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October 2009

125.5 Million Americans Watched 10.3 Billion YouTube Videos in September

Normally, announcements made on a Friday afternoon are bad news. But yesterday at 4:21 p.m., comScore Video Metrix announced that more than 168 million U.S. Internet users watched nearly 26 billion videos online during September 2009 -- an average of 154 videos per viewer. That's good news, isn't it?

To put this in perspective, Super Bowl XLIII achieved the largest television audience in U.S. history with a total audience of 151.6 million viewers, according to official national ratings data released by Nielsen Media Research.

In other words, more Americans are watching online video each and every month than watch the Super Bowl once a year. Get it? Got it? Good.

YouTube accounted for close to 40 percent of the 26 billiion videos viewed during September, to remain the market leader by a wide margin.

According to comScore,
-- 84.8 percent of the total U.S. Internet audience viewed online video in September.
-- The average online video viewer watched 9.8 hours of video that month.
-- The duration of the average online video was 3.8 minutes.
-- 125.5 million viewers watched nearly 10.3 billion videos on YouTube.com -- which is 82.4 videos per viewer.
-- 45.6 million viewers watched 424 million videos on MySpace.com -- which is 9.3 videos per viewer.

Now, let's compare these numbers to ones that search marketers should know by heart.

According to comScore qSearch, Americans conducted 13.8 billion core searches in September 2009. They watched nearly 26 billion videos online that month. This means Americans are watching almost twice as many videos as they conducting searches at the five major search engines.

So, is your video marketing budget twice as large as your search marketing budget? Hmmm. Maybe that's why the news was buried on a Friday afternoon.

Let's drill down a little deeper.

There were almost 9 billion core searches conducted on Google in September. There were 10.3 billion videos viewed on YouTube that month. That's right, Americans are watching more videos on YouTube than then are conducting searches on Google.

But wait! There's more!

According to comScore qSearch, there were 21.3 billion expanded search queries conducted in September. This counts searches for mapping, local directory, and user-generated video sites as well as searches at the major search engines.

Who were the leaders in expanded search?

Google was #1 with 9.4 billion expanded search queries.
YouTube was #2 with 3.5 billion.
Yahoo! as #3 with 2.7 billion.
Bing was #4 with 1.2 billion.

So, even if you put blinders on and say you are only interested in "search" and not interested in "marketing," then YouTube belongs on your A-list. It is the #2 search engine.

If you want to see what other marketers are doing on YouTube, check out Coldwell Banker's channel. And for the backstory, check out my interview with Michael Fisher, Senior Vice President of Marketing at Coldwell Banker, at SES San Jose 2009.

Michael Fisher of Coldwell Banker discusses Coldwell Banker's successful viral marketing campaigns

And there are advertising opportunities on YouTube, as well. For example, check out my interview with Matthew Liu, YouTube Product Manager, at SES New York 2009. He talks about Sponsored Videos, which has since been renamed Promoted Videos.

YouTube Product Manager, Matthew Liu on YouTube's Insight and Sponsored videos at SES NY 2009

Now, many search marketers measure the success of their campaigns in terms of conversions. In these cases, it's not just about views or clicks; it's about what the user did next: Buy something, fill out a form on your website, or take some other action.

These marketers want to be able to incorporate these kinds of conversions into their campaigns so they can "close the loop" and drive traffic to off-YouTube web pages. Back in June, YouTube launched this feature as an option for all Promoted Videos, allowing anyone who runs a campaign to specify a "Call-to-Action" for users, helping them generate engaged, well-targeted traffic for their websites.

Adding a Call-to-Action overlay to your video is easy. First, run a campaign to promote your video on YouTube. Then, go to the Video Details page under My Videos and fill out the fields in the section marked "Call-to-Action overlay." All you have to do is include a short headline, ad text, a destination url, and upload an optional image, and the overlay will appear whenever someone watches your video. Clicks on the overlay will be tracked in YouTube Insight.

Get it? Got it? Good.

Posted by Greg Jarboe on October 31, 2009, 11:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Asian, Arabic and Russian Characters In Domains Soon: What Does It Mean

ICANN announced it will start allowing domains to be registered using non-Latin characters (English etc.) starting Nov. 16. The news was released during a meeting in Seoul on Friday, Reuters reported.

The news is important as it will see the registration of thousands if not millions of language specific domains. Previously, all domains were basically in English - not quite appropriate for a world wide web.

As the Independent noted:

"Considering it is known as the "World Wide web", the internet's reliance on the English language has long been maligned as a hangover from the web's beginnings as a communications tool for the US military."

"100,000 new characters are expected to be added, in a multitude of languages including Mandarin, Russian and Hebrew," according to the Independent.

No doubt there will be a stampede to register domains like the Oklahoma Land Rush of the the appropriatedly named "Unassigned Lands."

This move also shows a loosening of US control over ICANN and "most striking about the development is the symbolic shifting of power underpinning the web, which comes at a time that America's economic power around the world is diminishing. With Chinese web users now outnumbering their American counterparts, commentators will see this change as another step in the gradual de-Americanisation of the internet."

Posted by Frank Watson on October 31, 2009, 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Business Wire Conducts Video Interview of Warren Buffet

Last month, after watching HostingYourParty, which told people how to host a Microsoft Windows 7 House, I asked: If you create something so bad that it goes viral, is it a public relations disaster?

Today, after watching "Warren Buffett is Bullish on America's Future, but Says That a Full Economic Recovery Will Take a While," I'll ask a different question: If you create something so good, is it a video marketing triumph even if it doesn't go viral?

In the video, Cathy Baron Tamraz, President and Chief Executive Officer of Business Wire, a wholly owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway, interviews Warren Buffett, Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc.

Okay, so not every company has the "Oracle of Omaha" as its chairman. But every company has a chairman, CEO or president who their customers, stockholders and the media want to hear from.

Yes, yes, you can always insert a quote from Le Grand Fromage in your next press release. But, imagine inserting a video interview as well.

You'll find the Business Wire press release was posted yesterday. It is entitled, "Warren Buffett is Bullish on America's Future, but Says That a Full Economic Recovery Will Take a While."

And attached to the press release is the video below.

So, even if 590,000 people don't view it in the next three days, I still found it compelling.

Oh, speaking of 590,000 views, that is what a demonstration of Google Maps Navigation (Beta) has received in the past three days. You can see it below.

Google Maps Navigation (Beta)

Okay, okay, so most companies don't have brand names that are verbs as well as nouns. But every company has products that its customers, shareholders and other stakeholders want to hear about.

So, do these videos have anything else in common? They aren't funny, which also makes me think: Why isn't your company using video marketing?

Posted by Greg Jarboe on October 30, 2009, 5:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Google Flu Trends Intense in Canada, High in United States

Okay, so Google Flu Trends has been around since November of 2008. But Google has found that certain search terms are good indicators of flu activity.

Check out the world map below to see how Google Flu Trends uses aggregated Google search data to estimate flu activity. It is intense in Canada and Norway. It is high in Belgium, Bulgaria, Hungary, Sweden, Russia, Ukraine, and the United States.

Each week, millions of users around the world search for health information online. As you might expect, there are more flu-related searches during flu season, more allergy-related searches during allergy season, and more sunburn-related searches during the summer.

You can explore all of these phenomena using Google Insights for Search. But can search query trends provide the basis for an accurate, reliable model of real-world phenomena?

Google has found a close relationship between how many people search for flu-related topics and how many people actually have flu symptoms. Of course, not every person who searches for "flu" is actually sick, but a pattern emerges when all the flu-related search queries are added together.

Google compared its query counts with traditional flu surveillance systems and found that many search queries tend to be popular exactly when flu season is happening. By counting how often Google sees these search queries, it can estimate how much flu is circulating in different countries and regions around the world. Their results have been published in the journal Nature.

So, according to the world map, now would be a great time to visit Australia, where flu activity is minimal. Throw another shrimp on the barbie.

Posted by Greg Jarboe on October 30, 2009, 10:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Anchor Intelligence Reports Decline in Click Fraud, Identifies New Hotspots

Anchor Intelligence has released its click fraud report for the third quarter of 2009. It paints a different picture than the Click Forensics report that was recently released. Where Click Forensics saw an increase, Anchor Intelligence saw a decline.

Overall, click fraud was 23.2% in Q3, down 14.3% from 27.1% in the second quarter. Anchor Intelligence breaks its click fraud rates into two categories: attempted click fraud, the kind with evil intentions, and innocuous click fraud, like an accidental click. Attempted click fraud was 18.6% in Q3 down from 22.9% in Q2. Innocuous rates increased from 4.2% in Q2 to 4.6% in Q3.

Anchor Intelligence's data reports attempted click fraud, not billed click fraud. Their ClearMark for Traffic system integrates with ad networks and search engines and identifies fraudulent clicks before the advertiser is affected.

Egypt and Indonesia have emerged as leaders in click fraud rates - percentage-wise. Volume is still highest in the United States:

Anchor Intelligence says it did observe more sophisticated click fraud schemes in the third quarter, such as browser hijacking. They also saw an increase in the threats of malicious advertisements in paid search and ads on publisher websites.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 30, 2009, 9:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Google Crawls RSS Feeds to Discover New Web Pages; AdSense for Feeds Now Available in Blogger

Google recently launched a new feature that uses RSS and Atom feeds to discover new web pages. This helps Google index new webpages faster than traditional methods.

As a result, you'll want to make sure that your robots.txt file allows Googlebot to crawl your feeds. To learn more about robots.txt from Google's standpoint, click here.

In other feed news related to Google, AdSense for Feeds is now available directly in Blogger. You can find the integration under the "Monetize" tab in the Blogger dashboard.

AdSense for Feeds allows bloggers to make money from advertisements that are included in RSS feeds. This is important because not all RSS readers click through to visit a site, where bloggers can make money off of display ads.

Blogger is a blogging platform that was acquired by Google in 2003.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 30, 2009, 2:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Google Tests Mortgage Comparison Ads, Updates Real Estate Search in Maps

Google is vamping up its real estate search offerings with two new announcements. First up, AdWords is testing comparison ads in the mortgage/refinance vertical. The idea behind comparison ads is to help searchers filter what they're really searching for when they type in something like "mortgage." Check out this screen shot of a comparison ad, per the Inside AdWords blog (click for a larger view):

When you click the ad, you get taken to a chart that lists various rates and lenders.

The second real estate announcement is for Google Maps. There are new ways to help searchers find real estate using the mapping service.

The first one involves the "More" menu that's directly on the map (not the one in the sidebar results). When you click on that, you'll see a real estate option. The second one is the ability to search rentals.

What do you think of Google's pursuit of real estate? Let us know by leaving a comment.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 30, 2009, 1:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Google Homepage Test Now Instructs Searchers to Press Enter

Google has added an element to their latest homepage test that instructs people what to do after they've entered a keyword. The sentence "Press enter to search," now appears under the box where you type in your keywords - where the old submit buttons used to be.

Here's a screenshot. (Click image for a larger view.)

The "Press enter" phrase was not seen in earlier screenshots of the homepage test. I've apparently gotten the test version lately, as I've seen the fade-in and the lack of buttons, but this is the first I've seen the "Press enter to search."

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 30, 2009, 1:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

Google Sends Another Letter to the FCC Explaining Voice

Google has provided additional information to the FCC's regarding Google Voice. You might remember that Google already responded to FCC's questions about Google Voice and why a mobile app for it was rejected for the iPhone.

This time, Google Voice is responding to concerns raised by AT&T about restricting calls to select area codes, something telecommunications carriers are prohibited by law from doing.

In the most recent letter to the FCC, Google said they're not a telecommunications carrier because their service is not open to the public and it's free. Indeed, Google Voice is available by invitation only and is free - for the most part. Still, the public can request Google Voice invitations and they must pay for international calls. Google says, though, that international calls only make up 4% of calls placed through Google Voice.

Instead, Google calls itself an information provider:

Google Voice constitutes an "information service" under the federal Communications Act, 47 U.S.C. § 153(20), because it offers users "a capability for generating, acquiring, storing, [and] transforming" information of the user's choosing. The Google Voice number is a personal number for managing the user's connectivity in one place, and it is not associated with an underlying telephone access service.

Google maintains that Voice as a web-based application, but stresses it's not VOIP.

Google Voice is a Web-based software application. It is a single, integrated unified messaging and call management offering that is completely distinct from the user's existing telephone access lines/services.

Google's strongest argument is that you can't simply sign up to Voice as a telecommunications provider. Instead, Google Voice is used to manage the telecommunications services you're already signed up to.

Importantly, prospective users of Google Voice must subscribe to one or more traditional telecommunications services to be eligible to create a Google Voice account. The Google Voice system will require that a unique US telephone number be verified before an account will become active.

What truly looks to be the problem is that Google Voice is a combination of information and telecommunications services, which doesn't fit existing (and now outdated) descriptions of providers as set by the FCC and Congress. Ironically, both AT&T and Google probably have similar goals here: to bring government regulation up to date with how technology has progressed.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 29, 2009, 3:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

MapQuest Gets a Fresh Coat of Paint

Earlier this week, Google updated the look of its mapping service and now MapQuest has done the same. The goal is to improve readability and give more accurate details such has a building's proportional footprint compared to the streets around it.

Additionally, MapQuest says they've added new imagery for terrain and vegetation for Levels 4-9. Here's before and after screenshots of Philadelphia, per the official MapQuest blog:

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 29, 2009, 2:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Microsoft and Yahoo! Deal Implementation Delayed, But Progress Made

Yahoo! has filed a document with the SEC stating the obvious: that their search deal with Microsoft did not get finalized by October 27, 2009. But the statement also said that progress was being made:

On October 28, 2009, Yahoo! Inc., a Delaware corporation ("Yahoo!"), and Microsoft Corporation, a Washington corporation ("Microsoft"), mutually agreed to extend the period to negotiate and execute a Search and Advertising Services and Sales Agreement and a License Agreement (the "Definitive Agreements") reflecting and supplementing the provisions of such agreements as set forth in annexes to their binding letter agreement dated July 29, 2009 (the "Letter Agreement"). The Letter Agreement specified that the parties would execute Definitive Agreements by October 27, 2009, but given the complex nature of the transaction, there remain some details to be finalized. The parties are working diligently on finalizing the agreements, have made good progress to date, and have agreed to execute the agreements as expeditiously as possible. The Letter Agreement was the subject of a Current Report on Form 8-K filed by Yahoo! on August 4, 2009.

I reached out to Microsoft for comment, but none was provided at the time of this post.. Comment came in literally as I hit publish:

Microsoft and Yahoo! are committed to this agreement and believe this is a highly competitive deal that is good for consumers, advertisers and publishers. We have made good progress in finalizing the definitive agreements. Given the complex nature of this transaction there remain some issues that need some additional clarity and definitive details. So, the teams at Yahoo! and Microsoft are continuing to work on the remaining details, and we have mutually agreed to extend the period to negotiate and execute the agreement. We plan to do this as expeditiously as possible. Both companies are optimistic that we will be able to close this deal by early 2010.

It sounds as if the deal is still on, but like the construction of a new building, they just have some delays.

What do you think?

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 29, 2009, 1:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Twitter Begins to Roll Out Lists

If you normally use a third-party client to access and update your Twitter feed, you have a reason to go to Twitter.com in the next few days: LISTS! At the beginning of the month, Twitter announced that it was testing Lists and now it looks like they're beginning to roll out the beta to users. This is what I happily saw when I visited Twitter.com today:

Let's walk through the steps of making and viewing lists. I decided to make a list of funny people.

Create a new list by clicking the button in the announcement - or in the new Lists section under the search box on the sidebar:

A box will pop up. Name your list and decide whether you want it to be public or private.

To add people to a list, you search for them - or go directly to their Twitter page, click on the List icon and select the list you wish to add them to:

Once you have your list going, you can view the list by clicking the link to the list in the List of Lists under the search sidebar (see pic above). Still with me?

When you do, you'll see a stream of Tweets posted by Tweeple on the list.

If you want to get a list of Tweeple on the List, look for the "following link" at the top of the stream:

Here's the Tweeple so far in my Funny People List:

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 29, 2009, 12:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Confirmed: Google to Roll Out Music Search

Last week, rumors swirled that Google would launch a new music search. Earlier today, Greg Jarboe covered Hitwise data examining how important music is to search.

Now, we've gotten confirmation that the rumors are true and data don't lie. Google is, indeed, rolling out a new music search. This update will roll out over the next day to all U.S. users.

Why the focus on music? Google says two out of the top ten searches in the U.S., according to Insights for Search.

When you get the update, you'll be able to sample music directly in the search results. Google is partnering with MySpace (which owns iLike) and Lala to provide the samples. You can search via artist, song title or even small parts of lyrics you remember.

Google is also partnering with Pandora, imeem and Rhapsody. You'll see links to these sites where you can discover new music.

Here's a screenshot per the Official Google Blog:

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 28, 2009, 7:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Hot Rumor: Google is Launching a New Music Service

According to a blog post by Heather Dougherty, Director of Research at Experian Hitwise, Google is expected to launch their music service today. So, she took a closer look at the tons of data that Hitwise collects to see can be seen.

Here are some highlights:

-- Out of the top 1,000 search terms that took place on Google last week, 6 percent were music-related (which includes bands, music services and content).
-- Last week, Google sent 1.48 percent of their total visits to the Music category and of those visits, 95 percent of the downstream traffic to Music websites were returning visitors (that had visited Google in the past 30 days).
-- Google was the top referral website to the Music category accounting for nearly 30 percent of the total traffic to the category last week, 5x more than 2nd ranked Yahoo! Search and 6.3x more than MySpace.
-- Last week, 15 percent of the clicks from the search term portfolio of Music that includes the names of over 900 band and artist names resulted in a visit to a Google property, especially YouTube, among the Top 10 websites to receive traffic.
-- Last month, 71% of all searches took place on Google.

Speaking of music, VEVO, a music and video entertainment hub being launched by YouTube and Universal Music Group later this year, just landed AT&T as an advertiser. Oh, and VEVO just got an undisclosed investment from Abu Dhabi Media Company, which is backed by the people from the United Arab Emirates.

Is there a connection? Is YouTube an independent subsidiary of Google? You betcha.

I spoke with Bill Tancer, General Manager of Hitwise, and author of the best-selling book "Click: What Millions of People are Doing Online and Why it Matters" at SES Chicago 2008. He was about to spot search engine user behavior patterns and the shopping patterns of the affluent long before they were common knowledge.

Bill Tancer on Search Patterns at SES Chicago 2008

So, when the folks over at Hitwise tell me how music plays on Google, I listen. I listen very closely. They hear things before the rest of us.

Posted by Greg Jarboe on October 28, 2009, 6:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Tweet This: 19 Percent of Internet Users Use Twitter

According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 19 percent of Internet users now say they use Twitter or another service to share updates about themselves, or to see updates about others. This represents a significant increase over previous surveys conducted in December 2008 and April 2009, when 11 percent of internet users said they used Twitter or another micro-blogging service.

Three groups of Internet users are responsible for driving the growth of this activity: social networking site users, mobile Internet users, and adults under age 44.

In addition, the more devices someone owns, the more likely they are to use Twitter or another service to update their status. Fully 39 percent of Internet users with four or more internet-connected devices (such as a laptop, cell phone, game console, or Kindle) use Twitter, compared to 28 percent of Internet users with three devices, 19 percent of Internet users with two devices, and 10 percent of Internet users with one device.

The median age of a Twitter user is 31, which has remained stable over the past year. By comparison, the median age for a LinkedIn user is now 39, down from 40, while the median age for a Facebook user is now 33, up from 26 in May 2008.

According to Pew, it will become more difficult to track status updating as an independent activity as social network updates feed into Twitter and vice versa. For now, it is clear that a "social segment" of internet users is flocking to both social network sites and status update services. This segment is likely to grow as ever more internet users adopt mobile devices as a primary means of going online.

Cindy Krum, CEO of Rank-Mobile, interviewed Mark Jackson, CEO of Vizion Interactive, about the Twitter panel discussion at SES Toronto 2009.

Twitter is no Google - Mark Jackson, Vizion Interactive at SES Toronto 2009

At SES Chicago 2009, Jackson will be speaking at the "SEO Through Blogs & Feeds" session, and Krum will be speaking at the "Cool Mobile Apps, Augmented Reality - It's a Brave New World!" session.

Posted by Greg Jarboe on October 28, 2009, 5:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Barry Diller Willing to Sell Ask.com, But No Deal in the Works

Yesterday, on the IAC earnings conference call, CEO Barry Diller said that he'd be open to selling Ask.com. The media took off with the comments as if they were new and a deal was imminent. It's not.

A source familiar with the matter said there are currently no talks about an Ask.com acquisition or spinoff. Diller's comments were made in response to constant questions that IAC receives regarding their willingness to sell Ask.com. Their response has always been the same.

So why did everyone run with Diller's comments as if they were new? The "buzz" is probably more of a reaction to the recent Microsoft-Yahoo! deal plus the fact that IAC has, in fact, sold or spun off a bunch of companies in recent years. It's kind of what Barry Diller does.

Actually, Ask.com is a cash cow for IAC. This is something that often gets lost in the "search wars." The conversation is always framed about stealing search share from Google. But you don't have to have a ton of search share to be profitable.

If Diller is going to sell, it's going to need to be a sweet deal to make up for losing one of IAC's top three revenue-generators. Google probably has too much antitrust scrutiny right now. Microsoft has cash to burn, and it wouldn't be the first time speculation has been made about Microsoft buying Ask. Plus, in case you didn't notice, Bing imitated a lot of what we saw in Ask 3D. You have to think that adding 4% search market share all at once has crossed Steve Ballmer's mind. It would be a nice cherry on top of the deal struck with Yahoo!

So, yes, there's a likelihood that Ask.com will probably be sold at some point, but there's always been that chance.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 28, 2009, 1:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Google AdWords Offers Keyword Translation, But Should You Use It?

Google AdWords has added support for Google Translator Toolkit. This means you can now translate your keywords and have ads appear to global audiences in their language.

However, Search Engine Watch columnist Andy Atkins-Krüger warned about the pitfalls of keyword translation in an August post entitled Translating Keywords Should Never EVER Happen. Atkins-Kruger made the good point that while serving up ads to audiences in their language is important, simple translation is risky.

The reason is that this planet is so culturally diverse. Even countries that share the same language often have their regional nuances. Language in and of itself does not contain a culture.

