November 1, 2009 - November 7, 2009
5 Google Updates for 11/6/09: News, Maps, Books, Music and Mobile
It's the end of another eventful week in search blogging, and once again there are several Google updates just piled up waiting to be written about. So, we're saving everyone some time and just compiling them into one post. Check them out:
Google News has a new sitemaps interface. You have six months to adopt the new sitemap.
Google Books now has a magazine search page.
Via Google Search's new music search, you can now access exclusive songs hosted by MySpace and Lala for artists such as Lady Gaga and Arctic Monkeys.
Google Maps has released imagery of Berlin from 1945 to 1953.
The Google Mobile App is now available at Best Buy (still free, which is the ultimate "best buy").
Posted by Nathania Johnson on November 6, 2009, 3:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
PRSA 2009 International Conference Features Two Online Marketing Heroes
I'll by flying to San Diego this weekend to speak at the PRSA 2009 International Conference next week. Lee Odden, CEO of TopRank Online Marketing and a member of the SES Advisory Board, will also be speaking at the annual Public Relations Society of America event.
Odden is speaking on Monday, November 9, at 10:15 a.m. about "Help Google Find Your Releases: Top 10 Search Engine Optimization Tactics for Public Relations Professionals."
Nine out of 10 journalists, reporters and editors use search engines to do their jobs, according to a recent survey by TopRank Online Marketing. In this environment, public relations professionals must understand the ins and outs of search engine optimization (SEO).
So, Odden will help PR people find out how to choose the best key words, optimize their newsroom and press releases, build better links, and sell SEO to decision makers. Plus, he'll share "the No. 1 SEO tactic to implement today."
I'll be speaking on Tuesday, November 10, at 11:15 a.m. with Laura Sturaitis, the senior vice president, media and product services, at Business Wire.
How do you know your press release delivers value? Are there ways to increase a press releases' ROI?
Sturaitis and I will discuss real live examples and techniques to get the most mileage for press releases, especially in the Web 2.0 world. We'll explain why PR people need to work hand-in-hand with their Web team to see how visitors are getting to their site and moving through it. We'll also examine Web analytics for compiling, tracking and measuring activity deriving from the press release via the wires and elsewhere.
If you want a preview, check out my post on the ComPRrehension blog, which is entitled, "Does Your Press Release Deliver Value?"
Odden and I also spoke last year at the PRSA 2008 International Conference in Detroit. Why is this useful information for search engine optimizers to share with their colleagues down the hall in the public relations department? SEO specialists and PR specialists need to work together to handle the opportunities and threats created by Google universal search.
When Google announced universal search in May 2007, Marissa Mayer, vice president of search products and user experience at Google, said, "The ultimate goal of universal search is to break down the silos of information that exist on the web and provide the very best answer every time a user enters a query."
This radically changed everything we knew about search engine optimization (SEO) and public relations (PR). If your webmaster isn't optimizing content for YouTube, Google News, or Google Images, then who is?
With more than 12.8 billion expanded search queries a month on Google Sites in the U.S., this isn't a rhetorical question. In other words, the SEO specialists and PR specialists need to get out of their silos to ensure that their organization is getting found in all the right places.
As I told Michael Miller, the author of "Online Marketing Heroes: Interviews with 25 Successful Online Marketing Gurus," back in 2008, "For a good part of the 20th century, every part of the marketing mix was in a different silo. Advertising had its lingo and its metrics, and PR had its lingo and its metrics, and if you had a group that was focused on trade shows and events, they had their lingo and their metrics, etcetera. One of the things that is sort of a byproduct of keeping people in their silos is that things that the email marketing people learned ten years ago, or the search engine marketing people earned five years ago, the PR people in the same organization haven't learned yet. As a result, they keep doing what used to work but stopped working a long time ago, only nobody noticed."
I added, "To the extent that you can get the PR people interacting with the search people, they will discover that there are lots of things they can do together."
