, ground-lift 2-prong adapter, and a Euro AC kit. Backing up my notebook offsite each evening while sleeping.
  • Sitting in the conference audience snagging a little work time during Q&A, I’ve got simultaneous IMs going with staffers back at the home office (GoogleTalk)in Duluth, coveted London WordPress vendor (MSN Messenger),  design/build firm in Minneapolis (AIM), client in Connecticut,  ISP in Texas, dialog with 2 Stumble-friends, Facebook alerts, and my mom (Voice mail).
  • Facebook on my phone, StumbleUpon on my phone, Sphinning on my phone, “friending” on my phone, turn by turn navigation to the E-train on my phone…for goodness sake how is there ever time to talk on my phone?
  • Start recording audio and/or video (you guessed it, on the phone) when your friends speak, for possible editing, transcription and posting to one of 5 blogs. Ask them to turn it off when sharing techniques learned in private from Neil Patel.
  • You decide that neither the Blackberry OR iPhone feel as “intimate” as the Treo 650 nor Moto Q did. Even thinking that it’s important to have an “intimate” relationship with your phone is pretty messed up.
  • Twittering Naked in the Bath
  • Approaching someone I don’t know and saying “are YOU SpostareDuro, my sweet and enigmatic SEM friend from StumbleUpon?” …and being wrong.

    • Search marketers are modern communications channel gatekeepers, technicians, and salespersons, obsessively plugged into the grid. Millennial behavior chatter permeates our culture as SEMs have steadily become the 900 LB mainstream gorilla.

    My sense of is that we wouldn’t have it any other way than total grid immersion. Farewell SearchEngineStrategies NYC 2008.   You’re still the beautiful New York lady, shining city-scene of light and global opportunity. The culture of marketing king-makers, search marketing students and communications-grid pundits rocks my world.

    Footnote: Add the measured insanity of "blogging in the airplane isle whilst waiting for the aft cabin bathroom to free up."

    Posted by Marty Weintraub on 11:40 AM | Permalink

    Yahoo on the Future of Search

    Where's search heading? Ask Yahoo's chief scientist, Andrew Tomkins. He'll be giving the morning keynote today at SES New York. While most search engines for the past 10 years have relied heavily on analyzing anchor text, links, and content to determine relevance, researchers at the top search engines have recently begun to look at other signals that might indicate search result relevance. Tomkins reveals a few hints at the future in today's SearchDay, "Where's Search Heading? Ask Yahoo's Chief Scientist."

    Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 9:05 AM | Permalink

    What a Searcher Wants: Answers

    The US market share of Q&A site traffic grew a whopping 118% last year, according to a new report by Hitwise. Yahoo! Answers is far and away the leader of the answer sites, with 74.5% of the US market.

    But other answer sites are slowly but surely gaining ground. WikiAnswers came in second with 18.5%, while AnswerBag came in at 4.51%, though that was still an 83% gain over last year. Ask MetaFilter remained around the same at 1.80%, but Askville got a 316% increase, though they came in at only 0.85%.

    080319_Hitwise.jpg

    Hitwise Research Director, Heather Dougherty, had this to say about the trend: "Online users are increasingly seeking advice from question and answer websites that leverage shared knowledge contributed across a community of experts and enthusiasts. The popularity of user generated media has helped to establish a category for social knowledge where consumers can obtain answers from a single aggregated source developed through others asking similar questions."

    Posted by Nathania Johnson on 5:27 AM | Permalink

    Google Increases Lead in Share of All American Searches

    pacman.jpg

    comScore qSearch data for February portrays Google as PacMan. Microsoft-Yahoo combined share of searches shows an Incredible Shrinking Search Engine.

    In February share of searches, PacMan Google gobbled the ghosts of search engines past. Microsoft Windows Live and Yahoo resemble mere shadows of their former selves.

    comScore qSearch stats for February 2008 showed Americans conducted about 10 billion core searches, a 6 percent drop from January.

    Don't panic, Wall Street.

    People haven't stopped searching in droves.

    February is the shortest month even when it's Leap Year. That's what caused the sequential drop last month.

    In February, Google increased its share of core searches. Across all Google Sites, Google grabbed 59.2 percent of all American searches. Yahoo Sites finished second (21.6 percent). Microsoft Sites (9.6 percent) finished third.

    AOL (4.9 percent) and Ask Network (4.6 percent) rounded out the top five.

    Google Sites saw a .7 percent increase in share of searches. Yahoo Sites dropped by .6 percent. Microsoft Sites fell by .2 percent.

    As always, comScore stats on the five major search engines include partner searches and cross-channel searches. Searches for mapping, local directory, and user-generated video sites not on the core domain of the five search engines aren't included in core search numbers.

    Posted by Kevin Heisler on 12:13 AM | Permalink

    SEW Experts: Link Building from the Heart: Giving to Get

    Traditional marketers and PR folks have been using good deeds for marketing purposes for years; so why not online marketers? In today's Link Building column, "Link Building from the Heart: Giving to Get," Justilien Gaspard shows how giving back to your community on a local, national, or even international level is a great way to build links.

    Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:03 AM | Permalink

    SEW Experts: Social Search: Welcome to the World of Socialommerce™

    Social media combined with search holds great potential for e-commerce. In today's Building Brand Equity column, "Social Search: Welcome to the World of Socialommerce," Erik Qualman explains that companies and marketers would be better off spending more time listening to their customers and potential customers, and less time spending hours upon hours figuring out their next award-winning – but "no-customer-getting" – 30-second spot.

    Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:01 AM | Permalink

    March 19, 2008

    Top ten stories from SES New York – Day 3

    It's Day 3 at SES New York 2008 and today the folks from Pan Communications have found more than 80 stories that have been written about the Search Engine Strategies conference.

    I've looked through the news articles and blog posts from Wednesday, March 19, 2008, to try to identify the top ten stories on Day 3 of the event. It's getting much harder – particularly after returning from the WebmasterRadio.FM SearchBash, which was still going strong when I left.

    1. Mahalo adds user reviews to search site
    Elinor Mills of CNET News.com says, “Mahalo is adding user reviews to its human-powered search site in a new feature dubbed ‘My Mahalo.' So, when you search for books, movies, music, places, and products, a box appears on the right with reviews and comments from people in your Mahalo social network, as well as an average rating for whatever is being reviewed. Underneath the results is a section for user-recommended links related to the search and user reviews from other Mahalo users, as well as a link to discuss the page with others.”

    2. Jason Calacanis gives product demo of My Mahalo at SES New York
    John Mulligan of SEO-PR interviewed Jason Calacanis, the founder and CEO of Mahalo.com, who gave a product demo of My Mahalo, which was unveiled at SES New York today.

    3. SES Keynote: Search Has Changed Everything…And So Can You by Gordon McLeod
    Kent Lewis of Search Marketing Standard says, “Wednesday morning at SES kicked off with a keynote by Gordon McLeod from Wall Street Journal Digital Network entitled “Search Has Changed Everything…And So Can You.” McLeod initially outlined the size and shape of the current WSJ network of financial news sites, then took us back to the 1996 WSJ.com site, which had 50,000 subscribers and four firewalls.”

    4. Uncovering the Real Universal Search
    Kevin Ryan of Search Engine Watch says, “Ever wonder just how fast universal search is being adopted? How about the number of searchers that include a universal result? Perhaps more importantly, what's the real impact of search result multiplicity?
    You asked, and we found out. This week's SES New York saw many new things, but Tuesday's Orion Panel on universal search finally shed some light on the biggest change in search since Idealab launched paid listings.

    5. Google Transformation from Just Search to Destination
    Om Malik of GigaOM says, “Almost a year ago, writing for GigaOM, Robert Young posted a piece that billed Google as a media company and eventually more a destination in the classic media sense. Some statistics released by comScore at the Search Engine Strategies conference in New York support Young's assertions.”

    6. Web Analytics Tips – SES New York Style
    Mel Carson of the adCenter Analytics Blog says, “I'm at the Search Engine Strategies 2008 conference in New York, working the Microsoft booth, meeting customers, spreading the word about adCenterCommunity.com and going to as many of the sessions as I can. For any of your not familiar with the conference it has a global footprint and is totally dedicated to search engine marketing, both PPC (pay-per-click) and SEO (search engine optimisation).”

    7. SES New York: Successful Tactics for Social Media Optimization (SMO)
    Andrew R H Girdwood says, “Rookie mistake! I didn't get to the room early enough for the popular Successful Tactics for Social Media Optimization (SMO) track and all the power sources for my laptop are already in use. No batteries left. No choice... I'll have to try and take notes by hand.”

    8. Search Engine Strategies Expo

    Mike Corso of Cool Site of the Day says, “Big day yesterday. I was interviewed at the Search Engine Strategies trade show in New York City (see clip below). Also, tune into WebmasterRadio.fm for an interview I did with them at SES as well.”

    9. SES NY: SEM Blitz On Small Business
    David A. Utter of WebProNews says, “You have to spend money to make money, but sometimes the best way to market a business means spending common sense.”

    10. Link Building Basics Session at SES NY
    Loren Baker of Search Engine Journal says, “Allan Dick of Vintage Tub and Bath is moderating the session on Link Building with Debra Mastaler, Dixon Jones and Degrelle.”

    Posted by Greg Jarboe on 11:17 PM | Permalink

    Jason Calacanis gives product demo of My Mahalo at SES New York

    Jason Calacanis, the founder and CEO of Mahalo.com, unveiled My Mahalo at SES New York today. For more details on the announcement, read Kevin Newcomb's story, Mahalo Adds New Social Search Tools.

    Or, check out the video interview with Calacanis and product demo of My Mahalo below, which has just been posted in two parts to the Search Engine Strategies conference channel on Youtube.


    My Mahalo Launch with Jason Calacanis


    My Mahalo Launch with Jason Calacanis Part 2

    Jason McCabe Calacanis is the founder and CEO of Mahalo.com, a human-powered search engine focused on the top English-language search terms, including verticals such as travel, products, news, entertainment, sports, food, and health. Prior to Mahalo.com's launch in alpha in May 2007, he was an "Entrepreneur in Action" at Sequoia Capital, Silicon Valley's leading venture capital firm, a position he held since December 2006.

    Calacanis cofounded and was the CEO of Weblogs, Inc., a network of popular weblogs that was sold to AOL in November 2005. Upon joining AOL, he was appointed SVP. In addition, he was named general manager of AOL's Netscape and was responsible for the July 2006 relaunch of the iconic browser as a social bookmarking news site. Prior to forming Weblogs Inc., Calacanis was the founder of Rising Tide Studios, a media company that published the magazines Silicon Alley Reporter and Digital Coast Reporter. The flagship publication later became Venture Reporter, a venture capital database, and was sold to Dow Jones.

    And earlier today, Kevin Keisler of Search Engine Watch conducted a Q&A with Jason Calacanis, Founder & CEO, Mahalo.com, about the future of the Internet, social media, and SEO.

    Posted by Greg Jarboe on 3:48 PM | Permalink

    Mahalo Adds New Social Search Tools

    Today at Search Engine Strategies New York, Mahalo CEO Jason Calacanis unveiled the latest set of features at the social search engine: My Mahalo.

    My Mahalo is a service, currently in beta, that allows users to import their ratings and reviews from other social media sites, and share them with contacts on Mahalo Social. That service, which launched December, is similar to Yahoo's delicious service. It lets users recommend and share links, or see recommendations from friends and top Mahalo users.

    With My Mahalo, the social features are becoming more prominent. Mahalo pages will now show pictures of friends that have expressed an interest in that topic on Mahalo, or have imported their reviews from other social media sites, such as Facebook, MySpace or niche sites like GoodReads.com.

    "We're taking the information that's available on the social graph, and putting it where you need it," Calacanis told SEW.

    Instead of having to visit several social media sites to find the various comments, ratings, reviews and other content your friends have created, Mahalo users can see all of that info in one place, if their friends have imported their data into Mahalo. So a search for the movie Bladerunner will show you how many of your friends have seen the movie, how many want to see it, how many reviewed it, etc.

    MyMahalo BladeRunner

    Users who have installed the Mahalo toolbar will be asked when they visit another social media site whether or not they'd like to import their content from those sites to Mahalo. Then, when users search on Mahalo, they will be presented with content first from their friends, followed by the most trusted Mahalo users. Mahalo users build trust by recommending links, and by having those links accepted by the Mahalo guides and added to a page.

    "We're not competing with social networks. We see ourselves as the bridge between social networks and search," Calacanis said. "We're building a system where people can openly help each other and share."

    At launch, My Mahalo will feature five types of content: places & trips, products, music, movies and books.

    Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 2:30 PM | Permalink

    SES NYC Day 2 Keynote - Nick Carr "The Big Switch"

    SES New York is in full swing. The energy level of the show is very good - with a buzz reminiscent of a few years ago. I really like the way the new format is shaping up. The sponsored session about Google Analytics and Website Optimizer were packed, with people covering every inch of floor space. There seems to be a lot of interest in unfiltered information from the leading companies in the space. The solo session (versus panel) format is also holding its own, with high attendance and positive response from the audience.

    Nick Carr's keynote kicked off the day with a discussion based on his new book "The Big Switch". He draws strong parallels between the electrification of industrial countries in the 1800's and the creation of the "worldwide computer" being ushered in by the Internet. Power generation used to be a necessity for every business, and needed to be developed locally within it. As soon as large-scale generating plants and distribution via wires made it possible to get power to the end-customers, local power generation plunged (to its current 5% levels). The "grid" had won via its scale and efficiencies and allowed all kinds of "innovations at the socket". New appliances and devices like the refrigerator, and television transformed our daily lives.

    Computers are next. A similar transformation is happening with the Internet. Like the electrical grid, computer networks are both "general purpose technologies", and in fact are the only two that can be supplied over a grid or network.

    Currently most companies maintain local data-centers to support their operations at an ever increasing cost (with I.T. labor growing from 5% to 45% of total capital equipment budgets between 1968 and 2000). Each business is in effect producing local power - much in the way industrial companies did 150 years ago. This enormous drag on productivity can be freed up as soon as computing power, storage, and bandwidth become commodities that can be supplied by the worldwide "cloud". The cloud taps into the efficiencies of the large centralized data centers being built by the likes of Google. With increases in bandwidth, and the "virtualization" of hardware (emulating hardware in software to deploy server configurations of arbitrary scale efficiently), it finally becomes possible to efficiently draw computing power and data storage from the cloud.

    Several trends were predicted by Mr. Carr as a result of this transition:
    - Software as media - The line between the two will blur as entertainment and technology companies battle for turf
    - Continued consolidation - The percentage of total pageviews for the top-10 Internet properties has actually risen from 31% in 2001 to 40% in 2006 (while overall volume grew 75%)
    - The worker-less company - Large worldwide enterprises built on cheap infrastructure can spring up overnight based on increasing retunrs-to-scale, global reach, and free user-generated content (Skype, YouTube, CraigsList, and PlentyOfFish)

    But everything is not perfect and rosy. One of the implications of these trends is the continued concentration of power and wealth in the hands of the "digital elites", and the corresponding stagnation or actual decline of middle class quality of life. There are also significant privacy implications as our personal data is stored centrally and aggregated. Increasing polarization and balkanization of viewpoints is a growing problem as people get only the information that supports and reinforces their pre-existing point of view. The emerging "world wide computer" both liberates us (giving us choice) and controls us in gross and subtle ways (often without our knowledge). This tug-of-war is inherent, and should be consciously fought and debated by everyone.

    Posted by Tim Ash on 11:30 AM | Permalink

    Widemile Goes Into Beta, Picks Up 13 Partners

    Widemile Inc. has announced the beta availability of its third-generation optimization and multi-variate testing platform. The new technology allows users to simultaneously test a variety of offers, text, images, and other key variables.

    The announcement coincides with 13 partnerships with companies participating in the initial platform. Those companies include Ascentium, Avenue A | Razorfish, Brand Digital, Closed Loop Marketing, DDB in Seattle, Palazzo Intercreative, POP, Portent Interactive, Red Bricks Media, SolutionSet, Stratigent, TMP Directional Marketing, and ZeroDash1.

    "Widemile's third-generation software-as-a-service (SaaS) multivariate optimization system was specifically designed using open software and systems to meet enterprise standards for security, stability and performance," said Dean Kimball, Widemile co-founder and CTO. "Developed with partners in mind, the Widemile optimization system contains a wide range of testing, reporting and client management capabilities within an easy-to-use browser-based application, and provides a level of performance and interactivity that has previously only been possible with desktop applications."

    Those partners are lining up to sing Widemile's praises. Randy Barney, Director of Site Optimization, Avenue A | Razorfish said, "We're excited about Widemile's approach and toolset, which is structured to scale with our business and client needs," while Lance Loveday, CEO of Closed Loop Marketing articulated that "Widemile is positioned well to enable us to seamlessly provide optimization services to our clients."

    Posted by Nathania Johnson on 10:55 AM | Permalink

    ABCSearch Acquires Social Search Portal, AfterVote.com

    The largest private pay-per-click company has embraced the social web with its acquisition of AfterVote.com. The social search portal allows users to vote and comment on search queries culled from Google, Yahoo and MSN as well as social aggregators. The site also offers standard social features such as friends and groups, which enable further discovery.

    "AfterVote's Web-wide community will create the most relevant results and finally bridge the gap between machine and people-driven results. My vision is for AfterVote.com to become the best next-generation web search experience," said Daniel Yomtobian, President and CEO of ABCSearch.

    AfterVote has received several accolades as of late. The site was recently named 'Search Engine of the Month' by ReadWriteWeb, included in the 'Top 100 List of Alternative Search Engines' by AltSearchEngines, and was named one of the 'Top 100 Undiscovered Web sites' by PCMag.com.

    ABCSearch is a subsidiary of Internext Media Corp. and a major player in online cost-per-click advertising. The company boasts over 6 billion searches a month conducted through its network of targeted search engines and niche-specific directories.

    Posted by Nathania Johnson on 10:26 AM | Permalink

    Is Google Becoming a Portal?

    Google has long held that it is not a portal. Concerns of publishers wary of giving away their content to Google for free have always been met with the response that Google is simply making it easier for people to find the publisher's content.

    So what happens if Google stops sending searchers to other publishers' sites? What if Google starts sending people to its own content? Apparently they already have.

    According to new data shared at an Orion Panel on universal search at SES New York yesterday by James Lamberti, senior VP of search and media at comScore, Google is showing more universal results than people might think, and it's starting to have an effect on searchers' click patterns, on both organic results and ads.

    Lamberti said that in just one week in January, out of 1.2 billion search queries in the U.S., there were 220 million universal search results. That means 17 percent of all searches on Google showed at least one result with video, news, images, maps, weather, or stocks. Looking at it from the individual searchers angle, the data shows that of the 87 million people who searched during that same week in January, 57 percent of them saw some type of universal search result. Of those, 38 percent saw a video result, 34 percent saw news, 19 percent saw images, and 15 percent saw multiple types of results.

    Now, smart search marketers have been paying attention to images, video, news and other types of content for years now. This might just make more people realize how important that has become. That's not the big news here.

    What's more important than that is the fact that, based on that one week's data, fewer ads seem to be showing up, and searchers are clicking on those ads less.

    What's significant is that many searchers are getting their answer right on the SERP, and not clicking through to a final destination page. That behavior is most evident on searches that return maps, stock quotes, or weather, but it's also happening quite often for video and images.

    And when Google is sending people to other sites, more and more often, they're sending them to Google-owned sites like YouTube, Google News, and Google Finance. Google sent nearly 400 million search referrals to their own media properties over six months. That includes 148 million referrals to YouTube and 173 million to Google Images, the comScore data show.

    There are several implications to this data, once it's been tested, retested and fully examined. If this data is supported by more studies, it could spell trouble for site owners, advertisers, and even Google itself. As James said during the Orion Panel at SES New York Tuesday afternoon, "If the search engine results pages begin to operate as a destination, a lot of things change for those of us in this room."

    Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 8:44 AM | Permalink

    SEW Experts: Uncovering the Real Universal Search

    There appears to be a lot more non-text results showing up in Google searches than many people expect. The effects this will have on searchers, and advertisers, may be a bit disturbing to some. In today's Searching for Meaning column, "Uncovering the Real Universal Search," Kevin Ryan looks at some new data on universal search that comScore shared at SES New York.

    Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 7:09 AM | Permalink

    SEMPO Selects Officers for New Board of Directors

    SEMPO has announced officers for its recently elected Board of Directors. The association also revealed a change in the amount of time board members serve. While previous boards served for 1 year, the new board will serve for 2 years. Officers will still serve 1 year terms and next year's officers will be chosen from this broader gang of 13.

    Dana Todd replaced Gord Hotchkiss as Chairperson, while Jeffrey Pruitt continues in his position as President. Dave Fall moved from Treasurer to VP while Ron Jones moves into the role of Treasurer. Chris Boggs is staying put as Secretary.

    The 2008 officers are:
    Dana Todd, Newsforce - Chairperson
    Jeffrey Pruitt, President, iCrossing - President
    Dave Fall, DoubleClick, Inc. - Vice President
    Ron Jones, Symetri Internet Marketing - Treasurer
    Chris Boggs, eMergent Marketing – Secretary

    The 2008-2009 Board Members:

    Jessica Bowman, In-house SEO Consultant
    Massimo Burgio, Global Search Interactive
    Bruce Clay, Bruce Clay, Inc.
    Duane Forrester, Microsoft
    Sara Holoubek, Free Agent Consultant
    Gord Hotchkiss, Enquiro Search Solutions, Inc.
    Bill Hunt, Global Strategies International
    Kevin Lee, Didit

    Posted by Nathania Johnson on 6:53 AM | Permalink

    Calacanis on SEO, Redux

    Jason Calacanis, the controversial CEO of social search site Mahalo.com, will give the afternoon keynote today at Search Engine Strategies New York. We'll have to wait until then to hear what pearls of wisdom he has to share with the SEO community (which, by the way, he believes is made up of 90 percent "snake oil salesmen."). In today's SearchDay, "Q&A with Jason Calacanis, Founder & CEO, Mahalo.com," we caught up with Jason to ask him about the future of the Internet, social media, and SEO.

    Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 5:19 AM | Permalink

    March 18, 2008

    Ken McGaffin of Wordtracker Keyword Research at SES London 2008

    Ken McGaffin, the Chief Marketing Officer of Wordtracker, discusses some of the most interesting trends in keyword research at SES London 2008. This includes the movement of SEO and keyword research skills to in-house professionals, which has generated a marked increase in demand for corporate training sessions.

    Ken also reveals that journalists are starting to show interest in keyword research, given the necessity of getting their stories and multimedia content found in news search engines, video search engines and web search engines.


    Ken McGaffin, Wordtracker keyword research, at SES London 2008

    Picking the best keywords is at the heart of any online marketing campaign. Get them right, and you'll get remarkable increases in search engine traffic. But you don't have to guess what the best keywords are – tools like Wordtracker will tell you.