The best way to serve up foreign language ads is through human translation by someone who understands the culture of the country that's being targeted. While Google's intentions appear to be good in offering this new feature, it should be used with great caution.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 28, 2009, 11:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)

Google Maps Launches Navigational Feature for Android 2.0

If you keep up with mobile tech news, you know that a bunch of Android devices are coming out soon. They'll soon be running Android 2.0 and with that will come a new feature: Google Maps Navigation.

Google Maps Navigation brings GPS navigation to Android. It will provide turn-by-turn directions, 3D views and automatic rerouting. It will also have, of course, powerful search features. Those search features include:

Search in plain English - This helps you when you don't know the exact address. You can search the name of a business, for example.

Search by voice - Hands-free is the safest way to search while driving.

Search along route - Find what you need along the route you're driving. Think food, coffee, gas, accommodations, etc.

Google Maps Navigation also provides some robust information including:

• The most recent map and business data
• Satellite view
• Street View

What do you think of Google Maps Navigation? Leave a comment below and let us know.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 28, 2009, 11:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Google: We're Launching Similar Image Search, Too

Just hours after GazoPa announced its similar image public beta test to the public, Google announced that it was releasing its similar image search out of Labs. Now, anyone could have experimented with the similar image search while it was in Labs, but you can only run one Labs experiment at a time. And a new experiment, Social Search, was added to Labs yesterday.

We're used to seeing Google release updates, products, major news, etc. in reaction to Microsoft or Yahoo! but saying "Me, too" to a smaller site just seems weird. Not everything that Google has done in this light has been ready (cough, Google Squared, cough). So, how does similar images fare?

To try it out, go to Google Image search. I used "pumpkin" to test it out since that's the keyword I used with GazoPa earlier. Thankfully, Google returned images of pumpkins. GazoPa only returned one or two even with keyword search.

The red circle in the graphic above highlights the "Find Similar Images" link, which I hope is self-explanatory. Sure enough, images of pumpkin similar to the one I clicked on appear in the results.

Unfortunately for GazoPa, Google is already light years ahead in similar image search. That doesn't mean GazoPa could never make inroads, they just have their work cut out for them.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 28, 2009, 12:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Google Custom Search Celebrates Birthday with Updates Galore

Google is celebrating the third birthday of Custom Search with many updates. Here they are:

Custom Search Themes - Now you can customize the look of Custom Search on your site with themes, which can be tweaked for color, font, background and feature adjustments.

Custom Search Skin on Wikipedia - On the flip side, you can contextualize your Wikipedia experience with a Custom Search skin. When enabled, the Custom Search skin provides Google contextualized search throughout Wikipedia. Learn more about the Custom Search skin for Wikipedia here.

Structured Custom Search - Going back to Custom Search for your site, there are three new structured custom search updates. You can add Thumbnails and Actions to the Custom Search Elements, which allows metadata markups. You can also now restrict search results using metadata attributes. And there's a new Rich Snippets Preview tool.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 27, 2009, 2:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Similar Image Search Engine GazoPa Opens to Public Beta Testing

GazoPa, a similar image search engine developed by Hitachi America, is now open for public beta testing. You don't need a login. Simply go to GazoPa.com and check it out.

What you do is either upload an image, paste the URL to an image, type in a keyword - or even draw an image directly on the site. GazoPa will then try to find images similar to what you've provided.

Drawing an image was tempting, so I digitally sketched up a quick pumpkin, but it didn't exactly recognize the image. Hey, it's still in beta :)

Typing in pumpkin for a keyword search had me wondering if they had indexed any pumpkin images at all yet.

Next, I tried using a URL for a pumpkin photo from Flickr. Note that you need the actual URL of the image, not the URL for the page for the image on Flickr or whatever site you're using.

The results showed images with the similar color of the pumpkin, but not so many actual pumpkins.

To be thorough, I conducted other searches such as "pie," "cat," and "coffee," but the results were similar. There were at least felines included in the results for "cat," but I would expect more from an image search.

GazoPa seems to have similar color down, but needs to keep working on the Holy Grail of similar image subject. It's smart that they're opening it to a login-free public beta test. Those really interested in the advancement of image search will want to assist in helping GazoPa further innovate its offering.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 27, 2009, 1:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Google Analytics Offers Proof of Individual Qualification

If you've passed the Google Analytics Individual Qualification test and need to prove it to your clients or your company, Google is helping validate your awesome web analytics prowess. Now, you can create a link to your web-published test record.

Simply go to the Google Testing Center and sign in with the same email you used when taking the test. Once signed in click the "Manage Your Test" Records link. Then, click "Add Link." On the next screen, you can select what you want to show from simply the pass/fail record to the test grade to your contact email.

Name and save. Click the record to get the link. Copy and paste to show off to all your search marketing friends.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 27, 2009, 12:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Google Voice Now Available with Current Mobile Phone Number

When signing up for Google Voice, you previously had to get a new phone number in order to get an account. Now, Google is allowing people to sign up with their current mobile phone numbers. You can still get a new phone number if you choose.

If you sign up with your current number, you'll get:

• Online, searchable voicemail
• Free automated voicemail transcription
• Custom voicemail greetings for different callers
• Email and SMS notifications
• Low-priced international calling

There are limitations to choosing your existing phone number. You won't get all the features. Here are the ones you can only get with a new Google number:

• One number that reaches you on all your phones
• SMS via email
• Call screening
• Listen In
• Call recording
• Conference calling
• Call blocking

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 27, 2009, 12:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

IAC Sees Profit Despite Declining Revenues for Third Quarter 2009

Ask.com and Citysearch parent company IAC released its third quarter earnings for 2009. Overall revenues came in at $336.6 million down 9% from the same quarter last year. However, profit for the quarter came in at $21.7 million, up from the $14.8 million loss suffered last year. The profits are largely due to the sales of OpenTable and Match Europe.

IAC's Media and Advertising Division, which contains Ask, Dictionary.com and Citysearch (among others), brought in $172.3 million in revenues, down 11% from last year.

Ask.com has seen a decrease in revenue per query. IAC attributed the decline to an improved search experience where searchers are using fewer clicks to find what they need. Another factor was a decrease in cost-per-click.

Citysearch also saw a decrease in revenue per query. This was attributed to a difficult display advertising environment.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 27, 2009, 11:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Google Officially Launches Social Search Experiment in Labs

Last week at the Web 2.0 Summit, Google VP Marissa Mayer announced a new experiment in Labs: Social Search. Now, that experiment has officially been launched.

If you'd like to participate, simply go to the Google Labs page (http://www.google.com/experimental/). Look for the Social Search experiment and click "Join This Experiment." You can only participate in one experiment at a time, so you'll have to leave any other Google Labs experiments you are a part of.

Then, go to Google and conduct a search. Google will use networks from your Google Profile to deliver social search results, if there are any. You'll see them in their own section at the bottom of the results. The results only include results from your network.

You'll need to let Google know about your networks in your profile if you haven't yet done so. Simply go to your Google account settings, click "Edit Profile" and enter in your Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc. You can put as many or as few as you like.

For more information on Google's Social Search experiment, check out these videos:

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 27, 2009, 7:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

MapQuest Teams Up with HauntWorld for Haunted House Search

If you like to be terrified, then the days and weeks leading up to Halloween are for you. One of Halloween's favorite traditions is the Haunted House and if you need help finding ones in your area, MapQuest has come to the rescue.

They've teamed up with HauntWorld to provide a Haunted House search. Simply go to MapQuest.com and either type in a city or zoom in to a city. Click the ghost icon on the On Map Search Tool. Ghost icons will appear on the map indicating the location of Haunted Houses. Click on an icon for more information about a given Haunted House. (If you want more results, zoom out a little.)

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 26, 2009, 1:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Botnets Drive Up Click Fraud Rate in Third Quarter 2009

Click Forensics has released its click fraud report for the third quarter of 2009. Botnet activity caused the rate to rise and accounted for more click fraud activity.

The click fraud rate rose to 14.1% in the third quarter, up from 12.7% in the second quarter, but down from 16% in the third quarter of 2008.

Botnets accounted for 42.6% of click fraud in Q3 2009, more than double the 27.5% rate in Q3 2008.

"The significant rise in botnet-generated click fraud lines up with recent findings of several well-known malware and online fraud tracking experts," said Paul Pellman, CEO of Click Forensics. "Botnets perpetrating click fraud and other online schemes continue to grow in number and sophistication. Advertisers and ad providers need to be especially vigilant about such activity as we enter the competitive search marketing holiday season."

Outside of North America, the countries producing the most click fraud were United Kingdom, Vietnam and Germany.

One of the most significant findings in the third quarter was the discovery of the "Bahama botnet," which was redirecting traffic through 200,000 parked domains located in the Bahamas. Click Forensics detected a link between the Bahama botnet and the New York Times ad scareware incident.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 26, 2009, 12:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Google Maps Gets a Subtle Makeover

Have you ever noticed "something different" about someone but you couldn't quite put your finger on it? Usually, it turns out that the person got a slight haircut or was wearing a new shade of eyeshadow or something. It was subtle, and your brain registered the change, but it wasn't obvious.

Well, the same kind of change has come to Google Maps. They've updated fonts, street widths, colors, etc. The changes aren't very obvious, but they're there. Take a look at this before and after, supplied by the Google LatLong blog:

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 26, 2009, 12:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Deleted Tweets Finally Removed from Twitter Search

While Twitter allows people to delete Tweets, often times those zombie Tweets were still indexed in Twitter's search. Apparently, that's no longer a problem.

MG Siegler over at TechCrunch has been doing some testing and finding that deleted Tweets aren't showing up in Twitter search. They're not even showing up in the search API, according to Siegler.

I did a small test myself and sure enough, my deleted Tweet was immediately removed from Twitter's search results.

So, now you can stick your foot in your mouth with a little more ease.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 26, 2009, 12:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Google AdWords Tests New My Client Center Dashboard

Google AdWords is testing a new interface for My Client Center. If you want to check it out, just click the link in the current My Client Center Dashboard.

According to the Inside AdWords blog, the changes will include the following:

• In-line editing of account descriptions: In-line editing cuts the time it takes for you to make changes to your account names. Instead of waiting for a new page to load, just click an account description to edit it right on the Dashboard.
• Remove/unlink accounts: Previously, you needed to drill down into a client account to unlink it from your MCC. Now, if you're no longer managing a client, you can remove it directly from your MCC Dashboard.

The AdWords team says the same workflows and core functionality will stay in place. They do expect to include more features to the new interface over time.

Have you checked out the new My Client Center interface in Google AdWords? Share your first impressions in the comments below.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 26, 2009, 12:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

AOL Names Nine Board Members for Post-Time Warner Separation

Once AOL is spinned off from Time Warner, it will require a Board of Directors. Today, nine members were named. They are:

Richard L. Dalzell made a name for himself at Amazon, where he started held a variety of executive-level roles from 1997 until 2007. Prior to Amazon, Dalzell was VP of Information Systems at Walmart.

Karen E. Dykstra is a partner at Plainfield Asset Management LLC, and has been COO and CFO of Plainfield Direct Inc. since 2006. Plainfield manages investment capital for institutions and high net worth individuals. Prior to joining Plainfield, Dykstra was the CFO of Automatic Data Processing, Inc. Dykstra serves on the boards of Plainfield Direct Inc., Gartner, Inc. and Crane Co.

William R. Hambrecht founded and has been Chairman and CEO of WR Hambrecht + Co since 1998. WR Hambrecht + Co is a financial services firm specializing in Internet and auction processes and tech company underwriting and advisory services. Before that, Hambrecht co-founded Hambrecht & Quist. Hambrecht is a co-founder of the United Football League, which premiered in October 2009. Hambrecht currently serves on the board of Motorola, Inc.

Patricia E. Mitchell has served as President and CEO of The Paley Center for Media, a non-profit cultural institution, since 2006. Before that, Mitchell was President and CEO of the Public Broadcasting Service from 2000 to 2006. For more than two decades, she was an award-winning journalist and producer. She has served as President of Time Inc. Television and CNN Productions, and was a partner in an independent production company which focused on women's programming. Mitchell serves on the board of Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Michael K. Powell was Chairman of the FCC from 2001 to 2005 and has also served as the Chief of Staff of the Department of Justice's Antitrust Division. Since his FCC gig, Powell has served as a Senior Advisor to Providence Equity Partners, a private equity firm focused on media, entertainment, communications and information investments, since 2005. Currently, Powell is Chairman of the MK Powell Group, a tech and media communications consultancy. Previously, Powell was an associate with the law firm of O'Melveny & Myers LLP. Powell serves on the boards of Cisco Systems, Inc. and Education Management Corporation. He was also named Chairman of NTT DoCoMo's 5th U.S. Advisory Board.

Fredric G. Reynolds served in many executive-level roles at CBS and Viacom from 1994 until he retired in August 2009. Reynolds serves on the board of Kraft Foods Inc.

James R. Stengel has been President and CEO of The Jim Stengel Company, LLC, a think tank and consulting firm, since 2008. Stengel is also currently an adjunct marketing professor at UCLA's Anderson School of Management. Stengel was at at Procter & Gamble from 1983 to 2008. Stengel serves on the board of Motorola, Inc.

James A. Wiatt has been an independent consultant since June 2009. Wiatt served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the William Morris Agency from 1999 until 2009. Before joining WMA, Wiatt was Co-Chairman and Co-CEO of International Creative Management, a talent management company. A graduate of the USC, Wiatt is a member of the Board of Councilors of the USC School of Cinematic Arts, former Chairman and current member of the Board of the Los Angeles Police Foundation, and on the Board of Directors of the Music Center of Los Angeles.

"AOL is very fortunate to have an exceptional group of proven leaders to serve on our board of directors. AOL is on a mission to help create the future of media and content and the AOL Board will play a central part in helping us focus the strategy and also operate the company with the highest ethical standards," said AOL CEO Tim Armstrong. "These individuals bring independent judgment and a dedication to building shareholder value, and they will be a tremendous resource for our company, our employees, and our future."

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 26, 2009, 11:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Carl Icahn Quits Yahoo! Board

He came, he kinda sorta conquered and now he's left. Investor Carl Icahn, who stirred up investors during the Microsoft acquisition attempt, quit Yahoo!'s Board of Directors on Friday.

After Yahoo! failed to accept Microsoft's offer to fully acquire the Sunnyvale-based Internet company, Carl Icahn embarked on his own attempt to overthrow Yahoo!'s Board of Directors. Icahn ultimately settled with Yahoo! just before the 2008 shareholders meeting. He got a seat on the board plus the board was expanded to bring in some outsiders.

A few months later, Jerry Yang stepped down as CEO. Eventually, Carol Bartz was named as replacement. Now, there's a pending search deal with Microsoft, and Yahoo!'s stock has been steadily increasing.

Wam, Bam, Thank You Ma'am. I guess Icahn's work at Yahoo! is done.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 26, 2009, 11:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Demise Of GeoCities Today: MySpace, Facebook Precusor

As announced a couple of months ago, Geocities will cease to exist today. Interestingly Yahoo does not have an upgrade or new alternative for this now homeless online population.

GeoCities was the biggest online community prior to the dotcom bubble burst. Yahoo purchased them for $3.57 billion at the height of the internet bubble, but the community was the precusor of MySpace and Facebook but no major additions and updates were ever developed for the portal.

LinkedIn and Facebook Groups and many other social media have taken the lead of GeoCities and their 'homesteaders' and developed their own niched communities run by its users.

Yahoo said that it was closing the site and would focus on assisting "customers build new relationships online".

Adam Ostrow over at Mashable notes "It's certainly not surprising that GeoCities is shutting down, as Yahoo has been in cost-cutting mode for months and the service would seem to have little fit in its current business".

I am amazed they couldn't monetize the visits despite the numerous ideas they could have adapted - such as Meetups or Twitter like conversations. User generated traffic and visitors is a big play these days, yet Yahoo is pushing forward with company created content sites .

Posted by Frank Watson on October 26, 2009, 5:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Every Thing You Wanted To Know But Were Afraid To Ask: Iran Launches Qur'anic Search Engine

An Iranian search engine dedicated to Islamic teachings and records online for Qur'anic websites was launched this week, Press TV announced.

The results only come from 360 websites at the moment, Press TV reported, but other sites were planned to be added.

Posted by Frank Watson on October 26, 2009, 5:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Go to SES Berlin or SES Chicago for Seven Tracks Amazing

During the past six weeks, I've rolled out six great reasons for going to either Search Engine Strategies Berlin or SES Chicago 2009. For those of you who want to join in the chorus, they are "six booths astounding, five brand new things, four keynote themes, three key trends, two early birds, and a ranking in the top three."

This week, I'll share a seventh compelling reason -- and it isn't "seven swans a-swimming."

You should plan to attend SES Berlin or Search Engine Strategies Chicago 2009 to discover "seven tracks amazing."

Let's start with the two tracks at Search Engine Strategies Berlin. On November 24, Day 1 of the conference, one is the Fundamentals Track (Grundlagenkurs) and the other is the Advanced Track (Fortgeschrittenenkurs). On Day 2, one is the Issues & Strategies Track (Problembereiche und Strategien) and the other is the Tactics Track (Taktik).

What makes two different tracks on two different days amazing? Even the simple structure of the SES Berlin conference captures the complexity of the search engine marketing industry.

If this is your first search engine marketing conference, you may suffer from the naïve hope that you can learn everything you need to know in two days. However, attending sessions in the Fundamentals Track teaches you that you will have to come back again next year to attend sessions in the Advanced Track. Or, deciding which track to attend on Day 2 teaches you the difference between strategy and tactics.

According to Seth Godin, "Here's the difference: The right strategy makes any tactic work better. The right strategy puts less pressure on executing your tactics perfectly." He adds, "It takes real guts to abandon a strategy, especially if you've gotten super good at the tactics."

So, what makes simple structure so amazing it that the sessions you attend teach you what you don't know and the sessions you don't attend help you understand that there is still more to learn.

Now, let's turn to the five tracks at SES Chicago 2009. On December 7, Day 1 of the conference, they are: Search Fundamentals; Blended Search Results; Analytics, Conversion & Attribution; The State of Search; and Search on the Edge. On December 8, Day 2 of the conference, they are: Search Fundamentals; News & Advertising; Small Business Track; Geek Speak; and ClickZ/OMS Track. And on December 9, Day 3 of the conference, they are: In-House; Hybrid; Advanced Issues; Vertical, Retail, B2B; and Clinics.

What's so amazing about this? Well, back on September 28, I mentioned that one of the three key trends was "change." To back this up, I pointed out that only 12 out of the 65 sessions at Search Engine Strategies Chicago 2009 were repeats from last year's conference.

Well, if you look at this year's tracks, only two out of 15 are repeats from last year's conference: hybrid and Clinics. This indicates that the philosophical and theoretical framework of the search engine marketing industry is changing even faster than our knowledge of the latest search industry trends.

Or, to paraphrase former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, there are known knowns (things we know we know), known unknowns (things we know we do not know), and unknown unknowns (the things we don't know we don't know).

I think I know what he meant, but I don't know if I really know.

But, even though I can't explain it, I have a funny feeling that the unknown unknowns about our industry now outnumber known unknowns -- and its time to question your assumptions about the known knowns, because many need to be re-examined.

So, let's just say that the search engine marketing industry is undergoing a "paradigm shift."

If you want the backstory on this shift, read the column, "When Community Is Search," by Mike Grehan, the VP and Global Content Director at SES, Search Engine Watch, and ClickZ.

Or, if you agree with Grehan that content is more than "Text, text, and more text," then watch my video interview with him at SES San Jose 2009 about the link between search and social.

Mike Grehan, the new VP and Global Content Director, ties social media to search, SES San Jose 2009

This is really why you should bring your whole team to either SES Berlin or Search Engine Strategies Chicago 2009. All of you not only need to learn more about the known unknowns, all of you must also discover some of the unknown unknowns and re-examine many of the known knowns to make it through the paradigm shift successfully.

Or, as Yoda observed a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, "You must unlearn what you have learned." Or, as Yogurt observed in the 1987 movie by Mel Brooks, "God willing, we'll all meet again in Spaceballs 2: The Search for More Money."

And speaking of money, the are special group discounts at the Windy City event. Although the first two conference registrants pay full price, the third person from the same organization, registering at the same time qualifies for 50% off his or her registration fee.

Next week, we'll look at more reasons for going to either Search Engine Strategies Berlin or SES Chicago 2009. In the meantime, keep singing "seven tracks amazing, six booths astounding, five brand new things, four keynote themes, three key trends, two early birds, and a ranking in the top three."

Posted by Greg Jarboe on October 26, 2009, 2:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

46% of Local Searchers Visit Businesses In-Store

46% of local searchers make in-store visits, according to data released to eMarketer by TMP Directional Marketing and comScore. The number is up 12% over last year.

Meanwhile, for "general searches," 34% visited stores, but this was only up 1% over last year. Internet yellow pages searchers also came in at 34%, up from 29% last year. The overall average of searchers ending up in-store was 37%.

What local searchers are looking for are businesses that provide the products and services they're looking for. After they've found that, they look for address and location information and then a phone number.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 23, 2009, 2:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Facebook Starts Rolling Out Homepage Changes

Earlier this week, word broke that Facebook would be updating its homepage again. Today, Facebook confirmed those changes and began to roll them out, though the names of the features are different than originally planned.

The changes involve how users view the status updates and shared items from their Facebook network. The most important updates will now appear in the "News Feed," but users can toggle to "View Live Feed" to view all status updates.

Here's a screenshot provided at the official Facebook blog:

Additionally, photo tagging, friend acceptances, RSVPs and the like will be moved back into the main feed in the middle column. Several of these currently appear in the right column.

As for why Facebook was changing the homepage again, they gave a vague answer:

Some of you may ask why we are changing the home page again. Like you, we know it can be disruptive when things are moved around, but we hope that these changes make Facebook a more valuable experience for you. We put a lot of thought into all the changes we make to the site and do a lot of testing before releasing anything.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 23, 2009, 1:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (35)

7 Google Updates: Custom Search, AdWords API, Maps, Search Appliance and More

Google had another busy week pushing out updates. That's really no surprise considering Apple released product refreshes and Microsoft released Windows 7. Google hasn't let any major update from any competitor go by without their own news and this week was no different.

We've already covered Google getting a deal with Twitter (similar to Bing's deal with Twitter) as well as a new social search experiment set up in Google Labs.