And Odden was also interviewed for Miller's book. So, your PR people will be getting the same advice no matter which online marketing guru they listen to at the PRSA 2009 International Conference -- or which chapter of Miller's book they read.
Odden and I both spoke at SES London 2008. Check out my video interview with him below.
Lee Odden, TopRank Online Marketing, at SES London 2008
And Odden and I are both speaking at SES Chicago 2009. So, there's no escaping our combined message: Get out of your silo; start interacting with other members of your marketing team.
Get it? Got it? Good.
Posted by Greg Jarboe on November 6, 2009, 3:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Google AdWords Updates Conversion Tracking Options
Google AdWords has updated the interface for Conversion Tracking. There are three tabs to manage data: Conversions, Webpages, and Code.
Conversions
Under this tab, you'll view details about the conversion actions you're tracking. The "Tracking Status" column shows whether those actions are being tracked properly. The "Value" column displays the accumulated value of the conversion actions. This is based on the value you assign to each action. Use the "New Conversion" button to set up the conversion actions to be tracked. These can also be imported from Google Analytics.
Webpages
Under this tab, you can view which web pages on your site are converting. You'll see the same columns you see under the Conversions tab (Tracking Status, Value, Conversions per click). This can help you identify poorly performing pages.
Code
Under this tab, grab the tracking code for each conversion. You can change the value of an action here too, which aids in ROI calculations.
What do you think of this Google AdWords update? Let us know by leaving a comment.
Posted by Nathania Johnson on November 6, 2009, 3:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
AOL Completes Financial Team, Names Additional Board Member in Advance
In preparation for being spun off from Time Warner, AOL has hired executives to their financial team and announced one additional board member.
Here's a list of the financial execs:
- Mike Suffredini - Vice President and Treasurer
- Eoin Ryan - Vice President of Investor Relations
- Don Neff, currently a Senior Vice President of Finance, will become Senior Vice President of Internal Audit.
- Ned Brody - rejoining the company as Executive Vice President of Paid Services
Meanwhile, Susan Lyne, Chief Executive Officer of the online luxury retailer Gilt Groupe, Inc. has been named to the Board of Directors. Last week, AOL named nine board members for the post-separation operations.
Posted by Nathania Johnson on November 6, 2009, 2:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Click Forensics Unveils Online Audience Verification Platform for Shopping Engines
At ad:tech New York this week, Click Forensics unveiled a new online audience verification platform for comparison shopping search engines. The technology evaluates traffic to determine its value to merchant partners.
"Comparison shopping engines and other content aggregators need a simple way to optimize the money they spend on search engine marketing, while improving the quality of leads they send on to merchant partners," said Paul Pellman, CEO of Click Forensics. "The solution we're delivering does just that. To our knowledge, it's the only system available that provides the ability for content aggregators to manage traffic acquisition and traffic monetization in a single interface."
Features include:
- High-Volume Campaign Support - measures the quality of tens of millions of clicks, which supports the increase in demand during high traffic seasons.
- Real-Time Quality-based Filtering - prevents fraudulent and low-quality traffic from reaching merchants, which aids in optimizing ad spend.
- API Integration - allows integration of the platform directly with existing internal reporting and billing systems.
- Browser-based Reporting - enables viewing of traffic and audience quality statistics in a browser-based dashboard.
Ultimately, Click Forensics hopes their new platform will help shopping search engines maintain and grow their merchant partner base.
Posted by Nathania Johnson on November 6, 2009, 12:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
It May Be The Queen's English, But Google Likes US Results in the UK
As a post at Paul Carpenter's blog notes Google seems to have a preference for US site listings for people searching from the UK. This situation has been discussed before (examples can be found here and here) - and there is even a video from Matt Cutts in the blog post.
There are even US sites in the Google Maps listed for UK based searches.
This is not too much of a stretch given Google's history of problems with languages. BlogScoped pointed out one of many examples where all 10 results for a French search list pages from one site. Seems in Google's world it is the President's language.