    Wordtracker collects search data – the words real people use when they do real searches online. It analyzes and count these search phrases, and give users a variety of tools to use them in creative ways to bring relevant visitors to their websites.

    With Wordtracker, you can optimize your websites organically, plan effective pay-per-click campaigns, identify niche markets, generate search engine-friendly content plans, choose memorable domain names, and choose new product and publication names. Wordtracker and other keyword research tools will help you dramatically increase the number of effective keywords in your online marketing strategy.

    You can find more information on keyword strategy at the Wordtracker Academy, or by visiting their booth at SES New York 2008.

    Posted by Greg Jarboe on 10:17 PM | Permalink

    Albert Michaels of Moniker at SES London 2008

    Albert Michaels, a Senior Account Executive at Moniker, discusses his company's suite of domain asset management services at SES London 2008. Moniker Online Services, LLC is a leading provider of domain name registration, management, and monetization services for individuals and businesses that wish to have a unique address and branded identity on the Internet.

    Moniker will also be exhibiting at SES New York 2008. It is also one of the sponsors of the WebmasterRadio.FM / SEARCHBASH. To ensure that you get in the door, stop by the Ask Sponsored Listings, Bruce Clay, Moniker.com, or WebmasterRadio.FM booths.


    Albert Michaels, Moniker, at SES London 2008

    In addition to getting into the party, you might also want to check out the serious stuff in Moniker's booth. It is the first and only provider of Domain Asset Management, a complete set of business services that provide companies a single-point-of-access to help manage and maximize the value of their domains. These services include name creation, registration, acquisition, portfolio management, appraisal and escrow services, traffic monetization and after-market sales — all backed by unsurpassed customer service and security. With more than a decade of experience, Moniker is a top 10 domain registrar, holds the industry's highest customer retention rate, and pioneered the industry's first domain appraisal formula. It is considered the industry's premier marketplace to buy and sell domain names.

    Posted by Greg Jarboe on 10:15 PM | Permalink

    Top ten stories from SES New York – Day 2

    It's Day 2 at SES New York 2008 and the folks from Pan Communications have found nearly 70 stories that have been written about the Search Engine Strategies conference. If you want a comprehensive list, Matt McGowan, the Global Vice President of Marketing for Incisive Media, will be posting one later this evening on the Search Engine Strategies Blog.

    In the meantime, I've looked through the news articles and blog posts from Tuesday, March 18, 2008, to try to identify the top ten stories on Day 2 of the event. With five concurrent sessions, no one individual can see everything. So, even those of us who are at SES New York this week are relying on the news and blog coverage (as well as word-of-mouth) to keep up with all the latest developments from the event. (Trade shows and conferences are an off-line form of social media.)

    1. Carr: Google Offers 'Animal Sacrifices' in Datacenters
    Clint Boulton of eWeek's Google Watch says, “Nicholas Carr discussed the past, present and future of computing during a keynote at the Search Engine Strategies 2008 show in New York this morning.” He adds, “Carr covered so much ground in the 60 minutes, touching on everything from the first water wheel used to generate electricity, to mainframes, to cloud computing and Google's datacenters and the future of distributed applications and search engines strategies.”

    2. Nick Carr Keynote
    You can listen to Nick Carr's opening keynote at SES New York on WebmasterRadio.FM. Nick discusses how computer systems and software algorithms are at the center of business today, and the implications for privacy.

    3. Nick Carr at SES NY 2008 on The Big Switch

    Anne Kennedy, Managing Partner of Beyond Ink, interviews Nick Carr, the opening keynote speaker at the Search Engine Strategies conference in New York City and the author of The Big Switch: Rewiring the Word, from Edison to Google. Nick gives a recap on his New York keynote speech about Microsoft's unsolicited bid for Yahoo, net neutrality, and the implications on human thinking.

    4. YouTube: Damon Wayans Pay-to-Play, Paid Inclusion or Pay-for-Placement?
    Kevin Heisler of Search Engine Watch says, “At SES NY, John Battelle outted Damon Wayans, Google and YouTube. Battelle said Wayans spilled the beans on his YouTube deal as a “platinum partner” for WayOutTV.com. Wayans shared he was guaranteed 6 million impressions by YouTube. Those 6 million impressions -- guaranteed -- sounds very much like the structure of a MySpace-style minimum revenue deal. Plus, Wayans shared his YouTube rev share number. Wow.”

    5. hakia licenses OntoSem technology to third parties
    Paul Miller of ZDNet's The Semantic Web says, “New York-based semantic search company hakia will today use the Search Engine Strategies Conference to announce that their Ontological Semantic technology, OntoSem, is available for licensing. Illinois-based RiverGlass, Inc. is the first licensee, and will work to enhance their existing real-time analytics solutions with OntoSem.”

    6. SES New York: Converting Visitors into Buyers
    Jolina Pettice of the Online Marketing Blog says, The conversions track at SES New York continues to be packed with those wanting to increase the performance of their search marketing campaigns.”

    7. The Long Tail Not Always Good, If Quality Score is Your Thing
    Andrew Goodman of Traffick says, “I had the pleasure of moderating the panel on Ads in a Quality Score World at SES New York today. Along with two advertiser-side speakers (Joel Lapp and Jon Kelly), Frederick Vallaeys of Google and David Miller of Yahoo weighed in.”

    8. Earning Money from Contextual Ads
    Tamar Weinberg of Search Engine Roundtable says, “This session looks at the way publishers can generate revenue by carrying contextual ads offered by major networks. Learn about some programs out there and tips on getting more from the ads you carry.”

    9. SES New York: Live Search "Tips And Tricks"
    By Doug Caverly of WebProNews says, “Although people sometimes forget this fact, there are search engines outside of Google. At SES New York, two Microsoft managers walked an audience through ways to do well with Live Search.”

    10. SES New York Day 2 … Start Your Engines!
    Jeff Quipp of the aimClear Blog says, “Day 1 of Search Engine Strategies New York certainly lived up to expectations. The sessions were excellent, the city is spectacular, and I was fortunate enough to meet up with a large number of new and old friends. The day ended for most with a St. Paddy's day pub crawl, primarily through Irish bars :).” He adds, “Day 2 is shaping up to be equally exciting. I'm personally live blogging some of the Local search sessions, which I'm really looking forward to.”

    Posted by Greg Jarboe on 10:14 PM | Permalink

    YouTube: Damon Wayans Pay-to-Play, Paid Inclusion or Pay-for-Placement?

    wayouttv.JPG

    At SES NY, John Battelle outted Damon Wayans, Google and YouTube.

    Battelle said Wayans spilled the beans on his YouTube deal as a "platinum partner" for WayOutTV.com.

    Wayans shared he was guaranteed 60 million impressions by YouTube. Those 60 million impressions -- guaranteed -- sounds very much like the structure of a MySpace-style minimum revenue deal. Plus, Wayans shared his YouTube rev share number. Wow.

    Everything advertisers need to know about video search but were afraid to ask.

    That officially makes Google a publisher not a technology company, in Battelle's view. The SES crowd didn't argue, though Google's universal search guru, Jack Menzel, product manager, Google Search, said the number may have been an estimate of the minimum number of impressions expected.

    In February, Damon Wayans launched WayOutTV.com in collaboration with Google's YouTube. WayOutTV.com features videos produced by stand-up comedians selected by Wayans, the film and TV star.

    He was in town promoting his YouTube deal on a panel moderated by Battelle at AdAge's Digital Marketing Conference ("a new crop of stars in town who've grown their celebrity via MySpace pages, YouTube channels and videos gone viral. And now, of course, they're celebrity spokespeople.").

    YouTube needs branded entertainment for Google to succeed as a media company. WayOutTV.com is not unlike Will Ferrell's FunnyorDie.com and the lesser known MyDamn-Content.com by Harry Shearer.

    film and TV satires shows such as Hollywood Shuffle, I'm Gonna Git YouSucka, and In Living Color, where Jim Carrey and J-Lo launched their careers.

    George Alexander, business entertainment columnist at blackenterprise.com noted, "As the Web proves to be a place for more and more content providers to introduce their product to audiences, analysts contend that branding will be the key competitive advantage to an increasingly cluttered marketplace."

    Alexander noted because barriers to entry are low, and anyone with a digital video camera, a computer, can upload a video on YouTube, name recognition and quality will determine who wins eyeballs and repeat visitors.

    "With the name Wayans, Damon could clearly be way ahead of the pack."

    Not to mention starring as YouTube's The 60 Million Impression Man.

    Posted by Kevin Heisler on 5:28 PM | Permalink

    FriendFeed: The Search Engine for Conversations

    FriendFeed may be billing itself as an aggregator of social network sites, but its real power is in the newly introduced search feature. In case you haven't heard, FriendFeed is a new social media tool that allows you to view any and all updates to your accounts and friends' accounts on the most popular social media sites like Twitter, StumbleUpon, and Digg.

    There's so much value here I hardly know where to start. First, everything below is based upon searching "everyone" which is available through the advanced search feature.

    With FriendFeed, you can search conversations being had by the people who use social media the most. These are the most likely people to be the influencers of the internet, and the best candidates to convert into brand evangelists for your company.

    For brands, this is a fantastic way to find the best candidates to convert into brand evangelists for your company. For reporters, FriendFeed could be highly useful in finding people to quote in a story. Social media users can be found, if they want to be. If they don't, it will be a waste of your time to chase after them anyway.

    You'll be less likely to come across users with dormant accounts, because the search feature returns results by time, with the most recent first.

    Yes, you can pull the RSS feeds of these searches into your newsreader of choice. I only wish they would display the headlines of blog posts or context surrounding the keyword rather than "Username posted this" or "Username favorited that" in order to skim more quickly.

    Still, this is social search at its best. It requires no effort on the part of users to submit and suggest the best results for a given keyword. It takes advantage of existing, organic conversations across multiple sites, which is increasingly becoming a hot commodity.

    The challenge for FriendFeed will be embracing the power of search, and with ex-Googlers at the helm, I suspect this very well may be the ultimate plan.

    Posted by Nathania Johnson on 2:06 PM | Permalink

    Marchex Shows How to Cash In on Local Search

    So far, in the poker game that is doing business on the internet, four cards have been dealt: Communications, Search, Commerce and Social Networking. But the fifth card is sliding out of the dealer's hand and Marchex bets it's going to be local search.

    In a new study, "2008 Perspectives on Local Online Advertising and Content," Marchex predicts local search will be the next big thing, and has identified five trends that are driving its growth:

    1. The accelerating adoption of online advertising by small businesses
    2. National advertisers expanding their presence in local markets online
    3. Delivering phone calls to businesses across online and offline media
    4. More effectively connecting consumers with local businesses
    5. Greater efficiencies due to consolidation and innovation

    What should you do to play your cards right in the local market? Marchex recommends:

    1. Speak the local language
    2. Understand the impact of online advertising on offline transactions
    3. Recognize that most commercial searches have local intent
    4. Set different goals and expectations for local campaigns
    5. Understand your local strategy

    One of the most significant concepts is the ability to provide answers on a local level. The report says:

    Local content will provide answers to community related questions: "What's the status of construction down the street, and how will it impact my commute?" or "Where's the best place to park when I go to the away soccer game this Saturday?"

    And the marriage of mobile with local search will be, unlike a quickie union at a Vegas wedding chapel, a solid one:

    Mobile will extend the applicability of content originally developed "by locals for locals" to travelers who seek an insider's edge on how to get the most enjoyment out of their visit to a given neighborhood.

    Facilitating all of this will be local conversations, useful to permanent residents and visitors alike. Enter social media.

    Ultimately, five of a kind is the best hand you can get. That's why diversification and integration across all internet channels remains your best bet.

    Posted by Nathania Johnson on 1:58 PM | Permalink

    An Insatiable Desire for Web Analytics?

    At Search Engine Strategies New York this week, some of the best-attended sessions are about Web analytics. Two sessions I sat in on yesterday had standing-room only crowds. It's clear that search marketers – like all online marketers – are finally realizing that it's not all about getting people to your site. The volume game is fine when driving volume is cheap, but with concerns about rising keyword prices and a looming recession, it's only natural that there's a new round of belt-tightening going on.

    Smart online marketers have been using analytics to squeeze better performance from the traffic they already have, instead of looking for new ways to drive low-converting traffic. From the looks of things, the idea is catching on, with the desire to learn about Web analytics spreading to the masses.

    Google Analytics Evangelist Avinash Kaushik noted in his presentation that there are four keys to Web analytics success:
    1. Integrate or Die – Measuring basic metrics are the price of entry. To succeed, you need to apply those measurements to other events beyond your Web site, and see what's making or costing you money.
    2. Measure Bounce Rate – Bounce rate is your Web site visitor saying to you, "I came, I saw, I puked." If they come to one page and leave right away, you're not giving visitors what they're looking for. Figure that out and fix it.
    3. Go Beyond Ego Bidding – The definition of success for one site will be different than success for another. The key is to find your own success metric, such as conversions, or time on site, and measure your performance against that metric.
    4. Experiment or Go Home – Most sites are designed by "HiPPOs": The Highest Paid Person's Opinion. That often means the site is not designed around what users are searching for. You could be sending people to a less relevant page than you could or should be doing, or offering something different than what was promised in your search ads. Avinash calls this "Writing a check on a search engine that your site can't cash." Both are bad for the user.

    If you missed the analytics sessions yesterday, there are still plenty of options. This afternoon, Google is putting on a session about Google Analytics and Website Optimizer, and Omniture is doing one on optimizing SEM campaigns. Later, Tim Ash will show you how to test and tune your landing page. For a deep dive into analytics, Matt Bailey is leading a four-hour training session on Web analytics on Friday.

    Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 11:25 AM | Permalink

    Yahoo Shows Microsoft, Wall Street What Its Really Worth

    Yahoo has filed an investor presentation which projects its operating cash flow to increase from $1.9 billion to $3.7 billion over the next 3 years. An estimated $8.8 billion (excluding the cost of acquiring all of this traffic) is expected as a result.

    Basically, Yahoo is saying "Hey, Microsoft, we're worth far more than the paltry $44 billion you offered us." But if you really want the corporate speak here it is:

    "Yahoo! is positioned for accelerated financial growth – we have a powerful consumer brand, a huge global audience and a highly profitable operating model," said Jerry Yang, the Company's co-founder and chief executive officer. "With industry-leading tools, technology, people and platforms, Yahoo! is poised to capture growth in display advertising where we believe growth will be greatest. Combined with our recent progress in search monetization, Yahoo! is well positioned to provide the broadest range of products to our advertisers while delivering the most compelling experiences to users."

    The numbers are in line with other reports suggesting that search and online advertising is expected to continue growing over the coming years and that search spending is growing despite the gloom and doom in the economy-at-large. However, many analysts see Google taking a big land grab on the growth – not Yahoo.

    Yahoo's stock rose today in the wake of the report, though it may be receiving a boost from anticipation over another Fed rate cut and Q1 banking reports coming in higher than expected, just one day after Bear Stearns incurred a major freefall and took the broader market along for the ride. Yahoo trailed the overall gains in the NASDAQ market at the time of this report.

    Posted by Nathania Johnson on 10:25 AM | Permalink

    Is the World Ready for Utility Computing?

    Just as 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. That's the premise of The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, from Edison to Google, the latest book by Nicholas Carr, former executive editor of the Harvard Business Review.

    In today's SearchDay, "Q&A with Nicholas Carr, author, The Big Switch," we asked Carr about some of the issues raised in his book, which explores the future of computing and its implications for business and society. Carr will also discuss some of those topics today during his opening keynote at SES New York.

    Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 7:45 AM | Permalink

    Top ten stories from SES New York – Day 1

    It's only Day 1 at SES New York 2008 and the folks from Pan Communications have already found more than 40 stories that have been written about the Search Engine Strategies conference. If you want a comprehensive list, Matt McGowan, the Global Vice President of Marketing for Incisive Media, will be posting one later this evening (or early tomorrow morning) on the Search Engine Strategies Blog – when he gets back from the Saint Patrick's Day pub crawl.

    In the meantime, I've looked through the news articles and blog posts from Monday, March 17, 2008, to try to identify the top ten stories on Day 1 of the event. While this list is no substitute for actually attending SES New York 2008, it will give you a quick summary of some of the highlights.

    1. Yahoo! Cozies Up To Its Click-Fraud Critics
    Andy Greenberg of Forbes.com says, “At Monday's Search Engine Strategies (SES) conference in New York, Yahoo! announced a partnership with click-fraud auditing firm Click Forensics to share pay-per-click advertising data and work together to identify fraudulent clicks--those designed to pump a Web publisher's advertising revenue or drain a competing advertiser's budget.”

    2. Search Spend Seems Healthy Despite Slowing Economy
    Kevin Newcomb of Search Engine Watch says, “Despite an increasingly gloomy economic forecast, spending on search engine marketing continues to grow beyond expectations. Preliminary results of the 2007 State of the Market Survey were released today at Search Engine Strategies New York by SEMPO, the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization.”

    3. Kicking Off SES New York 2008
    Mike McDonald of WebProNews interviewed Matt McGowan about Search Engine Strategies New York 2008, which kicked off today with about 8,000 attendees. Matt explained what can be expected in the week ahead.

    4. Orion Panel: Getting Vertical Search Right
    Barry Schwartz of Search Engine Roundtable covered the Orion Panel: Getting Vertical Search Right. Barry says, “Jason Finger talks about his online food service. They link people with local restaurants and caterers. Steven Krein is from a human powered health search service. Bill Tancer gives the Hitwise line, love this guy. Josh Stylman from Reprise Media. Paul Forster from Indeed.com a Job Search site.” Barry adds, “This is a unique session.”

    5. Analytics: Data Into Action
    Lisa Barone of the Bruce Clay Blog covered the Analytics: Data Into Action session. Lisa says, “Kevin Ryan gets things started and says next time he'll get a bigger room. Hee, seriously. And it's not that the room is even small, it's just there are about a gazillion people trying to get in. The SES conference series is alive and well, people.”

    6. Neil Patel interviews Jason Calacanis, SES NY 2008

    Neil Patel of Pronet Advertising interviewed Jason Calacanis, founder and CEO of Mahalo.com, who will be the afternoon keynote speaker on Wednesday, March 19, 2008. The two discuss issues such as spam, the search engine optimization (seo) philosophy as a whole and its problematic frictions between publishers and users in the battles for visibility and search relevance.

    7. Avinash Kaushik, Web Analytics at SES NY 2008

    I interviewed Avinash Kaushik, author, blogger, and Analytics Evangelist at Google about the standing-room-only-crowd at the Web Analytics: Measuring Succession session, where he spoke. He also talked about trends in web analytics over the next 24 to 36 months, his highly-rated blog, Occam's Razor, and his recently published book, Web Analytics: An Hour A Day.

    8. Session: Organic Listings Forum
    Lee Odden of the Online Marketing Blog covered the Organic Listings Forum. Lee says, “Organic Listings Forum with Mike Grehan moderating and Jill Whalen, Dave Naylor and Greg Boser on the panel. Here we have an all star SEO cast available to answer questions about organic SEO.”

    9. SES New York: Video Made the SMB Star (Kelsey Group Track)
    Li Evans of Search Marketing Gurus covered the Video Made the SMB Star session. Li says that Mike Boland of the Kelsey Group, who moderated the session, said, “Users are coming to expect Video as part of their search results.”

    10. Ad Exchanges - What You Need to Know
    Mona Elesseily of Traffick wrote a preview of the Ad Exchanges are Everything session, which will be held at SES New York 2008 on March 19 2008 (Day 3). Mona says, “To learn more about the changes in ad exchanges, I interviewed both Ramsey McGrory, VP of Exchange Development, Right Media and Jay Sears, SVP of Strategic products and business development, ContextWeb.”

    Posted by Greg Jarboe on 12:06 AM | Permalink

    SEW Experts: 30 Free Ways To Market Your Small Business Site

    "Free" is a word that perks up ears and piques interest. In marketing, sometimes "free" is too good to be true, but in some instances, free is good. In today's Small Business Search Marketing column, "30 Free Ways To Market Your Small Business Site," Carrie Hill offers 30 free tips, from social media to analytics to link building, which you can use to market your small business online.

    Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink

    SEW Experts: To Rewrite or Not to Rewrite...That is the Question

    While URL rewriting can have SEO benefits, it can also cause more SEO problems if it's done hastily, or incorrectly. In today's Organic Search Engine Optimization column, "Dynamic URLs: To Rewrite or Not to Rewrite...That is the Question," Mark Jackson outlines the pros and cons to consider before making a change.

    Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink

    March 17, 2008

    Bryan Eisenberg of Future Now at SES London 2008

    Bryan Eisenberg, the co-founder of Future Now, Inc., spoke on the Orion Panel: All Star Analytics Team during SES London 2008. He also spoke at the Converting Visitors into Buyers and Redefining the Customer sessions. After a couple of days, the sessions started blending together in unexpected ways.

    Brian discusses the ad-hoc floor meetings he's had as well as the more planned sessions. He is interested in the overlap between sessions and topics, like the Microsoft Yahoo bid and the question of how to most effectively convert visitors.

    At the Orion Panel, Brian spoke out on the issue of whether or not to pay for an analytics package, and the potential for privacy issues that he thinks needs to be addressed more openly. He also noted that Google needs to be more transparent.


    Bryan Eisenberg, Future Now, at SES London 2008 on SEO

    In addition to being a co-founder of Future Now, an interactive marketing optimization firm, Bryan Eisenberg is also a co-inventor of Persuasion Architecture, Future Now's framework for optimizing online experiences to maximize lead generation, subscriptions, and sales.

    Brian is also the publisher of Future Now's award-winning blog, GrokDotCom, a columnist for ClickZ and Forbes.com, and has authored several books and reports, including the best-selling Call to Action and Waiting For Your Cat to Bark. His clients include NBC Universal, GE, WebEx, Overstock, and Dell.

    Bryan is currently working on his next book, Always Be Testing, which is due in September 2008. He will be speaking at the Redefining the Customer session at SES New York 2008.

    Posted by Greg Jarboe on 10:16 PM | Permalink

    David O. Akande launches PeOKa at SES London 2008

    David O. Akande of PeOKa discussed his company's core market and its technology at SES London 2008, where peOKa@p debuted. The core market of PeOKa.com is corporations with large intranet and/or extranet sites, but the company also provides tailor-made "Go Direct" search engine capability for standard Internet websites.

    peOKa@p allows intranet and extranet users in corporations and other organizations to get instant and direct access to any information page, data page, or archive documents within their Intranet/Extranet site, using specially developed web tags, thereby cutting out the standard search results listing currently available on most sites.

    Better yet, look and listen to what David has to say in the interview below.

