August 3, 2008 - August 9, 2008
August 9, 2008
John McCain Outspending Barack Obama in Search Engine Advertising
According to an exclusive story in the National Journal Online, John McCain has outspent Barack Obama for two consecutive months in search engine advertising.
Written by Lucas Grindley, the story, entitled, "McCain buys his way to top of Google," cites Nielsen Online data that shows McCain bought 7 million "sponsored search link impressions" in June and 5.4 million in May, compared with 1.15 million for Obama in June and 1.8 million during the previous month.
Since search engine advertising is sold on a cost-per-click (CPC) basis instead of cost-per-thousand impressions (CPM), it's unclear if McCain's dramatic lead in impressions generated equally dramatic number of clicks.
It's worth noting that one of the top five sites where McCain bought image-based banner impressions was ... the National Review. However, the other five included Topix and The Washington Post, so it's not clear that you can read anything between the lines here.
By comparison, the top five sites where Obama bought image-based banner impressions included Yahoo, CNN and MSN. Plus, Obama bought 80 million banner impressions in June, compared with McCain's 16 million.
So, what's all this mean to search engine marketers?
For his story, Grindley interviewed Peter Greenberger, who manages the "small but growing" elections and issue advocacy team at Google. Greenberger speculated that the Presidential campaigns were in a "persuasion phase," where candidates might be more interested in banner advertising.
"You are not looking for that active voter who maybe knows who he or she is voting for," said Greenberger. "You are looking for that more passive voter who is reading information but not quite ready to commit."
Hmmm. I wonder if Greenberger has seen the new study conducted by Enquiro Research with Google in Europe that found the ability of unclicked search ads to build brand. If he hasn't, he can click on "Digging Still Deeper Into The Search Branding Question" and read the blog post by Gord Hotchkiss, the CEO of Enquiro.
Of course, Gord would be the first one to tell you that the debate over the search branding question is far from over.
But, if I were working in the McCain or Obama campaigns, I would run, not walk, to get my hands on the latest research. Gord is a Canadian, so he doesn't have a horse in this race. And, if this upcoming election is as close as the latest polls indicates that it is, then neither presidential campaign can afford to leave even a small amount of search branding value on the table.
As for the search engine marketers who read this blog, I would also encourage you to run, not walk, to get your hands on this latest research. As Gord says, "search can be the most important brand tool in a marketer’s arsenal, if it’s used in the right place. It’s a matter of understanding what search can do and what it can’t. And, even more importantly, understanding how to measure that value."
Posted by Greg Jarboe at 5:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
August 8, 2008
Google Offers Guidance on Starting a Multi-Lingual Site
Do the Beijing Olympics have you thinking global? If so, you may be considering whether or not to offer your site content in another language.
Google understands and they have offered up three points worthy of consideration when making the decision to go multilingual.
Site Structure
First, you need to decide if you want to feature other languages because you want to target another country (geo targeting) or because you simply want to reach an audience that speaks a specific language. If geo targeting is the case, then you may want to set up your content on a country-specific TLD (top-level domain, i.e. co.uk).
If you're focused more on just the language, Google has these two tips:
- Put the content of every language in a different subdomain. For our example, you would have en.example.com, de.example.com, and es.example.com.
- Put the content of every language in a different subdirectory. This is easier to handle when updating and maintaining your site. For our example, you would have example.com/en/, example.com/de/, and example.com/es/.
Webmaster Tools for Geo Targeting
In Google's Webmaster Tools, you can set geographic targets for different subdirectories or subdomains, if you choose to host the multilingual content on your original site.
Content Organization
When it comes to organizing your content, Google says straight out of the gate that the same content in two or more languages is not considered duplicate content.
Moving on from there, keep navigation and content on a subdirectory or subdomain to one language. Mixing up the languages could confuse the googlebot.
What are your tips for creating multilingual sites? Share them in the comments.
Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)
New Yahoo BOSS Applications: Smells Like Cuil Spirit
Yahoo recently launched BOSS, aka Build your Own Search Service. Third party developers wasted no time making use of the API to build their version of what search should look like. Yahoo featured four BOSS applications on their Yahoo Search blog.
The first one was 4 Hour Search. Named for how long it took developer Sam Pullara to build the BOSS API/YUI design mashup. It looks a lot like newly launched search engine Cuil.
And just like Cuil, 4 Hour Search is experiencing errors this morning. The above screenshot is Yahoo-supplied. And that's not the only BOSS app that was struggling.
Newsline didn't work for me at first. I conducted a search comparing the coverage of the situations in South Ossetia, Georgia and the coup in Mauritania. At first, I got error pages. Then, I was able to get results, but not that many from today or the past week. And that's after I found the current news. The page brings up a dynamic timeline (which is cool), but it loaded news from 2 years ago front and center.
3D visualization search app Tianamo crashed my Firefox browser, then loaded just a dark blue screen in IE. But here's the screenshot Yahoo posted:
There was one app that did just fine - PlayerSearch. This BOSS app is great for sports fans - especially Fantasy Sports fanatics. This site worked just fine. Have at it, sports junkies.
It's likely that the developers weren't prepared for so much traffic to come their way, but Yahoo should have known better before it told the world about the new apps.
Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Hit Me While I'm Down: Google Warns on AOL Investment Loss
Google has filed a quarterly report with the SEC that includes information about its 5% stake in AOL. The news is not good for the Time Warner owned internet company, which has already posted a loss of $230 million in the second quarter of 2008. Google said that their stake in AOL may be "impaired," an accounting term that explains a significant loss stemming from an investment.
Google invested in AOL to stave off a Microsoft advertising partnership, which would have replaced the one AOL had with Google. The question now is, was it worth $1 billion to keep the 3rd place Microsoft with a 10-ish% market share at bay?
And Yahoo should be wondering if their new Google partnership will really be enough to keep the company afloat.
What do you think? Let us know in the comments.
via AP
Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
blinkx Seeks to Acquire MIVA for $1.20 Per Share
Online video search engine blinkx has sent a letter to digital advertising company MIVA, seeking to acquire it for $1.20 per share. Yesterday's closing price for MIVA stock, which trades on the NASDAQ, was $0.78.
MIVA has certainly had its share of trouble of recent years. The company has gone through reorganizations and a management shakeup in the hopes of stabilizing the business, which includes a pay-per-click offering.
Here's the full text of the letter for your consumption.
August 8, 2008MIVA, Inc.
5220 Summerlin Commons Boulevard
Suite 500
Fort Myers, FL 33907
Attention: Peter Corrao, CEO
Larry Weber, Chairman
Members of the Board of Directors
Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,
Re: blinkx and MIVA CombinationI am writing on behalf of the board of directors of blinkx Plc to make a proposal for the business combination of blinkx and MIVA. Under our proposal, blinkx would acquire all of the outstanding shares of MIVA common stock for $1.20 in cash per share. Our proposal is not subject to any financing condition. The transaction would be funded from existing cash resources of the two companies.
