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February 2009

Google Adds Friend Connect to Blogger

Users of Google's blogging product, Blogger, can now add Friend Connect to their blogs. The feature enables them to incorporate social networking to their blog. Now, that might seem a bit redundant. Isn't a blog already social with comments?

Yes, but blogging isn't a comprehensive social community. Granted, Friend Connect isn't comprehensive, but it's a simple way for those who don't have the time or resources to build out a full-on social networking site.

Friend Connect is also a social media marketing tool. Users share their activity with others, so Blogger users might get new readers when it's noted that Friend Connect users are reading them.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 27, 2009, 10:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Facebook Releases New Terms of Service for Feedback; Allows Users to Vote on Changes

After enduring controversy over a new Terms of Service, Facebook has released another new version - this time with a whole new vision for its implementation. The new TOS is open for feedback, in the spirit of being transparent.

There are two documents being released. One is "Facebook Principles," which defines the rights of members. The second is a "Statement of Rights and Responsibilities," which replaces the Terms of Service. Facebook also says their users will be notified of and get to vote on changes made to the documents.

When testing occurs on the social network, it will not be subject to notification or voting.

With today's announcement, Facebook's CEO Mark Zuckerberg assured users that his social network doesn't own data, the users do.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 27, 2009, 9:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Google Translate Adds 7 Languages; Now Up to 41

Google Translate has added 7 more languages. They are:

Turkish
Thai
Hungarian
Estonian
Albanian
Maltese
Galician

This brings the total number of languages on Google Translate to 41. The available languages reach the ones spoken by 98% of internet users.

Last September, Google added 11 languages and last summer, Google "went live" with human translation as a service.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 27, 2009, 8:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The fourth estate is dead; long live the fourth estate

Back in May 2005, Linda Rutherford sent me an email with the subject line: "Demise of the fourth estate." Linda is now the Vice President of Communications and Strategic Outreach at Southwest Airlines, but she is a former a reporter for the Dallas Times Herald newspaper.

Adam Macbeth John Mulligan and Fionn Downhill at SES San Jose 2008.jpg In her email, Linda wrote, "If you have a few moments, please take a look at this short video. It's an interesting short movie from the Museum of Media History predicting the demise of the fourth estate.

"The scenario is entertaining, a bit frightening and not too far-fetched.

"It hints at the monumental changes afoot in how consumers will learn about news and form opinions about brands.

"Thought given your role you would enjoy this creative prediction of what's to come."

Linda was right. The 8-minute video by Robin Sloan and Matt Thompson is a bit frightening. And the scenario it depicted was not too far fetched: "In the year 2014, The New York Times has gone offline. The Fourth Estate's fortunes have waned. What happened to the news?"

The same day that Linda sent her email, The New York Times Company announced a "targeted staff reduction program that will include approximately 190 employees at The New York Times and the New England Media Group, which includes The Boston Globe."

While the staff reduction represented less than 2% of the New York Times Company's total workforce back in 2005, the cuts didn't end there.

In its report on The State of the News Media 2006, the Project for Excellence in Journalism, asked, "Will we recall this as the year when journalism in print began to die?"

In December 2007, I wrote an article for Search Engine Watch entitled, "Blogs are the new trade press." I observed, "In many industries, the trade press has imploded." In our industry, I reported that online publications and group blogs generated close to 88 percent of the coverage of SES Chicago and PubCon. (The remaining 11 percent was - you guessed it - press releases.)

A year later, I reported on the battery of online video crews interviewing speakers between sessions at SES Chicago 2008. I also interviewed Abby Johnson of WebProNews about this trend. Abby is a pioneer in the field and has been producing videos for the WebProNews Video Blog for years.

Abby Johnson, WebProNews, discusses the top trends at SES Chicago

We're now halfway between 2004, the year that Museum of Media History made its predection, and 2014, the date when it predicted the demise of the fourth estate.
So, I think it's time to declare: The fourth estate is dead; long live the fourth estate!"

Yes, print journalism continues to implode. The Rocky Mountain News, Colorado's oldest newspaper, is publishing its last edition today. The Chicago Tribune and LA Times have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The Christian Science Monitor is going "all digital." US News & World Report is now published every other week. PC Magazine is going "all digital."

Even in my home town, The Boston Globe is cutting 50 jobs in its newsroom, fifth newsroom staff reduction since 2001. At its peak in 2000, the Globe newsroom had 552 full-time jobs. When the latest cuts are complete, there will be about 300 full-time newsroom and editorial employees, plus another 29 news employees at Boston.com.

At the same time that print media are imploding, blogs are exploding into a global phenomenon that has hit the mainstream. According to eMarketer, there were 22.6 million US bloggers in 2007 (12 percent of Internet users) and 94.1 million US blog readers (50 percent).

And comScore Video Metrix reports that Nearly 150 million U.S. Internet users watched an average of 96 videos per viewer in December 2008, or a record 14.3 billion online videos during the month. This means 78.5 percent of the total U.S. Internet audience viewed online video in December. The duration of the average online video was 3.2 minutes. So, the average online video viewer watched 309 minutes of video, or more than 5 hours.

Now, this doesn't mean that all of the predictions in the Museum of Media History video turned out to be right. For example, it predicted that Google would acquire TiVo. It didn't. Google acquired YouTube for $1.65 billion instead.

Still, I predict that you'll be able to see the new fourth estate for yourself at SES New York 2009. There will be lots of bloggers and a bunch of videographers. And, who knows, we might even see a print reporter or two -- attending sessions like "Publishers & Agencies: New Business Models for Changing Times", "Video Search Engine Optimization: 2009 and Beyond" and "News Search SEO."

I'll be at all three of these sessions, so I'll let you know if my prediction comes true.

Posted by Greg Jarboe on February 27, 2009, 7:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

TripAdvisor Joins the Travel Search Space

TripAdvisor has launched a search engine where people can compare fares from various airlines and booking agencies. The site which is known for its reviews of travel destinations will also include a feature others have yet to add - the inclusion of bag fees, food and other items such as headphones.

"Nobody else has been able to give consumers clarity about what's the true cost of travel," Bryan Saltzburg, general manager of new initiatives for TripAdvisor told the Boston Globe.

Posted by Frank Watson on February 27, 2009, 7:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Google Launches Apps Status Dashboard To Address Outage Information

Google launched an Apps Status Dashboard this week, following the problems they had with Gmail, AdSense and other products.

Given many businesses now rely on these services, it was a smart move to give people an area they can go to check whether the outage or problems are local to them or something Google is experiencing on their end.

As they stated in their Enterprise blog:

"The Google Apps Status Dashboard represents an additional layer of transparency that we believe will be particularly useful for our business users, and it's also relevant to users of our consumer products. The Status Dashboard is the best place to check for information on service availability for Google Apps anywhere in the world. In my role on the sales team, I regularly talk with customers to make sure that they're getting the most out of Google Apps and I think that you will find this tool indispensable in managing your Google Apps deployment."

TechCrunch mentioned the dashboard in terms of "Gfail" - funny how we all seem to be using the new Twitter-speak (the Fail Whale has become an icon).

While I am sure Google does not want to have an association with the up and down swing of Twitter - the fact that they launched this app was a smart way to take away the impact of their recent outages.

They also offered a 15 day credit to all enterprise level users of Gmail following the problems earlier this week. But given these users are paying $50 a year (per user) - the discount amounts to about $2 per person. If my dedicated server goes down for more than an hour I get a month credit as part of the contract.

Posted by Frank Watson on February 27, 2009, 6:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Bartz Blogs: Yahoo! Reorganizes, Customer Advocacy Group Created

It's been rumored for a week, and now is making it official in her first post on Yodel Anecdotal: Yahoo! is reorganizing. Bartz says she wants to make things run smoother and simpler. She says the "notorious silos" are gone.

Bartz also announced the creation of a Customer Advisory group. She says she's frustrated with how many customers call up and are angry. Bartz wants Yahoo! to do a better job of listening to customers.

This is very good to hear. Their primary competitor, Google, has always presented a customer-oriented business model. Yahoo! at times has presented themselves as "Look what we're doing."

I hope these goals that Bartz is pushing for with the reorganization work. It would be great to see Yahoo! emerge as a stronger competitor to Google. Competition is driven through innovation, and the beneficiaries will be the customers.

But reorganization has its not-so-pretty side. Yahoo!'s CFO Blake Jorgensen will be leaving his post once his replacement is found. Expect more exits to follow as the reorganization is implemented.

By the way, Wall Street reacted positively to the news. Yahoo! stocks went up after the announcement.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 26, 2009, 1:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

YouTube Adds Help Center Video Submission; API Gets Recent Activity

YouTube is now accepting video submissions for its Help Center. Now, users can help others learn how to use YouTube. Simply go to a Help Center topical page (find one that's super specific) and look for the box on the right hand side where you can submit a video.

Here's a screenshot of the page for "Sign-up and Log-in Issues: Unsolicited 'Reset Password' email"

YouTube is also enabling "Recent Activity" to be accessed through the API. The "Recent Activity" info appears on YouTube channels and lets viewers know what users have been up to lately.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 26, 2009, 1:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Yahoo! Sets Facebook SearchMonkey App as Default

Yahoo! has set the SearchMonkey application for Facebook as default. This means, when you search for a name and see a Facebook result, the customized result developed by Facebook via SearchMonkey will appear.

Here's an example of the result for Facebook engineer, Alex Moskalyuk:

Facebook joins other SearchMonkey apps already set as default, including Wikipedia, Yelp, LinkedIn, Citysearch and Zagat.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 26, 2009, 12:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SearchMe Launches Search Advertising Beta

Visual search engine SearchMe has launched a search advertising test and is looking for beta testers. The program is open to 500 participants who will get free advertising for 30 days. To apply, click here.

"We are fusing together two popular advertising formats to drive better tracking of both ROI and branded advertising spend. We want consumers to know exactly what they're getting before they even click on an ad," said John Galatea, vice president of sales and marketing at SearchMe. "The combination of search marketing with the power of branded display ads creates more valuable clicks leading to increased conversions and that's what advertisers want. The added qualification of seeing before clicking makes a huge difference for end users and advertisers and provides an exciting glimpse into the future of visual search advertising."

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 26, 2009, 11:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Stress Tests for SEO, SEM, PPC at SES New York

Regulators are putting banks through stress tests to determine whether they have adequate capital. And if you look at the SES New York conference agenda, you'll see that you can put your SEO, SEM and PPC programs through some pretty rigorous stress testing at six express site clinics that will be held in the Expo Hall.

Now, why would you want to do that? For starters, you can get some free advice from SEO, SEM and PPC experts. In addition, you'll get an honest opinion from search engine marketing specialists who will tell you the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, even if it hurts.

For example, the first clinic is being taught by Shari Thurow, the Founder and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Director at Omni Marketing Interactive. I first met Shari at Search Engine Strategies Spring in Boston -- back in 2002. And I've learned that she'll tell you exactly what she thinks -- without fear or favor.

And you'd be a fool to ignore her recommendations. Shari has a 100% success rate for getting client sites ranked at the top of search engines -- and her clients include Yahoo, Microsoft, America Online, ABC News, HSBC, Expedia, Deloitte and Touche, National Cancer Institute, and WebMD.

Shari is holding an "Express Search Usability Clinic" on Tuesday, March 24, from 1 to 2 p.m. You can get one-on-one advice for usability, design, copy, link development, and any technical issues that may prevent your Web site from receiving high quality search engine traffic and visitor conversions.

David Szetela of Clix Marketing.jpg Need another example? Check out the "Power PPC Advertising Clinic" being taught by David Szetela, the CEO of Clix Marketing, on Tuesday, March 24, from 2 to 3 p.m. I've known David even longer than Shari. Back in the 1990s, we both worked together at Ziff-Davis Publishing.

I've never known David to pull a punch -- on his company's blog, in his weekly Profitable PPC column published by Search Engine Watch, or at search and advertising industry events. And Clix is also one of the few agencies paid according to their performance -- as a percentage of profit or a commission per sales lead generated.

You can get your Google AdWords PPC advertising campaigns and landing pages expertly analyzed, with specific recommendations for improvement and optimization. Or just come to watch and learn a wide range of tips and best practices!

The third Express Site Clinic is being taught by Jonathan Mendez, Founder and CEO of RAMP Digital. It is entitled, "CPA Optimization Station," and will be held on Tuesday, March 24, from 3 to 4 p.m.

Now, I don't know Jonathan as well as I know the other presenters, but here's what I do know: Jonathan authors the popular marketing blog Optimize & Prophesize. And he has provided expert pre-click and post-click strategies and execution for online testing, targeting and optimization to some of the world's leading brands and businesses, including Amazon.com, Ameriprise, Disney, Citibank, H&R Block, IBM, Intuit, Microsoft, Monster.com, Sears, and T-Mobile.

With advertising dollars more accountable than ever, optimizing your Cost Per Acquisition or Cost per Action (CPA) has never been more important. So, you should take advantage of this rare opportunity to sit with Jonathan as he finds ways to improve your ROI. He will perform strategic evaluations and provide actionable insights on the consumer touch-points in your conversion path -- keywords, ads, landing pages and registration/checkout. Jonathan will also offer test ideas for use with Multivariate & A/B testing and advice on how to use emerging marketing technologies to further improve your results.

These stress tests will let you know if your SEO, SEM and PPC programs can do heavy lifiting. But wait, there's more!

Matt Bailey and Kristjan Mar Hauksson.jpg On Wednesday, March 25, Matthew Bailey, the President of Site Logic Marketing, will hold a clinic entitled, "Small Changes, Big Results," in the Exhibit Hall from 1 to 2 p.m. Now, what can I tell you about Matt that I haven't already revealed -- in about 120 articles, blog posts or video interviews? (Those of you who know that I went to the University of Michigan understand how hard it is for me to say warm, fuzzy things about a guy from Ohio, but I'll try. Hey, the Michigan-Ohio State rivalry is even a Wikipedia listing.)

Matt and I are both members of the Market Motive faculty, which has been called the "Internet marketing dream team." He is the primary trainer and developer for The Direct Marketing Association's Search Engine Optimization Certification program, and the trainer for the DMA's 2-Day Website Marketing Seminar. This year, Matt was selected as the Direct Marketing Association's emissary to France because of his expertise in search marketing. (Coming from a Wolverine, that's high praise for a Buckeye.)

If you need some help, or just another pair of eyes to check your website, then the Express Clinic with Matt will help you identify minor changes in your website that could provide major results. If you are particularly daring, bring the access to your analytics (if they are hosted online), and he will really dive in! (Actually, we are good friends and are both co-presenting the First Timer's Guide to SES and SEM at SES New York. So, we don't let football get in the way of our friendship ... except on one Saturday each fall. Oh, and maybe on New Year's Day.)

Now, I mentioned earlier that the SEO, SEM and PPC experts holding these Express Site Clinics will tell you the truth, even if it hurts. My fifth example of this is the title of the next clinic: "Your Baby Is Ugly - Landing Page Mini-Critiques." It will be held on Wednesday, March 25, from 2 to 3 p.m. by Tim Ash, President of SiteTuners.

Tim Ash is the author of the bestselling book "Landing Page Optimization," published by Wiley. He is a contributing columnist to several publications including Search Engine Watch. And he has also worked with Verizon Wireless, American Express, Sony Music, American Honda, COMP USA, Harcourt Brace, Universal Studios, HomeGain, Fair Isaac, TransUnion, Rand McNally, Red Envelope, Black & Decker, and Coach to develop successful Internet initiatives.

If your landing page has severe and fundamental problems or if you think it could have a much higher conversion rate, join Tim on the exhibit show floor for complimentary mini-critiques. His firm offers consulting, full-service flat-fee guaranteed-performance tests, and advanced software tools for landing page optimization. (Tim's Salsa dancing is pretty impressive, too.)

Dave Naylor.jpg Finally, you'll want to attend the clinic entitled, "Dave Naylor Search Marketing," which will be taught by none other than David Naylor, SEO of Bronco, on Wednesday, March 25, from 3 to 4 p.m.

David, more commonly known as DaveN, is constantly developing new optimization techniques and has the uncanny ability to see algorithmic changes before most other SEOs. He has a proven track record of successes in some of the most competitive markets. And his blog is well known for its down to earth, yet informative approach on all SEO issues.

If you have ever wanted the chance to have an industry leading SEO take a look at your website, if you want to get an honest and often brutal opinion on whether it is any good, then Dave is available to do a mini site clinic for you. You'll be amazed at the information you will glean within seconds of the analysis.

A few final words of warning for those who put their SEO, SEM and PPC programs through one or more of these stress tests at SES New York. First, these PowerPoint free, interactive clinics are "first-come, first-served." Second, if you can't handle the truth, don't get your Website reviewed live by one of these SES experts.

Posted by Greg Jarboe on February 26, 2009, 11:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

Google Adds Panoramio Picture Browsing to Street View

If you love to travel but the economy or your own budget have you staying home, traveling virtually can be a fun way to still see the sights. Street View on Google Maps tempts our wanderlust, and now they've enhanced that temptation by adding Panoramio picture browsing.

Panoramio, which was acquired by Google in 2007, is a photo-sharing site that focuses on photographs of locations and points of interest around the world.

To see the photos, when you're in Street View on Google Maps, click on the box in the top right corner labeled "User Photos." That will launch a visual menu of photos that streams across the top.

The more popular the place you're looking at in Street View (think Leaning Tower of Pisa or the Coliseum), the more likely you are to browse a lot of photos from Panoramio.

Here's a video by the Google LatLong team showing how to use the new feature:

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 26, 2009, 10:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Best Twitter Tip of the Day

Canadian marketer and clever Twitterer Danny Brown pointed out what has to be the best Twitter tip of the day. Use the link you have for your site/blog in your Twitter profile to point to a page about Twitter and other articles you may have written about the service.

Hey given people are on Twitter and interested it definitely should grab you some good pageview numbers from each visit.

Will try and bring some more of these on a regular basis so check back.

Posted by Frank Watson on February 26, 2009, 10:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Brands Hit Big In Google SERPs, Others Drop

Hats off to Aaron Wall for a great article about how Google has used brands as the basis for their most recent algorithm update.

