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Become an Internet Marketing Superstar
November 30, 2010, 11:17 pmBecoming an internet marketing super star is not something that happens overnight; it requires hard work, dedication and a great deal of trial and error. The internet is wide and vast and it requires a great deal of commitment if you are going to venture into that space and be successful. Motivation: For starters you have to want it'really bad....
Bing Feature Update: Shop, compare and share on Facebook with new Bing shopping features
November 30, 2010, 11:17 pmHaving a tough time deciding between Xbox 360 Slim or Xbox Kinect? Black pumps or knee-high boots? Netbook or notebook? Bing shopping has always let you compare prices, see product reviews and links to where you can purchase. But, wouldnt it be great if you could tap your family and friends for advice? We agree. So starting today we are rolling...
Microsoft Advertising Unites Charities & Business - 9 Million UK People to Go Online
November 30, 2010, 8:44 pmMicrosoft Advertising UK proudly announced today their participation in a ground-breaking partnership with RaceOnline2012 , Age UK and other not-for-profit organisations and companies ( 3 mobile , B1 Connect , BT , EuroPC , eBuyer , VCCP , Zoostorm and 3 Monkeys Communications ) who have pooled their resources, technology, talent and time to help...
Facebook Drops Contest Pre-Approval, Hooray Says SMBs
November 30, 2010, 8:29 pmContests, giveaways, sweepstakes, promotions " what ever you call them, offering consumers a chance at a prize has always been an excellent way for small business to acquire email addresses and drive traffic to their sites. But not on Facebook. Up until now, Facebook insisted on pre-approving all on-site promos and restricted access to only those...
Winners and Losers of November
November 30, 2010, 6:11 pmThis month at Yahoo! Search you kept us busy with queries about who was leading the pack in sports, politics, music, and matrimony. Here's a look back at a busy November and what people searched for on Yahoo! Search. The first big winners of the month arrived on the very first day when the San Francisco Giants triumphed in the World Series ,...
For Xmarks users
November 30, 2010, 5:20 pmIn the past few days, we've received a number of questions from Xmarks users about whether they can use Delicious to synchronize bookmarks across different browsers. To save time, here are the top 3 questions: Can I sync Xmarks links from more than one browser using Delicious? Yes. We support Internet Explorer , Chrome and Firefox . The tools to...
Diplomatic Relations, 'Dancing' Gyrations, Discount Jubilation: November 2010 Buzz
November 30, 2010, 5:10 pmby Vera H-C Chan November, a time to get into the holiday spirit, connect with family and friends, and expose yourself to the world. Yes, just when Americans thought they could leave behind the election season, full body scanners and diplomatic leaks revealed much more. Still, there were other priorities to focus on " like what was on sale for...
Google Weaves Privacy Tools Into Holiday Shopping Ritual
November 30, 2010, 4:55 pmLove it or hate, it's the holiday shopping season again, and with that comes the need to hide presents and protect one's wallet from thieves. Luckily (or a little bit opportunistically), Google's got a range of privacy tools ready to help people achieve their goals. On the Google Public Policy Blog , Will DeVries, a policy counsel, explained this...
Introducing Yahoo! KPost in Korea and Hong Kong
November 30, 2010, 3:59 pmWe've explored many new product ideas in Asian markets that folks in other parts of the world don't often hear about. This week we're excited to share another new experimental product called Yahoo! KPost, which is now available in Hong Kong and Korea. Here's an overview of what KPost is all about. At Yahoo!, we want to help you stay informed and...
Cyber Monday Sales Resulted in Smart Spending
November 30, 2010, 3:56 pmYesterday, while shoppers were clogging the internet with holiday transaction, reporters at CNN were waxing on about how Cyber Monday is a myth. More to the point, they said it was a marketing ploy (gasp!) and is erroneously labeled “the biggest online shopping day of the year.”
It might not turn out to be the biggest day, but...
Yes, Google Knows You Have Bad Reviews -- And Maybe That'll Hurt You, In The Future
November 30, 2010, 3:56 pmMy own take on the big New York Times story about the guy who says bad reviews still help him rank on Google. Maybe -- but I doubt it. What I don't doubt is that Google can indeed understand if a merchant has bad reviews or not. While it currently doesn't seem to factor that into its ranking algorithms, or even show that there are bad reviews next...
The Incredible Stupidity Of Investigating Google For Acting Like A Search Engine
November 30, 2010, 3:55 pmI did a search at Google today for “cars” and was shocked. Rather than list links allowing me to search for “cars” on Bing, Yahoo, Baidu, Voila, Naver and Yandex, Google instead favored its own search results. I’m glad the EU will be investigating whether this favoritism violates anti-trust laws.
Google Launches New "Click Type" Reports for AdWords
November 30, 2010, 3:26 pmGoogle has added a new kind of report to AdWords called "Click Type". This is designed to help marketers measure how different elements of AdWords ads impact their clicks, clickthrough rates and conversions.
AdWords ads have more options for advertisers than they used to. Advertisers can now use a product ads format, which lets...
Use a "Breath" Test to Determine Proper Length for Headlines
November 30, 2010, 3:23 pmby Stone Reuning Any web copywriter tussles with the question on how long, or short, their headline should be. Those of us in the business have been asking the question for years - is there an arbitrary length for grabbing someone's attention and encouraging them to read further? Of course, this is what headlines are supposed to do. They act as a...
Disney Still In Google TV Talks
November 30, 2010, 3:11 pmDon't hold your breath, and skip crossing your fingers, too, since you'll likely need your digits for something else before an agreement's reached. But it looks possible that Google TV will still be able to strike a deal with at least one major network, as a Disney exec has admitted that discussions are taking place.
Anne Sweeney is an...
An Inside Look at How Microsoft Handles SEO Across its Massive Site
November 30, 2010, 2:42 pmMore WebProNews Videos WebProNews sat down with Derrick Wheeler, Senior SEO Architect at Microsoft to talk about large scale SEO and how Microsoft manages SEO across it's huge multi-business, global website. Chances are you don't have a site that matches the size of what Microsoft has, but in the age of realtime user-generated content, there is a...
American Express Partners With Zynga On Virtual Goods
November 30, 2010, 2:07 pmAmerican Express said today it would allow its card customers to pay for virtual goods from Zynga using their reward points. Cardmembers enrolled in the rewards program cans use points to purchase Zynga game cards, along with a variety of virtual goods, such as FarmVille manors and windmills, Café World fountains and stoves, and YoVille roadsters...
Searching for Hanukkah
November 30, 2010, 1:56 pmby Claudine Zap You've barely put away the turkey platter " and now the menorah is coming out: Hanukkah is almost here. The first night starts sundown on Wednesday. The early start spurred last-minute Web searches for the holiday along with confusion over the date " which moves around. Here, we explain. When is Hanukkah? It is confusing because...
Bing Shopping: "Cyber Monday" visitors up 40% from 2009
November 30, 2010, 1:26 pmBing Shopping experienced a record Cyber Monday with 40% more unique visitors than 2009. Monday also saw a 22% jump in visitors over November 26 th (Black Friday) the historic start of the holiday shopping season. The top categories yesterday were Clothing & Shoes, Computing, Electronics, Toys and Beauty and Fragrance. As we highlighted last...
How diaTM Will Help the Medical Community
November 30, 2010, 1:10 pmWith a newly developed medical software system from some researchers at Georgia Tech, your medical communications just may become a little easier. Now, whenever you have a medical condition that you just cannot adequately describe, the diaTM machine model will take your rudiment description of your symptoms and translate them into medical...
Google Faces EU Antitrust Investigation Over Alleged Organic, Paid Search Result Bias
November 30, 2010, 1:00 pmHas Google abused its dominant position in search in the European Union? That will be the focus of antitrust regulators as they formally investigate complaints of discrimination in Google's paid and organic search results.Click to read the rest of this post...
comScore Introduces Online Video Measurement Service in Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Chile and Spain
November 30, 2010, 12:34 pmcomScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today announced the launch of comScore Video Metrix in Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Argentina and Spain as comScore continues to expand its video measurement footprint across the globe. comScore's industry-leading video measurement product is now available for 16 individual markets,...
LinkedIn Cooks Up New Share Button
November 30, 2010, 11:43 amAll over the Web, clusters of Like, Tweet, Digg, Reddit, and Buzz buttons may grow a little larger today. LinkedIn unveiled a "share" button of its own this morning, and aside from the organization's late start, there's no obvious reason why it wouldn't catch on in many circles. Indeed, Bloomberg, Forbes, and SiliconValley.com have already...
Cyber Monday Sales Jump 19 Percent
November 30, 2010, 11:43 amU.S. online retail sales on Cyber Monday were up 19.4 percent over the same period last year, with the average order up from $180.03 to $194.89 for an increase of 8.3 percent, according to a new report from IBM's Coremetrics. Compared to Black Friday, Cyber Monday online sales were up 31.1 percent with the average order up from $190.80 to $194.89...
What's New In SEO for November 30, 2010
November 30, 2010, 10:41 amWe have compiled the latest news and updates from the big three, Google, Bing and Yahoo as it relates to SEO and the search engines overall. WHAT'S NEW THIS WEEK WITH GOOGLE: Controlling Crawling and Indexing Now Documented on code.google.com Google announced a new site where information about robots.txt files, robots meta tags, and X-Robots-Tag...
Can SEO copywriting be a phase two approach for a new Website?
November 30, 2010, 10:36 amI'm sure that 99.9% of SEO experts would agree that it's best to integrate SEO elements into a new site build (OK, I know that's a totally unsubstantiated stat - but c'mon, I'm sure it's close !). But what if adding on the cost of "SEO-ing" a site just isn't possible? I've talked many times about the advantages of including your keyphrases as you...