Posted by Frank Watson on November 6, 2009, 12:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Google Launches Closure Tools: A Javascript Candy Store
The Google Code blog announced the launch of a compiler, library, inspector and templates for sites to use to improve their javascript usage. The tools were "all started as 20% projects and hundreds of Googlers have contributed thousands of patches."
This central open source of all things javascript should prove very handy to web site owners and developers, as many of them are already being used by Google apps and widgets.
"Today, each Closure Tool has grown to be a key part of the JavaScript infrastructure behind web apps at Google. That's why we're particularly excited (and humbled) to open source them to encourage and support web development outside Google."
If the tools become widely adopted it could also help create a uniformity in code use that would help the search engine - but also the wbe community in general.
Posted by Frank Watson on November 5, 2009, 11:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Twitter Rolls Out Retweet Test [Screenshots]
Back in August, Twitter said it was developing a system of officially bringing the Retweet to the social network. Now, they're unrolling the test to a limited group of users.
Retweeting is quite simple. When you see a Tweet you want to retweet, simply mouseover the lower right corner of the Tweet. Then, click the "retweet" link.
When the Retweeting is done, a simple notification appears underneath the Tweet. You stay right where you are on the page and can continue checking your feed.
Here's what your Retweet looks like. And this is key for the feature we'll discuss just after the image.
But there's a feature of this new Retweeting integration that I don't like. When one of your followers Retweets something, the original Tweet appears in your stream.
In the screenshot below, I don't follow @wyattla. Nothing against him, I just have no idea who he is. One of the people I do followed Retweeted @wyattla's Retweet. But @wyattla's avatar and original Tweet appear in my stream.
Should the test prove successful, I suppose we'll all get used to those little grey Retweet indicators. But call me old-school, I still prefer the "traditional" method of Retweeting, where the Retweeter's Retweet appears in the stream.
What do you think of Twitter's Retweet experiment? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.
Posted by Nathania Johnson on November 5, 2009, 8:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Funny or Die Becomes YouTube Partner
Comedy video site Funny or Die is now a YouTube partner. This means you'll be able to access select Funny or Die videos on the largest online video site in the world.
Funny or Die was created by actor and comedian Will Ferrell and screenwriter/director Adam McKay.
Ferrell and McKay have managed to employ the talent of several Hollywood stars in promoting Funny or Die through simply having them appear in a funny video on the site. Natalie Portman, Lindsay Lohan, Zach Galifianakis, Paris Hilton, and Denis Leary have all appeared in Funny or Die videos.
Embedding is disabled on most of the YouTube version of the videos, so you'll still need to grab embed codes from FunnyorDie.com. Only a handful of videos are on the YouTube channel, which seems, thus far, primarily set up to advertise Will Ferrell's HBO special on DVD.
Posted by Nathania Johnson on November 5, 2009, 1:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Google AdSense Launches New Interface Into Beta
Google AdSense has launched a new interface that is currently in beta testing. But they're giving a glimpse of it over on the Inside AdSense blog.
Here's what to expect:
- More detailed performance reports
- View daily stats as graphs
- New metrics including amount you've earned from various ad, targeting and bid types
- Enhanced Ad Review Center
- Streamlining common tasks. For example, changing several ad units simultaneously
Here's a screenshot, per the AdSense blog:
Posted by Nathania Johnson on November 5, 2009, 1:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Music Search Wars: Yahoo! Goes for Music Video Search Supremacy
It's no secret that music searches comprise a large number of searches on the web today. That's why the music search wars have heated up in recent weeks with rumors and announcements surrounding efforts by Google, Facebook, and MySpace.
Yahoo! has been a player in music search for a long time, but now they're amping up their game with music video search. They're including a special section on the left sidebar to help you filter results.
This seems to only happen with artists and bands of a certain popularity. You can see the left sidebar filter for U2, Foo Fighters and Coldplay, but not for Paramore, Jet or The Swell Season. You get the left rail for Frank Sinatra but not Dean Martin.
