December 2, 2008

Google Makes New Ad Quality Videos

Perhaps in an effort to become more transparent, or maybe just hoping more people start advertising, Google has published two new videos on Quality Scores.

As their Inside AdWords blog describes the first is an introductory video, "an overview of Quality Score and answers to some common questions about Ads Quality." Great for people curious about how Quality Scores work and some idea of what elements impact them.

The second is a little more advanced.

Good job guys...

Posted by Frank Watson on 9:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Dogpile.com's Search & Rescue Program Raises First $100,000 for ASPCA

Dogpile.com searchers have raised $100,000 for the Search & Rescue Program, a philanthropic arm that donates money to animal-related charities. The program is on its way to reaching its goal of raising $1 million for the ASPCA by the end of 2009.

“Whether people are using Dogpile.com for their online holiday shopping or just for general information searches, the traffic to the site has helped us raise a significant amount for the ASPCA already,” said Stacy Ybarra, senior director of corporate giving, InfoSpace. “Search and Rescue allows any individual with access to a computer to support a worthy cause without significantly changing their habits or spending a penny of their own money.”

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 1:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Former AOL CEO Jonathan Miller Trying to Raise Funds to Buy All or Part of Yahoo

This is breaking news and it is literally just a headline from the Wall Street Journal at this point. Jonathan Miller, former CEO of AOL, is trying to raise funds to buy all or part of Yahoo.

It was suspected that Miller would have been tapped to run things if Microsoft had indeed acquired Yahoo earlier in the year, but of course they didn't.

Miller may have trouble coming up with the funds with credit markets in their current dried up state.

Just yesterday, we learned that Carl Icahn bought 7 million more shares of Yahoo. Was that move a little too coincidental in light of today's news?

Have your say in the comments.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 12:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

SEMPO's Annual State of the Market Survey Open Now Open for 2008

It's that time of year. SEMPO (Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization) has opened their State of the Market survey to gain (and later give) insight into what SEOs and SEMs are doing with their marketing budgets and strategies.

There are perks for participating, including an 8GB iPod Touch and a free pass to a North Americaan SES Conference to randomy drawn participants. You do not have to be a SEMPO member to participate.

This year, your participation may be more crucial than ever. An uncertain economy has many people guessing, but surveys such as these can help provide tangible realities into what's really going on in search advertising.

“While there are numerous surveys publishing online spend projections, what differentiates the SEMPO survey is its ability to tap into the largest qualified pool of professionals actively engaged in search marketing,” says Kevin Lee, co-founder and executive chairman of Didit, and a founding board member of SEMPO who continues to coordinate this annual research project.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 12:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Google Buys Digital Historical Newspaper Archives from PaperofRecord.com

Google has completed the purchase of 20 million digitized historical newspaper pages from PaperofRecord.com. The two have had an agreement for two years and has now concluded in a sale that was voted on by shareholders of PaperofRecord's parent company, Cold North Wind, Inc.

This should be quite an asset to Google's historical newspaper initiative, announced in September.

PaperofRecord is based in Canada and was the first to digitize the entire history of the Toronto Star. In addition to digitizing newspapers in Canada, the United States, Mexico and Europe, PaperofRecord has digitized historical documents including he Diaries of William Lyon Mackenzie King, Canada's longest serving Prime Minister.

"It is a bittersweet day for PaperofRecord.com. We are very pleased to have our legacy and vision of a 500 year, global, multiple language newspaper historical archive being placed in the stewardship of Google. As a Canadian entrepreneur, it is disappointing to not be able to muster the resources in our country to bring such a digital resource to its fruition at home. However, without the help and vision of a company such as Google, this immense, global, educational resource would not be possible on the scale that is being contemplated," said R.J (Bob) Huggins, Founder and CEO of PaperofRecord.com.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 10:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Live Search Offers Instant Cashback, Responds to Black Friday Glitch

After a Black Friday blackout, Live Search is responding to the glitch and also offering a new update: Instant Cashback.

Cashback was down for about three hours last Friday and Live Search explained why with the following three reasons:

A significant spike in traffic caused the system to go down for several hours on Friday
The downtime was partly related to investigating the issue and partly to rebuilding and redeploying the databases and indexes that support Microsoft Live Search cashback.
The issues that caused Friday's problem have been resolved. We're confident we won't have further problems.

Contact Live Search support if you want to recoup your Cashback monies.

The new Instant Cashback is available via PayPal for eBay purchases. It will not be available for all users and you'll only know if you're one of the lucky ones after you make a purchase. If you're not, then you'll still get your Cashback deal in 60 days per the original plan.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on 9:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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