Proposal. Our proposal represents a 54.0% premium above the closing price of MIVA common stock of $0.78 on August 7, 2008, and a 36% premium over the average closing price for the one month prior to August 7, 2008.
By whatever financial measure one might use, we believe this proposal represents a compelling value realization opportunity for your shareholders and the quickest and most secure way to see such value, particularly given the several challenges MIVA faces in the near term, including: risk and cost associated with the new technology platform, a deteriorating cash position, continued deterioration of the Media EU business and continued decline in revenue and profitability.
We believe that MIVA's shareholders would not be well-served by any delay in negotiating or completing the merger process, and that time and/or another round of restructuring plans will not significantly increase MIVA's valuation.
Background. Having worked together for a number of years you will be aware that blinkx is the world's largest and most advanced video search engine. Founded in 2004 by Suranga Chandratillake, the company completed a successful IPO on the London Stock Exchange (AIM) in May 2007 and currently has a market capitalization of approximately $160 million, with headquarters in San Francisco, CA and the UK. With an index of over 26 million hours of searchable video and more than 350 media partnerships, including national broadcasters, commercial media giants, and private video libraries, blinkx has cemented its position as the premier destination for online TV. blinkx pioneered video search on the Internet, enhanced by $150 million in R&D over 12 years, and is now protected by 111 patents.
Rationale. blinkx believes that a combination of the two companies would be mutually beneficial to both companies' shareholders, employees, and customers. blinkx and MIVA have complementary businesses that could benefit greatly from blinkx's technology and MIVA's distribution network.
blinkx has worked with MIVA as a customer and partner for a number of years and has a great deal of respect for MIVA's success in building a global keyword advertising network and growing the MIVA Direct consumer offering. We believe, however, that with the Internet's continued progression towards rich media and newer forms of advertising, more advanced technology will play a fundamental role in achieving success.
blinkx already has in place a proven and growing video-driven revenue engine, and enjoys an unrivalled technology portfolio which is applicable across many aspects of the online market. A combination of the two companies - fusing MIVA's advertising network with blinkx's ability to leverage its technology portfolio into the online market - presents an exciting and compelling opportunity.
Specifically, blinkx's advanced and scalable matching technology will enable immediate platform improvements for MIVA. As a result large portions of relevant search traffic from MIVA's search ad network will be monetizeable at higher rates through blinkx's technology. Furthermore blinkx's technology holds the potential to build on MIVA's existing toolbar network, adding the latest functionality and an entirely new revenue stream. Finally, MIVA's consumer sites and portals, that already attract large audiences, will immediately benefit from blinkx's advanced video technology and AdHoc advertising platform.
Process and Employees. We would value the opportunity to further discuss with you how to optimize the integration of our respective businesses to create a leading global technology company. We believe that the management and employees of MIVA are critical to realizing a successful transition and foresee an important and central role for MIVA employees in the combined company.
Any acquisition of MIVA would be subject to the opportunity to conduct a limited confirmatory due diligence investigation, the negotiation of a definitive merger agreement containing customary terms and conditions, including customary conditions to closing; no material adverse change to MIVA's business; appropriate shareholder approvals; and any regulatory requirements. Given our participation in the industry and MIVA's public status, we envisage an efficient due diligence process appropriate to a public company. We are prepared to deliver a draft merger agreement to you and begin discussions immediately.
Due to the importance of these discussions and the value represented by our proposal, we expect the MIVA Board to engage in a full review of our proposal and discussion of its contents with MIVA's shareholders. We are prepared to meet at a time and location of your convenience to complete due diligence and commence definite agreement negotiations.
We believe this proposal represents a unique opportunity for MIVA's shareholders to realize value, and the combined company will be well positioned for future growth. We hope that you and your Board share our enthusiasm, and we look forward to a prompt and favourable reply.
Yours sincerely,
Suranga Chandratillake
CEO and Founder
Posted by Nathania Johnson at 8:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
SEW Experts: Oil and Water? SEOs vs. Content Owners
When it comes to bringing an outside SEO consultant in, content owners need to pay attention to the role corporate politics and the review process play in planning SEO projects. In today's Search Marketing Crossfire column, "Oil and Water? SEOs vs. Content Owners," Chris Boggs and Frank Watson remind us that while most SEO consultants expect to have some sort of clashes with internal designers and developers, uncomfortable meetings can also occur when SEO meets content creator.
Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
SEW Experts: Getting Vertical Search Right: A Sneak Preview
At SES San Jose later this month, a panel of experts will discuss vertical search in a Googlized world, where we've created more advanced users by simplifying search. In today's vertical search marketing column, "Getting Vertical Search Right: A Sneak Preview," vertical search expert Elisabeth Osmeloski notes that, in the search for the next big thing, it's about providing a search service that is just above that highly set bar.
Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
August 7, 2008
Is John McCain or Barack Obama Winning the YouTube Vote?
Yesterday, Rasmussen Reports said that the "news you watch says a lot about how you'll vote." According to the pollster, 87 percent of Fox News viewers say they are likely to vote for John McCain, while 65 percent of those who watch CNN and 63 percent of those who watch MSNBC plan to support Barack Obama in November.
Those who read a print newspaper during the week were fairly evenly divided between the two candidates, but among those who read the same papers online, Obama had the edge. On the other hand, more than 60 percent those who listen talk radio plan to vote for McCain.
Today, the Times of India reports that the McCain campaign strategy of hammering away at Obama in funny videos has pushed the McCain YouTube channel to the sixth most watched sites this week. Overall, however, Obama's YouTube channel still dominates, with 51 million all-time video views.
And what about the news search engines? Four years ago, the Online Journalism Review (OJR) reported that "non-traditional sources cloud Google News results." Searching on the term “John Kerry,” several stories from “second-tier” online-only news and commentary sites appeared to have a conservative tilt. Among them were headlines such as “Swift Boat Veterans for Truth Expose John Kerry’s Lies.”
What about this election cycle? Unfortunately, the University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication suspended publication of OJR in June after a decade of helping mid-career journalists make a successful transition from other media to online reporting and production.
So, I will be watching this fall to see if there are any patterns to the news search engine rankings for John McCain and Barack Obama. But that's a big effort. So, send me an email if you see something before I do.
Posted by Greg Jarboe at 1:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Omniture's SearchCenter Now Integrated with Chinese Search Engine Baidu.com
One day before the Olympics in Beijing, Ominture has announced that its SearchCenter integration with Chinese search engine Baidu.com is now available.