Seems many sites have fallen from their comfortable front page rankings in preference for sites well branded in the niche for many of keywords impacted. Insurance companies, airline tickets and boots to name a few have suddenly seen well known but unoptimized sites shoot up in the rankings.

These results will no doubt send us SEOs running to the mattresses s we try to figure out how to counter this action by Google. Is it an increase in attention to trust rank? If these sites have not done any quiet SEO, then Google has obviously increased their worth on some basis - who is to say an airline deserves the better position for a travel search. Many small sites provide all types of support information not available.

To make this happen Google had to use some method to measure - brands do not shout out numbers that an algorithm can measure - in normal circumstances. Are they being rewarded for years of PPC spend - not likely.

My theory - and is only that - is they may be using some sort of measuring of typed in traffic numbers. But no doubt the methodology will be explore quite a bit over the coming weeks and be a major conversation piece at SES NYC next month.

Hey if you have any insights drop a comment.

Posted by Frank Watson on February 26, 2009, 9:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (18)

Google News Gets Ads in Search Results

Search advertising has come to Google News. Type in a query and you'll see sponsored links running along the right side just like you do in "regular" Google.

Here's a search for coffee on Google News:

Google began testing ads on a variety of its web properties last November. The testing of ads then in Google News was for "search refinements." In other words, if you searched for a term on the main Google site and then clicked "News," that's a search refinement.

Google also rolled out sponsored videos to YouTube last November.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 26, 2009, 8:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Obama Speech to Congress Relevant to SES New York Delegates

President Barack Obama's speech to Congress on last night contained a number of relevant messages to the delegates planning to attend SES New York next month.

For example, President Obama said, "We have lived through an era where too often, short-term gains were prized over long-term prosperity." And the search engine marketing industry has lived through years when it was easier to launch pay-per-click campaigns than it was to launch search engine optimization programs.

In fact, Fredrick Marckini, the chief global search officer of Isobar, made this point during his keynote speeches at SES London 2008 and SES Toronto 2008. According to Marckini, "Paid search alone does not constitute a search engine marketing program. I interviewed Fredrick a year ago about the importance of natural search in search engine marketing campaigns, which is still a potent issue as we wrestle with a global recession.

Greg Jarboe & Fredrick Marckini on SEM at SES London 2008

Another line by President Obama that still resonates a day later is this: "The weight of this crisis will not determine the destiny of this nation. The answers to our problems don't lie beyond our reach. They exist in our laboratories and universities; in our fields and our factories; in the imaginations of our entrepreneurs and the pride of the hardest working people on earth. Those qualities that have made America the greatest force of progress and prosperity in human history we still possess in ample measure."

And today, I received an email from Search Engine Strategies that said, "Bad news can easily derail you from your goal. Don't fall flat on your Q2 achievements. Stay on top of your marketing plan and learn how you can ride through the troubled economy and stand tall in the end. Search Engine Strategies New York is your survival guide to the unsteady economy. From Web 2.0 strategies for small businesses with small budgets to winning online campaigns on a dime."

And the email backed that up with specific suggestions of conference sessions to attend at SES New York:
• The Impact of Today's Economy on the Search Landscape
• Survival of the Fittest 2.0
• Every Day, In Every Way: Search Marketing as a Business Activity
• Publishing: New Business Models for Changing Times
• Lower Your Marketing Costs with Vertical Search
• Four Paths to Success in a Tough Travel Economy

Or, take a close look at the SES New York conference agenda and you'll discover more sessions that "confront boldly the challenges we face." This includes:
• The Dozen Most Common Search Marketing Mistakes That CMOs Make
• Search on a Dime
• 8 Things You Aren't Doing That Will Boost Your SEM Results
• Extreme Makeover: Live Ad Copy & Continuity Clinic!
• SEO Tools of the Trade: What's in YOUR Toolbox?
• Google Website Optimizer: Radically Improve your Conversion Rate!

And if you register for SES New York by March 6, you can save up to $200. Plus, you have a chance to win an extreme makeover of your website in real time during SES New York! And there are other bonus offers.

So, if you think "the time to take charge of our future is here," as President Obama does, then check out the conference agenda for SES New York, which will be held March 23-27, 2009, at the Hilton New York. To borrow a phrase, "So often, we have come to view these documents as simply ... laundry lists of programs. I see this document differently. I see it ... as a blueprint for our future."

Posted by Greg Jarboe on February 25, 2009, 5:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Google Releases Toolbar 6 for Internet Explorer

It's hard to read and write the news about Google's Toolbar 6 for Internet Explorer without thinking of how it must result from their official position siding with the EU against Microsoft's bundling of IE with Windows.

One of the major updates for the new IE toolbar is the Quick Search Box. This places the Google logo in the IE taskbar for a widget that enables a quick query with search suggestions. Obviously, Google isn't waiting around for regulations to help them maintain their search market ~~monopoly~~ share.

IE toolbar users will also get the personalized tab page that Firefox toolbar users got a few weeks back. The page loads the most visited pages of the browser user. (Google says they do this without gathering data. Instead, the data resides on the PC.)

Interestingly enough, yesterday's Safari browser update offers similar personalized funcationality.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 25, 2009, 3:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Top Yahoo! Mobile Exec Departs for Personal Reasons

Marco Boerries, Executive Vice President of the Connected Device Division at Yahoo! has announced his resignation. Boerries cited personal reasons. Apparently, he has some family issues that has his time being split between the Bay Area and Germany.

Boerries spent four years as Yahoo!'s top mobile exec.

Here are just a few of the stories that happened on his watch:

Yahoo! to Launch New, Comprehensive Mobile Portal
Yahoo! Adds Features to oneSearch Shortcut, Including Voice Search and Auto-Locate
Yahoo! oneSearch Selected as Mobile Search Service for T-mobile's Web2go
Yahoo Unveils Upgrades to Mobile Search Platform
Yahoo Uses Windows Mobile To Escalate Yahoo Go Reach
Yahoo Signs Mobile Search Deals with Six Asian Carriers

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 25, 2009, 2:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Search Engine Strategies Names 5 New Members to SES Advisory Board

This afternoon, Search Engine Strategies announced that five new members are joining the SES Advisory Board. The new advisory board members are: Matthew Bailey, President, SiteLogic; Bryan Eisenberg, Co-Founder, Future Now, Inc.; Andrew Goodman, Principal, Page Zero Media; Mike Grehan, Global KDM Officer, Acronym Media; and John Marshall, CTO, Market Motive.

The five new members join eight current members, who will continue to serve on the SES advisory board, which is chaired by Kevin Ryan, CMO, WebVisible, Inc:
• Ron Belanger, Vice President of Agency Development, Yahoo Search Marketing;
• Jeff Ferguson, Director of Online Marketing, Napster;
• Chris Henger, Vice President, Affiliate Marketing, Performics;
• Anne Kennedy, Managing Partner, Beyond Ink;
• Jeff Levick, Director, Global Industry Development and Marketing, Google;
• Pauline Ores, Senior Marketing Manager, Community and Collaboration Strategy, Global Small & Midmarket Business, IBM;
• Erynn Petersen, Senior Manager, Advertising Platform Evangelism, Microsoft; and
• Randy Peterson, Search Marketing Innovation Manager, Proctor and Gamble.

In a press release, Matt McGowan, the Vice President and Publisher for Incisive Media's Interactive Marketing Group, which includes Search Engine Strategies, Search Engine Watch and ClickZ, said, "Over a year ago we created an advisory board consisting of individuals from the industry and beyond to help our programming and operations teams guide the direction of future conferences. The board has made significant contributions to the success of SES. We want to thank seven of the original advisory board members, who are now rotating out of the lineup, as well as welcome five new members who are joining the board members as we chart our way in this rapidly changing industry."

The members of the originaly advisory board who are rotating out include:
• Sandeep Aggarwal, Senior Equity Research Analyst, Oppenheimer & Co.;
• Jocelyn Griffing, Senior Vice President, Online Media, Icon International;
• Steven Kaufman, Senior Vice President, Media Director, Digitas;
• Carol Kruse, Vice President, Global Interactive Marketing, The Coca-Cola Co.;
• James M. Lamberti, former Senior Vice President, Search and Media, comScore Networks;
• Jeannie Moran, eCommerce Marketing Director, AutoNation; and
• Gregg Stewart, Senior Vice President, Interactive, TMP Directional Marketing.

Posted by Greg Jarboe on February 25, 2009, 2:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Google Takes EU Side in Microsoft IE Monopoly Case; Will It Come Back to Bite?

Google is siding with the European Commission in its disapproval of Microsoft bundling Internet Explorer with Windows. Google says that Microsoft has an unfair advantage in the browser market as a result of this practice.

But will such a stance come back to bite Google in the butt? In 2007, Google released Android, a mobile operating system, and then last year Chrome, an internet browser. In the next year or two, Android will begin being released on netbooks (aka small laptops). Google could use that opportunity to bundle Chrome and increase their browser market share, but they'll now face criticism if they do.

And as one smart commenter on the Google Public Policy blog pointed out, there's no criticism of Apple bundling their Safari browser with Mac OS (not to mention the constant requests to do so for Windows users who have downloaded iTunes).

Sure, Apple doesn't have a monopoly on the browser market with Safari (and there's a good reason for that until perhaps yesterday's updated release of the browser), but what other purpose would they be attempting to achieve with the bundle?

Of course, Google's CEO Eric Schmidt currently sits on the board of Apple, so it wouldn't be prudent for them to criticize Apple for the same practice. But things are bound to get a little dicey on all fronts as Google also competes with Apple, maker of the popular iPhone.

Siding with the EU is also an interesting move just months after they canceled a partnership with Yahoo! which would have increased their dominance in the search advertising field.

Google has yet to master politicking, and watching them in this regulatory space should be interesting indeed.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 25, 2009, 1:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Google Analytics Adds iPhone Advanced Segment

Last fall, Google Analytics began rolling out 7 major updates. One of those updates was Advanced Segmentation, which allows users to dig into subsets of data. Now, one of those subsets that users can check out is iPhone traffic.

To access the iPhone segment, click on the Advanced Segments drop down menu (the box next to the words "Advanced Segments") and choose "Visits from iPhones." If it's difficult to decipher the percentage of visits from iPhone, turn off "All Visits" to get a better picture of your iPhone traffic.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 25, 2009, 8:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

16 Map Maker Countries Added to Google Maps

Google's Map Maker allows users to create and enhance maps all around the world. It's kind of like the Wikipedia of mapping. As a result of the diligence of the Map Maker community, 16 countries are being added to the main Google Maps.

They are:

Bhutan
Bolivia
Cambodia
Dominica
Dominican Republic
Guam
Iceland
Mauritius
Paraguay
Philippines
Senegal
Seychelles
Sri Lanka
Tajikistan
Vietnam
Zimbabwe

Anand Srinivasan, Lakshminath Bhuvanagiri and Jessica Pfund, of the Map Maker Team commented on the milestone on the Google LatLong blog:

This launch is a testament to the spirit of map makers who have taken it upon themselves to map entire neighborhoods -- and in some cases entire cities and counties. We have observed many users add more than 1,000 edits to maps and a few have even made 10,000. Even in countries where not many have access to high-speed internet, we have found expatriates and caring users living abroad helping map countries they are far away from. Hats off to all you map makers out there!

Expect more great things from Google Map Maker in the future. Last week, 27 languages were added to the tool. Additionally, Map Maker maps were made available to the Google Maps API.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 25, 2009, 8:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Microsoft Research Introduces Search Projects at TechFest

Microsoft Research introduced search projects at its annual TechFest in Redmond, Washington. If you're not aware, TechFest is an event where Microsoft employees share research and ideas for technological progress via computing.

The search ideas put forth include:

Geolife 2.0 - a GPS-data-driven social network on Microsoft Virtual Earth
Opinion Search - collecting, storing and organizing opinion data such as user reviews to help searchers more easily make informed purchase decisions
Renifang, Web Scale Entity Summarization - a web-mining summarization system that extracts information about particular entities (such as a person or product) from billions of Web pages to reduce the number of pages a searcher has to comb through to find the information they are looking for.
Color-Structured Image Search - a new image search interface that uses rough color layouts to indicate searchers' intent (instead of using keywords only)

These projects were introduced by the Research team and are not (yet?) part of Live Search.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 25, 2009, 8:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Dr. Brilliant Shifts Role at Google.org

Dr. Larry Brilliant has shifted into a new role at Google.org, the search giant's philanthropic arm. He will now be the Chief Philanthropy Evangelist. Meanwhile, Google's Vice President of New Business Development will add Google.org General Manager to her duties.

As part of the shift, Google will re-align its goals to focus on philanthropic missions tied more closely to its business model.

Dr. Brilliant explained in a post on the Official Google Blog:

During our review it became clear that while we have been able to support some remarkable non-profit organizations over the past three years, our greatest impact has come when we've attacked problems in ways that make the most of Google's strengths in technology and information; examples of this approach include Flu Trends, RechargeIT, Clean Energy 2030, and PowerMeter. By aligning Google.org more closely with Google as a whole, Megan will ensure that we're better able to build innovative, scalable technology and information solutions.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 24, 2009, 1:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

U.S. Online Search Behavior Mimicks Economy

comScore has released data revealing search behavior that reflects sentiment about the economy in the United States. Searches for terms like coupons, unemployment and bankruptcy are experiencing triple digit growth.

The younger you are and the less you make, the more likely you are to conduct such searches:

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 24, 2009, 1:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Local.com Gets a New CFO

Local search site Local.com has announced the appointment of Brenda Agius as its new Chief Financial Officer. Agius has 15 years of experience in corporate financial management for such companies as Miva, Neighborhood America, and Slingpage, Inc.

"We are pleased to welcome Brenda to Local.com's management team. She brings broad financial knowledge and industry specific experience in the publicly traded global online advertising sector, M&A and corporate financing," said Heath Clarke, Local.com chairman and CEO. "She has a solid reputation among the financial community and a deep understanding of Local's business model. We are confident that Brenda will drive value to the bottom line for our shareholders. I would also like to express my appreciation to Doug for his contribution to the company over the past six years, and wish him the best in his future endeavors."

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 24, 2009, 1:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

How to Get Your Facebook Profile Removed Once You're Dead (It's Harder than You Think)

When Emmy-award winning investigative journalist William Bemister passed away last November, his sister Stephanie decided to have his Facebook profile removed. You might think such a thing would be simple, but during a time of grief, Facebook makes it as hard as possible for profiles to be removed.

Ms. Bemister sent a copy of her brother's death certificate, but Facebook refused to remove the profile, sending this reply:

"Per our policy for deceased users, we have memorialized this person's account. This removes certain more sensitive information and sets privacy so that only confirmed friends can see the profile or find the person in search. The Wall remains so that friends and family can leave posts in remembrance."

Eventually, Facebook gave the real reason: it was because Ms. Bemister said only that she was a relative and did not inform them she was next of kin.

This certainly doesn't help Facebook's problems with privacy. Just last week, Facebook went through a debacle of returning to a previous version of their Terms of Service after users protested the new one, which they felt took too much control over their content.

In years past, Facebook has faced privacy issues related to advertising when a program used private information to advertise to Facebook members.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 24, 2009, 11:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Google Webmaster Central Launches YouTube Channel

We've seen some new YouTube videos and channels launched by various Google teams lately. Google Website Optimizer launched a channel while Google AdWords added four videos about their display ad builder.

Now Google Webmaster Channel is getting in on the action. You can find the channel here.

Right now the only video up on the channel is Matt Cutts' State of the Index (more will be added later). Here it is in all of its 23 minute glory:

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 24, 2009, 11:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Atlantis Not Found on Google Earth Afterall

For about a week, the blogosphere has been abuzz over the idea that Google Earth's new ocean mapping had led to the discovery of the lost (and mythical) city of Atlantis. It's this pattern found off the west coast of Africa:

Unfortunately, it's just a bunch of ship tracks. It's terribly un-glamorous, but completely necessary for those pesky exports and imports.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 24, 2009, 10:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Yahoo Adds Behavioral Targeting Features for Search and Display Ads

Yahoo today unveiled a trio of behaviorally targeted ad options for both search and display ads.

Search Retargeting for Display Ads -- lets advertisers target display advertising based on a user's search activity. So a user that searches on a term like "sandals" could be served a display ad for footwear elsewhere on Yahoo's network.
Enhanced Retargeting for Display Ads -- allows advertisers to deliver dynamically generated display ads across the Yahoo network based on user activity on an advertiser's site. Going beyond standard site retargeting, the new technology would allow an advertiser to target users who visit an airline website to check offers for flights from SFO-JFK, and serve them a personalized offer for that specific flight when they visit a page within the Yahoo Network.
Enhanced Targeting for Search Ads -- adds capabilities for Sponsored Search and Content Match ads, including ad scheduling and demographic targeting within search. New features are designed to extend the advertiser's control over where and when an ad is shown at both the campaign and ad group level, including what time of day and day of the week an advertiser would like campaigns to run (ad scheduling), and what age and gender they'd like to reach (demographic). Advertisers will be able to vary their bids for different segments in order to increase their ability to reach the desired audience.

Much of this technology was developed through Yahoo's BlueLithium division, which was acquired by Yahoo in September 2007.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on February 24, 2009, 9:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SEW Experts: International SEO Challenges and Tips

Search Engine Watch Expert - Mark Jackson Search engine optimization for multi-national companies' Web sites comes with its own set of challenges and pitfalls. In today's organic search engine optimization column, "International SEO Challenges and Tips," Mark Jackson shares a few challenges that companies with an international Web presence face, and some advice for how to create an optimal Web presence that can do well in international search engines.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on February 24, 2009, 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

SEW Experts: Spending in a Tough Market

Search Engine Watch Expert - Aaron Shear Many large organizations are looking to engage an SEO agency as an alternative to hard-to-track media buys. In today's enterprise search marketing column, "Spending in a Tough Market," Aaron Shear reminds us that the SEO should make sure that goals included in a response to an RFP are related to revenue and traffic, with a stipulation around the source of the traffic.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on February 24, 2009, 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Yahoo! News Executive Editor Heads to Hearst

Yahoo!'s executive editor and general manager of news is heading to Hearst. Neeraj Khemlani will become Heart's VP of Digital Media.