    David O. Akande debuts Peoka.com at SES London 2008

    PeOKa.com will also be exhibiting at Search Engine Strategies Expo in New York. There will be 125 sponsors and exhibitors – from well known companies like Google, Yahoo and Microsoft, to newcomers like Peoka. The Expo is only open on Tuesday, March 18, and Wednesday, March 19, so try to find some time to see what's new on the trade show floor.

    Posted by Greg Jarboe on 10:14 PM | Permalink

    The Why Behind Paid Search Trends: Measurability

    There are countless reports that paid search is on the rise and is projected to continue trending upwards. But what are the driving forces behind the dramatic increases? A new paper by OneUpWeb examined that very question and came up with a resounding answer: It's all about measurability.

    Paid search offers unprecedented ability to measure, and the nature of the platform enables companies to quickly adjust campaigns according to analytical data or market conditions. Additionally, upfront costs are low because PPC ads are so darn cheap to create.

    "We found, among all of our clients, that paid search improves lead generation and customer traffic. It increases conversion rates and suggested sales, and even improves brand recognition," said OneUpWeb's CEO Lisa Wehr. "Paid search is a win-win proposition."

    According to the paper, paid search accounts for more than three times the dollar revenue of classified ads, the nearest online marketing format. In 2007, paid search claimed 48 percent of the total U.S. online ad spend. In 2006, paid search grew 32.2 percent, while traditional media grew just .5 percent.

    Managing PPC campaigns can be tricky. Last week, Marty Weintraub examined how to conduct PPC triage on a dying AdWords account. One of his conclusions was to integrate with natural search strategies, something OneUpWeb also found.

    "When integrated with a natural search engine optimization (SEO) campaign, and overall marketing plan, it will return more for every dollar spent," said Wehr.

    Posted by Nathania Johnson on 11:57 AM | Permalink

    adCenter Cooks Up a New Community Site

    What do you get when you mix œ cup of paid search with Œ cup of blogs, Œ cup of videos and a dash of user profiles? The new adCenterCommunity.com is fresh out of the oven and it is a new PPC cake with Social Media icing.

    adCenter has created one home for marketers, developers and analytics users. Not only will customers participate in communication with adCenter staff, but they will now have the ability to mingle with other adCenter customers as well. The new forums will help facilitate discussions about all things adCenter, from the advertising platform to the API.

    "In order to contribute to our credo of delivering world class service, we have been working diligently to deliver an online experience that enables our advertisers through a variety of interactive communication channels," wrote the adCenter team in an email announcing the new site.

    Posted by Nathania Johnson on 10:56 AM | Permalink

    Craigslist Ruling: Does This Extend To Our Paid Ads?

    A recent ruling in Craigslist's favor may let our paid ad suppliers rest a bit easier, as they are all advertising conduits. Google already states that it's not liable for ads it serves, and this ruling provides ancillary support.

    On Friday, a long-standing case against Craigslist came to a close when the U.S. Appellate Court ruled they aren't liable for discrimination as an advertising conduit. Two years ago, the Chicago Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law filed a suit which accused Craigslist of posting discriminatory ads under the Fair Housing Act.

    According to the ruling, “Doubtless Craigslist plays a causal role in the sense that no one could post a discriminatory ad if Craigslist did not offer a forum. That is not, however, a useful definition of cause….it cannot sue the messenger just because the message reveals a third party's plan to engage in unlawful discrimination.”

    If some ad seems objectionable, we can flag it and Craigslist will respond and remove the ad. They cannot, however, be held responsible for the classifieds themselves and are not equipped to review all ads before they are posted.

    Perhaps Google and Yahoo attorneys are pleased with this ruling, too. As ad networks, they cannot be expected to review all ads through their systems either. They do have some complaint systems in place, especially for trademarks. There's no external flagging system for ads which have been purchased through them.

    One level removed, publishers who use ad feeds should look at their fine print. Google and Yahoo say they are not liable for the ads they show. In turn, this means publishers are not liable either. Try telling that to a complaining visitor who doesn't like a particular ad that shows up on your site? Well, that's for another day.

    Posted by on 10:16 AM | Permalink

    Search Spend Seems Healthy Despite Slowing Economy

    Despite an increasingly gloomy economic forecast, spending on search engine marketing continues to grow beyond expectations. Preliminary results of the 2007 State of the Market Survey were released today at Search Engine Strategies New York by SEMPO, the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization.

    According to the survey, search engine marketing spending exceeded projections in 2007, and marketers say they will continue to increase their spend on search, which would lead to continued healthy growth. One caveat: if there's no inventory to buy as a result of a recession or economic downturn, it won't matter what marketers say they want to do.

    While some of the increasing spending is new ad dollars, some of it is the result of shifting marketing dollars from other offline and online marketing endeavors, with offline ads the biggest losers.

    SEMPO 2007 State of the Market Survey

    Search is taking spending away from things like magazines, direct mail and newspapers moreso than TV, which is a bit puzzling, says Kevin Lee, executive chairman of Didit and co-chair of SEMPO's research committee.

    "I'm surprised we're not seeing as big a shift from TV. Search is getting more budget from offline media that are usually used to narrow-cast, instead of TV and radio, which are broadcast media," Lee said. "It doesn't make a lot of sense, but maybe it's because it's being moved from something niche-y to something else that's niche-y? As search becomes more recognized as something that brand advertisers can use, I'd expect to see more TV and radio dollars shift as well."

    Respondents are expecting to increase their search spend this year, due to factors like advertiser demand; rising costs of keywords and pay-per-click campaigns; an increase in the number of small-to-midsized businesses using search engine marketing; and greater consumer participation in search and increased interest in targeting, such as behavioral and demographic targeting of searchers.

    Key preliminary findings include:


    • The North American SEM industry grew from $9.4 billion in 2006 to $12.2 billion in 2007, exceeding earlier projections of $11.5 billion for 2007

    • North American SEM spending is now projected to grow to $25.2 billion in 2011, up significantly from the $18.6 billion forecast a year ago.

    • Marketers are finding more search dollars by poaching budget from print magazine spending, web site development, direct mail and other marketing programs.

    • Paid placement captures 87.4% of 2007 spending; organic SEO, 10.5%; paid inclusion, .07%, and technology investment, 1.4%.

    • Google AdWords remains the most popular search advertising program, but both Google and Yahoo sponsored search spending has decreased from a year ago.

    SEMPO will present more detailed findings from the study on Thursday at the SES New York conference.

    Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 9:24 AM | Permalink

    Are Search Jobs Recession-Proof? If So, How Do You Get One?

    In the past, traditional marketing budgets and jobs have been among the first to be cut whenever the economy hits a rough patch. So what should those marketing folks do this time around? One option is to come join their search marketing brethren, since search is expected to weather the coming economic storm better than most forms of marketing or advertising.

    In today's SearchDay, "Finding Recession-Proof SEM Jobs," Greg Jarboe shows that search engine marketing jobs and budgets really are recession-proof, and that going to SES New York this week may help traditional marketers get through the roughest economic times since World War II.

    Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 3:44 AM | Permalink

    SEW Experts: Tips for Google Site and Category Exclusion Tool

    Google has launched an important new tool that prevents your Content Ads from showing on poorly-performing sites: the Category Exclusion tool. In today's Content Advertising column, "Tips for Google Site and Category Exclusion Tool," David Szetela shares some best practices for using the tool to exclude whole swaths of site types that are not likely to convert for your site. Share your thoughts on this new tool for AdWords in the Search Engine Watch Forums.

    Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink

    March 16, 2008

    Andrew Weatherwax of Global Strategies at SES London 2008

    Andy Weatherwax, a Partner and the Director of Search Operations at Global Strategies Intl., spoke at the Big Site, Big Search session at SES London 2008, which looked at the problems and solutions unique to those running big sites or from big companies and brands.

    I interviewed Andy about the session, which tackled tough questions like: "How do you cope with doing search engine optimization for a company with tens of divisions, hundreds of products, thousands of web pages and seemingly no way to bring order to the chaos?" and "Where do you begin with the SEO process?"


    Andrew Weatherwax Global Strategies Intl. at SES London 2008

    If you don't know him yet, Andy Weatherwax is a founding partner of Global Strategies International (GSI) and has served as embedded search consultant on accounts including Nokia, BP, Cisco and Kodak. A specialist in the area of enterprise CMS configuration and Consumer Intent Modeling, he is currently working with clients and their agencies to leverage search in the marketing mix.

    Prior to Global Strategies, Andy was owner of BrainBug Internet Marketing, an award winning digital marketing consultancy providing online marketing strategy for clients including MetLife, Konica Minolta, Pfizer, WebMD and Priceline. In 2003, he was contracted by Position Technologies to develop the user experience design for Yahoo/Overture Site Match and Site Match Exchange.

    A frequent speaker at industry conferences, Andy has been involved in online marketing since 1995. He has been the recipient of many prestigious awards for digital design including the Codie Award.

    When he is not working, Andy can be found off-shore sailing or playing music. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Jazz Studies from the Hartt School of Music.

    You can view other video interviews from SES London 2008 at the Search Engine Strategies Conference & Expo channel on YouTube.

    Posted by Greg Jarboe on 10:13 PM | Permalink

    Mike Grehan of Acronym Media discusses SES London 2008

    Mike Grehan, the Global KDM Officer at Acronym Media and Co-chair of SES London 2008, was one of the hardest working people at the event.

    He moderated 11 sessions: the Organic Listings Forum; Search Around the World - Part Two: Europe and the Americas; Landing Page Testing & Tuning; Converting Visitors into Buyers; European Search Marketing Case Studies; Linking Strategies; Meet the Crawlers; Dynamic Websites: Beyond the Basics; Search Advertising Clinic; My SEM Toolbox; and Web Analytics & Measuring Success Overview.

    Oh, and he also spoke on the Orion Panel about Universal, Blended and Vertical Search, as well as at the Keynote Roundtable on The Changing Search World.

    Mike is also an expert SEM writer for the ClickZ Network. No wonder his latest column is entitled, How to Avoid a Crash Landing.

    I caught up with Mike while he was taking a short break to catch his breath to interview him about the show and the industry for the new Search Engine Strategies (SES) Conferences & Expos channel on YouTube.


    Mike Grehan, Acronym, on SES London 2008

    Acronym Media recently announced the appointment of Mike Grehan as Global KDM Officer, as in "keyword-driven marketing." It's a newly-created senior executive position with worldwide management responsibilities. Mike will share his time between New York City and the U.K., guiding development of Acronym's new operations around the globe, with particular focus on Europe and Asia Pacific regions.

    Mike was also appointed to Acronym's five-member executive board and given broad responsibilities to drive the Agency's global growth and strategy development for key clients, including SAP, Nokia, BMW, HP, and Four Seasons Hotels.

    Mike has executive experience with the industry's leading SEM firms and is recognized as a foremost SEM expert. He is the author of multiple books and white papers on the topic, and his best-selling second edition of Search Engine Marketing: The Essential Best Practice Guide received more plaudits from the industry's leading players than any other book on the subject.

    In 2004, Mike was voted one of the U.K.'s Top 100 Influential People in Internet Marketing for the previous decade in a poll of online marketer E-consultancy's 22,000 U.K. members. He is also a sought-after conference speaker, and his own personal newsletter has attracted over 17,000 subscribers.

    He will be moderating three sessions at the Search Engine Strategies conference in New York: The Organic Listings Forum; The Orion Panel on Universal Search; and Meet the Crawlers. In addition, Acronym Media will be an exhibitor at SES New York 2008 at Booth #134, located in the Rhinelander Gallery.

    Posted by Greg Jarboe on 10:12 PM | Permalink

    Liana Evans of KeyRelevance at Search Engine Strategies London

    Liana "Li" Evans of KeyRelevance spoke at three sessions during last month's Search Engine Strategies conference in London: Images and Search Engines, Social Search Overview, and Search Marketing in Regulated Industries.

    When she wasn't speaking, Li was blogging about the event for Search Marketing Gurus, one of the event's 10 media partners, saying, "SES London 08: The Best SES in a Long Time." Oh, she was also taking about 300 photos, winning one of the prizes in our Flickr photo sharing awards for SES London 2008.


    Liana Evans, KeyRelevance, on SMO at SES London 2008

    If you haven't encountered Li Evans yet, she is the director of Internet marketing at KeyRelevance. Since 1999, Li has been active in the search marketing arena, becoming well-versed in all avenues of search marketing, with a particular focus on natural search optimization, vertical search, social media, and word-of-mouth marketing. She has also become well-versed in areas of the retail industry that are regulated by the FTC.

    Li helped to design, plan, and implement an Internet Retailer 500 company's efforts into natural search optimization, totally revamping out-of-date navigation and site architecture, with very successful results. Since 1992 Liana has been active in the technology fields, being both a well-versed programmer and database programmer/designer, which lends well to her technical expertise in dealing with large-scale retail sites and their dynamic natures.

    Li will also be speaking at SES New York 2008 about Successful Tactics for Social Media Optimization (SMO) and Images & Search Engines. And she's already shared 9 Networking Tips to Use at SES NYC or Any Conference at Search Marketing Gurus.

    Posted by Greg Jarboe on 10:11 PM | Permalink

    Lee Odden of TopRank Online Marketing at SES London 2008

    Lee Odden, the CEO of TopRank Online Marketing, spoke at the News Search Engine Optimization as well as the Blog & RSS Search Engine Optimization sessions at SES London 2008. He also moderated the one that I covered in "Online Reputation Management Requires Cabinet War Rooms."

    In his spare time, he did a video interview with Adam Lasnik of Google, posted photos from SES London, and covered the "Beyond Linkbait: Getting Authoritative Online Mentions" session on his Online Marketing Blog.

    Somewhere in the middle of all this, he found time to be interviewed for our new SES Conference Expo channel on YouTube.

    Lee Odden, TopRank Online Marketing, at SES London 2008

    For those of you who haven't met him yet, Lee Odden is a 10+ year Internet marketing veteran and of TopRank Online Marketing. Recognized by MarketingSherpa and topseos.com, TopRank helps Fortune 500 companies with Internet marketing consulting, training, and implementation services.

    Lee has been cited in numerous books and industry publications, including The Economist and DM News on the topics of search, social media, and online public relations. He also publishes the Online Marketing Blog, ranked as one of the top 10 marketing blogs online by Advertising Age.

    Lee is a regular speaker at Search Engine Strategies, WebmasterWorld Pubcon, DMA Annual Conference, Media Relations Summit, PRSA International Conference, and Mediapost's Search Insider Summit. At SES New York 2008, he's speaking at the session, Beyond Linkbait: Getting Authoritative Online Mentions, and will be moderating the Podcast & Audio Search Optimization session.

    Posted by Greg Jarboe on 10:10 PM | Permalink

    Radio Embraces Search Marketing

    At last week's Radio Convergence meeting, the movers and shakers from radio's digital arena were on hand to discuss their challenges -- and their need to embrace online and search marketing.

    "Radio has to start believing that the Internet is real," said Reed Bunzel, CEO of TheRadio.com. Until recently, radio management considered their station websites as complementary marketing vehicles that supported on-air listeners. That has begun to change already.

    The largest radio station groups are very tuned into their online opportunities, with both traffic and ad dollars as key priorities. When it comes to radio stations, search marketing tops the list now. To grow traffic, these groups are focused on SEO and SEM rather than more limited on-air promotions. It's more than a local play, too.

    Monetize Streams: Based on new listeners, these groups want to increase audio streams. Andrew Lindenauer, VP Operations at CBS Radio's Digital Media Group, declared “the player is the portal.” He showed the new player that enables listeners to navigate among all the CBS and AOL stations. Due the recent CBS-AOL deal, where CBS will manage the AOL stations, he expects to double their online audience and ad inventory.

    Emmis, Clear Channel and Entercom digital heads also are focused on audio streams and monetizing those streams. They admit their ad inventories are not sold out, and imply their online sales operations are just starting up. All the groups are turning their attention to a mix of direct sales and ad networks.

    Avoid Meatball Sundaes: Industry prognosticator Kurt Hanson introduced the Meatball Sundae problem that we all know about at SEW. Radio station sites have bolted on various online features that didn't draw traffic, like trying to sell music downloads. They need to stick to their strengths related to programming, content and personalities.

    I think the major groups are pushing forward and realize they have good intellectual property that's worth leveraging online. News and sports stations are blessed with strong coverage that can be streamed and re-purposed. Coupled with online-only resources, stations like WINS.com handily compete with local TV stations and newspapers for visitors.

    Music stations have their place too, by reaching new listeners who are attracted to their formats online. They can expand the presence of their personalities, and some stations are even encouraging their jocks to create more community presence by blogging there. Other stations have podcasts of the jocks, to encourage time-shifted listening as well.

    It's About Survival: The radio groups are aware of what's ahead, and feel that online listeners will surpass off-line in the very near future. At the Convergence meeting, there were some off-handed remarks about learning from their local newspaper breathren, who have been hit with revenue challenges even more quickly than radio.

    Radio stations seem ready to work on the inevitable cannibalization issues -- and it will be interesting to track their revenue growth online as these digital radio heads push forward.

    Posted by on 6:20 PM | Permalink

    March 14, 2008

    Et Tu Google? Ides Of March Sees Ad Manager Launch

    While Google CEO Eric Schmidt claims the possible merger of Yahoo and Microsoft could break the Internet, the launch of yet another free service - the new Ad Manager they are now beta testing - seems to be more of a threat.

    "It's an unstable situation. But the theoretical issue is the concentration of Microsoft's resources and its history, combined with the very large share that it would have in certain applications—like instant messaging and email—that could be used essentially to break the internet and diminish choice," Schmidt told Portfolio.com.

    Obviously Google does not think they are hurting the entrepreneurial spirit of the web.

    Combined Yahoo and Microsoft hold less search share than Google. Giving away services that companies have their entire online business income based on seems more of a threat.

    You have to figure the ad server firms will now be complaining to the analytics companies about the impact of Google on their livelihood.

    So I guess the Ides of March will no longer be remembered just as the day Julius Caesar was killed, but also the day the ad server industry was also knifed in the back.

    ""The quick appearance of this new service may be an indication of how well matched the two companies' offerings are to begin with. Ad Manager isn't the sort of product that occurred to Google after it announced its intention to acquire the company. This has probably been on the drawing board since before the deal was publicly discussed. Now that the acquisition is complete, Google was prepared to roll it out very quickly -- in less than 72 hours after the deal closed," Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT Research told NewsFactor.com.

    The impact on the ad server industry should be another of the hot topics being discussed during next week's SES conference in New York.

    PS: Even the NY Times sees something in this new launch, they wrote an article called Google's Trojan Horse: Let The Free Ad Serving Begin!

    Posted by Frank Watson on 5:15 PM | Permalink

    Social Media: Find Out Which 50% of Your Budget Is Wasted

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    The Social Search Track is only one of five choices conference attendees have at SES New York. It's all good.

    So to draw a crowd to Social Search: The Next Step panel I'm moderating on Wednesday, March 19th we've added a new panelist. Someone you've never heard before.

    That's right: a corporate marketing executive who will cut through the noise and hype about Facebook, StumbleUpon, Twitter, Digg --and tell you what works and what doesn't.

    Meet Erik Qualman. Global VP Marketing.

    He'll tell you where you need to invest your marketing budget next -- and where you're wasting your money to keep up with the cool kids.

    No pitching. No selling.

    If you think you're a social media guru--or a novice learning the ropes--you'll have a chance to grill Erik during the extended Q&A.

    If you're a brave SMM, SMO, SEO, SEM -- you'd better be there. You may never live to sell another day. Erik''s a Spartan. After this session, you WILL remember the Spartans. As moderator, I'm hoping "mob rule" will take over my SES session SXSW style -- where the audience rules.

    No videos, no cameras, no cellphones. No Tweets.

    Only the first 500 people will be let in.

    Live bloggers? You may be banned.

    Posted by Kevin Heisler on 5:01 PM | Permalink

    Google Interview: CEO Eric Schmidt All Over Microsoft?

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    Google CEO Eric Schmidt is all over Microsoft -- but not as in "the Fat Lady sings."

    He foresees Microsoft breaking the Internet: not crushing competitors -- literally obliterating the Internet. Schmidt's "not aware" of a Google proposal to buy the New York Times but "doesn't rule anything out."

    Russ Mitchell's Portfolio interview with Google CEO Eric Schmidt is a must-read.

    Read it now -- or this weekend -- before you arrive in NYC for SES -- or follow the conference via live blogging and video interviews.

    Schmidt says that the "concentration of Microsoft's resources and its history, combined with the very large share that it would have in certain applications—like instant messaging and email—that could be used essentially to break the internet and diminish choice."

    The entire April issue will be online Monday -- the first day of Search Engine Strategies New York -- with Portfolio magazine on newsstands in New York on Wednesday, April 19th -- day 3 of SES New York.

    Portfolio blogger Kevin Maney says "Google has won" -- except Eric Schmidt doesn't know it.

    Posted by Kevin Heisler on 3:13 PM | Permalink

    Microsoft & Yahoo - Shotgun Wedding

    I have been following the unfolding developments regarding Microsoft/Yahoo since they were announced with only mild interest. This is not because the potential alliance would not have an effect on the industry - clearly it would shake things up quite a bit. But there has been actually very little of interest since the initial buyout proposal. Despite the posturing on all sides, events have unfolded in an entirely predictable manner. In the latest development, Nathania Johnson blogged about Yahoo! Goes on a Date with Microsoft, and wondered if there would be a second date to follow.

    To me, there is no drama. This is not a first date - it's a shotgun wedding.

    The only reason that two companies with such completely different philosophies and business cultures would even consider such a deal is because they have no choice. Yahoo!Search (Overture/GoTo) was an early innovator in the PPC space, but has clearly fallen behind. Microsoft was late to the party, and is once again finding it hard to establish dominance in the Internet arena (outside of its comfortable desktop monopoly).

    There may be more posturing in the next few weeks, with crying, chest beating, and histrionics. But the final act has already been written. The only question to be settled is how many goats and chickens Yahoo will get in the dowry. The alternative for both companies in the search advertising arena is unthinkable: to languish and lose market share as perennial also-rans to Google.

    Posted by Tim Ash on 1:46 PM | Permalink

    The Inside Track on Priceline and Google

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    Priceline CMO Brett Kellner joined us this week at Google's New York headquarters (via conference call) to chat about travel trends in vertical search, the robust health of paid search (PPC) campaigns, and integrating online and offline advertising campaigns.

    Last year I predicted 2008 would the year CMOs "get search."

    Brett, who leads one of the world's most successful online pureplays, "got search" years ago. His leadership in vertical search is one of the reasons why so many of his peers have started to see the value of search-driven branding and direct marketing campaigns.

    While many CMOs are only starting to ask their VP or director of marketing how search works, Priceline has already started testing Google audio ads and Google TV ads. The early results? All good.