Wikipedia's Accidental ORM Issue?
November 30, 2010, 10:36 amIt's a pretty slow news day so I started thinking. Already we have crossed into dangerous territory but my interest was captured by the response to the recent Wikileaks mess by Wikipedia's co-founder Larry Sanger. Over the weekend he went on the offensive on Twitter by posting the following thoughts regarding Wikileaks I'll go ahead and say the...
Wikipedia’s Accidental ORM Issue?
November 30, 2010, 10:31 amIt’s a pretty slow news day so I started thinking. Already we have crossed into dangerous territory but my interest was captured by the response to the recent Wikileaks mess by Wikipedia’s co-founder Larry Sanger.
Over the weekend he went on the offensive on Twitter by posting the following thoughts regarding Wikileaks
I’ll go ahead and...
What if Facebook Goes Search While Google Struggles to Go Social?
November 30, 2010, 10:26 amFacebook and Google don't much acknowlege that they're direct competitors, though there's no question that in many ways they are. Eric Schmidt recently said Bing was it's main competitor , and Mark Zuckerberg said its new messaging system isn't an email killer and that "Gmail is a really good product." It's true that Bing poses a significant...
Report: Launch Of Google's Social Project Delayed
November 30, 2010, 10:13 amAlthough rumors surrounding something that might be called "Google Me" have swirled for months, few onlookers have claimed to know anything solid about Google's social media effort. Now there seems to be a good reason why: conflict within the company is apparently rather intense.
Ben Parr reported earlier, "Mashable has...
How Obama Raised $60 Million by Running A/B Test
November 30, 2010, 9:45 amA few weeks ago President Obama visited Palo Alto to raise money the good ol' fashioned way: a $30,400-per-plate fundraising dinner. This tried and true fundraising technique is a great way to raise money if you can get the President of the United States to show up to dinner. But how can you raise money if no one has heard of you and all you have...
Flock Makes Upgrade To Chromium 7
November 30, 2010, 9:19 amSocial web browser Flock has released a new Chromium 7-based version of its browser on both Mac and Windows platforms. Flock says its new 3.5 version offers greater ease of use and faster performance, likely in response to its recently launched competitor RockMelt. The company says it has reached an installed user base of over 9.5 million users...
Facebook's Valuation Hits $50 Billion On Private Market
November 30, 2010, 9:19 amWhile this pronouncement may be a little early, it looks like Facebook investors are in for a very merry Christmas indeed. The value of the company's stock has continued to rise on the private market, and the company's now supposed to be worth a whopping $50 billion, up from $41 billion earlier this month. Michael Arrington calculated, "Around...
Google's New Shopping Feature
November 30, 2010, 9:09 amThis the season fast approaching for giving and Google is doing their job to make sure that everyone will be able to find what they're looking for. It has launched a new and enhanced product search feature that will make it easier for consumers to find products, both online and offline. Online retailers and brick-and-mortar .
The Most Important Element of Your Marketing Story
November 30, 2010, 8:58 amRobert wrote yesterday about David Mamet's advice on dramatic tension , the key element that drives every compelling story. But there's another element that's critical to story, and it's particularly important when you're telling a story that intends to persuade. Whether you want to make a sale, gain an email subscription, or motivate a change in...
Marketing: A Brand's Best Bet in Social Media Is Randomness
November 30, 2010, 8:56 am"Relevance has long been a central tenet of effective advertising, but the rise of Facebook and Twitter are forcing a redefinition of the term. As it turns out, many people in social networks don't want to talk about your product, they just want to talk.We've long known that inserting brands into social-media channels requires a conversational...
The top 100 websites with the most backlinks
November 30, 2010, 8:36 amDid you ever want to know which domains have the most backlinks? Worldwide or country by country? Now you can. The online SEO tool suite SEOprofiler.com publishes a free daily updated list of the domains with the most unique backlinks.
Google's Groupon Bid Believed as High as $6 Billion
November 30, 2010, 8:11 amMy how the rumor mill is churning around the alleged Google-Groupon acquisition. Just yesterday I noted how Vator News pegged Google's offer for the local deals and social shopping Website was $2.5 billion. Now AllThings Digital and The New York Times say the deal has a stunning price tag of between $5 billion and $6 billion. Stunning is the...
Newspapers: Go Social or Go Home
November 30, 2010, 8:01 amObviously the newspaper industry is struggling. Industry analysts, journalists and online marketers are frantically scrambling to come up with a smart solution to monetize content and compete with quick and agile bloggers. But while the ship is sinking, social media can act as a great short term solution to keep things afloat. While the newspaper...
Local Search Tips Whitepaper from Location3 Media
November 30, 2010, 7:35 amLocation3 Media has shared with us their Local Search Tips whitepaper that covers big picture strategies and small hints to maximize local search campaigns. They are sharing heir hard-won knowledge with our clients, industry contacts and the media to help people get on board with the local search revolution. According to the Kelsey Group, 74...
PPC - Geographic Targeting
November 30, 2010, 7:35 amAdwords lets you geographically target specific locations. You can target a continent, a country, a province/state, a city, a certain part of a city, or even go as specific as a certain building! However, it's important to keep in mind that Google determines your location by looking at your IP address. That being said, sometimes your ISP will give...
European Union Looks Into Google for Being Mean Again
November 30, 2010, 7:20 amThis will be a bit of a rant so be ready. Here is the problem for me and it once again focuses on the European Union's ridiculous notion that in a free market there is such a thing as too much success. The EU allows anyone or any entity who wants to whine about Google's 'dominance' the chance to fight against the search giant in the name of...
EU Launches Search and Advertising Antitrust Investigation Against Google
November 30, 2010, 7:15 amNews is out this morning that Google is being investigated by European Union antitrust regulators. They are looking into the possibility that Google is discriminating against competitors in it search results and ads.
Bloomberg BusinessWeek reports: "The European Commission will check whether Google 'imposes exclusivity obligations on...
Tips on Video: B2B Facebook, Social ROI & Repurposing Social Content
November 30, 2010, 7:09 amWhile traveling recently in New Zealand and a short stay in Sydney, Australia I shot a few videos offering social media marketing tips. Check them out below and you can also view many other tips videos and interviews we've done with search and social media marketing experts on the TopRank Online Marketing YouTube Channel . Tips on Social Media ROI...
SES Accelerator: Search & Social in San Diego on February 10, 2011
November 30, 2010, 6:49 amSES is collaborating with OMS to hold a one-day event on Feb. 10, 2011, that is dedicated to learning advanced topics in Search & Social. Called SES Accelerator , it's part of the annual Online Marketing Summit , which will be held in San Diego from Feb. 7 to 11, 2011. Click to read the rest of this post.
Google Ventures into Fashion with the Boutiques.com Acquisition
November 30, 2010, 6:28 amFashion and trends are some of the most popular and frequently-searched topics on the Internet. Whether it's the latest on Hollywood celebrities and what they're wearing or the executive finding the right power-suit, fashion definitely has a solid footing in consumer spending. With trends and fashions changing at record rates, sometimes as...
Relying on Traffic From A Single Source, Such As Google, May Hurt Your Business
November 30, 2010, 5:48 am"WebmasterWorld Members discuss the issue of sites and businesses being hit by a search engine penalty and traffic nosediving. This is not new, and relying on a single source of traffic, such as Google, is a risk that some businesses continue to take. Isn't it time to review all traffic sources?"
Video: Advertising on Kinect for Xbox 360 - Film from UK Innovation Day
November 30, 2010, 4:09 amEarlier this month, Kate Newton wrote about the Innovation Day we held here in London for advertisers and agencies from all over EMEA. In this 4 minute video, using interviews and footage from the day, we showcase Kinect for Xbox 360 and what it means for advertising and multi-screen marketing. Hear from our team on how Kinect and Natural User...
Planning Long Term Link Building Strategies
November 30, 2010, 3:17 amFor today’s post I wanted to talk about how to come up with a long term link building strategy. As we all know, link building is important and I believe it is important to have a plan when you do your link building. It is far too easy to just dive in and start getting links from anywhere you can, but are these the type of links that are...
Keyword Normalization in adCenter: What You Need to Know to Avoid Missing Out on Traffic
November 30, 2010, 2:06 amPlurals, spelled with an s thats what Id like to talk about. Specifically, how plurals are an integral part of your search campaigns, and how they are treated differently in Microsoft adCenter than they were in Yahoo!s Panama search platform. One is the Loneliest Number If you recently migrated your Yahoo! accounts into adCenter and have left...
E.U. Opens Investigation Into Google Over Alleged Abuse Of Dominant Position
November 30, 2010, 2:02 am"The European Commission has decided to open an antitrust investigation into allegations that Google has abused a dominant position in online search,"
What Google Buying Groupon Means For Search Marketing
November 30, 2010, 2:01 amIs Google buying Groupon? For billions ? The rumor mill is going crazy . And it might be for 5 or 6 billion ! As a comparison, Yahoo! is worth about $21 billion, but that includes over $3 billion in cash AND equity investments in Yahoo! Japan + Alibaba that are likely worth close to $10 billion. In other words, Google might be offering to buy...
Google Buying Groupon: Will They, Won't They, Should They
November 30, 2010, 1:35 amRumors abound that Google is looking to buy Groupon - the online e-commerce coupon/discount purchase company - for anywhere from $2.5 to $6 billion. Why would Google be looking to acquire this property and is it a good fit are questions that have yet to be answered by the companies involved - though there are many speculations by others. Click to...
Thousands Scammed By Fake "Who Viewed Your Facebook Profile" App
November 30, 2010, 1:20 amIt comes with a bunch of different names but the app promising to show you who has viewed your Facebook profile is a scam and apparently one that is being passed around as a hot item through social media right now. Click to read the rest of this post.
