October 2008

October 31, 2008

Google Integrates Custom Search with Knol

In July, Google launched Knol, a knowledge sharing platform. You can find all sorts of information from baking to AutoCAD.

Google says users have been asking for a more "robust" search platform for Knol. And who is Google to turn down such a request.

However, Google wanted to maintain the look and feel of Knol. So they used Custom Search to keep it feeling very Knol-y and not so regular Google-y.

What do you think of the Custom Search in Knol? Leave your thoughts in the comments.

Related Reading:
Google SERP Bias? Google Knols Best

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 2:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SearchMonkey Allows Apps to Go Experimental

SearchMonkey is a developer's platform released by Yahoo earlier this year. But in order for searchers to make use of the apps, they must first be approved by Yahoo.

Now Yahoo is letting developers find an early audience by allowing apps to be classified as experimental before they're approved. Searchers can use the apps like they're a hotel swimming pool - i.e. at their own risk.

Want to test out some experimental apps? Click 'Show Experimental Enhancements' at the bottom of the SearchMonkey Gallery applications directory page.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 1:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Election Tools from Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, and AOL

I'm sure I don't have to remind you that election day is next Tuesday. Whether you're observing or you're breaking out the campaign gear for some hardcore get out the vote effors this weekend, here are some tools to help you keep up with the news and your efforts:

Google Earth

You can download a KML file that lets you search results from past elections, since 1980. The data is broken down and can show you how different regions of the country voted - even by county. I used to work as a political consultant, and let me tell you - this kind of data is heavily relied on. It's a bit of a late release for campaigns, who already have this data. But it's great for political junkies.

Google News

Trying to remember what a candidate said on an issue? Just type their name into Google News. If Google has indexed a quote by that person, it will appear on top of the search results in the one box.

Google Mobile

Want to know your precinct location? The Google Mobile team has created a special tool just for that purpose. Go to m.google.com/elections on your mobile phone, type in your address and you'll be directed to your precinct.

The tool did not point me to early voting locations, which in my state are not the same as Election Day precinct locations.

As cool as that is, always verify with your local elections office. Google even helps you do that. They have a box where you enter your state's abbreviation, and it will pull up relevant links to voting information.

Yahoo Elections Hub and Political Dashboard

Yahoo makes the most of its successful portal platforms with its Elections Hub and Political Dashboard. The dashboard is a super slick map showing the latest poll results. Hopefully they update it with real time results on election night. I can totally see myself keeping the dashboard open while watching results come in on the tv.

Microsoft Live Search xRank

xRank, Live Search's buzz tool, has a politician section. It's no surprise that the Rep and Dem presidential and vice presidential candidates take the top 4 spots today. The rest of the top 20 is filled with senate and gubernatorial races, with Hillary Clinton and George Bush thrown in for good measure.

MSN Election Live Q&A

Q&A is Live Search's answer product, and over at the MSN Election Guide, you can find the Election Live Q&A. It's pretty straightforward. You can ask and answer questions about the election in real time.

AOL Elections Toolbar

AOL has a toolbar for IE and Firefox that can keep you up to date with election news. If you like to surf the net while watching TV - this could be an ideal toolbar for you come Tuesday night.

Well, hopefully that's enough to keep you busy and up to date.

Got any tools to share? Leave your suggestions in the comments.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 11:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Regulators to Prevent Google from Bailing Out Yahoo?

Washington is on a bailout binge lately, so you would think they'd hop on board when it looks like the private sector could actually manage to work things out on their own.

Like, I don't know, the search advertising deal between Google and Yahoo. Yes, there are concerns from the advertisers. But Yahoo keeps posting dismal profits. So, unless something magical happens to Yahoo (like an acquisition by Microsoft - oh wait), then antitrust issues won't even matter.

But Google has been dropping hints that it might walk away from the deal because of regulations they don't want to comply with, like caps.

It's been projected that the deal with Google could infuse $800 million of cold hard cash into Yahoo in a year's time. That certainly wouldn't hurt. Of course, Yahoo would need to manage that influx well, and therein lies the problem. Perhaps regulators don't think the deal, which could hurt advertisers, would ultimately save Yahoo.

Adding fuel to that fire is that regulators have been lobbied hard by Microsoft, who is probably looking to watch Yahoo's stock fall into the single digits before coming back to pick it up. Microsoft may be struggling to grow its search market share, but as a whole, they have a ton of cash on hand and will weather the economic storm. Acquiring Yahoo (especially if a merger with AOL takes place) could create a stronger second place finisher in the search engine market, which would reduce anti-competitive concerns, indeed.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 9:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

We Are What We Search

Bill Tancer, the General Manager of Research at Hitwise and one of the keynote speakers at Search Engine Strategies Chicago, will be interviewed by Matt McGowan, Global VP of Marketing at Incisive Media, during an SES Webcast on Friday, Nov. 7, 2008, at 1:00 p.m. EDT / 10:00 a.m. PDT. The title of Bill's presentation is: “We Are What We Search.”

At a time when search engines are rapidly replacing the yellow pages (and news search engines are routinely scooping daily newspapers), Bill has access to a wealth of consumer information about Internet user behavior that was never available before. Bill is well known in the search industry for mining the latest Hitwise data, which is a sample of over 10 million Internet users U.S. and 25 million worldwide, to glean insights on the sites we collectively visit, what we search for and what that tells us about ourselves.

Traffic%20from%20Google%20to%20Retail%20Sites%20%28U.S.%29.PNG I spoke with Bill yesterday and he shared this news nugget with me: “I'm going to talk primarily about what search term data can tell us about the economy and consumer sentiment. I'll also spend some time on finding insights on the effect of an economic downturn on search. You might expect that with recent contractions in online retail that search traffic to that category would be declining....Our data (while showing a recent small drop-off) indicates that search traffic to retail is up over the previous year....”

Bill's webcast will cover other news-breaking search trends, implications for online advertisers, and he will give Webcast participants opportunities to ask him their most burning search trend questions! Oh, and Bill will give away 10 copies of his latest book, “Click: What Millions of People Are Doing Online and Why It Matters,” to the best questions fielded during the SES Webcast.

Posted by Greg Jarboe on 9:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Google to Change Calculations for Quality Score and Ad Rank

Changes are coming to the way AdWords calculates its Quality Score and Ad Rank. The changes will be implemented in the coming weeks.

First up, ~~Quality Score will no longer take ad position into account~~. The idea is that simply dishing out the dough for a higher position has nothing to do with the quality of the ad.

CORRECTION: Here's what Google really said: "To calculate the most accurate Quality Scores, it's important that the influence of ad position on CTR be taken into account and removed from the Quality Score." Bloggers have been pointing out that Google has been doing this. When I get further clarification from Google, I'll let you know! Stay tuned.

Next, Ad Rank is going to focus on quality for ads that appear on top of the search results. Ads must meet a "quality threshold" in order to appear in that prime real estate. It will be possible for a lower positioned ad to jump above a higher position ad in the sidebar ads to hang out in the box above the organic results if it meets the threshold but the higher positioned ads don't.

Clearly, Google is making quality a key focus in AdWords. This may be an attempt to improve the program in the midst of a slowdown in growth for paid search. Or it could be an attempt to show that Google is more concerned about quality than price - and therefore advertisers need not be worried about a little thing like a search advertising deal with Yahoo.

What do you think about the focus on quality? Let us know in the comments.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 8:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

SEW Experts: Porn and Gambling: Canaries in the SEM Coal Mine?

Search Engine Watch Expert - Frank Watson Search Engine Watch Expert - Chris Boggs Many advances in marketing on the Web are the result of spending by the profitable and competitive porn and gambling industries. In today's SEM Crossfire column, "Porn and Gambling: Canaries in the SEM Coal Mine?," Frank Watson and Chris Boggs explore recent lawsuits in both industries that might help us again, by pointing out some specific areas for marketers to keep an eye on.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 30, 2008

Yellowbook Launches G1 Mobile Application

Local business publisher Yellowbook has launched a new mobile application for the G1, the brand new Android-powered phone. Yellowbook already has apps for Windows Mobile, Blackberry, Palm, and the iPhone.

If you want to download it to your phone, follow these instructions:

Tap the Browser icon on the home page.
Tap Go to URL.
Enter yellowbook.com in the URL bar.
Tap Go.
Tap the pictures of the phones on the lower right side of the page.
Expand the screen to view instructions for this phone, located at the top right.
From your phone, TAP HERE to start the download process.
Follow your phone prompts for downloading the application.

For more information on Yellowbook's mobile apps, visit http://www.yellowbook.com/iphone-windows-mobile-blackberry/.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 11:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

IAB Unveils New Workflow Improvement Initiatives

The Interactive Advertising Bureau has announced new initiatives aimed at improving workflows and best practices.

Here they are:

E- Business Interactive Standards, a beta release of an XML-based solution for automating the transfer of business order information between advertising agencies and media companies. Beta testing partners will be implementing and refining this solution throughout 2009.
Interactive Advertising Workflow Best Practices, a document that provides comprehensive process recommendations to agencies and publishers for improved communications and efficient operations throughout the entire lifecycle of an advertising campaign. The document's best practices focus on how to improve the management of advertising accounts by decreasing discrepancies, campaign set-up errors and billing cycles between advertising agencies and publishers. www.iab.net/workflow
Digital Video Ad Serving Template (VAST), an XML-based solution designed to standardize communication between digital video players and servers. VAST allows publishers to increase digital video yield by utilizing ad networks to sell unsold inventory and reduce friction with buyers by allowing third-party ad tags
Ad Load Performance Best Practices, a document that details how agencies and publishers should develop and serve digital advertising campaigns to reduce load time for ads and improve their performance. www.iab.net/adload
Best Practices for Rich Media Ads in Asynchronous Ad Environments, a solution that establishes a standard set of rich media implementation rules for rich media ad vendors, creative development teams, and publishers when serving ads into dynamic environments.

“These initiatives will revolutionize our industry by improving efficiencies in the interactive business—which means growth for publishers, for agencies and for marketers who will now reach their customers even more effectively,” said Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO of the IAB.

What do you think of these initiatives? Let us know in the comments.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 11:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

New AOL.com Launches; Due Diligence on Yahoo Merger Reported

When I read that AOL.com launched a new homepage, I naturally hopped on over there to see what the new look, um, looked like. It looked the same, except with dark blue trim and web 2.0 stripes in the background for good measure.

Otherwise, it still holds the same basic design as....Yahoo. I then came across a story by Reuters which says Yahoo and AOL are conducting "due diligence" on a possible (probable?) merger by the two web companies. I was not at all surprised.

Something else to know about the new AOL is that it incorporates a new social element.
What the new feature allows you to do is sign into social networks like Facebook and Bebo directly from the homepage.This is a smart move and will blend nicely with Yahoo's push toward open source should the merger occur.

“As the Web becomes more fragmented, consumers want choice and relevance in their Web experiences. AOL.com is the first traditional big portal to offer access to popular social networking sites all in one place,” said Bill Wilson, Executive Vice President, AOL Programming. “Now consumers can connect with their numerous networks and information sources all from AOL.com. We have already seen success by opening up AOL.com to other e-mail providers. We will continue to enhance the appeal of our portal with the changes we are making today by adding more relevant programming, customization opportunities, greater integration of third party content, improved design and access to social networks directly from AOL.com."

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 11:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

14.5 Million People in the U.K. Visited at Least One Blog

comScore released a study today that found 14.5 million people in the U.K. visited at least one blog in August, representing 41% of the total U.K. Internet audience.

SES%20London%202008.jpg “Blogs have become part of the essential fabric of the Internet today,” Herve Le Jouan, Managing Director of comScore Europe said in a press release. “They live and breathe in real-time, helping quench media consumers' thirst for the most up-to-date breaking news, information, and analysis. It should not, therefore, be particularly surprising that they're increasingly displacing traditional media usage and carving out an ever-increasing slice of the online advertising pie,” he added.

Two of the most popular blogs in the U.K. are gadget blogs: Engadget.com, which ranked as the top individual blog in August with 243,000 visitors, and Gizmodo.com, which ranked third with 223,000 visitors. UnrealityTV.co.uk (225,000 visitors), Kotaku.com (210,000 visitors), and Metafilter.com (207,000 visitors) rounded out the top five.

According to the comScore Segment Metrix H/M/L service, which looks at online activity by heavy, medium and light users of the Internet, heavy blog users were 142% more likely than the average Internet user to visit a site in the "humour" category, a testament perhaps to the sharp wit often associated with blogging. They are also likely to be tech savvy, which can be seen by their skew in visiting technology news categories.

I've met a couple of "heavy" blog users in the U.K. -- who weigh 38 stone between them. ;-)

Seriously, blogs are big in old Blighty. If you check out the agenda for SES London 2009, which has already been posted, you'll see there will be a session on Feb. 18, 2009, on "SEO Through Blogs and Feeds." And, who -- you may ask -- is responsible for that?

Search Engine Strategies London 2009 is organized and hosted by world-renowned search authority Mike Grehan. As you can see below, I interviewed Mike back at SES London 2008. And you can detect some of that "humour" and tech savvy that comScore just reported, although there is no way that Mike weighs more than 14 stone. But, of course, I'm just guessing.

Mike Grehan, Acronym, on SES London 2008

Posted by Greg Jarboe on 8:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Live Search Implements Instant Answers Into Search Results

We know that searchers want answers, and there are plenty of answer sites out there to fuel their curiosity. Now, Microsoft's Live Search team is including some answers in their search results.

Encyclopedia, Traffic and Horoscope information will now display answers within results. For example, you can type in the question "How tall is Mount Everest?" and get the answer in the results.

I think search marketers will be happy about this. If you're trying to sell a product, it can be frustrating when people come to your site who have no intention of buying anything.

The Live Search team says even more answers will be included in the future.

What do you think about the update? Let us know in the comments.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 8:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SEW Experts: Use Humor for Link Marketing

Search Engine Watch Expert - Justilien Gaspard Humor is a great form of content that will give people a reason to link to your content, and help it spread virally. The challenge for most sites is coming up with something funny. In today's linkbuilding column, "Use Humor for Link Marketing," Justilien Gaspard offers some ideas that can be used by everyone, regardless of the size of your marketing budget.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SEW Experts: Trick or Tweet for CNN

Search Engine Watch Expert - Erik Qualman Social media is revolutionary. It allows CNN anchor Rick Sanchez to have a relationship with 30,000 people, and make a connection with them that can translate to other media. In today's building brand equity column, "Trick or Tweet for CNN," Erik Qualman explains that companies need to relinquish the total control they've had and allow users, consumers, viewers, etc. to take their rightful ownership.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 29, 2008

Why CafePress Needs Online Ratings

If you're not familiar, CafePress is a site where you can purchase custom-designed apparel and gifts. There are many merchants selling their designs as well. Today, CafePress unveiled its new design, and it looks great.

But searching for a design you like can be a chore. That's why I think CafePress should adopt an online ratings system to help the best designs be showcased first in their search results.

Yes, this can be abused, but it can also create a community, something that is currently only found in the CafePress forums.

CafePress competitor, Zazzle, which has experienced explosive growth in the past year despite higher prices and fewer products. What they do have is a 5 star rating system as well as the opportunity to leave comments on products. I think this helps customers better find what they're looking for. If I had to take a guess, a customer would rather pay $5 for better design at Zazzle than a mediocre design at CafePress.

Don't get me wrong, there are quality designs at CafePress, but finding them organically, like I said, is a chore.

Hopefully the next design update CafePress unveils is a techie-one that improves search.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 10:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

MapQuest Updates Widget and Local Content

MapQuest has a few noteworthy updates to its widget and local content.

First up, the widget has the following updates:

The Maps and Driving Directions experience
MapQuest Search functionality has been added
Added Traffic information
Performance and functionality improvements

In the local content update, MapQuest has added an "AddThis" button. You may have seen the AddThis button around the interwebs. It lets you share content a number of social networking and bookmarking sites.

What do you think of these updates? Let us know in the comments.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 10:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Google Checkout Shopping Cart Allows Purchase of Multiple Items

If you've used the Google Checkout Buy Now button, you know that it's a bit limiting - only allowing customers to purchase one item at a time. Google Checkout's new shopping cart allows your customers to purchase multiple items at once.

To get started, go to the Tools tab in the Google Checkout Merchant Center. Enter your product info, price and image location. An HTML script will be generated for you. Copy and paste the code onto your product pages. Test the button to make sure it's working and you're good to go.

For more advanced options, check out (no pun intended) the developer guide.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 9:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SEO covered at PRSA International Conference in Detroit

I've just returned from the PRSA International Conference in Detroit, Michigan. The Public Relations Society of America is the world's largest organization for public relations professionals.

Lee%20Odden%20and%20Greg%20Jarboe%20at%20SES%20San%20Jose%202008.jpg But there were a number of sessions on the agenda about search engine optimization. On Saturday, Oct. 25, Lee Odden taught a half-day workshop on "Optimizing Content for Optimum Search Results: Search Engine Optimization of News." Lee, as most of us in the search industry know, is the CEO of TopRank Online Marketing.

Bill Wagner, the CMO of Vocus, talked about "Uncovering the Potential of PR to Drive Sales." Lee Odden, Rob Key, the founder and CEO of Converseon, and David Bradfield, senior vice president and partner of FH Digital, discussed "The Changed PR Landscape: What Works, What Doesn't." And Laura Sturaitis, senior vice president of media and product services for Business Wire, and I spoke about "What's the ROI on Your Press Release?"

In other words, SEO and PR people are starting to "reach across the aisle" to build some pretty interesting alliances.

In February, I interviewed Lee Odden at SES London 2008, about news search engine optimization and related topics. And in December, Lee and Sally Falkow, the President of PRESSfeed, will be speaking about "SEO Through Blogs and Feeds" at SES Chicago 2008.

Lee Odden, TopRank Online Marketing, at SES London 2008

As Frank Watson noted earlier this morning, Lee and Jay Byrne, President of v-Fluence Interactive Public Relations, are holding a free PRWeb webinar entitled, "Use PR To Drive Better Search Results," today at 2 p.m. Eastern Time.

And PRSA has asked me to teach a teleseminar on "The Secrets of Search Engine Optimization" on Thursday, Nov. 6, at 3 p.m. Eastern.

What's all this mean to search engine marketers? Get the folks over in public relations to check out this topic. They may have missed it at the PRSA International Conference. But it is a subject that they'll want to understand as they prepare for 2009.

And getting your PR specialists on the same page with your SEO specialists could give you the best bang for your buck in a global recession. Consider this tip a "recession special" you won't want to pass up.

One last note: I hadn't been back to Detroit in a long, long time. Wow, is the Renaissance Center impressive. And the Detroit Riverwalk. And the GM Next Showroom. Now, I remember Detroit as Motor City and Motown. But it has experienced a renaissance while I wasn't looking. Cool. Very cool.

Posted by Greg Jarboe on 8:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Rep. Barton Suspicious of Google/Yahoo Deal

It turns out that the concern over the Google/Yahoo search advertising partnership is bipartisan. Earlier this month, Senator Herb Kohl (D-Wisc) urged caution in a letter to Assistant Attorney General Thomas Barnett.

Now, Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) has written a letter to Barnett expressing his concern. Barton's beef is with what he feels is Yahoo's inadequate response to questions regarding the deal.

Barton represents a district that includes Fort Worth as well as suburbs of Dallas. The area is home to many search advertisers. It's no surprise that Barton is raising concern on their behalf.

Google and Yahoo have tried to assure both the DOJ and advertisers that prices will not go up as a result of the deal, but fears remain. Both companies have said that advertisers set the pricing through the bidding process, but when you're thinking about bidding for a term on the top 2 search engines, it's understandable to think that prices will go up - even if Google and Yahoo do not set them higher.

What remains is uncertainty, which is not exactly comforting in a volatile economy.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 8:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Online Advertising Networks Struggle As Industry Growth Slows

Online advertising networks are struggling to make ends meet during a tough economy and a slowdown in industry growth. JellyCloud and Adzilla have shut down while AdBrite had to lay off 40% of its staff.

It's a crowded field with over 300 ad networks, many of them designed to target niche markets. Bigger ad networks, such as AOL's Platform-A, are experiencing struggles in niches such as auto, financial, and telecommunications.

What do you think of this slowdown? What are your experiences with ad networks? Let us know in the comments.

via WSJ

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 8:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

WebmasterRadio Holding Free PR & SEO Webinar Today

If you want to learn how to use PR for effective SEO, the free WebmasterRadio webinar today should be a must view. Registration can be done here.