    Brett didn't try to sell us anything at Google. He didn't even mention the upcoming launch of Priceline's new vertical search innovation: Inside Track. So when HotelMarketing.com broke the news about Priceline's Inside Track "search agent" we thought Brett and William Shatner deserve a plug.

    Priceline has launched Inside Track, a new tool that allows users to create a personalized airline ticket "scout." You can see the top 50 biggest savings routes for Priceline's Name Your Own Price.

    The tool also provides analysis of best days to travel as well as notifications of increases in decreases in airline prices in a given city. This will allow users to act on price changes as they occur instead of being tied to submitted travel terms.

    SEW Blogger Nathania Johnson visited Inside Track and found it not unlike a financial services Web site with stock tickers (with the exception of William Shatner greeting Nathania upon arrival).

    Clicking on a city pulls up a list of destinations served by that city. Next to it are up and down arrows showing whether prices to that location are rising or falling and by how much. Very cool dashboard that shows price changes and trends by top city pair.

    Here's Brett's official statement: "With Inside Track, priceline.com delivers the kind of comprehensive market-wide price trend functionality consumers have come to expect from Web 2.0 travel applications, plus the savings that are unique to priceline.com due to our elimination of booking fees on published fares and our Name Your Own Price airline ticketing service."

    For the business traveler with flexibility, vertical travel search engines now provide ultimate transparency into the yield management systems of airlines.

    We really do set our own prices. Online travel is a 24/7 real-time auction - and the forerunner of Google's paid search algorithm and Yahoo/Overture's innovative keyword auction.

    The launch of Priceline's Inside Track comes on the heels of an announcement by Virgin founder Sir Richard Branson of Virgin Charter, a vertical search engine that is targeted towards high-end corporate and last-minute airline customers.

    Posted by Kevin Heisler on 1:38 PM | Permalink

    SES NY Foosball Challenge

    Come join us at the Stone Temple Consulting "Foosball Challenge". We are giving away a pair of iPod Touch's to the team (one per player) that does the best against us. Each team will get to play one game to 5 against us, and the highest score against us wins (note that if several teams tie for the best result against us we will do a drawing to determine the winner). No player can play on more than 1 team.

    Just come to Booth #2033 in America's Hall 2 during the Networking Reception on Tuesday night. We will be there from 5:45 pm until 7:00 pm. If you find us earlier in the day Tuesday we can play then as well, but we may or may not be there and we are giving the iPod Touch's away at the end of the reception so stop by before then!

    Fair warning - in 1984 I held a World Championship title in foosball, and my partner, John Biundo, is a better player than I am right now. However, we are going to play to have fun.

    It's free to play, it's fun, and you have nothing to lose. Even if you nave never played in a tournament, you could end up winning yourself an iPod Touch. Come on down and give it a shot!

    You can see more about the SES NY foosball event here.

    Posted by on 1:34 PM | Permalink

    PPC Triage Now! Emergency Action Steps for Dying AdWords

    ppc-triageLately prospective clients have been coming around with extremely colorful and eerily similar Google PPC disaster stories. Cost are skyrocketing, conversions are plummeting, and attaining decent paid rankings is difficult or impossible. This threatens the viability of PPC itself as a marketing strategy.

    At least a dozen potential PPC client-portfolios have meandered across my desk this month with these exact symptoms, usually with a precipitous decline over the last 6-8 months.

    There’s a shortage of qualified PPC professionals out there in the streets, so it might take a little time to find a vendor who’s a great fit for your firm. The purpose of this post is to provide immediate tactics for in-house marketers running PPC, to stem the downward spiral immediately.

    There are many excellent authors writing about PPC tactics and techniques. Next week, Search Engine Strategies NYC has quite a few sessions which are well worth the investment.  Much has changed in the paid search world over the last year, rendering many (or most) set-it-and-forget-it PPC campaigns neutered. Here’s a 15 minute checklist of Emergency action items which will likely impact your bottom line immediately to help right the ship.

    1   Check the landing page SEO. I know, that sounds counter-intuitive. SEO is only about organic search right? This is not so anymore. Whereas “bid” used to equal any given ad’s position on the paid SERPS, now the ever-imposing “Quality Score” (Q-Score) + “bid” equals position. Q-Score at it’s most basic level is Google’s algorithmic assessment of the relevancy-relationship between your keywords, ad copy and landing page. The Q-Score impacts the cost of placing your ads higher on the paid SERPS.

    Go back to your SEO roots on the landing page. Check the landing page copy, which is more commonly associated with organic optimization. These days the landing page portion, of what are several Q-scores, is less stringent (Google decides yes/no on relevancy). Make PPC landing pages directly correlate to the AdGroup’s keywords and ad copy.  An excellent approach is to optimize the landing pages for keywords in the referring AdGroup with the highest Click-through Ratio (CTR).

    Certainly include the ad copy and the most important keywords from the AdGroup on the landing page. It’s even a great choice to put the Ad headline in the landing page’s HTML Title Tag. If it’s emergency-time and PPC is tanking, take the approach that multiple AdGroups require multiple landing pages. Even if the algorithm does need read a particular SEO attribute, results could be affected as pertain to human behavior if not Q-Score. Finally, be advised that Google has recently announced that PPC landing page load times will soon affect the Q-Score.

    2   Tighten up the relationships between AdGroups and the keywords within. One way to immediately move the needle is by segmenting the AdGroups to where every keyword is in the ad copy itself.  For instance, say the AdGroup is “Coupons” and contain keyword permutations of “Printable Coupons,” “Downloadable Coupons,” and “Food Coupons.” Create separate AdGroups to house each set of permutations.  To clarify now we’re talking about the “Printable Coupons,” “Downloadable Coupons,” and “Food Coupons” AdGroups. It then becomes easy to craft ad copy which literally contains every keyword in the group.

    Combine the technique of hyper-focused AdGroups with landing page optimization and there lies the makings of a significantly improved Q-Score. This will lower costs, help attain higher ad placement on the paid SERPs, and increase CTR. It may just stem the decline in itself. Also users are more likely to convert, since the landing page is tightly focused to the incoming keyword query.

    Another added benefit to this thinking is potential organic prominence for your PPC landing pages, provided there is a link-path from the homepage drilling into the PPC landing page. Landing pages can be placed at any level on the site. It’s not uncommon for PPC landing pages to be “makers” organically on the heels of this approach.

    Google’s never ending quest to improve the relevancy of paid SERPs has led us all to work harder to improve Q-Score. In light of declining PPC effectiveness, take these steps to set things straight. As with all-things-SEM, there are basic best practices to undertake as first steps in every case. In Pay per Click, focusing landing page SEO and AdGroup segmentation should be the first emergency actions undertaken in set up or as effectiveness of an existing campaign plummets.

    Posted by Marty Weintraub on 12:28 PM | Permalink

    Revised Google Quality Rater Guidlines Surface

    Updates to the Google Quality Rater guidelines have popped up, and Brian Ussery has written up a nice summary of the revised standards.

    There's good news for those who have embraced social media. It seems Google feels that the elements on blogs and social network sites like MySpace should be ranked as relevant. The language of this particular guideline is geared more towards individuals, though companies can encourage their employees to utilize sites like LinkedIn to gain further visibility in search results. This may also help with online reputation management if it pushes third party sites and reviews down further in the results.

    E-tailers will also want to take note of guidelines for how raters consider commerce sites. Shopping carts, return policies, shipping calculators, and gift registries are among the features raters should look for when rating a site as relevant. This is to distinguish e-commerce from "thin affiliates."

    Thin affiliates are considered to be sites that offer no value to visitors. They simply contain links to merchants where they can then purchase a product advertised by the thin affiliate. This is deemed spam in the rater's guidelines. However, affiliate sites that offer reviews, price comparisons or some other value-add to featured products or services are ok.

    Though, Philipp Lenssen points out parked domains are met with a bit of "do as I say and not as I do" philosophy. While the guidelines mark parked domains as spam, Google maintains its DomainPark program, which allows domain owners to slap a page full of Adsense on their sites.

    The updated version of the standards was released in April 2007, which preceded a heightened effort by Google to crack down on paid links.

    Posted by Nathania Johnson on 10:15 AM | Permalink

    Yahoo! Goes on a Date with Microsoft

    Just one week after cozying up to AOL, Yahoo met with its patient suitor, Microsoft. While arrangements for the highly anticipated union were reportedly discussed, no bankers were in attendance to negotiate Yahoo's dowry.

    Meanwhile, some analysts are wondering if Microsoft will leave its bride at the altar. But Steve Ballmer has been telling anyone who will listen how Yahoo is central to Microsoft's goal to catch Google. With first quarter revenues to be announced soon, pressure is mounting on Yahoo to make a decision about the $44.6 billion bid.

    If its advertising executives keep jumping ship (or are pushed?), as Steve Berkowitz and now Joanne Bradford have, Microsoft may start thinking twice about upping its offer to Yahoo just to replenish its ad-focused brainpower.

    No word yet on a second date.

    Posted by Nathania Johnson on 10:03 AM | Permalink

    SEW Experts: Defining Yourself Through Search

    Your online persona is defined by what shows up in the search results. What do the SERPs say about you? In today's SEM Agency Issues column, "Defining Yourself Through Search," William Flaiz shows that personal reputation management is just as important to a business professional as corporate reputation management.

    Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink

    SEW Experts: Making the Most of a Search Marketing Conference

    If you're heading to SES New York next week, you should be preparing your questions for speakers now. In today's SEM Crossfire column, "Making the Most of a Search Marketing Conference," Chris Boggs explains how being bold, creative, and persistent, will help you get the most you can out of the conference.

    Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink

    SEW Experts: Universal Pictures Part II: Sizing up the Local Video Market

    Last month, we looked at the opportunity for SMBs to use universal search to their advantage by producing and distributing online video. But what is the size of this local video market? In today's Vertical Search column, "Universal Pictures Part II: Sizing up the Local Video Market," local search expert Michael Boland crunches the numbers to define how much of the overall video ad market is also local.

    Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink

    March 13, 2008

    American Express Advises Clients to Avoid SEO

    Interesting that an American Express Web site was the subject of a Search Engine Watch Experts site clinic last month.

    The current edition of AMEX's 'A Practical Guide for Business Growth' cautions its readers against seeking professional search engine optimization help for their websites, advising them not to "waste money on so-called Search Engine Optimization (SEO) specialists"

    Seems they took their own advice - to their detriment. When you search credit cards AMEX is not in the page one organic listings.

    In the site clinic SEW Expert Mark Jackson points out that although they have decent title tags the content is in Flash so it does not support the tags.

    "American Express could do a lot better with their SEO efforts," said Mark. "Too bad (according to their public affairs contact) they believe SEO is a matter of "opinion."

    At the PRSA "State of the State of PR" event held in January, search was singled out as the one area that PR people really don't understand. That would certainly seem to be the case here.

    PRSA is making an effort to educate theri members - they hold regular teleseminars about how to use SEO for PR. So does Bulldog Reporter's PR University.

    Apart from the obvious business benefits of being found on page one in the organic listings, the PR and brand value of the text in those listings is definitely a communication function.

    Perhaps AMEX feels SEO is not important. After all, when you search American Express you're not liikely to find competitors. But they do seem to think that page one on a search engine is a good place to be - they have the top sponsored ad when you search credti card. But their site does not show up on page one in the organic listings.

    I wonder how much those ads are costing them? I'll bet it's less than the cost of a good SEO expert! And I wonder how they'd feel if they looked at the eye track study on how people view a search page and where they click.

    Posted by on 8:53 PM | Permalink

    Press release about AOL acquiring Bebo ranks #1 in Techmeme

    Nathania Johnson did a great job earlier today covering the news about the AOL acquisition of Bebo for $850 million cash. But, there's a follow-up story that Drew Kerr over at Four Corners Communications has brought to my attention.

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    Drew emailed me to say, "The PRESS RELEASE carried on Business Wire -- not a news article, of AOL's acquisition of social search engine company Bebo -- is the top item on Techmeme's site today."

    He added, "Here's another example of how Techmeme, the highly popular news aggregator among the tech community and tech bloggers, continues to recognize and display Business Wire content as a leading news source."

    Once upon a time, you might have seen something similar in Google News. As I reported in "Beyond Beta: Google News Graduates" back in January 2006, Krishna Bharat, the creator of Google News, wrote in January 2006, "We've certainly gotten a lot of feedback from both readers and editors. For example, readers told us they loved the news clusters but they didn't want press releases on the home page (although they are still useful to have in the search results)."

    So, Techmeme seems to be taking a different path. Will it last?

    Only if press releases meet the high standard set by Ivy Lee in his "Declaration of Principles" issued more than 100 years ago. The so-called father of modern PR said back then, "This is not a secret press bureau. All our work is done in the open. We aim to supply news. If you think any of our matter ought properly to go to your business office, do not use it."

    His Declaration of Principles added, "Our matter is accurate. Further details on any subject treated will be supplied promptly, and any editor will be assisted most cheerfully in verifying directly any statement of fact. In brief, our plan is, frankly and openly, on behalf of business concerns and public institutions, to supply to the press and public of the United States prompt and accurate information concerning subjects which it is of value and interest to the public to know about."

    So, can the vast majority of PR people live by these rules today? Let's wait and see. The jury is out, but I expect a verdict shortly.

    Posted by Greg Jarboe on 3:59 PM | Permalink

    Yahoo to Begin Indexing Microformats

    As part of its move toward a more open search platform, Yahoo announced today that it will begin supporting microformats and other semantic Web standards. Site owners can markup pages with microformats like hCard, hCalendar, hReview, hAtom and XFN to the HTML code on a page, or create structured feeds using RDF.

    By implementing these open standards, site owners can classify certain elements on the page as contact information, events, reviews, episodic content, etc. Yahoo can take the structured content and more easily incorporate it into their index.

    Sites like LinkedIn are already using microformats, but there is currently no incentive for site owners to do so, according to Amit Kumar, director of product management for Yahoo Search.

    "The data is already there, we just need to give people a reason to identify it. Content owners want to expose their structured data, but so far there's been no killer consumer application giving them a reason to do it. Search can be that killer app," Kumar said.

    yahoo-linkedin

    By marking up a page with microformats, Yahoo can better index the content and its relationship to other parts of the site. Yahoo will then be able to surface that content in more relevant ways, such as with the upcoming "Search Monkey" platform that will allow site owners to build plug-ins for Yahoo Search that will enhance the site owner's listing in Yahoo's search results.

    Search Monkey will be the first use of structured data by Yahoo, but they could potentially be used to affect other parts of the search results or ranking algorithms in the future, according to Kumar. Yahoo will provide more details at an upcoming developer conference it's planning in the coming weeks.

    Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 11:00 AM | Permalink

    Andrew Goodman Talks About SES Toronto at SES London

    In this video interview at SES London 2008, Andrew Goodman, the Principal of Page Zero Media, talks about the implications of Google's increasing ability to drive traffic to YouTube and other vertical search sites that it owns, as well as his plans for Search Engine Strategies Toronto, which will be held June Jun 17-18, 2008.

    Goodman, who was a speaker on the Orion Panel about Universal Search at the SES London event, will also be a speaker at the session on Ad Testing: Research & Findings at SES New York. Recently, he also weighed in on the subject, "What Would a Yahoo-Microsoft Merger Look Like? Part 3."

    So, this short interview covers only some of the serious issues that he's tackled lately.


    Andrew Goodman, PageZero, SES London 2008 Universal Search

    Andrew Goodman is founder of Toronto-based Page Zero Media, a marketing agency which focuses on ROI-driven paid search and custom online marketing plans. He is also co-founder of Traffick.com, an award-winning industry commentary site.

    In addition, Andrew is author of Winning Results with Google AdWords (McGraw-Hill, 2005; 2nd ed. October 2007); and frequently quoted in publications like The Wall Street Journal, National Post, New York Times, Globe and Mail, and New Media Age. He has spoken and moderated at some 20 Search Engine Strategies conferences around the world.

    His spare-time eccentricities include rollerblading without kneepads and naming his Japanese maples (Bob and Cindy). He's also recently undergone a naming conundrum, working as chief content producer for a startup in user-generated content (currently named HomeStars). He lives in Toronto with wife Carolyn.

    You can check out other interviews from SES London on YouTube at the Search Engine Strategies (SES) Conferences & Expos channel.

    Posted by Greg Jarboe on 10:19 AM | Permalink

    Matt Bailey Discusses SEO, SEM and OSU at SES

    Matt Bailey of SiteLogic found a way to work OSU into a discussion of SEO and SEM at SES London last month. Now, I don't object when he gets feisty about topics like Search Engine Visibility and Site Crawlability, as he did at SES Chicago last December. But, he knows I'm a Wolverine from the University of Michigan. And, when he gets feisty about the Ohio State Buckeyes, I have to draw the line.

    And redraw the line. And then wear a Buckeye sweatshirt whenever my team loses the annual Big 10 football showdown. Hey, people are starting to say I'm "sartorially challenged."

    So, ignore the part of the interview about what I'll be wearing again this year. Instead, listen to what Matt has to say about the Search & Analytics Workshop that he'll be teaching at SES New York next week. Despite (or because of) the fact that he's from Ohio, he actually does have a lot of interesting things to say about using analytics to increase search effectiveness.


    Matt Bailey, SiteLogic, at SES London 2008 on Networking

    Matthew Bailey is president and founder of SiteLogic Marketing and an internationally-recognized authority on search engine marketing, website analytics, usability, and accessibility. As a consulting and training company, SiteLogic focuses on helping organizations take control of their websites and their web marketing plans.

    Sought after worldwide as a seminar presenter and teacher, Matt speaks regularly for The Direct Marketing Association, Search Engine Strategies conferences and training classes, the American Advertising Federation, and many private training seminars. Matt is known for his conversational, entertaining speaking style and his ability to make technical topics both understandable and practical.

    Matt oversees The Direct Marketing Association's SEO training program and is the trainer for the DMA's web marketing seminar. He has consulted with hundreds of companies, including Goodyear, Hilton International, JCrew, Gradall, Moen Faucets, American Greetings, and Samsonite.

    And Matt may not even be a Buckeye. I think he just enjoys giving me a hard time. So, to keep our interview from becoming one of the most viewed on the SESConferenceExpo's Channel on Youtube, let me encourage you to view the many other fine video interviews that you'll find there -- early and often.

    Posted by Greg Jarboe on 9:44 AM | Permalink

    Video interview with Bruce Clay at SES London 2008

    I did a video interview with Bruce Clay, President of Bruce Clay, Inc., at SES London 2008. Bruce talked about how the changing world of search is also changing the requirements for SEM and SEO toolkits as well as driving the need for integrating those tools with web analytics.

    And, as I mentioned in my post, Schedule optimization for SES New York, Bruce discussed why he was providing conference attendees with free access to his Bruce Clay tools. He also talks about why the Bruceclay.com Blog, which is written by Lisa Barone, doesn't try to create link bait, but does end up getting lots of links.


    Bruce Clay, Bruce Clay Inc., at SES London 2008 on SEO / SEM

    Bruce Clay has operated as an executive with several high-technology businesses and comes from a long career as a technical manager with Boole and Babbage, Amdahl, Convergent Technologies, Acer America, and, since 1996, in the Internet business consulting area. Bruce holds a B.S. in math/computer science and an MBA from Pepperdine University, has had many articles published, has been a speaker at over 100 sessions, and has been quoted in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, PC Week, Wired Magazine, Smart Money, several books, and many more publications. He has personally authored many advanced search engine optimization tools that are available from his company websites as well as from his booth at the Bruce Clay, Inc. booth at SES New York 2008, where his firm is a Premier Sponsor.

    Check out interviews with other speakers at SES London at the SES Conference Expo channel on YouTube.

    Posted by Greg Jarboe on 9:20 AM | Permalink

    Google on Global Search Standards: Thanks, But No Thanks

    Google has politely turned down a cordial invitation to support technology that would control how the search engine lists articles and photos. The technology is called ACAP, which stands for "automated content access protocol," and has been developed by a consortium of media trade organizations, including the European Publishers Council, the International Publishers Association and the World Association of Newspapers.

    Google's European partnership, lead Rob Jonas, reminded attendees at the MediaGuardian.co.uk Changing Media Summit that there already is technology in place for publishers to opt out of Google should they not be pleased with the search company's indexing methods.

    Placing a robots.txt file onto sites prevents Google's spiders from indexing them and displaying sites in search results.

    But publishers often find themselves in a Catch-22 situation when it comes to being indexed by Google. They want to be found by the millions of Google searchers, but they want Google to pay for indexing - and caching - copyrighted content. A Belgian court sided with publishers last year when it ruled in favor of a lawsuit brought by Copiepresse.

    Google, of course, does not want to pay for content, as it would dip into their profitable strategy of monetizing search results with AdWords. Google's stance is that they are simply connecting to user's sites and therefore not violating copyright laws. Cached pages remain in a grey and murky area of the law, particularly in Europe.

    Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 9:04 AM | Permalink

    AOL Buys Social Network Bebo for $850M

    AOL acquiring BeboAOL will buy Facebook competitor Bebo for $850 million cash. Combining social network Bebo's estimated 40 million users with AIM and ICQ will boost AOL's social media reach to 80 million users worldwide.

    Google had reportedly been in talks to acquire to acquire Bebo to bolster its Orkut social search engine.

    The deal comes on the heels of AOL's launch of Open AIM 2.0, which enables developers to utilize the popular instant messaging client for third party sites and applications. Apple also recently announced a downloadable AIM application for the iPhone.

    Like other search engines, AOL has been making several strategic moves in an attempt to position itself as a leader in digital media and marketing. The company spent nearly $1 billion building Platform-A, a top display ad serving network focused on helping marketers build brands that perform online. In the process it has acquired ADTECH, buy.at, Lightningcast, Quigo, TACODA and Third Screen Media.

    Still, the future of AOL remains uncertain. Rumors of an acquisition by Disney were squelched by Robert Iger yesterday. Parent company Time Warner is open to a sale or spinoff, including a partnership with Yahoo Last week, it was widely reported that Yahoo and AOL were in talks, as part of Yahoo's delaying/avoidance strategy in the wake of Microsoft's unsolicited offer for the Sunnyvale search engine.

    Posted by Nathania Johnson on 8:17 AM | Permalink

    SEW Experts: SEO Training: Live and In-Person

    What could be better than online SEO training? SEO courses with live SEO experts, of course. In today's Search Marketing Education column, "SEO Training: Live and In-Person," Ron Jones outlines a few options for in-person SEO training.

    Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink

    SEW Experts: First SEO Link Building Rule: Never Buy Paid Links...Until Now

    Google commands SEOs: "Don't buy paid links." But there are times when paid links work. In today's Link Building column, "First SEO Link Building Rule: Never Buy Paid Links...Until Now," Sage Lewis notes that buying links for the sake of traffic and a network of viral roots to keep an interesting promotion alive and standing tall may be the exception to the rule.

    Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink

    March 12, 2008

    Xooglers Launch rentBits Vertical Search Engine for Rentals

    rentBits%20rentals.jpg

    Two Ex-Googlers are part of the management team that recently launched a vertical search engine aimed at lead generation for the real estate rental industry. Dan Daugherty, President and CEO, and Tim Moynihan, COO, lead rentBits.com and RentMarketer.com. Both execs worked for Google operations in the Mountain states region.

    RentBits.com hopes to develop the most comprehensive index of available rental properties, a niche overlooked by Zillow but currently owned by Craigslist.

    RentMarketer.com offers property managers a technology platform to publish their listings on more than 60 rental classifieds websites. The distribution network claims to have the potential to reach about 9.3 million people. The software platform includes free phone and email tracking plus a click-to-call feature.

    rentBits.com hopes to carve out its niche among the growing number of vertical search engines. As Google fights Web spam to maintain relevant results, Web 2.0 vertical search engines are popping up in the financial services, legal services and travel industries.

    Earlier this month, Virgin Charter announced the launch of a high-end corporate travel search engine. Last month saw the launch of the world's largest legal search engine, the Public Library of Law.

    Posted by Nathania Johnson on 3:46 PM | Permalink

    Banned By Google: UK University Outs US MFA Sites

    Google Webmaster Central and the Google Search Quality team have a new ally in the global fight against Web spam, cloaking, paid links, link farms and other non-sanctioned schemes: the Security Group at the University of Cambridge.

    Web sites created by Chicago-based Privila were banned by Google earlier this month after Steven Murdoch of University of Cambridge Computer Labs exposed an alleged cloaking scheme by the content network. Steven Murdoch blogged about his findings on March 6th. Two days later Google removed the sites from its index.

    It seems that people and spiders were seeing different pages when they visited sites such as soccerlove.com, ammancarpets.com, and canadianbattery.com. People were seeing display ads created by unpaid interns. Google spiders were seeing keyword-rich articles also churned out by unpaid interns. Windows Live and Yahoo! were seeing neither ads nor articles.

    Privila already has added the articles back to the sites but the sites are not yet re-indexed.

    Murdoch discovered the cloaking after the computer lab where he works received a link exchange spam email from Privila.

    Posted by Nathania Johnson on 2:53 PM | Permalink

    Should search marketers include audio (podcast) optimization in their tactical toolkits

    Amanda Watlington answers my questions about optimizing podcasts

    Why should we be thinking about using audio and podcasts?

    Universal search and the inclusion of audio and video content into the main search pages is an opportunity for marketers to expand and use a powerful highly personal medium. That being said; however, marketers should not just include audio just to have audio, but should look for appropriate opportunities to include audio into their online marketing.

    What kind of content could a company produce in audio?

    The beauty of audio is that it is highly adaptable. What to include in audio content is a challenge of the imagination. It is very easy to lapse into the trap that the audio content must look like a radio show. This may not the best use of audio for the business. For example, consider all of the options for use of audio that a museum or historical site might have. The offering might include information for planning a visit to museum, specialized audio content promoting a current show or visiting collection or information on new additions to the collection, regular interviews with curators with an educational spin, and any number of downloadable personalized tours. These are not necessarily radio shows, but they are valuable audio content.

    For publicly-held businesses, any of the information presented to the public on the business' performance is of interest to listeners who are time-challenged and may want to listen to the information on their own time, not just when the conference call is held. The site owner may want to make sure that all of this information can be found via search.

    Magazines and content sites can make use of audio by having their authors read their articles into podcasts. Here is an example of a podcast that I recorded of an article that I wrote on universal search for the UK publication InCirculation. This audio expands the searchable footprint for the article and offers potential readers the advantage of being able to listen to the article not just have to read it. As you see, the uses are quite varied.

    Is it difficult and/or expensive to produce audio content?

    Developing audio content requires careful planning and execution, but it does not have to be expensive. The audio file for the InCirculation article required that I sit down with my audio recorder and create the audio file. This meant finding a quiet place, having my introduction pre-scripted and then reading the article into my portable recorder. I personally do not use my computer to record. The fan in the computer adds noise that I do not want. I use a digital recorder. It can hardly get simpler. When I first started working with audio, I used the telephone for audio blogging via HipCast

    It is important to focus on the content. Expensive and elaborate production will not dress up weak content. On the other hand, I have listened to poor quality recordings where you could hear microphones being moved and participants shuffling papers and found it very distracting. Professional sounding, clear audio is very important. The focus should be on getting the message across.

    Do you have to use text with the audio content so it can be found?

    Making audio content sing in search is really a matter of understanding both the users and the search engines. The more information provided to the user and the search engine, the more likely the user is to both find the audio and listen to it. I strongly urge would-be podcasters to make a number of decisions before launching any audio efforts. These include deciding whether they are developing a podshow with the potential of multiple episodes or a single unique podcast. If it is a show, the show should have its own page so that it can be SEO'd and then each episode should have a page of text for it, an episode landing page. This allows the SEO to highlight the unique content of each episode. This gives a broader footprint and one that lets users find the show either by its name of by the content. In my presentation at SES NewYork, I will be highlighting a number of the other decisions that should be made to ensure that listeners can find the podcast.

    Are show notes just a ‘nice to have' or are they essential for SEO?

    They are integral part of the SEO. They are not just nice to have. How extensive the show notes are is a matter of personal choice. The show notes let the site owner promote the audio on the page. Show notes can range from a brief abstract to a complete transcription. A transcription of the audio file can also be placed in the audio file itself via the ID3 tags.

    Where do the tags go?

    The tags are part of the audio file. They are pre-pended to the audio itself and must be added with an audio tag editor. There are number of ID3 tag editors available, some for free. The audio should be tagged during the editing process. I will be going into quite a lot of detail on tagging the audio file during my presentation.

    For a total newbie, what is the 123 of audio optimization?

    Here is the 123 of audio optimization.
    * Create the sound file
    * Edit the ID3 tags during the sound editing process (this can either be done by the audio editor or later with a tag editor)
    * Create or update the show page to reflect the new audio file
    * Create a landing page for the audio file. This means including a player for the audio.
    * Promote the audio.

    Please elaborate on promoting and distributing audio content?

    Assuming that you have content that is interesting and that users find it on a search engine – this is the goal isn't it? – a listener will want to read your summary, the abstract, then be enticed to listen to the audio directly from their computer or download it for future listening. This is just one scenario, a desirable one, but not the only scenario.

    The real goal of most podshows is to have the listener subscribe to the show and download the episodes on a regular basis. RSS is the medium for this distribution. Not only does it let you notify subscribers to your feed that you have a new episode, but the RSS feed is also the medium for notifying podcast directories and search engines about new episodes.

    The session at SES New York will cover a lot more on the why and how of audio search optimization, including using RSS to increase reach.

    Posted by on 2:44 PM | Permalink

    Yahoo! and Microsoft open new R&D Centers in Israel—even if Yahoo! still doesn't understand Israel

    Yahoo! just opened a research office in Israel—it's first—in Haifa, Israel. The office is right near Google's first office in Israel; they opened a second office in Tel Aviv two years ago. Microsoft has had a major presence in nearby Ra'anana since 1989, and announced this week that they are opening an Israel Innovation Lab in Herzliyah Pituah, which will focus on applied research. It will be the only such Microsoft lab outside the U.S.

    Aside from taking advantage of the rich field of R&D and internet professionals that Israel is known for, Yahoo! now has the chance to take advantage of a growing marketplace they've largely ignored. Microsoft invested more than $100 million over the past 20 years translating all its products to Hebrew—and it shows; nearly all Israeli companies host on IIS servers, write web sites in ASP and use Microsoft software exclusively. They partnered with popular Israeli brands, like Galgalatz, Israel's most popular radio station. Their search engine and MSN portal are among the most visited pages in Israel.

    Google may have arrived to the party a bit late, but they quickly made up for lost time. In less than two years, Google.co.il unseated local search engine Walla.co.il as the number one search engine used in Israel. Number three is Google.com.

    Yahoo! has a lot to do to catch up. They still need to convert products to Hebrew, and still have ways to go in informing the Israeli public that they exist. While Google and MSN dynamically switch directions for Hebrew searches, Yahoo does not. And for a popular Hebrew search like ישךאל (Israel), no PPC ads appear in Yahoo while many appear in MSN and Google. Dr. Ronny Lempel, who will head the new Yahoo! office, said the engine had no plans to translate its home page.

    israel-search.jpg

    While I applaud Microsoft and Yahoo! for taking advantage of the “fertile ground” in Israel for talented engineers and researchers, I think the strategy of giving back to the local environment is one that makes search leaders. Maybe that's why Microsoft boasted 12.4% Year over Year growth last month and Google garnered 50.3%, while Yahoo! gained nothing. If they don't start to change something—other than just new research centers—expect this trend to continue.

    Posted by on 2:39 PM | Permalink

    Client 9 Domains Snatched by Spitzer Scandal Profiteers

    Direct navigation and type-in traffic boast the highest conversion rates of any type of search traffic. But not in every case. Take Eliot Spitzer's for example.

    Minutes after news broke about Governor Spitzer's alleged involvement with a prostitution ring, domains related to the scandal began selling like hot cakes. According to Wired Blog, domains such as Client9.com have been snatched up since the New York Times went live with the story on Monday and (unlike EmperorsClubVIP.com) they can't monetize the traffic they receive.

    Room871.com, purchased last October, has been listed for sale at $750. Anyone expecting huge profits from these domains could be in for a rude awakening.

    Nick Galbreth, a software engineer who purchased Client9.com, has made just $11, though he estimates having invested 8 hours of work into the domain.

    Chris Potoski, on the other hand, is using the scandal to redirect traffic to his already established adult content sites. He's already gained 11 members from the marketing effort. Of course, he's not sharing the names of his new clients.

    Posted by Nathania Johnson on 11:33 AM | Permalink

    Google Will Outflank Facebook-Microsoft If Yahoo Joins OpenSocial

    UPDATE: TechCrunch "is hearing" that Yahoo will join Open Social in April. Still in rumor stage.

    opensocial%20logo.jpg

    If Yahoo joins the OpenSocial alliance, Microsoft and Facebook may find themselves out in the cold.

    The New York Times is reporting that Yahoo intends to join Google's OpenSocial Alliance, placing increased pressure on Facebook, the only major social network yet to join the development network.

    Last year, Facebook signed an ad deal with Microsoft, effectively placing the popular social networking site between a rock and a hard place when it comes to social web application standards.

    OpenSocial already boasts a Who's Who list of social networks. MySpace, Bebo, LinkedIn, Ning, Orkut, Six Apart, Friendster, Xing and many others, including old-school Oracle and Salesforce.com, are participating in the alliance. While Yahoo is not a social network, it does boast the largest number of registered users. The company believes it could receive great benefit from opening up its site to developers.

    So what implications does this have on a possible Microsoft-Yahoo deal? It may make it tougher for Microsoft to "untangle" Yahoo initiatives, but it's unlikely to derail the bid altogether. Don't look for Microsoft to join OpenSocial anytime soon.

    Google launched OpenSocial last fall, as an initiative to develop a common set of APIs that can be used across several different social networking sites, in an effort to draw developers to an open platform. Earlier this week, Google made another play for web developers by announcing its I/O Web Forward developers conference, planned for later this spring.

    Posted by Nathania Johnson on 10:23 AM | Permalink

    Interview with Andy Atkins-Krueger at SES London 2008

    I interviewed Andy Atkins-KrÃŒger, managing director of Web Certain Europe Ltd, at the Search Engine Strategies conference and expo in London last month.

    Yes, yes, we talked about serious issues, like the challenges of optimizing pages or running paid search campaigns for multiple languages across Europe. But Krueger topped anything that I could have asked him with a tale about the Tongue Twisters Multilingual team at WebCertain.

    To prove his team is ready for multilingual tongue twisters in German, English, Portuguese, French, Spanish, Czech and other languages, Andy introduced Kia from his PR team, who provided a flamboyant Finnish flourish as a finale. (Go ahead, try saying that quickly three times.)



    Andy Atkins-Krueger, WebCertain, at SES London on YouTube

    Having started his career briefly as a journalist, Andy quickly moved into marketing communications, where he has spent the last 20 years. He worked first in advertising, then founded a public relations consultancy, The Partners Group, before moving into corporate marketing.

    He's worked on pan-European advertising and public relations campaigns for many years and first "discovered" search marketing in 1997, when he was charged with developing the European market presence of one of the U.K.'s best known B2B brands, Portakabin. After five years as the client, he bought into the supporting agency — Web Certain Europe Ltd — where he became managing director.

    Under Andy's leadership, Web Certain has continued to focus on multilingual websites, handling Europe's major languages under one-roof, with partners around the world providing the more specialist language needs.

    As a keen linguist himself, he has been a qualified member of the Institute of Linguists since 1984 and the Chartered Institute of Marketing since 1999. While he doesn't claim fluency in every language, Andy has some knowledge of French, German, Italian, Dutch, Russian, and of course English.

    He believes this helps in giving the best advice to clients who are planning website localization, translation, and promotion. He is particularly keen to promote the opportunities of "reaching out to Europe" to clients and believes that the significant opportunities open to website marketers are largely under-exploited.

    He also edits the online newsletter www.web-marketing-secrets.co.uk and the blog www.multilingual-search.blogspot.com, which report on search marketing developments throughout Europe — both often summarizing reports published in other languages to help English-speaking marketers.

    Watch my interview with Andy on YouTube in the Search Engine Strategies (SES) Conferences & Expos channel.

    Posted by Greg Jarboe on 10:08 AM | Permalink

    Kevin Ryan discusses SES London and SES New York 2008

    At Search Engine Strategies London last month, I interviewed Kevin Ryan, VP, Global Content Director, Search Engine Strategies & Search Engine Watch, about the UK event as well as asking him for a preview of SES New York 2008, which starts next week.

    Kevin talks about big-picture sessions versus tactical sessions, and how he structures SES conferences to address attendees' needs in both areas. He expands on these topics in his column, SES New York and You, which was posted this morning.

    While in London last month, Kevin looked ahead to SES New York, which starts on St. Patrick's Day -- a significant holiday for a lad named "Ryan." Oh, he also talks about the Universal Search panel -- a significant topic for anyone in the industry.


    Kevin Ryan at SES London 2008 on All Search Great and Small

    In case you didn't already know this, Ryan is a seasoned industry veteran. His former roles include vice president, interactive media, for the Interpublic Group agency; Wahlstrom Interactive; and CEO of Kinetic Results, a 2006 Advertising Age top 20 search engine marketing firm.

    Ryan recently founded a strategic consulting firm, Motivity Marketing, and has written over 200 articles on search and interactive marketing as search editor for iMedia Communications, a trade publisher and event producer serving the interactive media and marketing industries. His former client roster includes notable brands such as Rolex Watch USA, State Farm Insurance, Farmers Insurance, Minolta Corporation, Samsung Electronics America, Toyota Motor Sales USA, Panasonic Services, and the Hilton Hotels brands.

    Additionally, Ryan has volunteered his time with the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO), and several regional nonprofit organizations.

    While others have interviewed him before, this is the first time that I've interviewed Kevin for the SES Conference Expo channel on YouTube. Check it out.

    Posted by Greg Jarboe on 9:47 AM | Permalink

    Teddy Cowell video interview at SES London 2008

    I interviewed Edward "Teddie" Cowell of Neutralize (*\*) at the Search Engine Strategies London conference in February.

    Cowell recaps his comments during the organic listings forum, focusing on philosophical scuffles between the white hat / black hat crowds, content update frequencies, linking techniques and the uses and abuses of nofollow.

    Teddy also talks about the Neutralize / eConsultancy 2008 UK Search Marketing Benchmark Report and encourages UK SEM's to take part.


    Teddy Cowell, Neutralize, SES London 2008, Organic Rankings

    Cowell heads up the Neutralize team of enterprise search engine marketers. Introduced to the Internet in 1996 while working for MSN during the launch of Internet Explorer 3 in the U.K., he then moved on to work for BNP-Paribas (the fourth largest investment bank in Europe), and up until September 1999, he specialised in Internet-based technology and the research of growth Internet businesses and business models.

    Teddie co-founded Neutralize in 1999 and has since established an industry reputation for thought leadership, best-practice techniques and highly effective SEO approach with large, dynamic websites for clients like Nestle, SkyBet, Black and Decker, London Stock Exchange, and CNET.

    Watch my video interview with him on the SES Conference Expo channel on YouTube.

    Posted by Greg Jarboe on 9:32 AM | Permalink

    Interview with Dr. Ralph Wilson at SES London 2008

    I interviewed Dr. Ralph Wilson, the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Web Marketing Today, at SES London last month.

    In the video interview, which is now posted on YouTube, Dr. Wilson recaps his "Introduction to Search Marketing" session. His introduction gave attendees the basics of paid and organic marketing online, starting the conference off by getting everyone on the same page.

    Dr. Wilson also discusses his SES London session on paid search, giving special attention to the direct marketing-based landing page strategies in order to increase conversion rates, and dropping a few pointers on A/B testing for landing page optimization.


    Dr. Ralph Wilson, Web Marketing Today, at SES London 2008

    Dr. Ralph F. Wilson is widely recognized as one of the top international authorities in the area of Internet marketing. Business Week called his popular WilsonWeb.com website "bar none the best e-commerce resource out there." Business 2.0 profiled him as one of the savvy dot-com survivors. The New York Times named Dr. Wilson "among the best-known Internet marketing publishers and consultants who preach the responsible use of e-mail for marketing."

    He's the founder and editor-in-chief of Web Marketing Today, the grandfather of the Internet marketing e-zines, published continuously since 1995. Currently it is sent to over 107,000 confirmed opt-in subscribers. His Web Marketing Today Premium Edition is considered one of the top sources in the industry for in-depth content. He is a winner of the Tenagra Award for Internet Marketing Excellence and the author of hundreds of articles and numerous books, including Planning Your Internet Marketing Strategy (John Wiley & Sons, 2002), The E-Mail Marketing Handbook (Second Edition, 2005), and The Shopping Cart Report (Second Edition, 2004).

    Check out the video interview on the SES Conference Expo channel on YouTube.

    Posted by Greg Jarboe on 9:16 AM | Permalink

    Job Cuts Likely in Google-DoubleClick Merger

    In the wake of EU's approval of Google's DoubleClick acquisition comes the news that job cuts will likely result from the deal. Google Chairman and CEO, in a statement posted on the company's official blog, said "As with most mergers, there may be reductions in headcount. We expect these to take place in the U.S. and possibly in other regions as well. We know that DoubleClick is built on the strength of its people. For this reason we'll strive to minimize the impact of this process on all of our clients and employees."

    Staff reductions will be the result of an alignment process to eliminate redundancies and ensure that roles have been assigned to the right people. Wrote Schmidt, "An immediate task we'll undertake over the next few weeks is matching and aligning DoubleClick employees with our organizational plan for the business. This will involve determining the right staffing levels for all functions and will ensure that we have the right people assigned to the right responsibilities within Google."

    Most of the cuts will occur within the United States. Overseas cuts will be subject to meetings with employee representatives and local laws. Google expects to finalize the process by April.

    Posted by Nathania Johnson on 8:36 AM | Permalink

    SEW Experts: Google Analytics' Cross-Channel Measurement

    By comparing site analytics data with its Audio Ads campaign data, Google has greatly improved measurement of offline ads driving visitors online. In today's Web Analytics and ROI column, "Google Analytics' Cross-Channel Measurement," Eric Enge compares Google's methods to other traditional methods for offline marketing measurement.

    Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:11 AM | Permalink

    March 11, 2008

    Search Headlines & Links: March 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 10:57 PM | Permalink

    Hulu Launches -- Takes "You" Out of YouTube, Puts Copyright In

    hulu%20live.jpg

    Hulu, the video search engine for copyrighted and trademarked entertainment, will premiere Wednesday.

    It will be a minor Internet miracle if the GE-NewsCorp JV Web site can keep up with online demand and search engine searchers.

    Get ready for the Invasion of the YouTube Snatchers. The iPod people are coming ... and their PC'ed.

    Are you searching for The Simpsons?

    Can't find The Big Lebowski?

    Is Buffy the Vampire Slayer in your database of intentions?

    Do you need to do a local search for Mulholland Drive? Can't find it on Google Maps, Microsoft Virtual Eath or on YouTube (legally)?

    Hulu promises to run hoops around YouTube. The NBA and the NHL will deliver sports programming.

    News Corp, NBC Universal, Warner Bros. and Lionsgate will showcase films.

    There's even a SuperBowl Ad Gallery for the search marketers ready to take over TV budgets and bounce traditional advertising agencies from the upfronts.

    No doubt YouTube will feel pressure to protect copyrights and clean up trademark infringement.

    The message from Hulu? Monetize this.

    Posted by Kevin Heisler on 9:32 PM | Permalink

    Your Baby's Ugly - Why You Need Landing Page Optimization Now

    landing%20page%20optimization.jpg

    All new parents think their drooling, wailing, wrinkled little midget is beautiful - and that's as it should be. The same seems to be true of landing pages. If an online marketing campaign is making money, it's taken as proof the landing pages are beautiful--and don't need further improvement.

    In fact, landing pages typically range from barely acceptable to horrible. They are often at direct cross-purposes with the desired conversion action and stated goals of the business.

    In this sorry state of affairs lies a terrific opportunity - fixing your landing pages can often lead to long-lasting double or even triple digit gains in conversion rate. This can change the economics of your business overnight.

    Landing page optimization is no longer optional. It's one of the core activities that all online marketers must pay serious attention to. Landing page optimization spans the important topics of usability, copywriting, web design, and information architecture.

    But landing page optimization also requires a proper grounding in math and test design. The messy reality of real-time marketing rears its ugly head. Organizational considerations required to build a testing program are key. You may need to change the mindset within your company.

    I've covered these topics and more in my recent book Landing Page Optimization: The Definitive Guide to Testing and Tuning for Conversions (John Wiley Press 2008). The book even got a really nice unsolicited writeup from SES London Chair Mike Grehan in his How To Avoid A Crash Landing column (and I didn't even have to pay a dime from the giant stash of payola money that I have available for such plugs).

    I want to start a conversation and a revolution, but first we must break down the walls of denial:

    Repeat after me: "My baby is ugly..."

    Posted by Tim Ash on 8:19 PM | Permalink

    When PR Means Public Relations and not Page Rank

    Our session Beyond Linkbait at SES NYC has a very different approach to SEO and linkbait - how to use traditional public relations tactics to create authoritative links.

    It's all about how to take the content you have and make it newsworthy enough for other sites to want to republish your content or link to your site. Not just Top 10 lists. Real news.

    I'm going to share the Bounce Test video story with attendees. Yes, they are videos of women running in sports bras. Giving this a valid science and research backing and making it part of a serious women's health issue has garnered some major attention for these videos.