Mozilla Exec. Criticizes Google, Microsoft, Apple For Hidden Plugin Installs
November 30, 2010, 12:49 amA senior executive at Mozilla - creators of the Firefox browser - attacks Google, Microsoft and Apple for the hidden plugins they install in to Firefox without users knowledge. Usually attached to upgrades, the installer of some times what they see as much needed add ons, are getting more than what they have asked for.
"Why do Microsoft, Google,...
10 Ways to Get More SEO Clients
November 30, 2010, 12:13 amPosted by JoannaLord I've been traveling for the past few weeks and talking to dozens of SEO consultants, and you know what they are all saying? They are at their max for clients. Yup, that's right...they can't take on new clients. They have TOO much work! This is good for all sorts of reasons. One, it shows we are in a good place during an...
Where to Keep Up with Google SEO Changes?
November 29, 2010, 11:01 pmDoes the Google SEP song and dance have you sweating on a monthly basis? Does it seem like things are always changing before you even have the time to grasp the concepts that are almost out of date? Don't be overwhelmed because you are not the only one.
10 Ideas To Keep Your Social Team Motivated
November 29, 2010, 9:36 pmI love this post by Adam Singer on the ways to motivate a social media team. It covers a really great deal of issues I face and I'm nodding my head in agreement on so many levels.
25% Off Coupon for MindJet Mindmanager
November 29, 2010, 8:37 pmAnyone who has seen one of my presentations knows that I am a die-hard MindJet Mindmanager user' in fact, I favour it over PowerPoint by far. Some of my audiences have even requested more information on the product I use and I provided it. Well, today, something special showed up in my mailbox' a 25% discount on all purchases from November 29th to...
Search Alliance Transitions have been Completed
November 29, 2010, 7:20 pmYour adCenter account is the only one that you will now need to manage your search advertising on Yahoo! Search and Bing Today is a momentous day for us, as Yahoo! has completed the process of moving search ad serving for Yahoo! to the Microsoft Advertising adCenter platform in the U.S. and Canada. Additionally, this marks the completion of the...
Welcome, Google Apps users!
November 29, 2010, 6:13 pmGoogle Apps recently launched an improvement that made dozens of Google services available to Google Apps users for the first time. As part of this launch, Google AdWords is now available to our Google Apps users with their Apps accounts. Google Apps is Google's suite of cloud-based messaging and collaboration apps used by over 30 million users in...
Blekko: Search and Shop Safely This Holiday Season
November 29, 2010, 4:46 pmCommunity-driven search engine Blekko has been in the news a lot since its launch, and today it announced a way for users to do their holiday shopping without having to worry about shopping on an untrustworthy site. "This new search vertical includes only human selected, reputable shopping sites and is designed to fight off spammers and malware...
On Facebook: Is Random Relevant?
November 29, 2010, 4:31 pm"Spent the morning making prank bird calls. The sparrows are not amused." See the numbers in the graphic? Those are the stats on that random Facebook wall post made by Skittles. And that's not a fluke. Everyday, there's an equally random and nonsensical post on the candy's fan page and every post draws a similar number of "likes" and comments....
Supreme Court Lets eBay Win Stand In Tiffany Case
November 29, 2010, 4:25 pmAn eBay-related dispute that began way back in 2004 seems to have finally run its course. Today, the U.S. Supreme Court announced its decision not to let Tiffany appeal previous legal losses regarding trademark violation and the sale of counterfeit goods.
Tiffany's lawyers have argued for years that eBay should be proactive in keeping...
Got Feedback? Microsoft User Research is Seeking Seattle Professionals who use Microsoft Advertising adCenter
November 29, 2010, 4:20 pmIf theres one thing I can say about Microsoft, its that every decision thats made here is done so with a fair amount of research and data to back it up. Thats why I started the feedback thread in the forums, thats why we map your asks to new features in release announcements and thats why Im a big fan of getting the word out about opportunities...
Know HOW You Want to Monetize Your Blog
November 29, 2010, 4:00 pmMore WebProNews Videos Blogging may seem like it's designed for making easy money, but the truth is, it's not that easy at all. It requires time and focus, and it takes the right combination and approach to successfully bring in the dollars. WebProNews recently spoke with Anita Campbell, founder, CEO, and editor of Small Business Trends , who...
Groupon Responds to Acquisition Rumors
November 29, 2010, 2:44 pmUpdate 2: We just got a response from Groupon on the matter: "One day, we will have to choose to stay private, go public, or sell. We want to continue to build a great company exactly the same way we're building it today. Recently there has been a lot of press about these exciting possibilities, but currently there is nothing new to...
Ads In Social Media Driving Purchases
November 29, 2010, 2:22 pmFifteen percent of social media users in the U.S. are more likely to buy brands that advertise in that medium, representing slightly more than 30 million people 13-80 years old, according to a new study by Knowledge Networks and MediaPost Communications. Social media site ads also drive brand exploration, with 25% more inclined to find out more...
Are You Ready for Auto SEO?
November 29, 2010, 2:06 pmby Mike Moran Image by K. Todd Storch via Flickr No, I don't mean that search engine optimization will happen automatically. I am asking if you have considered what the world will be like in the not-too-distant future, when a big chunk of searches will be executed from your customers' cars. Perhaps this strikes you as a bit too much Buck Rogers ,...
Are Bing's New "Artist Pages" for Music Search Ready for Prime Time?
November 29, 2010, 2:06 pmMicrosoft has released new "artist pages" for Bing . When you search for a musician or band, it should bring up one of these pages directly on Bing, including things like an artist bio, genre information, a list of playable song samples, discography, videos, news, tour dates, web results, etc. "Whether you're looking to discover deeper cuts, in...
Leslie Nielsen's Departure, "The Walking Dead's" Staggering Success, Cyber Monday Deals: What's the Buzz
November 29, 2010, 1:30 pmby Claudine Zap Our top picks from the day's hottest searches. Oprah.com/12days (Searches increased by 885%). Oprah's spreading cheer with O Magazine's second annual Give-O-Way (get it?). Readers can check the December issue for codes to enter to be one of 12 lucky winners . AMC "The Walking Dead" (+565%). Only one more episode for the...
The top Bing searches for 2010
November 29, 2010, 1:30 pmAs 2010 comes to a close, its time to reflect on the years most popular search trends. While topical items like Swine Flu and Stock Market topped the list in 2009, this year rankings reflects the popularity of celebrity news. This years most searched for topic was Kim Kardashian which received 20% more searches than the second most popular term:...
Celebs Stage a Twitter Walkout for Charity
November 29, 2010, 1:23 pmAlicia Keys and Lady Gaga are staging a Twitter walkout tomorrow and quite a few of their celebrity friends will be joining them. They’re calling it the Digital Life Sacrifice and it’s being held on behalf of Keys’ charity Keep a Child Alive on the occasion of World AIDS Day. (The press release says this is happening Tuesday, but...
Google Gamed by Cyber Bullies, Needs Sentiment Analysis
November 29, 2010, 1:00 pmThe New York Times has a great exposé on how Vitaly Borker and his online DecoMyEyes eyecare wear business uses negativity to bolster his PageRank and profits. Search Engine Land's Danny Sullivan is consulted in the piece and blogged about it , summing it up thusly: Any publicity, even negative publicity, means a win with Google's ranking...
No Turkeys Here: Giving Thanks to our Xbox LIVE Advertisers
November 29, 2010, 12:29 pmAs we celebrate Thanksgiving, I wanted to take a minute to say something that advertisers probably dont hear often enough: thank you. This is particularly important during this still-tough economy, when pulling back is the easy thing for a marketer to do. Yet on Xbox LIVE, brands have been looking forward, leaning forward, and signing up again and...
Bing Feature Update: Bing Releases New Artist Pages
November 29, 2010, 12:08 pmThis week we are releasing improvements to help you to discover, explore and experience your favorite recording artists. Whether youre looking to discover deeper cuts, in the market for tickets to the next concert, brushing up on your favorite lyrics, buying a song or finding out whether the lead singer was arrested, Bing now organizes the most...
Sorry, “Crazy Bully” Isn’t a Long-Term Business Strategy
November 29, 2010, 11:53 amLisa takes a look at the NYT story covering the "Crazy Bully" that is achieving great rankings in Google because of the high number of negative reviews he's received - and cautions against assuming this is a good tactic. Is all publicity actually good publicity for a business? From the article - "... the quickest way to get someone to notice you...
22 Inspiring Examples of Facebook Page Designs
November 29, 2010, 11:52 amTo get your audience engaged give them a little more than just a generic wall. How to get people to like you? I have selected the pages where new visitors are directed to somewhere else tha wall. Here are 22 examples of what you can do with your Facebook page’s landing tab.
Rumors Hint At Microsoft Online TV Service
November 29, 2010, 11:24 amGoogle TV, Hulu Plus, and Netflix may have a serious new competitor in the making. Rumor has it that Microsoft is developing an online TV service of its own, and that Microsoft intends to use the Xbox to ensure the service is available to a very large audience.
Yinka Adegoke wrote earlier this morning, "Microsoft Corp has held talks...
Call to Action Buttons: Top Tactics for Better Results
November 29, 2010, 11:16 amInteresting things on the form factor, colour and wordning of the buttons and it's influence on the CTA
3 Important Ecommerce Trends To Watch
November 29, 2010, 11:11 amAdam Audette's excellent post where he offers SEO insights into the current trends affecting ecommerce sites.