Khemlani is one of many Yahoo! execs to leave in the past year. Though, most of his former colleagues have ended up at Microsoft.

Most recently, Larry Heck, vice president of search and advertising sciences departed for Microsoft. Prior to that, Sean Suchter, Qi Lu, and Scott Moore gave up their purple people status for digs at the Redmond-based software giant.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 23, 2009, 2:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ask.com Implements Canonical URL Tag

A couple of weeks ago, Google, Yahoo and Microsoft announced their support for a new tag that helps sites with duplicate content issues. The tag helps web developers show which URL the search engines should prioritize.

Now, Ask.com is getting in on the new tag action.

If you're not familiar with the tag, here's an example, provided by Ask.com:

Basically, you'll want to place the tag on all the dup pages to point it to the original content.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 23, 2009, 2:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

61% of Reluctant Consumers Can Be Positively Swayed Online

It seems like the news about the economy gets worse by the day. If it has you scratching your head (or ripping out your hair) trying to figure out what your online marketing strategy should be in the coming years, don't get discouraged just yet.

In a survey conducted by Jupiter Research for Bazaarvoice and richrelevance, 61% of reluctant shoppers said they could be positively swayed by online shopping resources.

The niches most affected by hesitation are:

Automotive - 50%
Travel - 46%
Electronics - 43%

Consumers are shopping around and leaving their options open. 42% visited 3 or more sites to research their last purchase, and only 33% of online shoppers had made up their minds about the price they were willing to pay for their purchase in advance of going online to research.

That leaves some good wiggle room for sites and brands to compete. Before researching:

31% had made up their minds on which item or title to choose
23% knew which brand they wanted to buy
16% knew which store they would purchase from
13% knew when they would make their purchase

Once online, they trust the reviews and opinions of other consumers, so make sure your product offering is solid.

77% look to user ratings and reviews
66% use recommendations based on other consumers' purchasing
65% use recommendations based on browsing behavior of fellow consumers

These numbers are also a very good reason why you have to keep an eye on your brand's online reputation. Bazaarvoice knows this and their efforts at reputation management have paid off.

"Shoppers trust and use the opinions of others in making choices about products and brands," said Brett Hurt, founder and CEO of Bazaarvoice. "As consumers head to the web to research online and offline purchases, companies have a tremendous opportunity to provide them with the authentic user-generated content that is proven to build confidence, increase satisfaction, and drive sales. The benefits of user-generated content are amplified in a bad economy, and this is why 9 out of 10 of the Internet Retailer Top 50 who outsource reviews choose Bazaarvoice."

Related Reading:
Bazaarvoice Lets Brands Push Ratings to E-Commerce Partners
SLI Systems Joins Bazaarvoice Radius to Help Marketers Execute Integrated Social Commerce Strategies
Bazaarvoice Syndicates Merchant Reviews to Shopping Portals

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 23, 2009, 1:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Microsoft Forms Advisory Council for the Development of Next Gen Ad Platform

Microsoft today announced the creation of the Publisher Leadership Council. The council will consist of a select group of top web publishers who will consult the software giant in the development of its next generation advertising platform, Microsoft PubCenter.

The group's charter members include executives from IAC, Dow Jones Online, The New York Times Co., Time Inc. and Viacom Inc. PubCenter will be built on the existing adCenter Publisher architecture and combined with technologies from Atlas and Rapt.

"Digital media publishers have diverse needs and face many challenges," said Scott Howe, corporate vice president of the Advertiser & Publisher Solutions Group at Microsoft, the platform and monetization engine for Microsoft Advertising. "This initiative is validation of our commitment to partnering with the industry to meet those challenges together. Some key features of PubCenter are still on the whiteboard, and we're giving our partners a pen."

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 23, 2009, 12:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

AOL Adds Collapsable Widgets, New Theme Color to Home Page

AOL has made two updates to their home page. First up, some widgets are now collapsible. For example, if all of the current news about the economy is too depressing, just click the arrow next to "Financial News" in said widget, and the box tightens up to just display the title bar. Click the arrow again to display the headlines again.

Secondly, a new theme has been added to the options available for customizing the homepage. Due to popular demand, a pink theme has been added. You can find all of the theme options in the upper right corner of the home page.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 23, 2009, 12:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

YouTube Launches Collaborative Annotations

Last year, YouTube enabled annotations, which lets users make little notes about their videos. Now, they're offering users the opportunity to open annotations up to their viewers for collaborative annotations.

To do so, go to the annotations editor under "My Videos" or on the page of your video that you want to allow the collaboration for. There will be a link that you can send out to people you wish to collaborate with.

If you don't like an annotation, you can delete it.

What do you think of collaborative annotations? Are you going to give it a try? Let us know in the comments.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 23, 2009, 10:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Google AdWords Changes URL Display Policy

Starting tomorrow, February 24, Google AdWords will begin implementing a new URL display policy. From then on, if you have multiple display URLs in the same ad group, they must all have the same top-level domain.

Google gave the following example as a group of URLs that would work in the same ad group:

www.example.com
www.widgets.example.com
www.example.com/widgets/redwidgets/
www.example.com/index.html

Here's an example of what will NOT work:

www.example.com
www.example.widgets.com

In order to comply, you'll either need to create new URLs or create separate ad groups.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 23, 2009, 10:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Guy Kawasaki and John Gerzema to Keynote at SES New York

I've just returned from Search Engine Strategies London and it's already time to get ready for SES New York 2009. Fortunately, most of the content for the two keynotes, Orion Panel, 65 conference sessions, and nine training workshops will be brand new and even the format for the show is significantly different, so it won't feel like I've "been there, done that, got the t-shirt."

You can see the changes in the industry reflected in the two keynote speakers.

On Tuesday, March 24, 2009, Guy Kawasaki, Author of "Reality Check: The Irreverent Guide to Outsmarting, Outmanaging, and Outmarketing Your Competition" and Founding Partner of Garage Technology Ventures, will be giving the opening keynote, which is entitled: "Twitter as a Tool for Social Media."

Now, Twitter was barely mentioned last year at Search Engine Strategies New York 2008. (The honor of being ahead of the curve goes to Bryan Eisenberg, co-founder of Future Now, who discussed Twitter during his session on "Redefining the Customer.")

And last summer, there was a debate at SES Toronto 2008 about whether Twitter was the ultimate time waster, or a Great tool? I interviewed Dave Snyder, Co-Founder Search & Social , and Lee Odden, CEO of TopRank Online Marketing, about Twitter back then.

Twitter and its Uses & Abuses for Marketing at SES Toronto

And now at Search Engine Strategies New York 2009, the social networking and micro-blogging service is the topic of a keynote speech.

The rapid elevation of Twitter's importance is also reflected in recent articles.

On Jan. 26, 2009, Erik Qualman wrote an article for Search Engine Watch entitled, "10 Ways Twitter Can Make Money." Eric asks, "How can Twitter make money? That's the billion-dollar question. This question is important for Twitter, as well as its users and global advertisers."

On Feb. 6, 2009, Anna Maria Virzi wrote an article for ClickZ entitled, "Twitter's Glory Days." She wrote, "As Facebook evolves as a place for friends and family to connect, Twitter continues to penetrate the mainstream as a grassroots consumer-complaint bureau and a virtual business network. Giving the microblogging platform even more oomph is its search tool, which can give a quick snapshot of a developing event and instantaneously connect Twitter users."

On Feb. 13, 2009, Frank Watson wrote an article for Search Engine Watch entitled, "Should Google Buy Twitter?" According to Frank, "Left to its own devices, Twitter could create a large chink in Google's armor. It generates traffic and is far more accurate on building TrustRank."

Twitter's emergence as a major topic is just one example of who even veterans of the Search Engine Strategies conference and expo series come back year after year to this must-attend event to get updates on the major topics.

Another major topic that will put "butts in seats" is the morning keynote on Thursday, March 26, which will be given by John Gerzema, Chief Insights Officer of Young & Rubicam Group and the best-selling author of "The Brand Bubble: The Looming Crisis in Brand Value and How To Avoid It."

Now, "brand" was the subject of two conference sessions at SES New York 2008. The first was "Big Brand Search Strategies: Build Connections and Fuel Online Promotions, which featured Carol Kruse, Vice President of Global Interactive Marketing for The Coca Cola Company. The second was "Oldtimers: The Impact of Search on Brand Health Metrics."

And "brand" is also the topic of two conference sessions at Search Engine Strategies New York 2009: "Thinking Outside of Your Website: Branding without Borders" and "Brand & Reputation Management."

But bringing in Gerzema, who has designed brand strategies for clients for almost 25 years, to give a keynote address underscores the value of brands -- especially in a recession.

Last summer, I interviewed Gord Hotchkiss, President and CEO of Enquiro Search Solutions, about Enquiro's online branding and search industry research. Hotchkiss told me about his recent work on the relationship between brand lift and SEO search rankings, essentially contending that high web search rankings are a necessary but not sufficient component of strengthening a brand online. Although established brands do receive lift from winning on relevant web searches, it has yet to be established that unknown brands receive any lift for their high rankings.

Web Search, Branding, & Brand Lift with Gord Hotchkiss

At SES New York 2009, Gerzma, a pioneer of account planning in American advertising agencies, will take the topic of brand value to the next level. This is just another reason why this an event you can't afford to miss.

And if you register for Search Engine Strategies New York by March 6, 2009, you can save up to $200.

Posted by Greg Jarboe on February 23, 2009, 8:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

SEW Experts: Social Media Madness -- The Sweet 16

Search Engine Watch Expert - Erik Qualman In the spirit of College basketball's upcoming March Madness tournament, we've got the "Sweet 16" of social media. In today's building brand equity column, "Social Media Madness -- The Sweet 16," Erik Qualman scores each company's strengths and weaknesses, along with details on how your company or brand can leverage these social media offerings.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on February 23, 2009, 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SEW Experts: Social Media Marketing 101, Part 2

Search Engine Watch Expert - Ron Jones Social media marketing can be a great arrow in your quiver of marketing tools. In today's SEM 101 column, "Social Media Marketing 101, Part 2," Ron Jones shows that to leverage it correctly, you must consider first what you want to accomplish.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on February 23, 2009, 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ten Top Stories from SES London 2009

Last week, I attended SES London 2009. For those of you who couldn't attend this must-attend event, here are the ten top stories from the conference and expo held at the Business Design Centre in Islington:

1. The top story was the opening keynote by Matt Mason, author of The Pirate's Dilemna: How Youth Culture Reinvented Capitalism. Chloe Temple of Tamar covered the keynote in her post, "SES London 2009 - Day 1 summary." She wrote, "SES London 2009 kicked off to a flying start, with an interesting choice in keynote speaker, Matt Mason, who gave us a summary of his book The Pirate's Dilemma. Not specifically targeted to an SEM audience, Matt presented his idea that businesses should embrace piracy rather than going to war with it."

Byron Gordon of SEO-PR interviewed Mason after his keynote about the history of piracy as well as its pros and cons. Mason reiterated why it is important for companies today to embrace piracy by competing with it. Mason also talked about the future of piracy and how he would like to see copyright laws changed to reflect the new information economy.

Matt Mason - Author: The Pirate's Dilemma, speaks on piracy at SES London

2. The second top story of SES London 2009 was the Orion Panel on SEO -- Where to Next? Paul Madden, an SEO Consultant in the UK also known as SEOidiot, covered the session for Search Marketing Gurus in a post entitled, "SES London - Orion Panel - SEO Where to Next?"

3. The third top story of SES London 2009 was the Orion Panel on Measuring Success in a 2.0 World. David Wilding of the Epiphany Search Marketing Blog captured the news in his roundup of "Search Engine Strategies London 2009 - Day One." He observed, "One point that may surprise many that don't work day to day in the world of SEO is the view of Google Analytics that came across in this question and answer session." It was called, a "jack of all trades" and a "one size fits all solution."

I interviewed John Marshall, the CTO of Market Motive, who was one of the panelists in this session. Marshall said Google analytics is a limited tool. John indicated that in a 2.0 world, there are details on your website that don't actually live on the website, such as YouTube videos, and Google analytics doesn't analyze this data. Marshall advocated a more realistic approach to measuring data and is a big believer in using competitive analysis. John also cited particular competitive analysis vendors that he likes.

John Marshall, CTO, Market Motive, on measuring success in a Web 2.0 world

4. The next top story was written by Mel Carson, Microsoft's adCenter Community Manager for Europe. He wrote a post for the Microsoft adCenter Blog and Forum Community entitled, "IAB Search Engine Marketing Best Practice Session - SES London." In his post, Carson said, "Islington's Business Design Centre is a hive of search marketing activity, with sessions on SEO, PPC and Social Media all contributing to a vibrant learning pot."

5. Another top story was by Magne Uppman of Uppman.net, which was entitled, "The Twitter Wave At SES London." According to Uppman, a Norwegian online marketer, "Since the last time I attended a major conference, Twitter has really grown big. In fact, you can now get a pretty good glimpse of the news and tips presented only by following the conference on Twitter."

6. The next top story was Rand Fishkin's post on the SEOmoz blog, "Some Interesting Tips and Tidbits from SES London Day 1." According to Fishkin, the CEO of SEOmoz.org, "For the first time in a good while, I managed to spend a few hours sitting in sessions here in London, re-absorbing some information and even picking up a few new bits here and there. Short post, but I figured if it's new/interesting to me, it might also be enjoyable to others (hopefully)."

7. Another top story was written by Philippe Schaillée of SearchCowboys, entitled, "Social Media Optimization - SES London 2009." The Dutch blogger wrote, "Everyone's on the Social networks. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr and MySpace have become household names."

8. The next top story was written by Zac of the Apple Pie & Custard blog. It is entitled, "The foundations of Video SEO." According to the UK blogger, "Yesterday at the SES Conference in London Amanda Watlington and Joseph Morin discussed the best practices for optimising your video content."

9. Another top story, which appeared in the Efficient Frontier Blog, was entitled simply, "SES London." It said, "London this week saw the spectacle that is Search Engine Strategies. As the first big search conference gracing the 2009 London Calendar, industry analysts observed it with a keen eye as the benchmark for confidence in the sector. Delegate numbers certainly looked healthy on both advertiser and agency side."

10. Last, but not least, was the blog post by Andrew Girdwood entitled, "PRWeb UK launches during SES London." According to Birdwood, "Search Engine Strategies was a good event to launch at. PRWeb now have a UK offering."

These were just the ten top stories from SES London 2009. For a comprehensive list, go to the Search Engine Strategies Blog. And these are just the initial video interviews to be posted to SESConferenceExpo's Channel on Youtube. If you want to be alerted when new videos are uploaded, just subscribe.

Posted by Greg Jarboe on February 21, 2009, 11:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

Google Map Maker Maps Now Available in 27 Languages and Via Maps API

Google Map Maker allows people around the world to create maps in their own language. The tool is now available in 27 different languages.

Also, Google is making those maps available to their Maps API. As a result, web developers can add these maps to their sites. By switching a parameter in the API, developers can have their sites access the latest edition of the maps. Maps are available for 164 different countries.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 20, 2009, 12:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Local.com Releases 4th Quarter 2008 Earnings

Local.com has released its fourth quarter 2008 earnings. Their revenue grew 61% year-over-year to $9.6 million. However, they experienced a net loss of $2.2 million, which translates to $0.15 a share.

"We are pleased to report fourth quarter results in line with our prior guidance and forecast a return to strong revenue growth in the first quarter. We are bullish for 2009, projecting approximately $50 million in overall revenue and a return to net income for the entire year," said Heath Clarke, Local.com chairman and CEO. "Despite a challenging economy, we are well positioned and have a balance sheet that will allow us to take advantage of strategic opportunities throughout the year. Our focus is on continued execution in driving sales and organic traffic."

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 20, 2009, 11:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Google Maps Adds More Cities to Transit Layer and Full Schedule

Google Maps has added more cities to its Transit feature. Transit helps people find public transportation schedules.

New full-schedule areas include:

Calgary
Hamilton
Edmonton
York Region in Canada
East Midlands (UK)
Houston (TX)
21 agencies in the state of Virginia
China - connecting all provinces with 3100 train lines, covering 2700 stations and all major cities

Added to the Transit Layer are:

Adelaide
Atlanta
Bonn
Calgary
Davis, California
Hamilton, Canada
Pilsen
Sacramento
Torino
Toronto
York region

Updates have been added in the Transit Layer for:

Cape Town
Johannesburg
Pretoria

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 20, 2009, 10:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Google AdWords Produces 4 New How-To Videos for Display Ad Builder

Google AdWords has added four new videos to help you navigate their display ad builder. In addition to the previous two vids, the topics now cover:

How to access the feature in AdWords
How to search for the display ad templates that are right for you
How to create an ad
How to create an ad with no images required
How to copy ads across ad groups
Full product tutorial

You can check out the videos here.

Here's the video for "How to Create an Ad"

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 20, 2009, 10:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

MIVA Direct Partners with Meebo for ALOT Social Community Integration

MIVA Direct has partnered with Meebo to integrate live social community features into the ALOT Toolbar and ALOT Home. The technology will facilitate real-time interactions among users in chat rooms across the ALOT network.

Chris Dessi, MIVA Direct's VP of Sales and Business Development, explains, "Since launching ALOT we've been building up users across a broad range of different verticals - our ALOT Toolbar for Recipes, for example, currently has over 335,000 live users1. We believe there are significant potential benefits in offering vertically focused chat rooms that enable these like-minded users to communicate directly with each other, and believe that Meebo is a great application to help us kick-start this process."

Added Stephanie Quay, Meebo's Director of Business Development: "The scale and vertical focus of ALOT's customer base makes them a great fit for Meebo. We look forward to working with them to roll out and monetize our solution."

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 19, 2009, 10:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yahoo! Tests Rich Media Ads in Paid Search Listings

Yahoo! has been testing rich media ads in their paid search listings. Thus far, the program has been available to a small group of advertisers and seen by a small group of searchers.