Here are 7 updates that are slightly minor but you'll still want to know about:

Custom Search is now available for mobile search experiences on smartphone and higher-end devices. Google will even host your mobile-optimized custom search pages for you, or you can host it on your mobile site.

AdWords API has a new version that includes asynchronous calls, keyword and placement ideas, and a location extensions preview.

Google Maps for Mobile has introduced layers for Blackberry users.

Google Search Appliance, an enterprise search server, released an update that includes a Self-Learning Scorer.

Google Friend Connect has a new Wordpress plugin.

Webmaster Central has new instructions for verifying a Blogger blog in Webmaster Tools.

Google Reader added Popular Items and Personalized Ranking features.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 23, 2009, 12:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Microsoft Quarterly Earnings: Online Services Loss Increases

Microsoft reported its first quarter earnings today and the news was dim but also promising. While the software giant suffered revenue losses, they weren't quite as bad as predicted by Wall Street. As a result, stocks were up 7% at the time of this post.

The online services division, which contains Bing and MSN.com, continues to see losses. This quarter's losses came in at $480 million, up from the loss of $321 million in the first quarter of 2008.

Overall, Microsoft's revenues came in at $12.39 billion for the quarter, down 14% from the same quarter last year. However, $1.47 billion has been deferred for Windows 7, which would have placed revenues at $14.39 billion. That would have been just a 4% decline from last year.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 23, 2009, 11:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

YouTube Lets Marketers Think Global or Act Local at WaWa Hoagiefest

Last week, I mentioned that Americans watch more YouTube videos than they conduct Google searches. Well, Americans aren't alone.

It turns out that 420 million unique visitors every month watch YouTube somewhere around the globe. If YouTube were a nation, it would rank #3 in population -- behind China and India, but ahead of the United States and Indonesia.

The YouTube community has its own quaint expressions, such as "Charlie bit my finger - again!" YouTubers also have their own culture and customs. For example, they share funny views of the "Evolution of Dance."

But I can't tell you how many marketers say, "Yes, yes, that's entertaining. But, how do I harness YouTube to promote my small or medium business?"

So, let me share a case study that show how Wawa's sandwich promotion reached hungry audiences with YouTube marketing.

With 570 stores throughout the mid-Atlantic region, Wawa makes hoagies, which are called subs, heroes, bombers, poor boys, grinders, or rockets in other parts of the country. During the summer of 2009, Wawa decided to kick off its second annual Hoagiefest campaign.

In partnership with their digital agency The Archer Group, Wawa launched Hoagiefest.com, a fully interactive site that combines music, video, and details regarding the summer promotions.

Once the site was up and running, the marketing challenge was raising awareness of Hoagiefest.com and driving engaged users to it efficiently.

To reach this marketing objectives, Wawa and The Archer Group used Google's Content Network. One of the site's in the network is YouTube. Yep, YouTube.

Wawa tested YouTube InVideo ads, which are animated overlays that appear on the bottom 20 percent of a YouTube video. Selecting video content that their target audience would likely watch, Wawa ran InVideo ads along with standard display placements on YouTube.

What were the results? Their campaign:
-- Generated interest and awareness of the Hoagiefest 2009 promotion;
-- Drove over 500,000 unique visitors to the campaign microsite;
-- Received CTRs 500% higher than typical rates from other placements; and
-- Achieved a cost of $7 per hour of site interaction time.

If you are interested in learning more, attend either the YouTube & Video Optimization session at SES Chicago 2009 or the YouTube & Video Optimization session at the Online Marketing Summit.

Posted by Greg Jarboe on October 22, 2009, 8:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

"The Art of SEO" Isn't a Paint-by-Numbers Kit

The Art of War by Sun Tzu isn't about Chinese pottery and The Art of SEO by Eric Enge, Stephan Spencer, Rand Fishkin and Jessie Stricchiola isn't a paint-by-numbers kit.

The Art of SEO is a comprehensive guide to search engine optimization strategies and tactics written by four SEO experts:

-- Eric Enge, the President of SEO consulting firm, Stone Temple Consulting, who is widely recognized as an expert on the topic of SEO.

-- Rand Fishkin, CEO and co-founder of SEOmoz.org, one of the web's most popular portals on the topic of search.

-- Stephan M. Spencer, the founder, President & CEO of the SEO firm Netconcepts.

-- Jessie Stricchiola, the founder of Alchemist Media, Inc., a San Francisco search engine marketing company.

The Art of SEO provides proven guidelines and cutting-edge techniques for planning and executing a comprehensive SEO strategy. The authors clearly explain SEO fundamentals, while correcting many common misconceptions. If you are new to SEO, you'll get a complete and thorough SEO education, as well as an array of effective tactics, from basic to advanced. Seasoned practitioners will find this book useful as a complete reference to SEO best practices.

The chapters on Keyword Research, Developing an SEO-Friendly Website, Creating Link-Worthy Content & Link Marketing, and Tracking Results and Measuring Success are must-reads for anyone interested in mastering search engine optimization.

I interviewed Fishkin on the future of SEO at SES London 2009. He said people are using more social elements and direct methods of getting information rather than using the traditional search engines. Programs such as Yelp, OpenTable for local search, and Kayak, Faircast Live for travel search are examples of this recent development.

Fishkin said people today who want to converse or learn more about social media don't use Google but use such applications as Facebook or Twitter. He also offered his take on the significance of links.

Rand Fishkin, SEOMoz, on the future of SEO in 2009

Fishkin and Enge will both be speaking at SES Chicago 2009. Fishkin will be speaking about "PPC or SEO? The Ultimate Search Marketing Battle" and "Black Hat, White Hat: Does it Really Matter Anymore?" Enge will be speaking about "Duplicate Content & Multiple Site Issues."

Posted by Greg Jarboe on October 22, 2009, 5:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Search and Apply for Jobs Posted on Twitter via iPhone App

Searching and applying for jobs keeps getting more and more modern. A new iPhone/iPod Touch App allows users to search Twitter for job apps and then apply for them with one-click. The app is appropriately named "Real-Time Jobs" and was developed by WorkDigital, the makers of the web-based TwitterJobSearch.com. (Full disclosure: WorkDigital is partly owned by Incisive Media, parent company of Search Engine Watch.)

The app uses WorkDigital's new technology, which they call QuickPitch. Users can attach an online resume, video or other pitch to respond to jobs found on Twitter.

Bill Fischer, Co Founder of TwitterJobSearch explains the concept behind the app. "By bringing together our real-time search capabilities with our QuickPitch platform, we're aiming to re-invent a job search process that simply requires too much effort." Fischer will be speaking at SES Chicago this December at the Real Time Search Paradigm session. With the increased popularity and implementation of real-time search, that will be a session you won't want to miss.

Real-Time Jobs is available in the iTunes app store for free.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 22, 2009, 3:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

MySpace Has Musical Aspirations, Too

On Wednesday, word broke that Google and Facebook have plans to integrate music into their search and social network respectively. Late on Wednesday came word that MySpace is also pursuing new music offerings.

This is a natural progression for MySpace, which, before it became huge, was a hub for indie musicians. Their social network boom came and went, and left in the wake, the music community remains, now with major label artists also making use of the versatile profile pages.

Over the summer, MySpace acquired iLike.com, a social network all about music. iLike will be the basis for the increased integration of music into MySpace's search results and new music video hub. iLike will also be part of Google's music search offering.

Additionally, iTunes music will now be available through MySpace. Amazon mp3s are already available on the social network.

Bands and artists are getting a dashboard that give them analytics about how people interact with their profile pages.

It will be interesting to see if this focus on music returns MySpace to a more profitable direction. It's probably safe to say that unless MySpace comes up with something truly innovative, they've lost the general social networking race to Facebook and now Twitter. Will going niche with music save MySpace? Only time will tell.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 22, 2009, 3:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

FCC Votes to Pursue Genachowski's Proposed Net Neutrality Rules

This morning, the Federal Communications Commission voted to consider Chariman Julius Genachowski's proposed net neutrality rules. This means the two rules will be opened for public comment before finalized through an FCC vote.

Genachowski publicly announced his new rules at a speech last month at the Brookings Institution. They are:

• Preventing Internet access providers from discriminating against particular Internet content or applications, while allowing for reasonable network management.
• Ensuring that Internet access providers are transparent about the network management practices they implement.

Google has long been a proponent of Net Neutrality. Reacting on the Official Google Public Policy blog, Google's Washington Telecom and Media Counsel, Richard Whitt, wrote:

There's been a lot of noise out there, but let's review what's at stake: The Internet was built and has thrived as an open platform, where individuals and entrepreneurs -- not network owners -- can connect and interact, choose marketplace winners and losers, and create new services and content on a level playing field. No one seems to disagree with that fundamental proposition. This new proceeding is aimed at opening a national dialogue on how best to protect that unique environment. For our part, we fully support the adoption of "rules of the road" to ensure that the broadband on-ramps to the Net remain open and robust.

But not everyone sees the need to fix what's not broken. Per a Washington Post editorial:

Mr. Genachowski claims to have seen "breaks and cracks" in the Internet that threaten to change the "fundamental architecture of openness." He and other proponents of federal involvement cite a handful of cases they say prove that, left to their own devices, ISPs such as Comcast Corp. and AT&T will choke the free flow of information and technology. One example alluded to by the chairman: Comcast's blocking an application by BitTorrent that would allow peer-to-peer video sharing. Yet that conflict was ultimately resolved by the two companies -- without FCC intervention -- after Comcast's alleged bad behavior was exposed by a blogger.

The Post also pointed out that net neutrality amounts to controlling networks that private companies have built:

Aptly dubbed an "immodest proposal" by the Free State Foundation's Randolph J. May, the FCC would prohibit ISPs from "discriminating against" different applications. Mr. Genachowski explains it this way: ISPs "cannot block or degrade lawful traffic over their networks, or pick winners by favoring some content or applications over others in the connection to subscribers' homes." In short, ISPs, which have poured billions of dollars into building infrastructure, would have little control -- if any -- over the kinds of information and technology flowing through their pipes.

The Post ended their editorial by questioning how much the ISPs will innovate if they are burdened with additional regulation.

Incidentally, Google has what should be an obvious stake in net neutrality regulation. The use of their search engine and various other products depends on internet users being able to access their services on the networks they're using.

Of course, plans for tiered Internet pricing are not very popular, rejected by consumers. And, like the Post pointed out, companies often reverse course whenever they're tempted to go in that direction because the public outcry isn't worth it.

It's a hot debate and if you play nice, you can have it in the comments below.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 22, 2009, 2:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Tweets Already Showing In Search Results

Scott Polk from Search and Social sent me a tweet that was already in the Google search results. Granted it took me about 30 minutes to check for it.

twitter search.pdf

Now we just need to know how this will be done. The unique fact the term was the only search result is interesting. When I did a search on my name and apart from my Twitter profile there was no other tweets in the top five pages. Not quite Bing's Twitter integration, but am sure Google has all sorts of things it will show soon.

Posted by Frank Watson on October 22, 2009, 3:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

Google Labs Rolling Out Social Search Experiment

At Wednesday's Web 2.0 Summit Marissa Mayer, Google's VP of search products and user experience. announced the company will be launching a social search experiment in the coming weeks, Information Week reported.

The experiment will be done through Google Labs and will need a Google account and a Google Profile to work. Information from a person's various social media will be included in the results given for searches. They will appear at the bottom of the search page, Cnet reported.

This way if anyone in any of your networks has commented about your search query you will get their comments added to the results. Interesting idea - this really could improve the trust levels for search results if a friend is giving a recommendation to what you are looking for.

"Mayer demonstrated how a search for "New Zealand" produced a list of search results that included relevant content created by friends midway-down the search results page. Among the search results were links to a Gmail message that referenced New Zealand and a FriendFeed entry, each from a different friend," Information Week noted.

The interaction between various social media will prove interesting and could be a clever play to grab the momentum this area is getting right now.

Posted by Frank Watson on October 21, 2009, 10:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Yahoo Starting Human Curated News and Editorial Content

Yahoo announced it will be starting a news site with stories found, edited and written by in house staff and guest writers, headed by Andrew Golis - formerly of TalkingPointsMemo.com.

Golis said on his personal blog: "I've accepted an amazing offer from Yahoo to build, staff and run a new news blog. It will be a combination of curation and original reporting, with gregarious linking and sharp, smart writing. In other words, for the folks who read this site for meta journalism news,"

The approach is similar to the Huffington Post which should create some good competition.

Golis did make an update to inform people that this would be part of the existing news. He said, "use of the word "site" instead of "blog" made some folks think this would be a new, independent website for Yahoo. Thankfully, it won't be, and will live at Yahoo News and benefit from the enormous audience and resources they've already built up."

We will be watching for these changes with anticipation.

Posted by Frank Watson on October 21, 2009, 5:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Google Also Getting Access To Twitter

While Bing had a little time to grab the initial headlines of working with Twitter, Google closed the day with their own announcement of access to Twitter, Mashable reported.

"Given this new type of information and its value to search, we are very excited to announce that we have reached an agreement with Twitter to include their updates in our search results. We believe that our search results and user experience will greatly benefit from the inclusion of this up-to-the-minute data, and we look forward to having a product that showcases how tweets can make search better in the coming months," the Official Google Blog stated.

While giving a major play for Twitter in exposure, this is not the move that would give Twitter a chance to challenge Google, as they have noted they wanted some months ago.

But now it is time to see how the two engines use the data.

Posted by Frank Watson on October 21, 2009, 5:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Bing.com/Twitter: A Visual Tour

Bing.com/Twitter is live. Here's how it looks.

The "Hot Topics" tag cloud is at the top of the page, beneath the search box.

And here were the trending topics on Twitter at the time of the screenshot above. (No, Kanye West is not really dead.)

Below the tag cloud are tweets categorized by hot topic.

Now, let's take a look at search results. There's a Carolina Hurricanes game tonight, so let's see who's Tweeting about it. Notice the pause button at the top right of the results, which you can use to stop the real-time updating.

The sidebar on the left leads to Bing searches, not more Twitter searches.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 21, 2009, 4:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Google Website Optimizer Launches Over Time Charts, Experiment Management API

If you use Google Website Optimizer for your landing page testing, then you'll want to know about a couple of important updates.

First, a new feature has been added called "Over Time Charts." Developed by a summer intern, the charts graph the cumulative conversion rate of each combination spanning the life of an experiment. They're available for all experiments and can be found on the reports page.

Secondly, at eMetrics this week in DC, Google announced the Website Optimizer Experiment Management API. This helps web development platforms such as content management systems (CMS) and third-party shopping carts integrate Website Optimizer, which in turn makes it easier for more search marketers to conduct landing page tests using the free tool.

What do you think of the Google Website Optimizer announcements? Let us know by leaving a comment.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 21, 2009, 3:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Confirmed: Twitter and Facebook to Be Part of Bing Wave 2 (Not to Be Confused with Google Wave Beta)

As rumored earlier, Qi Lu did in fact take the stage at Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco and announce search partnerships with Twitter and Facebook. TechCrunch had the lowdown on Lu's speech, and the Bing Search blog has a post, as well. The word is largely mum on Facebook - Lu said that announcement would come later.

However, Lu did launch into greater detail about the Twitter partnership. It's non-exclusive, which, yes, means Google can get a search deal with Twitter as well. It's also part of "Bing Wave 2," which is what Microsoft is calling a flurry of new features that are being added to Bing post-initial launch.

Bing will de-dupe repeated Tweets and use content, follower numbers, and ReTweet quantity to help determine quality. Spam will be filtered out.

Trending topics will be displayed in a tag cloud and Bing will show you the final URL of a bit.ly shortened URL so you won't be tricked into going to sites you don't wish to visit.

At around 4:30pm EST 3:30pm EST, you can preview the new Twitter integration at http://www.bing.com/twitter.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 21, 2009, 2:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

More Rumors: Google, Facebook to Launch Online Music Initiatives

The rumor mill just keeps flying this hump day. First, TechCrunch is dishing on a new initiative by Google to make music easier to search and sample. The deal will involve services such as MySpace, iLike and LaLa, and is rumored to be announced next Wednesday at the Capitol Records building in Hollywood.

Meanwhile, Brad Stone at the New York Times has the scoop on a new music micropayments service slated to be launched by Facebook. Currently, you can spend 10 cents to send cute little goodies in the form of images to your Facebook friends. Soon, you'll be able to send songs that your friends can listen to online. Greeting cards and videos will also be getting the micropayments treatment.

Neither of these stories is officially confirmed. "No comment" is the phrase of the day!

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 21, 2009, 2:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Rumor: Bing to Announce Real-time Search Deal with Twitter, Facebook

According to Kara Swisher at All Things D, Microsoft's Qi Lu will take the stage at at Web Summit 2.0 this afternoon at 11:30am and announce a new real-time search deal with Twitter and Facebook.

While Swisher and other blogs are saying that these rumors are confirmed, as of right now (1:43pm EST), they are not officially confirmed. But you know how it goes when you get the "no comment" comment. Swisher is rarely wrong, so it's very likely this rumor is true.

Of course, Microsoft already has a deal with Facebook. They have a 1.6% investment in the social network and their search is integrated into the site.

In September, Microsoft began testing social sharing features that would allow searchers to share results with Twitter and Facebook, among others. Additionally, Microsoft launched BingTweets.com in July, which is a mashup of Bing search with Twitter's API.

It's probably safe to assume that any real-time search deal with Twitter and Facebook would involve more than just utilizing APIs.

Stay Tuned!

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 21, 2009, 1:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Ask.com Unveils New Advertising Campaign

Ask.com has a new advertising campaign promoting their recently-launched Deals feature. The ad features people representing various demographics dancing and saying they want deals. The last guy, I swear, looks like a younger Jerry Springer. Also, the ad has bright colors and the cheekiness of the latest Old Navy ads.

What's that you say? You would like to do an Ask Deals dance? And you want to post it on the Internet for all to see? I have good news for you. Ask has created a microsite, AskDeals.com, where you can submit video of your dance - oh yeah and do some deal-searching.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 21, 2009, 1:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

New Delicious Registrations Require Yahoo! ID; Twitter OAuth Support Added

New registrations to Delicious will now require a Yahoo! ID. The move comes several years after Yahoo! acquired the social bookmarking site.

For now, existing Delicious members can use their current login process. In the future, those accounts will be merged with Yahoo! ID accounts.

Delicious also has added Twitter OAuth support. Go to your Delicious settings page and authorize Twitter. This will prevent constant sign-ins in order to Tweet a Delicious bookmark.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 20, 2009, 5:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Is Google the Black Hole of Protected Tweets? No, Not So Much

The L.A. Times printed a sensational expose on how Google had a deal with Twitter to index and make publicly searchable protected tweets. Twitter allows users to keep their tweets private, seen just by their followers. But the Times asserted that Google had special access and that the Tweets were viewable to the public via search.

TechCrunch quickly picked up on the probability that the Tweets were searchable were likely public ones that were published before users went private with their Twitter feeds.

Then, the LA Times published an update with official comment from Twitter saying they do not have a deal with Google for access to private Tweets.

So, that happened.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 20, 2009, 5:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

AOL's Cahall Appointed to New Virginia Tech Board

The state of Viriginia has created a new technology board called the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Investment Authority (IEIA). The thirteen-member board will consist of 12 citizen members and the state's Secretary of Technology. Of the 12 citizen members, three will be presidents of state higher-education institutions, three each appointed by the governor, state senate and state house. AOL's Chief Technology Officer, Ted Cahall, has received one of the three state senate appointments.

"The IEIA is an important new organization that will help enhance Virginia's role as a world technology leader, and I'm honored to have been selected to be a part of this effort," said Cahall. "I look forward to working with the distinguished group of politicians and citizens on the IEIA to support technology and innovation in the Commonwealth."

AOL was founded in Northern Virginia in 1985.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 20, 2009, 5:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Advertising Association Urges DOJ to Approve Microsoft-Yahoo! Search Deal

The American Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAA) has written an open letter to the U.S. Department of Justice, urging them to approve the Microsoft-Yahoo! search deal. Announced at the end of July, the deal has Microsoft and Yahoo! partnering up on search in order to create what will become the number 2 search service in the United States.

In the letter (PDF), Nancy Hill, President and CEO of the AAAA, wrote:

These benefits are too important to wait for. As leading members of the advertising and marketing services industry, we urge the Department of Justice to bring its antitrust review to a speedy conclusion. This proposal enhances competition, and should be allowed to take effect as soon as possible.

CEOs of four ad agencies added their John Hancocks to the letter:

• Maurice Levy, chairman and CEO of Publicis Groupe
• Martin Sorrell, CEO of WPP
• Michael Roth, chairman and CEO of Interpubic Group
• John Wren, president and CEO of Omnicom Group

Analysts have predicted the regulatory approval process would be lengthy. But with the changes in the advertising industry over the past few years in addition to the current global economic uncertainty, it's no surprise that agencies are seeking a quick resolution in this matter.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 20, 2009, 4:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Yahoo! Beats the Street with Big Boost in Third Quarter Profit

Yahoo! released their third quarter earnings today and their profit is up, way up. Net income was $186 million, up a whopping 244% from the third quarter of 2008, when net income was $54 million. Much of this can be attributed to cost-cutting, as revenue was down year-over-year. Yahoo! brought in $1.6 billion in 3Q 2009, down 12% from 2008's $1.8 billion. Still, revenue was up over the second quarter of 2009, a good sign for the Sunnyvale-based internet company.

"With revenue coming in above our guidance and flat sequentially, we had a solid third quarter that signals our major businesses have stabilized," said Yahoo! chief executive officer Carol Bartz. "With new products like Yahoo! homepage, our brand revitalization campaign and expansion in the Middle East through Maktoob.com, our execution is improving and we're focused on what we do best - being the center of people's online lives."

Analysts predicted Yahoo! would come in at $1.12 billion net revenue and 7 cents a share earnings. But Yahoo! beat those estimates, coming in at $1.13 net revenue and 13 cents a share earnings.

You can read the full earnings release here (PDF).

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 20, 2009, 4:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Google Analytics Unveils a Slew of Updates: New Intelligence Engine, Goals, Alerts, Mobile Reports, Etc.

Last year at eMetrics, Google Analytics announced a ton of features and this year they're at it again. Today at the annual conference held in the nation's capital, a slew of updates to the robust analytics tool were announced. Here they are:

Advanced Intelligence and Custom Alerts

Google is developing a new intelligence engine. As part of the initial release, Google will serve up the most significant changes in a site's metrics when you view its profile in Analytics.