Top Rank CEO Lee Odden and Jay Byrne, President of v-Fluence Interactive Public Relations, will do the presentation that starts at 2 pm EST today. I know I will be listening in, and recommend you join me.

Posted by Frank Watson on 7:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Blip.tv, DoubleClick Inserting Ads Into ITunes and Other Videos

Blip.tv CEO "Mike Hudack revealed that his company has found a way to dynamically insert ads from DoubleClick into video downloads on iTunes and elsewhere," the Washington Post reported.

Given the huge use of the tube sites such as YouTube and the increasing popularity of downloading ITune videos this new technology should prove a good revenue source for Google - owner of DoubleClick.

"For the past six months or so, blip.tv has been experimenting with placing pre-roll, post-roll, and overlay ads in some iTunes videos. These ads are served by DoubleClick and have hyperlinks that make it easy to track when somebody clicks on an ad," the Washington post noted. Videos downloaded to Ipods and other offline players will not be tracked at this stage - though given the synching technology this could be adapted to soon.

Posted by Frank Watson on 6:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yahoo Gains Search Share While Microsoft and Google Drop

Bloomberg News reports the monthly search numbers for September have Yahoo gaining while Google and Microsoft have dropped.

"Yahoo! Inc. handled a larger chunk of U.S. Internet searches last month while Microsoft Corp. lost market share, according to researcher ComScore Inc.
Yahoo had about 20.2 percent of queries in September, up from 19.6 percent in August, Reston, Virginia-based ComScore said today in an e-mail. Microsoft's share fell to 8.5 percent from 8.9 percent. Google Inc. handled 62.9 percent, compared with 63 percent in August" Bloomberg reported.

Posted by Frank Watson on 6:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yahoo's New GeoTargeting May Have Some Teething Problems

While many seem happy to see that Yahoo has started geo-targeting, the comments to their blog post about launch problems seem to show early adoption problems.

Given Yahoo has already divided out their PPC by country, it would seem the rest should be easier. If you are using the new tools and have opinions please post them here.

Posted by Frank Watson on 6:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Motorola Betting Big On Googles Android

Despite cutting 10,000 jobs, Motorola is betting big on Google's telephone technology Android, dropping all but three of their phone operating systems, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Though Android has had security problems, Motorola's chief of the handset division Dr. Sanjay Jha is a big proponent of the operating system and is using it "for mid-tier (very high volume) phones," according to the New York Times

"Jha is planning large scale job cuts at Motorola's handset business, and is also overhauling the manufacturing and supply chain operations of the beleaguered handset maker," the New York Times stated.

Sprint and Verizon are not early adopters of the Android system - Sprint CEO Dan Hesse even went so far as to say it was not "good enough to put the Sprint brand on it," the Alley Insider reported.

But given sales of the new system sold over $1.5 million in the first few days, and that WalMart will be offering the device, seems Android may be battling IPhone in the near future.

Posted by Frank Watson on 5:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

SEW Experts: Landing Pages and the Decision-Making Process

Search Engine Watch Expert - Tim Ash Landing page optimization and testing is a complex activity that requires knowledge of many fields, including usability, copywriting, math, and Web design. In today's By the Numbers column, "Landing Pages and the Decision-Making Process," Tim Ash reminds us that at its core, we're still trying to influence the behavior of people, and human nature hasn't changed.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

SEW Experts: Search Trademark Hobby Kit

Search Engine Watch Expert - Kevin Ryan Who owns the trademark when it comes to search? A lot of angry litigation stems from the huge dollars that big brands measure from clicks on their trademarked terms in search results. In today's Searching for Meaning column, "Search Trademark Hobby Kit," Kevin Ryan asks if they're simply misunderstanding the search realm and buying funnel?

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

October 28, 2008

New Campaign Management and Editorial Updates for Microsoft adCenter

Microsoft adCenter has released a slew of updates for the fall to aid you in your paid search campaigns. The updates include:

Campaign Management: ability to pause and resume ads and keywords, geo-targeting enhancements, and improved performance reporting on the Ads page
Editorial Improvements: faster reviews, dynamic feedback about why ads and keywords were disapproved, and inline notification when dynamic text causes your ads to exceed character limits
User Management: if previously you were only able to have one user, now you can create multiple account users
Content Ads (U.S. only): get keyword bid suggestions and performance estimates for your content ads

What do you think of the updates? Let us know in the comments.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 10:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Google Reaches Agreement with Authors, Publishers for Book Search

Google has reached an agreement with the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers (AAP), which represented a broad class of authors and publishers to expand online access to in-copyright books and other written materials in the U.S. The publications will come from the library collections participating in Google Book Search.

The agreement was reached after two years of negotiations. The deal includes Google dishing out $125 million to establish the Book Rights Registry, which would resolve an existing class action lawsuit brought by the groups.

If the court approves, the agreement allows:

More Access to Out-of-Print Books -- Generating greater exposure for millions of in-copyright works, including hard-to-find out-of-print books, by enabling readers in the U.S. to search these works and preview them online
Additional Ways to Purchase Copyrighted Books -- Building off publishers' and authors' current efforts and further expanding the electronic market for copyrighted books in the U.S., by offering users the ability to purchase online access to many in-copyright books
Institutional Subscriptions to Millions of Books Online --Offering a means for U.S. colleges, universities and other organizations to obtain subscriptions for online access to collections from some of the world's most renowned libraries
Free Access From U.S. Libraries -- Providing free, full-text, online viewing of millions of out-of-print books at designated computers in U.S. public and university libraries
Compensation to Authors and Publishers and Control Over Access to Their Works -- Distributing payments earned from online access provided by Google and, prospectively, from similar programs that may be established by other providers, through a newly created independent, not-for-profit Book Rights Registry that will also locate rightsholders, collect and maintain accurate rightsholder information, and provide a way for rightsholders to request inclusion in or exclusion from the project.

"Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. Today, together with the authors, publishers, and libraries, we have been able to make a great leap in this endeavor," said Sergey Brin, co-founder & president of technology at Google. "While this agreement is a real win-win for all of us, the real victors are all the readers. The tremendous wealth of knowledge that lies within the books of the world will now be at their
fingertips."

What do you think about the agreement? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 9:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Baidu Launches C2C Site, Youa.com

Baidu is getting in the consumer-to-consumer (C2C) game (think eBay or indie sellers on Amazon.com) with a new site, Youa.com.

In the beginning, 10,000 sellers were chosen from over 100,000 applicants. 50,000 customers were chosen from Baidu's online communities.

"Baidu Youa continues Baidu's tradition of providing the best possible online experience for our users," said Mr. Jun Yu, Baidu's vice president of products. "This new C2C platform provides user-friendly shopping with emphasis on customer service." Mr. Yu continued, "Our expansion into China's early- stage e-commerce market is a natural move for Baidu as Chinese netizens are becoming more comfortable shopping online. With our vast user community, technological expertise, mature product offering and deep understanding of Chinese Internet landscape, we believe that we have a competitive edge in China's C2C arena and look forward to taking full advantage of the growth potential of this sector of the Internet."

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 9:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Port Your AOL Journal to Blogger

AOL is shutting down its blogging product, AOL Journals. Google wants Journal users to head on over to Blogger to keep their journaling spirit alive.

So, they've created a migration tool to help you port your AOL Journals postings over to a new Blogger blog.

You'll want to hurry. AOL Journals says goodbye this Friday, October 31.

For details, check out the Blogger blog.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 8:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SEW Experts: Building it Better -- Small Business Site Architecture

Search Engine Watch Expert - Carrie Hill Businesses built on a strong foundation grow and flourish. Web sites with solid architecture can have stronger search results. In today's small business search engine marketing column, "Building it Better -- Small Business Site Architecture," Carrie Hill cautions that, if you're thinking about designing or redesigning your small business Web site, you need to get organized before you start.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SEW Experts: The Ghosts of SEO Past and Future

Search Engine Watch Expert - Mark Jackson When banner ads first came out, there was hardly enough inventory to satisfy advertisers' needs. Paid search and search engine optimization changed all that. In today's search engine optimization column, "The Ghosts of SEO Past and Future," Mark Jackson points out that SEO, too, has changed radically in the last decade.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

October 27, 2008

LinkedIn Unveils New Search Platform

Popular professional social networking site LinkedIn is rolling out its new search platform. Like most major releases, it will only be available to a small percentage at first.

The new search platform will include:

Unified search results
More powerful relevance algorithm
Redesigned search results page
"In Common" (a new field in search results that lets you see what connections and groups you share with a select user)
Saved Searches
Choice of Basic or Expanded Views
Spell Check
Type-ahead for connections

For more details, check out the LinkedIn blog.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 10:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Link to a Point of Time Within a YouTube Video

Major hat tip to TechCrunch for sharing with the world a way to link to a certain time point within a video on YouTube.

Take for example this video of a clip from Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=p1d19wV1GZQ

If you wanted to share the link but have the video start 56 seconds in where the film cuts away from Ginger Rogers in the Senate Gallery to Jimmy Stewart's character speaking and barely standing as part of a filibuster, then you would simply add:

#t=0m56s

Those aren't random letters and numbers. Put the minute number before the letter 'm' and the seconds number before the letter 's' to direct people to the portion of the video you desire.

Now the link is

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=p1d19wV1GZQ#t=0m56s

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 10:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

hakia Launches Personalized Search Feature

hakia is jumping on the personalized search page bandwagon with My hakia. Users can customize several dynamic content features including:

News search
News headlines
PubMed search
Wikipedia
YouTube videos
Cartoons

Here's a screenshot:

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 9:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Android Week 1: Sprint's Not on Board (Yet) and a Security Flaw Discovered

The first phone with Google's new mobile platform Android was released last week on Tmobile. Unlike the iPhone, Android will be seen on more devices and more carriers in months and years to come.

But Sprint CEO Dan Hesse says Android isn't quite ready to carry the Sprint name on a device - not yet anyway. He says that Sprint will carry an Android phone in the future, but the platform needs work.

It might be tempting to suggest that the struggling Sprint should hop on board. After all, Tmobile's G1 pre-sold $1.5 million devices. But Sprint is smart to wait on a ready-for-prime-time device. It needs to sell solid products that garner their own word of mouth instead of simply hopping on a hype wagon.

One of the reasons Android might not be ready is because of a newly discovered security flaw. The flaw was found by former National Security Agency computer security specialist Charles Miller.

Miller has reported the flaw to Google, which says it is working with HTC and Tmobile to issue a fix to G1 customers.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 8:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Twitter as a Terrorist's Tool

There was much buzz over the weekend about a military report suggesting the popular mass Instant Messaging tool Twitter could be used by terrorists. They cited as an example the protestors at the Republican National Convention using Twitter to inform about police actions and movement.

In that case, Twitter becomes a better counterterrorism tool than it does the next training exercise for Hamas and Al Quaida. Tweets are public and searchable which kind of kills (no pun intended) the element of surprise that terrorists crave.

In fact, Twitter has been a great source of information during earthquakes and other crisis. It's far more likely that Twitter would be a great asset to emergency response agencies and law-abiding citizens during a terrorist attack than it would be an aid to the terrorists themselves.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SEW Experts: Those Mysterious Quality Scores: Fundamentally Simple

Search Engine Watch Expert - David Szetela The quality scoring system used for search engine ads is based on a complex group and series of calculations that take into consideration hundreds of factors that the search engines won't reveal. In today's Profitable PPC column, "Those Mysterious Quality Scores: Fundamentally Simple," David Szetela points out that you don't really need to know what those factors are, as long as you create your campaigns correctly and make sure you're giving visitors what they're looking for.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 24, 2008

Microsoft's Net Income Increases by 2%

Microsoft announced its earnings for the fiscal quarter ending September 30, 2008. For them, it's the first quarter of their fiscal year, while other companies go with the traditional calendar and call it their third quarter.

Their net income increased by 2%. This was due largely in part to XBox360, a gaming console which recently received a price slash.

It has been widely noted that Microsoft has a bunch of cash on hand, especially since they didn't end up acquiring Yahoo after all (yet). MSFT was up .28 at the time of this post. Though with the markets as volatile as they are, that could change at any minute.

Here's the press release:

Microsoft Reports Record First-Quarter Revenue
Thursday October 23, 4:10 pm ET
Revenue surpasses $15 billion with healthy sales of enterprise software and Xbox 360 consoles

REDMOND, Wash., Oct. 23 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Microsoft Corp. today announced revenue of $15.06 billion for the fiscal quarter ended Sept. 30, 2008, a 9% increase over the same period of the prior year. Operating income, net income and diluted earnings per share for the quarter were $6.00 billion, $4.37 billion and $0.48, respectively.

Microsoft showed particular strength in multiyear annuity sales, which grew more than 20% during the quarter from the combined businesses of Client, Microsoft Business Division and Server and Tools.

"Our customers are asking how they can save money and do more with less," said Kevin Turner, chief operating officer at Microsoft. "Microsoft is uniquely positioned to help our customers save money through supplier consolidation, increased productivity, and a low total cost of ownership through the depth and breadth of our product portfolio and solutions."

Microsoft continued to add to its product and services portfolio with innovative offerings such as Microsoft SQL Server 2008, Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 and the first service update to Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online.

"In a challenging economic environment, the first-quarter results exhibit the strength and diversity of our business model," said Chris Liddell, chief financial officer of Microsoft.

Business Outlook

Microsoft's business outlook reflects a balance of risks and the likelihood of a continued economic slowdown. The trends seen late in the first-quarter are now forecasted to continue, whereas previous expectations were for the economy to improve in the second half of the fiscal year. In this economic environment, the company is focused on three main actions; working with customers to provide high value products at the lowest total overall cost of ownership, increasing focus on expense management and targeting investment into the highest priority strategic opportunities.

Microsoft management offers the following guidance for the quarter ending
Dec. 31, 2008:
-- Revenue is expected to be in the range of $17.3 billion to
$17.8 billion.
-- Operating income is expected to be in the range of $6.1 billion to
$6.4 billion.
-- Diluted earnings per share are expected to be in the range of $0.51 to
$0.53.

Management offers the following guidance for the full fiscal year ending
June 30, 2009:
-- Revenue is expected to be in the range of $64.9 billion to
$66.4 billion.
-- Operating income is expected to be in the range of $24.4 billion to
$25.5 billion.
-- Diluted earnings per share are expected to be in the range of $2.00 to
$2.10.

Liddell noted that "we feel extremely good about our relative competitive position and our ability to continue outgrowing IT spend. We believe our exceptionally strong cash flow, product pipeline and financial strength will allow us to weather economic conditions well."

Webcast Details

Microsoft will hold an audio webcast at 2:30 p.m. PDT (5:30 p.m. EDT) today with Chris Liddell, senior vice president and chief financial officer, Frank Brod, corporate vice president and chief accounting officer, and Bill Koefoed, general manager of Investor Relations, to discuss details of the company's performance for the quarter and certain forward-looking information. The webcast will be available for replay through the close of business on Oct. 23, 2009.

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT - News) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Forward-Looking Statements

Statements in this release that are "forward-looking statements" are based on current expectations and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Actual results could differ materially because of factors such as:

-- challenges to Microsoft's business model;
-- intense competition in all of Microsoft's markets;
-- Microsoft's continued ability to protect its intellectual property
rights;
-- claims that Microsoft has infringed the intellectual property rights
of others;
-- the possibility of unauthorized disclosure of significant portions of
Microsoft's source code;
-- actual or perceived security vulnerabilities in Microsoft products
that could reduce revenue or lead to liability;
-- government litigation and regulation affecting how Microsoft designs
and markets its products;
-- Microsoft's ability to attract and retain talented employees;
-- delays in product development and related product release schedules;
-- significant business investments that may not gain customer acceptance
and produce offsetting increases in revenue;
-- changes in general economic conditions that affect our investment
portfolio or demand for computer hardware or software;
-- adverse results in legal disputes;
-- unanticipated tax liabilities;
-- quality or supply problems in Microsoft's consumer hardware or other
vertically integrated hardware and software products;
-- impairment of goodwill or amortizable intangible assets causing a
charge to earnings;
-- exposure to increased economic and regulatory uncertainties from
operating a global business;
-- geopolitical conditions, natural disaster, cyberattack or other
catastrophic events disrupting Microsoft's business;
-- acquisitions and joint ventures that adversely affect the business;
-- improper disclosure of personal data could result in liability and
harm to Microsoft's reputation;
-- outages and disruptions of online services if Microsoft fails to
maintain an adequate operations infrastructure;
-- sales channel disruption, such as the bankruptcy of a major
distributor; and
-- Microsoft's ability to implement operating cost structures that align
with revenue growth.

For further information regarding risks and uncertainties associated with Microsoft's business, please refer to the "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" and "Risk Factors" sections of Microsoft's SEC filings, including, but not limited to, its annual report on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, copies of which may be obtained by contacting Microsoft's Investor Relations department at (800) 285-7772 or at Microsoft's Investor Relations Web site at http://www.microsoft.com/msft.

All information in this release is as of Oct. 23, 2008. The company undertakes no duty to update any forward-looking statement to conform the statement to actual results or changes in the company's expectations.

Microsoft Corporation
Income Statements
(In millions, except per share amounts) (Unaudited)

Three Months Ended
September 30,
2008 2007

Revenue $15,061 $13,762
Operating expenses:
Cost of revenue 2,848 2,675
Research and development 2,283 1,837
Sales and marketing 3,044 2,683
General and administrative 887 718
Total operating expenses 9,062 7,913
Operating income 5,999 5,849
Other income (expense) (8) 367
Income before income taxes 5,991 6,216
Provision for income taxes 1,618 1,927
Net income $4,373 $4,289

Earnings per share:
Basic $0.48 $0.46
Diluted $0.48 $0.45

Weighted average shares outstanding:
Basic 9,084 9,380
Diluted 9,183 9,513

Cash dividends declared per common share $0.13 $0.11

Microsoft Corporation
Balance Sheets
(In millions)

September 30, June 30,
2008 2008 (1)
(Unaudited)
Assets
Current assets:
Cash and cash equivalents $9,004 $10,339
Short-term investments (including
securities pledged as
collateral of $1,011 and $2,491) 11,718 13,323
Total cash, cash equivalents, and
short-term investments 20,722 23,662
Accounts receivable, net of
allowance for doubtful accounts of
$168 and $153 9,535 13,589
Inventories 1,640 985
Deferred income taxes 1,974 2,017
Other 3,331 2,989
Total current assets 37,202 43,242
Property and equipment, net of
accumulated depreciation of $6,622
and $6,302 6,552 6,242
Equity and other investments 4,381 6,588
Goodwill 12,291 12,108
Intangible assets, net 1,899 1,973
Deferred income taxes 1,041 949
Other long-term assets 1,751 1,691
Total assets $65,117 $72,793

Liabilities and stockholders' equity
Current liabilities:
Accounts payable $3,351 $4,034
Short-term debt 1,975 -
Accrued compensation 2,138 2,934
Income taxes 514 3,248
Short-term unearned revenue 11,815 13,397
Securities lending payable 1,070 2,614
Other 3,520 3,659
Total current liabilities 24,383 29,886
Long-term unearned revenue 1,662 1,900
Other long-term liabilities 5,478 4,721
Commitments and contingencies
Stockholders' equity:
Common stock and paid-in capital -
shares authorized 24,000;
outstanding 8,977 and 9,151 61,655 62,849
Retained deficit, including
accumulated other comprehensive
income of $877 and $1,140 (28,061) (26,563)
Total stockholders' equity 33,594 36,286
Total liabilities and
stockholders' equity $65,117 $72,793

(1) Derived from audited financial statements

Microsoft Corporation
Cash Flows Statements
(In millions) (Unaudited)

Operations
Net income Depreciation, amortization, other noncash items Stock-based compensation expense Net recognized losses investments and derivatives Excess tax benefits based payment arrangements Deferred income taxes Unearned revenue Recognition of unearned revenue Accounts receivable Other current assets Other long-term assets Other current liabilities Other long-term liabilities Net cash from operations Financing
Proceeds from short-term debt Common stock issued Common stock repurchased Common stock cash dividends Excess tax benefits based payment arrangements Net cash used in financing Investing
Additions to property and
equipment Acquisition of companies, cash acquired Purchases of investments Maturities of investments Sales of investments Securities lending payable Net cash from (used in) investing Effect of exchange rates cash equivalents Net change in cash and cash
equivalents Cash and cash equivalents, of period Cash and cash equivalents, period Three Months Ended
September 30,
2008 2007
$4,373 $4,289
and
585 435
443 333
(gains) on
36 (187)
from stock-
(44) (69)
376 357
4,186 3,821
(6,044) (4,965)
3,985 2,806
(558) (235)
(116) (11)
(4,552) (1,189)
700 493
3,370 5,878
1,975 -
228 646
(6,493) (2,930)
(998) (938)
from stock-
44 69
(5,244) (3,153)
(778) (510)
net of
(377) (5,396)
(4,246) (5,997)
464 330
7,075 9,120
(1,543) 196
595 (2,257)
on cash and
(56) 58
(1,335) 526
beginning
10,339 6,111
end of
$9,004 $6,637

Microsoft Corporation
Segment Revenue and Operating Income (Loss)
(In millions) (Unaudited)

Three Months Ended
September 30,
2008 2007
Revenue
Client $4,218 $4,139
Server and Tools 3,406 2,900
Online Services Business 770 671
Microsoft Business Division 4,949 4,117
Entertainment and Devices Division 1,814 1,929
Unallocated and other (96) 6
Consolidated $15,061 $13,762

Operating Income (Loss)
Client $3,267 $3,388
Server and Tools 1,151 959
Online Services Business (480) (267)
Microsoft Business Division 3,311 2,700
Entertainment and Devices Division 178 167
Corporate-level activity (1,428) (1,098)
Consolidated $5,999 $5,849

Source: Microsoft Corp.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 11:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

AzoogleAds Launches iPhone Application

AzoogleAds, a division of Epic Advertising, today announced the beta launch of an iPhone publisher reporting platform, iMobilePublisher. The platform will be available as an iPhone and iPod Touch application.