The ads can include video, images, or a custom search box.

The results are promising. Advertisers testing the rich media ads saw click-through rates rise as much as 25% in the fourth quarter of 2008.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 19, 2009, 10:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Yahoo! Steals Search Share from Google in January 2009

Yahoo! gained 0.5 percentage points in comScore search engine rankings for January 2009. Google just happened to lose the same amount of percentage points during the same month.

But they're not the only two swapping points. Microsoft stole 0.2% from Ask.com.

These are small percentage points, so things mostly stayed steady. If these trends were to keep up, that's when things could get a little interesting. So, stay tuned. In the meantime, here's the raw data:

YouTube is still giving Yahoo! a run for its money.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 19, 2009, 8:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Google Launches Mobile App for Windows Mobile

Google has launched its Mobile App for Windows Mobile. It can be downloaded at m.google.com.

The app provides faster search. The origin of search begins in the app instead of first waiting for the browser to load.

Windows Mobile users in the US, UK, Canada, France, Italy, Spain, and Germany can download the Google Mobile App. The app has already been released for Blackberry, the iPhone and iPod Touch.

Check out this video to learn more about Google's Mobile App for Windows Mobile:

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 19, 2009, 8:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Twitter Tests a Search Box on the Root Domain

Twitter is testing a search box on the root URL of its site, meaning on the home page and user pages. Currently, search resides on a subdomain, http://search.twitter.com. There is a "Find People" search on the root, but searching tweets is on the root.

The test will include a search box in the navigation in the top right of the page. Only a small subset of users will see the search box during the test.

Twitter has had a hesitant approach to search. While this may seem surprising on the surface, it has probably been necessary in the progress of the social network. As the popularity of Twitter grew, many of the users became accustomed to downtime, symbolized by the infamous picture of a whale being lifted by tiny birds.

As Twitter resolved the majority of their downtime issues, search became a possibility again. Twitter acquired Summize, which was a third-party search developed via the Twitter API. That's when search was placed on the subdomain.

It's good to see that Twitter is finding itself in the place to test search on the root domain. My gut tells me they'll find the search box very popular and roll it out to all users soon enough.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 19, 2009, 8:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Bryan Eisenberg Publishes Comprehensive Google Analytics Guide

Bryan Eisenberg has published a comprehensive Google Analytics guide on his company's blog. It consists of links to some of the best information about Google Analytics out there, from Google itself to various online marketing blogs.

The post also contains videos as well as links to, well, more videos. From initial setup and goal setting to internal search and campaign tracking, Eisenberg covers the bases.

Check out the Missing Google Analytics Manual here.

Related Reading:
Google Analytics Unveils 7 Major Updates
Website Optimizer Now Tracks with Google Analytics Code GA.js
Google Analytics Releases Urchin 6.5 with AdWords Integration
Updated Google Analytics Code Fixes Rare JavaScript Message
Track Google Rankings With Google Analytics
Google Analytics Now Tracks Flash Content

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 18, 2009, 3:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Happy Fifth Birthday to Yahoo! Search

Five years ago, Yahoo! stopped using Google-powered results and embarked on their own search product. It's been one heck of a journey.

Yahoo! highlighted the following milestones on their blog:

Opened search infrastructure and index to outside developers with BOSS.
Opened search results page to outside innovation with SearchMonkey.
Launched Search Assist, still the most sophisticated query assistance technology on the Web.
Launched a suite of mobile search products including Yahoo! oneSearch.
Acquired, grew, and improved Delicious, a social bookmarking tool.
Launched Site Explorer to help site owners to manage their presence on Yahoo! Search.
Protected users from potential viruses, spyware, and spam with SearchScan.
Integrated music and video players directly on the search results page.

Many of the above things were rolled out over the past, tumultuous year that began with an unsolicited (and ultimately unsuccessful) acquisition attempt by Microsoft and ended with Jerry Yang stepping down as CEO and Autodesk Chairman Carol Bartz stepping in to lead the purple people.

Will she successfully guide them to achieve the following, future-thinking goals?

Continuing to open search results page and infrastructure to improve search and encourage innovation in the industry.
Focusing on detecting and responding better to query intent.
Breaking the ten-blue-links paradigm by developing a richer, more adaptive search results page.
Making it easier to conduct and share online research with Search Pad.
Delivering a new and better advertising experience that improves relevance for users and ROI for advertisers.

I, for one, would love to see Yahoo! Search rise and take more search market share. I love Autodesk as a company (my husband is an AutoCAD programmer for a commerical kitchen hood company) and if anyone can bring a innovativeboost to Yahoo!, it's Carol Bartz. Innovation, which is about the only way anyone will steal market share from Google, is always great for consumers.

Viva la Yahoo! and may the next 5 years be good to the Sunnyvale search engine.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 18, 2009, 2:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Google Wins Privacy Suit Regarding Street View

Last year a Pittsburgh couple sued Google because they deemed Street View of their house a violation of their privacy. Now, the judge in the case disagrees with the couple.

As many have pointed out, their case has actually brought more attention to their home. Also, the couple says Street View devalued their home, a claim that would be hard to prove. In the past year, many have seen their home's value decline, but it's due to the economy and mortgage crisis, not Google Street View.

Related Reading:
Google Street View Aids Cops in Finding Missing Child
Street View and Walking Directions Added to Google Maps for Mobile
Google Releases Updates to Google Earth; Includes Street View

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 18, 2009, 2:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

UPDATE: Facebook Returns to Old Terms of Service

After the uproar over Facebook's change in their Terms of Service, Zuckerberg and company have returned to the old TOS. This is mostly a huge misunderstanding and Facebook is still working on a new TOS.

Zuckerberg is like Jerry Yang - good with the coding and programming, not so great with the communication and leadership. Hopefully, Zuck will fix this before Facebook ends up like Yahoo. (Did I mention Microsoft has a stake in Facebook - oh and a search partnership?)

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 18, 2009, 12:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

An Open Letter to the Woman Who Sued Yahoo Over Results for Her Name

Dear Woman,

Like you, I have an unusual name. In fact, I've only been able to find one other person with my name and she works in the public schools in Philadelphia (last time I checked).

I really wish I had a chance to speak with you before you filed suit. It's not Yahoo's fault that your name turned up results for porn and malware. Yahoo only crawl's the sites that are out there, and that would have been easier to change than filling out legal paperwork.

When I got married and acquired the last name Johnson, I decided to have a little fun and get the first page of Google results to rank for me instead of the woman in Philadelphia. It didn't take long. The poor woman is now banished to the last result on page 3 of Yahoo and nowhere on the first 5 pages of Google (I got tired of looking).

"Nathania Johnson" is not exactly a competitive keyword phrase and neither is was your name, "Beverly Stayart." All you had to do was get a bunch of social media accounts and put your full name on it. That's what I did. Blogspot and Flickr are good ones. Heck, having an account on SEOmoz will rank. Commenting on popular blogs helps, too.

Buying the URL with your name in it and publishing some fresh content helps big time.

If you really want to go the extra mile, you could have gotten all your friends to link to those sites with your name being the anchor text. Don't do too many all at once or the search bots will get suspicious. Then again, they also wouldn't have cared so much about such a little searched term as your name.

Now, a search for your name is filled with a bunch of links to sites talking about your legal case. It only took a day for that to happen, but going forward, it will be very difficult to change that. Ask any company with a negative result in the search for their name and they'll tell you how difficult it is to change this. That's why we do posts on reputation management.

I'm sorry that your name returned porn and malware sites. There is a reason Yahoo is number 2 - and I mean a distant number 2 - when it comes to search engine share.

I'm afraid you're likely to use your case. But if your true goal is to have better results for your name, do read the posts you find here at Search Engine Watch on a regular basis.

Sincerely,
Nathania Johnson

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 18, 2009, 11:02 AM | Permalink

Google Maps Now Shows More Than 10 Results

Oh, happy day! Have you ever searched for a local business on Google Maps and wished you got more than 10 results at a time? Well, now the Google genie has granted your wish.

Conduct a search now and see a bunch of tiny red dots all showing where results related to your search are located. I love this feature because it shows me all of the possibilities for what I'm searching for - in the location I'm searching for.

Before, if I did a search, it might show results scattered all around town, and I would have to click through tens or hundreds of results to see what's available in a specific area of town.

Right now, this is only available for maps.google.com, but expect it to roll out to other mapping products in the future (Mobile please!!!)

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 18, 2009, 8:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Fuss Over Facebook: Hype or Cause for Concern?

Recently, Facebook changed its terms of service and it's caused such an uproar, even the mainstream media is covering it. Thankfully, Carlos Longino over at Techdirt cuts through the hyperbole to explain what's really going on:

Some Facebook users are in an uproar after the site changed its terms of service to say that it retains a license to users' content after they delete their account. As the company's founder, Mark Zuckerberg, explains, this change simply clarifies the point that actions on Facebook can create two copies of content. He says that when users add a friend or send a message, for instance, it generates two copies of the action: one for the user on each side. So say a user sends a message to a friend, then later deletes their account; the new TOS language clarifies that Facebook doesn't have to delete that message from their friend's inbox.

Privacy mongers, have no fear. Lately, Facebook has been littered with memes that ultimately drove MySpace to its current irrelevance.

Still, this isn't the first time Facebook has goofed up privacy issues. Despite the faux pas, Facebook has over 150 million members.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 18, 2009, 12:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

How to Go Viral on Twitter: The Science of ReTweeting

Dan Zarrella has been studying one of the most crucial aspects of Twitter: the ReTweet. This is when Twitterers repost something that another Twitterer has posted in their stream. Zarrella's findings can help you go viral on Twitter.

One of the most important findings is a basic marketing method that has been used across channels: the call to action. Tweets that flat-out ask for a ReTweet are more likely to, you guessed it, get ReTweeted.

So what's most likely to get ReTweeted? Freebies, lists, blog posts and meta Tweets (i.e. Tweets about Twitter).

Another interesting statistic is who is more likely to be ReTweeted. The most Tweeted users are:

1. StatSheet (1515.92)
2. yrtv (420.244)
3. MacHeist (386.29)
4. kshashi (313.207)
5. abcinnercircle (273.789)

If you can get a highly ReTweeted user to post something about you, then you're more likely to go viral on Twitter.

(Of course, like pitching bloggers, you'll have to be extremely delicate - covert, really - in how you go about doing this. You'll need to strike a relationship and offer something of value that will benefit the Twitter user.)

Last but not least are two final tips. If you want a ReTweet, include a link in your original Tweet. 65% of ReTweets include a link. Also, post those original Tweets during regular business hours. Most ReTweets occur between 8am and 5pm, peaking in the afternoon at around 3pm EST.

via Mashable

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 17, 2009, 11:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Yahoo! to Launch New, Comprehensive Mobile Portal

Yahoo! will launch a new mobile experience called, wait for it, Yahoo! Mobile. It will be available via mobile web and downloadable mobile applications for the iPhone as well as smartphones powered Nokia, RIM, Samsung, Sony Ericsson and Motorola. An app will also be available for smartphones with the Windows Mobile operating system.

Yahoo! Mobile will feature a ton of stuff including:

Yahoo! oneSearch - Yahoo!'s award-winning mobile search service providing the most current, relevant answers you need.
Today - The most interesting stories buzzing on the Internet right now, selected by Yahoo!'s editorial team.
Yahoo! oneConnect - Yahoo!'s service designed to provide consumers everything they need to stay in touch with the people about whom they care:

Email - Access to Yahoo! Mail and other popular email service providers, including Gmail, Windows Live Hotmail and AOL Mail.
Pulse - Access totheir social networks, including Bebo, Dopplr, Facebook, Flickr, Friendster, Last.fm, MySpace, Twitter and YouTube.
Yahoo! Messenger - An upgraded version of Yahoo!'s popular mobile instant messaging service.
Yahoo! Address Book - Keeps consumers' contacts always handy and in sync.
Yahoo! Calendar - View, add and edit appointments when users are away from their PCs.

Yahoo! News - Breaking headlines across popular topics.

Yahoo! onePlace

Smartphone apps will include:

Yahoo! oneSearch with Voice - Allowing users to launch searches by simply speaking.
Maps - Powerful improved tools that let consumers locate, learn about and get directions to points of interest.
Opera Mini 4.2 - An integrated version of the world's most popular mobile web browser, with easy return to the Yahoo! Mobile app, that launches when web site access is needed.
Widgets - Enhanced mobile-optimized experiences for services from Yahoo! and other brands. Users can browse, add and remove these at anytime according to their tastes.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 17, 2009, 11:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Second Android Phone Unveiled at Mobile World Congress

The second phone using Google's Android mobile operating system has been unveiled at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Like the G1, this one is manufactured by HTC. Dubbed the "HTC Magic," the phone will be made available by Vodafone in UK, Germany, Spain and France. It will also be made available in Italy, but with non-exclusive carrier rights.

The Magic has no keyboard (whereas the G1 does have one), meaning typing will occur on the touchscreen only. It boasts a 3.2 inch screen and trackball.

The first Android phone, G1, was first released by T-mobile in the US last November.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 17, 2009, 10:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

SEW Experts: Ignorance: The Trouble with People Who Claim SEO is Snake Oil

Search Engine Watch Expert - Mark Jackson URL structure makes a difference in SEO, but it's just one of many things! Ignorant columnists making false claims about topics they don't understand are bogus! In today's organic search engine optimization column, "Ignorance: The Trouble with People Who Claim SEO is Snake Oil," Mark Jackson asks if writing an "interesting" and "provocative" column about SEO means facts are optional.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on February 17, 2009, 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

SEW Experts: Marketing your SMB with Time and Elbow Grease

Search Engine Watch Expert - Carrie Hill It's pretty obvious everyone is hurting and everyone is tightening their belts where they can. One of the hardest things to grasp as a small business owner is where to tighten that belt, and how tight is too tight. In today's small business search engine marketing column, "Marketing your SMB with Time & Elbow Grease, Part 1," Carrie Hill begins the first in a series of articles that will give actionable advice on how to improve your rankings or revenue from search with no dollar investments -- aside from the time and effort it takes to research and implement these changes.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on February 17, 2009, 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Aussies Show Facebook Can Become Dangerous Kangaroo Court

Following the devastating bush fires in Victoria, Australia, an alleged arsonist has come under fire from Facebook users that have threatened even lynching. The legal system will prosecute him but the kangaroo court being held on Facebook could have its own legal problems, according to ABC News.

"The creators of internet groups calling for the torture of the man accused of lighting one of the deadly Victorian bushfires could face prosecution for breaching a court order.

Members of the networking site, Facebook, have created groups calling for 39-year-old Brendan Sokaluk to be "burnt at the stake" after he was charged with arson causing death.

The Facebook groups contain photographs of Sokaluk, which is in breach of a suppression order," ABC News reported.

This is a great example of how social media can go really wrong, and with the ability to spread information quickly it can cause problems that legal authorities may not be able to react to quickly enough.

Posted by Frank Watson on February 16, 2009, 6:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Google Testing SearchWiki For Adwords

Search Engine Roundtable and Webmaster World have started a discussion of Google's testing of a SearchWiki for Adwords. The addition would give users the ability to push certain paid ads down similar to what they are offering for organic search results.

The screen shot was grabbed by a Webmaster World user but later edited out though Barry Schwartz included it in his post at SERoundtable.com. The comments about this are interesting as they suggest they could be used to impact paid results.

Something tells me Google will allow individuals to drop the presentation of ads on a personal basis - like an iGoogle type of thing. Could they eventually watch trends and one day use them for Quality Scores? Yes, but that would be a very foolish move and one that would then open them up to manipulation.

The discussion of the situation on Sphinn is amusing to say the least. Well-known marketer Fantomaster starts the comments with "Yep - Negative SEO goes PPC. What another great Google idea!"

Then Marty Weintraub of AimClear replies "@fantomaster: Jup, just line em' up and knock em off like shooting rats with a bbGun."

Following those two amusing comments the gates opened and all sorts of rumors and thoughts of gaming Adwords. If Google were to use any of this as feedback it is obvious gaming would run rampant and not the 1% one Sphinner suggests. Adwords is too big of a game and too important to major online advertisers for it to be open to such manipulation.

Interestingly Google has yet to enter into the fray.

Posted by Frank Watson on February 16, 2009, 4:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Microsoft Unveils Mobile App Marketplace, My Phone, Windows Mobile 6.5

When covering search news, the lines are increasingly getting a bit blurred. Google, the search mammoth, does much more than "just" search. Yahoo's best performing properties are its portal pages. Microsoft started out in software.

Google launched a mobile platform Android, which competes with Microsoft competitor Apple, who of course has seen great success with the iPhone.

The iPhone has truly advanced adoption of the mobile web - and mobile search. But Microsoft was in the game before Apple or Google with Windows Mobile. There have been app markets for Windows Mobile for years, something that is largely unknown, save for the early mobile adopters.

Microsoft, of course, will not just sit by and watch the Google/Apple dominance occur. Instead, they are revamping their game. Today at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Microsoft announced a new marketplace for Windows Mobile apps. There are over 20,000 apps that have beend eveloped over the years. The marketplace will make them easier to find.

Microsoft also introduced the newest version of Windows Mobile, which is 6.5. Last but not least they annouced My Phone, which enables PC/phone syncing.

Incidentally, Google announced its mobile syncing feature last week. They also opened the Android mobile app marketplace to paid apps.

Many mobile apps are all about helping users find what they need or want. You guessed it - SEARCH. And with projections for mobile web traffic showing skyrocketing increases by 2013, new players may appear on the scene. Anyone who has wondered who can catch or beat Google may want to watch this space carefully.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 16, 2009, 3:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Google Launches 'Conversion Room' Blog

Google has launched a new blog that is dedicated to improving conversions. Dubbed the "Conversion Room," the new blog is run by European Googlers. In addition to providing tips that are useful to a global audience, the Conversion Room will highlight events taking place in Europe.

So far, the blog offers tips on keywords and the most recent post talks about installing site search and tracking the results.