The left rail contains albums and songs. Click on one to see videos related to your selection.
What do you think of Yahoo! Music Video search? Let us know in the comment section below.
Posted by Nathania Johnson on November 5, 2009, 1:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Google Dashboard Aims to Alleviate Privacy Fears by Showing Data Collection
Google has released a new product called Google Dashboard. This allows users to see what data has been collected on an account associated with a number of Google products. So, if you use GMail, YouTube, and Reader on the same account, you'll see the data collected for each service.
You can check the data collected for your Google account at Google.com/dashboard. You'll have to sign in, even if you're already signed into your Google account. Also, it can take several seconds to load all of the data - and while 20 products are available to view in Google Dashboard, not all of Google's services are included just yet.
To learn more, check out this video:
Posted by Nathania Johnson on November 5, 2009, 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Google Launches Commerce Search for Online Stores
Google has announced the availability of Commerce Search. It's a search engine that e-commerce sites can place on their sites, effectively leveraging Google Search for their product offerings.
Commerce Search is cloud-based, meaning that Google hosts it. This removes the burden of hosting commerce search by e-commerce companies, which can be useful to avoid problems associated with spikes of traffic - such as the holidays.
Commerce Search is not free. You must contact a sales rep to get started.
There are three upcoming webinars to learn more about Commerce Search. They are:
November 12, 2009 (12 PM PST) Sign Up
November 17, 2009 (8 AM PST) Sign Up
December 3, 2009 (10 AM PST) Sign Up
In the meantime, check out this video about Commerce Search that Google put together:
Posted by Nathania Johnson on November 5, 2009, 11:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Digg Trends: Experimenting with Users Choosing Homepage Stories
Ok, so technically Digg users do choose homepage stories by voting up submitted links. But Digg Trends is an experiment in being a little more explicit.
Users who see the test might see a submitted story at the top of their screen. Their will be a countdown clock, showing how long until a story is set to appear on the homepage. The user can say whether or not they think the story belongs on the homepage. Here's a screenshot per the official Digg blog:
Digg has set up a Twitter account for the experiment. Follow @digg_trends to see which stories are trending.
What do you think of the Digg Trends experiment? Let us know by leaving a comment.
Posted by Nathania Johnson on November 4, 2009, 3:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Google News Offers Customization via New Sections
Alex Chitu over at Google Operating System noticed a new feature in Google News. Look to the top right corner and you'll see a link for "Add a section."
Clicking on "Add a section" takes you to a directory of news sections that you can use to customize your Google News experience.
Update: You can also create your own sections and either keep it private or make it available for public consumption. Here's how you do it: First, click the "Create your own section" button in the right sidebar (when you're on a sections page):
On the next page, choose a title for your section and then add relevant keywords. As you do, news related to those keywords will appear on the right. This will help you know if you're choosing the right keywords. Finish filling out the form. If you check the box for public view, you'll need to add a description and select a category.
Posted by Nathania Johnson on November 4, 2009, 1:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Google Updates Friend Connect to Match Up Content, Ads with Uses Interests
Google has released updates to Friend Connect that will help the tool be more, um, friendly to both web developers and their site visitors. They're using the interests that users note in their profiles to help deliver a more personalized experience.
Custom newsletters - Friend Connect now offers newsletters. You can select to send them to your entire Friend Connect audience - or send newsletters according to interest.
Google Ads - If you have AdSense on your site, Google Friend Connect will now use the interests of a Friend Connect visitor to help serve up more relevant ads.
Personalized Content Gadget - Google will use, once again, user interests to show content throughout your site that's relevant to those interests.
What do you think of these Google Friend Connect updates? Let us know by leaving a comment.
Posted by Nathania Johnson on November 4, 2009, 12:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
AOL Ad Revenues Decline by 18% in Q3 2009
Time Warner has reported its earnings for the third quarter of 2009 and the news isn't so pretty for AOL. Overall revenues declined 23% to $777 million.