    Lee Odden has some do's and don't's on how to pitch your stories to bloggers and reporters.

    If you think your business doesn't have a news story you definitely need to come to the session. Every business has a story. How you find that story and then pitch it to the right news medium is the trick. We used to do it for print and TV coverage. Now we do it for links.

    Posted by on 3:01 PM | Permalink

    Visual Search Engine Searchme Launches Private Beta

    Sequoia Capital, which is known for its investments in both Google and Yahoo, today announced the private beta launch of its latest investment, Searchme, a visual search engine.

    Searchme employs Adobe Flash and Flex to create a user interface that displays results as web page screenshots. the effect is similar to the Cover Flow feature in iTunes, where users "flip through" album cover art. Below the image results are text search results that look similar to Google results.

    The perk of this technology is the ability to see a page before visiting it. If you're fatigued from clicking on links to parked sites and made-for-AdSense pages, then Searchme's visual results will be a welcome change.

    But making sure the results are relevant is Searchme's challenge. In an interview with Kara Swisher at Boomtown, her All Things Digital blog, Adams said, "We are no Google, of course, but we are trying something different to provide a new experience for search users. Most of all, we are trying to innovate in search, which is still largely a text and list experience."

    Posted by Nathania Johnson on 11:00 AM | Permalink

    EU Approves Google DoubleClick Deal

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    The EU approved Google's acquisition of DoubleClick today and Google's ready.

    As speculated last week, the EU today approved Google's Acquisition of DoubleClick. The $3.1 billion deal went through despite concerns over privacy and antitrust issues.

    The commission addressed those concerns by stating that users still had access to similar services offered by Microsoft, Yahoo, and AOL.

    Penry Price, Google VP Advertising Sales, said this morning that Google will soon start integrating DoubleClick technology with Google's online platforms.

    During the due diligence phase in mergers & acquisitions, companies typically review technology platforms. Comprehensive due diligence engages all relevant disciplines: legal, tax, accounting, investment banking, general management, information technology (IT) and human resources (HR), among others.

    Price noted that Google hasn't reviewed DoubleClick technology during the review process, so there's not yet a product road map in place. Expect that to change soon as Google engineers upgrade DoubleClick technology.

    Last December, the US Federal Trade Commission approved the deal, providing momentum for today's decision. The EU typically does not reject mergers that the United States has approved.

    Posted by Nathania Johnson on 10:27 AM | Permalink

    Google Plays Down Paid Search Decline; Seeks Display Ad Dominance

    Ever since news broke about a slowdown in growth of paid click advertising, Google's stock has been falling -- drastically. But yesterday, sounding like a schoolboy with an exposed weakness, Google's Tim Armstrong offered up a "We meant to do that" defense. Speaking to the Bear Sterns conference in Palm Springs, Fla., Google's North American President of Advertising and Commerce said the focus on YouTube distracted paid search growth.

    Armstrong also shared Google's desire to dominate display advertising by gaining a "very significant position" in the market by 2008-2009. The statement came less than a week after Steve Ballmer declared Microsoft's intentions to catch Google in the online advertising game. Google's aspirations should be helped by the EU's approval of Google's DoubleClick acquisition, which occurred earlier today.

    Posted by Nathania Johnson on 10:04 AM | Permalink

    Murdoch to Yahoo: I'm Just Not Into You

    At the Bear Sterns conference in Palm Springs, Florida, this morning, News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch said that News Corp will not be bidding on Yahoo. While admitting that it would be fun to beat Microsoft, Murdoch affirmed his loyalty to Google, which has a Web search deal with News Corp.'s online social network, MySpace.

    Yahoo has reportedly been talking to AOL in an attempt to delay what many analysts say is the inevitable takeover by Microsoft. Yahoo's board turned down Microsoft's unsolicited offer for $31 a share, but Microsoft is a patient suitor. Last week, execs from the software giant revealed their hopes to catch Google, with Yahoo remaining a strategic element of that plan.

    Posted by Nathania Johnson on 10:00 AM | Permalink

    Google Launches New Conference: Google "Insertion Order" for Developers

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    Google launched a new branded product today: the Google I/O Web Forward developer conference, a two-day, event for developers to share knowledge about Google's developer products in specific and Web application development in general. For marketers, I/O means insertion order; for developers, input/output.

    I/O (input/output) means communication between an information processing system (i.e. computer), and the world – possibly a human, or more likely in Google's scenario: an information processing system (computer).

    Sounds like Search Engine WarGames to us.

    Google I/O will be held May 28--29 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. Five tracks will run simultaneously with several related to local mobile search and social search.

    Social Search: The web is an inherently social place. A new wave of APIs and frameworks, including OpenSocial, are opening up interesting ways to interact with people through applications.

    Mobile: Android and Mobile Gears offer the opportunity to build applications on the mobile Web. Search is moving to mobile devices and opening up applications that span multiple platforms.

    Maps & Geo: Local search is not only going mobile, it's going geo. These sessions focus on geo applications, including KML (Google Earth apps)and the Google Maps API.

    There will also be tracks for APIs (Google AdWords) & Google Web Toolkit.

    Tickets are $400 for developers (or any interested people, we presume), with discounts available for students.

    Google Rock Star devcelopers: attendees will\\ learn first-hand from Google engineers like Mark Lucovsky, Guido van Rossum, David Glazer, Alex Martelli, Steve Souders, Dion Almaer, Jeff Dean, Chris DiBona, and Josh Bloch.

    Posted by Kevin Heisler on 8:50 AM | Permalink

    Online Reputation Management Crisis? Preparation Is the Key

    In many cases, a reputation management campaign can take months to complete. Addressing underlying issues and replacing negative content with more favorable pages takes time. But by being prepared ahead of time for a reputation management crisis, you can cut down that time considerably, and get more immediate results. In today's SearchDay, "Online Reputation Management Requires Cabinet War Rooms," Greg Jarboe shows how intense preparation helped Winston Churchill win the war, and it can help you deal with a sudden reputation management crisis.

    Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 1:24 AM | Permalink

    New Clues in Search for UNC Student Murder Suspect: New Surveillance Camera Photos

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    The search for the murder suspects in the killing of UNC-Chapel Hill student Eve Carson continues. New photos of one suspect are shown here.

    Police released two new photos Monday night of a young man wearing jeans and a black coat inside a North Carolina convenience store.

    Chapel Hill Police Chief Brian Curran said the man appears to be the same person seen in two ATM surveillance photos released Saturday.

    The suspect is seen in the black & white photos wearing what's thought to be a vintage Houston Astros cap. The ATM card of slain UNC student Eve Carson was used when all four photos were taken, according to Chapel Hill police.

    UNC trustees have offered a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of Carson's killer. People with information should call the area Crime Stoppers at (919) 942-7515. Callers may remain anonymous. The Crime Stoppers Web site, here.

    A tribute by the University to Eve Carson's life, here.

    Police arrested a suspect in the murder of Auburn student Lauren Burk yesterday. The crimes are believed to be unrelated.

    Posted by Kevin Heisler on 1:21 AM | Permalink

    SEW Experts: Don't Get Stung By Compliance Issues

    Internal and external oversight is essential for quality control of large Web sites, but can make things complicated for SEO plans. In today's Enterprise Search Marketing column, "Don't Get Stung By Compliance Issues," Aaron Shear provides some ground rules to consider before you step into the complex world of compliance and SEO.

    Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink

    SEW Experts: Creating Synergy in Your SEO Efforts

    There's not one single thing that can make your Web page show up in the top of the search results. But there are several little things that can. In today's Organic Search Engine Optimization column, "Creating Synergy in Your SEO Efforts," Mark Jackson explains that by making sure a few key components are working together, the synergy between your optimization efforts can help you get page-one results.

    Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink

    March 10, 2008

    Search Headlines & Links: March 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 5:51 PM | Permalink

    Naked Conversations

    Matt McGowan, Becky Ryan

    Today the Compete.com blog invites readers to Get Naked with Matt McGowan (Incisive Media, VP of Marketing).

    In an in-depth interview, Matt discusses several key trends in the search marketing universe:

    1. Blended Search

    2. Social Media

    3. Mobile Search

    4. Analytics

    Great. But here's what everyone wants to know:

    Compete asks--and Matt answers--the question on the inquiring minds of all search marketers:

    Who should we get naked with next?

    We hear there are some great parties planned during SES New York...check 'em out.

    Posted by Kevin Heisler on 5:01 PM | Permalink

    Google Defends Security Policy

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    Back when CNET published photos of Google's fun-loving security team, pirate flags were waving. Darth Vader stood sentinel inside the Googleplex by the security cubicles.

    Today Douglas Merrill Google VP Engineering published an impassioned defense of Google's security policy.

    No Star Wars plans for Google security hacks.

    No pirate flags, mateys. Aye, Merrill didn't even use "Talk Like A Pirate Day" language.

    The most important part of our approach to security is our people. Google employs some of the best and brightest security engineers in the world. Many of our engineers came from very high-profile security environments, such as banks, credit card companies, and high-volume retail organizations, and a large number of them hold PhDs and patents in security and software engineering.

    With Google under increased scrutiny as The Spy Who Loved Me, information security has never been more important to Google's future.

    Posted by Kevin Heisler on 2:43 PM | Permalink

    Cable Firms Collaborate to Compete with Google

    Executives from the six major cable companies have been gathering at monthly meetings in an attempt to offer national advertisers innovative methods of reaching their customers, according to The New York Times.

    "Project Canoe" has been meeting for six months, alternating between New York and Philadelphia in an attempt to make good on a long-standing promise by cable advertising: to get the right advertising to the right person.

    They plan to do this by investing $150 million into a national advertising platform that allows them to streamline their local advertising efforts. Cable execs hope to see revenue increase from $5 billion to $15 billion annually as a result.

    With Google delivering such results through highly targeted online advertising, advertisers have remained cautious about cable's ability to provide the kind of advertising they want. On-demand and DVR technology also hinders cable's ability to perform in the ad game.

    But interactive features could give cable the step up it so desperately needs. The new advertising platform could allow viewers to request specific information about a product.

    Still, the cable firms are behind similar efforts by Google, which has a deal with EchoStar, and the recently announced acquisition of Weblistic by Spot Runner.

    The cable companies weren't even considering creating a separate company for the new platform until they were pressured by media buyers from GM and Proctor & Gamble. Now, they are grappling with whether or not to find a CEO from within the cable or advertising industries. However, with the successes of Google and Spot Runner riding on user-driven behavior, perhaps cable should be looking elsewhere to head up their new initiative.

    Posted by Nathania Johnson on 12:27 PM | Permalink

    BoomTown Calls Out TechCrunch: No Google-Digg Buyout

    Last week's TechCrunch article about Microsoft and Google in a bidding war for Digg is the stuff that soap operas are made of. Or tabloids. But Kara Swisher at Boomtown has the real scoop, albeit a less sexy one.

    It seems that Digg's canoodling with bankers Allen & Co. is more along the lines of delegating the task of handling incoming interest rather than putting a "For Sale" sign up at its San Francisco offices.

    And if an offer does come in from Microsoft or Google, don't expect to see the purported $200 million. Swisher says that a $60 to 80 million price tag is a more realistic offer, according to the acquiring types she spoke to.

    Even Digg CEO Jay Alderson broke Digg's "we don't comment about things like this" policy and blogged that the rumors were out of control, denying the very existence of a Microsoft/Google bidding war. But TechCrunch stands by its original sources.

    And why shouldn't they? As Kevin Heisler opined last week, a Digg acquisition would make strategic sense for Google. And with or without the Yahoo deal, Microsoft has last year's ad deal with the social search engine as an incentive to raise their auction paddle in the air.

    In the meantime, like a policeman trying to keep traffic moving around a fatal accident, everyone but TechCrunch seems to be saying, "There's nothing to see here. Keep moving along."

    Posted by Nathania Johnson on 11:58 AM | Permalink

    The New Multitaskers: Kids Split Attention Between TV, Internet

    A new study on social networking by Grunwald Associates reveals that kids are no longer glued to the television. Now, while the tube is on, many kids are also splitting their attention between the TV and the Internet. The report showed that 64 percent of kids aged nine to 17 go online while watching TV. Of those, 73 percent say they're engaged in active multi-tasking.

    However, don't expect television networks to panic, as they are the ones driving kids online in the first place. 33 percent of nine to seventeen year olds participated in online polls, entered contests, played online games or participated in other online activities that television programs have directed them to while they are watching.

    Once a kid is online, the Internet begins to dominate their attention: 47 percent said that the Internet becomes the primary focus, while 42 percent said their attention is split equally between the Internet and TV.

    Kids are also getting a head start on incorporating social networking as part of their multi-tasking: 45 percent of teens have sent instant messages or e-mail to others they knew were watching the same TV show. And 66 percent recruit their friends to watch their favorite sites, and 48 percent promote new sites to their friends.

    “Active multitasking and social networking present a tremendous opportunity to inform, engage and empower kids more deeply than ever before,” said Peter Grunwald, founder and president of Grunwald Associates and a leading authority on kids' media use. “At the same time, it's important for commercial efforts to be credible and respect kids' intelligence – and the content they produce. Kids are using social networking tools to create personal content and share their opinions with great speed, passion and influence.”

    Grunwald's comments are confirmed by the study, which shows that kids don't just consume, they are also creators of online content. It found that 27 percent produce blogs, pages or other online spaces and upload original content such as articles, audio, video, polls, and quizzes to publicly available Web sites, at least three times a week.

    “The findings of this study strongly suggest that companies should use multiple platforms – TV, online, social networking, handhelds and other interactive media to create a synergistic communications effort and a compelling, highly interactive experience for kids,” concludes Grunwald.

    Posted by Nathania Johnson on 9:20 AM | Permalink

    Introduction to Search Engine Marketing at SES New York 2008

    Kevin Ryan, Vice President, Global Content Director, Search Engine Strategies and Search Engine Watch, and I will be speaking at the “Introduction to Search Engine Marketing” session at SES New York 2008. It's just one of the 78 sessions, workshops, panels, keynotes and training classes to be held at the Hilton New York from March 17-21.

    Now, I attended my first Search Engine Strategies conference back in March 2002 and I've spoken at two dozen SES events since August 2003. But, preparing for this particular session has been much tougher than I expected.

    sesny08This session in the Fundamentals Track is supposed to provide “a clear and concise overview of the key concepts involved in Search Engine Marketing.” Back in 2000 when the most popular method used to improve rankings was “changing metatags,” the key concepts were comparatively simple. Today, Google uses over 200 signals for ranking. So, the key concepts have become comparatively complex.

    Who are the major search engines?

    Let me give you a quick example of one of the “trick questions” that Kevin and I are supposed to answer: “Who are the major search engines?”

    Well, the correct answer depends on whether you use comScore's data for “core search queries” or “expanded search queries.”

    According to comScore, Americans conducted 10.5 billion searches at the core search engines in January. But, searches for mapping, local directory, and user-generated video sites that aren't on the core domain of the five search engines aren't included in the core search numbers. If these expanded search queries are counted, than Americans conducted 14.6 billion searches that month.

    That means there are 4.1 billion expanded search queries a month! As my mother (who was a high school math teacher) use to say, “That's bigger than a bread box.”

    So, who are the major search engines?

    Well, if you use “core search queries,” then Google Sites rank #1 with 6.1 billion search queries in January 2008, Yahoo! Sites rank #2 with 2.3 billion, and Microsoft Sites rank #3 with 1 billion. But, if you use “expanded search queries,” then Google ranks #1 with 6.2 billion search queries in January 2008, Yahoo! ranks #2 with 2.4 billion, and YouTube/all other Google sites rank #3 with 1.6 billion.

    Is YouTube a search engine? As my father (who was the director of marketing for Oldsmobile) use to say, “This is not your father's Oldsmobile.”

    Introduction to Search Engine Marketing

    That's why it's so hard to provide “a clear and concise overview of the key concepts involved in Search Engine Marketing.” Half of them have changed significantly since last year's Search Engine Strategies New York.

    Here are five key concepts that were covered by sessions in the Fundamentals Track a year ago that should continue to be covered in the Introduction to Search Engine Marketing session this year:
    • Keyword Research – researching the most relevant, specific, popular and competitive keywords for a given website.
    • Website Design – building a “search engine friendly” website that that pleases both crawler-based search engines and your visitors.
    • SEO Copywriting – according to Seth Godin, a bestselling author, entrepreneur and agent of change, “The best SEO is great content.”
    • Link Building – building quality links in an appropriate manner, which means following Google's guidelines, such as: “Don't participate in link schemes.”
    • Search Advertising – advertising on a search engine by purchasing keywords that relate to your product or service.

    And here are five more key concepts that are featured in tracks or Orion Panels at SES New York 2008 that should be covered in the Introduction to Search Engine Marketing session this year:
    • Web Analytics – tracking, collecting, measuring, reporting and analyzing quantitative Internet data to optimize websites and web marketing initiatives.
    • Universal Search – delivering blended search results that incorporate videos, images, news, maps, books, and websites into a single set of results.
    • Vertical Search – including video search, image search, local search and news search.
    • Social Search – determining the relevance of search results by considering the interactions or contributions of users.
    • Contextual Ads – delivering ads based on the content of a web page that's being viewed, usually in an automated or semi-automated manner.

    I'm sure there are other key concepts that should be included. You may want to share your thoughts on what should be covered in the Introduction to Search Engine Marketing session or the other sessions in the Fundamentals Track. We've started a new thread in the Search Engine Watch Forums.

    This is a topic that's bigger than a bread box. And, when you take a closer look at SEM these days, it's not your father's Oldsmobile.

    Posted by Greg Jarboe on 9:17 AM | Permalink

    Panama or AdCenter? Microsoft Has Already Decided

    If its proposed acquisition of Yahoo goes through, don't expect Microsoft to rush to integrate Yahoo's technology into its platform.

    In an interview with the Financial Times, Microsoft's Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie said that Microsoft will proceed carefully with any kind of integration, due to both technology and culture differences between the companies.

    This comes on the heels of Microsoft's declarations of its intentions to catch Google in the search and online advertising game. While the $41.6 billion takeover of Yahoo is a core element of increasing its search market share, the company will also be rolling out more internet services aimed at complement existing traditional software.

    Yahoo has been resisting Microsoft's courtship. Last week, the search engine was talking to AOL about a possible merger, though many saw the talks as simply a delaying tactic.

    Posted by Nathania Johnson on 9:01 AM | Permalink

    CAPTCHA Systems are Under Attack

    For a long time we have come to rely on mechanisms such as CAPTCHA to hold spammers at bay. Should spammers ever succeed in breaking thorugh CAPTCHA a lot of social media web sites and blogs are going to have a big, big problem. Now, Virtual Blight reports that this is on the verge of happening in their post, the Coming CAPTCHA crisis.

    The post is written by Richard DeMillo, the Dean of Computer Science at Georgia Tech and former Chief Technology Officer for Hewlett-Packard. In the post, he says:

    The value of Web 2.0 sites is based on trust. Users trust that other users are legitimate community members. Posts are from people with opinions, polls reveal what people think, friending requests are from people who want to be your online friend.

    According to this post on TMCnet spoke with Russian researchers who claim to have algorithms that can correctly read CAPTCHA screens 30 to 35% of the time. While these tools are currently only in the hand of some high end folks, over time, it is reasonable to expect that they will get more widely disseminated.

    When this happens, the flood gates will really let loose, because a 30 to 35% success rate is a gold mine to a spammer. They don't care about the failures, as they happily will take the successes. Spam bots will have open season on all email systems, blogs, and social media sites that are protected by CAPTCHA.

    This is a threat to the search marketing community overall, as significant increase in SPAM will make the web a lot less effective as a medium. With these new systems coming online, we could get to a place where 90% of all User Generated Content on social media sites is spam, thereby greatly devaluing the user experience on those sites.

    While we are not at the point in time just yet, it seems likely that we will get there in the near future. New security systems need to be put into place before a wave of this stuff truly begins to hit. It's also incumbent upon us to be intolerant of spam in all of its forms. While some of these forms may not seem so bad, the reality of it is that spammers can ruin the web for all of us.

    Posted by on 9:00 AM | Permalink

    Best Web Site Traffic: PPC vs. SEO (Search Engine-Optimized) Sites

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    How does your PPC traffic compare to natural search traffic and direct navigation?

    New York Times reporter Alex Mindlin reveals The Best Kind of Traffic for Web Sites.

    Mindlin highlights a study by Engine Ready, a San Diego-based search marketing software firm, that analyzed 18.7 million visits over two years to 500 or so Engine Ready client Web sites.

    The New York Times article reports that type-in traffic was the highest converting and "most valuable" traffic. Paid search (PPC) listings outperformed organic search (naturally). Paid search ads prequalify traffic with brand and direct response ad copy.

    Visitors who clicked on paid search (PPC) ads were 17 percent more likely to buy. Plus, paid search (PPC) average order value was about 18 percent higher.

    Type-in traffic and bookmarked traffic performed best with a 3.3 percent conversion rate.

    That's not news to our readers or search marketing industry analysts. But if you want to learn how your PPC ads can perform better than others, Jason Miller, CTO, Engine Ready Software, will be featured on a Search Engine Strategies panel on Monday morning March 17 "Creating Compelling Ads.

    Chris Boggs, Search Engine Watch Expert and Manager, Search Engine Optimization, eMergent, will moderate the panel and I'm sure he'll have some great questions about the Engine Ready study as well.

    Posted by Kevin Heisler on 6:53 AM | Permalink

    SEW Experts: Every Picture Tells a Story: Non-text Contextual Ads

    Like contextual text ads, image ads must distract the user and sell a product quickly. In today's Content Advertising column, "Every Picture Tells a Story: Non-text Contextual Ads," David Szetela gives four examples of image ads that accomplish this with varying degrees of success.

    Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink

    March 8, 2008

    Jason Calacanis TechCrunched in Techmeme: Deathmatch at SES New York

    Jason Calacanis has owned the front page of Techmeme--the world's most influential technology and Web 2.0 news aggregator--for the past 18 hours and counting.

    Another Civil War in Silicon Valley? Well, it's war anyway--even if not civil.

    Aussie Duncan Riley of TechCrunch fame bodyslammed Jason after his Calacanis.com post on how to run a startup. Duncan said "Calacanis Fires People Who Have A Life." So far, 164 comments on TechCrunch about firing anyone who's not a workaholic ...

    Jason got up off the canvas, charged his opponent Valleywagged, and parried Duncan's jabs by updating his post, How to save money running a startup by revising his VC deathmatch coda. http://www.calacanis.com/2008/03/07/how-to-save-money-running-a-startup-17-really-good-tips/

    By then Duncan had tagged out: Allen Stern delivered a sidekick to Jason's solar plexus that sent him all the way to Starbucks country: Working at Mahalo is Like Prison Except We Gots Better Coffee.