Here's a sample screenshot supplied to us by Google:

When something unusual happens in your analytics, Google will send you an email alerting you to the change. One example of an alert is when traffic spikes by a large percentage. You can set your own parameters for when you get an alert and there are also automatic alerts.

Here's a video explaining Analytics Intelligence and Custom Alerts:

Two New Goals

You can now set goals for engagement and branding. You can set thresholds for Time on Site and Pages Per Visit. Alos, you can now set up to 4 goals for 5 sets each - up to 20 per profile. For more info, check this video:

Expanded Mobile Reports

Google Analytics now tracks mobile applications developed for iPhone and Android. Developers for both platforms will be able to see which actions are taken and which features are used within an app. Android developers get a richer feature set, which includes advertising engagement.

Mobile websites are also getting better tracking. Previously, Google Analytics only tracked traffic from devices that ran Javascript. In the next few weeks, Google will provide code snippets for sites built on PHP, Perl, JSP or ASPX.

Multiple Custom Variables

The Google Analytics tracking API will offer developers the ability to define and track visitors according to visitor attributes, session attributes, and by page-level attributes.

Advanced Filters and Table Analysis Features

These new features help you manage vast amount of data, great for larger sites. If you're looking at large lists of keywords, for example, you can break it down by multiple filters and factors. Take a look at these two videos to learn more:

As with last year's batch of updates, this year's updates will all roll out at various times. Of course, experienced search marketers check their analytics regularly, so you'll know when you get one of the new feature sets. In the meantime, give us your first impressions of these new features by leaving a comment below.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 20, 2009, 3:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Is Being nonPC The New PR Method? Ask Pepsi and Yahoo

Ok so Pepsi is getting grief about its iPhone app for helping men pick up women and Yahoo is apologizing for the lap dances given at their oPEN Hack Day in Taiwan, but do the two reflect a new non 'Politically Correct' approach to pr and branding?

When Pepsi launched its app there was an outcry from women online, particularly on Twitter, even going so far as a call to boycott their products. But funny I did a search on Twitter today and nothing but people singing the praises of Pepsi - and most are women I might add.

Seems the old adage "yesterday's news wraps today's fish" is in evidence here. Pepsi got a lot of press and its seems now, just days later, it may just have helped with some more branding.

Yahoo, on the other hand, made an apology for the fully clothed lap dances given at their Open Hack Day in Taiwan last weekend, and are now getting press on the apology.

While there are a number of women in the programmers space, it seems like this could be another instance of brand attention by the people Yahoo most wants to be playing with their APIs. Most of the male programmers reading this story will have a sly smile on their faces and making notes to see where Yahoo is holding its next event.

Has the need to be ultraPC changed of late? In an ever increasing battle for media spend during this time of economic limitations, have companies decided to go for the free branding and publicity shock ads seem to garner?

Playboy is doing a centerfold of Marge Simpson and an Australian beer just did a rather sexually implicit ad using Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. We all know sex sells, but have the usual restrained methods given way to more explicit ones?

Landing pages with females smiling support for products have long shown better conversion than male counterparts, as have the engagement with online support where a woman's image is used.

It must make for hard decisions in corporate marketing offices around the globe. Funnily enough I did see a tweet calling for a female version of the Pepsi pick up app - now that would only be fair.

Posted by Frank Watson on October 20, 2009, 3:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Facebook Streamlines Groups, Tests New Homepage Feeds

Facebook has a couple of changes in store and they'll affect the way you interact with the site. The first change you'll see pertains to Groups. The pages for Groups will now look like the profile pages of members. There will be a Wall and you can click tabs for Info, Photos, and Discussions to view those sections.

Here's a screenshot of the Search Engine Watch group (which you can join here).

Some group activities will also be included in your News Feed. If one of your Facebook friends, who is a member of the same Group as you are, posts to that group, you'll see it. Otherwise, you'll still need to head to the Group page to see all of the activity of the Group.

If you don't see the changes to groups yet, hold tight. As with most updates, they're being rolled out over a few days.

Meanwhile, Mashable's Ben Parr, who was a friendly face in the press room last year at SES Chicago, got his hands on a four-page document outlining Facebook's new homepage changes. Yes, that's right. Facebook is changing their homepage AGAIN.

Facebook will be introducing two views: Top News and Recent Activity. Top News will prioritize the most important updates in your network (think birthdays) while Recent Activity will be essentially what you see with your current News Feed right now - a chronological timeline of updates with the most recent at the top of the feed.

Facebook anticipates that users will toggle between the two views. I must admit, their initial iPhone app did this - and they didn't do a good job with the "Top News" feed. They recently updated the app and did away with the focus on the Top News feed, which I hoped meant they were forgetting about it, but apparently not.

Here's the problem: Facebook has to determine which of your friend's updates are "Top News." Some people in my network I am obviously closer to than others. So I may indeed care about what my husband is having for lunch (we're watching my calories) than the birthday of someone who I haven't seen since college (but it's still nice to see what they're up to).

Now for some good news: Facebook will be reintroducing things they nixed with the last News Feed update. Photo tags, friend acceptances, group memberships, and RSVPs are coming back. Many Facebook users were sad to see them go, so they'll be happy they're back.

This will also be happy news for brands, as more people will see their friends interactions with brands on Facebook. For example, if you RSVP that you're going to attend the premiere of a movie, your friends will see it and it will help spread the word about that movie. Also, Facebook expects this to increase the number of members that become fans on brand pages.

What do you think about all of these Facebook updates? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 20, 2009, 2:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Yahoo! Adds More Detailed Info to Site Explorer

Yahoo! Site Explorer is a great tool to check how many pages of your site are indexed as well as viewing inbound links to your site. Now, Yahoo! is adding even more detailed information.

SearchMonkey - If you've marked up your site with SearchMonkey code or provided a feed with a SearchMonkey template, you'll be able to use Site Explorer see what Yahoo! has indexed.

Yahoo! Search Key Terms - Launched last November into BOSS, Key Terms allows developers to develop refinement terms for their search services. Yahoo! is now providing information on Key Terms used on websites through Site Explorer

Delicious - Information about your site's pages being submitted to the social bookmarking site will now appear in Yahoo! Site Explorer.

Yahoo! has also updated the dashboard for Site Explorer as well as the backend logic for SearchMonkey feeds. Developers can now validate small test feeds quicker.

Have you checked out the updated Yahoo! Site Explorer? Let us know what you think by leaving a comment.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 20, 2009, 1:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Aardvark Launches Website: Social Search Meets Answers Site Mashup

Aardvark has launched its new social search site at vark.com. Though previously it was available through IM, Twitter, and email, having a presence as a bona fide website seems to be a boost.

Aardvark's version of social search is more like an answers site than other social search sites. To test it out, I first asked a question about last night's Monday Night Football game because I didn't catch the final score.

Yes, it is easy to just go to ESPN.com and look it up. But the advantage of Aardvark is similar to SMS search - go on about your day while someone else does the searching. Of course, a question about Monday Night Football wouldn't even require searching. I knew some dudes out there watched the game.

It feels a lot like throwing a question out to your Twitter or Facebook networks, but those contacts don't always want to answer questions. At Aardvark, the whole point is answering questions.

Here's how it works.

Type in your question and wait for a response. People in the Aardvark community will answer it. You'll get an email when they do. You can also answer other people's questions.

The only thing I didn't like was Aardvark's extensive sign-up process. They have Facebook connect, which is normally a quick way to use a membership site. But then they made me sign up for an Aardvark account as well. If I wasn't a search blogger, I can't say that I would have signed up for yet another site. As a search blogger, using the site was pretty fun, so I recommend signing up anyway.

One thing that would be nice to see Aardvark incorporate is real-time updates and a more seamless way of accessing questions. Perhaps links to a user's most recent questions on the right hand sidebar for easy access and then sidebar updating as the user asks questions and answers come in. Instead, the page must be manually refreshed - and only links to a separate page with your Q&As appears.

These are relatively minor pet peeves at launch. There are obviously some smart dudes behind Aardvark so keep an eye on how this site evolves.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 20, 2009, 12:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Go to SES Berlin or SES Chicago for "Six Booths Astounding"

During the past five weeks, I've provided five great reasons for going to either Search Engine Strategies Berlin or SES Chicago 2009. For those who want to join in the chorus, they are "five brand new things, four keynote themes, three key trends, two early birds, and a ranking in the top three."

This week, I'll share a sixth compelling reason -- and it isn't "six geese a-laying."

You should plan to attend SES Berlin or Search Engine Strategies Chicago 2009 to discover "six booths astounding."

I know, I know, most of us attend SES events to learn as much as we can in the conference sessions. Hey, I spend more than 80% of my time there, too.

But, I always make room in my schedule to walk the trade-show floor at SES events -- because I always discover half a dozen booths from companies that have astounding new products or services.

Now, it's hard to predict which six booths will astound you at Search Engine Strategies Berlin or SES Chicago 2009. But I do recommend that you make time to check out the expo hall.

And I can share with you half a dozen exhibitors that astounded John Mulligan, my colleague at SEO-PR, as he walked the trade show floor for SESConferenceExpo's Channel at Search Engine Strategies San Jose back in August.

If past is prologue, then you'll find that it's well worth your time to visit the booths in the exhibit hall, too.

Ryan Hupfer, HubPages, and Ren Chin, YieldBuild on exhibiting at SES San Jose 2009

Ryan Hupfer, Communicator of Awesomeness!, and Ren Chin, VP of Marketing, YieldBuild discussed exhibiting at SES San Jose 2009 with Mulligan. YieldBuild is an online ad optimization company which helps web publishers make more money from their online ads. This is done by formatting optimization, help publishers figure out best placements for their ads for their website and which networks perform best in which ad spot. YieldBuild supports different networks including Google AdSense, Microsoft PubCenter and Ad.com.

Steve Wiideman on Local Splash, search engine marketing solution at SES San Jose 2009

Steve Wiideman, owner of SEO Expert TV spoke at SES San Jose 2009 about Local Splash, a local search engine marketing solution for businesses that are regional or local. Local Splash has a proprietary application that helps businesses get higher ranking in the map sections of Google, Yahoo and Bing. Local Splash helps businesses by verifying their information, lock down the account and optimize it so it gets better ranking. Local Splash also looks at categories for all of your competitors to understand the best possible sequence of categories that a business can be placed in.

Jennifer Whaley, Century Interactive, on driving phone calls to your website at SES San Jose 2009

Mulligan also interviewed Jennifer Whaley of Century Interactive on the exhibitor floor at SES San Jose 2009. Century Interactive links website sessions to phone calls and tracks those phone calls, chats and clicks that result from print and web campaigns. Jennifer described the types of clients that Century Interactive caters and, in particular, those clients who don't sufficiently understand clickthroughs and bounce-rates but understand phone calls and helps them understand what key influences are driving their business such as keyword terms, referring websites, etc.

Paul Pellman, ClickForensics, on exhibiting at SES San Jose 2009

Paul Pellman, the CEO of ClickForensics, discussed the company's product at SES San Jose 2009 with Mulligan. Pellman talked about many of ClickForensics new initiatives, including their new interface for their publisher and ad network clients which allows their customers to drill down and monitor their existing source of traffic and quickly screen approve new sources of traffic and identify the quality of that traffic. Pellman said clients are seeing an immediate impact on the quality of traffic they deliver to their advertisers and feed partners and to be able to negotiate better deals.

Frank Rocco, Adfare Video Solutions discusses cheap video advertising at SES San Jose 2009

Frank Rocco of Adfare Video Solutions discussed exhibiting at SES San Jose 2009 with Mulligan. Adfare produces video ads in a short time frame and deliver them in less than $150 per video. Adfare can produce cheap video ads because it can take existing content, anything the customer or advertiser has online, and download those images or footage and build a script and produce a high powered, effective video within 48 hours. Adfare works across a variety of platforms, including mobile.

Wendy Roe, Pixelsilk, on exhibiting for the first time at SES San Jose 2009

Last, but not least, was Wendy Roe of Pixelsilk, who discussed the company's content management system. Pixelsilk debuted Bruce Clay's SEO toolset inside the company's Search Advice so you can get advice and recommendations for your SEO next to the content editor.

Next week, we'll look at more reasons to go to either Search Engine Strategies Berlin or SES Chicago 2009. In the meantime, keep singing "six booths astounding, five brand new things, four keynote themes, three key trends, two early birds, and a ranking in the top three."

Posted by Greg Jarboe on October 20, 2009, 2:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

PriceGrabber's Holiday Consumer Spending Forecast: How Full or Empty is Your Glass?

PriceGrabber has released their holiday consumer spending forecast and it's clear that shoppers are hankering down on the ol' family budget. It's not quite as severe as last year, but consumers seem to be planning their holiday spending with more diligence this time around. In order to spend smarter, they're starting earlier, doing their research and looking for deals. Let's dig in.

70% of consumers are conducting product research and comparison shopping online. This has nearly doubled from last year, which was 38%. That behavior is already in progress. 30% have already begun shopping, most of them beginning this month (October).

Fewer consumers are planning to spend less. This year 53% plan to spend less than they did last year. That's down from 71% of consumers who were asked the same question in 2008. It's good news that the number has dropped, but retailers need that number to drop even more.

The top 3 ways consumers plan to save are:

• research and comparison shop online (70%)
• shop at discount stores (50%)
• use online coupons (39%).

If you have a clearance, discount or outlet part of your e-commerce site, you'll want to promote it. 50% of consumers are planning to shop at discount or outlet stores this year, while only 43% did so last year.

Women will make more of an effort to save than men. Female consumers dominate every penny-pinching category except for research and comparison shopping. 72% of men and 67% of women will research and compare online this year.

When it comes to how much will be spent, about 53% will spend less. 70% of those surveyed plan to spend less than $1,000.

The top 3 reasons for spending less this year should come as no surprise:

• increase in prices of necessities (48%)
• lack of confidence in the economy (45%)
• making less money this year (38%)

43% of consumers expect to shop on Black Friday or Cyber Monday. Of those, 79% plan to spend on Black Friday and 66% plan to make a purchase on Cyber Monday.

29% of consumers are planning to purchase gifts for fewer people. That's more than double last year's number, when only 10% crossed names off their gift-giving lists. Acquaintances, coworkers and service providers are most likely to get the axe at 57%, 53% and 44% respectively.

We just threw a ton of numbers at you, but if you're hungry for more, there's a ton more data where this came from. Check out PriceGrabber's full 16 page report (PDF) here.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 19, 2009, 2:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Baidu Enters Mobile Search Agreement with China Unicom

Baidu has been selected by China Unicom to provide wireless search for its 3G mobile subscribers. Baidu's search will be embedded in China Unicom's 3G phone modules.

''We are very excited to join hands with China Unicom today following our partnership agreement with China Telecom in May,'' said Xuyang Ren, Baidu's Vice President of Marketing and Business Development.

China Unicom 3G subscribers will be able to access a variety of Baidu search features including web search, Baidu Knows, Baidu Post Bar, image search, news search, and MP3 search. Baidu will also provide search for China Unicom's wireless Internet sites.

''As the leader in Chinese language search, we hope that Baidu's cooperation with major telecom providers in China will accelerate the development of 3G services and allow us to provide the rapidly growing population of mobile search users better access to information,'' concluded Ren.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 19, 2009, 2:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Google to Provide Free Wifi on Virgin America Flights This Holiday Season

Airlines have increasingly been introducing Wifi to their flights so that passengers can browse the internet while traipsing the planet. If you're flying Virgin American during the holidays, that Wifi connection will be free courtesy of Google.

From November 10, 2009 to January 15, 2010, you'll be able to surf free while you fly. Use your laptop, wifi-enabled gaming device or smartphone to browse to your heart's delight.

Virgin America is a new venture, serving just 10 airports:

• San Francisco, CA (SFO)
• Boston, MA (BOS)
• Fort Lauderdale, FL (FLL)
• Las Vegas, NV (LAS)
• Los Angeles, CA (LAX)
• New York, NY (JFK)
• Orange County, CA (SNA)
• San Diego, CA (SAN)
• Seattle, WA (SEA)
• Washington Dulles (IAD)

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 19, 2009, 12:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Wolfram|Alpha's New iPhone App Price Tag Stuns

Wolfram|Alpha has released an iPhone and iPod Touch App. At $50, it's certainly one of the more pricier apps available in the App Store.

Mashable says the app has value as a graphing calculator, stock analyzer, etc. But as CNET points out, you still need a web connection to get the info and it's free to simply point your mobile Safari browser to WolframAlpha.com. CNET does admit the app is more optimized visually for the iPhone. So basically, you're shelling out $50 for a mobile version of Wolfram Alpha.

If you work a lot with numbers, it's probably worth shelling out the $50, though I would wait to see if the price comes down a bit. If you've forgotten everything you learned in your freshman calculus class, you probably don't need this app.

Here are the official screenshots from Wolfram|Alpha:

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 19, 2009, 12:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

NACA's Save the Dream Tour Tops 315,000 Participants in 7 Cities

We've been following NACA's Save the Dream Tour this year. The first three cities were featured in a case study at SES San Jose 2009 during the How to Optimize for Search & Engage the Community session as well as at the Social Media & Video Strategies Forum during the What Works: Best Practices / Case Studies for Online Video session.

Since then, NACA has held Save the Dream events in Atlanta, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Las Vegas -- and is currently in the middle of an event at the Cow Palace in San Francisco, which will run through Tuesday, October 20.

NACA's Save the Dream has been an incredible success with over 315,000 participants at the first seven cities, with many thousands having their mortgage restructured with interest rates permanently reduced to as low as 2%. Although there has been some skepticism about how they can do this, NACA has legally binding agreements with all the major lenders/servicers to achieve this.

I spent Friday and Saturday at the Cow Palace to see the event for myself. And I've decided to feature an update of their case study at SES Chicago 2009.

To date, NACA has issued 15 optimized press releases about NACA Save the Dream events in eight cities. These press releases have 2,120,603 headline impressions and 32,596 full page reads, according to PRWeb.

The documentary video about NACA's Save the Dream tour has only 2,920 views. But it has helped to generate coverage more than 29 stories on local TV stations.

NACA's campaign includes press release optimization, YouTube video, blog outreach, media relations, and Twitter marketing. Through the end of September, it had generated 363 posts, 300 tweets, 21 mainstream news stories, and 7 YouTube videos.

To get a sense of what these stories are saying, read: "The American Dream is not lost- NACA stages Save The Dream Events" by Clifford Wright in the LA Baptist Examiner. Or read "Thousands at Cow Palace seeking mortgage help" by Carolyn Said of the San Francisco Chronicle.

Bruce Marks, NACA's founder and CEO, was profiled by ABC News on Nightline Sept. 5, 2009. And CBS Evening News with Katie Couric featured a story by Anthony Mason entitled, "Homeowner Hero's War on Banks," on Friday evening, Oct. 16, 2009.

Watch CBS News Videos Online

Subtitled, "The American Spirit: One Man's Crusade to Help Others Restructure Loans," Mason's story says, "With at least one in every 136 homes at risk of foreclosure, one man has persuaded some mortgage holders to renegotiate with borrowers."

According to Compete, there were 724,305 unique visitors to NACA.com in July, August and September 2009, more than double the 361,764 unique visitors to the site in April, May and June 2009, and almost triple the 270,486 unique visitors to NACA.com in July, August and September 2008.

Oh, and all those visitors arrived before the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric ran it's story last Friday. And if the five-day San Francisco event attracts 60,000 participants, which is how many the five-day Atlanta event did, then NACA's 8-city Save the Dream Tour will have attracted 375,000 participants.

That's an amazing story for a national non-profit community advocacy and homeownership organization. I'm just grateful that they're letting me help them tell it.

Posted by Greg Jarboe on October 18, 2009, 9:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Bobby Labonte and Ask.com Raise Awareness for Breast Cancer at NASCAR Banking 500

Under the lights tonight at Lowe's Motor Speedway near Charlotte, North Carolina, the number 96 car will be racing for more than just for NASCAR Sprint Cup Series points. With 13,000 names of people affected by breast cancer, Bobby Labonte will be driving the NASCAR Banking 500 to raise breast cancer awareness. The effort is in conjunction with sponsor Ask.com and their robust campaign this October, which is breast cancer awareness month.

Additionally, the car will be painted pink and sport the Susan G. Komen for the Cure logo, which is the partner in Ask.com's campaign.

"It's great that a company like Ask.com is using their program to get the word out about breast cancer," said Labonte. "I'm happy to represent a company that aligns itself with worthy causes like Susan G. Komen for the Cure. Ask.com did a great job giving people a way to honor and remember loved ones affected by breast cancer."

Normally, I'm an Earnhardt, Jr. fan, but with search, cancer awareness and my home state of North Carolina colliding for one night, I'm gonna have to pull for #96 this time 'round.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 17, 2009, 7:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

YouTube Tests Real-Time Comment Search

If you like to find instances of people jumping to conclusions, being extremely judgmental and just pure hate, then comment search on YouTube will be right up your alley. Seriously, though, in online reputation management, the ability to search YouTube comments will be very useful for engaged companies. Thankfully, ReadWriteWeb has the goods on a real-time comment search that was very quietly rolled out by YouTube. To access it, you'll need to go directly to http://www.youtube.com/comment_search.

For the screenshot, I wanted to keep things as clean as possible, so I searched "love" and here's what it looks like:

Notice the trending topics - conduct a few searches yourself and you'll see how quickly those trending topics change. Give it a go and let us know what you think by leaving a comment.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 16, 2009, 5:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Yandex Teams Up with Maxthon for Russian Language Browser

Russian search engine Yandex is teaming up with Maxthon, a popular Chinese browser. Their partnership will yield a Russian language version of the browser. Of course, Yandex will be set as default on the browser.

Yandex is the leading search provider in Russia and the second largest in Europe. comScore has Yandex at 44% of the Russian search market and Google at just 10%.

Meanwhile, Maxthon's global browser share was 1.55% in August 2009, according to Net Applications. Their largest overseas market is Russian, so the partnership with Yandex certainly makes sense.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 16, 2009, 4:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Google Trike: Going Where No Street View Vehicle Has Gone Before

Google has added to their Street View transportation fleet: a tricycle. Dubbed "Google Trike," the pimped out pedaling three-wheel bike goes where cars just can't. Or shouldn't, anyway.

