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September 2007

September 28, 2007

Search Headlines & Links: September 28, 2007

Want a snapshot of the day's search marketing news? Here we've collected today's top news stories posted to the Search Engine Watch Blog, along with search-related headlines from around the Web:

From the SEW Blog:

Headlines & News from Elsewhere:

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 6:31 PM | Permalink

Yahoo Podcasts Closing At End Of Month

Another Yahoo service is about to be killed off, according to the headline at the top of the Yahoo Podcast site. It states:
Yahoo! apologizes deeply, but we will be closing down the Podcasts site on Oct. 31, 2007

The service had been available for about two years.

Posted by aussiewebmaster at 1:51 PM | Permalink

Google Testing Time Elements In Search Results

Seems Google is testing using time elements in their search results, according to results found by Cheezhead, though the first comment was from Danny Sullivan who thinks the results may be related to advanced search.

Time elements could be an interesting filter when dealing with news or blog sites, but beyond that it promotes constantly changing your content. I would like to hear from anyone else that has seen this or people with comments on its use.

I started a thread here.

Posted by aussiewebmaster at 1:33 PM | Permalink

Google Hack Gets At Personal Data

Philipp Lenssen has discovered a hack to Google's XSS that allows access to personal data, according to Blogoscoped today.

The tests he used with co-editor Tony Ruscoe show that is possible to get access to subject line information and first few words of emails from Gmail, statistical information from Google Analytics, as well as see what Google Gadgets are being used.

The glitch is specific to Explorer, the pair reported, and uses a cross site scripting attack.

The post comes with detailed pics of what is happening. Well worth the read.

Posted by aussiewebmaster at 1:18 PM | Permalink

Google-DoubleClick Hearings Get Muddled

Google's potential acquisition of DoubleClick is now under scrutiny by a U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee, and based on yesterday's hearing, the closing of this deal could still be a long way off. Senators are hearing conflicting and confusing testimony from Google, Microsoft, privacy advocates, and free-market thinkers, according to ClickZ News. The subcommittee's decision may ultimately be determined by whether or not the companies are deemed competitors or complements.

Google's lawyers argued that DoubleClick is complementary, potentially delivering ads that Google sells. Opponents pointed out that the companies compete for the same ad dollars and share the same viewers, advertisers, publishers and data.

While Google's argument is not exactly accurate, given the fact that Google does deliver ads as well as sell them, the two companies are complementary, since they are delivering different kinds of ads, and serve different needs, for the most part. Besides its ad-serving business, DoubleClick also has other products for advertisers and publishers which Google does not offer.

Lots more coverage on Techmeme.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 11:26 AM | Permalink

Microsoft's New Shopping Search

One of the intriguing things about the Microsoft Searchification event that took place on Wednesday of this week was the new shopping search offering they demonstrated. It truly does offer some unique and interesting stuff. In this post, I will show you a couple of sample screen shots, and talk about some of the more interesting aspects of this new offering from Microsoft.

Let's start with a screen shot for the search "ipod":

MS-ipod-search.jpg

There are two things to observe here:

1. The 4 thumbnails of the most popular related products, which includes pricing and rating information.

2. The Related Searches information on the right rail, above the sponsored ads.

So far this is interesting, but not exceptional. Where it gets more interesting is if you click on one of the thumbnails. When you do that it brings you to a detailed product overview page such as the one in this screen shot:

MS-ipod-shopping.jpg

On this page you get user reviews aggregated from many sources. On the left rail, you can get user ratings across more than 30 categories. The cool thing about this is that it is dynamically extracted by Microsoft from the user ratings themselves. This includes extracting the categories of things commented on by users, as well as whether or not the user rating was positive of negative.

Instead of the single rating per product that is typical of most sites, you get a quick visual blow by blow review of many important product factors. Even if the product has a 4+ star rating, if you look at the details and see that it has a Customer Service rating of 0, you might choose to not buy it.

It all depends on what is important to you, and this quick snapshot allows you to find that level of detail quickly without having to pore through dozens of reviews. The aggregation is important too, because even if you find a review that comments on the attribute you care about, it's only one opinion. The aggregation is what gives you a balanced view of the product.

Unfortunately, the detailed product pages are currently only available for consumer electronics, but, overall, I found the change innovative and interesting. I know that when I next buy some electronic gadget that I will check it out here.

It's a critical step for Microsoft to take - that of differentiating their search offering. This was just one component of their strategy for doing that. It still remains to be determined how the market itself will respond, but it all starts with putting something interesting on the table, and that they have done.

Posted by Eric Enge at 10:08 AM | Permalink

Got IT? Optimized Code + Crawlability ≠ SEO

Since Chris Boggs has moved on from a big agency to a small one, he's passing off his column to a former colleague. In today's Outsourced column, "Got IT? Optimized Code + Crawlability ≠ SEO," Avenue A | Razorfish VP of SEO William Flaiz debunks the common IT myth that SEO is all about making a site crawlable, and the thought of bringing an SEO partner into the mix is just a waste of time and money.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: Content Creation About Journey, Not Destination?