"Successful search management strategies are paramount for enterprises and interactive agencies that do global online marketing," said Josh James, CEO and co-founder at Omniture. "SearchCenter gives businesses increased advantages by managing search marketing campaigns to the vast Chinese Internet audience that predominantly uses Baidu.com for search."
Baidu recently posted an 87% profit for the second quarter of 2008. By the time of the next summer Olympics, China is expected to exceed the U.S. in internet use. Baidu currently enjoys 76% of the Chinese language search market.
"While the Chinese Internet audience has continued to grow, so has the interest in targeting this large economy through paid and natural search marketing," said Haoyu Shen, Baidu.com's vice president of business operations. "By integrating Baidu.com's search metrics with Omniture, we believe online marketers can better measure campaigns and increase conversion by making the search experience more relevant."
Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Internet Traffic Growth Rates May Be Lower than ISPs Claim
Internet service providers love to talk about how much traffic is rapidly increasing by the year and how they'll either need to charge more or create a different business model for it. Even Time Warner is running a test in Beaumont, TX to meter internet use and charge by usage.
But the claims by cable companies and other service providers may be overblown. Researchers at the University of Minnesota have released data showing that traffic growth is actually slowing.
In spite of the widespread claims of continuing and even accelerating growth rates, Internet traffic growth appears to be decelerating. In the United States, there was a brief period of "Internet traffic doubling every 100 days" back in 1995-96, but already by 1997 growth subsided towards an approximate doubling every year CO1998, and more recently even that growth rate has declined towards 50-60% per year.
They called out Cisco (and I hate to do this since a friend works there), whose CEO said they were experiencing 100% growth, while their white papers said they were experiencing 50% growth.
The natural conclusion by ISPs has been that increased traffic means increased costs. But researchers say not so fast:
Traffic volumes are a very crude measure of the state of the Internet. Investment is driven by profits, and those have only a slight relation to traffic.
Still, the cable companies clearly want to go after internet companies like Google, who stepped on their turf by offering TV ads. They've even been collaborating on "Project Canoe," designed to create a national advertising platform as an alternative to Google.
But when it comes to the internet, innovation is almost always the route to beating the competition. The cable companies are trying to keep consumers in the past, but they won't win that game.
What do you think of this data? Are ISPs trying to pull a fast one on us? Sound off in the comments.
via Ars Technica
Related Reading:
Google to Internet, FCC, Verizon and Viacom: Keep it Open
Google - Clearwire: WiMax Paves Internet Autobahn
Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Google to Update Content Network as Part of DoubleClick Integration
Google has announced new features that are coming to the Content Network. They said the new features are part of the integration process with DoubleClick, since finalizing the acquisition of the company earlier this year.
The new features are:
- Frequency Capping: Enables advertisers to control the number of times a user sees an ad. Users will have a better experience on Google content network sites because they will no longer see the same ad over and over again.
- Frequency Reporting: Provides insight into the number of people who have seen an ad campaign, and how many times, on average, people are seeing these ads.
- Improved Ads Quality: Brings performance improvements within the Google content network.
- View-Through Conversions: Enables advertisers to gain insights on how many users visited their sites after seeing an ad. This helps advertisers determine the best places to advertise so users will see more relevant ads.
Yesterday, Google announced the sale of DoubleClick's search engine marketing arm of Performics, to Publicis.
In May, Google integrated DoubleClick mobile with its Adsense program, as well as other mobile ad networks.
Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Let the Games Begin: Yahoo and Icahn Make it Official
Yahoo has officially appointed Carl Icahn to its board of directors, and board member Robert Kotick has officially resigned. The moves were all part of a previously reached agreement by Yahoo and Icahn following months of drama resulting from an unsolicited bid by Microsoft to buy Yahoo.
But with the track record of Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostick, Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang, Icahn and Microsoft, this game is not nearly over. Instead, the first six months of 2008 were more like announcing the starting lineups at the NBA championships.
Or maybe an elementary schoolyard where the bullies are picking teams.
Either way, expect to see more posturing and smear campaigns, not unlike this year's presidential election.
via Reuters
Posted by Nathania Johnson at 8:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Pew Internet & American Life Project: 49% Use Search Daily
How often do people use a search engine?
The percentage of Internet users who use search engines on a typical day has soared from about one-third of all users in 2002, to a new high of just under one half (49%), according to the latest study from the Pew Internet & American Life Project.
How often people search is one of the key questions in understanding the success of Google and other search engines. Search has become embedded in our daily lives.
Key finding: Search is gaining fast on email as the most popular Internet activity.
The number of people using a search engine on a typical day has gained ground on the 60% of internet users who use email, arguably the Internet’s all-time killer app.
How does the growth rate of search compare to the growth rate of email over the same time period?
Underscoring the dramatic increase over time, the percentage of internet users who search on a typical day grew 69% from January 2002 to May 2008. During the same six-year time period, the use of email on a typical day rose from 52% to 60%, for a growth rate of just 15%.
The Pew Internet & American Life Project concluded that these new figures propel search further out of the pack, well ahead of other popular internet activities, such as checking the news (39%) or checking the weather (30%) on a typical day.
As our readers know, search engine users more likely to be upscale, with at least some college education and incomes over $50,000 per year.
Posted by Kevin Heisler at 5:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
SEW Experts: Link Building with Customers, Part 2
Customers are one of your most valuable link building resources, because they're already sold on your product or service. In today's linkbuilding column, "Link Building with Customers, Part 2," Justilien Gaspard shows that cultivating positive relations with clients is the key to getting them to help with link development and word-of-mouth marketing.
Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
SEW Experts: Avoiding Online Missteps with Generation Y and Millenniums
Often, millions of dollars are spent on tailoring a marketing message to a youth audience, and not enough is spent to tailor the actual product or service we're delivering. In today's building brand equity column, "Avoiding Online Missteps with Generation Y and Millenniums," Erik Qualman explains that marketers need only look to the simplicity of Facebook and Craigslist to see that success with young people doesn't need to come in a fancy package.
Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
August 6, 2008
Microsoft Webmaster Tools Update
Microsoft has just released an update to their Webmaster Tools. It's a significant update, with lots of new functionality in it. My guess is that a large number of SEOs will adopt this new tool as a part of their tool set. Let's take a look at the opening screen:
As you can see, you start with a nice clean look. Note that this is a screen shot for Microsoft.com. Not every site has 186 million pages indexed ...
One of the new features is the "Crawl Issues" report. This provides information on 404 errors, pages blocked by the Robots Exclusion Protocol, and dynamic URLs that have excessively long query strings. One interesting sub-note is that the review guide I received says: "Live Search flags URLs that have exceptionally long query string that could lead our crawler into an infinite loop trying to crawl all the variations due to the large number of potential parameter combinations."