How Facebooking Can Make You More Social
November 29, 2010, 11:06 amContrary to the belief of some, social networking is not limited to the shy, or those that lack confidence. It is believed that people who have a difficult time talking with or interacting with people in social situations like parties or dinners feel more comfortable connecting with people at the comfort of their desktops. In .
Bing Users Really Into Kim Kardashian
November 29, 2010, 11:01 amIt's getting to be that time of year. December is just around the corner then a new year will sneak up on us quickly. Bing sent us its lists of top searches and top people searches for the year 2010. The lists illustrate a (possibly unhealthy) obsession with celebrities. "While Michael Jackson was number one and topical items like Swine Flu and...
Cyber Monday Attracting More Than 100 Million Americans
November 29, 2010, 10:46 amMore than 106.9 million Americans plan to shop online today during Cyber Monday, up significantly from the 96.5 million who shopped on the same day last year, according to a new survey by Bigresearch conducted for Shop.org. A survey released last week found that nearly nine in ten (88.2%) retailers will have a special promotion for Cyber Monday,...
Christmas 2010: a snapshot of Online European Shoppers
November 29, 2010, 10:30 amPosition your 2010 Christmas pan- european multilingual online marketing strategy Today Monday November 29th is ' Cyber Monday '. The biggest shopping day of the year? Or is it Monday December 6th 2010 referred as ' Mega Monday ' where sales are expected to hit over â¬uro 1million per minute' October 2010, IMRG Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index...
Usability testing is broken: Rethinking user research for social interaction design
November 29, 2010, 10:10 amHow many of you have run usability tests that look like this: "Individual, one-hour sessions, in which the participant is performing one or more tasks from a scenario that you and your team have come up with, on a prototype, using bogus or imaginary data. It’s a hypothetical situation for the user, sometimes, they’re even role-playing."?...
Exact Match Domains for SEO - Value Decreasing?
November 29, 2010, 9:52 amThere has been a recent increase in discussion regarding the value of exact match domains. This has primarily been stirred up as Matt Cutt’s was recently referenced at Pubcon as saying Google was looking into the value of exact match domains
Eight Things I'm Sick Of In Social Media
November 29, 2010, 9:44 amA humorous but insightful look at eight things about social media that make Augie Ray from Forrester Research sick. Do you agree with his assessments?
Tips for Safe Selling this Holiday Season
November 29, 2010, 9:38 amHi merchants, I'm Wendy Roberts from our Resolutions and Protections team here at PayPal. I'm back on our blog to give you the top 5 tips to help your online sales go as smoothly as possible during the holidays. By now pretty much every consumer in North America has figured out that almost any item they could possibly want is just a few clicks...
Unconfirmed Report Says Google Acquires Groupon [Update: Google: No Comment]
November 29, 2010, 9:28 amUpdate: Google responded. A spokesperson tells WebProNews, "Good morning. Unfortunately, we don't comment on rumor or speculation." Not exactly a denial.
Original Article: Rumors of Google possibly acquiring Groupon stem back to November 19. Now the rumors are hotter than ever, as unconfirmed reports indicate that...
China Prepared To Prosecute Google Over Maps
November 29, 2010, 9:22 amSeven months from now, another confrontation between Google and the Chinese government may well occur. The government's indicated that it intends to take legal action against Google if the company doesn't seek (and obtain) official approval of its mapping program. China issues mapping licenses in order to ensure that all maps match the...
Search and Social Media: Who Can You Trust?
November 29, 2010, 9:22 amThe New York Times published a very interesting (and very long) article over the holiday break that raises a lot of questions about Google and search in general. I'll let you read the 8-page story yourself if you want all the details, but what it boils down to is that Google doesn't always point you to the best possible results.
Some of...
Facebook Upgrades Insights for the SMB Crowd
November 29, 2010, 9:12 amUsually I find myself talking about the deficiencies in available services and information to the SMB crowd. I have grown accustomed to it but it's not how it should be. It looks like Facebook is realizing this fact and is doing something about it. Why wouldn't they since there are so many SMB's using the service to promote their brands? These...
Black Friday Online Sales Reach $648 Million
November 29, 2010, 9:02 amBlack Friday saw $648 million in online sales, making it the heaviest online spending day to date in 2010 and representing a 9 percent increase over Black Friday 2009, according to the latest report from comScore. U.S. ecommerce spending for the first 26 days of the November-December 2010 holiday season reached $11.64 billion, marking a 13 percent...
Public Relations Nightmare for Google Search Results
November 29, 2010, 8:56 amSeveral people contacted me yesterday to ask if I'd read David Segal's article in The New York Times . I had. And " A Bully Finds a Pulpit on the Web " is a public relations nightmare for Google search results. Click to read the rest of this post.
Today's Deal: Google Buys Groupon for $2.5B?
November 29, 2010, 8:56 amI think someone at Google might have had a little too much spiked apple cider over Thanksgiving, because rumors are heating up that the search giant just acquired online coupon service Groupon for $2.5 billion! According to VatorNews' Google has just purchased Groupon for $2.5 billion, according to an unnamed insider who spoke with VatorNews....
How to Captivate Your Audience with Story (From America's Greatest Living Playwright)
November 29, 2010, 8:46 amThere's been a fevered interest in the art of storytelling among the marketing crowd recently. The masters and the hacks alike are thumping from every available pulpit that storytelling is the most powerful device on earth in regard to human influence. We are told that story " applied to salesmanship, preaching, advertising, conversation,...
Today’s Deal: Google Buys Groupon for $2.5B?
November 29, 2010, 8:40 amI think someone at Google might have had a little too much spiked apple cider over Thanksgiving, because rumors are heating up that the search giant just acquired online coupon service Groupon for $2.5 billion!
According to VatorNews…
Google has just purchased Groupon for $2.5 billion, according to an unnamed insider who spoke with...
Court Rejects Appeal By Tiffany Vs eBay Over Trademark
November 29, 2010, 8:26 am"Tiffany said the case presented an extremely important question about allocating trademark rights and burdens in the modern Internet economy."
E-Commerce SEO - What To Do With Dead Product Pages?
November 29, 2010, 8:12 amthere is one common issue that seems to come up with every single e-commerce website I work on. What do to do with dead product pages? This can be a tricky situation and I believe there are other questions that need to be answered before you can make a decision.
Using Up Your Leftovers: Link Building Edition
November 29, 2010, 7:49 amAre you tired of turkey yet? By now we should all be just about done with turkey sandwiches and leftover sweet potatoes. But using up all of the extra food is one of the best parts of Thanksgiving. It challenges us to find inventive ways to make the best of what we have. Most of the time we plough through link building like hungry hungry hippos,...
Unconfirmed Report Says Google Acquires Groupon
November 29, 2010, 7:24 amRumors of Google possibly acquiring Groupon stem back to November 19 . Now the rumors are hotter than ever, as unconfirmed reports indicate that Google actually is acquiring Groupon. The rumors started when generally reliable All Things Digital reporter Kara Swisher said , "According to multiple sources close to the situation, Google is in...
Online Spending Up on Turkey Day and Black Friday
November 29, 2010, 7:18 amIt appears as if turkey isn't the only thing consumed on Thanksgiving Day as the online purchase number reported by comScore shows a 28% increase in online commerce for the holiday. That increase was also reported for the Black Friday online event. We await, of course, data from CyberMonday but until it actually happens we'll refrain from giving...
21 Power User Tips for Web Marketers
November 29, 2010, 7:08 amWhile some joining the Internet marketing workforce in recent years have prior IT or web development experience, many come from less technical sectors such as off-line marketing, or have got into the field via their own initiative. Those that come from less technical areas,
Which Flavor of Social Commerce is Right for You?
November 29, 2010, 6:58 amPhoto credit: timtak via Flickr Is the social web ready for embedded ecommerce functionality yet? Social Commerce is a very hot topic right now with numerous blog posts , articles and even a few events focused on ecommerce and social media.
Yahoo Releases Black Friday Shopping Updates
November 29, 2010, 6:06 amGoogle, the original "shopping search" on the web, has been able to hold that particular market effectively. The release of their new "Google product extensions" is their most recent push to stay ahead of the curve. However, Microsoft's 2009 shift from Live.com to Bing challenged Google's search shopping dominance, and now, just in time for .
Leverage the power of the press with news releases
November 29, 2010, 5:20 amWelcome back! In this fourth post of our series on content development strategy , we are going to explore the power of the (online) press release as another content marketing tool we can use to drive traffic to our site (or if a local business, foot traffic to our store). Harkening back to pre-internet days (remember those?) the news release is a...
French Consumers Exposed to 191.6 Billion Display Ads During Q3 2010
November 29, 2010, 3:07 amcomScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released an overview of the French online display advertising market for Q3 2010, using comScore's Ad Metrix services. The data revealed that French internet users received more than 191 billion display ads during the quarter.
U.S. Authorities Shut Down File Sharing Sites
November 29, 2010, 12:34 am"The investigative arm of the Homeland Security Department appears to be shutting down websites that facilitate copyright infringement."
The Wonderful World of SEO Metatags
November 29, 2010, 12:33 amPosted by Kate Morris Meta tags are the beginning of most SEO training, for better and worse. I contemplated on how to introduce this topic because we always hear the bad part of meta tags, namely the keywords meta tag. One of the first things dissected in any site review is the misuse of meta tags, mainly because they are at the top of every page...
Q&A with Chef John of Food Wishes
November 28, 2010, 11:21 pmChef John Mitzewich is the voice behind YouTube's most subscribed cooking channel, Food Wishes . Chef John today posted his 500th video to YouTube , and he recently took time out to answer a few questions about how he makes his videos and the trends he's seeing as a YouTube chef. How do you decide what to make videos about? The whole concept of...
