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December 2007

December 31, 2007

Norman Mailer On Google

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Norman Mailer died at 84 this year, only months after the publication of his latest book, On God, a brilliant dialogue about God and Good and Evil.

Before Mailer passed away, I planned to interview him about Google and God and whether corporate technology in any human hands can Do No Evil.

Mailer was not a search engine expert. Nor was he a technologist. He was fearless, though.

As a towering literary figure, he took center stage in some of the great debates of the 20th Century. He refused to go quietly when the novel and the printed word lost prominence with the advent of film, television and the Internet.

His personal theology as outlined in On God provides a foundation for understanding technology and its influence on society. If there's sufficient interest among Search Engine Watch readers, we'll revisit the controversial New York Times column by Thomas Friedman, entitled "Is Google God?"

I'll excerpt Mailer's published views on technology and God. I'll try to persuade his co-author, Mike Lennon, to join the Google debate on Mailer's behalf.

Now that Google has won FTC approval of its DoubleClick acquisition, Search Engine Watch will keep an eye on the ways Google dominates the Internet, the search engnine marketing profession, and our professional as well as "private" lives.

We won't have Norman Mailer's wisdom and literary journalism to guide us, but we will have his words and his example.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 2:24 PM | Permalink

Network Neutrality

Back at SES Chicago, one of the keynote speakers, David Isenberg focused his presentation on the issue of Network Neutrality. One of the more interesting aspects of his presentation was how little those of us in the industry think about this issue.

Yet, if the telcos succeed in violating network neutrality, it will blow up the web experience as we know it. The consumer will no longer be in control on the web, and an era of innovation will be sorely impacted. Can you imagine Facebook being successful if the bandwidth to access it is controlled by a telco that is offering a competing service? Or, the telco will not give the service enough bandwidth to work properly unless they pay additional fees?

Additionally, in the current web environment, the consumer has virtually unlimited choice. The biggest challenge that the consumer faces is sifting through all the choices, but with choice, comes power. In a world where the consumer is loaded with power, the companies that want their business must truly compete for it. If the choice starts to become limited, then the power of the consumer will fade with it.

Greg Jarboe of SEO-PR and I spoke with Mr. Isenberg after his keynote. One thing that we all agreed upon was that the current telco companies are not well adapted to capitalizing on the web as it is, and they view the current web environment as a threat to their continued growth.

Worse still, these companies have large war chests, and the people they are working on selling their story to are the members of congress. Unfortunately, many of those in our congress are not particularly web savvy, so they may not understand the web as it exists today, and how critical that is to the innovation and growth that we are experiencing, and to consumer control (and therefore consumer rights).

Hopefully, Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, and others have their eye on the ball on this one.

Posted by Eric Enge at 9:29 AM | Permalink

December 28, 2007

Search Headlines & Links: December 28, 2007

Want a snapshot of the day's search marketing news? Here we've collected this week'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 5:07 PM | Permalink

Search Blogs Awards Voting Is On

Search Engine Journal's 2007 Search Blogs Awards have been posted, and the voting has begun.

The Search Engine Watch Blog has been nominated for "Best Search Industry News Blog of 2007," and the Search Engine Watch Forums have been nominated for "Best Search Engine Community/Forum." If you agree, head on over to Search Engine Journal and vote for us.

You can also share some SEW-love for our Link Love expert Justilien Gaspard, whose blog is nominated in the "Best Link Building Blog of 2007" category; or for SEW blogger and Local Search expert Michael Boland, nominated for "Best Local Search Blog" for the Kelsey Group Blog.

Andrew Goodman, conference chair for SES Toronto, is also nominated for "Best Contextual Advertising Blog" for his Traffick blog.

Even if you don't vote for us, head on over and cast your votes. What else were you planning on doing on the last workday of the year?

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:29 PM | Permalink

An Open Letter to Google Engineering: Please Slow Down a Little

We really do love your software. And we appreciate the fact that you introduce valuable new features so frequently. But please: slow down a little, and spend a bit more time on bug testing.

In the time-honored model of software development (call it "pre-Web 1.0"), teams of programmers worked for years to craft scores of subroutines, knit them together into a megalithic "major release," and then test and re-test the application on a variety of software and hardware platforms. The application would often be "pre-released" to internal and external teams of alpha and beta testers who would run the software under an even wider variety of conditions.

All this methodical testing slowly but surely eliminated major software bugs until the "release" could be dubbed "Golden Master." Only then would it be released to the buying public, hopefully with only minor bugs remaining. Thus Word 2.0 begat Word 3.0, etc.

That model, though still practiced widely for PC- and server-based applications, seems almost anachronistic in today's environment of high-velocity incrementally-released Ajax-based web applications. New features – minor and major – appear overnight, often with little or no warning, explanation or documentation. And all too often, with minor and major bugs.

As an agency that manages client pay-per-click (PPC) advertising campaigns, we at Clix Marketing are elbow-deep in Google AdWords software – all day, every day. It's not unusual for us to wake up in the morning and find old features completely replaced by new ones. Almost always the new features provide improved functionality, or eliminate time-consuming steps from a process.

Occasionally, it's painfully obvious that the new feature hasn't been thoroughly tested. Recent examples come to mind: a new graphing feature simply failed to work (and displayed only flat-line graphs), and it took Google a week to fix it. AdWords Editor is up to its fifth release, an age when most software has attained stability – and yet it still crashes frequently.

The phenomenon isn't restricted to Google's AdWords software. Last week the phone development community was up in arms over their contention that Google's Android platform for phone application development "…has major bug issues."

A recent New York Times article explains that Google's breakneck software development speed is a concerted, encouraged effort to stay out ahead of serious competitors like Microsoft. "Velocity matters," says Google CEO Eric Schmidt. Google product road maps look ahead only four or five months at most.