Of course, we'll keep providing search marketing news and expert advice right here at Search Engine Watch. For a broader look at online marketing, check out our sister site, ClickZ.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 16, 2009, 3:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

adCenter Offers Limited Release of Desktop Application

Microsoft launched an adCenter desktop application last June, but only to a closed beta. Now, the tool is opening up to a larger number of advertisers.

U.S. and Canadian advertisers with 100,000 keywords or less in their combined adCenter campaigns are now eligible to use the tool. Advertisers in the U.K. and France will get the tool soon, as well.

Microsoft is also prepping the adCenter desktop for advertisers with a larger number of keywords. They hope to have it ready by this summer.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 16, 2009, 3:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yahoo! Gives Update on Home Page Testing

Yahoo! says they're at the end of the first stage of testing their home page. As a result, they're making 25 additional apps available for the "My Apps" section. Included are apps for Forbes.com and Wired.com.

In the works are ways to more easily access email and instant messaging. Also, the dark color that was initially used on the left sidebar didn't test well, so now they're testing other colors.

Testing for the new home page began last fall. Apps were actually added to the Yahoo! home page last September. An eBay app was made available last November.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 16, 2009, 2:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SEO, Inc. Teaches Search Marketing Classes at UCSD

This week, SEO, Inc. is teaching a search marketing course at University of California, San Diego. The course runs 3 days, February 17, 18 and 19 from 8:30am to 5pm and is 2.5 hours of credit.

Topics include:

Website architecture
Competitive intelligence
Optimizing code
Keyword selection
SEO copywriting
Link building

"As more and more small business owners are becoming aware of what SEO is and why they should be doing it, we are gaining more and more interest in this course," said Garry Grant, CEO of SEO Inc. "This our third semester teaching the course at UCSD, and I anticipate student interest will keep it a part of the university's catalog on a continuing basis. SEO is a valuable tool that can be used in any business segment or industry."

Of course, marketing professionals can also attend the upcoming SES New York. It won't count for college credit, but the knowledge and networking can certainly advance your career.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 16, 2009, 12:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Website Optimizer Now Tracks with Google Analytics Code GA.js

Here's an especially geeky post for all you search tech types out there. Google Website Optimizer, a tool for landing page testing, was tracking visitors using Google Analytics code. They were using an old version of the code, urchin.js.

Now they're using a newer version of the code, ga.js. If you're using code with the old urchin.js, don't panic - you're tests will run fine. For more info on the Google Analytics code, click here.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 16, 2009, 11:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SEW Experts: Social Media Marketing (SMO) 101, Part 1

Search Engine Watch Expert - Ron Jones Before you begin any kind of social media marketing, I highly recommend setting up an account and jumping into a conversation or community. It's one thing to talk about social media, and another to experience it firsthand. In today's SEM 101 column, "Social Media Marketing (SMO) 101, Part 1," Ron Jones outlines some basic types of social media sites.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on February 16, 2009, 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SEW Experts: The Best of Outsourced: 10 Greatest Hits

Search Engine Watch Expert - William Flaiz In today's SEM agency issues column, "The Best of Outsourced: 10 Greatest Hits," William Flaiz bids farewell to Search Engine Watch by revisiting some of the hottest topics in search marketing agencies from the past 18 months.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on February 16, 2009, 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

NZ Guilt Upon Accusation Act Prompts Blackout Protest

If you see black avatars on Twitter or blacked out MySpace and Facebook profiles it is not some glitch or virus, but a protest against amendment 92 to the New Zealand Copyright Act of 1994.

Apparently ISPs have the ability, no the imperative to take down any content accused of copyright infringement. The people accused will have their internet connection severed, stories have reported,

"TelstraClear’s (one of the largest ISPs in New Zealand) head of corporate services, Mathew Bolland, says from November 1, if TelstraClear hosts a website and someone phones up complaining that site has breached their copyright, TelstraClear will have to take the site down.

“We don’t check or verify,” he says. “We take it down,” New Zealand's CompterWorld reported.

The GeekZone reports, "What's more, under the new law, anyone who provides any form of services over the Internet is an ISP. That means libraries, councils, schools, businesses, government offices, you name it" could be dropped.

British actor Stephen Fry (@StephenFry) has supported the protest and hopes many of his 190,000 plus Twitter followers do the same.

Creative Freedom explains how to black out the social media in an effort to impact the act which could become law "February 28th that calls for internet disconnection based on accusations of copyright infringement without a trial and without any evidence held up to court scrutiny."

Perhaps this could be the first true test of the power of social media. The protest is to occur from February 16-23 - my avatar is blacked out on Twitter in support - now let's see who else joins and what effect it has.

Interestingly similar acts have failed to get support in the EU and the UK.

Posted by Frank Watson on February 15, 2009, 10:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Apple Pie & Custard Shares Recipe for Success at SES London

I’m getting ready to fly over to attend Search Engine Strategies London next week. But before I left Boston, I checked the latest blog buzz and found Apple Pie & Custard’s recipe for success at the must-attend event.

SES%20London%202008%20agenda.jpg What is Apple Pie & Custard? It’s a UK Blog about search engine marketing, social media and pay per click marketing. And I’ve just added the blog to my bookmarks.

Written by more than half a dozen members of the Site Visibility team, the blog has gone above and beyond the call of duty to prepare its readers for next week’s conference and expo, which will be held at the Business Design Centre, 52 Upper Street, Islington, from Feb. 17 to 20.

Just check out some of the posts from the past few days:

Kelvin Newman posted, “How To Justify The Price Of Your Ticket to SES London 2009 With Just One Question.” According to Kelvin, if you’ve already done the hard work and convinced your boss to buy you a ticket to SES London, then you need to make sure you come back and convince them it was worth the money. And he gives you tips and how to do that.

Gareth posted, “TÃªte-Ã -tÃªte with the President of Trellian Europe Maxime Grandchamp.” Gareth interviews the president of Trellian Europe, who is also co-author of an SEO book “le guide de’l optimization” and will be speaking at Search Engine Strategies London next week.

Zac posted, “E-interview with the SEO Don of Cheapflights.co.uk, Richard Baxter.” This is another great preview of what one of the SES conference speakers plans to tell us.

Nikki Ashley posted, “Beginners guide to SES London.” If you are attending SES London for the first time, read her tips on making the most of the time you spend at the conference.

Zac posted, “Candle Light Email Chats with the Conversion Rate Expert Ben Jesson.” Yet another sneak peak of what one of the Search Engine Strategies conference speakers plans to say, it concludes that conversion rate optimization is the most important opportunity for the majority of web businesses.

Finally, Zac posted, “Electronic Fireside Discussions with Napster Marketing Director Jeff Ferguson.” This is the final in the series of interviews with SES conference speakers.

After reading this, I’m ready for Search Engine Strategies London 2009. I’ve got a good sense of what the top stories will be at the show and who the top newsmakers are that I should interview for the SESConferenceExpo’s Channel on YouTube.

Thanks, Apple Pie & Custard for sharing your secret recipe for success.

Posted by Greg Jarboe on February 13, 2009, 4:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Google Opens Android Marketes to Paid Apps

FTC Updates Online Behavioral Ad Policy; Google Approves

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has updated their online behavioral ad policy. The report, which maintains a self-regulatory stance, got a unanimous vote with some concerns voiced by Commissioners Jon Leibowitz and Pamela Jones Harbour.

“This staff report, while commendable, focuses too narrowly,” Harbour said. “Threats to consumer privacy abound, both online and offline, and behavioral advertising represents just one aspect of a multifaceted privacy conundrum surrounding data collection and use. I would prefer that the Commission take a more comprehensive approach to privacy, and evaluate behavioral advertising within that broader context.”

“Industry needs to do a better job of meaningful, rigorous self-regulation, or it will certainly invite legislation by Congress and a more regulatory approach by our Commission,” Leibowitz said. “Put simply, this could be the last clear chance to show that self-regulation can – and will – effectively protect consumers’ privacy in a dynamic online marketplace.”

In response, Google agreed with the report as well as with Commissioners Harbour and Leibowitz.

Writing on the Google Public Policy blog, Senior Policy Counsel Pablo Chavez said, "We agree with the statements of Commissioners Liebowitz and Harbour that individual companies and industry generally can and should do more to protect user privacy. Google will continue to engage in efforts to develop strong self-regulatory principles and will will continue to advocate for comprehensive federal privacy legislation."

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 13, 2009, 12:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sony Re-Signs Contract With YouTube

Recently, the contracts that major recording labels have with YouTube have come up for renewal. But there was some speculation that the labels might not renew because they were no longer happy with the terms that YouTube was setting.

Now, at least one of those labels, Sony, has re-signed a contract with the popular online video site. The terms of the deal have not been released.

In the past, YouTube and the record labels have had an ad-sharing agreement. But after Warner pulled their vids from YouTube, news broke that the labels were negotiating to create a Hulu-like music video site.

Whether that happens or not, it appears there's still some value in keeping music videos on the most trafficked video site in the world.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 13, 2009, 12:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Duplicated Confusion: The Canonical Edict from the Big Three

So virtually everyone has weighed in on the new instructions from Google, Yahoo and Microsoft. Apparently there should be joy in the cesspool today - the search gods have shown us the way to clean up part of the confusion with canonical pages in our industry.

Okay, I know that sounds a little cynical, but like the no follow tag from a few years ago - it falls upon the web site owners to clean up the search engines' databases. Many knowledgeable site owners have already done a lot of this work in one form or another - though users of most dynamic sites have had a problem with multiple urls pointing to the same content (the same page really arrived at through different urls).

Interestingly even the engines themselves seem to have different views on what this new tag means. If you read the three announcements you could almost be excused for thinking they were describing different things.

Yahoo wins the most confusing explanation, while Google adds art that really adds little unless you need visuals of the same page with different text pointing to it - but does do a decent job of simplifying the instructions, but Microsoft does it briefly and clearly then tells us they will be implementing it "sometime in the near future."

It sort of reflects the positions each has in the search space. Google with their monster share see us as children, Yahoo as number two tries harder, while Microsoft gives it the same attention it gives to its flagging search percentage - short but sweet.

To be fair Yahoo may offer the most thorough explanation (you just may have to read it a couple of times) and points out a caution "if URL A marks B as canonical, and B marks C as canonical, we'll treat C as canonical for both A and B, though we will break infinite chains and other issues."

Interestingly, if they had published a shared announcement they would have given an example of what many people think of when they hear the term duplicate content - the same copy/text/content on different websites. This is not about that issue.

It can, however act as a 301 redirect within a domain - good for removing those www.domain, domain.com, domain.com/index.html etc problems, but not from one domain to another domain

However, this tag "defines a relationship between a document and an external resource" as Microsoft states. The fact that they are calling it a link tag scares me a little, just like the no follow one did when it came out.

People are going to get this wrong, just like they did the no follow and it will dramatically impact sites. But, I suppose we can feel okay because none of the engines have committed to using it 100%.

Google has already stated there will be penalties for anyone using it to game their results.

Thanks should go to Vanessa Fox for a solid interpretation "this tag will only work with very similar or identical content, so you can't use it to send all of the link value from the less important pages of your site to the more important ones.

If tags conflict (such as pages point to each other as canonical, the URL specified as canonical redirects to a non-canonical version, or the page specified as canonical doesn't exist), search engines will sort things out just as they do now, and will determine which URL they think is the best canonical version."

Kudos to Joost de Valk for his same day roll out of plugins for WordPress, Drupal and Magento E-Commerce. He did have a few days advanced notice but the effort will be much appreciated by many.

There have been a bunch of posts about this, so mine is just another, and comments throughout Twitter. I am not as enthusiastic as Rand Fishkin who sees it as "the most important advancement in SEO since sitemaps." Guess I would be closer to Mikkel deMib's view posted on Twitter. "The new canonical tag is like adding a cheap layer of pain to a crappy car. Sorry guys, it doesn't make the car much better!"

It will be interesting to get more opinions on all this next week at SES London.

Posted by Frank Watson on February 13, 2009, 4:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Google Dropping Radio Ads, Selling Radio Automation Business

Spring has come a little early for Google, as their spring cleaning continues with the dropping of radio ads from AdWords and AdSense announced today, the company announced today.

The dropping of Print Ads last week and search box from Gmail, now this, will Susan Wojcicki, VP of Product Management be having a garage sale?

When the program first launched, Google saw the product as a sound and smart investment.

"Google Audio Ads brings efficiency, accountability, and enhanced ROI to radio advertising by providing advertisers with an online interface for creating and launching radio campaigns. You'll be able to target your customers by location, station type, day of the week, and time of day. After the radio ads are run, you will be able to view online reports that tell you exactly when your ad played," Inside AdWords noted.

But three years later that has all changed.

"So we have decided to exit the broadcast radio business and focus our efforts in online streaming audio. We will phase out the existing Google Audio Ads and AdSense for Audio products and plan to sell the Google Radio Automation business, the software that automates broadcast radio programming. Advertisers will continue to be able to use Google Audio Ads until May 31 and broadcasters will be able to publish inventory to Google until that date as well. We will work with partners to make sure that there is as little disruption to their business as possible and will work to find a buyer for the Google Radio Automation business," the Traditional Media blog stated.

At least they have given people some notice. I have a friend that just spent some money on developing radio ads to use on the product - has a little over three months to get a return on that investment. Meanwhile Google very subtley added the announcement that 40 employees from that product group would be laid off.

"We regret the impact these plans will have on the Googlers working on these projects. We hope to find other roles for the majority of the people concerned and will work to make that happen over the next couple of months. However, given that we are exiting the broadcast radio ad business and selling the Radio Automation business, we expect that up to 40 people may not be able to find other roles at Google."

In 2006 Google bought dMarc - the radio automation software company - for $102 million, we will have to see what they get when the divest themselves of it.

Posted by Frank Watson on February 12, 2009, 9:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

YouTube Tests Downloading; Offers Creative Commons

In the ongoing effort to monetize, YouTube is now testing letting partners offer downloadable videos. Partners can allow downloads for free or for pay via Google Checkout, which requires a fee.

Partners testing the free downloads are educational, including Stanford, Duke, UC Berkeley and UCTV. Partners testing the paid downloads include users khanacademy, householdhacker and pogobat.

Here's a screenshot of a video by householdhacker. Notice the download link below the bottom left corner of the video.

Done right, this could prove quite lucrative for YouTube. Assuming this eventually gets opened up to more partners/users, it could prove quite the competitor for iTunes. But Google is much more open than Apple and many more users would have an opportunity to pursue revenue streams via YouTube.

In fact, bundled with today's download announcement is news that YouTube is now offering Creative Commons licenses for those of you out there who "get it" and don't mind sharing your work.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 12, 2009, 12:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Google News Offers 8 Tips on How to Make Your Site Crawlable

Online news publishers will want to take note of eight tips that Google News is offering to help them better index your site. Here they are:

Keep the article body clean - keeping the content close to the title in the html and not breaking it up with a bunch of tags and other code will make it more likely that the correct content gets indexed
Make sure article URLs are permanent and unique
Take advantage of stock tickers in Sitemaps
Check your encoding - make sure it's consistent and uniform
Make your article publication dates explicit
Keep original content separate from press releases
Format your images properly - use large images (JPEGs are crawled better) with "reasonable" aspect rations as well as descriptive captions.
Article Titles in Google News - be sure to have the title in both the title tag and as the headline of the page

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

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 12, 2009, 12:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Yet Another Yahoo! Heads to Microsoft

Larry Heck, the vice president of Search & Advertising Sciences at Yahoo Labs, has been wooed by Microsoft. And when he gets there, he'll be surrounded by a few familiar faces. Heck is just the latest in a stream of Yahoos leaving the purple behind for employment with the Redmond-based software giant.

Sean Suchter, Qi Lu and most recently, Scott Moore have all departed Yahoo! for Microsoft.

Steve Ballmer may not be interested in acquiring Yahoo as a company any longer, but it appears that Plan B has been to acquire search-related employees instead. That leaves Carol Bartz will less leverage if she indeed wants to strike some kind of deal - even a partnership or a search-only sell-off - with Microsoft.

Then again, since it was widely speculated that Yahoo's woes were management-related, maybe Bartz knows best that saying goodbye to a few execs is a good thing for Yahoo afterall.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 12, 2009, 9:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Google Friend Connect Launches "Social Bar"

Google Friend Connect is a tool that helps web developers add social networking to their sites. Thankfully, Google realizes that adding such functionality can take up precious page real estate. Their solution to such design woes is a feature they're calling the "Social Bar."

The social bar is basically a social toolbar, but instead of residing in the browser, it resides on your website. It can be placed at the top or the bottom or your site. It enables drop-down menus to host widgets, a space saver indeed.

Here's a screenshot of the social bar and below that is a basic introduction to adding social bar to your site.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 12, 2009, 8:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SEW Experts: Solve Your Call Tracking Problems Now!

Search Engine Watch Expert - Sage Lewis Tracking calls has long been seen as a Holy Grail of tracking promotions. The good news? That Holy Grail is available and possible for marketers of every size. In today's online promotion & link building column, "Solve Your Call Tracking Problems Now!," Sage Lewis outlines some call-tracking options for both large and small advertisers.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on February 12, 2009, 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SEW Experts: One PPC Landing Page, Infinite Faces

Search Engine Watch Expert - David Szetela Creating custom landing pages for PPC ads can help boost your conversion rates by percentage points. In today's Profitable PPC column, "One PPC Landing Page, Infinite Faces," David Szetela shares a few simple lines of code, with which a landing page can be created with content that can be changed by marketers depending on the link that the user clicked on.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on February 12, 2009, 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Google Drops Search Web Option In Gmail

Seems Google has silently dropped the search the web option in Gmail and I am wondering if that could be the reason it has been so buggy today.

Everyone I have spoken to about their Gmail connection today has told me it has been on and off all day. Then I see the Web Search button is gone.

Guys I know you are trying to cut back but why even bother. I use it a little but was that link causing that much in hosting?

Or do you just plan to spam me with what you think I might like. Got to love those spam recipes I see occasionally at the top.