Is creating content really the cornerstone of SEO? If so, do you pay your writers, or do you expect them to write for free? In today's Vertical Challenge column, "Content Creation: About Journey, Not Destination?," travel search expert Elisabeth Osmeloski lays out the options, including the road less traveled.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink

September 27, 2007

Search Headlines & Links: September 27, 2007

Want a snapshot of the day's search marketing news? Here we've collected today's top news stories posted to the Search Engine Watch Blog, along with search-related headlines from around the Web:

From the SEW Blog:

Headlines & News from Elsewhere:

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 6:17 PM | Permalink

Marchex Connects Its Local-Vertical Network

When Marchex added its OpenList technology to its 100,000 local and vertical sites in June, it marked the beginning of a process to turn a localized domain portfolio into a network of local sites. Today, it launched the hub of that network at OpenList.com, and expanded the network to 150,000 sites.

The OpenList network is made up of sites that are both local and vertical, such as NewYorkDoctors.com, TopekaDining.com, or IndianapolisAutoRepair.com. The sites are filled with local business information from Localeze, as well as reviews and other data crawled by OpenList, as well as content from partners, including the newly added OpenTable, Contractors.com, HealthGrades, and Judy's Book. Much of the content currently centers around restaurants and hotels, which were the first niches OpenList focused on when it started four years ago.

The OpenList technology allows users to search the site, or browse by categories. They can then drill down to filter results by several other factors, such as business type, cuisine of a restaurant, price level, rating level, or other features. Results are displayed on a Yahoo-powered map

Users can search from OpenList.com, or from one of the many local domains, which are powered by OpenList. Marchex displays contextual text ads it sells itself, backfilled by ads from Yahoo. Much of the traffic is currently driven by direct navigation to the local sites, but an increasing amount comes from search engines that index those pages. This is expected to increase as the sites are filled with more local content.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 5:10 PM | Permalink

Happy Birthday Google

Google is celebrating its 9th birthday today. With little fanfare, except for the logo change, the search engine has obviously had more pressing things on its mind - like dealing with the Senate Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights Committee on the Judiciary.

Interestingly though, if you google Google, they have the 9th birthday announcement in their SERP description. I wonder if Larry and Sergey will go to their favorite Burger King store and reminisce about the old days?

Posted by aussiewebmaster at 2:19 PM | Permalink

Social media vs. "pre-Web 2.0" portals like Yahoo News

Martin LaMonica of the CNET News.com Tech news blog spotted this ironic moment at EmTech. While Kevin Rose of Digg, Tariq Krim of NetVibes, and Garret Camp of StumbleUpon were predicting a growing role for community-oriented sites in the media industry, a survey of attendees done during the panel found the majority of people at the conference said they rely on traditional news outlets and "pre-Web 2.0" portals like Yahoo News. Ironic, ain't it?

Posted by GregJarboe at 12:32 PM | Permalink

Overview of Microsoft Searchification

I attended the Microsoft Searchification event yesterday. The most important thing that happened here is that Microsoft has finally suceeded in offering a differentiated search product, and this is what made the day so important.

Brad Goldberg started the day with an overview presentation on some basic facts about the search market. One very interesting data set presented by him was a market share table:

EngineUsersUser shareQuery share
Live Search69M37%11%
Yahoo104M56%23%
Google142M77%56%
Source: comScore

Looking closely at this table you will see that 37% of all people who search, do at least some of their searching using Live Search. However, the query share is only 11%. The observation was then made that this indicated that this was an indicator that Live Search was not suceeding in statisfying its customers.

Then Mr. Goldberg stated that a large part of their intention with this release is to address this issue. This is an interesting focus, although it does assume that simply improving the relevance and quality of Live Search's results will be enough to convert many of those 37% to doing a larger percentage of their searches on Live Search.

Nontheless, it's a compelling notion. Micosoft does capture a lot of search volume as a result of the integration of Live Search into MSN. They also have very large user bases with Microsoft Messenger and Hotmail. So they can keep putting search back in front of their user base.

In fact, the presentations and demos we saw suggested that Microsoft suceeded in accomplishing several things:

  1. Improving basic search quality and relevance. Certainly a number of examples of this were offered. Of course, the acid test of improved relevance will be revealed across tens of millions of search queries
  2. Showing compelling improvements in Shopping Search for consumer electronics
  3. Providing a completely new look layout for Health search. New features included a set of refinements links up top to help users quickly adapt their search. In addition, the page now has a 3 column layout, with the left column providing access to the latest articles related to your search.
  4. Making some great advances in local search, including their 3D mapping technology
  5. Offering a rich Entertainment search experience that allows people to drill deep in searches related to their favorite stars
  6. Providing a rich and engagin Mobile search experience. Microsoft already had a strong mobile product, and has made it even stronger still
  7. Another area where Microsoft already had a great solution was their Image search product, but they made several enhancements here as well
  8. Unveiling their video search solution, including some great technology for componsing 30 second trailers
  9. Expanded their index from 5B pages to more than 20B pages

I will explore some of these items in more detail over the next week. Net-net, it looks like Microsoft has improved their base search results, and then made a huge effort to improve search quality dramatically in a number of major vertical areas.

Posted by Eric Enge at 9:25 AM | Permalink

Live! From Microsoft Live Search: Trovix Search Found?

Trovix grew up in the Googleplex but would thrive down the road at MS SV Live Search.

Searchification of boring resumes made a name for Trovix, leading to the launch of its free, live jobs search (read: white/blue collar) and recruitment site. Now job candidates can find more suitable jobs; and Jobs, more suitable candidates.

Why would Trovix find itself more at home in Microsoft Live Search than even at Google? Simple. Great artificial minds think alike.

Trovix search technology extracts attributes from job descriptions and CVs the way Microsoft Live Search extracts attributes from online content in key verticals (Shopping; Health, Entertainment, Local). In simple terms, by parsing words, phrases and acronyms their search technologies determine a database of intentions on the fly.