But here's the thing, Google: you're already waaaay out ahead – for example, your Google AdWords campaign management software is two generations or more ahead of Yahoo and Microsoft. So you can afford to slow down a bit and test more rigorously before even minor software releases. You're starting to get a reputation for developing buggy software – one that's not deserved for the most part – and now is the time to nip the problem in the bud before the perception starts to snowball.

Thanks for listening.

Posted by DavidSzetela at 10:31 AM | Permalink

December 27, 2007

Defining Search in 2007

This year could be defined by social media, blended search, or even the changes in SEO. All told, 2007 is mainly the year that search continued to mature and fit in with other marketing disciplines. In today's SearchDay, "2007: The Year that Search Grew Up," we look at some of the top stories and trends of the past 12 months, and we come to the conclusion that sometimes you need to do more than just get better at what you're already doing.

Of course, there were many other important events in the search world in 2007. Yahoo's constant state of reorganization. Ask's unending push to become a legitimate search contender. AOL and Microsoft's continual morphing into advertising companies. And the acquisitions keep on coming.

For a list of articles, columns, and blog posts about the most significant search-related events of 2007, check out "This Year in Search." And never fear, we'll be back again next year to keep you updated on all that's relevant in the search world.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 6:06 PM | Permalink

Poor Market Less Impact On Online Marketing Of Real Estate

The subprime debacle and poor economic growth has not impacted the online marketing of real estate at least as far as online condos sales seem to indicate, according to newcondosonline.com's profit reports.

The effectiveness of online marketing - specifically search marketing - seems to be showing this success in many areas. Financial services companies have turned heavily to search marketing and have found much success.

This bodes well for the industry and will no doubt be reflected in the increase in budget spends of Fortune 100 companies next year. With the direct nature of the ad to the search, or the optimization and landing pages, our market can be measured and that ability to see ROI will keep money coming into our space.

Posted by aussiewebmaster at 4:09 PM | Permalink

Facebook Search Engine: Livin' the Vida Local Online

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When a global VP of marketing for a multinational company gives me advice, I listen. Brand equity Search Engine Watch Expert Erik Qualman told me the Facebook search engine has reached the tipping point for global brand building online. The reason? Facebook's open API that CMOs can leverage to great effect.

Erik's Google-powered TripAdvisor facebook app (pictured here) shows just one way anyone can start building a global brand and connecting with other professionals, influencers, and global companies via social search. For details on how Facebook stacks up against the competition and how SEMs and VPs of Marketing can benefit, read it and reap.

So this year, with the help of social search experts, I'll be living local online. Facebooking for the first time; Twittering my time away; experimenting with search engines with a social twist. http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=3627928

I'm a skeptic -- going in with an open mind -- and the hypothesis that living online in the social search world will be a massive waste of time.


What do you think? Will Facebook die in 2008? Is the social search second life just another Second Life? Or will social search redefine vertical search and transform Google, Yahoo, Live Search and Ask?

First up -- I'll tap Techipedia founder Tamar Weinberg to help me transition my small LinkedIn network to Facebook.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 11:20 AM | Permalink

Google Misses the Mark with Reader Shared Items

This might make the folks at Facebook feel better about the whole Beacon privacy fiasco. It appears that even Google can make a mistake, as they did this month when they made shared items in Google Reader accessible to all Google Talk friends. Without asking. And without an easy way to opt out, short of deleting contacts or not sharing anything.

I don't know if I'd go so far as some, who claim that the move by Google ruined Christmas, but it was an unnecessarily foolish move by Google, which could have been avoided by making the sharing an opt-in decision, instead of an opt-out one.

This week (being a slow news week and all), many bloggers took offense to the move. Some complained that Google is invading their privacy by sharing items with people who they didn't intend to share with. Others blame users for not understanding what "shared" means.

Last night, the product team responded on the Google Reader blog with a response to the "helpful feedback" it received from bloggers. The sharing feature is still automatic and opt-out, but now users can quickly create a new tag for all shared items and then decide which contacts to share those items with.

And a link is presented at sign-in to a page that explains the process in the Reader Help Center:"If for any reason you'd like to start your sharing afresh, you can always remove all your previously shared items. Just go to the Friends Settings and click Move or Clear Shared Items. You will be given an option to select or create a tag and move your shared items to that tag, or clear your shared items. The items will remain in their original feeds along with any tags you've given them, but will no longer be in your shared items feed."

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 5:28 AM | Permalink

A Look at the Top Searches of 2007

OK, so we all know what people are really searching for most of the time. But if you filter out the perennial favorites (most of which are NSFW), then you can have a look at the most popular, up-and-coming search terms of 2007. In case you missed these earlier, here are the lists of top queries from various search engines:

AOL breaks down its "Hot Searches" by categories, including movies, bands, and accidental celebrities

Ask.com shows that its search volume can predict World Series winners...now will the Cowboys beat the Patriots and prove that true for the NFL as well? If Ask users are unusually prescience extends to presidential candidates, it looks like Barack Obama has Hillary Clinton beat.

Google brings us its year-end zeitgeist, telling us that the iPhone, Webkinz, TMZ and Transformers were the fastest-rising search terms of the year in the U.S.

Lycos tells us that poker, Britney Spears and Paris Hilton topped the search charts this year.

Yahoo's Top Trends in Search in 2007 reveal that Saddam Hussein, Britney Spears, and Harry Potter were among the most searched-for names this year.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 5:19 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: 7 Tips for Training Link Developers

We all know the vital role of backlinks in search engine visibility. So how do you train your link building team? In today's Link Love column, "7 Tips for Training Link Developers," Justilien Gaspard shares some essential tips for training link developers in-house that are so simple, even traditional ad agencies can catch on.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: Social Search Engine Face-off: Facebook vs. MySpace

Everywhere you turn, everyone's abuzz with Facebook, social search, and social networking. What's all the fuss about? In today's Brand Equity column, "Social Search Engine Face-off: Facebook vs. MySpace," Eric Qualman helps brand marketers understand whether they are missing the train, or jumping on the wrong train.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink

December 26, 2007

YouTube Ads Broadcast Google Laser Targeting: RIP SEM

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Google and YouTube have taken the Art of Subliminal Advertising and Science of Behavioral Targeting to new heights. Shown here: a whimsical holiday video starring Juno (goddess baby mama of Mars, Roman God of War) paired with humorous Google homeland security Senate testimony aired on The Google Channel -- all seemingly produced by the film studio owned by MySpace mogul and Google content partner, Rupert Murdoch.