Users will be able to payment history, leads, stats, clicks and effective CPCs. Publishers will also be able to sort by offers and a variety of date ranges, with a user-interface that can display data in graphical format.

“We have found that our publishers increasingly use iPhones, and so this product was born out of marketplace opportunity,” said Greg Bayer, Senior Director of Product Management for Epic Advertising. “We wanted to build something that makes life even easier for the publishers that work with us, and we strive to deliver innovative tools to them which set us apart from other networks.”

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 9:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

AdWords API Gets an Update and Extra Quota

Google's AdWords API team has released version 13 of the open source tool. The update includes the following:

New geotargeting options
Active campaign and ad group retrieval
Campaign budget suggestions
Quality-based bid and quality score support
Mobile Image Ad support
Easier MCC account hierarchy retrieval
MCC Alerts support
Search volume data returned in KeywordToolService
Minimum bids no longer supported

For more on the updates, read the release notes:

AdWords API advertisers will also receive 20% more API units from now through January 15, 2009. Here's how it works:

All developers can purchase API units at the rate of 1200/$0.25, up from 1000/$0.25, from now through January 15th, 2009.
Advertisers who are eligible for free API units will receive credit at the rate 300/$ of AdWords spend, up from 250/$ of AdWords spend. They will be credited the holiday bonus based on their spend in previous months.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 8:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SEW Experts: The Organic and Paid Balancing Act

Search Engine Watch Expert - William Flaiz As SERP listings and functionality changes, there are still two types of listings that have weathered the storm and are still attainable for marketers: traditional organic listings and paid search listings. In today's SEM agency issues column, "The Organic and Paid Balancing Act," William Flaiz explains that by making sure your site stays above the fold in these two outlets, you can maximize your controllable visibility.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SEW Experts: The Future of Online Ads: Location, Location, Location

Search Engine Watch Expert - Michael Boland Location awareness -- the concept that a device knows exactly where it is -- is changing the way mobile search works. Search applications are being developed to tap into this capability and serve more locally relevant content. In today's vertical search column, "The Future of Online Ads: Location, Location, Location," local search expert Michael Boland discusses this trend, and outlines the next steps for national advertisers and ad networks: to serve ads that are actually useful and actionable for local users.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SEW Experts: SEO During E-Commerce Application Development

Search Engine Watch Expert - Chris Boggs Search Engine Watch Expert - Frank Watson E-commerce applications for Web sites can take thousands of hours to build, and require patience and determination on the part of the organization. As with large-scale Web site designs and redesigns, putting search engine optimization off until after the fact can be a costly mistake. In today's Search Marketing Crossfire column, "SEO During E-Commerce Application Development," Chris Boggs and Frank Watson look at what it takes to make an application SEO-friendly vs. optimized.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 23, 2008

LinkedIn Launches Market Research Survey Service

LinkedIn has launched a new survey feature that will enable its members to conduct market research. LinkedIn is an online social network built around business and careers and has 30 million members.

“LinkedIn overcomes quality and authenticity issues that other sample providers face,” said Dan Shapero, Director of Business Services, LinkedIn. “Because of the public and self-policing nature of LinkedIn, members provide deep and accurate profile information and they update that information constantly.”

LinkedIn also announced that it raised $22.7 million from Goldman Sachs, The McGraw-Hill Companies, SAP Ventures and Bessemer Venture Partners.

“We secured this investment with innovators in enterprise software, investment banking and business information who see the potential to create value and transform industries through the LinkedIn platform,” said LinkedIn CEO, Dan Nye. “These leading companies understand that LinkedIn is building a network with broad and enduring value.”

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Online Reviews Second Only to Word of Mouth in Purchase Decisions

New data released by Rubicon Consulting shows that online reviews are second only to word of mouth when it comes to influencing consumer purchasing decisions.

Here's other key points from the survey:

The Web is the #2 resource for customer support information, after user manuals. It ranks ahead of calling the manufacturer or asking a dealer.
Website categories that get the most daily usage are search, social communities like MySpace and Facebook, general news websites like CNN.com and NYTimes.com, and online banking.
The websites that Americans value most are (in order), Google, Yahoo, YouTube, Wikipedia, and Facebook. Although Yahoo's financial challenges have generated a lot of press attention, it continues to have a very large and loyal following.
Young people (age 22 and under) are much noisier online than their elders. They account for about half of all the content and comments posted online.
Facebook appears to be ahead of MySpace in terms of number of users in the US, and perceived value of the site.
Despite extensive publicity, the community sites SecondLife and Twitter reach only a few percent of US Internet users.
Democrats are more active online than Republicans. Democrats are more likely to participate in online communities, and say they are more heavily influenced in their voting decisions by information they find online.

Harry Max, a principal at Rubicon Consulting said, "Many companies downplay the importance of online communities because only a few percent of all Internet users contribute to them heavily. What they don't understand is that most other Internet users read those reviews and rely on them heavily when making purchase decisions. Taking good care of online communities can be a huge money-saver for companies trying to get more marketing impact from limited budgets."

I disagree. I think a lot of companies are interested in online communities but aren't always sure how to engage consumers with them. However, with the economy the way it is, many companies are likely to cut social media first, as we saw in data released just the other day.

The biggest key to making sure you get good online reviews is to have a solid product or service. So, while you're making those efficiencies in order to survive the slow economic times, make sure your products don't suffer. Better yet, create efficient products and services and just watch those positive reviews come in.

To get the ball rolling, you might try pitching a few bloggers - especially mom bloggers if you have a product or service related to them.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 11:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Baidu's Profit Increases 91% in Third Quarter 2008

Chinese search engine Baidu saw a whopping 91% increase in the third quarter of 2008. The search engine had been seeing explosive growth leading up to the Beijing Olympics, which occurred during the third quarter.

Baidu expects profits in the fourth quarter to be around 80-85%. In the second quarter, Baidu's profits increased by 87%.

Here's the full press release:

Baidu Announces Third Quarter 2008 Results
Wednesday October 22, 5:00 pm ET

BEIJING, Oct. 22 -- Baidu.com, Inc. (Nasdaq: BIDU - News), the leading Chinese language Internet search provider, today announced its unaudited financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2008. (1)

Third Quarter 2008 Highlights
-- Total revenues in the third quarter of 2008 increased to RMB919.1
million (US$135.4 million), representing an 85.1 % increase from the
corresponding period in 2007.
-- Operating profit in the third quarter of 2008 increased to RMB368.3
million (US$54.2 million), representing a 119.1% increase from the
corresponding period in 2007.
-- Net income in the third quarter of 2008 increased to RMB347.9 million
(US$51.2 million), representing a 91.4 % increase from the
corresponding period in 2007.
-- Diluted earnings per share ("EPS") for the third quarter of 2008 were
RMB10.00 (US$1.47); diluted EPS excluding share-based compensation
expenses (non-GAAP) for the third quarter of 2008 were RMB10.49
(US$1.54). Costs and expenses related to Baidu's Japan operations,
incurred in both Japan and China, in the third quarter of 2008 were
RMB32.7 million (US$4.8 million), which reduced diluted EPS by RMB0.94
(US$0.14).
-- The number of active online marketing customers during the third
quarter grew to over 194,000, an increase of 7.2% from the previous
quarter.

"I'm pleased to announce solid results for the third quarter," said Robin Li, Baidu's chairman and chief executive officer. "As China's leader in paid search, Baidu has a large and diverse customer base covering numerous industries and sectors. Such diversity gives us great stability and positions us to capture future growth. Companies throughout China are increasingly recognizing the value of Baidu's paid search as an effective marketing tool and we remain confident in our long-term growth potential."

Jennifer Li, Baidu's chief financial officer, said, "The impact of the 2008 Beijing Olympics on our business was in line with our projection for the quarter. We were also able to improve our operating margin again this quarter, highlighting the scalability of our business."

Baidu recently launched the beta version of an online C2C platform that enables merchants to sell their products and services online via a Baidu- registered store. The new platform complements Baidu's search business, enabling transaction fulfillment among our users. E-commerce is an emerging industry in China and there are vast opportunities for future growth in the sector. Baidu will continue to focus on providing the best quality experience for Internet users.

Third Quarter 2008 Results

Baidu reported total revenues of RMB919.1 million (US$135.4 million) for the third quarter ended September 30, 2008, representing an 85.1% increase from the corresponding period in 2007.

Online marketing revenues for the third quarter were RMB918.2 million (US$135.2 million), representing an 85.1% increase from the third quarter of 2007. Growth was mainly driven by increases in both the number of active online marketing customers and revenue per customer. Baidu had more than 194,000 active online marketing customers in the third quarter of 2008, representing a sequential increase of 7.2% and an increase of 35.7% from the corresponding period in 2007. Revenue per active online marketing customer for the third quarter increased to approximately RMB4,700 (US$692), a sequential increase of 6.8% and an increase of 34.3% from the corresponding period in 2007.

Traffic acquisition costs (TAC) as a component of cost of revenues were RMB108.8 million (US$16.0 million), representing 11.8% of total revenues, compared to 11.9% in the corresponding period in 2007.

Bandwidth costs as a component of cost of revenues were RMB48.0 million (US$7.1 million), representing 5.2% of total revenues, compared to 6.4% in the corresponding period in 2007. Depreciation costs as a component of cost of revenues were RMB56.9 million (US$8.4 million), representing 6.2% of total revenues, compared to 8.2% in the corresponding period in 2007.

Selling, general and administrative expenses were RMB163.2 million (US$24.0 million), representing an increase of 48.0% from the corresponding period in 2007, primarily due to the expansion of the direct sales force and an increase in customer service staff.

Research and development expenses were RMB78.2 million (US$11.5 million), representing a 109.0 % increase from the corresponding period in 2007, primarily due to an increase in research and development staff.

Share-based compensation expenses, which were allocated to related operating cost and expense line items, increased in aggregate by 211.1% to RMB17.0 million (US$2.5 million) in the third quarter of 2008 from RMB5.5 million in the corresponding period in 2007. The increase in share-based compensation expenses primarily reflects an increase in the number of options granted to employees.

Operating profit was RMB368.3 million (US$54.2 million), representing a 119.1% increase from the corresponding period in 2007. Operating profit excluding share-based compensation expenses (non-GAAP) was RMB385.3 million (US$56.8 million) for the third quarter of 2008, a 122.0% increase from the corresponding period in 2007.

Adjusted EBITDA (non-GAAP), which is defined in this announcement as earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization, other non-operating income and share-based compensation expenses, were RMB457.3 million (US$67.4 million) for the third quarter of 2008, representing a 104.7% increase from the corresponding period in 2007.

Income tax expense was RMB34.8 million (US$5.1 million), compared to an income tax expense of RMB2.6 million in the third quarter of 2007. The year- on-year increase in tax expenses was due to higher tax rates applicable to some of our PRC subsidiaries as their tax holidays either expired or partially elapsed.

Net income was RMB347.9 million (US$51.2 million), representing a 91.4% increase from the corresponding period in 2007. Basic and diluted EPS for the third quarter of 2008 amounted to RMB10.15 (US$1.50) and RMB10.00 (US$1.47), respectively.

Net income excluding share-based compensation expenses (non-GAAP) was RMB364.9 million (US$53.7 million), a 94.9% increase from the corresponding period in 2007. Basic and diluted EPS excluding share-based compensation expenses (non-GAAP) for the third quarter of 2008 were RMB10.65 (US$1.57) and RMB10.49 (US$1.54), respectively.

As of September 30, 2008, Baidu's cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments amounted to RMB2.3 billion (US$338.0 million). Net operating cash inflow and capital expenditures on a cash basis for the third quarter of 2008 were RMB482.2 million (US$71.0 million) and RMB85.1 million (US$12.5 million), respectively. A portion of our capital expenditure for the quarter was related to the construction of Baidu's new campus facility.

Outlook for Fourth Quarter 2008

Baidu currently expects to generate total revenues in an amount ranging from RMB1,025 million (US$151 million) to RMB1,055 million (US$155 million) for the fourth quarter of 2008, representing an 80% to 85% increase from the corresponding period in 2007 and a 12% to 15% increase from the third quarter of 2008. This fourth quarter forecast reflects Baidu's current and preliminary view, which is subject to change.

(1) This announcement contains translations of certain RMB amounts into
U.S. dollars at specified rates solely for the convenience of the
reader. Unless otherwise noted, all translations from RMB to U.S.
dollars are made at a rate of RMB 6.7899 to USD 1.00, the effective
noon buying rate as of September 30, 2008 in The City of New York for
cable transfers of RMB as certified for customs purposes by the
Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Conference Call Information

Baidu's management will hold an earnings conference call on October 22, 2008 at 8:00 PM U.S. Eastern Time (8:00 AM, October 23, Beijing/Hong Kong time).

Dial-in details for the earnings conference call are as follows:
US: +1-617-786-2902
UK: +44-207-365-8426
Hong Kong: +852-3002-1672
Passcode for all regions: 55689997

A replay of the conference call may be accessed by phone at the following number until October 29, 2008:

International: +1-617-801-6888

Passcode: 69587650

Additionally, a live and archived webcast of this conference call will be available at http://ir.baidu.com .

About Baidu

Baidu.com, Inc. is the leading Chinese language Internet search provider. As a technology-based media company, Baidu aims to provide the best way for people to find information. In addition to serving Internet search users, Baidu provides an effective platform for businesses to reach potential customers. Baidu's ADSs, each of which represents one Class A ordinary share, currently trade on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol "BIDU".

Safe Harbor Statement

This announcement contains forward-looking statements. These statements are made under the "safe harbor" provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as "will," "expects," "anticipates," "future," "intends," "plans," "believes," "estimates" and similar statements. Among other things, the outlook for the fourth quarter of 2008 and quotations from management in this announcement, as well as Baidu's strategic and operational plans, contain forward-looking statements. Baidu may also make written forward-looking statements in its periodic reports to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, in its annual report to shareholders, in press releases and other written materials and in oral statements made by its officers, directors or employees to third parties. Statements that are not historical facts, including statements about Baidu's beliefs and expectations, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. A number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement, including but not limited to the following: our growth strategies; our future business development, results of operations and financial condition; our ability to attract and retain users and customers; competition in the Chinese language and Japanese language Internet search markets; competition for online marketing customers; changes in our revenues and certain cost or expense items as a percentage of our revenues; the outcome of ongoing, or any future, litigation or arbitration, including those relating to copyright and other intellectual property rights; the expected growth of the Chinese language and Japanese language Internet search markets and the number of Internet and broadband users in China; and Chinese governmental policies relating to the Internet and Internet content providers. Further information regarding these and other risks is included in our annual report on Form 20-F and other documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Baidu does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement, except as required under applicable law. All information provided in this press release and in the attachments is as of October 22, 2008, and Baidu undertakes no duty to update such information, except as required under applicable law.

About Non-GAAP Financial Measures

To supplement Baidu's consolidated financial results presented in accordance with GAAP, Baidu uses the following measures which are non-GAAP financial measures: adjusted EBITDA, operating profit excluding share-based compensation expenses, net income excluding share-based compensation expenses, and basic and diluted EPS excluding share-based compensation expenses. The presentation of these non-GAAP financial measures is not intended to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for the financial information prepared and presented in accordance with GAAP. For more information on these non-GAAP financial measures, please see the tables captioned "Reconciliations of non-GAAP results of operations measures to the nearest comparable GAAP measures" and "Reconciliation from net cash provided by operating activities to adjusted EBITDA" set forth at the end of this release.

Baidu believes that these non-GAAP financial measures provide meaningful supplemental information regarding its performance and liquidity by excluding certain expenses and expenditures that may not be indicative of its operating performance from a cash perspective. We believe that both management and investors benefit from referring to these non-GAAP financial measures in assessing our performance and when planning and forecasting future periods. These non-GAAP financial measures also facilitate management's internal comparisons to Baidu's historical performance and liquidity. Baidu computes its non-GAAP financial measures using the same consistent method from quarter to quarter since April 1, 2006. We believe these non-GAAP financial measures are useful to investors in allowing for greater transparency with respect to supplemental information used by management in its financial and operational decision making. A limitation of using non-GAAP operating profit excluding share-based compensation expenses, net income excluding share-based compensation expenses, and basic and diluted EPS excluding share-based compensation expenses is that these non-GAAP measures exclude share-based compensation charge that has been and will continue to be for the foreseeable future a significant recurring expense in our business. A limitation of using non-GAAP Adjusted EBITDA is that it does not include all items that impact our net income for the period. Management compensates for these limitations by providing specific information regarding the GAAP amounts excluded from each non-GAAP measure. The accompanying tables have more details on the reconciliations between GAAP financial measures that are most directly comparable to non-GAAP financial measures.