Basic SEO Lingo to Know
November 28, 2010, 11:11 pmIf you are new or eager to learn about search engine optimization you are going to have to understand the lingo that is thrown around the industry. For starters it is a must if you are trying to offer this service to your clients but by learning the different lingo or verbiage that is used in the industry you will ultimately be able to really...
Black Friday Boasts $648 Million in U.S. Online Holiday Spending, Up 9 Percent vs. Year Ago
November 28, 2010, 3:13 pmcomScore (NASDAQ : SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today reported U.S. retail e-commerce spending for the first 26 days of the November - December 2010 holiday season. For the holiday season-to-date, $11.64 billion has been spent online, marking a 13-percent increase versus the corresponding days last year. Black Friday (November...
When Angry Customers & Bad Reviews = Good SEO
November 28, 2010, 2:06 pmHere's a story that may make your blood boil, and is bound to fascinate you one way or another. An online retailer aggressively courts negative reviews and publicity, threatens customers, and much more, all because it helps him rank better in Google. From the piece: "Online chatter about DecorMyEyes, even furious online chatter, pushed the site...
YSM/adCenter Feature Comparison #5: Budgeting, Bidding and Billing
November 28, 2010, 12:39 pmEverything you need to know about how your ad dollars are allocated and spent on adCenter This is the latest in a series of articles that explains how Microsoft Advertising adCenter differs from Yahoo! Search Marketing. They're intended to help Yahoo! advertisers prepare for the upcoming transition and become familiar with adCenter. By the end of...
Top Reasons Every College Student Should Be on Twitter
November 28, 2010, 11:02 amIt seems social media has taken over what casual conversation, phone calls and letters used to do"keeping people in the loop with what's going on in each other's lives. Nearly everyone has a Facebook page, MySpace account, or Twitter account. Technologically savvy college students use various social media every day to make new friends and .
The Myth of #1 Ranking
November 28, 2010, 9:55 amAnyone who has a publicly listed website has probably received some form of contact (email, phone call, etc.) from an SEO firm. While all of these groups are different, a large number of them fit a similar description: they are liars. Luckily, there's a fairly easy way to spot these lying SEO groups. The most .
MySpace Bows to Facebook with Mashup
November 27, 2010, 10:14 pmMySpace will go down in internet history as the first major social networking site. It gained immense popularity in the years immediately following its release, however, after the release of Facebook, MySpace found itself in a desperate battle for dominance. Now, with the tides of the social media world clearly showing Facebook as the victor, .
Torrent Finder Uses Homeland Security Site Seizures To Con The Web
November 27, 2010, 2:44 pmBogus viral marketing stories are nothing new - remember the 13 year old who stole his father's credit card and booked a hotel room and prostitutes to play XBox. Well. the latest online scam story is the seizure of Torrent Finder - one which I was taken in by yesterday, writing " Homeland Security Seized Torrent Domain That Gave Same Results...
Black Friday Shoppers Go Online for Convenience and Deals
November 27, 2010, 2:19 pmHi everyone, Amanda Pires from PayPal here. While you may have been among the early-risers at brick and mortar stores across the country, many of your fellow shoppers chose a more convenient option this year (not to mention a few more hours of sleep!). That option was going online to find the best deals and an easy shopping experience.
Q-n-A Answer Farms Win the 2010 Spam of the Year Award
November 27, 2010, 1:17 pmAaron Wall takes on Ask.com and other sites which are creating sections/subdomains of their site for -- as he shows -- pretty low-quality, spammy content in the same style as Mahalo.
How Google's New Local SERP Affected Your Ranking
November 27, 2010, 11:34 amPosted by number1george This post was originally in YOUmoz , and was promoted to the main blog because it provides great value and interest to our community. The author's views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of SEOmoz, Inc. As you probably noticed, last week Google did a pretty big makeover of its local search results...
Cup of Joe: I Have The Power! And So Do You!
November 27, 2010, 8:34 amI have the power! What power is that, you ask? Well, I have the power to change opinions, inspire hope, communicate information, raise awareness, and much more. No, I am not magical or some type of spiritual guru. I don't carry a sword or fly around like superman. I am an internet marketer, and as such I have the power to drive thousands of...
Homeland Security Seized Torrent Domain That Gave Same Results Google Still Does
November 27, 2010, 1:40 amHomeland Security with help from ICANN has seized the domain of a torrent search site and posted a notice stating: "This domain name has been seized by ICE Homeland Security Investigations, pursuant to a seizure warrant issued by a United States District Court under the authority of 18 U.S.C. 981 and 2323." 18 USC covers civil forfeiture of...
Insights from comScore: Improve your Holiday Campaign with Free Shipping
November 26, 2010, 10:36 pmOver the years, online retailers have competed for e-commerce superiority during the holiday seasons through offering holiday promotions such as coupons and free shipping to entice the online consumers. 2010 is a year like no other; consumers are being extra conscious where they may save a few extra bucks and theyre finding it in free shipping....
Twitter's CEO Admits It Lacks a Clear Long Term Vision
November 26, 2010, 9:14 pm"I am currently trying to define what Twitter's purpose is in the long term."
Google Quality Score Problems Creating Havoc With Adwords
November 26, 2010, 6:50 pmProblems with the Quality Scores in Google Adwords were first noticed late last month and were fixed, according to Google, but now they appear to be having problems again. Late October the Google Adwords help forum noted there were problems with Quality Scores - which Google claimed were merely reporting issues and would not impact prices of...
Five Essays on the Open Web - Post 5 - Marty Weintraub
November 26, 2010, 4:26 pmOn Black Friday, nobody can hear you blog. But perhaps fittingly, our final post of the week comes from social media advertising expert Marty Weintraub. Mr. Weintraub has allegedly been quoted as saying: "Facebook is the new black." Will Smith (1998 vintage Grammy-winning) music please: Men in Black Official Video Marty Weintraub: The web is...
5 Marketing Lessons We Can Learn from Black Friday
November 26, 2010, 3:19 pmIt's noon and Black Friday is almost over. Well, it is if you realize that most big box stores opened around 4:00 am. I slept in this year, hitting Staples at 9:00 and just made it under the wire on the items I wanted. Got the last two on the shelf. From there I hit CVS where I bought $26.00 worth of items and was handed a gift certificate for $26...
How VAT Can Drastically Affect Business Email Marketing
November 26, 2010, 2:07 pmMost businesses that have an online presence already struggle somewhat with the fierce competition in their respective industries, especially if it is a small or growing business. Add to that the possibility of the government assessing an increase on the rate of value-added tax, and that business could face a gloomy financial future. However, in .
Homeland Security Seizes Control of Domains
November 26, 2010, 1:59 pmOver the thanksgiving holiday the US Homeland Security Department seized control of over 40 names. While some of these sites where operating torrents or had information about torrents, others where allegedly selling counterfeit goods. This represents a potentially dangerous new direction as the government is seeking more control with the...
Windows Phone 7 Bolsters Marketplace for the Holidays
November 26, 2010, 12:14 pmThe Blackberry was the phone that popularized the "smartphone" concept. Nonetheless, in the years since the release of the iPhone and the Android enabled mobile devices, the Blackberry has fallen behind. The Windows Phone 7, Microsoft's latest release, hopes to change the tides and recover some of this important marketplace. Windows Phone 7...
Developing Personas for Better Social Media Marketing
November 26, 2010, 11:58 amDemystifying better social media marketing often starts with doing a better job of connecting with customers. But how can you connect with customers if you don't know who they are? Do you know who your customers are? Do you know what they search for and talk about on social networks? What influences them to buy or to recommend things to others?
Ask And Thou Shalt Receive
November 26, 2010, 10:45 amIf Google is smarter than humans, we must accept that it should be able to help us answer the difficult questions about life that are vital toward making humans reach their full potential, such that we may help computers become smarter, so that we may reach the singularity. Sure some folks who took some funding are trying hard to build real...
RockMelt Browser Will Simplify Your Online Social Life
November 26, 2010, 10:03 amLet's say you're happily working along online one day, smiling as you're thinking about your party plans for the evening. You'd like to share your happy thoughts with your Facebook friends, but you really don't have the extra time to stop working to click over to another tab, open up Facebook, sign in, etc. Besides, .
Alcohol Vendor traffic up 50% as Party season gets started
November 26, 2010, 8:06 amAs December approaches with alarming rapidity the start of the party season will be swinging into action quicker than you can say "Secret Santa". With office Christmas parties and large family gatherings on the way online searches will inevitably turn to alcohol and finding the best drink deals for the festive season. The chart below shows that...
Crafting an Effective Landing Page - Don't Go Overboard
November 26, 2010, 7:50 amMore WebProNews Videos Having the right landing page is incredibly important in getting conversions. It's one thing to get traffic, but if it doesn't convert what's the point? WebProNews spoke with Janet Driscoll Miller of Search Mojo at PubCon recently. She shared some thoughts on creating effective landing pages. "I think that there are a lot...
How to Number Google Results in FireFox and Google Chrome
November 26, 2010, 7:29 amWe scan through Google Results daily, sometimes even hourly. Having Google results numbered helps a lot in understanding where your (or your competitor's) page scores. With Google changing its SERPs so often, it is essential to be aware of several tools that would number Google SERPs for you. Understanding the Limitations When you number Google...
Search Engine Marketing Campaigns: the link to your offline marketing campaigns
November 26, 2010, 7:14 amBrand development works usually focus on the high volume medium: TV, radio, billboard, newspaper, etc' Marketers often forget about supporting their offline communication efforts with an online campaign. I am not talking about social media, viral marketing or buzz marketing campaigns' I mean a real added value Search Engine Marketing strategy...