Trovix is a vertical search engine (people/jobs). Live Search aggregates vertical search engines in a SHEL game where the Microsoft prize is the searchers' true intentions; the ultimate payout: a bigger slice of online ad dollars.

Key Trend To Watch: Microsoft Live Search bucks the trend of human intervention in search. Sophisticated filters and algorithms improve relevancy.Lately Google has tried to put a human face on search, emphasizing they're more than just an algorithm.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 2:17 AM | Permalink

Microsoft Updates Live Search

A group of journalists, bloggers, and advertisers spent the day Wednesday at Microsoft's Mountain View offices for a view of several improvements to Live Search. We'll have more coverage of the "Searchification" event itself later today, but I wanted to briefly mention some of the improvements to Live Search that have been made both to its core search technology and in the vertical search areas of entertainment, shopping, local and health. Most of the changes were made to improve the relevance of Live Search results.

"We have made dramatic progress in delivering a better search experience to our customers," said Satya Nadella, corporate VP of the Search and Advertising Platform Group at Microsoft. "We know what kinds of things consumers are searching for, and we have invested in those key high-interest verticals, including entertainment, shopping, health and local search. With the core platform in place we intend to win customers and earn their loyalty one query at a time."

To improve the quality of its results, Microsoft has increased the size of its index fourfold, aiming to serve better results for long-tail queries, which it says account for one in five searches. Microsoft also claims that Live Search now better understands customer intent, and offer more relevant query refinements and query suggestions, to help users get to answers more quickly.

Live Search now uses more clickstream data in its algorithms, in order to return more relevant answers. It is also making use of data extraction to gather information around a topic from unstructured data from multiple sources, like ratings and reviews of products, data and reviews of businesses, and celebrity gossip, photos, and video clips.

An interesting move by Microsoft is the expansion of its Instant Answers product. Because "sometimes people are just looking for a specific fact or answer," Instant Answers provide responses to certain queries that have a clear answer. Examples include weather, stocks, Yellow Pages data, recent sports scores, or facts from Encarta.

We'll have more coverage from the Searchification event later today. You can also check out some responses from other attendees:

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 1:01 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: Knock It Out of the Linkin' Park!

Is the job of an SEO to drum up valueless links, or to be the driver of creative content and content distribution for clients' Web sites? In today's Link Love column, "Knock It Out of the Linkin' Park!," Sage Lewis says it's time for SEOs to move past getting links just to try to game the search engine system. It's two dimensional thinking; and it's the wrong paradigm.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink

September 26, 2007

Viral Recommendations Have Natural Limits

Whether cruising around social networks or shopping online, I do pay attention to friends' recommendations -- ranging from the newest restaurant, to the hippest shoes and most effective plumber. My social circle influences my interests and purchases, and I find myself often passing on suggested links to others or checking out something mentioned to me.

But how effective are friends in actually closing the sale? In a recent study, The Dynamics of Viral Marketing (log-in required), researchers set about trying to debunk the lore of viral marketing. It turns out that each friend can influence me at first, but then loses her impact on my clicks or purchases. After a while, I’m likely to ignore her links altogether.

As marketers, this translates into our needing a constant supply of new recommenders. Sheer volume of shared links does not necessarily correlate with conversions. Based on the study, we may be heading into new territory from what we have seen in the past. Search marketing typically succeeds by having links distributed and exposed as widely as possible. Apparently, asking “related others” to recommend and link for you does not always result in a sale.

There are other dynamics involved in actual person-to-person recommendations and their effectiveness. Just a few of the study's findings concluded that:

* People like to initiate recommendations, with 94% having sent a link prior to receiving one.
* People have sway over some friends, but not all. When an individual sends out more recommendations, conversions decline.
* If more people recommend a product to an individual, it increases conversion at first. There is saturation, however, if too many people send links.
* Influence varies by product type, though more expensive products have higher conversions.

Viral recommendations do still work, and can be an effective way to get the word out about a new product or offering. Beyond the old “send to a friend,” they are even more potent on social sites as the links linger for all to see and share. We simply need to readjust our expectations about possible outcomes.

Posted by debbyr at 6:34 PM | Permalink

Search Headlines & Links: September 26, 2007

Want a snapshot of the day's search marketing news? Here we've collected today's top news stories posted to the Search Engine Watch Blog, along with search-related headlines from around the Web:

From the SEW Blog:

Headlines & News from Elsewhere:

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 6:10 PM | Permalink

Google Tops 125 Sales Organizations For Client Satisfaction

The 2007 Myers Survey of Advertising Executives found Google to top client satisfaction for the 125 websites used in the survey.

Google had been second last year. "Knowledge, trustworthiness and responsiveness of the sales organization were the top three attributes influencing advertisers’ opinions about their relationship with a specific sales organization," Myers reported.

Cnet placed second behind Google.

Posted by aussiewebmaster at 3:50 PM | Permalink

Copyright Procedures for Search Marketers

Search marketers will almost certainly run into copyright issues at some point in their careers. They may be the victim, finding their own optimized content duplicated without permission and showing up in targeted search results. Or they may be an infringer, stealing copyrighted content from others and finding themselves subject to penalties by the search engines and the courts.