Or has Google simply struck a product placement deal with Fox Searchlight for all Google Congressional testimony?

Juno teen pregnancy flick (predictive modeling: Jamie Lynne Spears) appears to get four stars and two thumbs up in this "favorited" YouTube trailer.

Search Engine Watch apologizes to all our holiday readers who received a YouTube Google Video Holiday Card featuring Homeland Security testimony from Google exec J.L. Needham (pictured) instead of the (pirated) Golden Globe nominated flick they wished for.

Disclaimer: Search Engine Watch insists no digital copyrights were harmed in the filming of John Lewis (J.L.) Needham, Manager for Public Sector Content Partnerships at Google, testifying before the U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee on the 11th of December for the sole purpose of discussing Google's efforts to help make federal government website info more accessible to citizens through search engines, and Google's use of the Sitemap Protocol to help government agencies.

So don't read too much into recent allegations of Google Reader's invasion of user privacy, Google Earth's internet surveillance, and homeland security partnerships. In the spirit of the holiday season, we urge conspiracy theorists to ask themselves, What would James Jesus Angleton do?

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 4:13 PM | Permalink

Google Senate Testimony: Homeland Security

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Now that NORAD has once again proven its superior technological power by tracking Santa across the globe (a task once thought impossible before the advent of Google), we can all rest a little easier. Who would've dreamed the new, more whimsical military-industrial complex could be so much fun?

Not Ike.

We like Ike, too. But WWII hero and former President Eisenhower never envisioned a military-industrial Googleplex that could Do No Evil.

Google Earth, for example, enables Homeland Security teams to collaborate (encouraging teamwork), focus (attention is paid to the task at hand) and comprehend (converts data into understanding). Google Earth solutions for homeland security include Google Earth Pro (Try it free for 7 Days!) and Google Earth Enterprise Solutions.

So what is Google exec J.L. Needham testifying before Congress about? Here on YouTube, he tackles the SEO debate on the use of Google sitemaps. Will Google protocols help government Web sites rank higher? You decide.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 3:09 PM | Permalink

SEW Experts: Large Enterprise SEO: CMS Duplicate Content

For large sites, CMS-created duplicate content obliterates SEO. In today's By the Numbers column, "Large Enterprise SEO: CMS Duplicate Content," Eric Enge shares the top duplicate content problems and the best ways to deal with them.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: Google vs. the World

Round 1 goes to Google/DoubleClick and the U.S. FTC. Round 2: Will the EU strike a blow for global privacy? In today's Searching for Meaning column, "Google vs. the World," Kevin Ryan explores the latest trend in the interactive industry: consolidation.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink

December 24, 2007

Interview with Microsoft's Mike Nichols

This week my interview is with Mike Nichols of Microsoft. We spoke about image search, video search, and celebrity search. With Microsoft's recent set of releases, their new video search engine was unveiled for the first time. One of the more interesting aspects of Microsoft's video search engine is the smart preview feature.

Mike showed me a great demo of a Baron Davis dunk (then select the video titled "Baron Davis dunks on AK-47 in Game 3"). The video is 25 seconds long, but the dunk happens only at the end.

The smart trailer technology is able to algorithmically figure out that the focal point of the video is at the end. As a result, the trailer Microsoft offers at the video selection screen goes right to the most important part of the video, to enable the user to better decide is this is a video that they want to watch.

It really sparks some interesting thoughts about the nature of the algorithms to determine the most important part of a video. One possible approach is simply to evaluate the video as a whole and then use a set of algorithms to figure out what part of the video is the most different from the rest of the video.

Whatever techniques Microsoft decided to use, it's clear that there are a large number of different scenarios that they have to deal with. In the case of the Baron Smith dunk, there is clearly a significant increase in crowd noise right at the end of the video. However, not every video provides a clue as simple as an great increase in crowd noise.

Posted by Eric Enge at 8:33 AM | Permalink

December 22, 2007

Try A Little Social Media In 2008

Make a resolution: Try participating in social media next year. While your site remains important, your visitors aren't only finding you through typical search engines. There's definitely enough audience ready to discover you and search for more through social connections.

Why bother? “The Internet lets all stuff fall apart in really useful ways” says David Weinberger, the author of Content Is Miscellaneous.

Your success depends on thinking more like Weinberger. All your stuff has already fallen apart, when people find you on search engines. When your content gets further disaggregated and shared through social media, there are additional social search opportunities.

Publishing 2.0 created this visual to describe challenges that print publishers face when they go online. Replace "print" with "site," and it's an apt metaphor for all web publishers:

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We all battle against other destinations that appeal to common readers and interests, and need to reach out behind our domains. Thus the opportunities to link or distribute your web content should be on your agenda.

Consider all the places where you'd like to be found and consumed. For next year, look at your visitors who blog or communicate on Facebook/MySpace. Decide how to engage and share content via containers, widgets and places where they live online.

My gentle resolution doesn't mean you have to change your business models -- only include social media in your mix.

Posted by debbyr at 5:52 PM | Permalink

December 21, 2007

Search Headlines & Links: December 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 5:26 PM | Permalink

BitDefender Finds Google AdWords Hijack Trojan

Seems there is a trojan out there that can replace Google AdWords with other ads, according to BitDefender. The bug is loaded when a person visits an infected website and the malware attaches itself to a user's computer.