Baidu.com, Inc.
Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets

September 30 December 31,
(in RMB thousands) 2008 2007
Unaudited Audited

ASSETS
Current assets:
Cash and cash equivalents 2,088,554 1,350,600
Short-term investments 206,360 242,037
Accounts receivable, net 100,193 64,274
Prepaid expenses and other current
assets 109,597 65,996
Deferred tax assets, net 2,587 2,587
Total current assets 2,507,291 1,725,494

Non-current assets:
Fixed assets, net 748,582 678,886
Land use right, net 95,008 96,472
Intangible assets, net 33,814 40,460
Goodwill 51,081 51,093
Investments, net 20,197 15,439
Deferred tax assets, net 17,060 15,716
Other non-current assets 84,394 32,348
Total non-current assets 1,050,136 930,414

TOTAL ASSETS 3,557,427 2,655,908

LIABILITIES AND SHAREHOLDERS' EQUITY
Current liabilities:
Accrued expenses and other
liabilities 371,745 359,310
Customers' deposits 357,884 257,577
Deferred revenue 9,149 11,832
Deferred income 633 2,485
Total current liabilities 739,411 631,204

Non-current liabilities:
Long-term payable -- 3,000
Deferred income -- 332
Total non-current liabilities -- 3,332

Total liabilities 739,411 634,536

Shareholders' equity
Class A Ordinary Shares, Par value
US$0.00005 per share, 825,000,000
shares authorized, and 25,136,147
shares and 25,413,789 shares issued
and outstanding as at December 31,
2007 and September 30, 2008 11 10
Class B Ordinary Shares, Par value
US$0.00005 per share, 35,400,000
shares authorized, and 8,996,842
shares and 8,873,986 shares issued
and outstanding as at December 31,
2007 and September 30, 2008 4 4
Additional paid-in capital 1,254,593 1,171,575
Accumulated other comprehensive loss (127,770) (81,953)
Retained earnings 1,691,178 931,736
Total shareholders' equity 2,818,016 2,021,372

TOTAL LIABILITIES AND SHAREHOLDERS'
EQUITY 3,557,427 2,655,908

Baidu.com, Inc.
Condensed Consolidated Statements of Income

For the Three Months Ended
September September
30, 30, June 30,
(in RMB thousands except for share, 2008 2007 2008
per share information) Unaudited Unaudited Unaudited

Revenues:
Online marketing services 918,179 496,120 802,183
Other services 946 410 428
Total revenues 919,125 496,530 802,611

Operating costs and expenses:
Cost of revenues (note 1, 2) (309,342) (180,704) (280,980)
Selling, general and administrative
(note 2) (163,247) (110,312) (174,213)
Research and development (note 2) (78,231) (37,433) (71,078)
Total operating costs and expenses (550,820) (328,449) (526,271)

Operating profit 368,305 168,081 276,340

Other income:
Interest income 11,375 12,519 10,378
Exchange loss, net (5) (331) (204)
Other income, net 3,009 4,040 7,032
Total other income 14,379 16,228 17,206

Income before income taxes 382,684 184,309 293,546

Income taxes (34,825) (2,580) (28,561)

Net income 347,859 181,729 264,985

Earnings per share for Class A and
Class B ordinary shares:
Basic 10.15 5.35 7.74
Diluted 10.00 5.23 7.62

Weighted average aggregate number of
Class A and Class B ordinary shares
outstanding:
Basic 34,257,974 33,983,137 34,217,081
Diluted 34,786,353 34,763,639 34,786,342

(1) Cost of revenues are detailed as
follows:
Business tax and surcharges (57,288) (30,702) (49,511)
Traffic acquisition costs (108,797) (59,155) (101,693)
Bandwidth costs (48,029) (31,837) (43,012)
Depreciation costs (56,907) (40,654) (57,790)
Operational costs (37,379) (17,979) (27,795)
Share-based compensation expenses (942) (377) (1,179)
Total cost of revenues (309,342) (180,704) (280,980)

(2) Includes share-based compensation
expenses as follows:
Cost of revenues (942) (377) (1,179)
Selling, general and administrative (6,933) (68) (16,484)
Research and development (9,149) (5,027) (11,618)
Total share-based compensation
expenses (17,024) (5,472) (29,281)

Reconciliations of non-GAAP results of operations measures to the nearest
comparable GAAP measures (*) (in RMB thousands, unaudited)

Three months ended September 30, 2007
GAAP Result Adjustment Non-GAAP Results
Operating profit 168,081 5,472 173,553

Three months ended September 30, 2007
GAAP Result Adjustment Non-GAAP Results
Net income 181,729 5,472 187,201

Three months ended June 30, 2008
GAAP Result Adjustment Non-GAAP Results
Operating profit 276,340 29,281 305,621

Three months ended June 30, 2008
GAAP Result Adjustment Non-GAAP Results
Net income 264,985 29,281 294,266

Three months ended September 30, 2008
GAAP Result Adjustment Non-GAAP Results
Operating profit 368,305 17,024 385,329

Three months ended September 30, 2008
GAAP Result Adjustment Non-GAAP Results
Net income 347,859 17,024 364,883

(*) The adjustment is only for share-based compensation.

Reconciliation from net cash provided by operating activities to adjusted
EBITDA(*) (in RMB thousands, unaudited)

Three As a Three As a Three As a
months % of months % of months % of
ended total ended total ended total
September revenues June 30, revenues September revenues
30, 2007 2008 30, 2008
Net cash
provided by
operating
activities 254,870 51% 403,378 50% 482,172 52%

Changes in
assets and
liabilities,
net of
effects of
acquisitions (17,800) -4% (37,893) -5% (45,293) -5%
Income taxes
expenses 2,580 1% 28,561 4% 34,825 4%
Interest income
and other, net (16,228) -3% (17,206) -2% (14,379) -1%

Adjusted EBITDA 223,422 45% 376,840 47% 457,325 50%

(*) Definition of adjusted EBITDA: earnings before interest, taxes,
depreciation, amortization, other non-operating income, and share-
based compensation expenses.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 11:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Click Fraud Declines Slightly in Q2 2008

Click Forensics has released click fraud data for the third quarter of 2008. Overall, click fraud declined slightly. And by slightly, I mean barely noticeable.

The overall industry average click fraud rate was 16.0% for Q3 2008, down from 16.2% reported for both Q2 2008 and Q3 2007.
The average click fraud rate of PPC advertisements on search engine content networks was 27.1 percent, down from 27.6% in Q2 2008 and 28.1% in Q3 2007.
Traffic from botnets was responsible for 27.6% of all click fraud traffic in Q3 2008, up from 25.2% for Q2 2008.
In Q3 2008, the greatest percentage of click fraud originating from countries outside North America came from Russia (4.9%), France (4.8%) and the U.K. (3.5%).

Click Forensics president Tom Cuthbert had this to say about the data:

For the past two quarters the industry average click fraud rates seem to be hovering around the 16 percent level. Gains are being made by advertisers taking more action to proactively filter out fraud before it affects online campaigns. However, the growth in click fraud traffic from botnets continues to rise and it should be one of the top areas advertisers and the industry should monitor closely.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 11:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

New Video Sharing Site for Internet Marketers Launched

A new video sharing site for internet marketers has launched. It's called IMBroadcast and it's pretty impressive.

You can lurk and browse videos or join and upload videos of your own. Videos range from casual advice about keyword tools to raps about social media.

The design of the site is clean and extremely user-friendly.

Check out IMBroadcast and then come back and leave comments about your first impressions of the site.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 9:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Blogger Releases Two Updates Regarding iGoogle and Commenting

Here's a couple of updates that you Blogger bloggers should be happy to learn about. The first is the ability to post directly from a new Blogger widget in iGoogle.

Here's what it looks like:

The second is the ability to allow comments directly from a blog post's page, to which I scream HALLELUJAH. If you've ever commented on a Blogger blog post, you know you have to go to a separate page. But now, Blogger bloggers can choose a setting that allows commenting on the same page as the post. Blogger users, I implore you to do just that.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 9:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yahoo's Inquisitor Plugin Now Available for Firefox and Internet Explorer

Earlier this year, Yahoo acquired the Inquisitor plugin, which is a search suggestion plugin for Safari. A few months later they updated it, but it still remained for the Safari browser.

Now, the plugin is available for Firefox and Internet Explorer browsers.

Included with the release are algorithm enhancements, and IE users will get a bookmark-based retrieval feature.

Writing on the Yahoo Search blog, Ariel Seidman says "Beyond these enhancements, the focus of Inquisitor, regardless of browser platforms, remains squarely on providing you with instant web results that get you to your destination faster, the best query formulation assistance and a richer, more personalized search experience. Now you don't have to decide between your favorite browser and your favorite search experience - you can have both."

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 8:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SEW Experts: Zappos + Twitter = Innovative Success!

Search Engine Watch Expert - Sage Lewis Most companies use Twitter as a PR machine, covered in a thin veil of down-home personalization. But Zappos' CEO exposes a deep level of intimacy and behind the scenes information. In today's link building column, "Zappos + Twitter = Innovative Success!," Sage Lewis explains that this helps Zappos connect with their audience, and get links as a result.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SEW Experts: Facebook: Get Educated on the Hottest Social Media Platform

Search Engine Watch Expert - Ron Jones Facebook was first used as a tool to help students, faculty, and staff to get to know other people on campus. Now it's used to do the same on the Internet campus. In today's SEM.edu column, "Facebook: Get Educated on the Hottest Social Media Platform," Ron Jones outlines some ways educators are using the social network as a way to get students ready for participating in today's corporate world.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 22, 2008

Google Analytics Unveils 7 Major Updates

Just in time for a weakening economy and the holiday retail season, Google will begin rolling out 7 new features to Analytics over the coming weeks.

The new updates are enterprise level features that Google will now be offering for free.

First up is an integration with AdSense. This one will be rolled out over several months, so if you don't see it for a while, you'll know why. You'll be able to view AdSense performance based on page and referring site. Plus, you'll be able to tell where you're traffic is coming from geographically.

The rest of the updates will begin rolling out over the next few weeks. Don't expect to see them all at once. You'll more likely see them added one at a time. Here they are, in no particular order:

Updated user interface. You may have seen this already today on your account. This is a cosmetic update with a cleaner look.
Updated management interface. Soon, you'll be given a summarized glimpse at your stats upon logging into analytics. Also included are added administrative abiliies to rename and delete accounts and profiles.
Custom reporting. You can create reports based on the data that's important to you and organized how you want to see it. Choose which stats you want on the x and y axis and what data you want to drill into.
Advanced segmentation. Check out data on subsets of traffic. You can use this feature to compare traffic from paid search versus organic search, for example. You can integrate this with custom reporting, as well.
Motion Charts This takes your data and visualizes it using colors and bubbles. Sound funky? Check out this video to learn more:
New API - People have done some pretty creative things with Google Analytics from mobile and desktop applications to Grease Monkey scripts. Now, developers have it easier with the new Google Analytics API. Google is hoping that third party developers will dream up applications that aren't currently floating around the offices in Mountain View.

Google has a YouTube channel dedicated to these updates. It's a great way to learn more about how the new features work. Check it out and then let us know your impressions of these coming changes by leaving a comment.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 1:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

60% of Marketing Budgets Remain Unchanged by Economy

So far, the majority of marketing budgets are not facing changes or cuts due to the economy, according to survey results released by eMetrics.

60% of respondents said their marketing budgets haven't changed.

After that, the news gets a little discouraging.

27.6% said their budgets are being affected negatively, while 6.9% answered very negatively.

Only 3.4% said their budgets were being affected positively and a miniscule 1.7% answered very positively.

Don't stay bummed for too long. The economy seems to finally getting senior management on board with those ever important analytics.

80.4% of marketers say interest in web analytics from senior management in the past 6 months has increased. On that note, it might be a good time to start pitching landing page testing as well.

So what advertising campaigns are specifically being affected? Check out this chart:

Some of the channels are being outsourced:

You can view the full report here (pdf).

What are your thoughts on the economy and marketing budgets? Leave your thoughts in the comments.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 12:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

G1 Officially Available Today, Should You Buy One?

The G1, a new mobile device from HTC available and featuring Google's brand spankin' new mobile platform Android, is now officially available at T-mobile.

But should you ditch your Blackberry, Palm, iPhone, etc to get one?

The G1 has a touch screen, similar to the iPhone, but it doesn't have multitouch. It has a mobile application version of the Amazon mp3 store, which I love and use all the time for DRM-free music.

Unfortunately, you'll need an adapter for that headphone jack to listen to all that music. Plus, you'll have to purchase a memory card to store your music, and you can only do so up to 8GB.

The G1 does have a slider keypad, which I would love. I've had my iPhone for months, but typing on it is still a pain. Prior to that, I had the Samsung Glyde for a couple of weeks and loved the slider keypad. (It was just everything else that was a pain.)

So, should you or shouldn't you? Here's what the reviewers who have are saying:

Gizmodo

The G1 phone and the Android operating system are not finished products. There are only three working Google Apps here—Gmail, Maps and Calendar—while Google Docs, Google News, Google Reader, Google Shopping, Google Images, Google Video, Blogger and Picasa are nowhere to be found. What's the deal?
We have high hopes for third-party coders to fill in gaps Google intentionally or unintentionally left in this OS. There's already a video player, and we're sure VLC will try and port some kind of version over. But your question is not whether the phone will be great down the line, it's whether or not it's good enough for you to buy it now.

The answer depends most on who you are. Despite all the UI quirks and bad design decisions, it's still better than other smartphone OSes out there. It's not perfect, but for people who like tinkering, its cons are outweighed by its pros such as Gmail and the Marketplace. Hopefully Android updates and more ports of Google apps will augment not just future phones but this one too. This isn't something you're going to give your mom for Christmas, but if you're an adventuresome gadget guy with some money to spend ($179) on a totally new, pretty exciting venture, then why not?

CrunchGear

If you've been waiting for Android then I suggest you keep waiting. The overall OS seems to be held together by duct tape and needs a lot of work. Apple focuses on the minute details to enrich the overall experience for iPhone users and Android could learn a lesson or ten from it. The hardware design is dated and while the touch-screen and keyboard are great you can't just forget about the wretched battery life, horrible GPS and the overall ergonomics of it. I wish the G1 were better in every respect because I don't think the iPhone is that great, but I find myself wishing it were more like it. It's the best alternative to the iPhone, but it's just not there yet.

CNET

While we're not in love with the design and would have liked some additional features, the real beauty of the T-Mobile G1 is the Google Android platform, as it has the potential to make smartphones more personal and powerful. That said, it's not quite there yet, so for now, the G1 is best suited for early adopters and gadget hounds, rather than consumers and business users.

Engadget

When you put the G1 up against, say, a Sidekick LX, it seems like a no-brainer for T-Mobile customers looking for a powerful QWERTY device -- especially at $20 less. You don't need to be a cutting-edge mobile geek or a pundit to do that math. When facing off with platforms like the iPhone and Windows Mobile devices, it holds its own, but has a lot of ground to cover before it's really making the competition sweat. Still, if you're just excited to be a part of a platform that's likely going to be around for a very, very long time, the G1's a totally reasonable day-to-day device to make it happen, and we expect some pretty great things from this corner of the market down the road.

Walt Mossberg at All Things Digital

Overall, the G1 is a very good first effort, and a godsend for people who prefer physical keyboards or T-Mobile but want to be part of the new world of powerful pocket computers.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 11:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Quintura Unveils Site Search, Receives Patent

Quintura has launched its first site search solution. It's initially only available in the U.S.

"Web publishers who add Quintura's free, hosted solution to their websites will realize significant cost savings and generate a new revenue stream," said Yakov Sadchikov, founder and CEO of Quintura. "Online publishers are given a unique opportunity to engage their users in site search far more than ever before, resulting in additional page-views and click-throughs."

Quintura has also received its first patent, for a search engine graphical interface using maps and images.

"In beta trials, our solution has proven its benefits to web publishers," said Dennis Szerszen, CMO of Quintura. "Our statistics demonstrate much higher click-through rates, search utilization, and overall page-views."

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 11:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Google's My Location Now with WiFi

Google's My Location technology is cool. When I'm using my iPhone, I just hit a button and it gets a pretty close assessment of where I am, using cell triangulation (yes, I still have a first gen iPhone).

Now, Google is outfitting My Location with the ability to use WiFi access points in determining location. The feature is also included on the Gears Geolocation API.

Blackberry users can download the newest version of Maps for Mobile to access this feature. Other mobile devices will get the feature soon.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 11:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Yahoo Q3 2008 Earnings: It Ain't Pretty

Yahoo had its third quarter earnings call yesterday and the news wasn't pretty. I'm not really sure how much the economy can really be blamed for how dismal the news was. Search advertising should be one of the last sectors within advertising as a whole to be affected by the economy.

Here's something else to consider: While companies are looking to streamline their operations in order to save costs, they often look to technology. Companies like Google who are investing in cloud computing or other technologies that create efficiencies are making the most of this unique opportunity and coming out ahead. They beat the street with their Q3 earnings. Apple had a good earnings call yesterday with their sales of laptops and iPhones.

So when you read the quote by Jerry Yang blaming the economy, don't be surprised if your eyes roll.

We already know that Yahoo is cutting 10% of its workforce. But many have been saying for a long time that the workforce was already bloated. I feel for the Yahoo's because it is maddening to work at a place where layoffs are imminent. Productivity goes down and everyone speculates whose job is safe and who needs a box for their things.

The press release with all the data points for the earnings is below. All the major news organizations are focused squarely on the 64% decline in net income.

Yahoo! Reports Third Quarter 2008 Financial Results

Revenues - $1,786 Million
Operating Income - $70 Million
Operating Income Before Depreciation, Amortization, and Stock-Based
Compensation Expense - $410 Million

SUNNYVALE, Calif. – October 21, 2008 - Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq: YHOO) today reported results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2008.

"As economic conditions and on-line advertising softened in the third quarter, we remained highly focused on our 2008 strategy to invest in initiatives that enhance not only our long term competitiveness, but also our ability to deliver for users and advertisers in this more difficult climate. We have been disciplined about balancing investments with cost management all year, and have now set in motion initiatives to reduce costs and enhance productivity," said Jerry Yang, co-founder and chief executive officer, Yahoo! Inc. "The steps we are taking this quarter should deliver not only near-term benefits to operating cash flow, but should also substantially enhance the nimbleness and flexibility with which we compete over the long term. We enter this slowing market with competitive advantages as the destination of choice for consumers and a leader in providing online advertisers with the broadest set of advertising management tools and products in the industry. We plan to continue building on those strengths."

Third Quarter 2008 Financial Results

Revenues were $1,786 million for the third quarter of 2008, a 1 percent increase compared to $1,768 million for the same period of 2007.
Marketing services revenues were $1,563 million for the third quarter of 2008, a 1 percent increase compared to $1,544 million for the same period of 2007.

Marketing services revenues from Owned and Operated sites were $1,002 million for the third quarter of 2008, a 9 percent increase compared to $923 million for the same period of 2007.
Marketing services revenues from Affiliate sites were $561 million for the third quarter of 2008, a 10 percent decrease compared to $621 million for the same period of 2007.

Fees revenues were $224 million for the third quarter of 2008, compared to $224 million for the same period of 2007.
Revenues excluding traffic acquisition costs (“TAC”) were $1,325 million for the third quarter of 2008, a 3 percent increase compared to $1,283 million for the same period of 2007.
Operating income for the third quarter of 2008 was $70 million, a 53 percent decrease compared to $150 million for the same period of 2007.

Operating income for the third quarter of 2008 includes incremental costs of $37 million incurred for outside advisors related to Microsoft's proposals to acquire all or a part of the Company, other strategic alternatives, including the Google agreement, the proxy contest, and related litigation defense (collectively, the “strategic alternatives and related matters”).

Operating income before depreciation, amortization, and stock-based compensation expense for the third quarter of 2008 was $410 million, a 12 percent decrease compared to $466 million for the same period of 2007.

Operating income before depreciation, amortization, and stock-based compensation expense for the third quarter of 2008 includes the incremental costs related to the strategic alternatives and related matters noted above.

Cash flow from operating activities for the third quarter of 2008 was $347 million, a 24 percent decrease compared to $457 million for the same period of 2007.
Free cash flow for the third quarter of 2008 was $215 million, a 31 percent decrease compared to $310 million for the same period of 2007.
Net income for the third quarter of 2008 was $54 million or $0.04 per diluted share compared to $151 million or $0.11 per diluted share for the same period of 2007.
Non-GAAP net income for the third quarter of 2008 was $123 million or $0.09 per diluted share compared to non-GAAP net income of $153 million or $0.11 per diluted share for the same period of 2007.

"Despite a tougher revenue climate, we were able to stay focused on our strategic objectives, launching several major product initiatives that have been underway for many months,” said Sue Decker, president, Yahoo!, Inc. “These include the beta release of our new home page, which will leverage one code base globally; our new universal profile management tool at profiles.yahoo.com which is the first step toward rewiring the social graph on Yahoo!; and the launch of APT from Yahoo!TM, a transformative digital advertising platform. We delivered on our product roadmap with high quality and lower expenses than originally anticipated. Now we are conducting a deep review of our cost structure to identify more opportunities to enhance efficiency and build a stronger and more profitable Yahoo!."

Third Quarter 2008 Segment Financial Results

United States segment revenues for the third quarter of 2008 were $1,280 million, a 7 percent increase compared to $1,195 million for the same period of 2007.
International segment revenues for the third quarter of 2008 were $507 million, a 12 percent decrease compared to $573 million for the same period of 2007.
United States segment operating income before depreciation, amortization, and stock-based compensation expense for the third quarter of 2008 was $291 million, a 14 percent decrease compared to $338 million for the same period of 2007.

United States segment operating income before depreciation, amortization, and stock-based compensation expense for the third quarter of 2008 includes the incremental costs related to the strategic alternatives and related matters noted above.

International segment operating income before depreciation, amortization, and stock-based compensation expense for the third quarter of 2008 was $119 million, a 7 percent decrease compared to $128 million for the same period of 2007.

“An increasingly challenging economic climate and softening advertising demand contributed to revenues this quarter coming in at the low end of our outlook range. While we are disappointed with our results, we're pleased that we continue to benefit from the aggressive cost management efforts we have pursued during the year. These efforts helped our adjusted operating cash flow come in above the midpoint of our outlook range for the quarter, despite significant investments in our strategic objectives,” said Blake Jorgensen, chief financial officer, Yahoo! Inc. “We have the balance sheet strength, liquidity, and free cash flow we need to continue to make progress on our core strategies as we address this slowdown.”

Cash Flow Information

In addition to free cash flow of $215 million for the third quarter of 2008, Yahoo! generated $14 million from the issuance of common stock as a result of the exercise of employee stock options. This was offset by $29 million used for acquisitions and $16 million used to acquire intellectual property rights. Cash, cash equivalents, and investments in marketable debt securities were $3,299 million at September 30, 2008 as compared to $3,219 million at June 30, 2008, an increase of $80 million.