Thankfully, most online copyright infringement issues can be handled with some simple legal procedures. In today's SearchDay, "Copyright Law: What Search Marketers Should Know (Part 1)," Grant Crowell outlines the basics of cease & desist letters, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), and other tactics to help search marketers protect their content.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 3:33 PM | Permalink

Ask To Launch New PPC Platform October 2

Ask has announced it will launch its new Sponsored Listing platform October 2. ASL 2.0 - in keeping with the world's love for the 2.0 extension - promises improvements in cost and budget controls, and other benefits.

The addition of average positioning information should help determine how much to bid. The allowance of multiple ads will help test different creatives against the same keywords - though the delivery will be optimized only - there will not be the ability to opt out of the CTR impacting the delivery.


ASL 2.0 Overview (as reported by Ask)

* Improvements in cost and budget controls.
* New ad structure improves content management.
* Streamlined UI simplifies common tasks.
* More flexible reporting.
* Enhanced Bulk Upload tool.

Posted by aussiewebmaster at 3:24 PM | Permalink

Google Group Promises Five Solid Answers

In the Google Webmaster Help group, Google's Search Evangelist Adam Lasnik has promised users that five big questions would be thoroughly answered in that group in the next two weeks.

Got questions? We've got answers: at least five (5) substantive responses to your picks on webmaster'y topics over the next two weeks.

We invite you to ask questions in this thread that:
- don't deal with a specific site or sites
- are likely to be of interest to a great many webmasters around the world
- aren't already covered in one of our recent blog posts or in our Help Center

And in turn we will do one of the following for each response:
- Start a thread in this group with a detailed answer.
- Add new Help Center documentation or substantially revise an existing doc to cover your question.
- Do a blog post on the topic.

Now's your chance to get those hard questions answered.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 11:52 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: Mobile Search Fortune Seekers

The year of mobile search seems to be forever a few months away. In today's By the Numbers column, "Mobile Search Fortune Seekers," Eric Enge shows that even if mobile search doesn't hit the ad revenue jackpot this year, marketers need to know how to secure a seat at the table.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: Halo 3 as Meta4

With the release of Halo 3, it's worth your while to take a look at what can be learned from the big launch. In today's Searching for Meaning column, "Halo 3 as Meta4," Kevin Ryan explains how you can entice searchers with the right marketing message.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink

September 25, 2007

Search Headlines & Links: September 25, 2007

Want a snapshot of the day's search marketing news? Here we've collected today's top news stories posted to the Search Engine Watch Blog, along with search-related headlines from around the Web:

From the SEW Blog:

Headlines & News from Elsewhere:

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 6:08 PM | Permalink

Google Trends Now Updated Daily

Google has increased the frequency that it updates its Google Trends service, so that trends are now updated daily, instead of monthly. Trends launched in May 2006, and has been updated a few times since then. Most recently, Google added a Hot Trends feature a list of the queries that are being searched on more than they usually are. Google has also made available an RSS feed and iGoogle gadget for Hot Trends, which is updated in "very near to real time."

The tool is vulnerable to the vagaries of Internet fame, as well as offline events or media. Google attempts to explain some of the posts by providing a list of news stories about the keyword. For instance, among the hot trends as I write this are "Daily Oklahoman," a newspaper involved in a well-publicized spat with Oklahoma State football coach Mike Gundy; and "Nikki Sixx," the bassist for 80s hair metal band Motley Crue, who recently wrote a book chronicling his drug use.

For those phrases that defy an easy explanation, Google has created a Hot Trends group to let users add their facts and theories about the trends, such as whether a topic was mentioned on Oprah, or showed up in last night's popular sit-com.

For search marketers, the tool can be used to gauge the interest in certain keywords, as long as they have been queried enough times. It can also give bloggers fodder for their posts, to take advantage of the rise in searches for a given topic.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 11:56 AM | Permalink

Google to Offer AdWords Conversion Optimizer

Google is making cost-per-acquisition (CPA) based bidding available to AdWords advertisers through a new Conversion Optimizer tool. Advertisers specify a maximum CPA bid, and then the tool will use historical information about the campaign to automatically generate an optimal CPC bid for each auction.

Advertisers still pay per click, but no longer have to manually adjust their bids to reach CPA goals.

Conversion Optimizer requires that a campaign currently uses AdWords Conversion Tracking and has at least 300 conversions in the last 30 days. Ads can appear on both the search and content network.

Google also offers CPA-based pricing on its pay-per-action (PPA) beta, where advertisers pay only when an action they define occurs, such as a purchase on their site or newsletter sign-up.

Tried Conversion Optimizer? Share your thoughts on it in the Search Engine Watch Forums.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 11:34 AM | Permalink

Universal Search Coming to Microsoft's Live Search

In a blog post last Thursday, originally described by the press as a leak, Akram Hussein, Program Manager of Windows Live Platform, detailed a number of new features of Windows Live Search 2.0 that are expected to be rolled out on September 26th at Microsoft’s Searchification 2007.

Searchification 2007 is a half–day event that will include a general session with senior product leaders, demos, and a webmaster tools session. In a later blog post Hussein clarified that his post was not a leak but rather the result of the confluence of an early test rollout and an astute and enthusiastic user.

All of the cloak and dagger, leaky plumbing stuff aside, here are some of the features that early test users (Akram Hussein) have spotted. Although he removed his original post, Liveside.net captured the changes already being tested “live,” so to speak.

They are yet another spin on universal search. For example, images and news will be moved directly onto the search page along with product popularity ratings and reviews for products pulled from review sites. Searches for people will include more search results, images, and a celebrity rating. Searchers will soon be able to see just how “hot” or “not” those headline-grabbing celebs really are.