Top Blog SEO Techniques to Use
November 26, 2010, 6:53 amBlog posts have been all the craze for quite some time and they have many internet marketing benefits but they have to be approached correctly. There are many search engine optimization elements that should be present with each blog post and it is important to realize this if you want your blog posts to go the extra mile.
Win32k.sys Zero Day Flaw A Potential 'nightmare'
November 26, 2010, 1:57 am"A new zero-day flaw has hit Windows, and it seems capable of slipping past user account controls, security researchers have said."
7 Non-SEO Tactics That Will Make You a Better SEO - Whiteboard Friday
November 26, 2010, 1:14 amPosted by Aaron Wheeler Happy Thanksgiving! In case you haven't heard, this week Seattle underwent the most brutal snow storm in the history of mankind. To call it a snowpocalypse would be an understatement, as can be witnessed herein (it gets good so keep watching!). Unfortunately, Danny Dover was the one up to bat this week for Whiteboard...
Google and the Rise of Facebook
November 25, 2010, 5:39 pmBrian Solis says "Facebook started out as a social network, but it is officially growing into a full-fledged personal OS, where friends and experiences are interconnected inside and outside of Facebook. And, at the center of everything is you." An interesting and intelligent piece that looks at Facebook and Google in the overall, future landscape.
Meta Keyword Tag is Dead for SEO
November 25, 2010, 5:18 pmOkay, this is very old news. The meta keyword tag has been dead in terms of SEO for some time. Some speculate that it was never alive in the first place, but regardless of if it was ever anything, these days it is definitely dead. Why am I writing about this ancient topic? Doesn't everyone know this tag is useless? Well, apparently not. I still...
Upgrades Coming Soon(ish) :)
November 25, 2010, 4:01 pmI already mentioned this to our subscribers & affiliates, but we are pausing the ability to subscribe to our membership site so we can perform upgrades. We want to update Drupal, launch the new site design, and switch out the membership management software from what has become sorta big and hairy to a platform that is pre-packaged & thus more...
CPC Ads Get Pricier for the Holidays
November 25, 2010, 2:13 pmGoogle has been fairly generous in its pre-holiday gifts. Along with a slew of new features to their search engine, the company generously offered inactive AdWords users a $100 incentive to start funding their ads again. Far be it for anyone to question the good intentions of Google, the noble ruler of the internet, but .
Five Essays on the Open Web - Post 4 - Chris Sherman
November 25, 2010, 10:17 amIn Canada, it is just barely legal to work on the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday. Hence, with turkey envy in my veins, I post the next installment in our five-part series of mini-essays on the future of the Web. Chris, you always have been and always will be webiquitous to us. Chris Sherman: This Is the Best of All Possible Webs As much as I respect...
Facebook Nabs 25% of All Web Hits
November 25, 2010, 10:12 amIt's become fairly common knowledge that Facebook is now the most visited site on the Internet. What is less commonly known, however, is just how much of the total web traffic Facebook receives. We'll put it this way: If you were to take all the page views on the Internet and bake them into a .
Google wants to know all about YOU
November 25, 2010, 9:36 amConvenience or Conspiracy? You Decide. What once started as a convenience for users has, over time, started to sound more like some Orwellian nightmare stalking us at our every turn. When this all began search was relatively sterile and innocuous. We type in a few words and get back a bunch of blue links' 10 of them at a time. But that wasn't...
Video: PR & Social Media, Building B2B Communities and Measuring ROI
November 25, 2010, 9:31 amA couple of weeks ago, I attended a Ragan Communications conference in Redmond focused on PR and social media and how these worlds collide. PR and social havent always gotten along, but now its clear that the industry and many major corporations are embracing the two disciplines as vital partners. Much of the conference focused on business to...
A Cornucopia Full of Local Search O-Pack Advice
November 25, 2010, 8:34 amYes. Not only did I tie in the word cornucopia into a local search post, but I managed to spell it correctly as well. Now lets get down to the nitty griddy. On October 27th Google rolled out a new way (and algo) to display local search results called Local Places Search . This update was a very large momentum shift in favor of local search and...
Life Cycle of a Website - an Experience
November 25, 2010, 8:13 amIt feels really great, when you get associated with the complete life cycle of a website - strategize - design - develop - market - develop - make money. I am sure that many of you have experienced this awesome practice and many are just starting. And there are a lot more people who are not directly associated with this whole process. Here is one...
Google Ads Cater to Catering
November 25, 2010, 7:47 amIn the United States, the holidays are often seen as a time for the "three F's": fun, family, and food. From our Thanksgiving feasts to the Christmas ham, Americans love indulging in traditional foods during this time of year. Even with its pulse on American desires, Google has released a delicious new advertising feature right .
How Best To Start Showing My Own Videos On My Own Site
November 25, 2010, 5:54 am"Is it better to go with a server upgrade with a faster processor, more RAM and more disk space, or is it still better to host the video with a video hosting service?"
Happy Thanksgiving Pilgrims!
November 25, 2010, 5:44 amTo all Marketing Pilgrims, we hope you have a restful, thankful, and blessed Thanksgiving. "When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for the good land He has given you.
How to Write a Link Request Based on Tips From OkCupid
November 25, 2010, 3:32 amOkCupid has some great sources for helping you get people to respond on their site (and hopefully get a date). Interestingly enough, there are a number of similarities between sending a message on an online dating site and writing a link request email. After reading this, you should be able to get more responses on dating websites and/or improve...
TechCrunch Claims of Google Kickbacks to Publicis Are "Crock of ...": SVP of Publicis Co.
November 24, 2010, 10:17 pmAccusations of kickbacks from the estimated $1 billion ad spend Publicis sends Google were reported by TechCrunch earlier today. The spends come through demand side platforms - an emerging digital technology whose features "include advanced and accurate audience targeting capabilities, easy-to-use inventory control and bidding dashboards, and the...
What are you thankful for?
November 24, 2010, 9:51 pmToday is Thanksgiving , a holiday dedicated to showing your appreciation for all of the positive things in your life. If you'd like to read more about the holiday, check out last year's post . On the orkut team, we're thankful for a lot of things. We're thankful for our families: our loving parents, siblings, spouses and children, who sometimes...
TechCrunch Claims of Google Kickbacks to Publicis Are "Crock of ...": SVP of Publicis Co.
November 24, 2010, 8:55 pmAccusations of kickbacks from the estimated $1 billion ad spend Publicis sends Google were reported by TechCrunch earlier today. The spends come through demand side platforms - an emerging digital technology whose features "include advanced and accurate audience targeting capabilities, easy-to-use inventory control and bidding dashboards, and the...
How ratings and reviews work on Google Places
November 24, 2010, 8:13 pmFrom Google, an update on how ratings and reviews end up on Google Places pages.
Facebook Messages: The Worst Thing That Ever Happened
November 24, 2010, 5:52 pmFaceBook is coming out with a new messaging system which, according to this article, you may not like.
Controlling crawling and indexing now documented on code.google.com
November 24, 2010, 5:29 pmWebmaster level: All Do you know how Google's crawler, Googlebot, handles conflicting directives in your robots.txt file? Do you know how to prevent a PDF file from being indexed? Do you know Googlebot's favorite song? The answers to these questions (except for the last one :)), along with lots of other information about controlling the crawling...
In Your Facebook: Company Moves to Copyright 'Face'
November 24, 2010, 5:19 pmby Claudine Zap Is there nothing this company can't do? The hugely popular site Facebook, with 500 million users, is beating back mock sites, fake sites, and competition that thies to use a similar name: It is in the process of getting a patent on the word "face" from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office . The patent would only apply to telecom...
Government Sites and SEO
November 24, 2010, 5:04 pmIt's not secret that .gov websites get a healthy boost when it comes to search engine results. However, this one component of SEO isn't a trump card either, and there are plenty of official government websites being pushed back to the second, third, or 437th page. It's for this reason that Professor John McMillan, the .
Get Ready For Your Holiday Shopping
November 24, 2010, 3:21 pmWe have improved our Shopping Shortcuts to include even more of the hottest items for this holiday season. Our Shopping Shortcuts show you some of the most popular products and let you see what others think about an item you are interested in. You can also learn about possible alternatives and choose the best place to buy when you are ready to...
PlacePop Offers Loyalty Programs for Small Business
November 24, 2010, 3:17 pmLocal. Checkins. Deals. These are the top three buzzwords of mobile marketing. Though mobile’s been around awhile, this holiday season is poised to be the biggest when it comes to the use of mobile phones to facilitate shopping. But for every Old Navy, there are a hundred small business owners who would like to get in on the game but are...
Goodzer Launch In-Store Product Search Map for New York City Shoppers
November 24, 2010, 3:13 pmWith the U.S. holiday shopping stampede commencing in approximately 36 hours, tech savvy New Yorkers could develop a strategic advantage in the competition for deal-nabbing. Today, software engineers Dmitry Pakhomkin and Artem Zarutskiy, have launched a location based search engine called Goodzer to find any consumer item in any store of the five...
Facebook Gets Aggressive with Trademarks
November 24, 2010, 3:11 pmFacebook is on its way to trademarking the word "Face," but don't worry, you won't have to change your lingo to "Get out of my countenance" any time soon. According to Inside Facebook, the trademark application only applies when the word "face" is used in specific circumstances. Here's the language of the application: Telecommunication services,...
Twitter News Service Here: "It's Called Twitter"
November 24, 2010, 3:05 pmTo set the record straight, there's been a lot of confusion around what Twitter may or may not be doing, stemming from an interview Reuters did with Twitter co-founder Biz Stone.
Stone originally appeared to indicate that the company was considering partnering with news organizations on some kind of new Twitter news service. Since then,...