The idea was conceived by Dan Ratner, a mechanical engineer/mountain biking enthusiast at the Mountain View, CA search giant. Ratner has already photographed LEGOLAND and the Arastradero Open Preserve.

There's a lot of land to cover out there, and Google is taking nominations for the next place in the U.S. to be photographed with Google Trike. Simply go to http://www.google.com/trike to make your nomination for one of the following categories:

• Parks & Trails
• University Campuses
• Pedestrian Malls (e.g., outdoor shopping areas, boardwalks)
• Theme Parks & Zoos
• Landmarks
• Sports Venues (e.g., golf courses, racing tracks, stadium grounds)

Nominations are open until October 28. Google will select a winner in each category and then open the finalists up to voting by the public.

Oh, you wanted to see what the Google Trike looks like? Check out this vid:

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 16, 2009, 3:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yahoo! Dropping Paid Inclusion Program at End of Year

Yahoo! has announced that it's nixing its paid inclusion program. The program has allowed websites to be submitted to Yahoo!'s search engine by ponying up some moolah. The submissions led to inclusion in the organic listings as the program is separate from Yahoo!'s Sponsored Results. Yahoo! has been criticized for its paid inclusion program, since the sites who do pay and those who don't are mixed in together.

Yahoo! provided a statement on the cancellation of the program:

We are committing our resources and efforts to our core areas of focus, including improving the search experience and relevancy of our ads to increase user engagement and ROI for advertisers, and as a result, have decided to exit Search Submit (see definition above). We have stepped up innovation in Search Marketing, recently rolling out search retargeting, Rich Ads in Search and improved matching technology, and in Consumer Search, with enhancements like the new search results page. These enhancements deliver value, control, innovation and relevance to our advertisers, leading to increased ROI.

Yahoo! will exit Search Submit at the end of 2009.

Yahoo! is providing those advertisers affected by the decision a sufficient lead time to assist in the transition. In addition, Yahoo! has recently announced a series of important enhancements to its Search advertising business and will work closely with many Search Submit advertisers to provide them with search solutions that will benefit their businesses.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 16, 2009, 3:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Google Reports Great Third Quarter, 'Worse Behind Us' CEO States

Google had its third quarter financial report today and beat estimates of analysts with a 7% year over year growth with net income increase of 27% over same period last year, CNN Money reported.

Eric Schmidt, Google's chief executive, on a conference call with investors said "while there is a lot of uncertainty about the pace of economic recovery, we believe the worst of the recession is behind us and now feel confident about investing heavily in our future."

The stock price which had dropped about 1% during regular trading today jumped up by over 3% in after hour trading.

"Google's strong third quarter could be a good sign for the economy, as the company's ad clicks serve as a kind of barometer of consumers' willingness to spend. The more people click on ads, the more willing they are to buy things," CNN Money noted.

Schmidt also said Google will be "stepping up" hiring in the engineering and sales areas.

Posted by Frank Watson on October 15, 2009, 7:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Chrome OS System Available But Not From Google

A Tech Crunch reader, Jonathan Frederickson, has found the Chrome operating system and has a copy available for download. It is an early build and comes with the bugs and problems such versions include, but it is now out there.

He also has a walk through available on his own blog. Guess we will see this available on laptops in the new year.

Posted by Frank Watson on October 15, 2009, 3:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Google Adds 285 Languages to Translator Toolkit

Google has added a whopping 285 languages to its Translator Toolkit. It brings the total number of languages to 345 and the number of possible language pairs to 10,664. The interface for Translator Toolkit is now available in 35 languages.

Google says its focusing on minority languages. This includes regional, heritage, indigenous, and threatened languages. Google wants to help preserve these lesser known languages so that these smaller cultures won't be forgotten as history constantly unfolds.

One of the minority languages is Māori, an Eastern Polynesian language spoken in New Zealand. According to 2006 data, only 24% of Māori can speak their own language. Google has been working with Dr. Te Taka Keegan at the University of Waikato to preserve the Māori language. Keegan is a senior lecturer in computer science and an expert in how computer-assisted translation tools can assist in the preservation of minority languages.

Keegan has found that computer-assisted translation aids in faster translations and language unification. Tools like Google Toolkit can help in breaking down language barriers and enhancing the understanding of cultures from around the world.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 15, 2009, 2:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Google Plans eBook Store to Launch in 2010

At the Frankfurt Book Fair, Google announced plans to launch an eBook store. The store will be called Google Editions and will launch in the first half of 2010.

About 500,000 books will be available at launch. They will also be available for download on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Google emphasized that it does not have plans to make an e-reader device.

Google will pay publishers of the e-books 63% and keep the remaining 37% when purchases are made through Google Edition. When purchased through another retailer, Google will get a very tiny share, with 45% going to the publisher and 55% going to the retailer.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 15, 2009, 1:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

'Ads By Google' to Appear on Rich Media Ads

Google is adding the "Ads by Google" notice to rich media ads, such as Flash and interactive ads. It will appear as an information icon (lowercase "i" in a small circle) in the lower right corner. When the icon is hovered over, it expands to the words "Ads by Google." If the notice is clicked on, then the user is taken to a page about Google's advertising practices.

Considering news of this update was published not only on the AdWords and AdSense blogs but also on the Google Public Policy blog, it's safe to assume that this is a reaction to political scrutiny. Politicians from state and federal governments have been looking into online behavioral advertising practices, wary of the implications it has for privacy.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 15, 2009, 1:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Bing's Growth Slows, Google Recoups Losses in comScore September 2009 Report

comScore has released their search engine share report for September 2009 and we're seeing yet another twist in the "Can Bing catch up with Google?" saga. You may remember that Bing has been on quite a roll since launch gaining over 1 percentage point, with Google and Yahoo! trading off the losses.

Well, the tides began to turn last month, with Google regaining 0.3% of its loss and Bing gaining another 0.1% in share, which is not the rate of growth they have been experiencing. This time, Yahoo! suffered the losses with a 0.5% decline. Ask.com and AOL held steady.

Another interesting tidbit is YouTube's continued growth and how it compares to search. Greg Jarboe already provided you with the scoop on how more YouTube videos were watched in August than searches conducted in September. Be sure to read his post because this is a phenomenon to watch for sure.

Also, read up on Promoted Videos, which is essentially paid search for YouTube. You can now purchase Promoted Videos in AdWords, which will appear in the search results over at YouTube.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 15, 2009, 2:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

We Watch More YouTube Videos than We Conduct Google Searches

Now, we all know search is important. And we all know that Google is the leading search engine.

But here's a factoid that continues to amaze marketers:

In August 2009, Americans watched 10 billion videos on YouTube. That same month, Americans conducted 9 billion searches on Google.

Yep, Americans watched a billion more YouTube videos than they conducted Google searches.

The data comes from comScore, a reputable source. And the reason that it may have flown under the radar screen is that it comes from two different reports.

The YouTube data comes from comScore Video Metrix, which reported that 120.5 million Americans watched an average of 82.6 videos per viewer.

The Google data comes from comScore qSearch, which reported that 169.2 million American conducted an average of 53.2 queries per searcher.

So, do you want to be found when someone conducts a search for a relevant term on Google? Of course you do.

But do you want to be found when someone looks for a relevant video on YouTube? You should.

A lot of marketers are trying to get their arms around social media -- like Facebook and Twitter. These are both important. But YouTube is a video sharing site -- which is also a form of social media.

And according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 62% of Internet users in the U.S. have watched video on a video sharing site. This compares to 46%, who have used a social networking site, and 11%, who have used Twitter.

So, why is YouTube often left off the marketing to-do list? It's a mystery.

But, you can start to get your arms around the topic by watching the YouTube video below.

Greg Jarboe of SEO-PR discusses YouTube and Video Marketing at SES London 2009

You can also get a sense of why YouTube is neither fish nor fowl by reading the TubeMogul report entitled, "How do people discover videos online?" More than 45% of viewers find videos through direct navigation to a video site -- i.e. going to YouTube and running a search or clicking around the featured or related videos. But more than 44% of viewers find videos embedded in blogs.

Finally, you can attend the YouTube & Video Optimization session at SES Chicago 2009. I'll tackle this issue head on -- and provide you with proven, practical guidelines for developing and implementing video marketing for your organization.

With more YouTube videos being watched in America than there are searches being conducted on Google, you will want to find out what it takes to get your videos discovered, watched and shared.

Posted by Greg Jarboe on October 14, 2009, 8:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (14)

Great news for Search Engine Watch, Clickz and Search Engine Strategies.

When I joined Incisive Media as VP, Global Content Director for Search Engine Watch, ClickZ and Search Engine Strategies in August of this year, it was amid some unfounded speculation about the financial health of the company.

It's so true that, nothing travels faster than rumors of doom and gloom. So-and-so is going bust, x is getting sued, y is getting fired and so it goes. So it was refreshing for me when I joined Incisive Media that, senior management confidentially advised me of exactly how the restructuring of the company would proceed.They were totally up-front and dispelled any and all rumors.

Today, Group CEO Tim Weller announced the appointment of Helen Alexander as non executive chairman. Helen has the most fabulous resume ever. Her business career has seen her rise through the ranks of publishers Faber and Faber, The Economist Group where she increased the company's operating profit by 75 percent and culminated in her being awarded the CBE for services to publishing in 2008. This year she became president of the CBI, an organization highly regarded as the voice of business in the UK.

From the official press release she emphasized how keen she was to develop digital products and services: "I have followed Incisive Media's development with interest. I am excited to have this opportunity to work with Tim, the management team and shareholders and hope to contribute positively to the stewardship and growth of the business, particularly in the development of digital products and services. Incisive Media is in prime position to take advantage of the difficult market conditions and accelerate its growth given its leading market position."

CEO Tim Weller has also successfully maneuvered Incisive Media through extensive negotiations and successfully completed the refinancing of the company. This is a hugely positive step forward and a true sign of confidence in the people, the brands and belief in the future prospects and value of Incisive Media.

Personally, I have been given one hundred percent support and approval to go ahead and make the changes I feel will help power Search Engine Watch, ClickZ and Search Engine Strategies through 2010 and into a brand new era of search and digital marketing. I committed to a long term contract and feel that I couldn't have joined the company at a better time.

A number of friends and colleagues in the industry have noticed that, since I joined Incisive, I seem to have pretty much gone underground. And it's true, I did. But only because there are so many new and exciting changes coming around I've been totally absorbed in planning. I've been jetting around meeting people and setting up new collaborations and ventures for the future.

Leading up to SES, Chicago and into 2010 I'll make a series of announcements about changes at Search Engine Watch, ClickZ and Search Engine Strategies. And yes, I will resurface with a new ClickZ column and a regular presence at Search Engine Watch.

So, for the huge number of readers, members and supporters in the SEW/ClickZ/SES community, you can be assured that the future is absolutely certain and very bright.

Naysayers feel free to stick that in your rumor-monger pipes and smoke it.

Posted by Mike Grehan on October 14, 2009, 3:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Facebook: Oh Yeah? Well, We Have a Spam Reporting Option, Too

A day after Twitter released their new spam reporting feature, Facebook has taken to their official blog to remind users that they, too, have a spam reporting feature. What a kwinkydink!?!?!

It's funny to me that Facebook responds to Twitter as they do. As Leena Rao points out over at TechCrunch, Facebook is still light-years ahead of Twitter. There's even some evidence that Twitter could be reaching a saturation point (difficult to determine on pageviews alone, of course).

Still that didn't stop Facebook acquiring FriendFeed and introducing a real-time feed search.

Of course, it's not surprising that the mammoth of social media would take a page from the playbook of the mammoth search engine. After all, there are so many ex-Googlers now working for the social network (including the founders of FriendFeed). Google just can't seem to sit still when their underdog opponents make an announcement. They're always ready with things to update, even though some of them seem less than ready for primetime.

Facebook at least is not making that mistake. But the reminder of their spam fighting feature still reeks of a little too much "Me too!"

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 14, 2009, 2:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Local.com Experiences Record Traffic in Q3 2009

Local search site Local.com saw record traffic in the third quarter of 2009. During the quarter, 66 million unique visitors checked out the site and network, up 5% from the 63 million uniques of the second quarter. The traffic was up 22% over the third quarter of 2008, which saw 54 million monthly uniques.

Organic traffic came in at over 28 million unique visitors for the quarter, up 4% from the same quarter in 2008.

September 2009 alone saw 23 million unique visitors, a record for Local.com and its network.

"Overall and organic traffic on our site and network are key performance indicators for our business, and we are pleased that we continue to make progress in these areas," said Heath Clarke, Local.com chairman and CEO.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 14, 2009, 1:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Give Them a Chapter Online, They're More Likely to Buy the Whole Book

At this year's Frankfurt Book Fair, new data presented by LibreDigital shows that readers who get access to a sample chapter of a book online are more likely to buy the whole thing. LibreDigital has powered 500 million page views of sample chapters for retailers, authors and social networking sites.

"In the case of one well-known book publisher, one in three people who browsed decided to purchase the book online," said Russell P. Reeder, President and CEO of LibreDigital, Inc. "As a result, leading publishers are increasing their use of online previews when planning promotional campaigns for both new and existing book titles."

Other need-to-know data about selling books includes:

• Women are spending nearly 70 percent more time browsing books online than men do.
• The most popular genre of books browsed online is romance novels, followed by books for tweens/teens and business books. The peak time for browsing romance titles is 11pm - 1am, in contrast to 4pm - 11pm for tween/teen books and 9am - 5pm for business books.
• An average reader spends more than 15 minutes browsing a book. They also preview an average of 46 pages of each book they browse.
• Adults are more likely to share links to content via email, while younger readers prefer to share within social networks like Facebook and MySpace.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 14, 2009, 1:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

CarMax Sees Rise in Sports Car Searches

CarMax, the largest retailer of used cars in the U.S., says that searches for sports cars rose 6% in September, compared to August. The top 5 sports cars search on CarMax.com were:

1. Ford Mustang
2. Chevrolet Corvette
3. Nissan 350Z
4. Chevrolet Camaro
5. BMW M3

"Sports cars remain an American classic," said Craig Beiner, purchasing manager for CarMax in Virginia Beach, Virginia. "Consumers may now be feeling more comfortable with the idea of getting a 'fun' vehicle that has an enduring appeal."

Either this is a sign that consumer confidence may be returning or the mid-life crisis is recession-proof. What's your take? Leave a comment below.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 14, 2009, 1:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

YouTube Promoted Videos Available to Buy in AdWords, Expand to 7 More Countries

Advertisers with video content now have the option of buying Promoted Videos on YouTube with their AdWords account. Need incentive to buy? YouTube says clicks on Promoted Videos have increased 500% since January.

Additionally, YouTube is expanding the reach of Promoted Videos. Originally available only in the United States, Promoted Videos have been expanded to seven more countries: Canada, the U.K., France, Italy, Germany, Spain and the Netherlands.

Promoted Videos launched in November 2008, but were first named Sponsored Videos. The name change came in March 2009, and Call-to-Action overlays were added in July. A couple of weeks ago, Promoted Videos were added AdSense, part of the Google Content Network.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 14, 2009, 12:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

LinkedIn Reaches 50 Million Users Worldwide

This morning, LinkedIn reached the milestone of 50 million members. CEO Jeff Weiner says that about 50% of the users are from the U.S. and the other half from the rest of the world. Weiner also noted an interesting fact about LinkedIn's growth.

When LinkedIn launched in 2003, it took 477 days -- almost a year and four months -- to reach our first million members. This last million took only 12 days.

Contributing to that momentum is India, which currently has the fastest growth of any country represented on LinkedIn. Eleven million members hail from Europe, and the tiny Netherlands has the highest growth per capita at 30%.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 14, 2009, 11:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Fraud Fugitive Caught Through Facebook

If you want to live a life of crime, you may not want to add former Justice Department officials to your friends list. This did not occur to Maxi Sopo who has been arrested for alleged bank fraud after posting his whereabouts on Facebook.

Sopo was posting how he was living the good live in Cancun, after eluding US authorities who sought him for over $200,000 in bank fraud.

"He was making posts about how beautiful life is and how he was having a good time with his buddies," said Assistant US Attorney Michael Scoville.

"He was definitely not living the way we wanted him to be living, given the charges he was facing," he told the BBC News.

Posted by Frank Watson on October 14, 2009, 12:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

A Busy Week Already For Twitter - Fighting the Good Fight

Ok, Twitter has been busy the first two days of this week - two actions by the company itself and one serious use of Twitter that stopped a news story from being buried. It is interesting that the platform has such impact when people use it as an aid to the Fourth Estate (slang for journalism).

This week a story about the tabling of a UK Parliament question about a company dumping toxic waste was banned by an injunction.. "The (UK) Guardian was banned from reporting the contents of a parliamentary question relating to the toxic dumping scandal yesterday," the newspaper later reported, when the company's lawyers did not contest the High Court challenge by the newspaper and the injunction was lifted.

The ban became a hotly trended topic on Twitter and since the news was out and getting even more bad publicity for the company it became useless to contest the challenge.

Guardian editor, Alan Rusbridger, via Twitter wrote: "Thanks to Twitter/all tweeters for fantastic support over past 16 hours!" A good example of Twitter's impact on free speech.

In other action, Twitter added a spam reporting link, as reported here.

Twitter has also discontinued recurring Tweets, a violation of their terms and conditions - so APIs used to launch repeated tweets will be shut down. This is great if you follow people who use this to blast repeat messages of various sales pitches etc.

I do see it as a detriment to notices of important information - though I am sure Twitter will have some work around for various people who can show a justifiable reason for repeats - emergency announcements etc should be given the ability since many people do not see messages if they are not logged in at the exact time of the publishing. Could be worked around by using DMs to subscribed followers I suppose but then spam issues arise.

Keep at the solid work guys.

Posted by Frank Watson on October 13, 2009, 11:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Comcast, Black Arrow Join To Test Dynamic Ad Insertion in VoD

Comcast and Black Arrow have combined to start testing dynamic ad insertion into Video on Demand, it was announced today. This test of new technology from Black Arrow will help improve the sale of ads for VoD content, as well as give the opportunity to better pair the advertising with the content and audience, Cable Digital News reported.

"BlackArrow's Advanced Advertising System gives programmers and cable operators a real-time, multiplatform campaign management and decision system for offering more timely and relevant ads in their On Demand sessions," the Black Arrow site explained.

Previous ad insertions had been static, where the ads had to be placed into the content before hand, the new technology allows the ads to be inserted on the fly.

"BlackArrow's system acts as a decision engine that communicates with the underlying VoD system to insert the appropriate advert into the video stream based on predetermined rules. Meanwhile, a complementary Web-based element from BlackArrow distributes and sells the ad space based on available inventory," Contentinople explains.

This new technology will help improve the appropriateness of advertising and thus help conversion and attention to the ads. It will also help bring this type of advertising up to the level of existing online advertising such as search and banner ads.

"Comcast has led the industry in creating new opportunities to reach consumers in the on-demand marketplace, and we're excited to be working with them," said Dean Denhart, chief executive officer, BlackArrow. "By combining BlackArrow's expertise in advanced VOD advertising platforms with Comcast's VOD leadership, we hope to expand the business model significantly for on-demand advertising."

Posted by Frank Watson on October 13, 2009, 9:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Social Media Counter: Not Actual But Gives You Thought

Dary P. Hayes, Director of LAMP (Laboratory for Advanced Media Production), has created an interesting social media counter to give people a simulated idea of the speed with which social media is growing. He also includes monetary indicators and Google search numbers to give perspective.

The numbers have been taken from a number of sites and are documented in the blog entry - comScore, Technoratti, Twitter and Facebook to name a few.

The clock starts when you first load the program - but if you let it run for five minutes you really start to get an idea of how the numbers stack up against each other. Well worth having a look at.

Posted by Frank Watson on October 13, 2009, 7:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Are Search Engine Optimizers Spammers, Evildoers, and Opportunists?

First of all, a shout out to Joanna Hogan‏ (surfwrite), who asked for my thoughts on the post by Derek Powazek entitled, entitled, "Spammers, Evildoers, and Opportunists."

It must have been a no good, very bad Columbus Day for Powazek. He decided to call search engine optimizers, "goat sacrificers and snake oil salesmen."

Strong stuff.

Now, Powazek was called one of the top 40 "Industry Influencers" in 2007 by Folio Magazine. He once worked at pioneering sites like HotWired, Blogger, and Technorati. He now splits his time between working as "Chief of Awesome" for HP's MagCloud and Creative Director of Collecta, advising a handful of startup companies on community design. And you've got to admire a guy who "lives in San Francisco with his wife, two nutty Chihuahuas, a grumpy cat, and a house full of plants named Fred."

So, I read his rant -- twice. And I think it requires a response.

(By the way, I'd provide the same kind of response if he'd called public relations people flacks and spin doctors. There are some groups that need defending.)

So, what proof does Powazek offer that search engine optimizers can't "dance the magic dance that will please the Google Gods and make eyeballs rain down upon you" the way they claim they can?

He claims, "the good advice is obvious, the rest doesn't work."

Well, if the good advice were obvious, then "SEO training" wouldn't be such a popular search term. Go to Google Insights for Search and compare search volume patterns for the terms "SEO training" and "SEM training." As you will see, SEO training is hot, but SEM training is not.

And the people conducting these searches aren't looking for a new breed of con man. They are are looking for good advice about search engine optimization that isn't obvious.

And reputable organizations like Search Engine Strategies, Market Motive, and the SEMPO Institute all offer SEO courses for SEO specialists.

And there are books on the topic from reputable authors like Rebecca Lieb's The Truth About Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day by Jennifer Grappone and Gradiva Couzin, and The Art of SEO by Eric Enge, Stephan Spencer, Rand Fishkin, and Jessie Stricchiola.

None of these SEO courses or SEO books would be necessary if the good advice was obvious.

Powazek also claims, "SEO is poisoning the web."

Well, it did once, when AltaVista was king of the hill back in 2000. And SEO could poison the web again -- if Google wasn't doing a better job than AltaVista did in fighting the darkside SEO masters that Powazek remembers from the old days.

Apparently, Powazek missed the 2005 post by Gord Hotchkiss, who retold the story of my dinner with a black hat SEO. In between the courses, a confession came out that stopped me in my tracks: "Black hat stuff is getting too hard. I'm actually thinking about turning legit."