    Jason Calacanis "Electrified Cage Deathmatch Bar Room Brawl" at SES New York in the SOLD OUT (Not Paris) Hilton in New York the day after St. Patrick's Day.

    Note: See it live! SES On Demand Video will be available to Search Engine Watch members only after the SES New York Deathmatch.

    Celebrities on the front row: Kevin Ryan, John Battelle, Andrew Tomkins, Nick Carr, Gordon McLeod and many, many more.

    Tickets on sale now!

    jason1.jpg

    Posted by Kevin Heisler on 11:50 AM | Permalink

    March 7, 2008

    Search Headlines & Links: March 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 6:29 PM | Permalink

    How to Go Beyond Linkbait : SES NYC

    SES NYC is fast approaching. My session with Chris Boggs and Lee Odden titled Beyond Linkbait will cover some interesting ideas.

    I spoke to Chris today to get his take on the idea of going beyond linkbait.

    One topic he's covering is reciprocal links - good or bad? If done properly, they can still be a good SEO tactic, says Chris. They need to happen naturally and be relevant. He has some great ideas on how to make these links work for SEO and offers examples of what a bad reciprocal link and a good reciprocal link would be.

    Chris plans to share a case study about creating content for YouTube or other social media sites that is not intended to produce links directly. "We built a peice of content around a game on a client's site with the intention of building buzz and getting bloggers to write it about it and then link to the client's site where the game is hosted," explained Chris.

    They've had over 25 000 views on YouTube and a flood of links and traffic to the client's site.

    Sounds like a hard act to follow!

    My case study is about The Bounce Test videos and how we took this content and turned it into a serious women's health issue backed by research that got coverage from influential bloggers and mainstream media sites.

    See you in New York on the 20th March
    .

    Posted by on 5:28 PM | Permalink

    Microsoft in Hot Pursuit of Google

    Kawasaki-Ballmer (photo by DBegley) At the Mix08 Conference in Las Vegas, Microsoft loudly declared its intentions to increase its share of the search market. Yesterday, Steve Ballmer told a room of 1,500 software developers that the software giant has its eyes set on catching Google.

    During a Q&A with Guy Kawasaki, he called search the "killer application" of online advertising which he said will be the next "super big thing" and is the reason for the company's Yahoo offer.

    Ballmer lamented the fact that Microsoft did not get an earlier start in the search game, but maintained that they were still the "little engine that could." He even rallied the troops by reenacting his famous "Monkey Boy" routine from 2001, but this time gave it a twist by chanting "Web Developers! Web Developers! Web Developers!"

    Earlier in the week, during his keynote address, Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie spoke about how search was driving community-based innovation in the software industry and how the change was affecting online advertising.

    "With online advertising projected to grow from $40 billion today to $80 billion over the next three years, advertising is going to continue to be the primary way that we and you monetize services and apps of all kinds of the Web," Ozzie said. "And so in terms of strategically what is Microsoft's role in advertising on the Web, the answer is, in short, to do our part and to use the resources that we have to ensure that there's a vibrant advertising ecosystem on the Web based on a highly competitive ad platform that's attractive to advertisers, publishers, and developers alike."

    Ozzie also said these changes are affecting the way companies store information. "Most major enterprises are, today, in the early stages of what will be a very, very significant transition from the use of dedicated application servers to the use of virtualization and commodity hardware for consolidating apps on computing grids and storage grids within their data center. This trend will accelerate as apps are progressively refactored, horizontally refactored to make use of this new virtualization-powered utility computing model. A model that will span from the enterprise data center, and ultimately, into the cloud."

    Posted by Nathania Johnson on 11:08 AM | Permalink

    Yahoo Maps Announces Updates

    Yahoo Maps announced Wednesday that an update was rolled out, which includes several data and style improvements. Gus Maldonado, senior product manager, wrote on the Yahoo Local Maps Blog that users can expect to see lower zoom levels, new neighborhood data for 300 North American cities, and expanded worldwide coverage.

    New points of interest have also been added and include schools, rest areas, and ski resorts. Usability was also a focus of the recent update, offering increased city density as well as adjustments to hybrid road and label colors.

    Posted by Nathania Johnson on 11:05 AM | Permalink

    Pentagon Bans Google Mapping Vehicles from Military Bases

    The Pentagon has banned Google from driving their mapping vehicles on military bases after detailed street views of Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas, appeared on Google Maps. The views have since been taken down by a cooperative Google.

    An official at Fort Sam Houston allowed the vehicle on the premises after promises from the driver that no videotaping or photographing would be allowed. Google insists the images were loaded in error and should never have been taken in the first place.

    The driver of the vehicle apparently violated Google's own mapping policy which prohibits its vehicles from driving on military bases and private property.

    Posted by Nathania Johnson on 10:41 AM | Permalink

    Why Digg's Worth $200 Mllion or More to Google

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    Digg IPO? No. Digg FSBO. For Sale By Owner. Again.

    The auction for social search engine Digg begins when Microsoft and Google make their bid. Both search engines are digging through Digg's financials to see if they can make the numbers work. Microsoft signed a three year advertising deal with Digg last year. Microsoft's guarantees providing the lion's share of Digg's revenue.

    Did Steve Ballmer like his Digg advertising deal so much he decided to buy the company? Not at all. So who else might bid? Time Warner. NewsCorp. Round up the usual suspects.

    TechCrunch reported this morning that two media titans are in the mix too for the fire sale prices being discussed. Mike Arrington notes this isn't the first time there's been due diligence with Digg. Last year the number was $300 million. This year? Only $200-$225 million.

    Microsoft, expected to bid lower, may cancel their advertising deal if they lose out (again) in a bidding war with Google.

    Blodget says "a knowledgeable SAI reader" values Digg at $100 million. In any case, Kevin Rose, Digg's co-founder, must know his tech team can't satisfy his customer base with the new Digg voting algorithm that essentially takes the social out of the social search engine.

    Google would be able to design a superior Digg voting algorithm for the community; Digg apparently can't.

    Arrington observes that Google wouldn't value Digg based on revenues. No surprise there. Google's acquisition of YouTube as a video search engine wasn't valued based on revenue either. Nor was Microsoft's stake in Facebook.

    For Google, the acquisition of Digg would have strategic value. Ask Google execs what the near-term future of search looks like and they'll answer "social search."

    Digg would be an extension of Google's search engine empire: Digg votes may become one more signal in the Google natural and paid search algorithms. Diggers voting for YouTube. A link is a vote in PageRank. Why wouldn't a Digg vote be one too?

    Google may have reduced PageRank for Digg-juiced sites that rose in natural search rankings due to Digg. No company knows the power of Digg better than Google.

    It's not about the short-term AdSense revenue all those Diggers would provide. It's about their behavior: what they vote for and why.

    Search behavior is the key driver behind Google's acquisitions. The benefits of amassing a higher share of searches on the Internet accrues to Google. No one on Wall St. values a company based on the activities of its members.

    But then no company before Google has ever built an empire as a global R&D lab.

    Posted by Kevin Heisler on 8:57 AM | Permalink

    SEW Experts: Has Google Already Won?

    With the imminent demise of Yahoo and Ask.com, Google seems to have cemented its near-total control of search. The monopolization of our industry is fast becoming a reality, and yet the users of search are oblivious. In today's SEM Crossfire column, "Has Google Already Won?," Frank Watson laments the downfall of Ask.com and Yahoo, and what that might mean for Google.

    Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink

    SEW Experts: Sales and Your Search Marketing Agency - Part 1

    Now that you know how to win the right search marketing clients, it's time to look at one of the most important areas of your business -- how to make sales. In today's Business of Search column, "Sales and Your Search Marketing Agency - Part 1," Fionn Downhill discusses ways a search marketing agency can gather sales leads, and turn those leads into sales.

    Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink

    SEW Experts: Social Media Meets Local Search

    Despite the growing traffic to social networks, local search tools for users of those sites are surprisingly few and far between. That doesn't mean you shouldn't stay active in those communities. In today's Vertical Search column, "Social Media Meets Local Search," local search expert Gregg Stewart take a look at emerging local search products/applications on the heavily trafficked social platform/portal sites like MySpace and Facebook.

    Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink

    March 6, 2008

    UNC Student Body President Eve Carson Shot, Killed: The Way We Live Now

    eve%20carson%20unc.jpg

    UNC Chapel Hill senior Eve Carson was shot and killed early Wednesday morning.

    Police are calling the murder a random act of violence. Carson's roommates reported seeing her about 1:30 a.m. at their home the day of the shooting.

    We're observing a moment of silence in memory of the UNC student body president murdered yesterday. I graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Search engine news can wait.

    Instead we'll look at how search engines have eliminated the last vestiges of privacy, turned private lives into public figures, and created a global community that can celebrate and honor an ordinary life.

    Chapel Hill police said the body of Eve Marie Carson was found lying at the intersection of Hillcrest Road and Hillcrest Circle about a mile from campus at approximately 5 a.m. No identifying information was found at the scene -- no ID card, keys, purse, or wallet.

    Eve%20Carson%20Shot%20Killed%20Here.jpg

    Investigators said officers found Eve Carson, a 22-year-old senior from Athens, Ga., after gunshots were reported in the area. Police spokesman Lt. Kevin Gunter told "The News & Observer" of Raleigh that Carson had been shot several times, at least once in the head.

    2005%20toyota%20highlander.jpg
    Police found Carson's vehicle, a blue 2005 Toyota Highlander with Georgia plates, after receiving a tip Thursday afternoon from a witness who spotted it near Franklin Street in Chapel Hill.

    Lauren Burk, an 18-year-old Auburn University student from Marietta, Ga., was found wounded by a gunshot on a roadside Tuesday night, about five miles from the school. She died later at a local hospital.

    lauren%20burk%20shot.jpg

    Her car was found burning in a parking lot on campus.

    No one knows whetther the co-ed murders are linked. In the past, the UNC shooting would have been a brief segment on national television news; a CNN pundits' exchange, and the inevitable "48 Hours Mystery" segment.

    ABC News, though, has received more than 200 comments online from readers.

    USA Today ended its breaking news story with "Here's a Facebook page from her successful campaign (for UNC student body president.) The USA today reporter linked to her inauguration speech video on YouTube, showing her welcoming students back to campus.

    The photo of Eve Carson on USAToday.com? An "Image taken from YouTube."

    Other TV news sites featured slideshows: "Pictures Of Eve Carson." Links helped searchers put together a better picture of her life:

    eve%20marie%20carson.jpg

    Link: Video Of Carson's Inauguration As UNC Student Body President
    Link: Message From UNC Chancellor About Carson's Death
    Link: Eve Carson Memorial Page On Facebook

    Today, with millions of people searching for information on Eve Carson, social search engines provide a way to celebrate a life. I found one photo on FlickR tagged "eve carson." The photo shows "A bagpipe player promoting Eve Carson for student body president."

    The most moving photos online show Eve Carson working with impoverished families in Ecuador. Take the time to watch "The Gifts of Poverty," on the Morehead Scholars and Alumni site. You can listen to Eve Carson sharing her experiences in her own voice.

    eve%20carson%20ecuador%20hospital.jpg

    The multimedia slide show was produced by students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Journalism and Mass Communication. The credits: Nancy Donaldson, photography editing; Ray M. Jones, audio editing; Pailin Wedel, audio gathering; and Ashlie White, photography.

    People all over the world will be touched by Eve Carson's too-brief life as they search for answers about her death.

    The author of Enders Game Orson Scott Card wrote in his sci-fi novel Speaker For The Dead that we would one day celebrate lives by speaking the truth about an ordinary life. To Speak for the dead, one must first unravel the web of secrets surrounding lives. One must speak not only for the dead, but for all humanity.

    Eve Carson's Inauguration Speech as UNC Student President

    Eve Carson was a Morehead-Cain scholar and a North Carolina Fellow, taking part in a four-year leadership development program for undergraduates.

    As UNC student body president, she served on the university's Board of Trustees.

    The Morehead-Cain provides a full four-year scholarship to the UNC Chapel Hill that includes an annual stipend that covers full tuition and all other normal expenses, including student fees, housing, meals, books, supplies, travel, laptop computers for all entering freshmen; a fully funded, four-year Summer Enrichment Program; and funding to pursue a gap year before starting college.

    The total value of the scholarship over the four years is approximately $140,000 for out-of-state residents.

    A premed student, Carson majored in political science and biology, taught science at a Chapel Hill elementary schools, studied abroad in Cuba, and spent summers volunteering in Ecuador, Egypt and Ghana, according to AP reports.

    More than 5,000 students mourned her death at a campus memorial service.

    Posted by Kevin Heisler on 10:32 PM | Permalink

    AdWords Annouces, Explains Load Time Usage In Quality Score

    The Adwords blog just announced the details of the inclusion of page load times in calculating Quality Score. This is an important announcement for all AdWords advertisers as it is a direct impact on your pricing.

    We have been discussing it in the forums and was told about the announcement by the Google AdWords Rep who posts on the forums giving Google help.

    Their stance is "users have the best experience when they don't have to wait a long time for landing pages to load" and that many possible infractions take added load times. Always looking out for the users.....

    The help guide states "we evaluate your load time relative to the average in your server's geographic region."

    What that exactly means should be more detailed. What happens if a particular region just has slow times and you are impacted by that? Would finding a slower overall region help fast loading sites? Would moving to a slower region for that matter help a slow site?

    Could this create situations that competitors could take advantage of... is there a slow speed hack yet to be created? Is this a Pandora's Box of troubles yet to come?

    Posted by Frank Watson on 8:20 PM | Permalink

    Search Headlines & Links: March 6, 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 6:37 PM | Permalink

    Free Online March Bootcamp Shows Jenn Slegg Still Queen of Adsense

    If you have been making money using Google AdSense for more than a few months chances are really good that you have read or benefited from knowledge shared by Jennifer Slegg. JenSense, her indepth blog on monetizing your website, is without peer - and that includes Inside AdSense!

    As part of her launch of her newly changed blog, Jenn is posting a detailed tips for improving your online income - including a free privacy policy template, in light of the changes recently made in AdSense's Terms and Conditions which require all publishers to have one.

    AdSense has been slow to share a lot of information about optimizing your income - many times posting suggestions that have been given by many sources beforehand.

    Their post yesterday about revenue fluctuations, while somewhat informative - when not trying to suggest they could be due to impression drop off - comes in response to the numerous articles and forum discussions about dropping AdSense income.

    Jen I look forward to reading your entries this month.

    Posted by Frank Watson on 12:46 PM | Permalink

    EU Approval of Google's DoubleClick Acquisition is Imminent

    The EU is reportedly planning to approve Google's $3.1 billion acquisition of online advertising powerhouse DoubleClick. Though the Commission gave itself an April 2 deadline, approval is expected to come as early as next Tuesday, according to Bloomberg.com.

    The EU decision comes on the heels of the US Federal Trade Commission's approval this past December. This will come as unwelcome news to Microsoft, which has been complaining about the potential for Google to gain monopoly status in the online advertising market. The company said last year that the acquisition would provide bring 80 percent of the market under Google's control. Last year, Microsoft acquired DoubleClick competitor aQuantive for $6 billion.

    Another concern of both Microsoft and EU Commissioners has been the question of privacy with the combination of Google and DoubleClick's massive databases. But with the EU apparently set to approve the acquisition unconditionally, those fears have either been alleviated or will go unanswered for the time being.

    The news gave Google a slight boost in stock prices today, which have declined in recent months over reports of a slowdown in growth on clicks for their internet ads.

    Posted by Nathania Johnson on 12:00 PM | Permalink

    Trackur Offers Easy Online Reputation Management

    Last week, Andy Beal released an online reputation management tool called Trackur. It was created for “individuals and companies concerned that they may be the subject of an online conversation, but don't have the time or knowledge needed to set up their own online monitoring tools."

    It's also aimed at PR firms that want to add online reputation monitoring to their existing "clipping" services.” Users can be up and running with Trackur in just 5 minutes, which Beal says "removes the hassle out of maintaining dozens of manual reputation searches.”

    At first glance, Trackur appears to be a simple RSS aggregator of social media search queries. Indeed, a social media-savvy individual could likely replicate what Trackur does with a bit of time and effort. But not every business has the knowledge, or the desire, to know what they should be tracking. Trackur makes good business sense for those types of users, Beal says.

    “We take the hard work out of monitoring social media. We monitor news, blog posts, images, videos – even Twitter! Users can set up multiple searches, use sophisticated filtering to remove items that are not relevant to them, bookmark items, share items, sort items, then subscribe by email or RSS – or just use our beautiful AJAX interface,” Beal says.

    All of this sophistication comes at a price. Trackur offers plans from $88-$388 a month, or less than the cost of a venti latte at Starbucks a day. But for small businesses, Trackur is essentially reputation insurance. “A smear against the reputation of a small business can be more detrimental than one against a Fortune 500 firm. Small businesses live and die by referrals and word of mouth. Just a single blog post can hurt the business of a restaurant, attorney, or flower shop,“ says Beal.

    Technology alone cannot manage a reputation, so a Google support group and consulting services are in place for those who need help acting on their results. Trackur offers a 14 day free trial of its Standard version so users can experiment with the tool before shelling out the monthly fee.

    In the coming weeks, Beal says to expect new features such as trending reports to be rolled out with the tool.

    Posted by Nathania Johnson on 11:11 AM | Permalink

    Google Serves Up Search Within Search Results

    Yesterday, Google announced that it is rolling out its new Search within a Site feature. When searching for specific sites instead of keywords, users are able to conduct a secondary search of those sites within Google results.

    For example, if a user searches for "NASA" at Google, the first result returns NASA.gov. Underneath that result is a search box with a submit button with the text "Search nasa.gov."

    NASA search

    The reason for the update? "Through experimentation, we found that presenting users with a search box as part of the result increases their likelihood of finding the exact page they are looking for," wrote Ben Lee, software developer, and Jack Menzel, product manager on the Official Google Blog.

    Lee and Menzel also offered insight into how Google is implementing the feature. "This feature will now occur when we detect a high probability that a user wants more refined search results within a specific site. Like the rest of our snippets, the sites that display the site search box are chosen algorithmically based on metrics that measure how useful the search box is to users."

    Posted by Nathania Johnson on 10:15 AM | Permalink

    Ask.com Stands Behind Search

    The reports of Ask.com's death have been exaggerated. Despite widely circulated reports to the contrary, Ask.com remains committed to search, and not just for middle-aged women in the Midwest. In today's SearchDay, "Ask.com Remains Committed to Search," we outline what Ask.com's new strategy really consists of: recognizing the ways their best customers use the site, and building out additional services for those users.

    Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 6:44 AM | Permalink

    SEW Experts: Has Yahoo Lost Its Yodel?

    It seems like only yesterday that Yahoo was the darling of the Web. Is Jerry Yang really ready to throw in the towel and partner with Microsoft? In today's Building Brand Equity column, "Has Yahoo Lost Its Yodel?," Erik Qualman discusses the daunting task ahead if the proposed acquisition of Yahoo by Microsoft goes through.

    Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink

    SEW Experts: SEO Link Building: Budget Stretcher for Online Retail and E-Commerce Sites

    Let's face it: most e-commerce sites primarily consist of a shopping cart on steroids. Whether you're selling clothing, car parts, luggage, or even cameras, your approach to link development matters most. In today's Link Building and Social Media column, "SEO Link Building: Budget Stretcher for Online Retail and E-Commerce Sites," Justilien Gaspard takes on the difficult task of link building for e-commerce sites.

    Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink

    March 5, 2008

    Search Headlines & Links: March 5, 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 6:45 PM | Permalink

    Yahoo Launches Fire Eagle: Location Sharing

    Yahoo has joined the companies working on helping people stay connected through location technology, the company announced today. They have launched Fire Eagle - as a sub domain of Yahoo.net.

    An information page explains the beta here:

    "Fire Eagle shares your location information with services and applications that you choose. This location information is obtained from the web or your mobile device.

    Information Collection and Use Practices

    * Fire Eagle collects your current location information from location-enabled devices or services that you authorize. The specificity of the location data collected by Fire Eagle (e.g., city, street, latitude/longitude, etc.) depends on the authorized device or service that you link with Fire Eagle.
    o You can view the service(s) or device(s) updating your location, the location indicated, and the time passed since collection at the “My Locations” tab.
    * Fire Eagle shares your location information with application(s) that you authorize to obtain your information from the Fire Eagle database.
    o If you authorize an application to obtain your location data from the Fire Eagle database, you may go to the “My Applications” tab and choose the specificity of location data available to the application from the drop-down list.
    o In approximately 45 days, you will be sent an email to reauthorize the sharing of your location data with your Fire Eagle enabled application(s). If you do not respond to this email within 10 days, authorization will be automatically revoked; however, you can later reauthorize your application(s) to interact with Fire Eagle's location database.

    Practices Regarding Your Ability to Update or Delete Information

    * If you want to prevent all applications from reading your location from the Fire Eagle database, go to the “My Privacy” tab and click “Hide Me.” Your current location will continue to be stored by Fire Eagle.
    * If you want to prevent a single application from reading your location or providing the Fire Eagle database with your location, go to the “My Applications” tab and delete the application.
    * If you want to remove previously stored location data from the Fire Eagle database, go to the “My Privacy” tab and click “Delete my location info.” The “Delete my location info” action will have no effect on information you previously authorized Fire Eagle to share with Fire Eagle enabled applications.

    Other

    * When you use Fire Eagle, you are subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service."

    Posted by Frank Watson on 6:33 PM | Permalink

    Discovery's Science Channel Has Good New Series On Internet

    Former editor and writer for Wired John Heileman shares his insights into the development of the Internet. This is no softball show praising Al Gore and the people who came after him.

    The series gives it to you "warts and all" and does not hold back the punches on how things have developed so far. The last show I watched discussed the development of search and told how Excite turned down the chance to buy Google foe a million dollars.

    Browser wars, the bubble have all been topics so far. The show can also be seen online.

    "Download: The True Story of the Internet is about a revolution -- the technological, cultural, commercial and social revolution that has radically changed our lives," is how the Discovery describes it.

    It makes for a great history lesson for people new to the industry and answers some of the urban myths surrounding our industry as well. Put the time aside and watch them, you will be glad you did.

    Posted by Frank Watson on 5:47 PM | Permalink

    Health Vertical: License and Be Found

    MindsiteAnother health vertical, Mindsite, was quietly reported in the Seattle PI venture blog yesterday. Founder David Eraker explained that "information is often ridiculously watered down, locked up behind expensive subscriptions, editorially corrupted, biased, or not credible."

    Mindsite focuses on mental health, and has licensed American Psychiatric Association information that was previously unavailable on the open web. There's a social dimension planned here as well, where people share treatments and what's worked for them. This mental health vertical could become another useful, ad-based destination.

    In this case, I think the odds are stacked against making this site a home run because it follows the “license and be found" model. You need traffic, stat. How will anyone find Mindsite among other specialized health sites, portals and search engines?