The decline resulted from an 18% decrease in advertising revenues as well as a 29% decline in subscription revenues. Time Warner said the decline in ad revenues was due to lower paid search and display ads on AOL Media, reduced ad sales on third party sites and foreign exchange rates.
AOL averaged 102 million U.S. unique visitors per month and 44 billion domestic page views, which translates to 144 pages per unique visitor.
Last spring, Time Warner announced plans to spin off AOL. And recently a Board of Directors was named for the soon-to-be-independent company.
Posted by Nathania Johnson on November 4, 2009, 12:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Go to SES Berlin or SES Chicago for Eight Days A-Learning
During the past seven weeks, I've shared seven compelling 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 "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."
This week, I'll share an eighth great reason -- and it isn't "eight maids a-milking."
You should attend these events for "eight days a-learning."
SES Berlin starts on 23 November with one day of "workshop" and continues 24 and 25 November with two days of "kongress." Search Engine Strategies Chicago 2009 runs December 7 through 11. It starts with three days of conference sessions, which are followed by two days of training.
If you think no one can possibly cram eight days of learning into two events a couple of weeks apart, you'd be wrong. Andy Atkins-Kruger, Mike Grehan, Bill Hunt, Motoko Hunt, Anne Kennedy and Richard Zwicky, among others, will be at Search Engine Strategies Berlin and SES Chicago 2009.
Yes, yes, these road warriors are speaking at both events. But when they aren't speaking, they'll be sitting in other conference sessions learning. That's one of the secrets of their success. In fact, they'll learn more in eight days than many of us will learn in a year.
That's why I like interviewing well-traveled people for the SES Conference Expo's channel on YouTube. It's like interviewing the philosophers in The School of Athens, one of the most famous paintings by the Italian Renaissance artist Raphael.
And I know that no one would confuse the Crowne Plaza Berlin City Centre, where Search Engine Strategies Berlin is being held, or the Hilton Chicago, where SES Chicago 2009 is being held, with the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican, where The School of Athens decorates one of the walls. And I'm pretty sure that speakers at these two events won't be walking around wearing togas.
But there is much to learn from the industry's top search experts, including representatives from the search engines themselves. Here are some samples of some of the speakers who you will find walking around these events.
At SES Chicago 2008, Byron Gordon of SEO-PR interviewed Andy Atkins-Kruger, the founder of WebCertain. Andy discussed his favorite speaker and also talked about the state of search in Europe for 2009.
Andy Atkins-Kruger, WebCertain, discusses SES Chicago and SES London 2009
At SES San Jose 2009, John Mulligan of SEO-PR interviewed Thomas Bindl, CEO of Refined Labs, about SES Berlin 2009. Thomas talked about the history of SES in Germany and says the current speaker line-up is the best the conference has seen so far, including coverage of such topics as social media, PPC, organic, etc.
Thomas Bindl, Refined Labs, previews SES Berlin 2009
At SES San Jose 2009, I interveiwed Mike Grehan, the newly-anointed VP and Global Content Director at SES, SEW, and ClickZ. Mike talked about the search world's attempted transition into social media, and the challenges this poses for traditional search engine marketers and organic search engine optimization professionals.
Mike Grehan, the new VP and Global Content Director, ties social media to search, SES San Jose 2009
At SES San Jose 2008, I interviewed Bill Hunt about his new book, Search Engine Marketing, Inc.: Driving Search Traffic to Your Company's Web site. Bill will be the keynote speaker at SES Berlin 2009.
Greg Jarboe interviews Bill Hunt about his new book
At SES London 2009, I interviewed Motoko Hunt, founder of AJPR, LLC, about mobile search. Motoko saids mobile search is exploding in Asia, with the creation of the mobile web back in 1999.
Motoko Hunt, AJPR, LLC previews mobile search panel at SES London 2009
At SES London 2009, I interviewed Anne Kennedy, Managing Partner & Founder, Beyond Ink, about search getting "all the credit." Anne said the clicks are there and we know that different people come from different places in their buying cycles.