Cost Reduction Initiatives

During the third quarter, Yahoo! began implementing a series of cost reduction initiatives that contributed to the Company's adjusted operating cash flow exceeding the midpoint of its outlook for the quarter. The Company's goal is to reduce its current annualized cost run rate of approximately $3.9 billion by more than $400 million before the end of 2008. The Company anticipates that both headcount and non-headcountrelated costs will be reduced by these actions. Because the majority of expenses are headcount-related, Yahoo! expects to reduce its global workforce by at least 10 percent during the fourth quarter of 2008.

Yahoo! also plans to implement additional cost-cutting measures aimed at achieving additional structural efficiencies over the next year. The Company anticipates these will result in substantial additional cost savings. The goal of these measures is to position Yahoo! for long-term, sustainable growth.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

Explanations of the Company's non-GAAP financial measures and the related reconciliations to the GAAP financial measures the Company considers most comparable are included in the accompanying “Note to Unaudited Condensed Consolidated Statements of Income,” “Reconciliations to Unaudited Condensed Consolidated Statements of Income,” and “Reconciliation of GAAP Net Income and GAAP Net Income Per Share to Non-GAAP Net Income and Non-GAAP Net Income Per Share.”

Quarterly Conference Call

Yahoo! will host a conference call to discuss third quarter results at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time today. A live webcast of the conference call, together with supplemental financial information, can be accessed through the Company's Investor Relations website at http://yhoo.client.shareholder.com/results.cfm. In addition, an archive of the webcast can be accessed through the same link. An audio replay of the call will be available for one week following the conference call by calling (888) 286-8010 or (617) 801-6888, reservation number: 99117465.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 8:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SEW Experts: Vote Obama/Google in '08?

Search Engine Watch Expert - Kevin Ryan Google CEO Eric Schmidt hit the campaign trail this week with presidential candidate Barack Obama. Is there any merit to Google's statement that Mr. Schmidt's personal beliefs are his own and Google isn't backing Obama, just its CEO? In today's Searching for Meaning column, "Vote Obama/Google in '08?," Kevin Ryan asks if Schmidt crossed the line of appropriate behavior and good sense.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SEW Experts: Building a Data-Driven Organization

Search Engine Watch Expert - Eric Enge Organizations with streamlined operations, plus fast and accurate decision-making, can gain a decisive edge over competitors. In today's Web analytics and ROI column, "Building a Data-Driven Organization," Eric Enge explains that one important step to take is to become data-driven, by creating an organization where analytics emerge from a centralized structure driven by the top of the organization.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 21, 2008

Yahoo To Cut Workforce By 10%

During their third quarter financial report call today, Yahoo announced they will be cutting their employee numbers by 10 percent.

Unfortunately, the employees will not have much coming from any of their Yahoo stocks which are at 52 week lows and the poor financial report will not help improve the numbers. Yahoo closed at 12.07 but in after hours trading following the call the stock was up over 5%.

Posted by Frank Watson on 5:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Search Advertisers: Don't Miss the Profitable PPC Webcast

What's the best way to set up a new PPC campaign? How should you structure your ad groups to get double-digit clickthrough rates? Where should you peg your initial budgets and bids?

Listen to SEW Expert David Szetela sharing his PPC tips in a live Search Engine Watch Webcast, "Profitable PPC: The Fundamental Secrets," on October 22, 2008. That's tomorrow - Wednesday - at 1 p.m. EST.

In this webcast, you will learn how to build and optimize successful PPC campaigns, with an emphasis on solid direct response advertising techniques that lead to maximum conversions and ROI. Discover how to set up your PPC accounts, assign keywords to ad groups, and implement bidding strategies that will lead to profitable PPC campaigns.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 4:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Landing Pages: Test Now or Forever Hold Your Peace

Try as Washington might, the economy is bad and there's no way around it. Budgets are being slashed and workforces are being cut.

It is widely thought that search advertising will be one of the last to feel the brunt of the economy's affect on advertising.

Still, search marketers are faced with pressure to keep the sales coming in during these tough times. Google Website Optimizer's Tom Leung says, "It's like trying to get your car to go the same amount of distance on less gas."

The good news is that you can help improve your search marketing campaign's miles-per-gallon with Landing Page Testing.

When marketers use landing page testing, their conversions almost always increase. And right now, that might mean maintaining - or even increasing - sales.

"Landing page testing is a continual process and should be focused on even more when the economy is down," says Al Scillitani, Internet Marketing Manager at Global Golf. "We have increased conversions dramatically by simply moving category links from one location to another, adding different promotional verbiage (dollars off vs percent off), testing different call to actions, etc."

Eric J. Hansen, president and founder of SiteSpect Inc., a provider of multivariate testing services, agrees. He compared landing page testing to plugging holes in a leaky bucket.

“During an uncertain economy, it is crucial for online marketers to test and optimize their landing pages. Landing page effectiveness is typically measured by bounce-rate – the percentage of visitors who hit the back-button instead of browsing deeper into the site. Average landing page bounce rates range from 50% to 70%. Multivariate testing enables marketers to greatly reduce landing page bounce rates; in effect, driving more visitors into the site and towards the key conversion points that generate revenue."

Not only can you generate more revenue from increased conversions, but you can save money on your search advertising campaign as well.

"Optimizing your landing pages also lifts ROI from pay-per-click advertising, since fewer dollars are wasted on bounced traffic," said Hansen.

Complicating matters is the ever-changing search landscape. Oliver Chaine, CEO and Founder of magnify360, a behavioral marketing firm, says, "Landing page testing is an absolute necessity today both because PPC has the highest ROI in this climate of shrinking budgets and because of Google's recent changes to the way it calculates quality score. As of last month, Google began calculating marketers' quality score against every single impression. That means that your CPC and your rankings now rely on the relevancy of your landing pages to every single visitor."

It may even be wise to spend money to invest in landing page optimization. The costs could be offset by increased conversions.

"The best way to ensure that relevancy is through testing and optimizing your landing page content and ensuring that your [Landing Page Optimization] provider can test and serve the right variation in real-time to each and every visitor," said Chaine. "The major upside of an investment in testing however, is that with a low CPC, you can reinvest your savings in outbidding your competitors and completely dominating search."

Google's Leung compares investing in landing page testing to winterizing a house. You might have to spend money making your house more efficient, but in the long run, it will ultimately save you money.

Also, Don't forget that landing page testing can also help influence other marketing campaigns both online and off.

"Our landing page testing results help us in many other ways. We use what we have learned for email campaigns and our paid search ads and paid search landing pages. We have seen an increase in email open rates and email and paid search click thru rates all leading to higher conversions and revenue," said Al Scillitani.

Another way to think about landing page testing is what happens if you don't do it. Google's Leung says marketers who aren't doing testing are missing the boat and leaving sales on the table.

During these uncertain times, that certainly could leave marketers forever holding their peace.

Want to learn about Landing Page Testing? Read Bryan Eisenberg's Always Be Testing or our own Tim Ash's Landing Page Optimization.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 10:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

MapQuest Now Optimized for the iPhone

One of the main reasons I own an iPhone is to have access to a map when I'm out and about. The iPhone comes standard with Google Maps, but I find its always good to have a backup map. (Google Maps isn't perfect, but you didn't hear that from me.)

That's why it was good to hear that MapQuest now has an optimized version of its site for the iPhone. Even though the iPhone lets you surf the web, surfing normal pages is still a pain. Whenever a site has versions for mobile devices, it's so much better for the mobile user.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 10:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Yahoo Enables Zip Code Geotargeting

Want to target people in a certain zip code with your Yahoo search marketing campaign? Well, now you can.

Sure, you might get fewer clicks, but clicks aren't the end game. Conversions are. If you are looking to target audiences in certain locations, then serving up ads to specific geographic areas is key.

To do so in Yahoo, following the following steps:

Click the “Campaigns” tab.
Choose a campaign.
Click the “Campaign Settings” drop-down located in the upper right-hand corner (above the graph).
Select “Geo-Targeting.”

You'll be able to geotarget in the following ways:

Entire Market
Country
State/Province
DMA
City
ZIP code

What do you think of zip code-enabled geotargeting? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 9:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

18-34 Year Old Responds to Email Marketing Over Social Network Marketing

Social networking is popular, but how to target consumers through them is a mystery that has plagued marketers since social media's inception. Now, a new study from ExactTarget is showing how tough it can be.

The report showed that 18-34 year olds say they're more likely to respond to marketing efforts via email or direct mail than they are social networking campaigns.

Here are more key findings from the study:

20 percent of Wired consumers have subscribed for marketing communications via SMS, more so than any other group, but they want to receive texts only for urgent customer service issues such as financial alerts or travel updates.
More than 50 percent of Young Homemakers use social networks and SMS during the day, but direct mail and e-mail are their two preferred marketing channels.
81 percent of Retired consumers have purchased online and 94 percent have been influenced by some form of direct marketing to make a purchase.
College Students are very spam-savvy and believe private communication channels such as SMS and social networks are off limits for marketers.
Teens use social networking more than any other group but are more likely to make a purchase from direct mail, followed by e-mail, SMS and social network sites.
Women are more likely than the men in the Established Professionals group to use new digital media channels such as IM, SMS and social networking to communicate with friends and family, but men and women alike shop online with 92 percent of the consumers in this group having made an online purchase.

What do you think of this data? Let us know in the comments.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 9:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SEW Experts: Implementation is the Name of the Game

Search Engine Watch Expert - Mark Jackson Implementation is a critical part of the search engine optimization process. This is where we actually make the recommended changes to the Web site.In today's organic SEO column, "Implementation is the Name of the Game," Mark Jackson explains that it's also where way too many SEO projects go wrong.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SEW Experts: Video Search: Can You Live Without It?

Search Engine Watch Expert - Aaron Shear With YouTube climbing into the second position in terms of search engines, you can't avoid videos these days. What is your company doing to stay on top of the video market? In today's enterprise search marketing column, "Video Search: Can You Live Without It?," Aaron Shear runs down some of your options.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 20, 2008

Social Search Site Scour Now Speedier (Say That 10 Times Fast)

Social search engine Scour is now faster. Not only that, there's a whole host of new things that have been added.

Such as:

Search speed improved by 80%—For example, a search for “shoes” is averaging .123 seconds with the newly overhauled speed.
New layout—Limited the top sponsored results and added more listings per page to help users find what they're searching for quicker and without clutter.
New search filter—Double click on any word in the results to add or remove the word to your search.
Open results in new tab—More tabs available for easy navigation.
Site search from results—Now users can conduct a site search using their current query on any site in the results page.
Better comment view—Users can better organize comments left by other Scour members
Enhanced points box—Users can get a detailed snapshot of their total points breakdown with a simple click without leaving the page they are on.

What do you think about the updates? Let us know in the comments.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 12:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Live Search's xRank Launches xTreme Movers

Live Search's buzz search product, xRank, has launched a new feature. It's called xTreme movers and it shows you what's gaining popularity the fastest.

I headed over to the site to check it out. Today's quick mover is Wii, as in Nintendo's super-fun gaming system.

As you can see, a graph shows you a visual representation of how the term is growing. To the left is a list of the top terms that are trending up.

What do you think of xTreme Movers? Let us know in the comments.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 11:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Professor Lawrence Lessig to Keynote at SES Chicago

Lawrence Lessig, a Professor of Law at Stanford Law School, will be giving the opening keynote at Search Engine Strategies Chicago on Monday, Dec. 8, 2008. The title of his keynote is “Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy.”

Lawrence Lessig And, if you read the description of Professor Lessig's keynote in the conference agenda, it says: “The content industry has convinced industry in general that extremism in copyright regulation is good for business and economic growth. That's false. In this talk, Professor Lessig describes the creative and profitable future that culture and industry could realize, if only we gave up IP extremism.”

What is he getting at?

Well, “Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy” also happens to be the title of Professor Lessig's new book, which just went on sale on Amazon.com.

And, according to the editorial reviews on Amazon.com, “The author of Free Culture shows how we harm our children -- and almost anyone who creates, enjoys, or sells any art form -- with a restrictive copyright system driven by corporate interests. Lessig reveals the solutions to this impasse offered by a collaborative yet profitable ‘hybrid economy'.”

It goes on to say that Professor Lessig, who is the reigning authority on intellectual property in the Internet age, “spotlights the newest and possibly the most harmful culture war -- a war waged against our kids and others who create and consume art.” It adds, “America's copyright laws have ceased to perform their original, beneficial role: protecting artists' creations while allowing them to build on previous creative works. In fact, our system now criminalizes those very actions.”

How does it do that? Well, Professor Lessig argues that “biting” riffs from films, videos, or songs shouldn't be crimes. Why? It makes felons out of some of today's most talented artists.

Professor Lessig argues that the way to end this war is to embrace what he calls the “read-write culture,” which allows its users to create art as readily as they consume it. And he can already see glimmers of a new hybrid economy that combines the profit motives of traditional business with the “sharing economy” evident in such websites as Wikipedia and YouTube.

Wow. That's strong stuff. And, if we play buzzword bingo at SES Chicago 2008, then there are a couple arcane business concepts that we can use on our bingo cards.

But, this short blurb may not do justice to Professor Lessig. So, I emailed him some questions about the topic of his opening keynote. And he emailed me his answers -- quickly, I might add.

Here is our Q&A:

Q: Who benefits and who is harmed by extremism in copyright regulation?

A: Benefits: Lawyers (certainly). The record companies (maybe). Harmed: Artists, businesses, consumers — and a generation of (criminalized) kids.

Q: What are the “read-write culture” and the “hybrid economy”?

A: A RW culture is one where ordinary people are empowered to participate in the creation and recreation of their culture. Every culture in human history has been RW, save for a few dark years in the 20th century.

A hybrid is a commercial entity that tries to leverage value out of a sharing economy, or a sharing economy that tries to use a commercial entity to support it. Either way, two radically different cultures need to learn how to work together with each other.

Q: When will this war on our kids stop, the “read-write culture” be reborn, and the “hybrid economy” start to flourish?

A: When policy makers are woken up to the extraordinary cost this war is imposing.

Q: Where can we already see glimmers of a new “hybrid economy” that combines the profit motives of traditional business with the “sharing economy”?

A: I think everywhere around us. All of the interesting Internet businesses today are hybrid: Flickr, Second Life, Yelp!, even Amazon builds much of its business from the sharing activity of its customers.

Q: Why is IP extremism bad for business and economic growth?

A: Practice moderation. When the lawyers in the room start insisting that the licenses you create must impose perfect control over everything you have, ask them to prove it. Ask them to demonstrate that the business return from that relationship of antagonism is higher than its cost. Don't give over your business' future to those who don't think like a business man or woman. Keep focused on the only undeniable truth: IP is an asset. Like any business asset, it should be deployed to maximize the value of the corporation.

Let me add that I've watched the 19-minute-long video of Professor Lessig speaking at last year's TED Conference as well as the 4-minute 35 second video from OpenSourceCinema which is embedded below. So, I am confident that he will rock the house at Search Engine Strategies Chicago.

Lessig Remix

Professor Lessig was also named one of Scientific American's Top 50 Visionaries, for arguing “against interpretations of copyright that could stifle innovation and discourse online.” He's on the board of the Creative Commons project has served on the board of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. He was also a columnist for Wired, Red Herring, and the Industry Standard.

In other words, he's a speaker worth coming to SES Chicago to hear. And, yes, I do think I'll put some of his arcane business concepts on a buzzword bingo card.

Posted by Greg Jarboe on 10:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Google Learns to Navigate Washington the Hard Way

Google is finally starting to learn that the Schoolhouse Rock song, "I'm Just a Bill," forgot to include the part about lobbying.

Google opened up a Washington, DC office a few years back to handle the minimal lobbying it was doing. But according to a story in the New York Times, Google has been learning the ways of Washington through the school of hard knocks.

And they may not have graduated in time to address the current regulatory concern over their search advertising partnership with Yahoo.

Perhaps Google is just a tad too used to being the big dog in Silicon Valley. But DC is a different culture. Every industry is represented there, from sugar growers to plastic surgeons to the nuanced niches in tech.

And despite an increasingly digital culture, face time is crucial in DC. The NYT article says Google is getting poor attendance marks for its presence at political events.

Meanwhile, Microsoft knows how the machine works, and they've been keeping it well oiled in order to influence groups to opposed the Google-Yahoo deal. Even the Latino Farmers and Ranchers have climbed on board the opposition bandwagon.

Microsoft is now suggesting that Google is losing the debate and resorting to calling out lobbying as the reason why instead of regulation.

Of course, when it comes to antitrust regulation, Microsoft calling anyone out is like the pot calling the kettle black.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 9:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yahoo, Zillow to Cut Jobs

Yahoo and real estate search site are both planning to cut jobs. While Yahoo has been said to have a bloated work force, Zillow's problems are due to the mortgage crisis and a decreased need for home valuations.

A Microsoft acquisition might not have saved these Yahoo jobs. Mergers are notorious for job cuts and many would have walked away. Much was said about the differences in the cultures of the two companies as being a reason against the merger. Of course, fewer people care about corporate culture when the economy is horrible and your company's stock has plunged. Still, hindsight is 20/20.

Meanwhile, there's just no way around the matter for Zillow. No one's talking about bailing out real estate search and home valuations sites. It's clear that the housing market was a giant bubble and that businesses built around it are going to suffer or need a new business model.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 8:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SEW Experts: Measuring a Text Ad's Effectiveness

Search Engine Watch Expert - David Szetela Testing and improving ad copy is essential to optimizing overall PPC campaign performance. Improving ad text leads to better CTR and quality score, which means it can help drive your CPC down, and/or let you buy more clicks per dollar. In today's search advertising column, "Measuring a Text Ad's Effectiveness," David Szetela shows you how to make a direct impact on your campaign's ability to increase the number of profitable sales.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 18, 2008

Google Accepting Gambling Ads in UK

As soon as Yahoo and MSN started accepting gambling ads, it was only a short time for Google to join them - as their announcement this week has shown. Obviously Google did not want their competitors grabbing the lucrative advertising revenue.

Like Yahoo UK, Google requires a license to be able to advertise - but they do allow companies licensed in their respective European countries to advertise which Yahoo has yet to introduce. MSN at this stage does not require licensing.

The push to allow online gambling in the US is moving forward with former NY senator Alfonse D'Mato part of the lobby for poker sites.

Posted by Frank Watson on 10:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 17, 2008

Move Over George Soros Google Wants To Play In the Forex Space

Seems legendary investor George Soros, who supposedly made a billion dollars trading on the foreign currency exchange, will have some competition from Google as they are now hedging against fluctuating currency exchange rates by investments in the forex market.

Cnet reports that Google has invested over $80 million dollars in forex trading hedges to offset the strengthening dollar against the global currencies many of their advertisers are paying them in.

Given that 51% of Google's revenue comes from outside the United States, many large advertisers are given credit in their own currency which could be worth less at the time they actually pay Google.

The value of the US dollar against the euro, Canadian dollar and the British pound has increased substantially in recent weeks, thus Google gets less US dollars when someone pays them. The actual value of the clicks is done in US dollars at the base of the calculations, so Google advertisers get to pay less than what they would if there was just one currency used in the actual bidding.

Maybe the brothers Google want to emulate Soros who was part of the Google Author series that had CEO Eric Schmidt as part of the presentation.

His Wikipedia entry about his currency speculation profits may be alluring to the Google founders who have shown a penchant for aggressive investments into a number of markets.

"On Black Wednesday (September 16, 1992), Soros became immediately famous when he sold short more than $10 billion worth of pounds, profiting from the Bank of England's reluctance to either raise its interest rates to levels comparable to those of other European Exchange Rate Mechanism countries or to float its currency.
Finally, the Bank of England was forced to withdraw the currency out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism and to devalue the pound sterling, and Soros earned an estimated US$ 1.1 billion in the process. He was dubbed "the man who broke the Bank of England."

Be careful guys, it is a highly volatile market and we wouldn't want you to lose money.

Posted by Frank Watson on 1:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yahoo Updates Social Profiles, Adds Local SearchMonkey Apps to Default

Seems Google wasn't the only one with some updates to release at the end of this week. Yahoo gets in on the action by updating social profiles and setting some SearchMonkey apps for local content to default.

First up, Yahoo profiles are going universal. In other words, you can manage your Yahoo profile from various Yahoo properties. The goal is to eventually be able to manage your profile from non-Yahoo sites embracing OpenSocial.