Posted by Frank Watson on February 11, 2009, 6:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)

Yahoo! to Charge Developers for BOSS; Releases Structured Data

Yahoo! has announced that they will begin charging developers for their use of BOSS. It won't take effect until sometime in the second quarter at the earliers. They also won't be charging for the first 10,000 API calls per day (depending on the call).

Yahoo! is also releasing SearchMonkey structured data to BOSS developers. Yahoo! gets this data by crawling microformats and RDF, which include embedded semantic markup. Now, API users can access this data.

BOSS was launched last year and it gives web developers the ability to build search engines for websites using Yahoo's search technology.

SearchMonkey was also launched last year to let site owners develop custom listings for search results. So far, several of these listings (aka apps) have been set to default in Yahoo's listings including Yelp, LinkedIn, and Wikipedia.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 11, 2009, 1:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Nielson Online Releases January 2009 Search Engine Share Rankings

Google experience 40% year-over-year growth in the number of searches in January 2009, according to Nielsen Online. Live Search experienced 18% year-over-year growth, but gained 2 percentage points over last month. Yahoo! grew a modest 8.7% year-over year, while the overall growth for all search engines was 27.5%.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 11, 2009, 10:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Twitter Not Planning to Charge for Commercial Use

It's always a little weird to report non-news, but it's generally interesting nonetheless. A flurry of recent news reports have said that popular social media chat network Twitter will soon begin charging for commercial use of the tool.

Not so, says co-founder Biz Stone. Over at the Twitter blog, he allayed fears that his company would start charging for brands to Tweet.

It's important to note that whatever we come up with, Twitter will remain free to use by everyone—individuals, companies, celebrities, etc. What we're thinking about is adding value in places where we are already seeing traction, not imposing fees on existing services. We are still very early in the idea stage and we don't have anything to share just yet despite a recent surge in speculation. When we do, we'll be sure to let you know.

Twitter will need to figure out how to monetize their wildly popular service, but for now, they're being supported by investors. They have been testing ads in Japan, but so far, no ads are included in the U.S. Twitter.

Related Reading:
Twitter Brings Back People Search
Google Friend Connect Adds Twitter
Zappos + Twitter = Innovative Success!
Twitter's Glory Days

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 11, 2009, 8:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Google Unveils Adsense for Mobile Search

Google has launched AdSense for Mobile Search. This enables mobile website developers to place a Google search box on their sites. The search box can be co-branded with a site's brand and logo. They can generate revenue through the text link ads included in the search results.

The program is available in a private beta-test only. If you're interested in becoming a beta-tester, click here to apply.

Google launched Adsense for mobile content in September of 2007. Last December, Google began offering mobile AdWords offerings for the iPhone and G1.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 11, 2009, 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SES London 2009 Squeezes Mini Site Clinics into Crowded Agenda

If you think next week’s conference agenda for SES London 2009 was already packed with sessions, check out the trade show floor. The organizers have added Mini Site Clinics during the networking lunch and afternoon break in the Expo Hall.

SES%20London%202008%20Expo%20trade%20show%20floor.jpg Shari Thurow, the Founder and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Director at Omni Marketing Interactive, will be holding an “Express Search Usability Clinic” on Tuesday, Feb. 17, from noon to 1 p.m., and again on Wednesday, Feb. 18, from 3 to 4 p.m. You can get one-on-one advice for usability, design, copy, link development, and any technical issues that may prevent your Web site from receiving high quality search engine traffic and visitor conversions.

Matt Bailey, the President of Site Logic Marketing, will be discussing “Small Changes, Big Results” on Tuesday, Feb. 17, from 3 to 4 p.m., and again on Wednesday, Feb. 19, from 1 to 2 p.m. If you need some help, or just another pair of eyes to check your website, the Express Clinic with Bailey will help you identify minor changes in your website that could provide major results. If you are particularly daring, bring the access to your analytics (if they are hosted online), and he will really dive in!

Both Mini Site Clinics will be held in the exhibit hall in Booth 101. As you prepare to take advantage of this added bonus, all you need to do is figure out how to grab lunch and then get to these PowerPoint free, interactive clinics, which are “first-come, first-served.”

But if you can successfully navigate your way around Piccadilly Circus, then you are up for the challenge of the Business Design Centre. Don't miss the opportunity to visit the Expo Hall, take in an Express Site Clinic, and get your Web site reviewed live by one of the SEO experts at SES.

And while you are in the exhibit hall, check out the growing list of sponsors and exhibitors. There are companies like Adfero DirectNews, Efficient Frontier, MakeMeTop, and WebCertain, which exhibited last year are back again this year.

For example, last year I interviewed Andy Atkins-Krueger of WebCertain about multilingual tongue-twisting, polyglot poker, and the more serious aspects of organic seo and paid search optimiztion when operating internationally. Oh, and Kia from the PR team finished the video with a flambouyant Finnish flourish of a finale.

Andy Atkins-Krueger, WebCertain, at SES London on YouTube

And this year, there are a whole bunch of new companies exhibiting at SES London 2009, including: Acquisio, Digital Clarity, Direct Traffic Media, IAB Search Council, Indus Net Technologies, Jellyfish, Microsoft AdCenter, Platform-A, PRWeb, SCL Analytics, and WebTrends. I plan to interview some of these exhibitors next week for the SESConferenceExpo’s Channel on YouTube.

Posted by Greg Jarboe on February 11, 2009, 2:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SEW Experts: Getting Buy-In Is A Crucial First Step in Enterprise SEO

Search Engine Watch Expert - Eric Enge Because of their size and complexity, large organizations face some big challenges to planning and implementing an SEO strategy. In today's Web analytics and ROI column, "Getting Buy-In Is A Crucial First Step in Enterprise SEO," Eric Enge explains that, because the SEO is the newcomer, and the peculiar requirements of search engine optimization aren't generally understood, the SEO must first be the evangelist/teacher to the rest of the organization.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on February 11, 2009, 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SEW Experts: Top 5 SEM Industry Frustrations

Search Engine Watch Expert - Kevin Ryan In today's Searching for Meaning column, "Top 5 SEM Industry Frustrations," Kevin Ryan shares some of the top frustrations from practitioners in the search engine marketing trade.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on February 11, 2009, 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Microsoft Integrates FAST Search with Existing Enterprise Search Offerings

Last year, Microsoft acquired Norway-based enterprise search company, FAST search. They also updated their own enterprise search products.

Now, Microsoft is integrating FAST Search with its SharePoint enterprise servers as well as for sites that have a strong search component.

“These two new products offer compelling, new choices for our customers,” said Kirk Koenigsbauer, general manager for the Office Business Platform Group at Microsoft. “FAST Search for SharePoint will combine high-end search with the broad portal, collaboration, content management and business intelligence capabilities of SharePoint. And FAST Search for Internet Business will deliver search capabilities tuned to drive more revenue through Web sites.”

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 10, 2009, 12:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Cisco Projects Mobile Traffic Growth to Grow 131% by 2013

Cisco has released the results from its Visual Networking Index (VNI) Mobile Forecast for 2008-2013. It projects mobile traffic to grow 131% by 2013.

Most of that traffic will be for video. By 2013, 64% of mobile traffic will be video. Mobile video will grow 150% between 2008 and 2013.

More data from the forecast:

Mobile broadband handsets with higher than 3G speeds and laptop air or data cards will constitute more than 80 percent of global mobile traffic by 2013.
Latin America will have the strongest mobile growth at 166 percent CAGR, followed by the Asia-Pacific region at 146 percent.
Asia-Pacific will account for one-third of all mobile data traffic by 2013.
Global mobile traffic will exceed two exabytes per month by 2013.
Global mobile data traffic reached one exabyte per month in half the time that fixed data traffic did.

"More personalized services and applications are becoming available on a wide range of devices. The key to success will be delivering video-rich any-play services to users, enabling them to move freely throughout the world while maintaining connectivity to others," said Kelly Ahuja, senior vice president, service provider routing technology group, Cisco. "As a result, service providers will have to take into account the need not only for more bandwidth when planning their network architecture but for greater network intelligence as well."

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 10, 2009, 11:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yahoo! Adds Features to oneSearch Shortcut, Including Voice Search and Auto-Locate

Yahoo! has updated the oneSearch Shortcut with three new features. Voice search, auto-locate and improved Search Assist (for Blackberry) have been added and now oneSearch Shortcut is available for the Windows Mobile Client.

The auto-locate feature uses cell tower triangulation and wifi to determine a user's location. The improved Search Assist incorporates search history for Blackberry users.

Yahoo's oneSearch Shortcut was launched last August, initially just on Nokia devices. Last April, Yahoo overhauled oneSearch itself, Yahoo's mobile platform.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 10, 2009, 10:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Matt McGowan Quoted in BusinessWeek Article about SEO Jobs

I get most of my news online, but I still read newspapers and magazines. And I got caught up on my reading over the past 72 hours as I battled the norovirus.

Matt%20McGowan%20in%20Times%20Square.jpg So, imagine my surprise when I saw Matt McGowan, publisher of SearchEngineWatch.com, quoted in a BusinessWeek article by Ben Levisohn about SEO jobs entitled, "Web Work: Searching for Hitmakers."

Hey, I know Matt. (I should disclose that he is a client, but I didn't set up the interview.)

Levisohn wrote, "Among the jobs showing growth as the unemployment rate hits 7.2%: search engine optimizers." He asked McGowan why demand for SEO skills was so intense at a time when marketing budgets are tight, and Matt replied, "More and more, (marketers) want proof that their spending works."

Amen, brother.

I almost died and went to heaven when I read, "They need strategists, who conceive a Web site's approach to roping in visitors."

And I had to double-check that I hadn't already died and gone to heaven when I read, "Companies are also looking for 'link builders,' who work to steer traffic from other Web sites to their employer's."

And then I felt like I had risen from the dead and returned to the land of the living when I read, "Also sought: SEO copywriters, who insert specific search terms into a site's content to draw desired visitors."

Hey, I know people who do that.

You know, I've simply got to find more time to read newspapers and magazines. You never know the valuable information you're going to stumble across. And, miraculously, I'm feeling much better now, too.

Meanwhile, if companies are looking for search engine optimizers, link builders and SEO copywriters, they will find thousands of them attending SES New York 2009, which will be held March 23-27, at the Hilton New York.

(Notice the smooth segue in the SEO copywriting to this related topic and the anchor text link in the copy to the client's website? That's just a crude example of some of the services that search engine optimizers offer.)

If you look over the conference agenda, here are a couple of examples of the sessions that you won't want to miss:
-- How to Create a Successful In-House SEO Program
-- Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Workshop
-- SEO: Where to Next
-- Advanced SEO Strategies: Integrating Analytics, Usability, Persuasion and Journalism
-- Discover the Power of Linking: Link Building Basics
-- Keywords & Content: Search Marketing Foundations
-- SEO Through Blogs & Feeds
-- News Search SEO
-- Independent SEM/SEOs: Issues & Answers
-- SEO Training Course

So, this wasn't just a smooth seque. No, no, no. The information about Search Engine Strategies New York was also relevant and useful. That's why search engine optimizers are in such demand.

Or, as Google says, "The best way to get other sites to create relevant links to yours is to create unique, relevant content that can quickly gain popularity in the Internet community. The more useful content you have, the greater the chances someone else will find that content valuable to their readers and link to it."

And if you register for SES New York by March 6, you can save up to $200.

But wait, there's more! Register today and get one month of free online search marketing training (a $99 value) from MarketMotive.

Okay, now I'm on the brink of the verge of the edge. So, I'll back off the hard sell.

Nevertheless, if you are looking for search engine optimizers or want to develop your own skills to become one, you could do a lot worse that attending Search Engine Strategies New York. A lot worse.

Posted by Greg Jarboe on February 10, 2009, 9:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

ValueClick Adds Three Publishers to Health Online Ad Network

ValueClick has added three publishers to its health and wellness online advertising network. HealthCastle.com, eMedTV, and Hearthstone Communications join a group that includes Britannica Health, HealthGrades, Healthy.net, Merriam-Webster Medical Dictionary, OrganizedWisdom.com, and Wrong Diagnosis.

HealthCastle.com is a large nutrition community featuring Registered Dieticians. eMedTV hosts health articles and videos. Hearthstone Communications owns women's health sites including GYNOB.com and Fibromyalgia-Symptoms.org.

“As we continue to expand the AdRx Media network, these premium publishers add to our potential reach and the ability to more narrowly align advertisers with the content they want to be associated with,” said Denise Zaraya, director, AdRx Media. “Their vast experience and expertise within the health community, their commitment to excellence, and their high volume of quality traffic are aligned with our vision to create the leading premium health and wellness ad network.”

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 10, 2009, 9:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yahoo Runs Heart Border Along Valentine's Day Searches

Yahoo is running a heart border along the left side of search ads in their search results for Valentine's Day. They're hoping that the hearts will bring more attention to the ads and increase clicks and conversions.

So far, I've only been able to get the heart border to show up on a search for the exact term "Valentine's Day." Add flowers or candy and no hearts appear. If the hearts really do increase clicks and conversions, it would seem a good idea to run the hearts along those broader searches as well.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 10, 2009, 8:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

UK Media and SEO Blogs are Buzzing about SES London

If you are on the brink of the verge of the edge of going to SES London 2009 next week, check out the buzz in the UK Media and SEO blogs about next week’s must-attend event, which will be held at the Business Design Centre, 52 Upper Street, Islington, from Feb. 17 to Feb. 20.

Greg%20Jarboe%20with%20David%20Naylor%20at%20SES%20London%202008.jpg Kevin Gibbons of SEOoptimize has written a quick post entitled, “5 reasons to attend SES London 2009,” about why this is “one of the search conferences you should definitely consider attending this year.”

And read Duncan Bloor’s post, “Search Engine Strategies London ’09,” in CutTheMustard. He writes, “Apart from a lack of American buzz and razzamataz, the UK show is set to impress with substantial speakers and details released yesterday of an SEO ’round table’ event on day two where businesses, SEO’ers and anyone else with a vested interest in ranking highly on the search engines can access industry leaders thoughts and opinions.” Don’t worry, Duncan. American buzz and razzamataz is on the way.

Microsoft Advertising’s Mel Carson conducted an interview of Matt McGowan from Search Engine Strategies for Media Week’s DigiTales Blog. There’s even an incentive for reading the interview in these lean economic times. Hint, hint. Wink, wink. Nudge, nudge.

Or, check out Kasumi DeMarco’s “Amanda Watlington Interview for SES London 2009” in Kasumi’s sexy SEO blog. Although Kasumi started blogging on the theme “sex sells,” she’s discovered that Search Engine Optimisation helps you get noticed, too. Who knew?

And Lyndon Antcliff (aka Lyndoman) will be covering SES London 2009 this year for Cornwallseo.com. He writes, “My intention is to interview interesting people and get them to say interesting things. I will use my trusty mp3 recorder and microphone to squeeze juicy comments out of attendees. Mostly I am interested in the theme of how social media marketing is changing the online marketing world.”

Next, read Bas van den Beld ‘s post in Searchcowboys.com, entitled, “Exclusive: SES opens its doors in Amsterdam.” Yes, SES Amsterdam will be held for the first time. Nevertheless, the Searchcowboys will also be covering SES London 2009 as well as informing attendees, speakers, and exhibitors about their event in Holland on March 16 and 17, 2009.

And now for something completely differentâŠ.The Yanks are coming! (I’m pretty sure you’ve heard that one before.)

Read Virginia Nussey’s “Six Questions with Greg Jarboe” on the Bruceclay.com SEO Blog. Virginia twists my arm and gets me to divulge the SES London sessions that I don’t want to miss. She also tricks me into revealing where people can catch up with me. Don't you just hate it when that happens.

Posted by Greg Jarboe on February 10, 2009, 2:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)

SEW Experts: How Strong is Your Search?

Search Engine Watch Expert - Aaron Shear If you're not using analytics in the right way on your large site, it will be difficult to adequately track your site's traffic sources. In today's enterprise search marketing column, "How Strong is Your Search?," Aaron Shear cautions that if you're not careful, you could end up with two competing teams -- one driving paid search, and the other driving organic.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on February 10, 2009, 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SEW Experts: Give SEO Time!

Search Engine Watch Expert - Mark Jackson As an ethical SEO consultant, sometimes it's best to turn down some SEO projects, especially when the client has unrealistic expectations of the time and money necessary to succeed in a competitive market. In today's organic search engine optimization column, "Give SEO Time!," Mark Jackson reminds us that it's best to be clear with clients about the time it will take for them to see SEO results.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on February 10, 2009, 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Google Launches Official Social Media Blog

Pushing Friend Connect and Open Social, Google launched its 80th official blog today - Social Web Blog. The blog will cover "News and updates about Google products that are helping to make the world more social.

"We are launching this blog for anyone interested or involved in helping to make the web more social. Whether you own a site and want to add social features to increase community engagement, or you're developing a great social application, this blog is for you," the site stated.

While both Open Social and Google Friend Connect have been slow to take off, social media is the next "hot thing" and Google is wise to get involved more than just through their own products - which seem to be taking the backseat these days.

Posted by Frank Watson on February 9, 2009, 10:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Former eBay CEO Bids For California Governor Job

Meg Whitman, former CEO of eBay, has announced she will seek the Republican nomination for California governor. Whitman is know to be a social moderate but a fiscal conservative.

"California faces challenges unlike any other time in its history -- a weak and faltering economy, massive job losses, and an exploding state budget deficit," LA Times reported Whitman said in a written statement. "California is better than this, and I refuse to stand by and watch it fail."

Interestingly, her site is taking donations for the campaign through PayPal - the online payment platform owned by eBay. I expect her opponents will be checking if she is getting a favored rate.

Former California Republican Governor Pete Wilson will be campaign chairman.

The Republican primary is shaping up to be a battle of the Silicon Valley giants, as her major competitors Steve Poizner - tech entrepeneur who sold his company to Qualcom for $1 billion and Tom Campbell, former Silicon Valley congressman.