Anne Kennedy, Beyond Ink, on the importance of search at SES London 2009
At SES San Jose 2009, John Mulligan of SEO-PR interviewed Matt McGowan, VP Publishing, Incisive Media, about upcoming SES shows at Chicago and Berlin. Matt says after having SES shows in various cities in Germany, including Hamburg and Munich, it was time to schedule one in Berlin.
Matt McGowan, VP Publishing, Incisive Media previews SES Chicago and Berlin '09
And at SES San Jose 2008, Byron Gordon of SEO-PR interviewed Richard Zwicky of Enquisite, about click fraud. Richard stressed the importance that ad networks place on users to file claims whenever they have identfied network errors and/or possible fraud.
Richard Zwicky, Enquisite, discusses click fraud
Next week, we'll look at more reasons for going to either Search Engine Strategies Berlin or SES Chicago 2009. In the meantime, just keep singing "eight days a-learning, 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 November 4, 2009, 2:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Twitter Now Habla Espanol
Twitter is now available in Spanish. My rudimentary Spanish skills were able to detect this announcement posted on the Twitter blog - and yes, in Espanol. Ok, it helped that I saw the headline in English before I read the news in my RSS reader, but I digress.
I could deduct from the official Twitter post that they were very grateful to their translation volunteers for helping them to push out this update.
Also, if you go to your Settings link on Twitter.com, look for the language menu and select Spanish if you want this update.
Posted by Nathania Johnson on November 4, 2009, 12:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
MSN Redesign Relies on Structured Data from Bing
After looking pretty much the same for almost a decade, one of the top three internet starting points is finally getting a facelift. MSN is debuting its new look, which you can preview here, and Bing is playing a central role in the overhaul - though it won't always be so obvious to the user.
MSN will be relying on structured data gathered from Bing to inform content featured on the new homepage. This includes new modules for local news and all of MSN's shopping will be powered by Bing. MSN will also rely on data about what people are searching for to publish timely content across their network.
Currently, MSN drives 45% of Bing's traffic. Time spent on content, such as the type MSN provides, has grown 24% since 2003. Considering that the other two of the top three internet starting points are Yahoo! and AOL, which have redesigned in the past year, it's no surprise that MSN wants to hang out at the top - and leverage that position to drive Bing's growth. MSN experiences 100 million U.S. users per month, and has grown by 10 million in the past year alone.
One of the reasons content is so hot is due to social networking. MSN is integrating a social module into the redesign, where users will able to access their Facebook and Twitter feeds. This is part of a strategy to make MSN an "information dashboard for your life" for its users. (Sounds kind of similar to Yahoo!'s lastest Y!ou marketing campaign to get users to make Yahoo! their "home on the web.")
Of course, social integration also makes sense when you consider Microsoft's search partnership with Facebook< and it's recent announcement to integrate Twitter into Bing search results.
Cosmetically, MSN is switching from a blue background to white. There are dashes of color, reminiscent of the new Zune software, which is quite slick. The navigation has been de-cluttered, with 50% fewer links.
MSN Homepage
MSN Local Edition
Facebook integration
What do you think of MSN's new look and strategy? Let us know by leaving a comment.
Posted by Nathania Johnson on November 4, 2009, 12:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Digging into Google Analytics for Mobile Applications
Last week, Google Analytics expanded to offer reporting features for mobile applications on the iPhone and Android. But how does it work for mobile applications (or parts of mobile apps) that don't render HTML pages?
Google says mobile app developers can tell Google Analytics what actions taken by users would trigger the analytics tracking. Google uses those triggers to determine views, session lengths, and bounce rates.
Developers can also use Event Tracking to track actions such as watching a video, clicking a button or conducting a download.
The data provided by Google Analytics for mobile apps can be highly useful for developers as they choose to enhance and update their apps over time. It can also inform future app development by helping developers meet customer needs and desires.