It will be nice when that happens, because I much prefer Yahoo's minimalistic and easy-to-use profile than most social networks:

Meanwhile, Citysearch and Zagat are having their SearchMonkey apps set to default. That means all users will see their uniquely coded results (when relevant, of course) during Yahoo searches. Here's how the Citysearch one will look:

In August, Yahoo set Yelp, LinkedIn and Yahoo Local apps to default.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 11:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Mom Bloggers Prove Powerful Resource to Marketing and Branding Success

A whopping 94% of moms rely on other moms during a purchasing decision. So, it comes as no surprise to learn that mom bloggers can have a powerful impact on your online marketing campaign.

Here's some data from Mom Central Consulting to help let this idea sink in deep into your marketing grey matter:

96% of Moms value recommendations they find on Mom Blogs
Over 78% of Mom Bloggers now review products and services
More than 60% of Mom Bloggers consider making money important and want more connectivity with companies
37% of Mom Bloggers have been contacted as resources for the press

Woah! Did you see that last number? Kind of small considering how powerful moms are. There's clearly an opportunity for you to go in there and snag some good mom blog coverage.

Need tips on how to approach bloggers? (Hint: It's not like pitching a journalist)

Send them a friendly, personalized email. Do not mass email.
Ask permission to send them a sample of your product or free trial of your service. Do not send unsolicited!
Offer them something to give away to their readers
Be accessible to answer questions
Be cordial even when you get a bad review. It's ok to comment and defend your product (politely!). But it's even better to take their criticism to heart and make your product or service better.

What are your tips for approaching mom bloggers? Any success stories? Share your success in the comments!

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 11:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Is Yahoo Being Undervalued by Wall Street?

Despite Yahoo's decline in the search market as of late, some are beginning to cry foul, saying Wall Street is punishing YHOO just a little too much. Prices dipped below $11 a share this week, almost half the value when Microsoft made its acquisition offer for $31 per share.

A couple of points in defense of Yahoo:

Its decline in search market share is slight. They're still #2. They're comparable to the Apple of the search world if you're just looking at the numbers.
The stock is being brought down by the greater market. Even Google's stock is down to the mid-300s, despite beginning the year in the high 500s. But Google posted an increase in revenue and beat the pessimistic Street yesterday. Their stock is on the rise at this hour, while the Dow Jones is on the decline again.
They have a bunch of strong properties, including Yahoo Sports, which had a stellar August thanks to the Olympics. They're also number 1 in email.

A couple of points in defense of Wall Street:

Jerry Yang is no Steve Jobs (or at least not anymore).
The search advertising partnership with Google has been delayed while they attempt to work things out with a wary DOJ.
The economy has everyone holding their wallets tight.

Jerry Yang and the gang need to refocus on the customer instead of executive bonuses, while Wall Street needs to understand that while advertising in general may decline, search advertising is an attractive option for advertisers looking to maximize budgets.

Oh, and in case you're wondering, Microsoft remains a scorned lover.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 9:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A Bunch of Cute Little Updates to Google Properties (and the Algorithm)

Today, there are more updates to Google products than you can shake a stick at. So intead of writing a bunch of short, little posts, I have consolidated them into one for you, faithful SEW reader.

Both my awesome husband and my awesome 11 year old son have pointed out to me the new changes to iGoogle. I personally don't use my iGoogle page all that much (Keepin' it real [simple]), but I did browse over to it and found some cosmetic changes (The Foo Fighters theme was already there.)

Notice the tab on the left hand side. It includes links to the widgets on your iGoogle page. When you click on one of the links, it switches to a screen with that widget. Some take up the whole page. Others present a list of similar widgets as suggestions. Still others make use of Google reader to present a feed.

Moving on to other Google properties....

Webmaster Tools now testing a Message Center warning that alerts webmasters to possible vulnerabilities with their Content Management Systems (CMS).

Google TV ads has announced new partnerships with COREMedia Systems and Harris Corporation. The COREMedia partnership allows CoreDirect customers to view their Google TV ads right along with their CoreDirect data. The Harris Corp. one adds more inventory for Google TV advertisers.

AdWords has separated the metrics for Google and search partners such as Ask, AOL, etc. This is probably in preparation for the implementation of the Yahoo search advertising partnership.

Last but most important is the changes to the Google algorithm regarding Adobe Flash. Brian Ussery has a writeup about it on his extremely minimalistic-looking blog. Basically, he finds that indexing of Flash still isn't ready for prime time. I know there may have been some hope with recent news of Adobe working with Google to provide better indexing, but we're just not there yet, folks.

And that concludes the flurry of Google updates for Friday, October 17, 2008. Leave your thoughts, impressions, etc in the comments!

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 8:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SEW Experts: Google's New Tools for Site Link Strengthening

Search Engine Watch Expert - Frank Watson Search Engine Watch Expert - Chris Boggs Both Matt Cutts and the Google Webmaster Central team recently turned their focus on helping sites address 404 error pages, which don't pass link authority and negatively impact the user experience. In today's SEM Crossfire column, "Google's New Tools for Site Link Strengthening," Frank Watson and Chris Boggs discuss the new tools Google has created to assist site owners and SEOs with a quick way to improve a site's overall impact on search results.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SEW Experts: Making the Most of Your Local Search Marketing Dollars

Search Engine Watch Expert - Gregg Stewart Clients often ask where they should spend their marketing dollars: online or offline, search or display? The problem with these questions: they assume there's one or only a few sources for all local sales leads. In today's vertical search column, "Making the Most of Your Local Search Marketing Dollars," local search expert Gregg Stewart explains that the question isn't "either/or;" it's about how much of each.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 16, 2008

Google Q3 Revenue Increases 31% Year-Over-Year, Up 3% Over Q2 2008

Google beat Wall Street with its third quarter earnings, announced today. Their revenue is up 31% year-over-year and up 3% over Q2.

Analysts have been worried that a weak economy would mean worse results for the search giant, due to tightening advertising budgets and decreased consumer confidence.

But, of course, almost the opposite is true. Advertising on Google is much more affordable than traditional marketing methods such as print and television. Search advertising is also more easily measured and has the opportunity to provide a wealth of behavioral data.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 4:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Internet Marketers Handbook An Impressive Effort

A SEOMoz member Danny Dover has pulled together quite an impressive list of links to tools, impressive articles and in general a great list of must see links for all search marketers.

I have bookmarked this one already and will be using it later today to run a report for a client. Hats off to the effort mate.

Posted by Frank Watson on 3:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Google Webmaster Tools Adds Hack Alert For CMS Programs

Google will be alerting sites to possible hacks of their CMS programs the Google Webmaster Central blog announced today. Nice addition guys.

The Google team seems to be adding a lot of helpful tools lately. The links to 404 pages report is another of these which I am writing about in tomorrow's Crossfire column.

Posted by Frank Watson on 2:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

magnify360 Launches New Paid Search Tool: Google Cost Optimizer

Search marketing company magnify360 today announced the availability of Google Cost Optimizer. The tool syncs up in real-time with their clients' AdWords accounts and offers automatic responsees to campaign changes such as bids, Ad groups, and keywords. Eventually, other advertising networks will be added and integrated with magnify360's platform.

Here are some features of the tool:

Individual keyword phrase return on investment (ROI) in real-time
Cost per click in real-time
Revenue per click in real-time
Conversion rate in real-time
Dollar value lead scoring in real-time
Campaign ROI in real-time

“In order for businesses to survive this recession, marketing must be more efficient,” said Olivier Chaine, ceo and founder of magnify360. “We built Google Cost Optimizer so that our search marketing clients can quickly and easily optimize every single penny.”

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 11:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Zillow Unveils Automated Quote API

Real estate search site Zillow has released a new API for automated quotes. With the API, lenders can automate custom quotes to borrowers submitting loan requests. The API will be made available over the next few weeks and will have 5 initial technology partners: Leads360, Mortech, Mortgagebot, NYLX and Optimal Blue.

"We're excited to be announcing the Zillow Quote API today to enable the lenders within Zillow Mortgage Marketplace to more efficiently service a larger number of borrowers, ultimately helping them gain more business," said Lloyd Frink, President of Zillow.com. "We believe this new feature will also improve the experience for the borrowers on our site by providing a greater number of quotes, faster, as well as more options in rates and lenders to help them chose the right loan and lender for them."

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 10:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Google Releases Display Ad Builder

Following in MySpace's footsteps, Google's AdWords has released a display advertising builder. Now, you can create your own ad right in AdWords without hiring a designer (Sorry, designers!).

While advertising art may suffer (you did used to hire that designer for a reason, didn't you?), many people are looking for ways to cut costs during this economic crisis. So these new display ad builders are one way to do that.

Of course, you'll want to test those ads. If those professional ads done by the aforementioned designer have higher conversions, then outsourcing still may be the way to go!

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 9:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin in Favor of Freeing Up White Space TV Spectrum

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin is in favor of freeing up the "white spaces" in the tv spectrum between television stations. While concerns over interference have been made by some groups, testing has not shown that to be a problem. As Techdirt points out, the complications found in testing were from failed devices, not interference.

Martin is seeking a vote from the full commission on the matter as early as November 4th, which just so happens to be another important election day.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 9:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SEW Experts: Obama is Winning the Internet War

Search Engine Watch Expert - Erik Qualman Election Day in the U.S. is fast approaching and it's anyone's guess who will win...or is it? Based on five key indicators on the Internet, maybe we already know who will next be sitting in the Oval Office. In today's building brand equity column, "Obama is Winning the Internet War," Erik Qualman looks at these indicators and shows how they can be applied to your business.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SEW Experts: Content Promotion for Link Marketing

Search Engine Watch Expert - Justilien Gaspard Even if your content is great and deserving of links, you won't get very far if no one knows about it. The Web already has a ton of great content and more added each day. In today's linkbuilding column, "Content Promotion for Link Marketing," Justilien Gaspard tells you how to promote your content to get noticed.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 15, 2008

Eric Jackson to Yahoo: I Can Quit You, and I Did

One of the most outspoken investors during the Microsoft-tries-to-buy-Yahoo debacle was Eric Jackson. Mr. Jackson leads a group 146 shareholders that owned a collective 3.2 million Yahoo shares. Those shares were sold last month.

Though Mr. Jackson did approve of the Yahoo-Icahn agreement that expanded Yahoo's board by 3 members, including Carl Icahn, it apparently was not enough.

Jackson, it turns out, has been right about Yahoo all along. He was one of the first to vocalize fears that Yahoo shares would drop significantly without a Microsoft buy. I, myself, was skeptical. But Jackson was right.

While Yahoo is the number 2 search engine, number 1 in email and the owner of several strong web properties, it's still not enough. Jackson identifies why when he said, "Leadership matters."

Writing at SeekingAlpha.com, Jackson explained: "I believed that with better oversight from a new board and management, Yahoo could finally capitalize on its many strengths. We've had no significant changes at either level. The company is still muddling ahead with just as many priorities, just as many staff and just as many boxes on the organizational chart. I came to the conclusion that this company is doomed to failure with the current board and leadership."

YHOO was trading at $12.34 at the time of this post.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 10:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

ChaCha Selected by Rock the Vote for Mobile Answers

ChaCha has been selected by Rock the Vote to provide SMS search for the duration of the 2008 elections. Rock the Vote is the effort by MTV to make voting cool among youth.

Users can text questions RTVOTE (788683) on their cell phones and receive nonpartisan answers from "politically-trained ChaCha Guides." Texters can learn where their polling place is, candidate issues, and whether or not it's possible to remain nonpartisan in this election anymore.

“As the presidential election continues to heat up, we've seen a sizable increase in questions about the election,” said ChaCha Co-Founder and President, Brad Bostic. “ChaCha has rapidly become a popular, trusted resource for young people who want information while on the go. By making credible answers easy to access on virtually any mobile phone, ChaCha and Rock the Vote are providing unprecedented access to the information voters need to make informed choices.”

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 9:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Google Translate Adds Widget, Notranslate Code Snippets

Google Translate has released a few updates to help you translate, or not, your pages for your site visitors.

First up is a widget that you can place on your site to offer visitors translation via Google Translate. It's very Google branded, so that may deter some, but here's what it looks like:

Secondly, there are code snippets available if you do NOT want Google to be able to translate your page or certain parts of a page.

class=notranslate is available for any html element. Here's an example:

For an entire page, use meta tags like this:

Available languages include:

Bulgarian
Catalan
Chinese
Croatian
Czech
Danish
Dutch
English
Filipino
Finnish
French
German
Greek
Hebrew
Hindi
Indonesian
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Latvian
Lithuanian
Norwegian
Polish
Portuguese
Romanian
Russian
Serbian
Slovak
Slovenian
Spanish
Swedish
Ukrainian
Vietnamese

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 9:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SEW Experts: Landing Page Optimization: Guessing vs. Testing

Search Engine Watch Expert - Tim Ash Even the most experienced experts will be wrong much of the time because no one person can envision the diverse needs of all visitors who find your page. Even if the expert knew everything about every visitor, they would find that their needs often are contradictory. In today's By the Numbers column, "Landing Page Optimization: Guessing vs. Testing," Tim Ash explains that the real experts on the design of your landing pages are your Web site visitors.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SEW Experts: Googloomy Times, Desperate Measures

Search Engine Watch Expert - Kevin Ryan Crashing markets, bank bailouts, and government investments in the private sector are the new norm. In today's Searching for Meaning column, "Googloomy Times, Desperate Measures," Kevin Ryan takes a closer look at what you can do to avoid being caught up in the hoopla. If you're smart about it, you might just benefit from the downside and create your own upside.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 14, 2008

Google, Yahoo Trying to Work It Out with the DOJ

Google and Yahoo are attempting to avoid an antitrust lawsuit by working with Department of Justice on their search advertising partnership, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Details are vague, but the search engines are willing to put extra measures in place per negotiations with the DOJ in order to get the deal to go through.

Google and Yahoo have already delayed the implementation of the advertising deal, after going on offense in August and September about going through with the deal in October no matter what.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 12:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yahoo Begins Offline Advertising Campaign for Search

Yahoo is beginning an aggressive advertising campaign in order to get people to use it (again) for search.

Expect to see display ads (like the one below) and hear radio ads as the campaign unfolds.

The Yahoo Search blog posted a radio ad on its blog. It uses the concept of searching the web as a jungle and that users need Yahoo's security measures to protect them from the dangerous and even wacky stuff on the web.

What do you think of the new advertising push by Yahoo? Leave your first impressions in the comments.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 12:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

Health Web Site Wars Continue: HealthGrades Acquires Wrong Diagnosis

WebMD is apparently the target of yet another merger by 2 major health web sites. Last week, Revolution Health and Everyday Health merged.

This week, HealthGrades.com has announced its acquisition of WrongDiagnosis.com.

Here's a Compete.com snapshot at how the 5 sites stack up against each other.

It looks like Revolution and Everyday are in better position to take on WebMD. HealthGrades has a ton of content behind a premium content wall.

But all of them, including WebMD, have a long way to go in catching Yahoo's Health site:

UPDATE: As a commenter pointed out, Compete can only measure the Yahoo.com traffic. So, I looked up the most recent comScore ratings for the health niche. Here they are, showing WebMD as the clear leader:

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 11:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Omniture Acquires Site Search and Merchandising Business from Mercado

Omniture has agreed to acquire the site search and merchandising assets of Mercado. Already a partner of Omniture, Mercado's tools were previously integrated with Omniture SiteCatalyst through Omniture Genesis.

“Omniture is the top supplier of Web analytics to the retail industry and this acquisition extends our leadership further into merchandising,” said Josh James, CEO and co-founder of Omniture. “The macro environment has created a great opportunity for us to acquire assets that we have been interested in for some time at a great value for our stockholders.”

Last month, Omniture launched its SiteSearch product, a hosted site search product picked up via its Visual Sciences acquisition, which was completed January of this year.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 11:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Google Webmaster Central Updates Include API Settings and Crawl Error Sources

Google Webmaster Central has released a couple of updates: one to the API settings and one to the crawl errors feature.

Here's the sparkling new things you can do with your API settings:

Crawl Rate: You can request that Googlebot crawl your site slower or faster than it normally would (the details can be found in our Help Center article about crawl rate control). If many of your sites are hosted on the same server and you know your server's capacity, you may want to update all sites at the same time. This now a trivial task using the Webmaster Tools GData API.
Geographic Location: If your site is targeted towards a particular geographic location but your domain doesn't reflect that (for example with a .com domain), you can provide information to help us determine where your target users are located.
Preferred Domain: You can select which is the canonical domain to use to index your pages. For example, if you have a site like www.example.com, you can set either example.com or www.example.com as the preferred domain to use. This avoids the risk of treating both sites differently.
Enhanced Image Search: Tools like the Google Image Labeler allow users to tag images in order to improve Image Search results. Now you can opt in or out for all your sites in a breeze using the Webmaster Tools API.

For the crawl error feature, you now get to see the URL of the inbound link that is linking to an error page.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 8:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yahoo Sets Q3 2008 Earnings Call for Tuesday, October 21, 2008

With shares dipping below $13 last week and yesterday's rally only boosting the price to $13.49, Yahoo's third quarter earnings will be watched pretty closely.

Next Tuesday at 5:00pm EST, after the bell (which may or may not mean much during this volatile market), Yahoo will announce its Q3 2008 earnings via phone and webcast.

What do you think Yahoo's earnings will show? Debate your predictions in the comments.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 8:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SEW Experts: Where's The ROI?

Search Engine Watch Expert - Carrie Hill Would you divert your offline marketing dollars to marketing that can be measured; where you can know how, where, and how much money you made from each ad buy? In today's small business search engine marketing column, "Where's The ROI?," Carrie Hill shows that even the most negative and non-Internet-savvy business owners can't argue with numbers that lead to bigger bank accounts.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SEW Experts: Are You Measuring SEO Success Correctly?

Search Engine Watch Expert - Mark Jackson Ranking reports are flawed because they depend on everyone seeing the same search results, which just doesn't happen anymore. SEO success should be measured by the lift in organic search engine traffic. In today's organic SEO column, "Are You Measuring SEO Success Correctly?," Mark Jackson explains that to do that, you need to make sure your analytics are set up correctly.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 13, 2008

Landing Page Testing for Higher Profits - Online Workshop - October 28th - 12 P.M. EDT

Search Engine Strategies and Market Motive are teaming up for a new online workshop series. The next workshop will be an action-packed one on "Landing Page Testing for Higher Profits" hosted by SiteTuners.com CEO and author of Amazon's e-commerce bestseller "Landing Page Optimization: The Definitive Guide to Testing and Tuning for Conversions" Tim Ash (yes me). This will be an interactive session with audience participation. If you would like additional information, please visit the event page.

Short summary:

Are you turning away your website visitors? Instead of guessing at your website visitor's needs, you can ask them what they prefer. Landing page testing allows your visitors to design a more satisfying experience for themselves, and put more money in your pocket. Know what works -- no hand-waving or techie talk in this session.

Learn how to quickly diagnose potential conversion problems, test, and uncover better performing versions of your landing page.

Posted by Tim Ash on 4:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

AdWords Conversion Optimizer Releases New Eligibility Requirements

AdWords Conversion Optimizer has new eligibility standards that should make it easier for more people to use the tool. Now, if you've had 50 conversions in the past 30 days, you're able to use the tool.

The AdWords team says that new techology has boosted the performance of the tool, as well.

If you're not sure what Conversion Optimizer is, it's a tool that helps you analyze your Google AdWords campaigns to aid you in maximizing your paid search ads - helping you get more conversions at a lower cost.

Have you used Conversion Optimizer? What do you think of the tool? Let us know in the comments.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 12:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yahoo Updates Contextual Advertising Solution

Yahoo has updated its contextual advertising solution, Content Match. They say you won't notice cosmetic changes, but what you will notice is that "It just works better."

So, what works better? Yahoo says new technology is better at the actual matching of ads to content. As a result, they say they are seeing higher click-through rates. Of course, all of this is still dependent on ads, keywords, and settings chosen.

Are you using Content Match? Have you noticed any improvements? Leave a comment and tell us about it!

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 12:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

MySpace Launches Self-Service Ad Platform

MySpace has launched a new self-service ad platform. Dubbed "MySpace MyAds," the new platform allows anyone to create banner ads and use the social network's HyperTargeting technology to find target audiences.