And, apparently Powazek didn't read the 2007 post on the Official Google Webmaster Central Blog that Google has begun minimizing the impact of many Googlebombs. He thinks "Google bombing" still works.

Now, it turns out that I do agree with Powazek on "the One True Way to get a lot of traffic on the web." He says, "Make something great. Tell people about it. Do it again."

Or, as Google says about link schemes, "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."

Now, apparently Powazek has decided that calling search engine optimizers "spammers, evildoers, and opportunists" can quickly gain popularity in the Internet community. Saying something controversial to generate discussion is a classic linkbaiting technique.

As Matt Cutts said in a 2006 post entitled, "SEO Advice: linkbait and linkbaiting," on his Matt Cutts: Gadgets, Google, and SEO blog, "On a meta-level, I think of 'linkbait' as something interesting enough to catch people's attention, and that doesn't have to be a bad thing. There are a lot of ways to do that, including putting in sweat-of-the-brow work to generate data or insights, or it can be as simple as being creative. You can also say something controversial to generate discussion (this last one gets tired if you overuse it, though)."

The only thing easier than picking on search engine optimizers is to call public relations people flacks and spin doctors. That's like shooting fish in a barrel.

But that's another topic for another day.

Posted by Greg Jarboe on October 13, 2009, 6:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Not So Fast: Efficient Frontier's Search Ad Data Paints a Different Picture than SearchIgnite's

Yesterday, we reported on Search Ignite's Q3 2009 search ad spend data. The report offered much optimism for the future since they saw a 10% increase over the second quarter of 2009, with the year-over-year data staying pretty flat.

However, Efficient Frontier has released their data, and while there is still optimism, it's not quite as pronounced. Their Q3 2009 data was down 5% year-over-year with just a 5% bump over Q2.

The biggest difference in their data came in search engine market share. Specifically, Microsoft saw a gain thanks to Bing, with their spend share increasing from 4.3% in Q2 to 5.3% in Q3. Their click share also rose from 4.1% to 4.8% quarter-to-quarter.

Who lost share? Google. However, Google has been actively trying to make their search ad service more efficient, which may account for decreased dollars and clicks. In essence, they've been bloated. Their new diet looks to be working, since conversions are up a whopping 47% year-over-year.

Efficient Frontier's data for Yahoo! mimicked Search Ignite's with a slight increase quarterly, after a big drop annually.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 13, 2009, 5:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Twitter Fights Spam with New Reporting Feature

Twitter is making it easier to fight profiles which users feel are spam. When you're on the profile that seems very spammy, just look for the "Report as Spam" option, which is now under the "Block" option on the right-hand sidebar. Previously, Tweeple could report spam by contacting the @spam account set up by Twitter.

When you report a profile as spam, it doesn't automatically suspend an account. That would make the system to game-able. However, if you do report a profile as spam, that account will be blocked from following you or appearing in your Twitter stream.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 13, 2009, 4:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Building on iPhone App Success, Dictionary.com Launches Blackberry App

Dictionary.com launched their iPhone app six months ago and over 3 million people have downloaded the app. Now, they're branching out with a mobile app for Blackberry phones.

The app provides 500,000 words and includes a thesaurus. There are also audio pronunciations and the popular word of the day feature, which is available in English and Spanish.

Blackberry users are getting a couple of unique features, however. They'll be able to lookup definitions and synonyms while drafting emails. They'll also be able to email or text a word and its definition directly from the app.

The app can be accessed at the Blackberry App World.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 13, 2009, 3:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Google Building Maker: An Easy Way to Submit 3D Models to Google Earth

Google has just launched a new program called Building Maker. Think of it as Google Sketchup Lite. It's an easy way to create 3D images for Google Earth.

Building Maker is launching for 50 cities on Google Earth, but plans to add more. It's browser-based and can be used in Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari. Building Maker is free and available in 14 languages.

Models submitted will be examined by Google before appearing on Google Earth. Google says it will choose the best model for each building.

The best way to learn about Building Maker is the video below. It really shows you just how easy Google has made it to create 3D models.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 13, 2009, 2:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yahoo! Launches Yodeling Contest for Charity (and Advertising)

Yahoo! is holding a global Yodeling contest. Yes, that's right, now you have the chance to enter your musical interpretation of the famous Yahoo! Yodel.

You have until November 8th to show off your pipes. Head on over to the Yodel Studio to record your Yodel via webcam. You can also record a video with a camcorder and upload it. Yahoo! will donate to charity up to $130,000 for every Yodel submitted. Winning Yodels will appear in Yahoo!'s new global advertising campaign.

To kick off the event, Yahoo! is hosting events in New York, London, and Mumbai over the next two days. Celebrities will be on hand to coach your inner Yodel.

In New York, Jewel, Lee Ann Rimes, Pete Wentz and Randy Jackson will assist Yodelers with their recordings. Now, I know Jewel can Yodel, but Pete Wentz and Randy Jackson? I'm guessing Yahoo! really is looking for a new, um, interpretation of yodeling.

In London, Pixie Lott and Sinnitta will appear, and in Mumbai, Shankar Mahadevan, VJ Nikhil Chinappa and Shaa'ir + Func will advise yodelers.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 13, 2009, 2:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Search Ad Spend Up 10% in Q3 2009, Per SearchIgnite Report

SearchIgnite has released their quarterly search advertising spend report.

The data shows that U.S. search spend flat year-over-year but up 10% quarter-over-quarter. That's good news as we head into the holiday season.

The most notable increase came from multi-channel retailers, who upped their spend by 40% from Q3 2008 to Q3 2009.

Breaking down ad spend by search engine, Google and Yahoo! traded off percentage points year-over-year, but things were flat quarter-over-quarter.

Microsoft saw a 15% increase in ad spend, but it didn't help them gain ground on Google. Yahoo!, on the other hand, is seeing an abysmal decline year-over-year with a 24% decrease.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 12, 2009, 11:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

LexisNexis Integrates Semantic Search Technology into Patent Research

LexisNexis is introducing semantic search technology into its intellectual property research products. The technology was developed by Pure Discovery, based out of Dallas, TX.

"With semantic search technology we have changed the very nature of online patent research by providing users with an additional means of researching patent and non-patent prior art," said Peter Vanderheyden, LexisNexis vice president of Global Intellectual Property.

LexisNexis says the semantic search technology will feature the following:

• Transparency: The semantic tech will "enhance" each query and then shown to the user for complete understanding.
• Increased control: Users have the ability to add, delete, increase or decrease the importance of all query words in a visual query interface called a "querycloud."
• Fully federated: The semantic search platform can associate semantic searches to virtually any index, whether it resides internally or on the web.
• Scalability: The LexisNexis index includes semantic intelligence from over 10 million patent documents from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's patent index.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 12, 2009, 11:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Google Creates Learning Site Specifically for Ad Agencies

Google has launched a new site called AgencyLand. The site is an answer to requests from advertising agencies for resources to help them manage their clients' accounts. Originally launched into a closed, private beta in March 2009, AgencyLand is now available by invitation to agencies and third parties in the United States and Canada.

You can request an invitation at the homepage of AgencyLand.

In the meantime, here's a video featuring advertisers saying why AgencyLand is Awesome Town.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 12, 2009, 10:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Will Black Friday Become Cyber Friday?

One of the most significant online shopping days of the year is Cyber Monday, which, like Black Friday, follows Thanksgiving and unofficially marks the beginning of the holiday shopping season. But new data that Yahoo! has released suggests that Black Friday is itself increasingly becoming a popular day for online shoppers.

Last year, while overall click-through rates were down for both days, conversions shot up 147% for Black Friday while they "only" increased 73% on Cyber Monday.

Let's face it, search marketers. You gotta play both days.

Anecdotally, I can testify to being online with my computer at midnight on Thanksgiving/Black Friday, soaking up a sweet deal on some scooters for my kids. I did it all from the comfort of my rental condo atop of a peak in the Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina, which I can assure you is far preferable to the (unfortunately lethal) stomping grounds of big box stores across the land.

While the economy has consumers as uncertain as ever, I wouldn't be surprised if last year's Walmart deaths have people bumping those conversion rates even more this year. Make sure you've got great deals and free shipping. You might just save a life.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 12, 2009, 10:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Former Genentech CEO Levinson Quits Google Board

Arthur Levinson, former CEO of Genentech, has resigned Google's Board of Directors. Levinson had been on the board for five years.

"Working with Eric, Larry, Sergey and the whole Google team has been a remarkable experience for me. I greatly admire what they've built and have no doubt that Google has a terrific future," said Levinson.

Levinson is also on the Board of Directors at Apple. The FTC has been Google CEO Eric Schmidt recently quit Apple's Board.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 12, 2009, 10:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Google Launches 'Fetch as Googlebot' and 'Malware Details' in Webmaster Tools Labs

Google is releasing into Webmaster Tools Labs a couple of features that help you view things from their angle. The two features are "Fetch as Googlebot" and "Malware Details."

Fetch as Googlebot lets you view your web pages as Google's famous indexing spider. This will answer a question Google (and SEOs) gets asked ALL. THE. TIME.

Malware details show you code snippets on your website that Google has determined are malicious. The goal is to help streamline the often tedious process of ridding your site of malware.

Google has released these features into Labs because they want feedback from users before they release it as official features in Webmaster Tools.

What do you think of these new Webmaster Tools Labs features? Let us know by leaving a comment.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 12, 2009, 10:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Twitter to Add Four Additional Langauges

Twitter will soon be available in French, Italian, German, and Spanish. This will bring the grand total of languages to six. Twitter is already available in English and Japanese. Of course, that hasn't really stopped people from around the world from Tweeting in everything from Russian to Portuguese - and, of course, Persian.

To assist in adding the new languages, Twitter is seeking volunteers (which borders on crazy if you know how much money they've raised. But hey, even mega-wealthy Google gets people to voluntarily translate for them).

The volunteers will be able to make suggestions to Twitter about translations on the website. Twitter is hoping this will facilitate the quick roll-out of the four upcoming langauges.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 12, 2009, 3:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

StumbleUpon Enhances Search in Latest Update

StumbleUpon updated its social bookmarking service last week and one of the key improvements was search. Users can now search within their favorites, friend's favorites or the entire site. The search was enhanced using community ratings and reviews.

Additional updates include UI and social features. The UI is simpler and more minimalistic. It's cleaner and just looks easier to use. On the social side of things, StumbleUpon says it's now easier to find your friends. They're also following the trend of Twitter and Facebook by enabling near real-time updates.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 12, 2009, 2:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yahoo! to Serve Up Sponsored Ads on BOSS

Web developers who use Yahoo!'s BOSS (Build your Own Search Service) have requested the incorporation of Sponsored Ads as a way of generating revenue on their sites. Yahoo! has obliged the requests, but has arranged for a third party to manage everything.

Developers will need to apply through Domain Development Corp (DDC) in order to be selected to have Sponsored Ads on their BOSS search sites. DDC will provide support and payment for the program, not Yahoo!

Yahoo! did take the opportunity of the announcement to reiterate that it still does not know how the impending Microsoft search deal will affect BOSS. In the meantime, it looks like there are revenues to be had for BOSS developers.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 12, 2009, 2:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Go to SES Berlin or SES Chicago for "Five Brand New Things"

During the past four weeks, I've provided four great reasons for going to either Search Engine Strategies Berlin or SES Chicago 2009. For those who want to join in the chorus, they are "four keynote themes, three key trends, two early birds, and a ranking in the top three."

This week, I'll share a fifth compelling reason -- and it isn't "five golden rings."

You should plan to attend SES Berlin or Search Engine Strategies Chicago 2009 to discover "five brand new things."

Most of the focus at these events is on the conference sessions, but I've always made time to prowl the floor of the exhibit hall to see "what's new." And I don't mean trade show tchotchke.

Now, sometimes I see a booth from a brand new company that I've never heard of before. And other times, I find a brand new product or service being demoed in the booth of a big brand name. And every now and again, I uncover the latest SEO or SEM tools in a sponsored session at the conference.

I know, I know, this is like saying that I watch the Super Bowl in order the see the commercials. But, that's why the official name of the event is Search Engine Strategies Conference & Expo.

Now, it's hard to predict the five brand new things you'll come across at either Search Engine Strategies Berlin or SES Chicago 2009. As either Niels Bohr or Yogi Berra once said, "It's tough to make predictions, especially about the future."

But, I've been attending five of more Search Engine Strategies a year for more than five years on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, so I'm reasonably confident that SES Berlin and Search Engine Strategies Chicago 2009 will feature their fair share of brand new things.

And I should probably say something like, "Past performance is not indicative of future results," but let me share some actual examples of the five brand new things featured at previous SES events by Byron Gordon, my colleague at SEO-PR, who conducts many of the interviews for SESConferenceExpo's Channel.

Acquisio PPC Management Client Demo & How-to

At SES Toronto 2008, Marc Poirier, Chief Marketing Officer of Acquisio, gave a how-to demonstration of Acquisio's online advertising campaign and client management / report generation tool. Acquisio is a PPC management software company that builds software to help agencies automate processes they have to deal with in their monthly campaign management. It is exhibiting at Search Engine Strategies Chicago 2009.

Stacey Jarvis, Microsoft Canada, on Bing, at SES Toronto 2009

At Search Engine Strategies Toronto 2009, Stacey Jarvis, Search Lead, Consumer & Online, Microsoft Canada, discussed Microsoft's Bing. Stacey said Bing has evolved from what was originally a pure search engine to a "decision engine." Bing is a Platinum Sponsor of SES Berlin.

Dan Morris, Brafton, on customized news feeds for websites at SES New York 2009

At Search Engine Strategies New York 2009, Dan Morris of Brafton, a custom news agency, was interviewed. Morris said Brafton writes for each client specific stories about breaking news developments in their respective industry, using keyword strategy and links. Brafton is exhibiting at SES Chicago 2009.

Alex Torres, Google, on Google tools that help to maximize your website's ROI

As Search Engine Strategies New York 2009, Google Enterprise Product Marketing Manager, Alex Torres, was interviewed about using Google's many tools, including website optimizer, Adwords analytics and Site Search to help website owners maximize their ROI. Alex discussed the reasons why Google expanded its offerings and recommends website owners to use a holistic approach when incorporating Google's website tools. Google is holding sponsored sessions at SES Chicago 2009.

Jeev Trika, Visibility Magazine, at SES Chicago 2008

At Search Engine Strategies Chicago 2008, Jeev Trika, Visibility Magazine, was interviewed. Visibility Magazine started in 2007 and focuses exclusively on Internet marketing strategies. Visibility Magazine is exhibiting at SES Chicago 2009.

Next week, we'll look at more reasons to go to either Search Engine Strategies Berlin or SES Chicago 2009. In the meantime, keep singing " five brand new things, four keynote themes, three key trends, two early birds, and a ranking in the top three."

Posted by Greg Jarboe on October 12, 2009, 2:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Wake Up! - The FTC is screwing with bloggers

If you are a blogger in the US your life is about to change big-time.

You have just entered the Twilight Zone...

New FTC guidelines (read full version) described in the official press release state:

1 - "the post of a blogger who receives cash or in-kind payment to review a product is considered an endorsement. Thus, bloggers who make an endorsement must disclose the material connections they share with the seller of the product or service."

and

2 - the revised Guides reflect Commission case law and clearly state that both advertisers and endorsers may be liable for false or unsubstantiated claims made in an endorsement - or for failure to disclose material connections between the advertiser and endorsers. The revised Guides also make it clear that celebrities have a duty to disclose their relationships with advertisers when making endorsements outside the context of traditional ads, such as on talk shows or in social media."

My reading of this is very disturbing.

Here is a possible scenario:

1. You - a "social media" "celebrity" "blogger" (this is anyone who has more than a few followers on Twitter or some number of subscribers to their blog RSS feed) reviews a book, product, or service - making it an "endorsement"
2. You got a copy of the book to review, or got a free trial of the product, or a free trial of the service
3. You did not mention the freebie in your blog post
4. If someone does not like your blog posting you can be sued

To try to regulate bloggers as if they were professional journalists or compensated endorsements is asinine (incidentally - these guidelines do not apply to professional journalists!) The FTC is trying a land-grab into Internet regulation so they can extend their bureaucratic tentacles and justify their continued existence and funding. All of this is being done under the slogan of their official tagline "Protecting America's Consumers". This of course begs the questions - "from whom?"

This is a screwy world we live in, but the whole premise of blogging on the Internet is predicated on the notion that anyone can have frank and open discussions about any topic of their choosing. Most bloggers do not get paid and do not make any money directly or indirectly from their blogging efforts. They try to build their reputation and disseminate information that their followers may find useful. They never claim to be "objective" and often hold very strong, peculiar, and very personal opinions.

It has always been "buyer beware" on the Internet. I don't think anyone needs to be reminded that we should carefully consider the source and reputation of any information that we encounter online. We certainly don't need a chilling effect on the whole online conversation from a huge government agency.

It is ironic that this is happening under the direction of a man who was elected with the strong support of the Internet community and specifically active social media leaders. Unfortunately typical liberal-leaning tendencies are also to regulate people's lives via the government in order to protect them against unscrupulous big-business practices.

Don't get me wrong - frankly I don't care if the assault on individual liberties comes from the left or right (the four FTC commissioners who voted unanimously for the new guideline were all appointed by Bush). But I do care when big brother injects themselves into normal Internet discourse this heavy-handedly.

Fight this unconstitutional over-reach - these are simply regulations from unelected bureaucrats within the executive branch.

Let's make our voices heard and protect the First Amendment and our ability to have unfettered discourse without fear of lawsuits online.

BTW - no one paid me to "endorse" this position on the new FTC regulations - I guess that my butt is now legally covered (at least for this blog post).

Posted by Tim Ash on October 10, 2009, 7:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)

Patent Issued to Local.com for Enhanced Directory Assistance Services

Local.com has received a new patent for an Enhanced Directory Assistance (EDA) Services method and system. In a statement, Local.com described the patent, number 7,596,218, as:

Issued on September 29, 2009, the patent describes a system and method for maintaining a dynamic index for a telephone directory assistance system. The system enables advertisers to dynamically control whether a listing - and/or one or more of a keyword index, a localization index, and a position control index - associated with the advertiser is included in an EDA request, and in what position the associated listing is returned in response to the request.

Local.com hopes the new patent will provide additional revenue opportunities.

"Local.com has a patent that covers an important monetization opportunity in this burgeoning market, and it is complementary to our existing local search patents. We look forward to expanding our relationships with companies in order to deliver monetization of innovative new products and services to this marketplace," said Heath Clarke, Chairman and CEO, Local.com.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 9, 2009, 6:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Custom Search Now Available for Google Sites

If you use Google Sites to publish websites, you now have Google Custom Search as an option for your site. Here's the steps you need to follow:

1. Login to your Google Site
2. Click the "More Actions" dropdown menu, then select "Manage Site"
3. On the lefthand Navigation menu, choose "Site Layout." Click "Configure Search"
4. In the "Configure site search" section, click the "Advanced" tab. Then, click the "Add provider" button.
5. Login to the Custom Search control panel in another tab or window.
6. Copy the URL for the search engine you want to use. Paste it back in the Add Provider section in step number 4. Name the search option, leave the Show Results option checked.
7. Click OK.
8. Change your default provider in the "General" tab under the "Configure site search" dialog and selecting your new setup.
9. Save.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 9, 2009, 6:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yahoo! Search Filters Now Shows Sponsored Ads

If you're conducting a search on Yahoo! and use one of the filters on the left hand side to narrow your search, you may now see Sponsored Ads. The ads will appear on filtered results for selected sites who are also Yahoo! advertisers. Here's an example.

Let's say you're searching for "argyle sweater." You filter the results by JC Penney. The ad that JC Penney placed for the larger "argyle sweater" search will also appear in the filtered search that display only pages from the company's website.

This won't change the bidding for placement in the original, broader search. But the competition will be nixed, once the filter is in place.

How do you get your site listed as a filter? Yahoo! isn't revealing the secret sauce, but says it uses many factors including listings' quality, popularity and user response to determine which sites get the filter treatment.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 9, 2009, 5:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

No, Yahoo! and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad are Not BFFs

This morning, ZDnet ran a surprising post that Yahoo! forked over 200,000 names to the Iranian government following the country's contentious elections this summer. The post seemed based on some very loose information, and I waited for the official rejection from Yahoo!

Said rejection has occurred on the Yodel Anecdotal blog. Blog editor Nicki Dugan emphatically denied the allegations:

The claims are false. Neither Yahoo! nor any Yahoo! representative has met with or communicated with Iranian officials regarding the matters referenced in the article, and Yahoo! has not disclosed user data to the Iranian government.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 9, 2009, 5:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

YouTube Now Serving More Than a Billion Views a Day

Chad Hurley, CEO and Co-founder of YouTube, today posted an item to the Official YouTube Blog with the criptic headline, "Y,000,000,000uTube."

He said, "Three years ago today, Steve and I stood out in front of our offices and jokingly crowned ourselves the burger kings of media." He added, "Today, I'm proud to say that we have been serving well over a billion views a day on YouTube."

According to comScore Video Metrix, 120.5 million Americans watched nearly 10 billion videos on YouTube.com in August 2009. That 82.6 videos per viewer a month.

According to comScore qSearch, Americans conducted 9.4 billion searches on Google in August 2009.

Yep, the numbers are right. There are more videos being watched on YouTube than there are searches being conducted on Google in the United States.

So, why is YouTube perhaps the most underrated marketing channel in the country?

Back on July 20, 2009, the YouTube Biz Blog did a little myth busting. I think the post provides insight into the reasons why the world's most popular online video community is the Rodney Dangerfield of marketing.

Myth 1: YouTube is limited to short-form user-generated content. YouTube has thousands of premium content partners, from Sony to Disney to Universal Music, and fans can find hundreds of full-length feature films and thousands of full-length TV episodes on YouTube. Hey, even Hulu has a channel on YouTube.

Myth 2: YouTube videos are grainy and of poor quality. YouTube launched HD videos less than a year ago and YouTube already has more HD videos than any other video site. Hundreds of thousands of HD videos are uploaded to the site every month, and tens of millions are viewed every day. Check out Where the Hell is Matt? (2008), if you need to see an example.