I though that the note about a potential infinite loop was pretty interesting. Clearly that would be a scenario that would dramatically affect the crawling and indexing of your site in a material way.
The Crawl Issues report also provides information on unsupported Content-Types. This will help webmasters pages that are not being indexed by Live Search because of the Content-Type returned by the pages.
Next up is the backlinks report. First, let's take a look at an example:
Once again, a nice clean look. Just being able to get at this data and download it is powerful. SEOs will want to make use of this for analyzing the backlinks of the site(s) they are working on. However, if you look more closely at the screen shot, you will see an example of the filtering capabilities in the product. Our example shows the backlinks for Microsoft.com being filtered to show only the links received from latimes.com.
Other filters are available. For example you can also filter the data based on top level domain. Overall the filtering capability allows you to dig a bit deeper into the content of your backlinks. Results in Webmaster Tools can also filter data by up to 2 subdomains or 2 sub-folders. This again can lead to faster analysis of the data.
The program does provide a download option, but it is limited to 1000 results. For sites with over 1000 backlinks, this will be a bit frustrating. Nonetheless, the ability to get at the data, and into a spreadsheet is an important addition.
In summary, this looks like a solid upgrade to Microsoft's Webmaster Tools offering. I think many SEOs will adopt this. The access to the backlinks data alone justifies giving the product a close look.
Posted by Eric Enge at 4:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Google Sells Performics to Publicis Groupe
Google has sold its Performics search marketing business to the Publicis Groupe.
Chicago-based Performics has about 200 employees in Chicago, San Francisco, New York, London, Hamburg, Sydney, Singapore and Beijing. The business will report into Curt Hecht, president of Paris-based Publicis' VivaKi Nerve Center. Hecht is the former EVP Chief Digital Officer, GM Planworks, a unit of Starcom MediaVest Group (SMG)
"Publicis Groupe has been a leader in the advertising industry for decades, and we believe Performics' growing business will benefit from being part of it," said Google Chairman and Chief Executive Eric Schmidt in a statement. "We look forward to working with Performics as a partner."
The financial terms of the deal weren't disclosed.
The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter.
Posted by Kevin Heisler at 1:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
New News Search Engine: Newsflashr
Newsflashr.com launched a new type of search engine for news stories today. Users are prompted to enter keywords and the search results are polled and displayed in real-time from many of the leading news services such as MSN Live, Ask Big News, Google News, Yahoo News, MSNBC, Digg and Twitter to name a few.
Newsflashr will also feature the Techmeme Leaderboard.
The site is the first to add a social twist to news reporting, in an attempt to leverage contributions of citizen journalists and the collective intelligence. For the first time, we'll be able to determine whether Twitter is actually a news source. Plus, Digg - one of the key drivers of searches on Google Hot Trends - will be featured as a news source.
The sites is shooting for a hip, ironic image. The front page graphic is no Google Doodle. It's a pic of The Joker superimposed on nuclear missiles, with the caption the Joker's line from The Dark Knight, "Why so serious?" (see below)
"As a small company, we think that we can challenge the big guns with our new approach that pulls from all their results and pushes them on to a single results page. Say someone is really thirsty for any news updates on a given person or company, using Newsflashr, they'll never miss a beat," said Gal Arav, founder of Newsflashr.com, in a statement.
The new service complements Newsflashr's existing free news portal launched in February 2008. The existing portal is a news interface that highlights keywords (topics) representing the "collective intelligence" of hundreds of the top news editors as it updates throughout the day for a wide variety of mainstream news and blog categories.
Posted by Kevin Heisler at 11:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Time Warner to Split AOL Media and Access Divisions
After months of speculation, Time Warner has confirmed that it will split AOL's media and internet access divisions. Despite TW's revenue increase of 5%, the internet property's operating income dropped a whopping 36% in the second quarter of 2008, a loss of $230 million.
The loss is due primarily to a decline in subscription revenues. Subscriptions are down based on AOL's decision to allow members to keep their emails for free. They lost 604,000 subscribers quarter-over-quarter and 2.8 million year-over-year.
Of course, this was all initially driven by a desire by consumers to have broadband internet access in their homes, provided by the cable companies. Time Warner is a provider of cable services.
The silver lining is AOL's advertising, which was up 2%, an $8 million increase. Even then, there was a slight decline in display advertising across AOL Network sites.
Still, AOL has been refocusing its business model on advertising as opposed to internet access subscriptions. This is an obvious move, especially considering its Platform-A digital advertising division is #1 in online advertising networks.
It is widely rumored and expected that Time Warner will sell off AOL altogether to a buyer in the online advertising space. They've talked to both Yahoo and Microsoft in attempts to strike a deal, but much like the aforementioned companies, an agreement has yet to be reached.
via CNET
Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Google Updates Search Appliance, Now Holds 10 Million Documents
Google has released a new version of their hardware product, Search Appliance. The new version can hold up to 10 million documents in a single box, as much as a previouis version held in a 5 box rack.
The box holds Google software that powers search services and runs on Dell storage hardware.
Other new features in the updated version include greater encryption powers and notifications of new documents stored by colleagues.
via Reuters
Related Reading:
Google Search Appliance adds new features to customize enterprise search
Google Teams Up with BearingPoint to Increase Sales of Search Appliances
Google Offers New Versions of Google Mini Search Appliance, Fast Search and NY Times Company Announce Deal
Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Perhaps Paris Hilton Should Run Yahoo
If you keep up with politics, then you know that a recent McCain ad portrayed as Obama as simply a celebrity, and included pictures of Britney Spears and Paris Hilton.
Paris Hilton has responded to the ad with a hilarious video on FunnyOrDie.com, a popular online video sharing and voting site, where many celebrities have appeared before.
Hilton broke from her normal persona to reveal the intelligent side of herself. Yes, you read that correctly. She was poised (albeit in a bathing suit by the pool), and spoke with more clarity about politics than any Washington official.
But her energy plan is where the genius is truly revealed. Perhaps, Paris Hilton should run Yahoo? Hey, Carl Icahn is looking for a two people to join him on the expanded board, especially after TimeWarner nixed Jonathan Miller's chances of being part of Icahn's coup d’état. After watching this video, I'm convinced Paris could broker a deal with Microsoft that will leave everyone happy. Well, except Bostock and Yang. But they had their chance.
Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Google Launches New Metric Tool, Insights for Search
Google has launched a new metric geared towards marketers: Google Insights for Search. The tool is very similar to Google Trends, but includes "Rising Searches" and a map representing Regional Interest, which is also broken down by ballpark figure numbers.
Check out these screenshots for a better idea of what the tool is like, then go try it for yourself. (Don't forget to come back and leave a comment about your first impressions of the tool!)