MySpace offered up the following steps for advertisers to get started:

STEP 1: Visit https://advertise.myspace.com or click the "Advertise" link located at the bottom of any MySpace page
STEP 2: Create a display ad using the MySpace MyAds Builder Tool
STEP 3: Select a variable ad spend anywhere from $25 to $10,000
STEP 4: HyperTarget to customers
STEP 5: Measure ad performance with MySpace MyAds analytics reporting

“With MySpace MyAds, we're blowing the lid off display advertising solutions for small and medium businesses,” said Jeff Berman, President of Sales and Marketing for MySpace. “MySpace MyAds is a direct marketer's dream – providing entrepreneurs with the most accessible, personalized, and targeted advertising toolkit in the market. We're giving businesses better ROI ASAP and in today's economy, that's a must-have.”

What do you think about the new platform? Leave a comment and let us know!

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 11:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Web Content is Having the Worst Week EVER!

I don't know if everyone is in a bad mood over the economy or what, but web content is having the worst week ever.

First, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said the internet was a cesspool. Then, Kevin Kelleher at GigaOm said that certain social sites are ruining the whole social networking industry because their nicheiness has gone just a little too far in his not-so-humble opinion. Finally, David Cowan decided that the "internet sucks" meme was a good idea for a marketing campaign to push MashLogic, including the tagline "Take back the web."

You may not want to join a social network dedicated to the admiration of David Hasselhoff, but that doesn't mean social media is doomed.

You may enjoy half the videos on YouTube, but perhaps they weren't all created for you.

In a modern day world of customization and the web making things more immediate, we've come to expect what we want when we want it.

But now that's leading to self-important decisions about what should be on the internet in the first place.

The problem with declaring the web as full of junk is that such elitist thinking generally leads to a social form of censorship.

The world wide interwebs thrive off of openness and access for as many people as possible. But if we begin to reign it in because some CEOs, bloggers, and startups decide that what they think is good is the only thing that matters, then the web will truly become a garbage dump of narrow, upper crust excogitation.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 9:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Google Prepares iPhone Ad Options

Google is preparing for the launch of their iPhone ad options, according to AdWeek. Several ad agencies have been given previews of the new option by the search giant.

The ads will be optimized for browsing on the iPhone, which enables direct Internet browsing instead of browsing via the mobile web. They will include an option for click-to-call. The iPhone already has a feature allowing users to click on any text phone number and it will dial it automatically.

Expect the new iPhone ads to be made available soon. AOL's Platform-A already offers iPhone ad solutions. So has Admob.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 9:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SEW Experts: Reading the Tea Leaves: Interpreting Keyword Reports

Search Engine Watch Expert - David Szetela Once enough data has accumulated, it's important to run reports and take action based on the data. In today's Profitable PPC column, "Reading the Tea Leaves: Interpreting Keyword Reports," David Szetela shows you what all those numbers mean, and how to make adjustments to improve PPC campaign performance.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 11, 2008

Beam me up, YouTube!

On Friday, the YouTube Blog announced that the video sharing site was starting to test full-length programming. Apparently, YouTubers have been asking "to be beamed up with Scotty, to devise a world-saving weapon using only gum and paperclips, and to get your grub on at 'The Peach Pit'."

Hey, I'm not making this up. Go to the YouTube Blog and read it yourself.

Through a deal with CBS, YouTube is now offering “Star Trek,” “MacGyver,” and “Beverly Hills, 90210” to the 91 million viewers in the U.S. who watch 5 billion videos a month (54.8 videos per viewer). Yes, yes, comScore Video Metrix reports there are another 19.7 million viewers in the U.K who watch 1.4 billion videos a month on YouTube.com (72.4 videos per viewer). But, I'm sorry, I can't find out how many there are in Canada.

Nevertheless, the YouTube Blog says, "These shows will be available in the new Theater View style we rolled out earlier this week, which provides optimal experience for watching full-length programming on your computer."

Yes, yes, but what does this mean to search engine marketers?

The YouTube Blog adds, "As we test this new format, we also want to ensure that our partners have more options when it comes to advertising on their full-length TV shows. You may see in-stream video ads (including pre-, mid- and post-rolls) embedded in some of these episodes; this advertising format will only appear on premium content where you are most comfortable seeing such ads."

Ah, ha! You knew there was a catch!

Still, in order to make it clear to viewers, YouTube has labeled all full-length videos with a Film Strip symbol so they'll know what kind of content they're choosing to watch and what type of ads they might see.

I can't wait to share this news with Matt Bailey, the founder of SiteLogic. My business partner, Jamie O'Donnell, talked with Matt about Trekkie lore and web analytics at SES San Jose 2008. Matt was the first to analyze "the Red Shirt Phenomenon." (As any die-hard Trekkie knows, if you are wearing a red shirt and beam down to the planet with Captain Kirk, you're gonna die.) But, check out the YouTube video below to hear Matt's analysis for yourself.

Measuring Web 2.0 with Star Trek - & SiteLogic's Matt Bailey

By the way, Matt Baily will be teaching one of the Search Engine Marketing Training Workshops at SES Chicago 2008. It's the Search & Analytics Workshop: Using Analytics to Increase Search Effectiveness, which will be held on Friday, Dec. 12, 2008.

To prepare you for Matt's workshop, here are some basic stats:
The Enterprise had a crew of 430 during its five-year mission (although, the show was only on the air for 3 years). In the 80 episodes that were produced, 59 crewmembers were killed, which represents 13.7% of the crew. So, that's what Matt uses as the overall "conversion rate."

Heck, I can't explain it as well as he does. So, watch the video interview above -- read his article over on the ClickTracks site -- or prepare to be amazed during his workshop at SES Chicago.

Posted by Greg Jarboe on 7:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

October 10, 2008

Yahoo Stock Plummets to $13, Investor Proposes Microsoft Acquisition at $22

Hindsight is always 20/20, and that Microsoft acquisition offer for Yahoo earlier this year is looking sweeter by the moment looking in the rear view mirror. Too bad Yahoo rejected the $31 per share offer, because their stock has plummeted to $13 a share this week.

To be fair, some of the drop is due to the greater markets. Even Google is down to the mid-$300s after being up around $580 earlier this year. Another major factor is that Google and Yahoo have delayed the implementation of their search advertising deal.

Yesterday, Brian Sullivan at Fox Business was asking "Where's the shareholder outrage?" While the markets are offering plenty of outlets for a variety of shareholder outrage, at least one Yahoo investor, Mithras Capital, is proposing a new Microsoft-Yahoo deal.

The deal would have Microsoft buying Yahoo for $22 a share. We know why the investor wants this: They want to recoup some of their losses.

But at this point, what's in it for Microsoft? Yahoo continues to lose search market share and seems to be more concerned with securing the proving grounds of executives than building a business model based on users.

We know by now that banks, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were structuring their businesses to benefit executive bonuses. We also know that Yahoo did the same thing to throw a wrench into the Microsoft deal.

Is their really any faith left that Yahoo is on the mend? The Google advertising partnership only works if Yahoo starts regaining market share. But without innovation in search, that's not going to happen.

I firmly believe that there are plenty of bright minds at Yahoo, but like far too many companies, management gets in the way.

A merger with AOL still might be a good idea though. Yahoo has strong portal properties, including Sports and Finance. AOL's Platform-A consistently performs as the top ad network. AOL has also been making tiny gains in search. If you put their strengths together, you just might have something worth saving.

For the time being, though, it looks like investors should have sold their stock long ago. Microsoft has to be prepared for tough economic times, and I'm not sure throwing billions away on Yahoo's flailing search product is a wise investment at this point.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 8:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

MIVA Releases Customizable ALOT Toolbar, Homepage, and Widgets

Digital advertising company MIVA has released an update of their toolbar, enabling customizable features. MIVA is also launching a customizable homepage and a widget site, ALOT Buttons, for their customers.

The ALOT brand launched in the last quarter of 2007 with the theme "Make the Internet Easy." ALOT products aggregate proprietary content and third party content across vertically themed toolbars and homepages.

“We believe that growth of the ALOT brand to date is due largely to our vertical product strategy and believe that today's launch is a natural progression that will enable us to further build on this success,” commented Peter Corrao, President and Chief Executive Officer, MIVA. “With our new personalized products, users can continue to install vertical toolbars and homepages optimized for their specific interests, but can now also personalize their products by adding widgets from our expanding widget library.”

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 8:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SEW Experts: Search is Not Enough

Search Engine Watch Expert - William Flaiz Marketing has grown fairly sophisticated over the decades, and it would be foolish to view search as anything more than a component of a much more comprehensive marketing plan. Gone are the days of thinking that our only job is to drive customers to a Web site. In today's SEM agency issues column, "Search is Not Enough," William Flaiz advises us to examine the entire marketing funnel, not just the search component, to maximize our marketing dollars.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SEW Experts: Is Your SEM Truly Looking at Search Holistically?

Search Engine Watch Expert - Chris Boggs Search Engine Watch Expert - Frank Watson To achieve SERP nirvana, your search engine optimization and paid search efforts must have the same goal. In today's Search Marketing Crossfire column, "Is Your SEM Truly Looking at Search Holistically?," Chris Boggs and Frank Watson offer five important questions to make sure your potential search vendors view search holistically when updating ongoing strategy and planning considerations.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SEW Experts: The New Era of Travel Affiliate Marketing

Search Engine Watch Expert - Elisabeth Osmeloski As the travel segment gets increasing crowded, and the major online travel agencies continue to build brand identity, the race to leverage new opportunities in search and social media is most definitely on for smaller players. In today's vertical search marketing column, "The New Era of Travel Affiliate Marketing," travel search expert Elisabeth Osmeloski looks at just how important affiliates are to the online travel industry.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 9, 2008

Google CEO Calls Internet "Cesspool"

Google CEO Eric Schmidt must love controversy. In a speech to magazine executives Wednesday he called the internet "a cesspool", AdAge reported.

I don't know if that makes Google a sewerage company, but I think Schmidt should realize that many look at Google as their filter to the web. Employees like Matt Cutts spend all their time working on 'purifying' the results, to expect publishers to be the answer may not be the right approach.

Criticizing opponents to the Yahoo-Google ad deal may not be a smart move given the recent drop in value of the once "golden child" of the web. Schmidt challenged "if you are going to criticize us, criticize us properly." Claiming ad prices would not increase under the Google Yahoo ad deal.

Schmidt displayed a certain amount of callous aloofness when he avoided questions about how publishers could improve their ranking with Google.

""We don't actually want you to be successful," he said. The company's algorithms are trying to find the most relevant search results, after all, not the sites that best game the system. "The fundamental way to increase your rank is to increase your relevance," he added" AdAge reported.

If you call the web a cesspool but do not offer insights to quality content providers who pay money to provide professional journalism I don't think you are serious about cleaning it up, so much as taunting an economically challenged industry.

Posted by Frank Watson on 6:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)

Google Stock Downgraded to Hold; Local.com Authorizes Stock Repurchase Program

Soleil Securities has downgraded Google stock (GOOG) from "buy" to "hold." Their reasoning is that ad-driven companies will see a slowdown to the weak economy and that Google is already experiencing a slowdown in growth of their ad revenues. Soleil analyst Laura Martin downgraded the price target for GOOG from $580 to $350. GOOG was at $334 at the time of this post.

Google will hold its 2008 third quarter earnings call and webcast next week.

Meanwhile, Local.com has announced a stock repurchase program. The program will last 18 months and the company may buy up to $2 million of outstanding common stock.

“The board of directors has confidence in our company,” said Heath Clarke, Local.com chairman and chief executive officer. “Local.com is a leader in the rapidly growing local search market with both patented and patent-pending technologies. We are gaining significant market share, increasing our organic traffic, growing our direct advertiser base and, as a result, projecting continued high growth.”

LOCM was at 1.89 at the time of this post. Its high is 2.36 and its low is 1.78.

Both GOOG and LOCM trade on the Nasdaq which was up 4.40 points at the time of this post.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 11:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

New Toolbar Makes Searching Content Easier

ChunkIt is a new search toolbar that bills itself as an x-ray for search. What it does is search your choice of the "big five" search engines, and then displays results on the right and the textual content of the results on the left.

Once the results are loaded, users can click on a paragraph in the left hand side, and it will highlight the paragraph - and then load the full page in the right side.

Highlighted paragraph

Page loaded in the right hand side

I personally find this to be a great tool for search. But one issue for ChunkIt might be copyright. Google has come under fire from newspapers for the issue of copyright when it comes to indexing their pages. Their argument, which has won over some in Europe, is a poor one since Google primarily provides just links to articles.

So, I contacted Brian Cheek at TigerLogic Corporation, the company behind ChunkIt, and here's what he had to say:

"ChunkIt! is a user-driven device that resides on the client-computer and is not a web service. All processing is handled by and all logic resides on the user's local computer. ChunkIt! does not persist, store or cache information and does not use a back-end server to perform any of its functionality."

Smart companies will see the value in ChunkIt's search tool and not make a fuss over copyright. But expect a few to ignore a good thing when they see it and challenge ChunkIt, but only if and when the tool gets wildly popular.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 9:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Search Engines Top Source for Local Search

When it comes to conducting a local search, where do people begin their searches? This is the topic of a recent survey conducted by TMP Directional Marketing. They found that search engines top the list of sources used first in local search. Here's the breakdown:

Search Engines (31%)
Print Yellow Pages or White Pages (30%)
Internet Yellow Pages Sites (19%)
Local Search Sites (11%)

People searching for local businesses online has increased from 26% in 2007 to 30% in 2008.

90 percent of those surveyed find Yellow Pages directories a valuable source for business information, however, Yellow Pages usage experienced a 3 percent decline from 2007 to 2008.

20% of shoppers with standard cell phones have conduct a local search on their mobile device, while 60% of shoppers with Wi-Fi enabled phones have conducted local mobile searches.

What do you think of this data? Leave your thoughts in the comments.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 9:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)

AdWords Editor Version 6.5 Released

The new AdWords Editor Version 6.5 has been released and it includes the following updates:

A new Keyword Opportunities tool
Horizontal scrolling in the data view
Auto-sizing columns
The column chooser stays open until you click away or hit the Escape key
A calendar added to date picker
Improved HTML export

Existing AdWords Editor users will be prompted to upgrade, while new users will automatically get the new version.

Have you tried version 6.5? Any new features stand out to you? Let us know in the comments.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 8:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yahoo Rebrands IndexTools as Web Analytics; Launches Limited Release

Last April, Yahoo acquired web analytics company IndexTools and indicated that the enterprise version would be made available for free.

This week, Yahoo is rebranding the tool as Yahoo Web Analytics and beginning to roll it out to more users. The tool is already available for advertisers who use Yahoo to build micro-sites as well as third party developers of mini-apps and widgets. The next to get access are Yahoo's 13,000 hosted e-commerce customers.

For more information on Yahoo Web Analytics, click here.

Have you tried Yahoo Web Analytics? Let us know your experience by leaving a comment.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 8:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SEW Experts: My Wife, the Editor

Search Engine Watch Expert - Sage Lewis Editor of any kind of publication -- machining, food, scientific equipment -- is an underground ruling class that very few average people know about. In today's link building column, "My Wife, the Editor," Sage Lewis reminds us that, when approaching an editor of a newspaper, trade publication, or a major publication, if you want the quote, if you want the link, treat these people with the respect they've come to know and love.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SEW Experts: MySpace for Online Learning and Marketing Tools

Search Engine Watch Expert - Ron Jones While some schools eschew the idea of MySpace in the classroom, other curricula embrace social media. In today's SEM.edu column, "MySpace for Online Learning and Marketing Tools," Ron Jones explains that if you can pull the aptitude and savvy of students from what they like to do outside class into the classroom, it makes for a more interactive environment.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 8, 2008

YouTube, Now with Click-to-Buy

YouTube has begun placing click-to-buy links beneath videos. This is the beginning of a greater plan to offer YouTube as an e-commerce platform to interested companies.

Amazon, iTunes, EMI Music and Electronic Arts are among the first to get a crack at the new feature, which is currently only available in the United States.

Memo to Viacom: Instead of suing Google and YouTube, which is costing you undoubtedly large sums of money in legal fees, you might try advertising on the wildly popular online video network instead.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 10:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Live Search now Live on Facebook

In July, Microsoft and Facebook announced an expansion of their existing partnership to include Live Search on the social network. Today, that plan has been implemented. AdCenter ads are being served up along with the results.

Here's what they're saying about it:

On the Live Search blog, Angus Norton, Senior Director, Live Search Product Management, wrote "This is a great first step in our partnership. As we evaluate user feedback and results we'll explore additional ways to integrate Live Search more deeply into the Facebook experience."

Over at Facebook's blog, Leah Pearlman wrote, "By integrating web search into Facebook, you can increase the information available to share with your friends, family and coworkers on the site. For example, your friend may invite you to an event at a new restaurant. Without leaving Facebook, you can check out the details of the restaurant on the web. Or, say you see photos in your News Feed about a friend's recent trip to Dubai. Inspired, you can search the web for more information about travel without having to leave Facebook. Along with your search results, you may also begin to see ads for products, services or other things that are relevant to your query."

Have you tried out Live Search on Facebook? Let us know your first impressions in the comments.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 8:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Federated Media Revamps Self-Service Ad Platform

Federated Media has unveiled and launched a revamped version of their self-service advertising platform. Here's what to expect with the update:

Transparent site lists
Real-time inventory availability
An ad creative upload tool
The flexibility to buy on a site-specific, categorical, or demographic basis
Purchasing on either a CPM basis or on a flat rate basis

“With the new functionality available in the self-service ad platform, marketers with smaller budgets have the same access to our sites that Fortune 500 brand advertisers enjoy,” said John Battelle, founder, chairman and CEO of Federated Media. “Conversational media is where consumers congregate, form opinions and make purchasing decisions. It's not just major brands that need to be here; it's everybody.”

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 8:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SEW Experts: SEO Link Building Fundamentals

Search Engine Watch Expert - Eric Enge Link building is often a slow and arduous process that unfolds over a long period of time. But the rewards are large and it's a fundamental requirement for marketing any Web site, regardless of how established it may be. In today's Web analytics and ROI column, "SEO Link Building Fundamentals," Eric Enge shows you how creative link research can provide you with some real advantages.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

SEW Experts: Stop In-House SEO Disasters Now!

Search Engine Watch Expert - Kevin Ryan Whether you're in the house or outside it, fighting the good fight is never easy. Though we don't do it enough, hat's off to the in-house SEO practitioners everywhere. In today's Searching for Meaning column, "Stop In-House SEO Disasters Now!," Kevin Ryan identifies a few best practices and identify problematic personalities that in-house search marketers should understand.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 7, 2008

Internet Advertising Up 15.2% for the First Half of 2008

The Interactive Adverising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers have released internet advertising data for the first six months of 2008. The six month period saw $11.5 billion in revenues, up 15.2% over the same period in 2007.

The second quarter of 2008 was up 12.8% over Q2 of 2007, but showed a slight decline, 0.3%, from the first quarter.

Search revenues neared $5.1 billion, up 24% year-over-year. Display neared $3.8 billion, up 19%.

“Interactive advertising continues to demonstrate year over year growth as marketers and consumers increase their embrace of digital media,” said Randall Rothenberg, president and CEO of the IAB. “The essentially flat performance we see quarter to quarter reflects in part cyclical advertising trends. Compared to the trajectory in other media and in the general economy, interactive has outperformed because it delivers a level of accountability unmatched by any other advertising medium.”

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 12:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

AdBuyer Launches Free Online Media Buying Platform

AdBuyer.com has launched a free online media buying platform. The platform was designed to help advertisers create, manage, and optimize online ad campaigns across search, display, and content venues.

The tool integrates with Google, Yahoo and MSN. Paid search campaigns can be edited and new keyword suggestions can be generated via the platform.

“Our platform eliminates grunt work, saves time and improves ROI,” stated Tim Ogilvie, Co-Founder & CEO of AdBuyer.com. “AdBuyer.com is ideal for advertisers and agencies focused on reaching and exceeding their direct-response objectives.”

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 9:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Gmail Offers Extra Level of Protection for Late Night and Weekend Emails

Ok, this is isn't search related, but it's too much fun not to cover. Gmail has released another Labs feature. This one is called Mail Goggles and it's intended to help you avoid sending those late night or weekend emails that you'll regret later.

When the feature is enabled, you have to answer simple math problems before an email will send during those most vulnerable emails-I-will-later-regret times.

Of course, if you're having a perfectly sane moment but math isn't your strong suit, you'll need to break out your trusty calculator (or enter that math problem into Google search).

But at least now there's technology that has your back in those weak moments.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 8:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

SEW Experts: Google's Algorithm is Shifting

Search Engine Watch Expert - Aaron Shear Google seems to be moving toward an algorithm based more on "site quality" and user behavior. Links are still key, but there are many other factors to consider. In today's enterprise search marketing column, "Google's Algorithm is Shifting," Aaron Shear asks if your site is ready to rank using the new factors?