Myth 3: Traffic, growth, and uploads are bad for YouTube's bottom line. This may look like a threat to a Wall Street analyst, but it is a opportunity to a marketer. The truth is that all YouTube's infrastructure was built from scratch, which means models that use standard industry pricing are too high when it comes to bandwidth and similar costs. And marketers should focus on where their prospect are going day in and day out, not what keeps Wall Street analaysts up at night.

Myth 4: Advertisers are afraid of YouTube. You may be still be afraid, but more than 70% of Ad Age Top 100 marketers ran campaigns on YouTube in 2008. They're buying YouTube's home page, Promoted Videos, overlays, and in-stream ads. Many are organizing contests that encourage the uploading of user videos to their brand channels, or running advertising exclusively on popular user partner content. Watch my interview with YouTube Product Manager at SES New York about YouTube's Insight and Sponsored videos.

YouTube Product Manager, Matthew Liu on YouTube's Insight and Sponsored videos at SES NY 2009

Myth 5: YouTube is only monetizing 3-5% of the site. This oft-cited statistic is old and wrong. Monetized views have more than tripled in the past year, as YouTube has added partner content very quickly and has done a better job of promoting their videos across the site.

If you want to learn more about the opportunity that YouTube represents, you can attend the session entitled, "YouTube & Video Optimization," at SES Chicago 2009.

Posted by Greg Jarboe on October 9, 2009, 9:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Google's Brin Defends Book Settlement in New York Times Op-Ed

Google co-founder Sergey Brin has taken to the editorial pages of the New York Times to pen a defense of his company's book settlement. Struck a year ago, the settlement recently went into renegotiations after much opposition from various groups complaining to the Department of Justice.

Much of the opposition has surrounded the concern that the settlement would give Google some exclusive rights. Google has maintained that authors would be free to negotiate with other online entities as well. Brin reiterated that defense in his Op-Ed:

Some have claimed that this agreement is a form of compulsory license because, as in most class action settlements, it applies to all members of the class who do not opt out by a certain date. The reality is that rights holders can at any time set pricing and access rights for their works or withdraw them from Google Books altogether. For those books whose rights holders have not yet come forward, reasonable default pricing and access policies are assumed. This allows access to the many orphan works whose owners have not yet been found and accumulates revenue for the rights holders, giving them an incentive to step forward.

Others have questioned the impact of the agreement on competition, or asserted that it would limit consumer choice with respect to out-of-print books. In reality, nothing in this agreement precludes any other company or organization from pursuing their own similar effort. The agreement limits consumer choice in out-of-print books about as much as it limits consumer choice in unicorns. Today, if you want to access a typical out-of-print book, you have only one choice -- fly to one of a handful of leading libraries in the country and hope to find it in the stacks.

Brin closed his editorial with a reminder that books and libraries throughout history have been destroyed. He made an impassioned plea to preserve books online, so that further destruction can be avoided.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 9, 2009, 8:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Bipartisan Group Calls for FCC Probe into Google Voice Restricted Calls

Recently, AT&T openly criticized Google for blocking calls on its Voice product. Long-distance carriers such as AT&T are prohibited by law from restricting calls to higher-cost areas. Google responded by saying that Voice is an internet-based application and therefore exempt from the law.

Now, a group of Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives are asking FCC to investigate Google Voice's call restrictions. The FCC is already probing the rejection of a Google Voice application for Apple's iPhone, which is only available through AT&T. Thus far, Apple has informed the FCC that it has not officially rejected the Google Voice app, while Google has said that the app was indeed rejected by the powers that be in Cupertino. AT&T was not cited at fault by either party.

This week, AT&T announced that it would allow VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) applications to work over its data network.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 9, 2009, 7:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Eye Tracking Without The Eyes - AttentionWizard.com Beta

Eye tracking studies can be a very valuable tool that can help identify significant problems with your website or landing page. Unfortunately eye tracking requires expensive and specialized hardware and software to be used, and live test subjects to observe and measure.

In-page Web analytics can also provide detailed heatmaps of people's clicking and scrolling behavior. But these also require the landing page to be properly tagged and measure the behavior of real site visitors. This data takes time to collect and can only be gathered from "live" pages.

Recent advances in the study of computational attention and human visual processing now offer a new and exciting alternative. Computer algorithms can be used to simulate where people will look during the first few seconds of interacting with your site and create a detailed attention heatmap of your landing page.

This approach has several advantages:

• Instant results - upload an image of the landing page and get your answer


• High degree of accuracy - 75%+ correlation with eye tracking and mouse tracking


• Works with page mock-ups - can be used with in-progress mock-ups before the page goes live

SiteTuners.com has recently announced the launch of a FREE private beta program (limited to the first 5000 sign-ups) for it new AttentionWizard.com visual attention simulation tool. Free daily heatmaps will be available for all participants for the length of the beta program. A paid version with per-image based pricing is expected by Q1 2010 for individuals, companies, and interactive agencies.

Posted by Tim Ash on October 8, 2009, 2:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (19)

MapQuest Embeddable Sharing Map; Launches Voice-Guided iPhone App

MapQuest has a couple of big announcements this week. First up, their new GeoRSS Embeddable Maps allow web publishers to add maps to their sites that feature locations they wish to share. Let's say you have a blog about coffee. Perhaps you create a map sharing your favorite local coffee shops.

The GeoRSS Embeddable Maps work with online services that provide a feed of location data. Such services include sites like Flickr, Yelp, Brightkite or When.com.

Next up is a new iPhone app. The app features voice-guided, turn-by-turn directions. The app also optimizes routes, taking into account things like traffic and construction.

It's not cheap compared to most apps, but compared to other navigation apps (or buying a GPS gadget), it's a good deal. After a 14-day trial for 99 cents, you'll have to shell out $3.99 a month, $9.99 for three months, or $29.99 for three months.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 8, 2009, 1:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yahoo! Snags Sales Exec from Microsoft

Per Boomtown, Seth Dallaire has joined Yahoo! as vice president of mid-market sales, a new position. Dallaire will be responsible for mid-market search and display ad sales. Dallaire was previously a top ad exec at Microsoft.

This past year, the trend has been Yahoo!s jumping ship for Microsoft. Qi Lu, Sean Suchter, and Scott Moore are among the many former Purple People now working hard for the money at the Redmond-based software giant.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 8, 2009, 1:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Flu Wars: Microsoft's New H1N1 Site, Google Flu Trends Expands

The good news about companies competing to get information about the flu out to the public is that said public now has abundant resources to stay informed. Microsoft and Google are both promoting their flu sites this week; here's the lowdown:

Microsoft launched an H1N1 site this week. Check it out at http://www.h1n1responsecenter.com. The site helps people assess their symptoms to see if they meet H1N1 criteria.

"If current estimates are correct, many emergency departments across the nation could be overwhelmed by two groups of patients -- those who have H1N1 and those who believe they have H1N1," said Angela Gardner, M.D., FACEP, president of the American College of Emergency Physicians.

"By providing an at-home tool that can help users evaluate whether they need to see a provider before they head to the hospital, we can encourage those who are severely ill or at risk for serious illness to contact their doctor, and reassure everyone else that it is safe and prudent to recover at home," Dr. Arthur Kellermann, professor of emergency medicine and an associate dean of the Emory School of Medicine.

Keeping the infected and uninfected separated is crucial to preventing the spread of the H1N1 flu.

"This will reduce the number of people needlessly exposed to H1N1 influenza in crowded clinic and ER waiting rooms, and allow doctors and nurses to focus their attention on those who need them most."

Meanwhile, Google has expanded their flu trends to include 16 additional countries. The site, which launched last November, is now available in 37 different languages. Google says that it does not use popular terms such as the colloquial "swine flu" because many searchers are simply looking it up due to news headlines. Instead, Google uses CDC data to corroborate flu-related search terms. In countries, such as Mexico, where they do not have historical data, they use seasonality to help determine relevant searches. They've also labeled such efforts as "experimental" since they're based purely on search.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 8, 2009, 12:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Twitter Talking With Google, Microsoft About Data Sharing

Kara Swisher at the Wall Street Journal has reported Twitter is in discussions with Google and Microsoft about allowing the two search engines access to their data.

"Twitter is in advanced talks with Microsoft and Google separately about striking data-mining deals, in which the companies would license a full feed from the microblogging service that could then be integrated into the results of their competing search engines," Swisher reported.

The impact of this has to be questioned and why Twitter would give up a core element of their potential income.

If we go back to the internal Twitter documents released by TechCrunch, there are some interesting possibilities and underlying thoughts from Twitter's perspective that could be worked into the process.

Twitter recognizes that "Google could kick our ass at finding the good tweet". But the engines are supposedly going to add tweets into the search results - thus giving Twitter greater exposure and the potential for rapid increases in sign ups. Is that part of Twitter's plan?

Two comments may suggest Twitter is not about to give away the store in these deals. "Google is old hat" may show a little arrogant - but hopefully not an underestimation of the search giant. While their thoughts "Can we do to Google what Google has done to others" shows they are aware of potential risks.

Twitter seems to be looking for a licensing deal - like Microsoft did with the PC companies - which could be a very smart play on their part. They would get part of ad revenue it has been suggested - given no one from any of the parties involved are commenting yet this is all speculation - but since the results would be placed into the organic results, exactly how that ad share will be determined should be interesting. Hopefully they are not thinking of adding search ads into their own layout.

They are aware that this will be done through their API and that they have to be very careful in mapping out the licensing process.

This is a development that will be watched by many people and not only those in our industry. How it plays out could be a major impact on the future of the web.

Posted by Frank Watson on October 8, 2009, 9:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

6 Google Stories for Wednesday, October 7, 2009

There was a ton of news about Google today (in addition to the two [see here and here] we've already covered today), so let's dive right in:

Search Options was released on the mobile version of web search for Android, iPhone, and Palm WebOS. By the way, that's the second time in a week where a mobile update is for those three types of devices. Blackberry and Nokia phones are noticeably missing while omitting Windows Mobile is no real surprise.

Google Maps released a major update, with improved details for parks, bike paths, and college campuses.

The Google Webmaster Central team is proposing new standards for making AJAX sites crawlable.

PDFs in Google's search results are getting the "Quick View" treatment. Since July, Google has added the option, which is based on the same technology used in Google docs, to 50% of the PDFs in their index.

Google is testing Cloudboard, as pointed out by a great post over at Google Operating System. Cloudboard is an online clipboard that would enable copying between Google services including GMail and Google docs.

Google held a press conference today (a response to Microsoft Open House?) and mostly told reporters a bunch of stuff we all already know. Here are a couple of tidbits that stood out: They talked up the new Verizon agreement to sell Android mobile phones. They said the prices publishers set for their own content don't affect SERPs but that traffic could indicate which content is more relevant for searchers. Otherwise, it was your regular Google stuff - defending their book settlement (which they're re-negotiating), defending their luxurious culture in a recession, and how they're good not evil (like Microsoft is, don't ya know?!).

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 7, 2009, 11:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Twitter User Arrested For Helping Pittsburgh Protesters Evade Police

A New York man was arrested for assisting protesters at the Pittsburgh G20 Summit to evade police by sending out Twitter messages, the guardian.co.uk reported.

The police were monitoring Twitter messages of protesters, the online newspaper noted.

Elliot Madison, 41, from Queens, and Michael Wallschlaeger, 46, were tracked to the Carefree Inn motel in Pittsburgh, though the newspaper reported Madison was arrested at his home.

"The pair were found sitting in front of a bank of laptops and emergency frequency radio scanners. They were wearing headphones and microphones and had many maps and contact numbers in the room.

Official police documents allege the two men used Twitter messages to contact protesters at the summit "and to inform the protesters and groups of the movements and actions of law enforcement," the newspaper reported.

An interesting use of Twitter by both sides - guess the protesters should have been more aware of the possibility the police could also have access to the communications - obviously they were not using direct messaging.

Guess the authorities in Iran had not thought of this.

Posted by Frank Watson on October 7, 2009, 5:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

This Breaking News Just In - The Meta Keywords Tag is Still Dead!

At SMX East this week, Cris Pierry, the Senior Director of Yahoo! Search, surprised everyone by saying that Yahoo! had stopped supporting the Meta Keywords Tag several months ago.

Google has never supported the Meta Keywords Tag and Bing doesn't support it, either.

So, I think I can safely say, "The Meta Keywords Tag is still dead."

Actually, the first to notice that it had died was Andrew Goodman of Traffick, who declared way back on my September 2, 2002, "An End to Metatags (Enough Already, Part 1)". He observed, "If somebody would just declare the end of the metatag era, full stop, it would make it easier on everyone."

On October 1, 2002, Danny Sullivan, provided a second opinion in Search Engine Watch in "Death of A Meta Tag." He declared, "In my opinion, the meta keywords tag is dead, dead, dead."

Nevertheless, Inktomi and then Yahoo! Search continued to support the meta keywords tag, so some search engine optimizers continued using it, although it didn't have significant impact.

Time passed, Sullivan left Search Engine Watch to start Search Engine Land and Search Marketing Expo, and way too many search engine optimizers continued using the Meta Keywords Tag because there's a big difference between mostly dead and all dead.

But, now Pierry has officially notified the next of kin.

So, I think the entire search industry can stop using the Meta Keywords Tag -- just as Chevy Chase has stopped saying, "This breaking news just in - Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead!"

I can't wait to tell the public relations agencies and PR departments that don't want to include keywords in their headline or lead paragraph. They mistakenly think that their newswire can automatically sprinkle Meta Keywords Tags over an unedited press release like pixie dust and magically optimize it for Google News or Yahoo! News.

I've long recommended using top search keywords in headlines and at least the first 100 words of optimized press releases. However, since Yahoo! News paid even minor attention to the Meta Keywords Tag, just as Yahoo! Search did, it was hard to get some to change their behavior.

Even those who realized that top search keywords actually need to appear high up in very visible locations, had trouble dealing with the death of the Meta Keywords Tag. They would go through the five stages of grief described in the book by Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, "On Death and Dying." They are:
1. Denial (This isn't happening to me!)
2. Anger (Why is this happening to me?)
3. Bargaining (I promise I'll be a better person if...)
4. Depression (I don't care anymore.)
5. Acceptance (I'm ready for whatever comes.)

But, now I can stay the meta keywords tag is dead, dead, dead.

And now, as a public service to those of our viewers who have difficulty with their hearing, I will repeat the top story of the day, aided by Senior Vice President of content for Search Engine Watch, ClickZ, and Search Engine Strategies, Mike Grehan.

Greg Jarboe: "Our top story tonight.."

Mike Grehan: [ screaming ] "Our top story tonight..!"

Greg Jarboe: "..The Meta Keywords Tag.."

Mike Grehan: [ screaming ] "..The Meta Keywords Tag..!"

Greg Jarboe: "..is still dead."

Mike Grehan: "..is still dead!"

Greg Jarboe: Good night, and have a pleasant tomorrow.

Mike Grehan: [ screaming ] Good night, and have a pleasant tomorrow!

Posted by Greg Jarboe on October 7, 2009, 4:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)

Google Tests Homepage That's Even More Minimalistic

Over at TechCrunch, a reader tipped them to a new test by Google - to go even more minimalistic on their homepage. The test involves hiding everything on the homepage, save for the Google logo and the search box.

The links for Advertising Programs, Business Solutions, etc. are apparently still there, but unnoticed unless you mouseover them.

The buttons for "Google Search" and "I'm Feeling Lucky" are removed completely, however.

As this is just a test, only a small amount of users will see it. It will be interesting to see if Google goes even more white space in the future.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 7, 2009, 12:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yahoo!: We Still Care About Search and Here's How

Yahoo! is addressing the post-Microsoft search deal sentiment that they've given up on search. Over on their Search Marketing blog, they're talking about things to come in the paid search space.

Rich Ads in Search - Yahoo! says their initial tests have improved click-through rates as much as 25%. This month, they'll expand rich ads in search to large brand advertisers. If you do get access, it's ultimately the conversion rate that matters the most, so keep that in mind.

Ad Delivery Report - Launched last month, the report allows you to see which ads appear on partner sites. It also allows you to block sites that aren't converting well for you.

New Web Search - Just a couple of weeks ago, Yahoo! rolled out their new search. The biggest change was the UI, which featured a new 3 column look.

Network Distribution - Coming next year will allow you to separate bids for Yahoo! and partner channels.

Yahoo! Search Marketing Desktop - Also coming next year, this will allow you to manage search ad campaigns offline. The tool is currently in beta and if you're interested in testing it, you can sign up here.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 7, 2009, 11:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Google Webmaster Central Offers New Feature to Manage Duplicate Content Issues

The Google Webmaster Central team has developed a new feature to assist with duplicate content issues. It's called parameter handling and it allows you to tell Google what to ignore or pay attention to when it comes to indexing your site.

This is great for the SEO that doesn't have quick access to add code regarding duplicate content to a website. However, these parameters will be treated as "hints" by Google. Getting that code or URL rewrites into your website are still ultimately important.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 6, 2009, 11:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ask.com's New Deals Feature Highlights Bargains in a Tough Economy

The recession has people using coupons more than ever. SEW readers know that because we cover data on increased coupon usage. Now, there's another option for bargain-hunters.

Today, Ask.com launched a new feature for its web search called Ask Deals. It reduces the number of clicks that consumers typically employ to access online coupons and bargains. Ask uses 40 coupon feeds as well as indexing forums for breaking info on deals.

"In a tough economy and with the holidays approaching, Ask Deals arrives at just the right time for consumers as a one-stop shop for value. It's the answer our users are looking for, too, since searches for coupons on Ask.com have shot up almost 50 percent in 2009," said Scott Garell, President, Ask Networks.

Ask.com is incorporating their new Deals feature throughout their web search. If you type in a shopping search term, it will prompt you with search filters (see the right sidebar) that can help you find bargains.

If you type in a search term that contains a deal-finding word, you'll notice deals at the top of the search results.

Additionally, the main Deals page is a dynamic, full-fledged coupon portal with new deals featured everyday.

What do you think of Ask Deals? Share your first impressions by leaving a comment below.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 6, 2009, 2:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

IAB Report: Internet Advertising Down, Search Ads Up First Half 2009

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers have released their semiannual report on the state of Internet advertising. Overall Internet advertising in the first half of 2009 declined by 5.3% compared to the same period, coming in at $10.9 billion. However, search continues to ride out the economic downturn by increasing 1.7% to $5.15 billion.

"While the overall advertising market has continued to be impacted by current economic conditions, marketers are allocating more of their dollars to digital media for its accountability and because consumers are spending more of their leisure time online," said David Silverman, PwC Assurance partner.

The news is good for an industry that has weathered the current economic woes better than most - especially its traditional advertising predecessor.

"We are in one of the most difficult economic slumps in decades. Interactive is one of the advertising sectors that has been least affected," said Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO of the IAB. "In recent years the digital revolution has driven a transformation of how consumers experience advertising and media. As the economy improves, we're confident that brands will devote an even greater share of their budgets to reaching consumers as they make interactive media a larger part of their lives."

Looksmart CEO Ted West agrees. I spoke with him following the release of the data to get his reaction to the findings.

"This is the first recessionary cycle the industry has experienced. We don't have the benefit of looking back of a tipping point and how things might bounce back," said West. "The stability of search points to the strength of adoption. When the recovery does occur, search will be a very strong beneficiary of that trend."

Because of that stability, online marketers can have confidence in maintaining their search marketing campaigns.

"I think that most search advertisers and their various agencies have developed a really sound base of experience and alternatives. I would continue to pursue those methods in selection and monitoring of keywords," advised West. "It's not a time to dramtically change. Search has proven to be productive."

West emphasized that consumers haven't left the internet, but when the conversions pick up again, search will benefit from that uptick.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 6, 2009, 1:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

FTC Sets New Guidelines for Blogger Endorsements and Word-of-Mouth Marketing

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has issued new regulations regarding blogger endorsements and word-of-mouth marketing campaigns. If a blogger is paid to do a review - either through money or product/service - said blogger must reveal said payment.

Ever been annoyed by posts in message boards that ended up being written by a company employee? The new guidelines crack down on such behavior as well.

The word-of-mouth guidelines don't just extend to employees. They involve anyone who has signed up for a word-of-mouth marketing program, such as a Street Team.

To be clear, bloggers can post paid endorsements and people can post in message boards and join street teams or similar efforts. But if there is a relationship between marketer and company, it must be disclosed. If you don't, get ready to pony up $11,000 when you're caught.

How it must be disclosed was not defined by the FTC. But, if you're a blogger, I recommend something like "Acme video game company sent me a free copy of this hot new game and here is my review."

Consumers like it when they know the relationship you have with the product you're pushing. If I had to guess, I'd say transparency begets loyalty.

However, the new guidelines opened up a can of grey areas the FTC needed to tackle. One such scenario is a blogger who already writes glowing reviews of Acme Video Game company. If all of a sudden, the blogger receives a free copy of a new video game and writes a review of the game, s/he needs to disclose the receipt of the game from Acme.

Another funky area of the new guidelines is the issue of liability if/when/should these regulations be enforced. If you're an advertiser engaged in digital public relations, reaching out to bloggers or word-of-mouthers, you could be liable if the endorsers make false or misleading claims about your product/service.

The FTC said that they would consider reasonable effort on the part of the advertiser to keep the endorsers in line. But then they offered up this scenario:

A skin care products advertiser participates in a blog advertising service. The service matches up advertisers with bloggers who will promote the advertiser's products on their personal blogs. The advertiser requests that a blogger try a new body lotion and write a review of the product on her blog. Although the advertiser does not make any specific claims about the lotion's ability to cure skin conditions and the blogger does not ask the advertiser whether there is substantiation for the claim, in her review the blogger writes that the lotion cures eczema and recommends the product to her blog readers who suffer from this condition. The advertiser is subject to liability for misleading or unsubstantiated representations made through the blogger's endorsement.

The blogger is also liable (in addition to any liability gained if the relationship was not disclosed). But the FTC says advertisers need to provide training and then keep a close eye on the ramblings of bloggers and other endorsers.

The guidelines should serve as a warning for companies hiring interns and other young people to head up your social media efforts. The FTC isn't really proposing anything here that isn't already frowned upon by the general public.

Sponsored blog posts are pretty easy to detect and kill reader loyalty. Many companies have had to repair damaged reputations after they engaged in blogging or forum posting efforts pretending to be random people when a PR effort was really transpiring.

Social media has always been best implemented under these guidelines unspoken rules. Use today's news as a means of lining up your core social media values with how consumers truly wish to interact with your company.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 5, 2009, 1:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

eMarketer Report Says Keep Video Ads Short and Relevant

David Hallerman, eMarketer senior analyst, has just written new report entitled, "Marketing to the Online Video Audience."