Where there is video, it will begin to play a preview as soon as the mouse is rolled over it without the usual delay. This feature should appeal to the growing number of video enthusiasts.

Overall there will be more search results found. Do note that more search results do not necessarily translate to more relevant search results. That is to be seen as more users come in contact with this new version of Live Search 2.0. For search marketers, this is yet another example of why it is important to optimize all types of Web files – images, news, video, and audio.

Posted by amandawatlington at 9:45 AM | Permalink

Hey! Nielsen Wants You

After all these years, Nielsen has decided to compete (a little) with those it measures online. HeyNielsen.com invites everybody to share their opinions about entertainment directly. The operating premise is that YOU can influence online and offline media through this new social site.

Nielsen has created a new Hey! Nielsen score which reflects visitor opinions. The score is also based on news and raw data from The Hollywood Reporter, Billboard and BlogPulse -- all properties owned by Nielsen. We'd like to learn more about how this stew is mixed together.

The site looks like it's been carefully constructed, yet the site search isn't up to par. When I looked for "Brad Pitt,” he showed up below a few dozen non-Brads from the music arena. If I’m going to be encouraged to contribute my opinions, then search should be put on the fix-it list.

As announced yesterday, Nielsen has rolled out an A-Z social site here. So I checked out Brad's page, his scores, other opinions, and even external blog postings. I also noticed ways to connect to other members, and learn about their interests. While all these and other features seem nice, it's hard to predict whether Hey! Nielsen will become a social hub.

In the meantime, Nielsen succeeds when it pulls me in, gets my opinions, and makes me available for research. It's not a bad bargain, if visitors get a little something in return.

Posted by debbyr at 2:21 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: Roadblocks Sidetrack Search

The larger the company, the bigger the roadblocks. In today's Big Biz column, "Roadblocks Sidetrack Search," Aaron Shear explains that diplomacy may be one of the most useful tools in your SEO toolbox. To advance your search marketing strategy, you need to be less SEO and more politico with the head honcho.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: Top 10 Reasons SEO Rocks: "SEO is Dead" Is Dead

Many have claimed "SEO Is Dead." In today's au Natural column, "Top 10 Reasons SEO Rocks: "SEO is Dead" Is Dead," Mark Jackson gives the first half of his list detailing why that's not the case, and why SEO remains alive and well.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink

September 24, 2007

Search Headlines & Links: September 24, 2007

Want a snapshot of the day's search marketing news? Here we've collected today's top news stories posted to the Search Engine Watch Blog, along with search-related headlines from around the Web:

From the SEW Blog:

Headlines & News from Elsewhere:

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 6:40 PM | Permalink

IMNY Charity Event Scheduled for October 15

The Internet Marketers of New York are holding another charity event, so keep the 15th of October open.

The event will help raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. It is scheduled for October 15, between 7pm and 10 pm at the Town Tavern at 134 W. 3rd Street and 6th Ave. Tickets are $40.

The Best Of The Web guys are the sponsors who are covering all costs so that ticket sales money will go directly to the charity.

The group is gladly accepting donations for things to give as prizes for the raffles that will be held at the event. For more information contact Greg Niland.

Posted by aussiewebmaster at 4:15 PM | Permalink

Compete Search Analytics Now Live

Compete's new Compete Search Analytics service, which was announced last month at SES San Jose, is now live.

The pay-as-you-go service is designed to give users access to competitive research data for a per-usage fee. Users will pay online by credit card, purchasing $2 credits, which might be good for the first 50 results of a report, for example. Compete sees the service appealing to smaller companies, as well as small groups within larger agencies or corporations.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 1:23 PM | Permalink

DoubleClick Launches Mobile Ad Serving

Like its soon-to-be parent company Google did last week with AdSense for Mobile, DoubleClick today launched a new mobile ad serving product, DoubleClick Mobile. The new platform integrates with its DART for Publishers (DFP), providing support for all functions involved in mobile ad sales, trafficking, and reporting.

DoubleClick plans to release a mobile ad management product for advertisers sometime in 2008, Ari Paparo, DoubleClick's VP of rich media and emerging technologies, told ClickZ News.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 11:22 AM | Permalink

Google's Growing Searches? FT(P) That.

Ever FTP'ed a news analysis? Transfer this to Financial Times Piffle file: "Growing Google searches for the right balance."

FT reported Google withdrew a bid for DoubleClick in 2005 "amid concerns" that cookies conflicted with "Don't Be Evil" credo. Deal-busting cookies? Does FT really believe Larry & Sergey looked in a mirror and saw the reflection of Dr. Evil?

Unnamed FT sources (Deep Search 1 & Deep Search 2, natch) offered conflicting testimony:

"However, another person familiar with (Google's) internal deliberations says that, while some executives expressed strong reservations about the impact on privacy, this was not the main reason the deal was called off."

What's worse, FT buried the "minority opinion" in the virtual black box of a grey sidebar.

We still don't know whether BrinPage scotched playing DARTs under the glare of spotlight tags. The FT cop-out (misleading lede?) may leave a bad taste in readers' mouths. In a prescriptive news"paper" analysis, ambiguity can be a bitter pill to swallow.

The smart money: Cookies crumble real deal?