Guest Post: Joe "The Commish" Cahn shares his favorite Thanksgiving recipes
November 24, 2010, 2:22 pmOf Tryptophan and Football By Joe The Commish Cahn You know the drill: eat Thanksgiving Dinner, get in front of TV to watch the games and then its off to dreamland. You might doze off in front of the Patriots/Lions game, wake up in the middle of the Saints/Cowboys tilt, nod off again and then finish it by catching what you can of the Bengals/Jets...
Yahoo Search Change Jeopardizes Partnerships
November 24, 2010, 2:08 pmYahoo has been making a lot of changes in recent months, but the most prominent shift is giving up on developing its own search engine algorithm. The fact that they are now placing this major factor in their search engine's vitality over to Bing has its advantages; for example, they can now focus more on .
Link Building with Google Alerts: A Guide
November 24, 2010, 1:59 pmGoogle Alerts are the most powerful, fresh way to find new link building targets on the internet. Why aren't you using them?
Blekko Team Up with DuckDuckGo
November 24, 2010, 1:58 pmBlekko and DuckDuckGo have formed an alliance against search spam. "Both our companies share the same mission of eliminating spam from search so that users get information from the best and most relevant sources on the Web," said Rich Skrenta, CEO of Blekko. This partnership will see unique features of each engine shared across both engines. Click...
Opera Confirms Mobile Web Use Soaring
November 24, 2010, 1:58 pmMobile Web use is soaring on a global basis, at least if the newest data from Opera holds with respect to other browsers. Opera reported today that page views and data consumption - along with sheer user numbers - are all increasing at a rapid pace. Let's waste no time getting into the stats. Opera said in a statement, "In October 2010, Opera...
Happy Thanksgiving
November 24, 2010, 1:22 pmSending Thanksgiving cheer from the Googleplex!
Now available with Google Apps: Google Finance
November 24, 2010, 1:11 pmEditor's note: We recently launched an improvement that makes over 60 additional Google services available to Google Apps users. This series showcases what's new and how your organization can benefit. Welcome to Google Finance Financial market data is some of the most time-sensitive and important information that many businesses track minute by...
Google, Amazon, Netflix Driving the Internet of Things
November 24, 2010, 12:56 pmWe may look back on Google CEO Eric Schmidt's speech at TechCrunch Disrupt Sept. 28, 2010 as one of those watershed talks, certainly for the company, and maybe for the Internet industry many of us toil in. Allow me to qualify such a dramatic statement. Disrupt was were Schmidt introduced Google's informal serendipitous search plans for the future.
Growing excitement online for Black Friday
November 24, 2010, 12:51 pmTime to set the alarm clocks for 4am - Black Friday is almost here! Holiday shoppers are already researching the Black Friday promotions with searches around Black Friday up 31% and the share of visits to Black Friday websites up 18% last week over the week before Thanksgiving and Black Friday last year. The top 5 websites captured 81% of all...
(10 Reasons to Have a) Social Media Response Triage Flowchart
November 24, 2010, 12:37 pmAside from the ten reasons, I just love the response chart included in this article. Really good guide for organizations on handling different types of situations -- good and bad -- in social media. I'm gonna put parentheses around the "10 reasons" part because I think the chart is the focus here.
Retailers Increase Spend on Search in Time for Black Friday & Cyber Monday
November 24, 2010, 12:25 pmResearch released from SearchIgnite suggest a strong Q4 for the U.S. retail sector ahead of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Retailers have increased their spend on search in Q4 of this year, by 37% YoY when compared to the first half of Q4 2009. This coincides with an increase in consumer spending, with Average Order Value up nearly 21% and...
Your computer remains infected by viruses! Return to Security Tool and download it to guard your PC!
November 24, 2010, 12:10 pmIncreasingly, web users are plagued by sites that appear to offer services to help protect their computers from viruses, Trojans and other web baddies. Because the primary tactic used is to frighten users into downloading the software; weve dubbed this category of attacks scareware or rogue anti-virus. Often, the resulting downloads and services...
Jennifer Grey's Win, Oprah Winfrey's Gift, Best Turkey Brine: What's the Buzz
November 24, 2010, 11:59 amby Claudine Zap Our top picks from the day's hottest searches. Volkswagen Beetle (Searches increased by 4,054%). You get a new Beetle! And you get a new Beetle! If you were in the audience for Oprah's Giveaway episode, that's what you got . Taylor Momsen (+1,584%). The 17-year-old "Gossip Girl" star will go on hiatus from the show. While some have...
Google's Current Specifications for Robots Directives
November 24, 2010, 11:46 amA very cool reference. Google's exact technical specification for handling robots.txt, robots meta tags and x-robots directives
Better deals from China for the US holiday shopping season
November 24, 2010, 11:39 amIt's Anuj from the comms team. Did you know that on average PayPal handles more than 650 cross border transactions a minute? As the leading online platform for cross-border transactions, we're in the business of connecting buyers and sellers from all over the world. For example, as you can see from this graphic, almost 40 percent of all sales from...
Landing Pages on Facebook Versus Twitter
November 24, 2010, 11:30 amWhile "selling" to people using Facebook isn't always the best idea if you want to maintain a good brand reputation, Facebook does of course offer advertising, which gives you the opportunity to do that without spamming your "friends" or "fans".
WebProNews recently sat down with Janet Driscoll Miller of Search...
Five Essays on the Open Web - Post 3 - Andrew Goodman
November 24, 2010, 11:03 amContinuing our five-part series celebrating Tim Berners-Lee's Scientific American essay, with some thoughts from yours truly. Andrew Goodman: People Don't Want to Live in Burma Tourism isn't booming in Burma: many think it might be unethical to enjoy paradise at the invitation of a military dictatorship. Or possibly you'd be worried that you'd be...
SEOâ is a Zombie! The Ultimate "SEO is Dead" (or Not) Resources List: 1997 till Infinity
November 24, 2010, 10:47 am* Eâvery time I read somewhere that " SEO is dead " I get scared. I'm not scared because I'm afraid my clients will read such a post and then quit paying me for SEO services. I'm terrified because I know that SEO is a zombie! Every time it's dead it gets up and becomes even more complex, eating up my brain. Lately the "SEO is dead" meme turns...
Social Ads All the Rage in 2011?
November 24, 2010, 10:47 amSince people are pre-occupied right before Thanksgiving with purchasing their last minute Turduckens , I thought it would be the right time to drop a chart on you to think about between courses. What better way to fight off a tryptophan induced food coma than think about paid search! According to Covario , a paid search management firm (shocking...
eBay Data Center Earns LEED Gold Certification
November 24, 2010, 10:27 amWhen it comes to data centers, we seem to hear about Google and perhaps Facebook most often. Both companies have been known to announce new facilities and expansions on a regular basis. But apparently eBay has quite a lot of expertise in this field, too, as the U.S. Green Building Council recently awarded its Topaz data center the LEED Gold...
The Growing Importance of Bing Optimization
November 24, 2010, 10:22 amThanks to an agreement with Bing, Yahoo will no longer be using the standard Yahoo search results. Rather, as far as their advertising and page display is concerned, Yahoo will essentially be a clone of Bing. While this is raising eyebrows of investors and getting mixed responses from consumers, one thing is certain: Optimizing for .
Blog Posts to Read November 24, 2010
November 24, 2010, 10:16 amHappy Early Thanksgiving to All!!! We wish you all a great start to the holiday season. Below you will find our favorite blog posts that are related to SEO, search engine marketing and social media marketing from this past week. Please feel free to visit each, we hope you find them as helpful as we do! Last Minute SEO Tip for the Holidays This is...
Video & Guest Post: Joe Cahn recaps Bing National Tailgating Championship Eastern Regional Finals
November 24, 2010, 10:06 amLast weekend the Bing National Tailgate Championship thundered into New Yorks New Meadowland Stadium, where the Winters Brothers took the regional title and the right to compete in Dallas/Fort Worth on February, 3 rd . The next event will take place at the University of Phoenix Stadium on Sunday, December 5 th . From there, the Bing Team will move...
The Copyblogger Gratitude List " Happy Thanksgiving!
November 24, 2010, 9:56 am"Shouldn't I be grateful for something other than Tivo? And Lost?" ~ Christine Kane , "What the Hell Am I Doing with My Life" Tomorrow is Thanksgiving in the U.S., a holiday traditionally dedicated to heroic feats of overeating, football watching, and avoiding delicate topics of conversation with family members. But I'm told that before the...
Know The Rules of the Communities When Marketing in Social Media
November 24, 2010, 9:40 amMore WebProNews Videos WebProNews recently sat down with Kelsey Advertising & Design interactive director Brandon Eley. He told us, "A lot of times brands and companies go out on the web, and they think that they want to embrace social media marketing. They want to involve communities in their marketing, so they go to these communities like online...
Promoting Your Company on LinkedIn Just Got Easy (Kind of)
November 24, 2010, 9:30 amAn in-depth tutorial on how to claim your business listing on LinkedIn to help build your brand through recommendations and more.
Facebook Effort To Trademark "Face" Moves Forward
November 24, 2010, 9:09 amA certain social network is now one step closer to owning a trademark on the term "face." Yesterday, the United States Patent and Trademark Office sent Facebook a Notice of Allowance, indicating that it doesn't take issue with the idea. One significant point: this doesn't mean that Facebook's preparing to sue anyone who uses words like facelift,...
Egg Tossing Germans Show Support for Google
November 24, 2010, 8:54 amYou really know it's the day before Thanksgiving when the following can be passed off as news. Apparently Google has some fans in Deutschland as evidenced by how these supporters have shown their 'love'. As you may or may not know, Germany has been a bit of a flashpoint for Google's continuing Street View battles regarding privacy etc etc. As a...