Related Reading:
Does Google Analytics Share Data with Google Trends and Ad Planner?
Posted by Nathania Johnson at 8:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Yahoo Confirms Vote Error, Yang and Bostock Not Liked So Much After All
Yahoo has confirmed that a 'tabulation error' occurred in the shareholder vote count conducted by Broadridge Financial Solutions, the independent firm hired to do the job. Turns out, just over half of the shareholders felt the need to vote Chairman Roy Bostock and CEO Jerry Yang. It's probably a good thing (for them) that they reached that settlement with Carl Icahn, or else the vote may have turned a worse outcome for the two.
Here's the new tally:
Here's the old tally:
Posted by Nathania Johnson at 8:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
SEW Experts: How Long Should My Landing Page Test Run?
What's the right length for a landing page optimization test? In today's By the Numbers column, "How Long Should My Landing Page Test Run?," Tim Ash notes that that's a bit like asking 'how long is a piece of string?' But there are some guidelines to follow to help you know when enough is enough.
Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
SEW Experts: Woohoo for Yahoo
Even after the vote re-count, a majority of shareholders voted Yahoo's board in, and Carl Icahn settled for the right to propose two board seats and a spot for himself. In today's Searching for Meaning column, "Woohoo for Yahoo," Kevin Ryan asks what, at the end of the day, is more important than rebuilding the Web's biggest brand?
Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
August 5, 2008
Planet Google - Everything You Always Wanted to Know
There's one book every search engine marketer will be reading this fall:
Planet Google: One Company's Audacious Plan to Organize Everything We Know.
Based on unprecedented access he received to the "Googleplex," New York Times columnist Randall Stross takes readers deep inside Google. His revelations demystify the strategy behind the company's recent flurry of bold moves, all driven by the pursuit of a business plan unlike any other: to become the indispensable gatekeeper of all the world's information, the one-stop destination for all our information needs.
Will Google succeed? And what are the implications of a single company commanding so much information and knowing so much about us?
As ambitious as Google's goal is, with 68 percent of all Web searches (and growing), profits that are the envy of the business world, and a surplus of talent, the company is, Stross shows, well along the way to fulfilling its ambition, becoming as dominant a force on the Web as Microsoft became on the PC.
Google isn't just a superior search service anymore. In recent years it has launched a dizzying array of new services and advanced into whole new businesses, from the introductions of its controversial Book Search and the irresistible Google Earth, to bidding for a slice of the wireless-phone spectrum and nonchalantly purchasing YouTube for $1.65 billion.
Google has also taken direct aim at Microsoft's core business, offering free e-mail and software from word processing to spreadsheets and calendars, pushing a transformative -- and highly disruptive -- concept known as "cloud computing." According to this plan, users will increasingly store all of their data on Google's massive servers -- a network of a million computers that amounts to the world's largest supercomputer, with unlimited capacity to house all the information Google seeks.
The more offerings Google adds, and the more ubiquitous a presence it becomes, the more dependent its users become on its services and the more information they contribute to its uniquely comprehensive collection of data.
Will Google stay true to its famous "Don't Be Evil" mantra, using its power in its customers' best interests?
Posted by Kevin Heisler at 11:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Dogpile.com and Petfinder.com Agree to Search Partnership (Plus, Tell Us Your Pet Story!)
Infospace's Dogpile.com has been selected as the search partner for Petfinder.com. Additionally, the partnership will see both parties producing and promoting widgets and toolbars for Dogpile as well as promoting Petfinder's listing of over 250,000 pets.
“This partnership is a great extension of the Dogpile brand,” said Bruce Allenbaugh, Chief Marketing Officer of InfoSpace. “By working closely with Petfinder to introduce Dogpile’s search experience and our pet-affinity to their pet-loving audience we’ll encourage cross-traffic between the Dogpile and Petfinder sites.”
Did you use search to find your pet? (I found my bengal kitty Cinnamon on Craigslist.org and rescued my other kitty on the side of the road near a local Walmart). Yeah, that's right. Matt Cutts isn't the only one with adorable cats!
Now it's your turn. Tell us your pet story in the comments!
Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Yahoo's Right Media Exchange to Feature LucidMedia Contextual Advertising
Today, Yahoo announced that Right Media Exchange will feature LucidMedia's patented ClickSense contextual advertising. The targeted ad solution has been testing since May, culminating in a partnership between the two. Buyers and publishers will be able to contextually categorize 60 vertical channels in Right Media Exchange's display advertising inventory.
"LucidMedia's ClickSense technology will significantly help increase the prospective yield of a publisher's available inventory and improve an advertiser's ability to contextually target ads to relevant content and categories through the Right Media Exchange," said Bill Wise, General Manager, Right Media. "We are excited to bring this capability to Exchange participants and look forward to working with the LucidMedia team to deepen the use of ClickSense across the Exchange."
Related Reading:
Yahoo! to Integrate Right Media and AMP Ad Management Platforms, But When?
Yahoo's Latest Partnership: Online and Mobile Advertising Integration with Publicis
Yahoo to Acquire Right Media
Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Friendster Names Googler as New CEO
Friendster has named Google's regional managing director of South Asia, Richard Kimber, as its new CEO. It has also raised $20 million in funding.
Despite the waning of its popularity in the United States, Friendster is the #1 social network in Asia, and the 9th largest website in the world.
"Friendster is growing at an enormous rate in Asia Pacific and is clearly leading the competition. I believe this is partly because the Internet is transforming the lives of everyone, and it will probably become one of the greatest liberators of our time," said Kimber. "Utilizing the Internet to connect to your friends is one of its greatest benefits, and is changing the way relationships work globally. With more than 75 million users, it is clear that Friendster has already made a dramatic impact. I look forward to growing our business further as we continue our global growth and strong focus on Asia."
Related Reading:
Friendster Drops Yahoo For Google
Consumers Ok with Social Ads, But Rarely Find Them Targeted
via NYT
Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
SES Awards Finalists Announced
Search Engine Strategies today named 43 search engine marketers as finalists for the SEM conference’s first annual SES Awards.
The 16 winners will be announced throughout SES San Jose during Orion and keynote panels, which are being held August 18-21 at the San Jose Convention Center.
The SES Award Finalists in the following categories are:
Best Search Engine Ad Platform
Call Genie's CG Advantage
LookSmart AdCenter
SendTec - SearchFactz
Search Engine with Most Relevant Search Results
Expert System's Cogito Focus (Shift Communications)
Local.com (Madison Alexander)
Yahoo!