Don't Be E-tarded.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 10:32 AM | Permalink

Yahoo Under-represented at IAB

One unintended consequence of the departure of Wenda Harris Millard from Yahoo is that Yahoo no longer holds a seat on the board of the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB). Harris Millard, now president of media at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, was just named vice-chair of the organization, and Google's Tim Armstrong, and Microsoft's Mike Hard are on the executive committee. Representatives from InterActiveCorp, AOL, Seevast, MySpace, and Idearc are among the 37 members that sit on the board of directors...but no Yahoos.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 10:16 AM | Permalink

Interview of Usability Guru Jakob Nielsen

I recently had the privilege of sitting down and speaking with Jakob Nielsen. Known as one of the foremost usability gurus in the world, Jakob showed me that he also has a keen understanding of SEO. As the world of web marketing matures, it will be increasingly obvious that you can't do long term SEO without considering usability at the same time.

One of the most interesting aspects of this is the use of keyword research tools. SEOs routinely use these tools to find the highest volume keywords people use related to the site they are currently working on. Often, we think of this as a purely mathematical numbers game. We see the highest volume keywords, and related words, and put them in the title tag, a header at the top of the page, and work some references into the text on the page.

Sounds like a straight forward concept. However, there is far more to it than that. The reason why some keywords are more popular than others is because those keywords reflect the most common way users think about their topic matter.

Placing these intelligently on the page does far, far more than just help you get search volume. It also tells the user that they have arrived at the right place to get what they want. Ultimately, keyword research should be more than an SEO exercise - it needs to be a usability exercise as well.

Once you have the keywords you are interested in, you can place them, and related words in key elements of the page. You can also provide your copy writers with general guidelines for how to produce copy for the page.

I always prefer to give the writers high level instruction, rather than trying to micro manage keywords into their text. Ultimately, telling them that the article is about "Circular Red Widgets", and how they are better than "Square Blue Widgets", is about all the instruction you should provide.

Then let them write a solid piece of quality content. The article quality will drive conversions, in addition to links and search engine traffic, making it a win-win-win situation.

Posted by Eric Enge at 9:00 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: Branding Steers Search Beyond Direct Response

In today's Search Ads column, "Branding Steers Search Beyond Direct Response," Matt Spiegel discusses the myths of direct response advertising. If CMOs build brands, who does direct response? White mice, search marketers, and Pavlov's dogs?

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:53 AM | Permalink

September 23, 2007

Google SERPs Promoting Google Book Links

I was alerted to this by a thread at WebMaster World, seems Google search results are promoting Google Books product. To see an example of this do a search for "building wealth" and go to the page four and beyond results.

Initially this was being shown on the first page and beyond but it seems they have pushed it back a little. Google has been known to test changes to the algorithm without announcing the tests. Hey we are all part of their testing pool.

The highlighths of the conversation at WW were:

*PPC listings were also used briefly - guess they wanted to test the impact of double listing in organic and PPC.

*The Google Books listings have no backlinks - so obviously are being placed there using a boost or value that the algorithm has had set to help the listings (could be something that could be hacked!!!)

*Book listings have been noticed since May - obviously it has been pushed just recently.

*Single word terms seems to be the major area being tested - could be a reflection on the fact that US searchers generally use 2-4 words when searching.

f anyone has noticed this and has some insights please join the conversation here.

Posted by aussiewebmaster at 11:33 AM | Permalink

September 21, 2007

Search Headlines & Links: September 21, 2007

Want a snapshot of the day's search marketing news? Here we've collected today's top news stories posted to the Search Engine Watch Blog, along with search-related headlines from around the Web:

From the SEW Blog:

Headlines & News from Elsewhere:

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 5:00 PM | Permalink

Women Execs Have Better Online Presence

An online career survey indicates female executives at the VP and C-levels have a considerably better career presence online than male executives at the same level.

Results from the Career Distinction Online Identity Calculator showed that female, VP-level executives had an average score of 6.26 out of a possible 10, compared to 5.86 for their male counterparts. At the C-level, the female scores were slightly higher: 6.59 compared to 6.33.

The results of the survey were based on input from over 2,500 executives. The entire sample included over 25,000 professionals at all levels.

Users Google themselves, then answer the survey questions, and the Online ID system calculates the score. The score is based on both the volume of results about the user and the relevance of those results. Although the volume of results for women was significantly lower than for their male counterparts, the relevance of their online IDs was much higher.

There is of course more to reputation management than looking at the first 30 Google results, but it's a good place to start for anyone that hasn't taken a good look at their online presence.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 10:03 AM | Permalink

Custom Search Business Edition

Google has created a new version of its Custom Search Engines which it calls Custom Search Business Edition. This version offers business owners the option to turn off the ads, and complete customization of the way the search results are presented. The result is that they can create a truly customized experience for the user.

Of course, obtaining this additional capability comes at a price. The pricing model offered by Google is as follows:

  • Search less than 5,000 web pages: $100 per year
  • Search less than 50,000 web pages: $500 per year
  • Search less than 100,000 web pages: $850 per year
  • Search less than 300,000 web pages: $2250 per year

The customization of the look and feel of the search results is enabled because the results are made accessible through an XML API. This enables you to control the look and feel of the presentation. Ultimately, this new product provides web site owners with additional flexibility in using Custom Search Engines on their sites.

Posted by Eric Enge at 9:55 AM | Permalink

Google Offers Print Ad Creation Tool

Google Print Ads just became more accessible to small advertisers with the addition of a Print Ad creation tool. Using the free online tool, advertisers can create a newspaper ad by entering headlines and text, and uploading images. The tool then creates a range of options in six ad sizes that are ready to be published in the newspaper.