Posted by Frank Watson on February 9, 2009, 5:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Kenshoo Integrates Negative Keyword Management

Kenshoo has integrated negative keyword management into its search marketing management tool, KENSHOO SEARCH. Kenshoo says the following data represents average improvements attributable to the cross channel negative keyword manager:

CTR increase by 40-80%
ROI increase by 20-60%
Conversion Rate increase by 30-50%
Profit increase by 30-50%

Print-on-demand site CafePress has seen success using the feature. Jeremy Post, Sr. Manager, Acquisition Marketing at CafePress explains, "We manage massive amounts of keywords, so it was critical that our campaign managers have a way to easily manage negative keywords. This feature not only delivers value by increasing our campaign quality but it also saves us countless hours of work by not having to copy and paste keywords into every part of the system. "

Kenshoo expects additional clients to experience similar results. "Our commitment to Quality Management focuses our efforts on developing features which increase the overall value and effectiveness of search marketing," said Alon Sheafer - VP of Products and Marketing at Kenshoo. "Users of the negative keyword tool are already seeing increased ROI - up to 60% - through cost reductions and improved targeting. By filtering out irrelevant traffic, their ads are being displayed more often on value-driving keywords that increase CTR and conversions."

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 9, 2009, 12:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Google Analytics Releases Urchin 6.5 with AdWords Integration

Google Analytics has released Urchin 6.5, which includes an integration with AdWords. Also included in the update are improved geo-database functions, an improved configuration-manager utility, updated Help Center articles and recognition of the latest browsers and platforms like Chrome and Android.

If you're not familiar with Urchin, it was acquired by Google a while back and the free Google Analytics was developed from it. Urchin is not free. It costs $2995, runs on your own servers (meaning Google doesn't get all your data) and reports up to 1,000 domains.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 9, 2009, 11:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Clickable Updates Search Ad Management Tool, Includes Emerging Google Ad Formats

Clickable has released the newest version of their search advertising management tool. The version is Clickable Pro 2.0 and includes:

Emerging Google Ad Formats – including Image (banners), Local Business (maps) and Mobile (text and image) – to give marketers more opportunities to connect with their customers. Customers now can add and edit new ad formats right alongside text ads. Clickable is offering this beta functionality for free to Clickable customers so they can experiment and guide Clickable’s development around new advertising formats.
Keyword Filter And Bulk Edit to empower agencies and advertisers to quickly search, edit and export high volumes of keywords across all advertising networks and accounts, all at once and with great flexibility. Bulk editing reduces tedious spreadsheet analysis, saves time and reduces errors.
Clickable Conversion Tracking, which moves out of beta and into the Clickable interface, enabling advertisers to easily measure ROI with one simple, independent tracking system. This powerful reporting tool also informs Clickable’s ActEngine in real time to deliver campaign recommendations with better return.
An Improved ActEngine, including new recommendations to help advertisers more precisely set keyword match types to drive higher quality traffic; properly set up campaigns for content versus search keyword inventory; and optimize long-tail keyword bids. The ActEngine now includes a history of campaign recommendations accepted or ignored; this is the first in a series of enhancements to report results pre- and post-recommendations and drive overall transparency.

“Clickable is transforming search advertising for small to midsize advertisers and agencies on the principle of simplicity,” says David S. Kidder, co-founder and CEO of Clickable. “We’ll continue to rapidly release meaningful product iterations that cultivate best practices, save time and drive performance and profitability. In this down economy, our promise is to help advertisers’ drive better results in less time, and constantly improve.”

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 9, 2009, 11:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Kayak.com Releases Winter Vacation Survey Data

Travel search site Kayak.com has released data about the intentions of Americans for winter vacations. In a tough economy, you might think that winter vacations are on the chopping block, but 76% of consumers still plan to get away this winter.

The news isn't all good as 50% said the credit crunch will have them taking fewer trips this winter. Of course, price will be an important factor. 77% said price and value will be the biggest factors in determining their winter trips.

Strategies being employed in planning a cost-effective trip include:

Opting for domestic travel destinations over those abroad
Taking advantage of off-season pricing rather than escaping to the Caribbean in the high season
Choosing a destination that offers a free place to stay.

"People are still interested in traveling over the coming months, but we've seen they're spending more time searching, comparing and discussing vacation decisions with traveling companions," Brian Harniman, Kayak.com EVP of marketing and distribution said. "The good news is that deals on winter and spring getaways are more plentiful than we've seen in recent years. Airlines are launching winter fare sales that are lasting through spring. Hotels are lowering prices and adding value components such as free nights and vouchers for entertainment and dining."

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 9, 2009, 10:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Live Search Adds Fourth Mainline Ad Position in the UK

Live Search has added a fourth mainline position for its search ads in the UK. The move comes after getting feedback from their PPC advertisers about wanting more clicks.

Writing on the adCenter blog, Tina Kelleher says, "After listening to your feedback around wanting to generate more clicks for your PPC campaigns on adCenter, we've made some enhancements that will not only provide extra ad visibility to help boost incoming traffic, but will also provide an improved layout and better search experience for our users...Results have been positive since the launch, so we're really excited to roll this out to the UK market."

Live Search added a fourth mainline in the U.S. last September. It must be working because search was a positive note in an otherwise unfavorable earnings report for Microsoft's recenetly reported second quarter.

Here's a screenshot of a search with the 4th ad:

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 9, 2009, 7:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SEW Experts: 4 Ways Facebook Can Make Big Money

Search Engine Watch Expert - Erik Qualman Facebook celebrated its fifth birthday last week with 150 million of its closest friends. In today's building brand equity column, "4 Ways Facebook Can Make Big Money," Erik Qualman gives his gift to Facebook: four ways to make some big money this year.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on February 9, 2009, 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SEW Experts: Link Building 101, Part 2

Search Engine Watch Expert - Ron Jones Last week, we looked at on-site linking best practices. In today's SEM 101 column, "Link Building 101, Part 2," Ron Jones examines off-page SEO factors, with five methods you can start using right now to build links.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on February 9, 2009, 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Twits Know: Google Quietly Laying Off Engineers

If you can believe conversations on Twitter, it seems Google has been quietly laying off engineers and changing the scope of their jobs. Apparently some of the work done by the "contractors" laid off over the past couple of months is now being added to their work load.

I follow a lot of people on Twitter - friends, industry acquaintances and many others (including major names in the industry). It was a public conversation started between a couple of the latter that got my attention.

Mary Hodder - or at least someone using her name at Twitter - founder of Dabble, a video search and metadata company, and a well known voice in the web space, mentioned that a couple of her engineering friends at Google had been let go, as well as others.

Her comments quickly started a Twitter conversation between her and John Battelle - well known tech guru, writer and founder of Wired and Federated Media Publishing. In short order, Motley Fool journalist and noted geek Tim Beyers joined in, as did a couple of other tech people.

Disgruntled engineers working 18 hour days, poor severance packages, and general malaise seem to be growing at Google - the place everyone wanted to work at one time. Even last year Google was able to get senior VPs to take lesser jobs to join the company that 'does no evil'.

I have pieced together a bunch of the twits and have laid them out below.

Mary Hodder
Talkng to friend laid off from Google Friday. Others in their eng. gp as well. They don't want to discuss publicly, but R ok w. my telling.

John Battelle
RT @MaryHodder: Talkng to friend laid off from Google Friday. Others in their eng. gp as well. They don't want to discuss publicly, but...

Mary Hodder
We think Goog is quietly laying ppl off so as not to alert press. Mgrs have mandate to reduce headcnt, no matter how critical the project.

Tim Beyers
@MaryHodder Wow. That's *very* big news. Can I refer to your tweets about the layoffs if I choose to write about it for The Motley Fool?

Tim Beyers
@MaryHodder Perhaps a severance issue but I'm more curious that these cuts come after the hullabaloo over options repricing.

Mary Hodder
@milehighfool don't know but the severance pkgs for engs don't sound too good. don't know if due to longevity=they got stock before, or what
@johnbattelle full time eng on a critical path project. so were others.. 4-5 yr employees.
@johnbattelle no.. i think they are all in shock. they are all excellent engs.. so i think they will zip right into other jobs. but strange.
@johnbattelle i agree.. as more are laid off from Goog, i believe some will talk and it will be out.
@johnbattelle oddly, before this wk 2 othr Goog frnds told me uncomfortably they want to leave..was shocked, they hav grt jobs, but pressure
@johnbattelle thot Goog just wasn't fun place anymore, but now think it could be really unpleasantly bad for ppl. don't know, just anecdotal

Cindy Stanford
@MaryHodder How bad can the pressure be at Google that someone would want to leave a great job when the economy is what it is?

Mary Hodder
@hci don't know, but these ppl sounded pretty uncomfortable. working 18 hr days .. if you have the big stock, might make you want to go.

Cindy Stanford
@MaryHodder I see, yes... 18 hrs/day, week after week. It's a good reason to walk away if you have the assets to be financially independent.

Mary Hodder
@hci y, hard to say in 140 char, but for those w gd stock, they may leave, others.. no grt stock, may be in rough situation. hard to tell.
@moon no.. projects still there. my impression is Mgr told to reduce.. so they got rid of a couple of ppl.
@milehighfool my ?, is goog doing this quietly, trying to keep severances under control, these are the least likely to talk ppl.. so..

John Battelle
@MaryHodder I doubt it. Goog knows that people talk. Right?!

Interestingly two weeks ago, Valleywag had written that as many as 5% of Google's engineers could be laid off in the coming months. "[I]f the rumor's true. Google has approximately 6,000 engineers; a 5 percent cut, 300 people, would barely be felt by the organization... But the fear in the Googleplex is well-founded... And we hear that Google cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who set out to recreate at the Googleplex the academic environment they knew at Stanford University, are growing increasingly disenchanted with how soft and spoiled Google's engineers have become," Valley Wag reported.

Guess 18 hour days will see how soft the engineers have become - sort of like a football camp that pushes players until they quit. Should be some interesting conversations on Twiiter and other places this week.

Posted by Frank Watson on February 8, 2009, 11:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (16)

IAB Releases Video Player-Ad Interface Definitions Guidelines for Public Comment

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) has released Video Player-Ad Interface Definitions Guidelines (VPAID) for public comment. The guidelines can be found at http://www.iab.net/vpaid. The public comment period ends March 5, 2009.

IAB says the definitions help:

Define a standard method for video ads to communicate with video players and enable ad compatibility across all VPAID-compliant players
Provide specifications that can be implemented by any type of video player
Cut production costs and improve ROI for advertisers while enabling a less intrusive experience for video content viewers.

“Interactive advertising is a bright spot in the current advertising environment, and digital video is one of its most promising formats,” said Jeremy Fain, Vice President of Industry Services at IAB. “VPAID is the final piece of the current Digital Video Infrastructure Initiative. All five parts of the initiative help define the digital video ecosystem, reduce costs and increase efficiency for all parties and, most importantly, make it possible for advertisers to more easily reach larger online audiences.”

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 6, 2009, 12:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

RushmoreDrive.com Partners with TheLoop21.com for News and Commentary

Last spring, IAC launched RushmoreDrive.com, calling it the first search engine targeted towards African-Americans. Today, they're announcing a partnership with TheLoop21.com, a site for news and political analysis. The goal is to provide commentary from an African-American perspective to their users.

"We are extremely proud to be partnering with TheLoop21.com. Their in-depth analysis of economics and politics will enhance the editorial product for our users. The articles found on TheLoop21.com fit in nicely with our current editorial direction, which is to bring voices from the margins to the center on the web in spaces that are often overlooked as it relates to Black populations. TheLoop21.com will add value to our site because of the insightful, critical and provocative nature of their articles," says RushmoreDrive.com Vice President Products & Content Kevin McFall.

TheLoop21.com's Senior Editor Rachael Leone adds: "The entire staff at The Loop21 is delighted to be working with RushmoreDrive.com. We each believe very strongly in the need to inform in a way that is interesting and compelling. I am most excited for our respective Web communities, which benefit from even greater quality and variety of content."

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 6, 2009, 12:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Google Website Optimizer Launches New YouTube Channel

Google Website Optimizer has launched its own channel on YouTube. This is a great way for you visual learners to get tips on how to set up landing page tests and how to interpret the results.

Included on the channel are the Always Be Testing webinar series by the very awesome Bryan Eisenberg and the video case studies of the Website Workout contest.

Here's a video from the channel. It's the Introduction to Website Optimizer webinar from the always-friendly Tom Leung, Senior Business Product Manager at Google:

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 6, 2009, 11:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Veoh Gets Another Victory in Copyright Case Brought by Universal

Online video site Veoh is enjoying yet another victory in a copyright suit brought against them by Universal Music Group. The judge dismissed Universal's attempt to include investors as part of the lawsuit.

Last month, the judge threw out Universal's argument that Veoh didn't have DMCA protection because it changed the format of videos and made them into smaller bits than the original video.

Last year, a judge in a different case completely threw out an entire case against Veoh, brought by an adult entertainment group.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 6, 2009, 10:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Google Releases Mobile Book Search for iPhone and Android

Google has launched a mobile version of its book search for iPhone and Android devices. Browse to books.google.com/m to check it out. iPhone users note that you can't simply browse to the regular books.google.com site and expect to be sent to the mobile site. Some web developers have included device detection in their sites, but not this one.

Here's what some of the pages will look like once you browse to Book Search on the Android (left) and iPhone (right):

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 6, 2009, 9:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SEW Experts: Local Search Tactics for Tough Economic Times

Search Engine Watch Expert - Gregg Stewart What tactics and best practices can improve our local search campaigns in these challenging times? Local search marketing efforts focus around ensuring you're the one chosen when the question of "where to buy" arises. In today's local & mobile search column, "Local Search Tactics for Tough Economic Times," local search expert Gregg Stewart shares a checklist of local search marketing tactics to help your firm weather today's economic environment.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on February 6, 2009, 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

SEW Experts: Don't Believe Everything You Read

Search Engine Watch Expert - Chris Boggs Search Engine Watch Expert - Frank Watson Would you make a life or death decision about caring for a sick infant based solely on blog advice, or even WebMD? Would you decide on a retirement strategy by reading a few blog posts or a forum discussion? Probably not. Yet, some marketers choose to base their search marketing strategies on blog posts. In today's SEM Crossfire column, "Don't Believe Everything You Read," Chris Boggs and Frank Watson remind you not to take the information you find online as gospel.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on February 6, 2009, 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

hakia Releases Updated Version of ScoopBar

Semantic search engine hakia has released an updated version of its toolbar, called the ScoopBar. The new version will highlight search terms on a web page visited as a result of clicking on a link in a search engine.

For example, let's say you do a search for "What happens to the coins thrown in the Trevi Fountain?" in Google. You get back your results. You click on a result.

Once you're on the result's web page, hakia ScoopBar will highlight the words on the page that are related to your search. This can help you find your answer more quickly.

To use the feature, the word "Highlight" must be selected in the toolbar. I was having trouble simply clicking to select (could just be the computer/version of Firefox I'm using), but you can look for the arrow next to the hakia logo - and use the drop-down menu to select as well.

ScoopBar is available as a plugin (aka add-on) for both Internet Explorer and Firefox.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 5, 2009, 1:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

YouTube Continues Online Video Dominance in December 2008

comScore has released online video data for December 2008, and, as expected, Google-owned YouTube continued to dominate the field. YouTube accounts for 99 percent of video viewing on Google sites, which saw almost 6 billion video views in December.

YouTube saw over 100 million unique visitors, a milestone first achieved in October 2008. The total number of unique video viewers was 150 million, meaning 2 out of 3 uniques visit YouTube. (Keep in mind, people can visit more than one site, of course.)

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 5, 2009, 11:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Ask.com Parent IAC Sees Disappointing Revenues, Plans Vertical Search Strategy

Ask.com parent IAC this week reported a $156.2 million net loss for 2008, or $1.08 loss per share. For Q4 2008, IAC reported $227.4 million in net income, or $1.57 per share. Not counting several write-downs for underperforming assets, adjusted net income came in at $265.5 million for the year, of which $249.6 million was reported in Q4 alone.

Media and advertising revenues, which include Ask.com, Dictionary.com and Citysearch, fell 19 percent year-to-year to $183.7 million. IAC attributes that to a "de-emphasis of relationships with certain partners," as well as fewer overall queries. It was offset by higher revenues per query, however.

The company said search ad prices dropped 8 to 12 percent during the period, and it expects media and ad revenue to decline by more than 20 percent this quarter.

Instead of attempting to take on Google head-on, Ask.com will follow a vertical search strategy, which kicked off last month with deal where Ask will power the search experience on NASCAR.com, provide a NASCAR toolbar, and sponsor a car. IAC plans to roll out from 8 to 10 similar relationships this year.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on February 5, 2009, 10:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Veoh Launches New Version of Site

Veoh has relaunched its site, with a slick look and tons of new features to boot. I must say I really like the look and feel - much better than YouTube. What YouTube has is content due to its large amounts of traffic. If/once people knew about Veoh, they could be a real competitor. But that's a long way off, if it's going to happen, simply because of the mammoth size of YouTube's reputation.

In the meantime, here's what you can expect with the update:

Easier-to-Use Navigation: Major content categories including Movies, TV Shows, Videos, and Indies also give you quick access to sub-categories like Comedy, Anime, SciFi & Fantasy, and more.
‘Browse While Watch’: Easily browse for other videos while you have a video playing.
New Video Players: There are several new players on the site. The regular player enables you to browse while watching videos, the ‘Large’ player expands to ‘theater mode’ for viewing, and of course there’s still the full screen view.
Save Your Interests: Save shows, collections of videos, categories, and search queries for quick access to the content you want to see. You can also add publishers or users to your interest list. Sign up for a weekly email digest to find out when new videos have been added to your interests.
Expanded Recommendations: We’ve made changes that improved the relevancy of our recommendations for every video. Access the improved recommendations right below each player.
Embed a Frame of Videos: Embed multiple videos from any category or search result in your blog or website so users can click through to watch any of the videos on Veoh.com. In the near future we will enable video playback from the page.
Veoh for iPhone: The most popular videos hosted on Veoh.com are now accessible on the iPhone and iTouch - simply type ‘Veoh.com’ into the iPhone’s Safari browser and start watching!
Share Videos: Send videos to friends and automatically posting them to FaceBook, MySpace, Twitter, and other sites.
New Veoh Web Player for Mac: A new version of the Web Player for Macs is now available for Intel-based systems. It is supported on Firefox 3 and Safari 3.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 5, 2009, 10:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SEW Experts: Integrating Marketing Campaigns with Link Development

Search Engine Watch Expert - Justilien Gaspard Companies can often make simple modification to their promotions to develop links simultaneously. Other times, the links already exist from marketing campaigns, but they aren't being utilized for their full value. In today's online promotion & linkbuilding column, "Integrating Marketing Campaigns with Link Development," Justilien Gaspard outlines a few ways SEMs and other marketers can work together to their mutual benefit.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on February 5, 2009, 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Changes in Attitudes Needed For Success of Google's Latitude

The new track a friend product from Google - Latitude may need some change in the attitude of people regarding privacy if it is going to become really successful.