Most Innovative New Search Engine
YellowBot (Young & Associates)
Expert System's Cogito Focus (Shift Communications)
Technology Platform Search Marketers Can't Live Without
Enquisite (Maven.com)
Covario, Inc. (JHG Townsend)
Kenshoo Search - SEM Platform (Kenshoo Ltd)
Best SEM Technology Platform for SMBs
LocalLaunch
Enquisite (Maven.com)
Marchex
Most Innovative Use of Search Engine Optimization
NikeStore (Range Online Media)
DoubleClick Performics
Where 2 Get It Search Locator
Most Innovative Paid Search Campaign
SearchAdNetwork
Building Blocks for LEGO's Paid Search Media (iCrossing)
Four Seasons Hotels and Resort (Acronym Media)
Best Social Media Marketing Campaign
Alberto-Culver Nexxus (iProspect)
SEO-PR
Beaches of South Walton (USDM.net)
Best Business-to-Business Search Marketing Campaign
Microsoft Small Business Center (iProspect)
SEO-PR
Enquiro Search Solutions, Inc.
Best Multi-National Search Marketing Campaign
WebCertain
iCrossing Integrates Global Search Campaign for iCrossing
Acronym Media/SAP
Best Use of Local Search
The Container Store (Range Online Media)
Storage West Self Storage (Young & Associates)
US Small Business Administration-Business Gateway Initiative
Best Integration of Search with Other Media
SEO-PR
The Tudors/Showtime (Outrider)
Jaguar XF Oscars (MEC Interaction)
Most Effective Use of Web Analytics
World Travel Holdings - CruisesOnly.com (iProspect)
iCrossing Measures Results with Mazda Analytics (iCrossing)
Four Seasons Hotels and Resort (Acronym Media)
Best Web Analytics Platform
Omniture
Coremetrics (Lewis PR)
Most Advertiser-Friendly Search Engine
Call Genie Interact Voice
7Search.com
Matchpoint.com
Editor's Choice
(The Editor's Choice award winner will be selected
exclusively by the SES Awards editorial staff.)
Posted by Kevin Heisler at 10:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Yes, There is a New Yahoo Update
If you're noticing changes in your Yahoo rankings, you're not alone. Yahoo has released an update to their search index.
The last update was released about a month ago.
One commenter on the Yahoo Search blog said that Yahoo's results look a lot like Microsoft's Live Search results. What are you seeing?
Leave a comment and tell us what you're seeing!
Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Superpages.com Parent Idearc Media Partners with HelloMetro's Network of 1500+ .mobi Sites
Idearc Media, which owns Superpages.com and publishes the Verizon Yellow Pages, has announced an advertising partnership with .mobi network HelloMetro. The two already have a partnership to extend advertising across HelloMetro's .com pages.
“We have received great results in our current agreement with HelloMetro.com and the new agreement can only bring more visibility and more leads for our advertisers on Superpages.com,” said Robyn Rose, vice president of Internet marketing for Idearc Media.
HelloMetro owns over 1,500 city-based Web sites that see more than 2.7 million unique visitors a month combined. HelloMetro serves up your typical content of interest in local guides - attractions, restaurants, special events, movie show times, lottery results, real estate, jobs, phone directories.
“As we continue to add cities to our list of Web sites content becomes increasingly important,” said Clark Scott, CEO of HelloMetro.com. “Superpages.com’s local business content will provide an added bonus to our robust city-specific content.”
Related Reading:
Former Citysearch CEO Heads to Idearc
Idearc to Add-on SEM Services
Local.com to Distribute Superpages Ads
Superpages Gets Local Mobile App
Superpages.com Revises Ad Algorithm
Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Will Yahoo Be Counting Hanging Chads?
With so much disappointment in the Yahoo board among shareholders, how did Chairman Roy Bostock and CEO Jerry Yang manage to get more votes this year than at last year's shareholders meeting? That's a question on the minds of Capital Research & Management, which sent proxy committees to represent its two funds that own a big chunk of Yahoo stock. The proxy committees recommended that votes for Bostock and Yang be withheld in order to demonstrate their disapproval of Microsoft's bid.
Capital Research & Management has talked with Broadridge Financial Solutions about investigating the vote to see if some votes were not counted. The way the votes stand now, it would appear that if CR&M's votes were counted - and they withheld them, they were among the only to vote against Bostock and Yang, which seems a bit odd given the current climate
Additionally, fewer votes were cast than last year, which only adds to the drama. On the one hand, perhaps fewer people wished to vote when they were so disappointed with the current board. On the flip side, wouldn't more people want to show up during such an important year and make their voice heard? An investigation into the vote count could answer this question.
Yahoo has said they have played no part in a possible error in the count. Yahoo doesn't perform the vote count, but instead a third party is required to do so.
via BoomTown
Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Google and Microsoft Gain in UK Search Engine Shares for June 2008
comScore has released UK search engine share data for June 2008. Here's how it breaks down:
Other notable findings from June 2008:
- There were 3.9 billion total searches conducted in the U.K. during the month.
- 31 million U.K. Internet users conducted at least one search.
- U.K. searchers conducted an average of 124 searches per searcher during the month, or 4.1 searches per day.
- U.K. searchers made a combined total of 937 billion visits to a search engine in May, with an average of 4.1 searches per visit.
Posted by Nathania Johnson at 8:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
SEW Experts: Top SEO Firms Paid for by the Following...
Our industry still has a lot of growing up to do. Participating in advertising programs masquerading as objective ratings services is not going to help us do that. In today's natural search column, "Top SEO Firms Paid for by the Following...," Mark Jackson issues a plea for the SEO industry to mature, become more responsible corporate citizens, and educate the masses, in a non-commercial way. Perhaps, then, we can see more companies putting faith (and budgets) behind SEO efforts, so that every SEO firm will benefit from the growth of the entire pie.
Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
SEW Experts: Increase Web Site Conversions with the Scientific Method
It's so simple in description, but has unlimited potential. The scientific method can apply to any type of experiment, be it chemistry or Web site marketing. In today's small business SEM column, "Increase Web Site Conversions with the Scientific Method," Carrie Hill outlines the process involved, and shows you how it can help improve your SEM campaigns.
Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
August 4, 2008
Live Search Cashback Launches Back-to-School Rebates
Microsoft launched a limited time promotion today called Back-to-School Deal Days for Live Search cashback. The promotion lets customers save big (and in some cases double the rewards) from hundreds of participating online retailers.
The back-to-school season is the second largest retail season of the year. That bodes well for Microsoft's share of searches as they continue to compete with Yahoo for (a distant) second place.
Live Search cashback offers ad-funded cash rebates to customers using the service. Live Search also offers price comparisons, making side-by-side price shopping quicker and easier.