The Print Ads program has been in extended beta since May, with hundreds of newspapers now participating in the program. Newspapers are able to sell their unused inventory at the last minute, advertisers are able to get a reduced rate, and Google makes money, so everyone's potentially happy.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 9:05 AM | Permalink

Google: Search Key to Auto-Buying Cycle

Google's vertical industry teams have been taking a very consultative approach to ad sales. So far, Google has focused its efforts on five verticals: automotive, retail, financial services, entertainment & media, and healthcare.

Instead of just presenting advertisers with a list of options, the teams work closely with top advertisers to come up with packages that work best for them and others in their industry. Google is also undertaking industry-specific research to share with advertisers.

At a press event yesterday at Google's New York office, Bonita Coleman Stewart, director of Google's automotive industry team, shared preliminary details of a study Google undertook with Compete that looked at online shopping and research behavior in the six months leading up to the vehicle purchase.

In short, the buying cycle for autos has condensed from up to six months to one month, with 65 percent of buyers making a decision in one month or less, and only 17 percent taking more than 3 months to make a buying decision. Automobile marketers are more used to planning their marketing activities around a six-month cycle, but they must now adjust to the new speed of online marketing, Stewart said.

Another common misconception some marketers have about search is that it's only good for the "lower funnel" activities of driving leads and sales. The study found that was not the case, since most consumers start their vehicle purchase cycle with search, and continue to rely on search through the entire funnel, from awareness, to intent, to consideration, then to a test drive and purchase at a local dealer.

Google has been reaching out to the auto industry to educate them on these kinds of findings, Stewart said. Google is working with automakers, agencies, regional dealer groups, and individual dealers, as well as parts resellers and service vendors, to help them understand which of Google's products would work best for them, and to show them metrics that prove that it will be worth their while, she said.

Google is also stressing the availability of its non-search ads, including display ads on its content network, audio ads, and site targeting and maps ads for better targeting. The biggest factor that is expected to drive the auto industry to the Web is the combination of search and online video, Stewart said. She shared that 382 million videos were viewed in YouTube's auto category in July, out of a total 9 billion videos viewed that month – that's about 4 percent of all videos.

She stressed the idea of mobile devices becoming like "portable TVs" that automakers can use to engage potential buyers wherever they are. As more video-friendly devices, like the iPhone, enter the market, there will be even more opportunity in online video, she said.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 8:49 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: Think Local, Act Social

In today's Vertical Challenge column, "Think Local, Act Social," local search expert Michael Boland asks what bars, lawyers, restaurants and dog washers have in common? Answer: They all meet at the intersection of local and social search.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:29 AM | Permalink

September 20, 2007

Getting Vertical Key to Google's Ad Success

Today, Google hosted an Industry Press Day at its New York offices, inviting mainstream and trade press to learn more about its efforts in five verticals: automotive, retail, financial services, entertainment & media, and healthcare. Several members of the SEW/ClickZ team were there, which made it possible for us to cover all five breakout sessions. See "Google's Vertical Ad Honchos Talk Campaigns and Results" at ClickZ News for a wrap-up of what those sessions contained.

Tim Armstrong, president of advertising and commerce in North America, opened the event with a short history of Google's industry-specific efforts, and the changing face of the online ad industry. He outlined three main factors that mark the new reality of Google's ad model: the ability to market all products all the time, incorporating customer insights into marketing plans, and letting the economy drive ad efforts, instead of the other way around.

With performance-based pricing and more automated and dynamic ad creation, Google's ad model has shifted from broad-based targeting to a model that harnesses consumer interest into small buckets. This fundamental change has allowed some advertisers to expand from advertising 8 to 10 products a year five years ago to more than 12,000 products today, Armstrong said.

The idea is to take an inventory of all of your company's assets and create an "asset map." When Google undertook this exercise internally, there was not a single person that could name all of Google's consumer-facing offerings, he said. That's how the company knew it was time to streamline its offering, and do a better job of articulating what was available to advertisers, he said.

Another key change in the industry is the idea of "letting customers into your meetings," or using customer insight to drive marketing decisions instead of making decisions in a closed boardroom. Customers, through their search and other online behavior, can teach a marketer what features of a product are important, how they like to talk about a product, and how to connect with them, Armstrong said.

The third main change in Google's advertising product strategy is the idea of letting the economy drive ad efforts, instead of the other way around. It's what Armstrong calls "knowing the GDP (gross domestic product)," which involves localization of ads, and the creation of industry-specific ad programs. Back in 2000, Google created industry-specific ad sales teams at a time when naysayers thought they were over-investing in infrastructure.

That investment has paid off in spades, Armstrong said, with Google taking its place at the table with CEOs and CMOs, ad agencies, and other decision-makers in these industries that see search advertising as an integral part of their business model.

A typical ad cycle ten years ago might have consisted of blasting a message for six weeks, measuring and repeating. Today, campaigns are running all day, every day, creating an ecosystem that mimics what's happening in the broader economy.

Advertisers are learning to be more open-ended with their ad budgets, letting customer behavior lead the way. For instance, instead of assuming that users might be interested in learning about a product during a certain six week period, an advertiser can let consumer actions – manifested through search behavior – show them when it's the right time to push a certain product.