Then when they surf a publishing site that displays AdWords the ads are replaced by similiar looking ones from other advertisers.

"The threat, which is identified by BitDefender as Trojan.Qhost.WU, modifies the infected computers' Hosts file (a local storage for domain name / IP address mappings, which is consulted before domain name servers and is considered authoritative).

The modified file contains a line redirecting the host "page2.googlesyndication.com" which should point to an IP of the form 6x.xxx.xxx.xxx to a different address, of the form 9x.xxx.xxx.xxx, so that the infected machines' browsers read ads from server at the replacement address rather than from Google," BitDefender noted.

Posted by aussiewebmaster at 11:22 AM | Permalink

Comparing Kayak and SideStep Businesses, For The Last Time

With the recent announcement that Kayak will acquire SideStep, we wanted to examine the two travel search businesses and what they bring to the party. In this competitive vertical, it’s good to have some visibility into their results.

At the SES-Travel show, held in Seattle last August, we heard from many travel search providers and learned about excellent conversion rates: 12-17% for air travel; 8-10% for car rentals; and 4-8% for hotels. Maybe that explains why there have been strong competitive entries!

Both Kayak and SideStep executives took pains to differentiate their offerings. Drew Patterson, who’s VP of Marketing at Kayak, explained that Kayak was streamlined search, more like Google; SideStep was about social media and community, more like Yahoo. SideStep's priority was "to find the best deal or best reservation to meet your needs,” said Sam Shank, VP at SideStep.

It’s easier to compare these search suppliers by analyzing their revenue contributions (per TechCrunch). Kayak said they supported $2.5 billion/year in ticket sales and earned $50 million revenues, which produced a 2% yield. SideStep supported $1.0 billion/year and earned $35 million revenues, or a 3.5% yield. However, this yield is inflated because SideStep revenues also included contributions from its TravelPost (user reviews) and TripUp (social networking) units.

Perhaps a more apples-to-apples comparison might be made from valuing unique visitors. In November, comScore reported about 5.25 million uniques from Kayak and 4.5 million uniques from SideStep. When we annualized these numbers, it translated to approximately $0.79 per Kayak unique and $0.65 per SideStep unique visitor.

In any event, there appears to be a lot of upside revenue potential from travel search volumes. In her SES-Travel keynote, Nancy Ramamurthi, Chief Marketing Officer for SideStep.com, claimed there would be over 100 million unique visitors in the next three to five years.

As long as the referrals model continues to work, Kayak is buying major market share and presumably efficiencies. It will be interesting to see how many metasearch engines continue to duke it out. Henry Harteveldt, a Forrester Research analyst, told the WSJ that the percentage of online leisure travelers using these engines has been holding steady, at 12% to 15% of travelers since 2006. Thus the upside isn't entirely clear at this stage.

More here: Travel Search: Up Close and Personal; Hug The Reservations; Tech Crunch's Breaking News; WSJ Coverage (Paid Access)

Posted by debbyr at 3:27 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: How to Market SEO to Humans

How do you explain your job to the people you meet at a holiday party? In today's Outsourced column, "How to Market SEO to Humans," William Flaiz reminds us that search engine optimization is a marketing discipline at heart, relying on the same principles as traditional marketing practices. While the medium may be unfamiliar, the process can be broken down easily for the unacquainted.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: SEM Agency: Uphill Battle? - Part 2

After deciding to go out on their own to start a search marketing agency, the main stumbling block for many people is a lack of organizational skills. In today's Business of Search column, "SEM Agency: Uphill Battle? - Part 2," Fionn Downhill covers some basic principles necessary for success.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: Online Travel SEM Addictions: Web 2.0, Paid Links, Social Media

In today's rapidly changing search marketplace, ideas and technology move faster than the speed of light. Search marketers need to catch up, if they can. In today's Vertical Challenge column, "Online Travel SEM Addictions: Web 2.0, Paid Links, Social Media," travel search expert Elisabeth Osmeloski helps you decide how your company should address this year's hottest topics: Web 2.0, paid links and social media.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink

December 20, 2007

Free Google Flip Video Camcorder --No purchase necessary

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OK, strike "no purchase necessary." Free Flip video camcorder: "big purchase necessary?"

Google gave big-time advertisers and SEMs (whose clients spend big) a Flip Video Ultra Series camcorder with recording time up to 30 min. and 1GB internal memory.

Search marketer Shimon Sandler recorded an Oscar-worthy short film (YouTubed) of his Google Video Ultra gift being unwrapped. You'll watch the film again and again, if only to get into the Xmas spirit of green envy that children of all ages feel during the Holiday Season.

Google Flip flopped with all the SEMs who only received Google 2GB USB memory cards instead of the Google Flip (with MSRP of $149.99!). The 2GoogleByte USB card was described by our friends at SERoundtable as more or less a lump of coal -- way inferior to last year's Google gift gadget: a sweet digital picture frame.

It would seem only the FTC approves of Google acquisitions these days.

Here at Search Engine Watch, we'll be providing the P.O. Box for Google Customer Returns and the address of the secret Google Gift Exchange location.


Posted by Kevin Heisler at 6:46 PM | Permalink

Search Headlines & Links: December 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 3:30 PM | Permalink

Search Engine Visibility and Crawlability of Dynamic Sites

Huge databases that generate Web site content on the fly can be the bane of search engine spiders' existence. They can't find pages; they can't see URLs. So they can't index pages. In a two-part SearchDay series, "Search Engine Visibility and Site Crawlability, Part 1," and "Search Engine Visibility and Site Crawlability, Part 2," Eric Enge looks at key problem areas with sites that have dynamically generated content, including information architecture and keyword research; robots.txt files; and the use of Sitemaps.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 2:53 PM | Permalink

FTC approves Google's acquisition of DoubleClick

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has formally approved Google's proposed acquisition of DoubleClick, according to an announcement by Google this morning. Google announced the deal in April, along with a purchase price of $3.1 billion.

