Back to Main

October 27, 2009

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 (2)

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)

See More Posts From:

This Week | This Month