This is a key aspect of Google's strategy, Armstrong told me afterwards. Since the goals of many advertisers are outside of the traditional direct response strength of text ads in search results, Google's efforts to bring in more big brands include steering them toward ad units they are more comfortable with, such as video ads on YouTube or display ads on its content network, while stressing the new measurements and new levels of understanding afforded by search. In this way, advertisers can apply what happens in search to these other areas, improving their results across the board.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 5:50 PM | Permalink

Search Headlines & Links: September 20, 2007

Want a snapshot of the day's search marketing news? Here we've collected today's top news stories posted to the Search Engine Watch Blog, along with search-related headlines from around the Web:

From the SEW Blog:

Headlines & News from Elsewhere:

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 5:00 PM | Permalink

Google Launching New Custom Business Search Engine

The new business edition of custom search comes with a sliding scale price tag, the Google site details.

According to the site, Custom Search Business Edition is available in a number of plans:

Search less than 5,000 web pages: $100 per year
Search less than 50,000 web pages: $500 per year
Search less than 100,000 web pages: $850 per year
Search less than 300,000 web pages: $2250 per year

Posted by aussiewebmaster at 2:59 PM | Permalink

Viacom Would Rather Not Sue, Chief Counsel Claims

The Chief Counsel for Viacom, Michael Fricklas, stated at the Convergence 2.0 conference today, that Viacom would rather not sue, according to JackMeyers.com.

He hopes that a firm set of usage rules are developed and adhered to, he told the audience. The right filtering by companies like YouTube (that Viacom is suing for illegal content usage) would make sure content copyrights would not be violated.

Posted by aussiewebmaster at 2:30 PM | Permalink

Microsoft Having Bad Week, Court Rules Against, Google and Lotus Giving Away Tools

They must be feeling a little punchy at Microsoft this week. First the European High Court upheld the fines and sanctions given to Microsoft in 2004 and then Google rolls out a free "power point-like" app, while IBM unveils a suite of free office tools, Lotus Symphony.

"The European Court of First Instance this week upheld fines and sanctions that antitrust officials had levied against Microsoft Corp. in 2004. According to the court in Luxembourg, Microsoft improperly used its dominance in computer operating systems to stiff-arm competitors in two other markets. As a consequence, Microsoft must pay more than $1 billion in fines, offer European computer vendors a version of Windows without its media-playing program and help competing makers of server software work with Microsoft's products," the LA Times reported today.

Posted by aussiewebmaster at 1:58 PM | Permalink

Google To Stop Preannouncing Quality Score Algorithm Changes

The insights into the changes being made to Google's Quality Score algorithm will no longer be pre-announced - if they are detailed at all - according to a recent post at Inside Adwords blog.

"Since our systems frequently visit landing pages and update Quality Scores on a regular basis, we will no longer post advance notice of upcoming updates. We will, however, continue to inform you of any significant changes to landing page quality guidelines or the factors which are considered in calculating landing page quality," the post reported.

The part of this that shows we will not be getting all the details is in "continue to inform you of any significant changes to landing page quality guidelines or the factors which are considered in calculating landing page quality".

Posted by aussiewebmaster at 1:37 PM | Permalink

Marketing to the U.S. Hispanic Market

I received an email from the PR agency Weber Shandwick telling me about marketing to 2nd generation Latinos. In particular, the email let me know that Microsoft and MRM Worldwide are participating in an Advertising Week 2007 panel focused on this topic.

It got me excited because when I think about ways to find big wins in web marketing, I always try to find things that represent large opportunities, but where the environment has not become completely saturated by competition. It strikes me that targeting the Spanish speaking population of the U.S. represents such an opportunity.

Of course, you have to deal with the issue of translation, and you would need to have a real understanding of the market. If you can handle those two problems, however, there could be a very interesting opportunity here.

Posted by Eric Enge at 7:34 AM | Permalink

Zillow Lands ex-Googler and Zestimated $30M Follows

Probably sheer coincidence: Zillow has raised another round -- $30 million -- on the heels of ex-Googler Vanessa Fox's arrival in June. Fox founded Google's Webmaster Central after joining Google in 2005.

The Wall St. Journal broke the Zillow story early this morning, noting the capital infusion will be used for Local Search.

WSJ reports "businesses such as plumbers, architects or real-estate agents can deliver targeted ads" to potential buyers searching for homes in specific zip codes.

Sound familiar? Then you must have read this week's Link Love: "Link Building For Local Search" in SEW Experts.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 12:33 AM | Permalink

Is Your Search Integrated Like Chunky Monkey?

Integration in search is like integration of Ben & Jerry's ice cream flavors. If you're in the market for a search vendor, you might have something to learn from the boys in Vermont. In today's SearchDay, "Searching for Options: Integration Spells Sweet Success," John Tawadros writes that while options abound, successful integration has its rewards.

However you decide to engage in search, be sure to choose your search marketing vendor wisely, and give careful consideration to the importance of integration in the process. Otherwise, you could end up with a melt-down on your hands, and a sticky mess that could take more than a few napkins to clean up.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:05 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: Link Building for Local Search

In today's Link Love column, "Link Building for Local Search," Justilien Gaspard imagines a search engine-free world. Would you still build "links" to increase local traffic? He shares some radical link building strategies for local search.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink

September 19, 2007

Search Headlines & Links: September 19, 2007

Want a snapshot of the day's search marketing news? Here we've collected today's top news stories posted to the Search Engine Watch Blog, along with search-related headlines from around the Web:

From the SEW Blog:

Headlines & News from Elsewhere:

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 10:38 PM | Permalink

Google Webmaster Tools Update

The Google Webmaster tools announced new changes to Webmaster Tools. Ths biggest change was the addition of subscriber stats from various Google