The FTC's investigation focused on antitrust issues, and in its clearance opinion released today, explicitly rejected any current or potential competition concerns. In a 4-1 vote, the commission wrote in its majority statement that "after carefully reviewing the evidence, we have concluded that Google's proposed acquisition of DoubleClick is unlikely to substantially lessen competition."

Google's announcement also noted several recent acquisitions by their competitors, including: "Yahoo's acquisition of Right Media; AOL's acquisition of ADTECH AG and TACODA; WPP Group's acquisition of 24/7 Real Media; and Microsoft's $6 billion acquisition of aQuantive and acquisition of AdECN Inc."

This is excellent news for Google, and provides it with a significant expansion of advertising inventory. Not everyone will be so thrilled though, as privacy concerns will no doubt be discussed in the media for some time to come. The reason for this is that Google now has another extremely rich data source to combine with the information it has on user's search histories. Privacy advocates will be very concerned about this. Google chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt said that Google will continue to protect the privacy of users.

When the deal was announced, three privacy watchdog groups asked the FTC to investigate the potential implications on user privacy. But privacy is not an antitrust issue, so it was not relevant to the investigation except in the ways those issues would relate to a reduction in competition.

The deal is still being looked at by the European Commission, which has until April 2 to render a decision. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission approved the deal in November.

Posted by Eric Enge at 10:16 AM | Permalink

IBM introduces free smart email search software

While search engines still can’t help you find your missing car keys, prescription glasses or remote control, IBM Research has invented a “smart” email search solution that can figure out what you are trying to find, even when you aren’t so sure yourself.

And now, IBM is letting the rest of us get our hands on their secret decoder ring by making IBM OmniFind Personal Email Search (IOPES) for Lotus Notes and Microsoft Outlook available at no charge on alphaWorks.

IOPES is powered by advanced algorithms that can interpret incomplete queries and find information such as phone numbers, people, meetings, presentations, documents, images and more. The “smart” search software can help people find information buried in the vast personal database that e-mail has become by identifying the most relevant information in a search query and extrapolating what the user is trying to find.

Common concepts built into the system enable users to quickly locate, for example, a person’s telephone number, even if the words “telephone” and “number” aren’t in the text of the email. And it’s also easy to define more complex concepts – such as meeting requests and specific locations – on the fly because the technology returns more relevant results than simple keyword search can.

Okay, so the name IOPES doesn’t roll off the tongue as easily as iPhone. And I haven’t tested it myself, so I can’t tell you how IBM OmniFind Personal Email Search compares to Google Desktop Search or Desktop Search from Yahoo! and X1.

But I have to admit that it’s nice to see Lotus Notes mentioned in an announcement. I guess that I should disclose that I was the director of corporate communications for Lotus when we first publicly discussed Notes at the 1988 PC Forum. But I haven’t had a business or financial relationship with Lotus in close to 20 years.

I think I still have an old satin jacket with Lotus Week on the back. I wonder if IOPES can help me find it.

Posted by GregJarboe at 1:01 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: Link Building Case Study: Santa Claus

Is Santa Claus a savvy Web marketer? In today's Link Love column, "Link Building Case Study: Santa Claus," Sage Lewis looks at a few Christmas sites that are labors of love -- illustrating that if you want links, you have to find something you truly love and build it on your site. You simply can't build something that's link-worthy any other way.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: SEO.edu: Can You Learn SEO From a Book? - Part 2

The general consensus from the SEO community and Search Engine Watch readers: learning SEO solely from a book doesn't cut it. In today's SEM.EDU column, "SEO.edu: Can You Learn SEO From a Book? - Part 2," Ron Jones advises that if you're just starting out on the SEO train, picking up a book might help get you started. But once you've got the basics down -- or think you do -- the next place to continue your education is by reading blogs.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink

December 19, 2007

Search Headlines & Links: December 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 5:54 PM | Permalink

Google Orkut Spreading Worms

A worm is infecting users of Google's Orkut, PC World reported.

Seems Google's social networking program is getting a little too social.

"Some Orkut users received an e-mail telling them they had been sent a new scrapbook entry -- a type of Orkut message -- on their profile from another Orkut user.

They only had to view their profile to become infected by the worm, which added them to an Orkut group, "Infectados pelo Vírus do Orkut," wrote the blogger Kee Hinckley on his site TechnoSocial," PC World noted.

Posted by aussiewebmaster at 12:33 PM | Permalink

Microsoft SERPs Listing Google AdWords

Raven SEO blogged about this earlier today, Google getting some great lift to their adwords campaigns... they are being listed in Microsoft Live organic results.

This one is not going to be there very long.... let's start the clocks now ..... But the MSN crew should be a little red faced about it.

Come on Google does not have enough traffic. Microsoft you have to make their AdWords product even better value? Oh wait do you two have a deal about paid search results?

Now I want to know if they are keyword ads that run on Microsoft.....

Posted by aussiewebmaster at 12:14 PM | Permalink

Shopping Search Engine Providing Online Safety Tips

Sortprice - a price comparison search engine - is doing its part this holiday season with a guide to safely purchasing online without falling victim to identity theft. If you are traveling in New York City between Dec. 19 and December 23rd, people will be distributing cards with safety tips for online buyers.

Taking the cause offline and to the busiest city on the planet is an interesting approach and one I want to follow.

Posted by aussiewebmaster at 11:40 AM | Permalink

Microsoft Cofounder Paul Allen Bidding Against Google For WiFi Access

Paul Allen, Microsoft cofounder, has registered to bid in the upcoming auction for the 700-megahertz spectrum scheduled for January 24, 2008. This is the same auction that Google has shown much interest in developing.