Check out this video on how online real estate brokerage Redfin used Google Analytics to track their mobile application.
Posted by Nathania Johnson on November 3, 2009, 2:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Google AdWords Launches Ad Sitelinks
Google is introducing sitelinks to AdWords. If you're not familiar, sitelinks are links to pages deeper on a website. We've seen them in organic results for quite awhile.
Ad Sitelinks are only being launched to advertisers that meet a high-quality threshold. If your account qualifies, go to your Campaign Settings Tab, then to the "Ad extensions" section. Look for "Show additional links to my site."
Here's a sample ad provided by the Inside AdWords blog (click to enlarge):
Posted by Nathania Johnson on November 3, 2009, 2:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)
Bing Ships New Imagery to Maps
Bing has released new imagery on maps. The new release features high-resolution imagery - 15-30 centimeter - for the US, Canada and the UK. One of the biggest imagery updates? Vancouver - home to the 2010 Winter Olympics.
It looks pretty good...
Posted by Nathania Johnson on November 3, 2009, 2:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Google Related Links Returns - to Labs
Google is bringing Related Links back, but in limited fashion. You can demo the tool, but if you want complete access, you need to request an invitation to the Labs version by sending an email to relatedlinks@google.com.
What Related Links does is find similar links to a URL that you enter. I demo-ed the tool using my last blog post, about new Google AdWords templates.
Here's what happened.
I wouldn't say the list of related links is the best. You could do a search in Google for "site:http://blog.searchenginewatch.com display ad builder" and come up with better results. But I guess that's why it's in Labs. It will be interesting to see if it improves.
Posted by Nathania Johnson on November 3, 2009, 1:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Google AdWords Unveils Holiday-Themed Templates for Display Ad Builder
The holiday season is upon us and Google AdWords wants to help you get your display ads ready. They've just released new holiday-themed templates for Display Ad Builder. Here are some examples:
Google launched Display Ad Builder a year ago and have been adding templates ever since.
Still not convinced that display ads are a viable marketing option? There's plenty of data to show that display advertising gives search a lift.
Posted by Nathania Johnson on November 3, 2009, 12:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Bing Mobile App Available for BlackBerry Storm
On the heels of releasing a more optimized mobile browser search experience, Bing is now releasing its mobile app for Verizon BlackBerry Storm users.
Updates include:
- Map Your Way quick access to maps, driving directions and traffic information, plus an improved auto-locate feature.
- Quick Answers save favorite searches on a customizable mobile homepage.
- Act Locally quickly find information on local businesses.
- Type Less, Search More voice search feature.
Posted by Nathania Johnson on November 3, 2009, 11:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Google Gets Patent For Search Results Based on Query, Click Behavior
Bill Slawski reports on a new Google patent that manipulates search results based on query patterns and click results. As Bill explains Google can track when people search for a few related terms and then click on a specific page and develop aggregated information when this action is repeated and give a higher ranking for sites that the group clicks on most often.
Seems like a form of behavioral targeting to me and also gives insight in to how Google is working to take the users' preferences to provide better results. Downside would be that now know people can manipulate this one fairly easily. One wonders if they plan to apply this to Adwords as an addition to their Quality Score or even other advertising mediums.
What it does show is that Google is aggregating search actions and want to use the information, if they are not already. The patent is just making sure the method is theirs.
Posted by Frank Watson on November 3, 2009, 1:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Google Tells FCC Only Restricting Adult Chat, Free Conference Call Lines
In response to claims by ATT that Google Voice were blocking calls, unlike other regulated services that must allow the calls that local carriers chrage high prices for, Google "engineers have developed a tailored solution for restricting calls to specific numbers engaged in what some have called high-cost "traffic pumping" schemes, like adult chat and "free" conference call lines," their Public Policy blog stated.
Bi-partisans from both the Republican and Democratic parties have also called for a probe into the restricted calls.
Google has found that as much as 26% of their expenses for Voice come from a 100 of these "traffic pumping schemes" and called upon the FCC to fix these loop holes that allow companies to make money at the expense of the carriers.