A recent survey from Deloitte found that during this back-to-school shopping season, 71 percent of households plan on spending less on back-to-school items than they have in previous years. With consumers feeling financial strain from higher gas and food prices, Live Search cashback is offering back-to-school shoppers extra savings to stretch their dollars further.
Back-to-school savings start today and will run for a limited time during the month of August.
How It Works: Online shoppers can search, shop and get cashback rebates from hundreds of participating online stores through the Microsoft Live Search cashback program, which launched in May. Current retailers include Barnes & Noble.com, Overstock.com, Sears, Foot Locker and Zappos.com, among many others. This month, the cashback return is even higher with Deal Days.
Here are a few examples of the bargains:
Rebate of 36 percent on Jordan Men’s AJF 12 basketball shoes from Foot Locker
Rebate of 18 percent on Lenovo ThinkPad X61 Tablet PCs from Zappos.com
Rebate of 30 percent on The North Face Doubletrack backpacks from eBags
Consumers can save money each time they use Live Search cashback. For every qualifying purchase, the shopper will be sent an e-mail message confirming the Live Search cashback savings. Consumers’ cash can be claimed when their Live Search cashback balance hits at least $5, 60 days after the purchase. Microsoft will provide the rebate one of three ways: via PayPal, check or direct deposit into a bank account.
Posted by Kevin Heisler at 2:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Google Translate Goes Live with Human Translators
Google Translate is going live. The world's most comprehensive set of translation technologies will now be aided by human beings translating documents upon request.
Google employees won't be in the business of translating documents. Rather, Google will offer volunteer and professional translators the opportunity to use Google tools and technologies to translate. In previous columns, we've discussed the need for localization in translation. It looks as if Google will take the lead on using local translators to aid machine translation.
Google Translation Center will enable users to upload a document, choose a translation language, and select from Google's registry of professional and volunteer translators. If a translator accepts, users will receive the translated content back as soon as it's ready.
The potential for use by SEOs and Internet marketing managers is huge. The service may offer affordable ways to translate not only URLs but entire Web sites.
Google's translation search feature matches a current translation with previous translations, so it won't be necessary to translate a document more than once.
In short, Google could create the world's largest repository of completed homework assignments for students taking a foreign language.
We'll keep you posted as Google's human-assisted translation service officially launches.
Posted by Kevin Heisler at 1:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Top 10 Yellow Pages Searches According to Yellow Pages Association
In 2007, 3.8 billion searches were conducted on yellow pages sites as well as the local listings they provide to search engines such as Google, Yahoo and others. So what are the most popular things being searched for? I'm not going to beat around the bush. Here they are:
1. Restaurants
2. Physicians & Surgeons
3. Hotels
4. Auto Repairing & Service
5. Florists-Retail
6. Auto Dealers-New & Used
7. Dentists
8. Auto Parts & Supplies - New & Used
9. Beauty Salons (tie)
10. Hospitals (tie)
This list was put out by the Yellow Pages Association. The data was collected by Knowledge Networks/SRI.
Want a little insight into yellow pages demographics?
- 63% are female
- 89% are aged 25-64
- 54% are college graduates
- 42% have lived at the same address for 10+ years
Related Reading:
Yellow Pages and Search
Q&A with Darby Sieben of the Yellow Pages Group
Yellow Pages Beat Other Local Media in Online Sales in 2007
Posted by Nathania Johnson at 12:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
'Twas the Monday After the Yahoo Shareholder Meeting
The Yahoo shareholder meeting has come and gone without much fanfare, thanks to the settlement between the Yahoo board and Carl Icahn to keep the current board but expand it by 3 seats post-meeting. But there are a few interesting tidbits you'll want to know.
Firstly, TimeWarner has stepped in to prevent Jonathan Miller from joining the expanded Yahoo board. Yahoo had requested that Miller be placed on a list created by Carl Icahn for 2 of the expanded seats, the other one taken by Icahn of course. TimeWarner says Miller is under a no-compete contract with AOL.
And even though the current board was re-elected, that doesn't mean shareholders have been appeased. Many are still furious with Yang and the gang for turning down Microsoft's sweet $33 per share deal. The stock, once up in the high 20's has gone back down to the $19-20 level, where it was when Microsoft initially made its offer.
At least one shareholder, the outspoken Eric Jackson, is holding out hope for an eventual Microsoft buyout. He believes the software giant will come back for another grab in 2009.
But will the offer be as sweet? Tell us your predictions for the Microsoft-Yahoo saga in the comments.
Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Microsoft Partners with Zvents for MSN City Guides
Microsoft today announced a partnership with Zvents, a local search and advertising network, to integrate with MSN City Guides. Through the partnership, local advertisers will be able to target audiences with specific information about events and promotions.
Zvents has over 250 media partners, which will provide content to MSN City Guides, accessed by web crawler. User-generated content will also be part of the mix, which will include blended local search results.
This seems to fit with Microsoft's recent talk of focusing on search niches and really developing them through innovation. It's part of the grand plan to catch up with Google.
"Our goal is to deliver an incomparable local event experience to MSN users," said Manu Vij, Channel Manager for the MSN Local group at Microsoft. "With Zvents, our users can now quickly and easily find any event happening in their local area -- whether a hot rod car show, concert in the park, back-to-school sale, or celebrity book signing -- virtually whatever suits their interests is presented in detail and immediately accessible."
"Together with MSN, we're now able to provide millions of people with the most complete and robust index of local content," said Ethan Stock, Zvents CEO and founder. "As a part of the Zvents network, MSN adds tremendous value to local advertisers trying to both broaden their reach and more precisely target customers with timely information across the web."
What do you think of MSN City Guide's partnership with Zvents? Will it help Microsoft conquer a niche in local search? Sound off in the comments.
Related Reading:
Universal Thoughts on Local Search
Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
SES San Jose tip sheet for bloggers and journalists
Many bloggers and journalists don’t need a tip sheet to find the most newsworthy sessions at SES San Jose. Either they will bring a team along to live blog or report five concurrent conference sessions, or they will blow into the San Jose Convention Center to listen to one of the keynotes and depart mistakenly thinking that they’ve covered the entire show.
But a number of bloggers and journalists will have to make choices – trying to cover the most important sessions over the four-day Search Engine Strategies 2008 Conference & Expo. I’m a member of this little band of ink-stained wretches.
Well, I really haven't had any serious problems with ink stains since the media world went digital. But, even bloggers feel fairly wretched after covering a week-long search engine conference from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m.
So, to help my colleagues keep their editors or bosses from muttering that they missed the big story, I’ve put together this tip sheet for SES San Jose. These are my predictions for the top ten news stories that will come out of the event.