"Allen heads an investment company called Vulcan Capital and is also a majority shareholder in U.S. cable operator Charter Communications," Reuters reported.

Posted by aussiewebmaster at 11:26 AM | Permalink

Google's Feed Indexing Policy

The official Google Webmaster Central blog has a post on it titled Taking feeds out of our web search results.

With this post Google defines a precise policy regarding the indexing or no-indexing of feeds. In summary, Google is officially not going to index any feeds, with the exception of multimedia feeds such as Podcast feeds.

The most interesting part of this to me was the rationale - it turns out that the majority of non-multimedia feeds represent content already on HTML web pages, and many times these pages contain additional content beyond what is in the feed itself. When Google sees a scenario like this, the web page with the content, and the feed with the content are pretty much duplicate content for each other. Given that the HTML page has a strong chance of being the superior solution.

This happens less frequently with multimedia feeds such as Podcasts. For that reason, Google will continue to index Podcast feeds. Publishers who want their Podcast feed Noindexed can do so can follow the Yahoo Guidelines, or if they use Feedburner they can easily set this up within Feedburner.

I think it's great that Google has defined a clear policy for this. Now webmasters know exactly what they are dealing with. Of course, there will be some webmasters who want their (non-multimedia) feed indexed, and that have relied on that traditionally. However, this is no longer an option, and it behooves such webmasters to figure out how to get that content rendered on an HTML web page which is crawlable by Google.

Posted by Eric Enge at 9:53 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: Large Enterprise SEO: Content Development

SEO for Large Enterprises means content development on a massive scale. In today's By the Numbers column, "Large Enterprise SEO: Content Development," Eric Enge explains that the motivation for addressing the challenges goes beyond duplicate content and poor quality pages.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: Yahoo, Facebook, Life and Death

The holiday season is a time for sharing, spending time with family, and the time for writers everywhere to hopelessly pontificate about the coming year. In today's Searching for Meaning column, "Yahoo, Facebook, Life and Death," Kevin Ryan offers his best baseless, unaccountable predictions for 2008.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink

December 18, 2007

Search Headlines & Links: December 18, 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 5:37 PM | Permalink

Google Listening To SEW Blog? Offers Video Sitemaps

A few days ago SEW Blogger Deborah Richman wrote an article about how tough it was to find videos through the search engines. Yesterday Google announced it now offers Video Sitemaps.

Coincidence maybe.... I tend to think they took our advice.

The new product is "an extension of the Sitemap Protocol that helps make your videos more searchable via Google Video Search," their blog post explained.

As Debbie wrote: "Despite all the search options available, only 33% of consumers find videos to watch through search engines. In addition, 34% of consumers are frustrated when trying to discover videos, and some 62% say it takes them at least a few minutes or more to find videos that interest them."

Though Google claims it was an "effort to help users search all the world's public videos", I believe they took the few days following Debbie's post and added it as a feature.

Nice job Deb! Now if we can only get them to open the algorithm up for public inspection.......

Posted by aussiewebmaster at 4:46 PM | Permalink

Microsoft adCenter Offering Affiliate Program

Linda Buquet, president of 5 Star Affiliate Programs, announced the launch of Microsoft's affiliate program today.

adCenter will pay a bounty for each new advertiser people bring to the Microsoft PPC program. The current payment is $35 per sign up - seems all the big engines prefer this one time payment to any ongoing percentage deal.

5 Star Affiliate Program currently offers two Microsoft affiliate programs. "The network encompasses all of Microsoft's premier affiliate opportunities. Today there are two Microsoft services you can promote and profit from: MSN AdCenter and Windows Live OneCare. Over the next few months more Microsoft products and services will be added," the press release noted.

Posted by aussiewebmaster at 3:10 PM | Permalink

Matt Cutts Video on ALT attributes

Matt Cutts has posted a new video about ALT tags in images. In it, Matt outlines the basics about how ALT tags should be used, and why they are helpful.

Matt starts the video with a picture of Amy Cutts (his cat) and a ball of yarn on a whiteboard. Matt then points out that search engine crawlers can't recognize the content of the image, and therefore have no way of understanding it what it is. To make matters worse, standard file names for the image are often something like "DCIMG42,JPG". This also provides no help to the crawler.

If we look more closely at a typical IMG statement, it might look something like this:

<img class="photo" src="http://www.example.com/images/dcimg42.jpg" />

Again, no help for the crawler there. SO what can you do? Matt recommends the use of the ALT atribute in the IMG statement. With this modification, your image statement might look like this:

<img class="photo" src="http://www.example.com/images/dcimg42.jpg"
alt="Matt's cat, Emmy Cutts, with some yarn" />

So now we are providing the crawler with some help. The alt tag in the example provided by Matt is 7 words long, and this is an OK length. Matt notes that if you start getting up to 20 to 25 words, that your ALT attributes are getting overly long. Also, you want to avoid spammy looking ALT attributes, e.g., "cat cat cat feline cat fur ...".

You can take this a little further and use the TITLE attribute, or name your file something helpful as well. This would provide more reinforcement for the crawler regarding the content of the images. However, according to Matt, just implemeting the ALT attribute is enough in most cases. Ultimately, the bottom line is that you should use the ALT attribute on ALL of your images.

Posted by Eric Enge at 9:52 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: SEO Conversion Testing: Advanced Search Engine Optimization

The C-level executive doesn't often get involved in A/B Web site optimization decisions. It's a tactic better left to SEOs, Web site analytics gurus, and statisticians. What do you do, then, when the CxO asks you to explain how you do A/B conversion testing for an e-commerce site, for example? In today's Big Biz column, "SEO Conversion Testing: Advanced Search Engine Optimization," Aaron Shear shares the number one SEO challenge during holiday shopping season: explaining to senior management how complex it is to do A/B testing of SEO strategies for large enterprise mega-sites.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: Search Marketing on the Efficient Frontier

Microsoft bought Avenue A | Razorfish and Atlas Search. Google, buying Performics. Where does that leave Efficient Frontier? In today's Search Engine WarGames column, "Search Marketing on the Efficient Frontier," Kevin Heisler gets an update on the search marketing management platform.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink

December 17, 2007

Search Headlines & Links: December 17, 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 5:31 PM | Permalink

Who's Google Taking On with Knols?