"While we've developed a fix to address this problem, the bottom line is that we still believe the Commission needs to repair our nation's broken carrier compensation system. The current system simply does not serve consumers well and these types of schemes point up the pressing need for reform," Google Telecom and Media Counsel Richard Whitt said.
Posted by Frank Watson on November 3, 2009, 1:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Looking ahead to SES, Chicago.
I've been working on a lot of stuff for SES shows next year. And in between, adding a little this-and-that to SES, Chicago. These shows are planned months and months ahead, so a lot of stuff was already in place. But there are a few new sessions I was keen to squeeze in.
In fact, I had an idea to ask a lot of the session moderators if they would like to contribute to a new channel I set up over at ClickZ called "Conference Call." Basically it's an opportunity for them to give a little more insight to their sessions. And of course, it helps attendees to mark up specific sessions before they get there.
I kicked the thing off myself with a column about some real-time and social search elements I've introduced. This really is taking a look at the future of search and talks a lot about the move toward real time ranking and a shift from searching to "suggested discovery."
There's a link to a very interesting news report from the BBC on YouTube which I highly recommend you take a peek at. It really does help to explain some of the very cool things that are happening in social search right now.
Keep an eye open for some guest blog posts and guest columns at ClickZ running up to the show.
www.searchenginestrategies.com/chicago
Posted by Mike Grehan on November 2, 2009, 3:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Bing Maps Gets Starring Role in Weather.com Futures; National Geographic Digital Archives
Bing Maps is often used by third-party websites who need mapping functions for their various features. Many of these sites started using Bing Maps when it was known as Microsoft Virtual Earth.
Weather.com was one such site. Now, they're innovating with Bing Maps. They've added a new feature called "Futures." This helps visitors to the site see where Weather.com predicts various weather elements may be heading.
Another third-party entity to incorporate Bing Maps is National Geographic. The famed magazine has digitized every issue in 120 years worth of archives and placing it in a 6 DVD set and external hard drive. Bing Maps will let you GeoBrowse the world to find articles relevant to a specific location.
Posted by Nathania Johnson on November 2, 2009, 2:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Google Search by Voice Expands to Nokia S60s, Mandarin Chinese
Google has expanded its Search by Voice to its mobile search app for Nokia S60 series. The series includes devices such as the N95 and the E71. The update is available for Nokia S60 series device users worldwide.
But users of such devices who speak Mandarin Chinese are getting an extra update. Google has added the language to Search by Voice for the Nokia S60 series phones. Google is working on extending Mandarin Chinese to Search by Voice for additional devices as well as additional accents.
Posted by Nathania Johnson on November 2, 2009, 1:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Bing for Mobile Adds NFL and Flight Instant Answers, Optimized Touchscreen Experience
Bing has updated their mobile search offering, which can be found at m.bing.com. Included in the update are Instant Answers for NFL players as well as Flight Status.
Also included in the update is an optimized experience for certain touchscreen devices used in the United States. Devices include iPhone, Zune HD, T-Mobile G1, Verizon Imagio, and Samsung Omnia. Additional devices will be added in the future.
The navigation is improved and visual search for movies has been implemented. This might be a rolling update because my iPhone didn't show the updated results shown in the blog. The movie search is still very nice on my iPhone, just not what I saw on the Bing blog. Here's two screenshots. The first one is from the Bing blog, the second one from my iPhone.
Posted by Nathania Johnson on November 2, 2009, 1:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Google Extends Local News to France
Google is now offering Local News in its Google News service for France. This allows the French to access local news when they visit Google News instead of just the standard Google News fare. Local News has already been rolled out in the U.S., U.K., Canada, India and Germany.
To see Local News in any of these countries, look for the local section where you can enter your postal code. If you don't see the section, head to the "Personalize this page" link on the top right corner of the page.
Posted by Nathania Johnson on November 2, 2009, 1:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