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SEW Experts: What You Need to Know Before Committing to SEO

Search Engine Watch Expert - Mark Jackson Rushing into a search engine optimization initiative without properly planning your SEO strategy is setting yourself up for failure. In today's natural search column, "What You Need to Know Before Committing to SEO," Mark Jackson explains that to enjoy the fruits that SEO can provide your site, you need to be well organized and develop a plan.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 6, 2008

Google to Hold 2008 Q3 Earnings Call Next Thursday

Q3 earnings season is on its way and along with it are announcements about earnings calls and webcasts. Google will hold its call next Thursday, October 16, 2008 at 1:30 p.m. Pacific Time.

You can access the live webcast here.

Of course, with the economy in the state it is, investors and marketers alike will be watching earnings calls very closely for any indication of where things might be headed.

Q2 earnings disappointed the easily-disappointed Wall Street despite gains quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year.

What do you expect from Google's third quarter? Give your predictions in the comments.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 11:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SEO, Site Search, and Email Marketing Ranked as Most Important to Online Retailers

E-tailers rate SEO, site search, and email marketing as the most important e-commerce technologies when it comes to promoting their businesses, according to new survey data released by SLI Systems.

91% of the retail companies surveyed cited site search as critical, very important or important to their online businesses.
Of the retailers that have measured the impact site search has had on their businesses, 87% reported positive results.
54% saw an increase in sales as a direct result of adding new site search capabilities, while 44% experienced greater conversion rates and 40% cited better customer satisfaction.
Of the retailers polled, close to 60% said they would be likely to consider a hosted (SaaS) site search solution over a traditional installed application to reduce costs, lessen the strain on IT resources and make for more rapid deployment.

SLI Systems' CEO Shaun Ryan shares why this data is important to understand in view of the upcoming holiday retail season: "Adopting proven technologies that can guide shoppers to a merchant's site in the bustling world of e-commerce will enable retailers to deliver a better customer experience and ensure the holidays are fruitful."

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 11:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Keynote speakers posted for Search Engine Strategies Chicago

The keynote speakers for Search Engine Strategies Chicago have just been posted to the website for the SEM conference. And check out the heavy hitters:
• Lawrence Lessig, the Professor of Law at Stanford Law School, is giving the opening keynote on Monday, Dec. 8;
• Bill Tancer, the General Manager of Global Research at Hitwise, is giving the morning keynote on Tuesday, Dec. 9; and
• Josh James, the President and Chief Executive Officer of Omniture, is giving the morning keynote on Wednesday, Dec. 10.

Anne%20Kennedy.jpg That's quite a line up. Or, as my good friend Anne Kennedy, the Managing Partner of Beyond Ink and a member of the SES Advisory Board, says, whether you're a “seasoned search maven or hopeful newbie, you'll find speakers who share expertise, new research, horizon's edge views and knuckles-in-the code tactics” at SES Chicago.

Take Professor Lessig, for example. For much of his career, he has focused on law and technology, especially as it affects copyright. He is the author of Code v2 (2007), Free Culture (2004), The Future of Ideas (2001) and Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace (1999). He was also a columnist for Wired, Red Herring, and the Industry Standard.

According to a recent article by Kim Heart in The Washington Post, Professor Lessig is among the signers of a letter that went to the Barack Obama and John McCain campaigns. The letter was also signed by Craigslist founder Craig Newmark and Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales.

The letter asked the candidates to insist on using a new method to choose debate questions. While that job is usually left to the media host, the members of the “Open Debate Coalition” say they aren't “hard-hitting enough.”

Instead, they want to let people submit questions, then vote on their favorites, over the Internet. The top 25 questions would have the potential of getting asked during the debates.

“This cycle's YouTube debates were a milestone for Internet participation in presidential debates,” the letter said. “But they put too much discretion in the hands of gatekeepers. Many of the questions chosen by TV producers were considered gimmicky... and never would have bubbled up on their own.”

So, do you think what Professor Lessig says at SES Chicago will be on the mid-term? All I know is that I can't wait for the Q&A following his keynote.

The following day, Bill Tancer takes the stage. He's the author of “Click: What Millions of People Are Doing Online and Why It Matters.”

Bill, who I've known for years, is the author of a weekly online column for TIME, “The Science of Search.” He is a frequent guest on CNBC, and has been quoted extensively in the press, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, USA Today and Business Week.

Bill recently had a “naked lunch” with Andy Greenberg of Forbes.com. Hey, I didn't make this up. Click on “We Are What We Google” and read the article for yourself.

In the article, Bill is quoted as saying, “What I find really fascinating is how much we tell search engines – more than we tell surveys, more than our family members, more even than our priests or rabbis.”

Are you skeptical of this claim? Bill backs it up with his analysis of searches beginning with “fear of.” It reveals search engine users are afraid of flying, heights, clowns, intimacy and death, in that order.

Looking at searches beginning with “how to,” he observes that the phrase “how to tie a tie” edges out “how to have sex” and “how to kiss” for the top spot.

And Bill's analysis of searches beginning with “why” shows that most queries are related to school projects. But these fall sharply during the summer and Christmas holidays. During those periods, more existential questions like “Why did she leave me?” and “Why did God do this to me?” pop to the surface.

But wait! There's more! The following day, Josh James is the keynoter.

James co-founded Omniture in 1996 and, under his leadership, it has evolved into one of the fastest-growing publicly traded software companies with more than 4,700 customers across 75 countries and over 1,100 employees. His market vision, leadership and entrepreneurial philosophy have enabled Omniture to achieve greater than 75% growth for more than five consecutive years, as well as to maintain customer retention rates of greater than 95%.

James is also the founder of Silicon Slopes – a private sector initiative whose mission is to promote the interests of high-tech in Utah. A recent article by Tom Harvey in The Salt Lake Tribune said that the Omniture CEO was motivated to found Silicon Slopes in 2007 to change the misperception that Utah is “A quirky state at the edge of the desert dominated by a single religion and defined by its far-right politics and weird liquor laws.”

For example, Siliconslopes.com is sending out thousands of promotional posters this year that depict the Silicon Slopes running along the Wasatch Mountains from Logan to Provo, listing an array of high-tech companies with operations here, as well as ski resorts and signs pointing to Moab and other attractions.

While I haven't met Josh James yet, I did interview Huw Roberts of Omniture earlier this year at SES London. Roberts talked about the importance of web analytics to effective search engine marketing for businesses of any size.

Huw Roberts, Omniture, at SES London 2008

There you have it: The keynote speakers for Search Engine Strategies Chicago.

And I've got to agree with Anne. Whether you're a “seasoned search maven or hopeful newbie, you'll find speakers who share expertise, new research, horizon's edge views and knuckles-in-the code tactics” at SES Chicago.

Posted by Greg Jarboe on 2:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Simple Text Ads are Still Most Popular Online Ads

iPerceptions has released data showing which online advertising methods are most popular with consumers.

25% are likely to click on simple text ads
20% are likely to click on display ads follow
20% are likely to click on right banners
12% are likely to click on top banners

Video ads remain unpopular, with only 11% of consumers likely to click on them. But if you do use video ads, the audience segment most likely to click on them is the under 25 set, which account for 1/3 of the video ad watching audience

Jonathan Levitt, vice president of marketing at iPerceptions. “Our research shows that inexpensive banner and text ads are still preferred among web consumers. By having a direct dialog with consumers, we are able to know – with certainty – what consumers want and expect from their online experience.”

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 1:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Click Forensics Releases New Trademark Tracking Tool

Click Forensics has announced a new feature for its solution for advertisers. The feature enables brands to identify and track campaigns that are unlawfully using their trademarked terms. Click Forensics says the trend of trademark infringement in pay-per-click advertising and growing, and marketers need the ability to address the problem more quickly.

“The impact of trademark infringement in search advertising goes beyond consumer annoyance,” said Paul Pellman, CEO of Click Forensics. “It's affecting the advertising budgets of major brands as they're forced to spend more money to get the high-quality search traffic that is rightly theirs. We're helping to change that by giving brands a tool they can use to fight back.”

What do you think of the new feature? Let us know in the comments.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 11:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Meet the New hakia

It must be redesign your search engine day. hakia has a new look and it's reminiscent of Yahoo's recent glue pages test with a hint of the old Ask.com.

Of course, hakia already distinguishes itself from the "big" search engines by saying that sites with a bunch of inbound links are not always credible. hakia attempts, through partnerships with experts, to produce more credible results.

Now, it's adding images and user-generated content to those results.

"We have been working hard for some time now to make the search experience better for users than what they are used to with today's popular search engines," said Riza Berkan, CEO, hakia.com. "hakia's new look bolsters this promise even further, by making credible sources available to all in a more well-focused way - quality over popularity."

Take a look, and then let us know what you think of the changes:

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 10:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Meet the New Ask.com (Again)

After a year of slow but steady growth, Ask.com has redesigned, incorporating Google, Yahoo and Microsoft design elements along with it. Changing things up has helped Ask in the past, so we'll have to keep an eye on whether this gives Ask.com a nice little boost.

The first noticeable change is the front page. It's minimalist in nature, but you can change the skin to create a different background.

In the results, the dualing sidebars are gone, and only one on the right remains. The organic results are flush with the left, similar to Google and Yahoo. And there are related searches similar to what you'll find on Microsoft.

An interesting feature is the AskEraser. It addresses privacy concerns that people have about search.

What do you think of the changes? Give us your first impressions in the comments.

h/t Rafe Needleman @ CNET

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 9:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

SEW Experts: Judging PPC Performance: Focus on Conversions, Part 2

Search Engine Watch Expert - David Szetela Should you delete or pause under-performing keywords - or simply adjust their bid prices? In today's search advertising column, "Judging PPC Performance: Focus on Conversions, Part 2," David Szetela notes that the answer will vary by advertiser, but one thing is constant: decisions about keyword and ad performance should mainly depend on conversion performance.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 3, 2008

Two Health Sites Merge to Challenge WebMD

Two health sites have merged in what many are saying will be a challenge to health search giant WebMD. The Revolution Health Network and Waterfront Media are joining forces to dominate the health space. Waterfront Media runs the Everyday Health Network.

AOL co-founder Steve Case, now CEO of Revolution Health said, "When we entered the health care market we knew one of the areas we wanted to focus on was using the Internet to empower consumers and give them more choice, control and convenience. The merger of Waterfront Media and Revolution Health Network builds on each company's complementary strengths to create a new industry powerhouse — thus enabling us to accelerate our efforts to reach the largest, most engaged audience and help people stay healthy, manage chronic disease and deal with serious illness."

What do you think about the merger? Can they take on WebMD? Give your predictions in the comments.

h/t Reuters

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 11:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Google Blog Search Redesigns as Meme Tracker

Google Blog Search has redesigned and added meme trackers like Techmeme and Megite on the front pages of several categories and the homepage itself.

I've shared a screenshot and you can see how the blog posts are separated by story along with how popular they are. This allows for easy scanning, which is useful if you're looking for blogs talking about a hot topic.

What do you think of the update? Let us know in the comments.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 8:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Senator Kohl Wants Oversight of Google-Yahoo Deal

Senator Herb Kohl (D-Wis.) is okay with the Google-Yahoo deal, but he wants the DOJ to keep a close eye on the implementation. In a letter to Assistant Attorney General Thomas Barnett, Kohl, Chairman of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust urges:

Recognizing the nascent and fast-changing nature of this marketplace, we encourage the Department to continue to monitor the state of competition in this industry, whatever the outcome of its current investigation. If, over time, you determine that Google is gaining a dominant market position as a result of the Google-Yahoo agreement, then we would encourage the Justice Department to intervene to protect competition. Even should you conclude at present that this deal is not contrary to antitrust law, the Department must be sure that this deal never in the future crosses the line into an unacceptable, anti-competitive collaboration among competitors which will harm consumers and advertisers.

Kohl also acknowledged both the fears of advertisers and the assurances of Yahoo and Google. I think it's prudent to let the deal go through, but to watch as the program unfolds to see if anti-competitiveness occurs.

What do you think?

h/t Reuters

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 8:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Friendster Now Supports Facebook Developer Community

Have a Facebook app? Well, now you can deploy it on Friendster. They're now supporting the Facebook Developer Community. It comes almost two months after deploying the OpenSocial API. This could be a good opportunity if you're looking to go global. Friendster has 80 million members worldwide, many of which are in Asia.

"Friendster's support of both the Facebook and OpenSocial platforms is a big win for business and individual developers, as well as for Friendster users," said David Jones, vice president of global marketing for Friendster. "For the developers that have invested resources in developing and launching a Facebook app, Friendster has now made it very easy for them to 'port' these applications to Friendster, enabling them to tap into Friendster's 80 million users. For Web 2.0 companies that have developed apps using Facebook and OpenSocial APIs, they now have the flexibility to choose between approaches when launching applications on Friendster."

To learn more check out the Friendster Developer Platform.

Related Reading:
Friendster Names Googler as New CEO

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 7:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Google No Longer Directory Promoter?

Search Engine Watch Editor Brian E. Ussery noticed Google's Webmaster Guidelines suggestions for improving your sites has removed.getting links from directories. This is not to say Google is not using directories in the algorithm, just they are not pitching for them.

Great catch Brian - good article!

Posted by Frank Watson on 12:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Olympics and Fantasy Football Drive Huge August 2008 for Online Sports

In August, Americans went online at work to get sports info 26% more year-over-year, thanks largely in part to the Olympics and Fantasy Football. Yahoo! Sports enjoyed a whopping 112% growth, putting them in the top spot for the month, according to Nielsen Online

Also of note, visits from women jumped 37% while traffic growth from men increased by 21%.

Here's the chart:

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 12:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SEW Experts: Charity Events: Search With a Cause

Search Engine Watch Expert - Frank Watson Search Engine Watch Expert - Chris Boggs Our industry affords us a pretty good living -- the people are friendly and helpful for the most part -- and the work is interesting. We should have no problems digging into our pockets occasionally to give to charity. In today's SEM Crossfire column, "Charity Events: Search With a Cause," Frank Watson and Chris Boggs share your next opportunity to do so: next Monday in New York.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 2, 2008

Zillow Launches Free Professional Directory

Real estate search engine Zillow.com has launched a free professional directory. This will allow real estate professionals to market their services to the millions of Zillow visitors for free. Pros can create a profile with photos, videos, and the like.

"This is a free opportunity for local professionals to market their services to Zillow's millions of visitors - 90 percent of whom own a home, and two-thirds who are buying or selling now or in the near future. In today's challenging market, it's a no-brainer," said Jorrit Van der Meulen, Zillow's vice president of partner relations.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 11:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Social network hi5 Updates with 10 Community-Translated Languages

Social networking site hi5 has updated with 10 new community-translated languages and dialects. hi5 enjoys 56 million unique visitors a month and is the third largest social network worldwide. It's #1 in over 30 countries.

The ten languages are:

Catalan
Danish
British English
Finnish
Hindi
Macedonian
Slovakian
Spanish - Mexico
Spanish - Colombia
Swedish

"The power of this program to deliver localized versions of our product has exceeded our own high expectations," said Ramu Yalamanchi, CEO and founder of hi5. "It is amazing to see the energy and enthusiasm of our global user community in action, taking our site into new languages and geographies that we otherwise wouldn't have the resources to address."

hi5 saw 100% growth year-over-year in June 2008, the second highest percentage of growth. Facebook had the highest at 153%.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 10:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Yahoo's Search for a Cause to Raise Funds for Breast Cancer Research

Yahoo has introduced "Search for a Cause," which was designed to support effort during October's Breast Cancer Awareness month. Search for a Cause is a SearchMonkey app that directs affiliate commissions for popular shopping sites to Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

For every searcher who uses the app, Yahoo will donate $1, up to $25,000.

via Yahoo! Search blog

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 9:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

How Google is Integrating Search into Android and the G1

Recently, Google and T-mobile teamed up to unveil the new G1, the first Android-powered phone to be made commercially available. There was a lot of hype about the device and how it compared to the iPhone, but how does Google's baby, search, fit into the mix?

Marc Vanlerberghe, Google's Product Marketing Director, took to the Official Google Mobile blog to address that very issue.

It turns out search pops up in a bunch of places on Android, as you might expect.

The search feature on Maps sounds pretty cool. Just start typing, and the search interface pops up.

Other applications have your typical search button, and then there's a good ol' fashioned search widget on the home screen.

Query suggestions will be seen throughout, some using Google Suggest and some using query histories.

Google put together a video to show more of how search will work on Android. Check it out:

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 9:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SEW Experts: Link Marketing -- Solve a Customer Problem

Search Engine Watch Expert - Justilien Gaspard Solving customer problems and publishing that information on your site can be a great way to build both brand awareness and links. In today's linkbuilding column, "Link Marketing -- Solve a Customer Problem," Justilien Gaspard explains how focusing on a niche or soliciting input from your customers are two great ways to develop your content ideas.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SEW Experts: Economic Depression 2.0

Search Engine Watch Expert - Erik Qualman Using some past economic low times as historical guides, what can the online world expect in the coming months? In today's building brand equity column, "Economic Depression 2.0," Erik Qualman notes that one likely outcome is a permanent shift from traditional channels to online marketing. Yes, online marketing could reach the highest percentage of marketing spend sooner than any of us imagined.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 1, 2008

Gas Shortages Lead to Increased Web and Audio Conferencing

Since Hurricanes Gustav and especially Ike, a slowdown in Gulf Coast refineries have created gas shortages in the southeast. The gas station near my house runs out every other day, it seems.

But in tough times come rare opportunities. Web and audio conferencing companies are being looked to for increased communications when travel by car has literally been brought to a halt.

Copper Conferencing is one such company.

"Our phones are busier than ever as current and new customers ask for help in setting up telecommuting practices and expanding their use of conferencing as a best practice for smart business, but in particular among workers who are in the affected areas," said Kathleen Thompson, Manager of Customer Care for Copper Conferencing.

Search engine marketers should watch out for these unique opportunities, especially during these volatile economic times. Do you have a client that can extend services such as these in the wake of natural disaster and in the midst of an economic crisis?

In an expert column today, Kevin Ryan encouraged search marketers to not spend less but to spend smart. I couldn't agree more. Search remains quite affordable compared to traditional marketing efforts and takes the cake in ROI compared to some methods, especially branding ones.

So, while the water in the glass may have dropped with the stock market on Monday, it's not completely dry. What can you do with what remains? Share your inspiration in the comments.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 10:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

YouTube Insight Now Shows Which Part of Videos are Hottest

YouTube has introduced a new feature to its Insight analytics. The feature is called Hot Spots (not to be confused with Live Search's "hotspots") and it shows which part of a YouTube video are the most engaging.

YouTube says that the information can help users edit or annotate their videos in order to help audiences stay engaged.

Here's a screenshot of the new feature:

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 9:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Microsoft Launches SearchPerks; Like Credit Card Rewards, Except for Search

Microsoft is today launching a new incentive program for Live Search. The program is called SearchPerks, and it works very much like a credit card reward program.

Every time you search, you earn tickets. You can earn up to 25 tickets a day. Tickets can later be redeemed for all sorts of rewards including music downloads (5 for 525 points) and airline miles (1000 miles for 1800 tickets).

Here's how it works. Sign up for the program, and download a simple piece of code. That will give you a Perk Counter for your desktop.

You can begin earning tickets today, October 1, all the way through April 15th of next year. You can begin claiming your rewards on April 16. However, you can only sign up for the program through December 31, 2008 and the program is capped at 250,000 people.

Microsoft will be evaluating the program and could possible expand it if all goes well.

Microsoft's Frederick Savoye, senior director at Live Search, assured me that this is an incentive program that fits into their three overall pillars of search:

Delivering the best search results
Simplifying key tasks such as booking airline, travel, shopping, finding user opinions, etc.
Innovating the business model

So while programs like SearchPerks and Cashback may seem like Microsoft is just trying to pay people off to use Live Search, the team remains strongly devoted to improving technology and the user experience.

What do you think of this program? Will you sign up? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 3:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

SEW Experts: In Tough Economic Times, Whither Search?

Search Engine Watch Expert - Kevin Ryan The news about our world's economic conditions aren't just bad, they're insane. What will happen to advertising and marketing dollars as a result? Is search insulated from our economic meltdown? In today's Searching for Meaning column, "In Tough Economic Times, Whither Search?," Kevin Ryan gives the short answer: not by a long shot. He then explains that the long answer is a bit more complicated.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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