The Google Knol project is drawing almost universal comparison in the media to Wikipedia. That comparison works in one facet of this situation: it seems Google's goal with Knol is to take back some of the traffic that Wikipedia is getting from Google searches – and then monetize it with Google ads.

As Michael Arrington notes, the timing of the news leads to that conclusion as well, since announcing unlaunched products is not Google's style, yet they felt the need to pre-announce Knols right around the same time that Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales is set to launch Search Wikia.

Google Knol

In structure, the project is much more similar to Seth Godin's Squidoo, since it allows users to build authority and sign their work. It also matches Squidoo in that its aim is to build content pages that rank highly in search engines.

In that respect, it's also similar to Jason Calacanis's Mahalo. Despite the insistence that Mahalo is a search engine, it's much more a directory, or even a content site along the lines of About.com. And despite Calacanis' supposed disdain for SEO, Mahalo is all about getting ranked on Google to drive traffic to its site, where it will be monetized with ads (provided by Google, at present). With Mahalo Social, launched last week, that service adds the element of authority for individual users that Google Knols brings to the mix.

The three are all putting a brave face on this:

Wales told John Battelle, "We hope that knols will include the opinions and points of view of the authors who will put their reputation on the line... Competition of ideas is a good thing." He also got in a dig at the project, saying, "Very different from a wiki, and not likely to generate much of quality."

Godin says the move legitimizes his mission with Squidoo, and goes with the "rising tide lifts all ships" hypothesis:

"That goes a long way to legitimize the original idea. It brings new users into the space. It makes it easier to find partners who want to exploit this ‘new’ idea. It allows room for creativity. It's not about whether or not someone should be doing this. It's about which place they want to do it in. That's a huge change.

Just as the acquisition of blogger led to an explosion in blogging software, Google’s Knol makes the space pioneered by Squidoo a lot more attractive."

Calacanis has Twittered that he thinks Knol is more like Wikipedia than Mahalo, and that Mahalo might link to Knols in the same way it now links to Wikipedia articles.

Calacanis told Leo Laporte on TWiT (at 1:09:38 into the podcast) that he feels that Google's announcement is a trial balloon, to see what kind of reaction they'd get from publishers. "All the clients that Google has for their amazing ad business are going to take this the wrong way, and they're going to feel like this is over-reaching...It feels like they crossed some imaginary line in people's minds from being a platform to being a content producer."

Heather Hopkins, VP of research at Hitwise, crunched the numbers, and the results show that Wikipedia is by far the biggest of this bunch in terms of market share, getting 0.46 percent of all U.S. Internet traffic. Just over half (50.96%) of its traffic came from directly from Google.com, which accounts for 2.13 percent of Google's outbound traffic.

Wikipedia market share

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 5:11 PM | Permalink

Is Google The Borg or Big Brother

Google is growing and the question of whether or not it has become too invasive (or persuasive) is one that needs to be answered now. While using pop culture references to attract attention to this situation is fun, it also captures the massive popularity of Google itself.

As any Star Trek fan can tell you, "[t]he Borg have become a symbol in popular culture for any juggernaut against whom "resistance is futile."

Google has shown elements of this with its acquisition of companies and giving away their services leaving others in those industries worried about their futures. Web Analytics (Urchin), Office software, and DoubleClick (the purchase of which has anti-trust examinations both in the US and Europe).

The other part of Google is the control they have on a very powerful industry that impacts people's lives and perceptions. When Google has the lion share of all searches made globally they have the ability to manipulate what people see.

They can hold a company's very existence in their algorithm. They can manipulate PPC rules and cost people a lot of money to maintain their marketing.

But beyond that people are hooked on Google. A recent study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project found that over 47% of internet users have Googled themselves. A big jump from the 22% of 2002. We want to know what Google thinks of us... well really we want to know how we rate in Google. People see themselves as a reflection of the SERPs.... please tell me that is not true.

Meanwhile Google is rolling out their Google Profiles - a scary Big Brother type of scenario. But everyone loves Google and will be happy to give their information over to the collective.

As Wired magazine online notes people are fast grabbing a G-Identity.

While it is fun to mix the pop culture references, the humor lies in the kernel of truth that makes it funny. I guess we really have to hope they live up to their motto to "Do No Evil".

Posted by aussiewebmaster at 1:27 PM | Permalink

Sep Kamvar Discusses Personalization

My latest interview is with Google's Sep Kamvar. We talked about the personalization algorithms currently in use by Google in detail. Sep spells out in detail for us:

The two signals that we use right now are the search history and the location. We constantly experiment with other signals, but the two signals that have worked best for us are location and search history.

We do talk quite a bit more about the types of signals they experiment with. Net-net most of the other signals they have experimented with are "noisy" in nature. What he means by that is that their test has shown that the input from such signals does not really help them improve the quality of search results for their users.

It underscores the fact that it's not as simple as we are all inclined to think. There are lots of things that we can guess make for good signals for a search engine to use. But many times, these signals really don't match up with a user's search intent.

For example, just because a user indicates a personal preference for something, that doesn't mean that this really related to what they are searching for at a particular time. In fact, when Google tried to get users to specify their interests, they found that it was not a good signal for them to use.

The key element really is what they user's intent at the time they perform the search. Turns out, that is not that simple to determine.