Day 1 - Monday, August 18, 2008
9:45am-11:00am
Universal & Blended Search
Moderator:
• John Tawadros, Chief Operating Officer, iProspect
Speakers:
• Shashi Seth, Chief Revenue Officer, Cooliris
• Johanna Wright, Director of Product Management, Google
• Cris Pierry, Senior Director of Product Management, Yahoo! Search
• Erik Collier, VP, Product Management, Ask.com
• Todd Schwartz, Group Product Manager, Live Search
1:30pm-2:30pm
Orion Keynote Panel: How Much Search is Enough?
Moderators:
• Kevin Ryan, VP, Global Content Director, Search Engine Strategies & Search Engine Watch
• Anne Kennedy, Managing Partner & Founder, Beyond Ink
Speakers:
• Robert Murray, President, iProspect
• Aaron Goldman, VP, Marketing & Strategic Partnerships, Resolution Media, an Omnicom Media Group Company
• Steven Kaufman, SVP, Media Director, Digitas
• Bob Tripathi, Search Marketing Strategist, Discover Financial Services
4:30pm-5:30pm
Opening Keynote Presentation:
Lee Siegel, Author of “Against the Machine” and a senior editor at The New Republic.
Day 2 - Tuesday, August 19, 2008
9:00am-10:00am
Morning Keynote:
Satya Nadella, Senior VP, Search, Portal & Advertising Platform Group, Microsoft
11:00am-12:15pm
Measuring Success in a 2.0 World
Moderator:
• Richard Zwicky, Founder & CEO, Enquisite
Speakers:
• Jim Sterne, Target Marketing & Chairman, Web Analytics Association
• Matthew Bailey, President, SiteLogic
• Avinash Kaushik, Author, Blogger, Analytics Evangelist, Google
• Marshall Sponder, Senior Web Analyst, Monster.com
1:30pm-2:30pm
Orion Keynote Panel: Technical & Information Giants
Moderators:
• Kevin Ryan, VP, Global Content Director, Search Engine Strategies & Search Engine Watch
• Mike Grehan, Global KDM Officer, Acronym Media
Speakers:
• Matt Cutts, Software Engineer Guru, Google
• Danny Sullivan, Editor-in-Chief, Search Engine Land
• Tim Westergren, Founder, Pandora
• Robert Scoble, Managing Director, FastCompany.TV
• Kirsten Mangers, Co-founder & CEO, WebVisible
• Rich LeFurgy, General Partner, Archer Advisors
Day 3 - Wednesday, August 20, 2008
9:00am-10:00am
Keynote Roundtable: Why Does Search Get the Credit for Everything?
Moderator:
• Bill Hunt, CEO, Global Strategies International
Speakers:
• Randy Peterson, Search Marketing Innovation Manager, Procter and Gamble
• Terry A. Cox, Manager, Search Engine Marketing, Walt Disney Parks & Resorts Online
• Mikel Chertudi, Sr. Director, Online & Demand Marketing, Omniture
• Sharon Gallacher, West Coast Managing Director, Neo@Ogilvy
2:45pm-4:00pm
War of the Search Worlds: Unifying Your Global Search Marketing Program
Moderator:
• Kevin Heisler, Executive Editor, Search Engine Watch
Speakers:
• Olivier Lemaignen, Group Manager, Global Search Marketing, Intuit
• Jay Middleton, Senior Manager, Worldwide Search Marketing, Adobe
• Mark Scholz, Interactive Manager of IPG Worldwide, Hewlett-Packard
• Russ Mann, CEO, Covario
• Dan Quinn, Manager of Global E-business, Research In Motion
Day 4 - Thursday, August 21, 2008
9:00am-10:00am
Morning Keynote:
Chip Heath, Author of “Made to Stick” and Professor of Organizational Behavior in the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University
2:45pm-3:45pm
In House SEO: Lessons Learned & Victories Won
Moderator:
• Jessica Bowman, SEO Strategist & in-house SEO Expert, SEMinhouse.com
Speakers:
• Marshall D. Simmonds, Chief Search Strategist, New York Times / About.com
• Derrick Wheeler, Senior SEO Architect, Microsoft
• Kara Jariwala, Search Marketing Strategist, Cisco
• Laura Lippay, Group Program Manager, Search Strategy, Yahoo!
If you want a second opinion, I recommend that you read “15 Things Not to Miss at SES San Jose 2008” by AshleyB or “Do You Know the Way to San Jose” by Jessica over at the Online Marketing Blog, or “What To Look For At SES San Jose” by Thomas McMahon at WebProNews.
Of course, any good blogger or journalist will investigate other potential top news stories in the hopes of getting a real scoop at the search engine conference. But, the list above represents my handicapping of the pre-show favorites that will dominate the headlines from Aug. 18-21, 2008.
Posted by Greg Jarboe at 10:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Google Releases Update to Ad Planner
Google just launched Ad Planner a little over a month ago, and already the media measurement and planning tool is getting an update. The new features are based on user feedback. Here's what you can look forward to, straight from the horse's mouth:
- New metrics and dataWe've added additional metrics for site visitation including average time on site, total visits, and average visits per visitor. These metrics can be useful in understanding how engaged users are with a particular site. In addition, we've upgraded our content categorization algorithms and have improved content category labels.
- Direct-add functionalityIf you have an idea about some sites you'd like to include in your media plan, you can now add them directly to your plan rather than having to locate them using the research function.
- In-plan indicatorThe research tab in Google Ad Planner now indicates the sites that are already in your media plan, to help prevent sites from being added multiple times.
Have you been using Ad Planner? Will this update be a welcome one? Let us know in the comments!
Related Reading:
Does Google Analytics Share Data with Google Trends and Ad Planner?
comScore: No Clients are Leaving Us for Google
Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
AOL Sheds Tacoda, Launches Third-Party Mobile Ads, Buys SocialThing
AOL has been busy lately, building on their renewed focus on a business model built around online advertising with social media to boot.
First up, AOL is shedding Tacoda and folding it into Ad.com, part of Platform-A, AOL's ad division. The division recently began integrating Tacoda's behavioral targeting across its network.
Platform-A is also opening up its mobile ads to third parties. Third Screen Media, Platform-A's mobile ad provider, will offer mobile publishers the opportunity to access multiple ad networks for monetizing their advertising inventory, letting them fill more of their available inventory and create additional revenue streams.
Finally, TechCrunch is reporting that AOL has bought FriendFeed competitor, SocialThing, which is still in private beta. This seems to be another move by AOL to play in the social media space. Earlier this year, AOL bought social network Bebo for $850 million.
Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
SEW Experts: Awesome Ad Groups: Small is Good
Trying to fit all your keywords in one ad group is not going to get you the results you want. In today's search advertising column, "Awesome Ad Groups: Small is Good," David Szetela shows you how to get those double-digit click-through rates with small, tightly-themed ad groups.
Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