    The competition here is fierce and very well optimized. First, there are the largest health portals like WebMD, Mayo Clinic, and Revolution Health. In addition, there are health resources at places like iVillage, About.com and even Yahoo. Any of them could make this same licensing deal (assuming it's not exclusive), and knock out sites like Mindsite.

    Then there are many health search engines to consider. Remember a year-plus ago when Healthline, Kosmix, Healia and Medstory were all the rage? All these search engines refine sources and aim to produce credible results. They essentially compete with these smaller verticals, at least for traffic.

    Getting noticed is hard work. Look at the challenges faced by relatively deep-pocketed Revolution Health which, as a newcomer, isn't optimized well yet. They compensate by making seemingly large keyword buys to drive visitor traffic. While Mindsite is focused on mental health, that's a broad subject area too -- and hardly a shoo-in for optimization.

    Mindsite is a textbook example of where verticals sit today, with search, content and social attributes as basic requirements for launch. Unfortunately, it doesn't sound like a game changer.

    Posted by on 3:49 PM | Permalink

    Microsoft Research Unveils Three New Search Projects

    Yesterday at TechFest, Microsoft Research unveiled three projects designed to enhance a user's search experience. Two projects, SearchTogether and CoSearch, are aimed at collaborative search while SearchBar assists the individual searcher.

    SearchTogether is a free Internet Explorer plugin that allows groups of people searching on multiple computers in different countries to collaborate their searches. The plugin will be available for download later this Spring and installs a sidebar on the IE web browser. SearchTogether's features include group query histories, split searching, page-level rating and commenting, automatically-generated shared summaries, peek-and-follow browsing, and integrated chat.

    CoSearch enables collaborative search while users are gathered around a single computer. This is facilitated by the use of multiple mice or cell phones. For example, a person might use their cell phone to maneuver a cursor on the screen and transfer data to their phone, while another user may use a mouse to follow links on the same page at the same time.

    Searchbar is an advanced search history tool that operates as a sidebar in a user's web browser. Users can save searches in order to return to them later and pick up where they left off. SearchBar organizes the searches in a hierarchical tree format. Users can write notes to themselves to remind them of future searches or any other information they wish to remember about their search queries.

    Microsoft's projects are comparable to recent efforts by Google and social media startups to personalize and socialize search. But Microsoft could take the lead on such efforts because these projects offer users increased control of their own research efforts. With the ability to easily keep personal accounts of search queries and share and receive results from people they know, instead of being purely subject to algorithms and the opinions of a broad audience.

    Posted by Nathania Johnson on 12:18 PM | Permalink

    YouTube, Wikipedia, Facebook: Most Popular Social Media Sites in UK

    Facebook lives! Reports of Facebook UK's death? Greatly exaggerated.

    Rocketing up the charts in today's Nielsen social search Top 10 is Facebook, up 712 percent year-over-year. Facebook leapfrogged 15 places in the most popular social media site rankings, winning third place with 8.5 million UK visitors.

    social%20media%20UK%20jan%2008.jpg

    YouTube, Facebook and Slide top the list of the most popular and fastest growing social media Web sites in the UK, according to Nielsen Online, a service of The Nielsen Company. Nielsen's data, released today, proves that reports of social media's demise in the UK may be unfounded.

    In the UK, 20.8 million people (63 percent of Britons online) visited at least one of the ten most popular social media sites in January 2008. That's a 21 percent increase over last January (17.1 million).

    YouTube has replaced Wikipedia as the UK's most popular social media Web site.

    Biggest Winners: Facebook and social networking add-on tool, Slide.

    biggest%20loser.jpg
    Biggest Losers: Friends Reunited and Google Video.


    Facebook and Slide broke into the Top 10 by ousting Friends Reunited and Google Video (falling to 16 and 14, respectively, compared to January 2007).

    Prediction: Google will retire the Google Video brand and roll it into YouTube by the end of 2008. Both are video search engines. Universal search makes Google Video as a standalone property obsolete.

    RIP Google Video: the first Top 20 Web property buried six feet under the World Wide Web?

    We'll be tracking whether UK cable TV (MTV Two) can drive traffic and registrations to a social media site. MySpace (News Corp) and MTV (Viacom) will launch a weekly TV music video countdown show (MySpace Chart) only on the U.K. network MTV Two, not to be confused with MTV 2 in the US.

    Think TRL with a social twist.

    MySpacers and MTV site visitors will be able to vote next week on the top videos ( mtv.co.uk/myspacechart) on MySpace and MTV Two's dedicated landing page.

    My Space Chart launch date: March 16. Mark you calendars and start tracking on comScore, Hitwise, and Nielsen.

    A complete list of the current MTV Two UK chart toppers after the jump:

    The MTV TWO Chart:

    Arcade Fire - Black Mirror
    Cage The Elephant - In One Ear
    Does It Offend You Yeah - Let's Make Out
    Editors - Push Your Head Towards The Air
    Elbow - Grounds For Divorce
    Foals - Cassius
    Furtureheads - Beginning Of The Twist
    Guillemots - Get Over It
    Hard Fi - I Shall Overcome
    Hot Chip - Ready For The Floor
    I Was A Cub Scout - Pink Squares
    Jack Penate - Have I Been A Fool
    Jimmy Eat World - Always Be
    Joe Lean & The Jing Jang Jong - Lonely Buoy
    Kaiser Chiefs - Heat Dies Down
    Kids In Glass Houses - Easy Tiger
    Late Of The Pier - Bears Are Coming
    Look See Proof - Do You Think Its right
    Make Model - The LSB
    MGMT - Time To Pretend
    Mystery Jets Ft. Laura Marling - Young Love
    One Night Only - Just For Tonight
    Panic At The Disco - Nine In The Afternoon
    Radiohead - Nude
    Red Jump Suit Apparatus - Face Down
    REM - Supernatural Superserious
    Supergrass - Bad Blood
    The Courteeners - Not Nineteen Foerver
    The Cribs - I'm A Realist
    The Enemy - This Song Is About You
    The Kooks - Always Where I Need To Be
    The Metros - Education
    The Teenagers - Love No
    The Wombats - Moving To New York
    Vampire Weekend - A Punk
    We Are Scientists - After Hours
    Young Knives - Up All Night

    Posted by Kevin Heisler on 9:55 AM | Permalink

    Yahoo Fires Back

    Yahoo retaliated in the ongoing saga of Microsoft's hostile takeover attempt today by extending the deadline for nominations of its board of directors to some future date 10 days after it announces the date of its annual meeting.

    Yahoo is taking its time making that decision, since if there's no annual meeting, there can be no vote by shareholders, bolstered by Microsoft, to replace Yahoo's existing board with a more Microsoft-friendly one. By postponing the possible house-cleaning of the current board, Yahoo also makes it more likely that it can reach a peaceful accord with Microsoft on an acquisition, or find another suitor willing to step in.

    The plan could backfire on Yahoo if shareholders see this move as disenfranchising them from the decision to accept Microsoft's offer. Yahoo needs to hold its annual meeting within 13 months of its last one, which took place on June 12, 2007.

    Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 9:43 AM | Permalink

    Yahoo Desperately Seeking Suitor: Time Warner

    aolyahoo.jpg

    Yahooo's desperately seeking a suitor. With a Microsoft proxy battle expected soon, Time Warner's emerging as a white knight for the Sunnyvale search engine. Or as a delaying tactic to put off the Yahoo annual shareholder meeting.

    Talks between Yahoo and the AOL unit of Time Warner have escalated. Finding an alternative to Microsoft's unwelcome bid remains Yahoo's focus, according to reports this morning in The Wall St. Journal (subscription) and The New York Times.

    The deal discussed would combine Time Warner's AOL Internet unit with Yahoo, as we reported on February 1st. Reports of the Yahoo Time Warner AOL talks first emerged on February 10th.

    AOL%20Time%20Warner%20Yahoo.jpg

    What are the chances? Still a longshot since the buyout by Microsoft is almost inevitable.

    The clock's ticking on Microsoft's rejected Feb. 1 offer. At an almost $45 billion value, Yahoo spurned it as undervaluing the company. Now it's worth $41.2 billion.

    Who supports the AOL-Yahoo combo? Google, naturally, with a 5 percent stake in Yahoo.

    Facebook, with Microsoft as an investor, remains on the sidelines. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg hired Google's Sheryl Sandberg yesterday. That brilliant move makes the game more interesting.

    For a more in-depth look at Facebook, Google and Yahoo, check out former Yahoo exec Erik Qualman's SEW Experts Brand Equity columns:

    Social media and online commerce: Birth of Socialommerce

    Why Search is still prehistoric

    Why Search is still prehistoric, part 2

    Posted by Kevin Heisler on 7:29 AM | Permalink

    Google: The Spy Who Loved Me

    spy-who-loved-me.jpg


    Dr. Hal Varian, Google's chief economist and occasional Freakonomics Blog guest blogger, posted "Why data matters" on the official Google blog, cross-posted on the Google Public Policy Blog.

    Varian explains that Web search algorithms are improved by the "wisdom of the crowds" drawn from the "logs of billions of previous search queries." That makes the general public - and government officials - nervous about privacy.

    Varian tutors us in PageRank simplified and discusses link building in an ideal world - one where The New York Times and The Wall St. Journal, for example, would link to other sites generously:

    "If I have six links pointing to me from sites such as the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and the House of Representatives, that carries more weight than 20 links from my old college buddies who happen to have web pages."

    The House of Representatives? Sounds more like Charlie Wilson's War.

    SEOs, contact your local Congressional Representative for paid links - paid for with your hard-earned tax dollars.

    The reality: when Dr. Varian was interviewed, The New York Times Freakonomics Blog linked to Google.org, Google green energy, Dr. Varian's position auction paper (pdf); BBC News on Moore's Law; Paul Seabright (Professor of Economics, University of Toulouse, France); Dr. Varian's NY Times energy article; another Freakonomics blog post; WebMD, Revolution Health, and Paul Anderson, Professor of Security Engineering, University of Cambridge.

    That's the way major media outlets and journalists typically link: to each other; to corporate sites; to universities. It's an elite, exclusive club. Nick Carr's "digital elite."

    That isn't to say Dr. Varian can't tell a good story. He reveals how Larry and Sergey trying to license their PageRank algorithm to "some of the newly formed web search engines."

    No names named. None of the nascent search engines were interested. Since they couldn't sell their algorithm, Brin and Page decided to start a search engine themselves. (Note to VCs: Don't try this business model at home.)

    Google has since added more than 200 additional "signals" to the algorithms that determine the relevance of websites to a user's query. We are the signals.

    All the background info leads to one conclusion: Google needs your data. Google wants you to take a leap of faith. Google must store and analyze search logs. They want us to believe, "Nobody does it better."

    Reminds me of Radiohead via Carly Simon:

    "But like heaven above me, the spy who loved me/Is keeping all my secrets safe tonight. And nobody does it better/Sometimes I wish someone would/Nobody does it quite the way you do/Why'd you have to be so good."

    Dr. Varian suggests readers "Watch our videos to see exactly what data we store in our logs."

    Not everyone has time - or the inclination - to watch Google videos on YouTube.

    What worries me: Google doesn't understand us any better than we understand the mathematical formulas of search engine algorithms.

    Search Engine WarGames won't be fought between humans and machines.

    Nick Carr put it best: "The erosion of the middle class may well accelerate, as the divide widens between a relatively small group of extraordinarily wealthy people - the digital elite - and a very large set of people who face eroding fortunes and a persistent struggle to make ends meet. In the YouTube economy, everyone is free to play, but only a few reap the rewards."

    Posted by Kevin Heisler on 12:20 AM | Permalink

    SEW Experts: The Beginning of the End? Or the End of the Beginning?

    ComScore's recent data showing flat paid search growth for Google led many in the media to declare that the paid search sky was falling. But the rush to judgment was wrong, and there are other factors involved. In today's Searching for Meaning column, "The Beginning of the End? Or the End of the Beginning?," Kevin Ryan outlines the saga of misread numbers, media's desire to show failure that isn't there, and the fickleness of financial markets.

    Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink

    March 4, 2008

    Load Time Impacts Google Quality Score

    A member over at WebmasterWorld found that web page load time is now a factor in Google's Qulaity Score for AdWords.

    This was started last month and may be the one thing people have been overlooking when examining what impacts their QS numbers.

    The big question is does Google set a table or range or is this fastest to slowest for ranking impact?

    Discussion of this has been started at the SEW Forums as well.

    Posted by Frank Watson on 7:34 PM | Permalink

    Search Headlines & Links: March 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 6:59 PM | Permalink

    7 Deadly SEO Questions for Google's Matt Cutts

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    Wired? Or Weird? The Matt Cutts Interview on Epicenter in The Wired Blog Network.

    The Question is no longer: "Is Google God?"

    Wired knows the answer: Matt Cutts is. A god with a little g. Or at least "like" a god. Not just any god. An Internet god.

    "Among search geeks and online marketers, Matt Cutts is like an internet god," wrote Betsy Schiffman in her blog post.

    Last week when soliciting reader questions, Betsy called Matt one of the most "feared, loathed and revered men on the internet." He was "Google's search stud."

    Perhaps it was inevitable that Matt Cutts would be deified. We just thought Wired might have made him a saint first. (cat god = inside joke for Cuttlets)

    Nothing against Wired. I love Wired. So much I paid full retail price (less my Barnes & Noble discount) for the print magazine just to read Chris Anderson's "Free-conomics" before it was available free online.

    Before readers reach the Q&A they have to hear the porn cookie guy story. Again.

    Wired or Tired? You decide.

    USA Today reviewed "The Google Story" by David A. Vise and Mark Malseed back in November of 2005:

    "Take, for instance, the developer of Google's SafeSearch filter, Matt Cutts, also know as 'porn cookie guy': "Cutts got his moniker by giving out his wife's tempting homemade cookies to Googlers who help him find unwanted porn."

    Then there's Porn Flakes, the Google cereal story (via SEL?). Thanks but we'll have our breakfast of champions with attribution, Betsy.

    Cereality! Matt got his own cereal box on the Google campus. No mention of Raisin Brin, LarryO's or Porn Flakes?

    Danny posted today about Rand's Feb 29 video interview with Matt.

    Last week I linked to Eric Enge's phenomenally popular, full text Q&A interview with Matt Cutts.

    Today I'll link to Aaron Wall's #1 ranked (in Google for "matt cutts interview") done in 2005.

    All Matt Cutts All The Time: our new Search Engine Watch mantra.

    So in the interest of fair use, here are the 7 Deadly Questions Wired asked Matt:

    1. Does SEO (search-engine optimization) work?
    2. Where do you see search in two to five years?
    3. What about social search?
    4. Will you ever roll out for-fee webmaster tools?
    5. On video search, is there a bias toward YouTube videos?
    6. If you were to start a web-based business tomorrow, what key things would you do?
    7. What's going on with Google bombs -- are you still seeing them?

    Continue reading for three Matt Cutts Wired Quotes of the Day:

    Wired Magazine sat down with Matt Cutts to ask him reader-submitted questions about the world of search. Cutts answered questions about whether or not SEO really works, the future of search, if Google curries favor to YouTube in their search results and his opininon on social search, among other things.

    Some notable quotes from the Q&A Interview include:

    On whether SEO works:

    Think of it this way: When you put a resume forward, you want it to be as clean as possible. If the resume is sloppy, you're not going to get interviewed for the job. SEO is sort of like tweaking your resume

    On the future of Search:

    Personalization is also really interesting to me. So if you search for 'diamond,' [the search engine will know] if you're looking for jewelry or baseball.

    On possible Google bias towards YouTube:

    I've asked around about this issue and the people I've spoken with strongly deny it. We are actively trying to promote diversity and we take that as a high-order goal.

    Posted by Kevin Heisler on 6:19 PM | Permalink

    Deathknell for Gary Gygax D&D

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    Gary Gygax, co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons, died on Tuesday morning in his home. The news was reported first in the forums of Troll Lord Games, publishers of Gygax's "Lejendary Adventures and Castles & Crusades" books. His son Ernie Gygax broke the news to the community.

    Obviously, Search Engine Watch played a very small role in the Dungeons & Dragons universe.

    Yet the Web changed gaming forever and the passing of board games into the digital realm was noted here.

    Rolling dice? Replaced by clicking mice.

    On November 16, 2005, Zach Rodgers of Search Engine Watch - in the "Midweek Blog Potables" roundup - noted the transition of D&D to an online game.

    Zach wrote, "The buzz continues on Dungeons & Dragons' move to the Web. The original RPG (role-playing game) brand joins the online pack. Could be a great comeback story or a tower of suckitude."

    Posted by Kevin Heisler on 4:52 PM | Permalink

    Ask.com to Cut 8%, Revamp Search Plans

    Ask.com will stop trying to compete directly with Google as a mainstream search engine, and will instead focus on targeting niches where it feels it can prosper, based on the way users are searching with Ask.com now. Reports from Reuters and the Wall Street Journal quote new CEO Jim Safka saying "We are reorienting the company around where we can grow," and "If we can do a better job of understanding who these customers are and answering their questions, we will grow."

    Safka took over as CEO in January, edging out popular Ask.com boss Jim Lanzone.

    A total of 40 layoffs were made, across multiple departments. That 8-percent cut was designed to eliminate several areas of overlap, including some competing technologies, Safka told the WSJ. He also told the WSJ that one core audience Ask.com would focus on might be women over 30, asking questions about entertainment and health topics. Building out products for that group might include more community-generated answers.

    Late last week, rumors were flying that Ask.com would get rid of its Teoma search algorithm and outsource search to Google. An Ask.com spokesperson told SEW at the time those rumors were "just plain false," adding that "There are no plans to 'pull the plug' on Teoma, our core search engine technology."

    UPDATE: Gary Price, director of online information resources, evangelist of Ask.com, friend to librarians, former SEW news editor, and all-around great guy, was one of the 40 employees laid off today, he announced on his ResourceShelf blog. "Earlier this afternoon I learned that Ask.com is taking the company in a new and different direction and I will not be a part of it," he writes. "It's time to move forward and on to another full time job. Where it will be and what I will do is TBD but I am looking forward to seeing what's out there and where I might be able to contribute."

    I've no doubt Gary will land on his feet, but we wish him the best of luck just the same. With the exit of Price, and the news that Jim Lanzone will be gone by August, Ask.com has most definitely moved away from "the little engine that could," with lots of personality, to just another IAC site in Barry Diller's empire. It's a sad day for Ask.com, and a sad day for searchers.

    Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 4:20 PM | Permalink

    Facebook Hires Sandberg to Make Microsoft's $240 Million Investment Pay Off

    A senior executive jilted Google for another search engine - and it's not Yahoo or MSN Live. In the strange bedfellows game in tech, the Google exec will help Microsoft profit from the $15 billion Facebook valuation Microsoft's $240 million investment created.

    Facebook has hired Sheryl Sandberg as their new COO. Sandberg leaves Google after six years and a wealth of stock options. Formerly Google's vice president for global online sales and operations, Ms. Sandberg is expected to help solve the Facebook monetization challenge.

    If there's any question about her charge at Facebook, the answer lies in the Supernova Conference in San Francisco last year. Ms. Sandberg was featured in a Spotlight solo presentation.

    Her topic: "Google cracked the code on monetizing search advertising. Where is advertising heading next?"

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    TechCrunch compared Facebook and Google to the Mac and PC (see illustration). We added Sheryl Sandberg to the mix.

    TechCrunch reported on a small exodus of Google and YouTube engineers to Facebook back in November of last year. Facebook hired Youtube CFO Gideon Yu, eCommerce Product lead Benjamin Ling and GDrive developer Justin Rosenstein.

    Ms. Sandberg was named to The Power 50: The 50 Most Powerful Women in business by Fortune magazine in 2006 and 2007. Currently number 29, there's no question she'll rise higher this year if she succeeds at Facebook.

    While Ms. Sandberg will be missed at Google, the company boasts a strong executive bench.

    Sandberg's Google team, led by David Fischer who will succeed her, oversees global sales for what the Wall St. Journal estimates is 99 percent of all Google's advertisers.

    Senior Google executives have their pick of hot startups and companies transforming themselves into digital enterprises. Some have left the company for private equity firms and other lucrative opportunities. Many more, including Google's vice president of search products Marissa Mayer, are expected to leave within two years or sooner.

    Posted by Kevin Heisler on 3:36 PM | Permalink

    Yahoo Announces onePlace at CeBIT

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    Yahoo took advantage of the CeBIT conference in Hamburg, Germany to announce the forthcoming launch of onePlace, a content management solution developed as part of the company's growing mobile services. The platform works on a system of bookmarking, allowing users to categorize their favorite content (news, videos, images, emails, etc) and then view it with ease on their mobile device.

    Dynamic content will be automatically updated, which should appeal to the likes of sports fans, investors, and frequent flyers. A feature called “Pulse” enables users to view the latest changes to their content collections.

    The success of onePlace will depend on its ability to aggregate content to meet the demands of the mobile user. Small screens and connectivity issues require mobile content to be organized and presented in a more streamlined manner than for desktop browsers.

    The launch of onePlace is expected to take place in the second quarter of 2008. It could coincide with the expected Q2 launch of Yahoo's mobile phone service, oneConnect.

    This news comes on the heels of Yahoo's announcement of a partnership with T-Mobile in Europe for its oneSearch mobile offering. Yahoo seems to be staking out its territory in mobile search as Google attempts to grab a piece of the mobile pie by strengthening its ties with Apple and AT&T earlier this year.

    Posted by Nathania Johnson on 10:57 AM | Permalink

    Spot Runner Buys Weblistic: Local Search on Video Steroids

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    Today Spot Runner announced its acquisition of Weblistic, a provider of local online advertising, in an all-stock transition. Spot Runner is an internet-based television ad agency headquartered in Los Angeles. The company says in its press release, “The acquisition of Weblistic will enable Spot Runner to correlate TV and online advertising with phone- and Web-based responses to provide tracking, analysis and results.”

    The result promises to be an integrated offering of online, TV, and radio advertising for small businesses in their local markets. Spot Runner's press release cites proprietary iProspect-Jupiter Research study proving the value of TV in search engine marketing:

    "TV advertising is the number one impetus for people to search for a particular company or product online, surpassing all other forms of advertising, even word of mouth (iProspect Offline Channel Influence on Online Search Behavior Study conducted by Jupiter Research, June 2007)"

    The acquisition is part of a greater trend that The Kelsey Group's Michael Boland labeled the "Webification of Small Businesses." This is where B2B companies lure small businesses in with traditional funnel marketing techniques, starting with a free service in the hopes that SMBs will upgrade to premium services in the future.

    If you're a small business, you're unlikely to have the in-house resources to handle a broad marketing strategy. Since Spot Runner handles everything from production to placement, adding the coordination of Weblistics online advertis