Granted I have already had three requests to share my information today, this tool no doubt will be used for pinpointed advertising and may not prove popular with the general public.

The product is available for PCs, PDAs and smart phones. May have come in handy when I lost my last iPhone. I could have had it set for a friend to be able to triangulate where the phone was. But at this stage, you are required to type in where you are.

If they incorporate the tracking element the GPS programs offer in smart phones we could use Latitude to track lost phones... something to think about Google.

Posted by Frank Watson on February 4, 2009, 6:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Google UK Testing New AdWords Interface

UK based SEM company AccuraCast reported about Google's testing of a new interface in AdWords.

The interface shows a few new layouts for data display in Google AdWords. The new filters have also been launched in the US. Changes to the navigation have yet to be added to my accounts.

Some of these new tabs - like the Search Partner breakout will be handy.

Posted by Frank Watson on February 4, 2009, 6:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Yahoo is Testing SearchPad for Online Research Notetaking

Yahoo is testing a new research aid called SearchPad. It allows users to take and save notes on various areas of research, from trips to product research to pretty much anything you want!

SearchPad can detect when your searches on Yahoo look like research. It will prompt users conduct such behavior to see if they want to take notes.

Here's a video demonstrating SearchPad:

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 4, 2009, 12:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Is Google Testing New Technology Which Prevents Third Party Analytics Search Referral Tracking?

Analytics vendor Clicky has published a blog post saying that Google is testing Ajax-powered search results which prevent third-party analytics providers from tracking search referrals.

This sounded a bit fishy to me. It's to Google's advantage for third-party analytics programs to be able to track referrals. This helps sites know that they should keep Google as a major part of their search marketing campaigns.

So, I reached out to Google and this is their official statement:

We're continually testing new interfaces and features to enhance the user experience. We are currently experimenting with a javascript enhanced result page because we believe that it may ultimately provide a faster experience for our users. At this time only a small percentage of users will see this experiment. It is not our intention to disrupt referrer tracking, and we are continuing to iterate on this project. For more information on the experiments that we run on Google search, please see: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/04/this-is-test-this-is-only-test.html

What do YOU think? Let us know in the comments.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 4, 2009, 12:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

AOL Not the Bright Spot in Time Warner's Q4 2008 Earnings

While search was a bright spot in the earnings of Yahoo and Microsoft, and Google beat Wall Street estimates, AOL is not faring as well.

Time Warner released its 2008 fourth quarter earnings and AOL lost 18% in ad revenue. Last year, Time Warner announced that it would split AOL into two: media and internet access. The access division didn't fare any better with subscriptions down 27%.

Time Warner has been trying to sell AOL. In the past year, they've talked to both Microsoft and Yahoo about a deal, but so far nothing has been negotiated.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 4, 2009, 11:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yahoo Patent App Sheds Light on SEO Priorities

A recent patent application from Yahoo highlights several factors that Yahoo itself proposes to use for optimizing Web pages for its search engine, according to the ever-vigilant patent-watcher Bill Slawski.

The application, "Automated System to Improve Search Engine Optimization on Web Pages," was filed in June 2007 and published last month. It proposes a process that would look at search query logs and browsing activity of users, as well as semantic relationships and timeliness of query terms.

It would break up a page into "units" of content, and emphasize those units that best relate to the most popular keywords and concepts. That could be done by updating page titles, URLs, meta descriptions and meta keywords, alt attributes for images, and headings on pages.

This is a patent application only, and not a real-life service. It may become a real service someday, so it's worth considering what that would mean for search marketers, and site owners in general. How well this idea would work would depend heavily on the implementation. As Slawski points out:

SEO isn’t about trying to get the most traffic to a site for the most popular terms possible.

Instead, it’s about understanding the objectives of a site, and knowing enough about an audience that might be interested in what that site offers to help those searchers and those sites find each other. That can involve finding the right words to use on the pages of a site instead of the most popular words.

For this idea to work, it's first of all got to be an opt-in program. Hopefully, Yahoo will learn that lesson from the current Yahoo Search Marketing "account optimization" issues.

The overall idea actually seems to closely parallel that program, which changes an advertiser's ads, based on similar kinds of data from Yahoo that the patent application describes. The current program is not automated, however, but one can assume (hope?) that Yahoo is using some of the same data to inform the account managers that are making the changes.

As the objections to that program point out, Yahoo can't possibly know an advertiser's business better than the business owner. And as with the current program, if these proposed changes were offered as suggestions, it could be a very popular service, especially for large site owners.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on February 4, 2009, 10:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

FriendFeed Updates Search Functionality

FriendFeed has updated its search feature with added functionality. If you're not familiar,
FriendFeed is a social aggregator that enables users to track activity on various social networks and social bookmarking sites from one place.

Now, you can conduct the following search functions:

Search for words only in entry titles or in comments
[intitle:superbowl] - entries that mention "Superbowl" in the title
Search for only entries that were liked or commented on by specific friends
[like:bret football] - entries about football that Bret has liked
Search for entries with a minimum number of likes or comments
[comments:5 friendfeed] - entries that mention FriendFeed with at least 5 comments
Exclude terms from your search
[jobs -steve] - entries about the job market, not the CEO of Apple

You can also use FriendFeed's advanced search page to filter down your searches.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 4, 2009, 10:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Google Adds Location-Aware Social App to Google Maps

With the launch of Google Latitude, Google Maps for Mobile users can now opt into a service that allows users to see where their friends are on a map.

The Latitude service is available now on Blackberry, S60, and Windows Mobile, and is expected to be available on Android in the next few days. Plans for an iPhone version, through Google Mobile App, are in the works now. It's also available for your desktop as an iGoogle gadget.

Google has built in extensive privacy settings to protect users who don't want to be found. Users can set Latitude to show their exact location (as triangulated from cell towers, as in Google Maps for Mobile), or just the city. They can also permanently or temporarily hide from individual users or all users. And unless you opt in, no one will be able to see your location.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on February 4, 2009, 10:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Microsoft Adds Live Search Instant Answers to Internet Explorer 8 Search Box

Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) now features Live Search Instant Answers in the search box. The types of instant answers you'll see include:

Financial information
Weather conditions
Movie show times
Calculations
Equations
Conversions
Definitions

Here's an example of looking up a stock, in this case, Microsoft (MSFT):

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 4, 2009, 10:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SEW Experts: Google and the Obama Administration

Search Engine Watch Expert - Kevin Ryan Google and its employees seem to be getting awfully cozy with the new President. In today's Searching for Meaning column, "Google and the Obama Administration," Kevin Ryan writes an open letter to President Obama, cautioning him to keep his promises of change.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on February 4, 2009, 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Jill Nash to Depart Yahoo; Scott Moore Heads to Microsoft

Chief communications officer Jill Nash is leaving Yahoo. I can't say that I blame her. Dealing with the press during turbulent and ultimately failed Microsoft acquisition attempt plus dropping stocks plus Jerry Yang's stepping down as CEO must have been exhausting.

Also, former Yahoo Scott Moore is headed back to Microsoft to run content efforts for the U.S. Moore left Yahoo last November. If you'd like to read about his back-and-forth career in Silicon Valley, read Swisher's tabloid-esque piece here.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 3, 2009, 12:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Greg Coleman Named President of AOL's Platform-A

AOL has named Greg Coleman as President of Platform-A, their display advertising network. Coleman previously served as search and ad targeting startup, President and CEO of NetSeer. Prior to that, Coleman was Executive Vice President of Global Sales at Yahoo! Coleman also worked in magazine publishing.

“Greg Coleman is perfectly suited to build on the foundation we created at Platform-A and drive branded display sales across our fast-growing MediaGlow programming network,” said Randy Falco, AOL Chairman and CEO. “Greg’s a seasoned sales pro who understands that online brand building is the next frontier in digital advertising, and that whoever can deliver marketers measurably improved branding online will be positioned for long-term success. I’m confident Greg will help us create branding solutions that leverage the strong success of MediaGlow and the upcoming launches at People Networks.”

Coleman replaces Lynda Clarizio, who came to AOL through the Advertising.com acquisition. Clarizio was President of Advertising.com.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 3, 2009, 12:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Doodle 4 Google 2009 Theme is "What I Wish for the World"

Google has announced the second annual "Doodle for Google" contest. The contest is open to K-12 students (homeschoolers allowed!) and rewards the most creative artistic interpretations of the Google logo with the contest theme. This year's theme is "What I Wish for the World."

The winner will get a $15,000 college scholarship. Also, the school district that submits the most high-quality entries will get $10,000.

Google is partnering with the Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum. The 40 finalists will have their art on exhibit at the museum.

Related Reading:
Doodle 4 Google: Artsy-Craftsy March Madness
London Kids Doodle For Google As Part Of New Office Opening
Marc Chagall Google Doodle
Google Chooses Diego over D-Day

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 3, 2009, 11:29 AM | Permalink

Veoh Launches iPhone-Friendly Site

Online video search site Veoh has launched an iPhone/iPod Touch-friendly site. The new offering is a response to requests from users in their forums.

Simply browse to Veoh.com on your iPhone or iPod Touch and it will bring up the optimized site. The site has a nice, slick look. Check it out:

Veoh says the site works best with the latest software update for the iPhone/iPod Touch, which is version 2.2. It has improvements for the Safari browser included on the devices, which, of course, are needed to browse to the site.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 3, 2009, 10:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Google Execs May Get Jail Time in Italy for Video

Beginning today, Google executives are on trial for defamation and privacy violation pertaining to a video posted to the Italian Google Video site, according to the New York Times. At issue is a cellphone video of a Down Syndrome boy being teased by four boys from Turin.

Italian officials say the video should never have been posted online. Of course, the Google execs say they didn't handle the video. Google did, however, take it down when an Italian advocacy group complained that it was inappropriate.

Still, prosecutors say that the video should never have been published at all. If they win their case, the Google executives could serve jail time in Italy.

The biggest issue is that the video was posted without permission by one of the subjects of the video. European law offers this protection to subjects of video and photographs, but this poses obvious issues for online sharing sites. If these sites were required to verify every photograph and video, they would probably cease their offerings in Europe.

So, this is definitely an interesting case to watch. What do you think? Leave us a comment and let us know.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 3, 2009, 10:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SEW Experts: Users and Search Engines Want the Same Things

Search Engine Watch Expert - Carrie Hill Optimizing your site for users is just as important as optimizing your site for search engines. In today's small business search engine marketing column, "Users and Search Engines Want the Same Things," Carrie Hill explains that, while those are two very different things, you can often serve both audiences by being smart with your Web site development.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on February 3, 2009, 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SEW Experts: Using Search to Help You with SEO

Search Engine Watch Expert - Mark Jackson Link research can take time, but there are several ways you can use a search engine to find quality links. In today's organic search engine optimization column, "Using Search to Help you with Search Engine Optimization," Mark Jackson looks at queries you can make using your favorite search engine that can help you find places to acquire links to your Web site.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb on February 3, 2009, 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Serious About Local: GetListed.org

Need to get your small business better ranked on the search engines and don't know how? Well there is a tool out there now that will give you help - and it's free.

Pat Sexton and David Mihm have joined forces to help small businesses get better listed locally in the search engines with the launch of GetListed.org.

The tool checks how well your site is optimized for local placement in the search engines. It runs a placement test in Yahoo, Google and Microsoft Local as well as the Best of the Web Local Directory. They concentrated on these as they did not want to swamp people with unknown sites, Pat Sexton told me. "We have been approached by others but are staying with the ones we have for the moment," he added.

The system allows you to see any errors in your listings which is handy, as well as any reviews that exist out there.positive or negative.

The site has been well received since its launch - small business blogs have helped push the information out, Sexton noted. "We got out to a lot of real small business people already so we are happy."

While only connected for the US - at the moment - they will be launching in Canada, the UK and Australia in the near future. Other countries and languages are slated for later integration.

"There was a lot of small businesses getting screwed by services that cost way too much," Sexton said. Not anymore Pat - great job - am sure this one becomes an overnight hit.

Posted by Frank Watson on February 2, 2009, 6:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Super Bowl Ads: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Funny how the Super Bowl interaction with the web differed so much from the recent inauguration. Twitter which had doubled its capacities for the Obama Inauguration day - well supposedly - it was relatively quiet throughout with occasional comments on the ads.

Voting on the ads was everywhere and popularity lists abound now.

Doritos was a clear winner and their web site was ready and they had more video/ads on YouTube... all in all an intelligent online awareness.

Dennys.com, on the otherhand, is the real story. Spend $3 million to offer the United States a free breakfast and have your web site crash? As Michael Grey suggested last night maybe it was done for the viral guarantee today.

The crew over at Reprise Media did their annual review of full on web initiatives - pregame work, ad message and follow up in all areas are looked at. eTrade and Cash4Gold got top marks - was not big on that one or the koala hitting Career Builder (but maybe that's just personal).

Reprise did single out Dennys too:

"Dennyâ’s had a terrible night, with a free breakfast promo that failed to include a URL in their TV ad or an online call to action. Perhaps they were hoping to avoid overloading their website – which crashed right after the ad aired and was down for the rest of the game"

Regardless of the viral uptake - there will be hordes of the Undead - no wait a minute the Unplugged - crowding the counters and tables this Tuesday at Denny's across the US. Hell in a city with many of the restaurants you could eat until you explode hopping from one to the other between 6am and 2 pm tomorrow eating free Grand Slams.

Matt Cutts has to weigh in on the biggest link buy in history. My hat is tipped to the people in charge of this entire strategy. The whole thing has played out better than Dennys could have possibly hoped for. They now are ranked number one for free breakfast. But it is an interesting listing - tops in Google for organic and paid search - yet no where in Yahoo or MSN! That includes PPC.

So is Dennys saying we Google breakfast? Or did they like many people just go for a Google advertising approach? Why no lift in Yahoo or MSN organic? We should at least see how long the links take to lift the site to number one on those two engines. Is there insight into Google manipulation even if it is short lived?

Matt there has to be something going on here. Does buying the country a meal give you permanent placement for free breakfast? Interestingly not on the front page anywhere organically for just breakfast and PPC for that matter (good negativing expanded match or is it a phrase match campaign).

Should be a campaign to tell all homeless - and computerless - people about the food option.

Meanwhile you knew there had to be some porn hack out there somewhere. Arizona got porn-rolled.

Posted by Frank Watson on February 2, 2009, 2:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Google Updates Firefox Toolbar with Personalized Tab Page

Google has updated its Firefox toolbar with a nifty new feature: a personalized tab page. If you use Firefox and conduct tabbed browsing, you know that when you open a new tab, a blank page comes up.

But with this new update, Google toolbar users will now see a Google branded page with thumbnails of their favorite sites, which can be edited. They can click on a thumbnail to go directly to the site shown.

Privacy worry warts, take ease. All of the information about favorite sites remains locally on the browser. It doesn't get sent to Google.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 2, 2009, 12:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Dogpile.com's Search & Rescue Program Helps Soldiers Bring Home Rescued Dogs from Afghanistan

Last November, Dogpile.com launched its "Search and Rescue" program that donates money to animal-related charities. The program also helps people find help for needy animals.

Two soldiers in Afghanistan found out about the program and looked for assistance in bringing two stray dogs they'd rescued home to the U.S. The soldiers tours of duty were coming to an end and they couldn't bear to leave their new best friends behind. When Dogpile learned of the program, they agreed to sponsor the trip for the dogs.

Here's video of the dogs arriving in the U.S. and being picked up by the wife of one of the soldiers:

Dogpile.com's Search and Rescue program has already raised $100,000 for the ASPCA. Last August, Dogpile.com announced a partnership with Petfinder.com (which is where I found our new dog Ruby!)

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 2, 2009, 11:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

The Obligatory Google "Site May Harm Your Computer" Post

Over the weekend, the blogosphere, journalists and Twitterers were all a-flutter over a Google glitch. It seems for an hour on Saturday morning, every site in the Google results were labeled with "This site may harm your computer."

Yes, that's right. Google made a mistake. And you know what? The earth still rotated on its axis and the apocalypse did not happen (except for a little bit at last night's Superbowl).

My dad had a saying about technology: "Computers are only as smart as the people who run them."

You see, I'm not sure if you're aware, but Google is staffed by imperfect humans and not some advanced robot-human-alien hybrid that can do no wrong, despite their "Do no evil" mantra.

So move along people, there's nothing to see here. At least, not anymore since they quickly fixed that buzz-creating glitch.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on February 2, 2009, 11:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SEW Experts: Is Your Landing Page Relevant?

Search Engine Watch Expert - William Flaiz Your landing page is the first impression by which search engines and users alike will judge your site. And when a searcher first lands on your Web site, you have but mere seconds to establish credibility. In today's SEM agency issues column, "Is Your Landing Page Relevant?," William Flaiz explains that Web sites must rise to the occasion and create landing pages that rank for important keywords while engaging the reader.

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Posted by Kevin Newcomb on February 2, 2009, 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SEW Experts: Link Building 101, Part 1

Search Engine Watch Expert - Ron Jones The concept of getting backlinks to a page internally is sometimes overshadowed by trying to acquire backlinks from external pages. In today's SEM 101 column, "Link Building 101, Part 1," Ron Jones suggests using the same concept and applying it to your internal linking structure.

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Posted by Kevin Newcomb on February 2, 2009, 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

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