Although online video viewership has never been higher and marketers are eager to reach this large and growing audience, many online video viewers dislike intrusive video ads -- even though they freely accept TV commercials.

Hallerman thinks this audience perspective can shift if marketers increasingly implement two key concepts.

First, he thinks they should focus on "making the length of video ads suitable to the length of content, so that they are not too pushy." Second, he believes they should also focus on "devoting resources to develop high-quality video creative that is well-targeted to the intended online audience."

"The Internet and TV audience are not one and the same," says Hallerman. "The Internet audience does not necessarily respond to the same ads in the same way they would after viewing them on TV."

For example, younger people are more comfortable than their older counterparts with online media, which can lead to higher levels of engagement. A drill-down look from Nielsen Online shows that audiences ages 30 and younger are more likely than older viewers to find online video advertising funny, emotionally touching and informative -- essential qualities for brand marketing.

The net-net: Keep it short and keep it relevant.

If you want more details, read the article, "Engaging Online Video Viewers," which was just posted on eMarketer.

You can also read more about this topic in my book, "YouTube and Video Marketing: An Hour a Day."

Back in the 1990s, I worked for William B. Ziff, Jr. He often said a special-interest magazine was a like a magnet and a screen: It attracted readers interested in a topic but also sifted out those who weren't as interested. This created an audience that endemic advertisers could reach cost-effectively, because a high percentage of readers were interested in their products.

Although it is still early days for online video advertising, it appears that viewers attracted to a video like Monty Python's Argument Clinic might also be interested in buying The Complete Monty Python's Flying Circus on Amazon.com.

In fact, when Monty Python launched their YouTube channel in November 2008, not only did their YouTube videos shoot to the top of the most viewed lists, but their DVDs also quickly climbed to No. 2 on Amazon's Movies & TV bestsellers list, with increased sales of 23,000 percent.

You find this case study and plenty of other practical tips in my book. If you don't believe me, you can read Lee Odden's, "Review: YouTube and Video Marketing: An Hour a Day," on his Online Marketing Blog. Hey, if Odden says "You cannot afford to miss this story," then you probably shouldn't.

Or, if you'd like to have an argument, just let the receptionist know if you want to start with a five-minute argument or take a full course of 10 arguments.

Argument Clinic

Posted by Greg Jarboe on October 5, 2009, 12:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Wolfram Alpha to Host 'Homework Day' on October 21

Wolfram Alpha is reaching out to educators, students and parents to attend their first "Homework Day" on October 21, 2009. The day will feature a live, interactive webcast where founder Stephen Wolfram will answer questions submitted by the public. The event begins at noon CDT.

Here's what to expect from the event:

• Quick, step-by-step lessons that will give everyone the ability to use Wolfram|Alpha to tackle problems in a variety of subjects, including math, science, engineering, health and nutrition, English, history, economics, and many more
• Content and segments tailored to specific age groups
• Ideas and examples for how to make subjects like math and science more engaging and relevant to students
• Live interviews and demonstrations by educators who are already using Wolfram|Alpha in their classrooms
• Conversations with guest participants who will further discuss the role of technology in education

Those interested can visit http://homeworkday.wolframalpha.com/ to submit questions and videos about how they will incorporate Wolfram Alpha their lesson plans and homework.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 5, 2009, 12:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

AdSense Now Available for Full HTML Mobile Sites

Many mobile devices are now featuring a full HTML web browsing experience. As a result, web developers have often created mobile sites that offer a richer experience than a page full of text links.

Google AdSense is now allowing publishers and web developers to use bigger ads than the typical tiny mobile display ads.

The AdSense team has developed a snippet of Javascript that's easy to embed on your mobile site that gives you more control over the ads displayed on your mobile site. If you're targeting all mobile devices or, for whatever reason, are unable to change your website, AdSense will detect the full HTML mobile browsers and serve up bigger ads for you.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 5, 2009, 12:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Steve Ballmer Says Microsoft Search Acquisitions Unlikely

Steve Ballmer, after addressing Britain's CBI business lobby organization, said that search acquisitions were unlikely to be part of the strategy to knock Google off its rocker, according to Reuters.

The clarification came after a false press release last week announced an acquisition of Local.com by the software giant.

Local.com was quick to shoot down the news, with the following statement:

Local.com Corporation today commented that a false press release was issued that stated Local.com was being acquired by Microsoft. The company has not been acquired, nor is it in discussions with Microsoft about a potential acquisition.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 5, 2009, 12:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Go to SES Berlin or SES Chicago for "Four Keynote Themes"

During the past three weeks, I've given you three great reasons for going to either Search Engine Strategies Berlin or SES Chicago 2009. For those who want to catch up, they were "three key trends", "two early birds," and "a ranking in the top three."

This week, I'll focus on a fourth compelling reason -- and it isn't to hear "four calling birds."

You should plan to attend SES Berlin or Search Engine Strategies Chicago 2009 to hear "four keynote themes."

Let's start with SES Chicago 2009, where there will be three keynote themes well worth hearing.

On Day 1, the opening keynote is being given by Jeff Jarvis, author of What Would Google Do? He is associate professor and director of the interactive journalism program at the City University of New York's new Graduate School of Journalism. He is also consulting editor and a partner at Daylife, a news startup.

Jarvis writes about media, technology and business on his blog, BuzzMachine. A former TV critic for TV Guide and People magazine, as well as the creator and founding editor of Entertainment Weekly, he has also been assistant city editor and reporter for the Chicago Tribune and a reporter for Chicago Today.

"My keynote, like my book, isn't really about Google," says Jarvis. "It will be about the profound changes in the economy and society brought on by the Internet -- as seen through the success of the one company that has figured out and exploited them better than any other: Google."

Jarvis adds, "We'll have fun discussing the impact of search and the Google economy on every sector from media to advertising to restaurants to government.

On Day 2 of Search Engine Strategies Chicago 2009, the keynote speaker is Peter Morville, author of the best-sellers Ambient Findability: What We Find Changes Who We Become and Information Architecture for the World Wide Web: Designing Large-Scale Web Sites. He is also the President of Semantic Studios and blogs at findability.org.

During his keynote, Morville is expected to expand on the themes found in his published works, including the idea of findability and the importance of a navigable and friendly user interface.

"At SES Chicago, this will be my first opportunity to talk about ideas in my new book - about the future of search and discovery," says Morville. "In addition to exploring the relationships between information architecture, ambient findability, and search engine optimization, we'll also be covering mobile search, decision engines, augmented reality, and emerging technologies that will change the way we find everything from answers and articles to products and people."

On Day 3, the keynote speaker is Dan Siroker, the web entrepreneur known for leading the analytics team for the Barack Obama presidential campaign. He also served as the Deputy Director of New Media on the presidential transition team.

Siroker's team of software engineers and analysts were responsible for optimizing the effectiveness of the Obama campaign's online operations that ended up raising over half a billion dollars, registering over 2 million voters, and enabling 3 million phone calls to be made in the final four days of the campaign.

Before joining the Obama campaign, Siroker was a Product Manager for Google Chrome and, before that, he worked as a Product Manager for Google AdWords.

"SES Chicago is, of course, in the President's hometown, so I'm really looking forward to sharing the lessons my team and I learned during the Obama campaign and how these practices can be applied to any data-driven decision," says Siroker. "Whether you're a developer, designer or marketer, if you're building a product or selling an idea, you can use data to do it better."

The fourth keynote theme will be delivered by Bill Hunt, the President of Back Azimuth Consulting and co-author of the best selling book "Search Engine Marketing, Inc.: Driving Search Traffic to Your Company's Web Site", who will be the opening keynote speaker at Search Engine Strategies Berlin.

Hunt is currently on the Board of Directors of the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization and writes Bill Hunt's Rants & Raves blog, which provides digital marketing commentary from a global marketing road warrior.

Hunt firmly believes that when we understand the searcher's intent, where a searcher is in the buying cycle or even understanding the type of search they are doing, advertisers can better intersect with the current demand for their type of products and services to increase sales. That's a keynote theme worth going to SES Berlin to hear.

Next week, we'll look at more reasons to go to either Search Engine Strategies Berlin or SES Chicago 2009. In the meantime, keep singing "four keynote themes, three key trends, two early birds, and a ranking in the top three."

Posted by Greg Jarboe on October 5, 2009, 3:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Google View Thru Tracking: Has Big Brother Been Watching

Google announced they are making view-through conversion tracking for banners on the Content Network last Wednesday. So if someone sees your banner on a publisher's site running AdSense and comes to your site within 30 days you can capture the conversion.

Ok we know they have always been able to know when the banner runs - it gets called from Google - but to be able to track if the people who saw the ad convert takes the loading of a cookie when the banner loads in the browser.

This seems a little intrusive and given Google noted they were testing this months ago so they could launch it - "Earlier this year, we mentioned our plans to improve the measurement of conversions for display advertising campaigns on the Google Content Network" - means they have been tracking people's activities for some time.

When it was a method of tracking numbers of clicks to number of conversions, you had the click and the load of a cookie based on the action, but to start tracking just from the banner being seen - while a boon to marketers calls privacy issues in to the mix.

The bigger question is how long has this tracking been in place and what type of information has been captured?

Posted by Frank Watson on October 4, 2009, 12:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Social Media Press Release Blown Away in Hail of Bullets

This week, I saw an optimized press release blown away by Google News because it was mistaken for a social media press release. It fell under a hail of bullets, an innocent victim of a formatting decision. Before I share this tragic story, let me provide some background.

Two years ago, I asked, "Is the Social Media Press Release a Meatball Sundae?" I had just finished reading Seth Godin's book, Meatball Sundae: Is Your Marketing out of Sync?, which defined "meatball sundae" as "the unfortunate result of mixing two good ideas." And I answered my rhetorical question by accusing the "social media press release" alias "social media news release" alias "social media release" of being a meatball sundae.

I said the meatballs were the press releases, which should be optimized for news search engines, and the sundae toppings were the "Technorati tags, Digg buttons, del.icio.us bookmarks and other Web 2.0 features," which should be added to online stories and blog posts.

And I pointed out that adding Technorati tags to your social media press releases doesn't get them into Technorati, submitting social media news releases to social news sites like Digg was social media suicide, and using a jazzy new format that features bullet points and del.icio.us links wasn't going to make bloggers care about your content.

Six months later, I took a second look at the questions I'd raised in a blog post entitled, "Does Social Media 2.0 deserve a second life?" Instead of jumping to conclusions, I said the right approach to Social Media 2.0 was to test it, test it, and test it again.

Many of the new distribution options and PR measurement tools worked. But adding social media elements to press releases didn't. Blogs and other social media enable two-way conversation, but most press releases - even many of ones that use the social media format - are essays, not interviews; broadcasts, not conversations; lectures, not discussions.

One of the things that I didn't test back then was the suggested use of bulleted text in social media press releases, versus the narrative format of traditional press releases. Although I prefered the narrative approach, I figured that it was totally fine use bullets. I mistakenly figured that format isn't content, so it probably didn't matter.

Then, this week I drafted an optimized press release about an iPhone application for a client who shall remain nameless. As a courtesy, my client sent the draft to a third-party firm that had designed and developed the iPhone app. The final approved version came back -- with bullet points listing the key features.

Since it had already taken a month to get Apple's approval to even announce the new iPhone app, I didn't make a big deal about using a list of bullets in the optimized press release. Hey, I'm open minded.

But the next morning, I was shocked, shocked to find that Yahoo! News had indexed the optimized press release, but Google News hadn't. The optimized press release had top rankings for targeted keyword phrases in Yahoo! News, but I couldn't find it -- even when I typed the entire headline into the search box and hit the Search News button.

Now, Google News can be arbitrary, whimisical and capracious when it comes to crawling press release distribution services. For example, its automated system is currently best able to crawl headlines or anchor text links that have 22 words or less.

But, I already knew that. So, I talked with the technical gurus at my press release distribution servce. Then, I went looking to see if anyone else had encountered this phenomenon before, or if it was the result of a recent change to the Google News algorithim.

That's when found a post by Rebecca Corliss on HubSpot's Inbound Internet Marketing Blog entitled, "Study Shows Social Media Releases Are Less Effective than Traditional Press Releases." In May 2009, Corliss conducted a study comparing the results of social media releases and traditional releases by publishing them across five newswires.

As you can see in the graph to the left, the traditional release format performed much better.

And one of her findings jumped off the page. She said, "Don't use formatting. Many portal sites don't accept it. (For the technical folks, we're talking about XHTML.) Ditch the bullets, the itallics and bold type. It complicates the code and makes it more difficult for your release to be syndicated. "

Corliss added, "Use social media and multimedia elements in your PR strategy, not your press releases."

So, after conferring, conversing and otherwise hobnobbing with my fellow wizards, I decided that it was time to test the narrative format in a second press release versus the bulleted text in the first.

Now, I also made some edits to the headline -- changing "launches iPhone app" to "iPhone app launched by" -- and I revised the subhead and lead paragraph. But, these were just to put a fresh look on the announcement for Yahoo! News users.

The most significant change that I made was to rewrite the bulleted text into the narrative format.

Two days later, I submitted the second press release -- selecting the same news release distribution package -- and found that both Google News and Yahoo! News had indexed it. Oh, and it had top rankings for targeted keyword phrases in both news search engines. So, press release optimization still works.

But, what's the net-net? The excessive use of bullets can kill press releases. The Associate Press doesn't use them -- even for AP News in Brief. And according to Newsknife, the Associated Press was the No. 1 source in Google News for September 2009 as well as for the year to October.

So, write your next press release the same way that AP writes its online stories. Oh, and this isn't some dyed-in-the-wool defense of traditional journalism. Check out the number of YouTube videos from The Associated Press that appear in Google News.

Back on June 28, 2009, the YouTube Biz Blog invited any professional news outlet that is already included as one of the 25,000+ sources in Google News to become an official partner on YouTube and more easily share your news videos on both YouTube and Google News.

So, I'm all for innovation -- as long as it works.

Posted by Greg Jarboe on October 3, 2009, 2:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)

Display Ads Experiencing Sharp Decline in Clicks, comScore Finds

In 2007, comScore, Starcom USA and Tacoda conducted a study on display advertising clicks. This past March, they updated the data and have recently released the new info.

Clicks on display ads have seen a decline. In the 2007 study, 32% of internet users clicked on ads. In 2009, just 16% clicked. 8% of the Internet user base accounts for 85% of the clicks.

But don't assume the decline means that display advertising is not a viable online advertising medium.

"Today, marketers who attempt to optimize their advertising campaigns solely around the click are assigning no value to the 84 percent of Internet users who don't click on an ad. That's precisely the wrong thing to do, because other comScore research has shown that non-clicked ads can also have a significant impact," " said Linda Anderson, comScore VP of marketing solutions and author of the study. "As a result, savvy marketers are moving to an evaluation of the impact that all ad impressions - whether clicked or not - have on consumer behavior, mirroring the manner in which traditional advertising has been measured for decades using reach and frequency metrics."

Google recently announced a new reporting feature for its Content Network that measures conversions for views of display ads that did not get clicks.

What do you think of comScore's data and analysis? Are display ads still worth it despite the decline in click-through rates? Let us know your analysis in the comments below.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 2, 2009, 8:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Niche Search News: New Site for Car Search Space, iPhone App Search Sites Partner Up

Here's a little vertical search news for your Friday afternoon. A new vehicle search site has entered the field. CarLocate.com. It features the typical car search filters: make, model, new, and used. Advanced search options include gas mileage, number of doors, price range, and color.

"We know that eight out of ten car buyers typically shop online for a vehicle before visiting a dealership," said Nicole Case, general manager of CarLocate.com. "We built CarLocate.com from the ground up to optimize the search features on the site and to help consumers locate the car that best fits with what they want to buy. As a result, CarLocate.com can make the experience of locating a car simpler, easier, and more effective."

Meanwhile, searching iPhone apps is a bigger pain than a flu shot, but sites about the ever-popular mobile apps keep trying to find ways to make it easier. The latest is , an iPhone app review site. They're now using AppStoreHQ's app search technology.

"It's impossible for any iPhone website to review every available app. Believe me, we've tried," said Barbara Holbrook, managing editor of AppCraver.com. "This database is a great way to help our readers find apps that we haven't been able to review yet."

What do you think of these vertical search efforts? Comment below.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 2, 2009, 4:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Google Updates Website Verification Methods in Webmaster Tools

The Google Webmaster Central team has made some changes to a couple of the website verification methods in Webmaster Tools. Here's what you need to know:

Meta Tag Verification - Previously, this had to be associated with an email address in your Google account. Obviously, changing email addresses could pose verification issues. Now, the meta tag verification does not require an email address.

HTML File Verification - The change here has to do with the use (or lack thereof) of 404 error pages for non-existent URLs on websites. Websites that didn't use 404s couldn't use the HTML file verification. Just upload the new HTML file that Google Webmaster Central provides for verification.

If you're using third-party software or sites that upload the meta tags or HTML files for you, be sure to check if they've updated to work with the new methods.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 2, 2009, 4:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

AdSense Gets YouTube Promoted Videos and View-Through Conversion Reporting

There are a couple of Google AdSense updates you'll want to know about. First up, AdSense is getting Promoted Videos from YouTube. These video ad units will contain a thumbnail image plus three lines of text. They're available in the following formats:

• 300x250 Medium Rectangle
• 336x280 Large Rectangle
• 728x90 Leaderboard
• 250x250 Square
• 200x200 Small Square

Next up, AdSense is launching View-through conversion reporting. The feature shows conversions for ads that were seen but not clicked on in a 30-day window. For example, if a visitor sees your display ad but doesn't click - but then goes to your site and performs one of your conversion actions (purchase, signup, etc) within 30 days, that will show up on the report.

View-through reporting is tracked through the AdSense cookies and is only for display ads - not search or text ads. AdSense Conversion Tracking must be installed in order to use View-through reporting.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 2, 2009, 2:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

SEOktoberfest The Movie - There Was A Conference In There Too

Marcus Tandler has just posted the video from SEOktoberfest and it is well worth a watch. I do remember the conference sessions - guess the video guy edited them out except for the one of me snoring.

Hey it is Friday and everyone could use some entertainment, so watch the video below.

SEOktoberfest 2009 - The Movie from Mike Rübesam on Vimeo.

Posted by Frank Watson on October 2, 2009, 12:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Google Translate: Widget for Websites and In-Page Translation via FF Toolbar

Google is embracing the global web by offering two new Translation features. The first is a widget that can be placed on websites to assist with translation. When a website has the code snippet for the widget, the language settings in a visitor's browser will be detected. If the language is other than the website's language, the visitor will be prompted to have the page translated by Google.

The other new feature was released with the Google Toolbar update last week. For the Firefox version, new advanced in-page translation is available.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 1, 2009, 5:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Google Syncs Mobile and Desktop Searches

Google has enabled new sync features between desktop computers and mobile devices, specifically for local search and query suggestions. You need to be signed in, of course, to makes use of the sync. Here's what to expect if you do:

Local

If you're searching on Google Maps, you can star various local businesses. Later, you can pull them up on your phone on Google.com under the Local section. Just look for "Starred Places." Once you bring them up, you can access mobile optimized Place Pages, the new local content pages Google just released.

There's also a new category browse feature if you're looking for something to do, but you're not quite sure what it is or where to go.

These features are available in the US and China.

Query Suggestions

Typing on a mobile phone is tedious, so to make querying Google a little easier on your mobile device, Google is syncing queries. If you've searched something on your desktop, it will now show up as a query suggestion in your mobile search. You have to sign in on your mobile search with the same account that you use on your desktop. Web history also needs to be enabled to use the query suggestion sync.

This feature is available for iPhone, Android, and Palm OS phones.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 1, 2009, 5:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Delicious Updates: Search Refinements, iPhone Optimization, Graphs and Sharing

Social bookmarking site Delicious (owned by Yahoo!) has released another slew of updates. Check 'em out:

Search Refinements - Previously, you could refine searches by time down to 1 day. Now, you can refine down to 5 minutes.

iPhone Optimization - Delicious has optimized m.delicious.com for iPhone users.

Graphs - URL details and the Tagometer badge (a widget for sites and blogs) are now getting visual representation of their data

Sharing - Who you've shared your bookmarks with will now show up under your tags for a bookmarked item.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 1, 2009, 3:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

New Filters Added to Google Search Options

Google has added some new filters to its Search Options, a feature they added to their web search last May. Here's a list of the new filters:

• Past hour
• Specific date range
• More shopping sites
• Fewer shopping sites
• Visited pages
• Not yet visited
• Books (actually this one was already added, still new though)
• Blogs
• News

If you haven't used Search Options before, look for the "Show Options" link in the lightly shaded blue bar above the search results:

It opens up a sidebar on the left where you can filter your results:

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 1, 2009, 3:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Twitter Tests New Lists Feature

Twitter is testing a new feature that would allow users to create lists. This would allow Twitterers to organize the people they follow. For example, you could create a list of your business-related contacts and another list for your local medieval costume meetup.

Lists will be public by default, but you'll be able to set them to private. Public lists will be available for others to subscribe to. The list feature will also be made available for the API.

We've seen listing-type features in third party programs. That's how you get sent back to high school with things like Twitter rankings.

I suspect we'll see things like "most influential search marketers" and "power social media users" that will inevitably include the usual suspects. (Meanwhile, some very fine folks all around the country are rocking paid search and social media and you've never heard of them because they're busy actually working. But that's a post for another day. If anybody has the time.) The nice thing about these lists is that anybody will be able to make them, so there will be a wide array of interesting lists to sift through.

Here are some lists I'd like to see:

1. Cute Pets who Twitter
2. Coffee Lovers Anonymous (yes, we need help.)
3. Amateur Physicists
4. People who like to make lists (oh, the irony!)
5. Former alien abductees

What lists would you like to create? Leave your ideas in the comments below.

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 1, 2009, 12:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Google Adds Forum Deep Links to Search Results

Google is adding forum topics as deep links for some search results. These can occur for your traditional message boards or even answers sites.

Google says that the deep links will occur for sites that appear to have a large number of discussions on a given topic.

Check out this search for "laptop fan noise" and notice the forum deep links under the Yahoo! Answers result:

Posted by Nathania Johnson on October 1, 2009, 2:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

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