Posted by Eric Enge at 9:01 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: Search Marketing Skills: Tips, No Tricks

If becoming a search apprentice is one key to learning, how does one become an apprentice in search marketing? In today's Search Ads column, "Search Marketing Skills: Tips, No Tricks," Matt Spiegel shares the most important skills needed to break into the search business.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink

SEW Experts: B2B Marketing, Road Rules for Content Advertising

B2B marketing is tough. B2B search marketing is even tougher. The most challenging form of B2B marketing, without a question, is content advertising. In today's Content Advertising column, "B2B Marketing, Road Rules for Content Advertising," David Szetela offers some best practices in B2B advertising.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink

December 16, 2007

AdSense Ad Review: Good for Advertisers?

A few days ago Frank Watson blogged here about a new AdSense feature that lets site publishers exclude AdWords ads they feel may be inappropriate for their sites.

AdSense publishers will be able to view ads that advertisers have directed to their sites via Placement Targeting, and choose to block ads they don't feel are "relevant" to their site visitors.

This will certainly be used by AdSense publishers to (attempt to) maximize AdSense revenues - - publishers will block ads that they deem "low-revenue" in favor of ads that visitors will click on more frequently.

But is it good for advertisers? Well, yes and no...

Most AdWords advertisers who create Placement Targeted campaigns have done time-consuming research to identify sites that have proven (or are expected) to be relevant, in terms of producing valuable clicks and conversions. Knowing their ads can be blocked at the whim of an AdSense publisher might make advertisers more reluctant to spend the time necessary to target their advertising.

AdWords advertisers will be able to see the reason an ad was blocked - if the AdSense publisher chooses to provide it. Google says "This feedback gives advertisers more insight on how to increase coverage by adjusting ad quality, content, and relevance. We also use this information internally to help improve products."

Nice theory -- but will AdSense publishers really provide (optional) constructive feedback?

As I've pointed out in my SEW Experts column, Content advertising requires significant work and diligence -- arguably more than for Search advertising. Dealing with blocked ads -- understanding why an ad was blocked, and possibly even corresponding directly with a site owner to appeal the decision -- could just add unnecessarily to the advertiser's workload.

Hopefully this won't happen often - and the system will work to each side's satisfaction and benefit.

But let's keep an eye on it.

Posted by DavidSzetela at 11:31 AM | Permalink

December 14, 2007

Still Tough To Find Videos!

Despite all the search options available, only 33% of consumers find videos to watch through search engines. In addition, 34% of consumers are frustrated when trying to discover videos, and some 62% say it takes them at least a few minutes or more to find videos that interest them.

ChoiceStream recently announced these video search and related consumption findings in their 2007 Survey of Viewer Trends.

When consumers don’t use search, they are discovering videos primarily by browsing sites (56%) and by relying on friends/family recommendations (32%), web site recommendations (20%), magazine/newspaper reviews (10%), or other sources (11%).

At first, I thought this might be due to difficulties when searching user-generated videos. After all, it can be difficult to cull through those results. Of the 824 respondents, however, 39% watched user-generated videos while 65% consumed professionally-produced TV programming.

Sounds like a real opportunity to me, and some search engine will ultimately help consumers find what they need -- at least more than one-third of them.

Posted by debbyr at 10:47 PM | Permalink

Google Banned All Jobs: Is real? Or he brewed brouhaha?

Google ban on AllJobs. Global blog-hysteria. What's the real story?

To get the scoop, I turned to Eli Felblum, CEO of global SEO firm RankAbove, after his preso at Dave Burstein's Web Video Summit. His take: blogger-brewed brouhaha.

Elie said the whole fervor over the AllJobs.co.il delisting is just another overreaction to two of the oldest ...

SEO Myths
#1: off-page optimization can hurt sites
#2: there's such a thing as too much SEO, or over-optimization

AllJobs was temporarily removed but went back up quickly. Today -- indexed in both Google and Google.co.il.

Eli noted even Alljobs' top rankings are back: #2 in Google Israel for “jobs” and #1 for “חיפוש עבודה”, which means “find work” (a popular search in Israel). Keyword “AllJobs” in Israel returns both the site and the Ha’aretz story about it being delisted.

Why it got penalized is another matter. Blogger Uri Breitman claims the site had too many backlinks (154,311 via Yahoo’s Site Explorer). Eli translated Uri's SEO myth: Alljobs was allegedly guilty of “עודף קידום אתרים”, or “too much SEO.”

An "aha!" moment? Hardly. More like haha.

The truth: Google and other major search engines have stated they'll penalize or punish Web sites that don't follow their guidelines. Web sites that pay close attention to SE guidelines (or too much attention) do not generally receive penalties.

So I asked Eli if he'd share his view on link building for large enterprises. Would a site with, say, millions of inbound links raise a red flag? He said, "Do something wrong on your site—like the hidden text on the BMW site—and you get banned. Do too much of something right—like the excessive breadcrumbing on About.com—and you get rewarded, or at least tolerated."

"No search engine can EVER penalize backlinks. If any SEO firm ever got confirmation certain backlinks hurt or delisted a site, it would be open season for malicious placing of those backlinks to their competitors’ and their clients’ competitors’ sites."

Good point. So the most likely cause for the temporary delisting?

"AllJobs did something wrong on-page. Google called them out with a penalty; they contacted Google and resolved it; and all went back to normal. Most likely, AllJobs tried a new SEO firm who told them to make some spammy, black-hat change to the site (no trace remains, but I’m guessing doorway pages). They did it, got penalized, claimed innocence at the hand of an evil SEO firm, and got reinstated—with a warning to use ethical firms from now on, no second chances."

Key takeaway for CMOs: Worry about what's on your page, and check search engine guidelines before making any change your SEO company recommends. Make sure there's complete transparency and you know exactly what they're doing.

Let me know if you want to hear more from Eli -- one of the rising stars in SEO. What do you think ... should we invite him to join the SEW Experts writing crew?

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 7:02 PM | Permalink

Search Headlines & Links: December 14, 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 5:35 PM | Permalink