October 26, 2009
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)