25% Off StudioPress WordPress Themes (Last Sale Ever)
November 24, 2010, 8:49 amIt's that time of year again ' turkey, football, and those ridiculous shopping events known as Black Friday and Cyber Monday. It's like a tradition or something. Okay, we'll play along. Through the end of next Tuesday, November 30, you'll save 25% off any of our StudioPress products, including the Genesis Theme Framework , the Prose Theme with...
Bookmarketing from Facebook
November 24, 2010, 8:38 amSo how does a website capturing 25% of all US based traffic grow? They take over your home page of course! Recently, many Facebook users (myself included) have been presented with a gray bar at the top of the Facebook website inviting them to make Facebook their home page. Facebook is using a subtle trick that isn't much a trick at all; however,
Verdict: SAP to Pay Oracle $1.3 Billion
November 24, 2010, 8:23 amOracle is reportedly being awarded $1.3 Billion from SAP, as the result of a jury's verdict following an 11-day trial. The case dates back to 2007 when Orcale sued SAP for illegal downloading of its software for resale to Oracle customers, by TommorowNow, a company SAP acquired in 2005. Oracle filed suit against SAP the Spring of 2007,
How To Craft Internal and External Links For Conversion and Click-Through
November 24, 2010, 8:23 amOn-page internal linking to benefit SEO will occasionally deal heavy damage to the conversion funnel. If sites wish to thrive in the future, on-page linking strategies needs to be planned holistically and framed with an understanding that SEO is just one aspect that needs to be considered. If you took inventory of all your site links, internal or...
Multivariate Testing in Action: Five Simple Steps to Increase Conversion Rates
November 24, 2010, 8:22 amMost websites do not exist just to impress visitors. Most websites exist to make a sale. This article talks about how to tweak a website for generating more sales, downloads, membership (or any other business goal) in a scientific manner, using A/B split and multivariate testing.
Just for SEOs - How to Find and Keep a Great Copywriter
November 24, 2010, 7:36 amOne of the things I enjoy most about SEO is that I get to work with a lot of creative, talented specialists, especially copywriters. For those who don't know, a copywriter is someone who writes marketing copy. In essence, a website content writer is a copywriter. The world has thousands and thousands of copywriters. Sifting through the masses to...
What Does Real Social Media Success Look Like?
November 24, 2010, 7:11 amAs I've been able to travel and meet marketers all over the U.S. and in other countries, I am always interested in learning how companies are viewing the value of their social media efforts. Marketing investments should be predicated by more than chasing the competition, satisfying an someone's ego or acting solely on a gut feeling. A good handle...
Google Instant Previews: Murder in the SERP
November 24, 2010, 7:08 amAn analysis about the recent changes in the Google results and what it might bode for the future.
Founder Lee-Berners Sees Social Media Corrupting His Intent For The Web
November 24, 2010, 7:08 amWeb founder Sir Tim Lee-Berners warned "Facebook, LinkedIn and other social networking sites represent "one of several threats" to the future of the world wide web," the UK Guardian reported.Click to read the rest of this post...
Google Doodle Doesn't Forget The Pumpkin Pie
November 24, 2010, 6:57 amHaving given us the "perfect turkey recipe" yesterday, the Google Doodle link today offers a another recipe from Ina Garten - this time the pumpkin pie. Though not the traditional pumpkin pie - her recipe is for pumpkin banana mousse tart.
Google, Facebook Feast on Startup Guppies Who Seek Payday
November 24, 2010, 6:14 amRoyal Pingdom Nov. 19 published an interesting post about how our resident Web giants are sucking the soul out of the startup industry. Don't like the hyperbole? Try Pingdom's phraseology: The problem is, no matter how brilliant your software or service may be, there's always a cloud on the horizon. There are elephants out there, the likes of...
Online Spending Expected To Break Records
November 24, 2010, 5:50 am"We are seeing online spending surpass the totals we saw in 2007 prior to the recession,"
SEO content marketing roundup, week ending November 24th
November 24, 2010, 4:52 amE-commerce marketers give thanks as this week's latest and greatest web writing news features black Friday bleeding into cyber Monday, with high hopes of a retail surge. Seasonal discussions about competitive content marketing, whipping your website into shape with SEO, and effectively engaging your prospects with social media abound. You could...
No More Dedicated Adwords Reps For European Agencies
November 24, 2010, 3:14 amIt appears the personal relationships between European agencies that run large scale Adwords spends and their dedicated Google reps is just not that important anymore. Effective January 1, European ad agencies will have to use the online support resources and a call center, Accuracast reported . Click to read the rest of this post.
Gambling and Humor Show Steady Growth in October
November 24, 2010, 2:13 amComScore has released their October 2010 Media Metrix report which counts down the Top 50 US Web Properties for the month. Halloween helped PartyCity.com double their monthly visitor count making them the number one growth site, followed closely by AVG Technologies and McDonalds. Google held the top spot for most visitors with Yahoo close on its...
No More Dedicated Adwords Reps For European Agencies?
November 24, 2010, 1:38 amIt appears the personal relationships between European agencies that run large scale Adwords spends and their dedicated Google reps is just not that important anymore. Effective January 1, European ad agencies will have to use the online support resources and a call center, Accuracast reported. Click to read the rest of this post...
Use Content to Help Visitors and Your SEO
November 23, 2010, 11:22 pmI see websites being built all the time that seem to head in the right direction but miss certain important elements of a website that could be easily incorporated into a website structure early in the process that could bring many great search engine optimization efforts into the picture down the road.
Your Landing Page Sucks! Here are 10 Examples That Don’t…
November 23, 2010, 9:44 pmLanding pages are an essential part of any conversion process, but sadly most of them are terrible, and designers are often unaware of how they should create a landing page that will perform well.. This post shares 10 examples that follow the principles of conversion centered design. They can be use for inspiration for the destination pages of...
What Is "Advanced" SEO?
November 23, 2010, 9:29 pmPosted by Dr. Pete One of the things we struggle with as SEO content providers, whether it's as bloggers or event organizers, is what level to target content at. It seems that, almost no matter what the content, some part of the audience complains that it isn't advanced enough. This is clearly an industry-wide struggle we even have conferences...
Patent Office Agrees To Facebook's "Face" Trademark
November 23, 2010, 8:01 pmWhile it seems so bizarre that a company should have the right to trademark a word as common as "Face" apparently the USPTO isn't at all disturbed.
Answers to the SEO Professional's Litmus Test
November 23, 2010, 5:59 pmPosted by randfish Yesterday I wrote a post: Ten Question Litmus Test for Professional SEOs . Today, as promised, I'm providing my answers to these questions. Note that these aren't the only way(s) to answer correctly, as some of the questions are more open-ended. In the answers, you'll also see citations to sources for the answers.
Countries Where Citizens Spend the Most Time on Social Networking Sites
November 23, 2010, 5:08 pmDo you know which country has the most active users of social networking sites than anyone else in the world? This would include the most amount of hours that the users spend online, surfing the web, in addition to interacting on social sites. Would you have guessed the United States? If you did, you would .
comScore Forecasts 11 Percent Growth for 2010 Holiday E-Commerce Spending
November 23, 2010, 5:03 pmcomScore (NASDAQ : SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today reported holiday season retail e-commerce spending for the first 21 days of the November - December 2010 holiday season, as well as its official spending forecast for the season. For the holiday season-to-date, $9.01 billion has been spent online, marking a 13-percent...
Microsoft Names Principal Architect Of Bing Mobile
November 23, 2010, 4:42 pmA man who fostered a great reputation in the geospatial community by founding OpenStreetMap, "a free editable map of the whole world," has started working for Microsoft. The company announced today that Steve Coast will assume the impressive title "Principal Architect of Bing Mobile." We should note right here: this development doesn't mean Coast...
Amazon's Price Check App: This is War!
November 23, 2010, 4:42 pmAmazon's iPhone app has had the ability to scan a bar code and compare prices since October but now the sales giant is putting that ability front and center with a new app they call Price Check. The app, which was just released in time for Black Friday shopping, is specifically designed and marketed to siphon sales away from brick and mortar...
SEO SpyGlass Adds Blekko as Additional Backlink Research
November 23, 2010, 4:42 pmToday SEO SpyGlass , the link and and competitor research software we gave a very favorable review earlier , is adding a new exciting feature and data source - the news is pretty huge, so we decided to announce it as a separate announcement post. As you know, since there's no telling how long Yahoo Site Explorer will last the eyes of the search...
Amazon’s Price Check App: This is War!
November 23, 2010, 4:28 pmAmazon’s iPhone app has had the ability to scan a bar code and compare prices since October but now the sales giant is putting that ability front and center with a new app they call Price Check.
The app, which was just released in time for Black Friday shopping, is specifically designed and marketed to siphon sales away from brick and mortar...
AOL Gets Big on Video
November 23, 2010, 4:22 pmAOL has launched a new AOL Video division, which the company says will aggregate its online video library assets under one "strategic umbrella." The company also says it delivers on the entire video value chain from creation through syndication to distribution, consumer experience and monetization. YouTube has a new competitor. AOL's video...
Adwords Contextual Targeting Tool Review
November 23, 2010, 4:11 pmGoogle makes it easier to create contextual campaigns...this post takes you "step by step" through the process.
Google Places Now Requiring New “Places Profile” For Reviews
November 23, 2010, 3:49 pmGoogle has now implemented a new, limited review profile called a “Places Profile” that allows reviews to be shown but requires a new, quasi private profile with at least a public nickname to proceed.
Planes, Trains, and Automobiles: Thanksgiving Travel Resource Guide
November 23, 2010, 3:30 pmby Claudine Zap Planning to be at Grandma's house for the Thanksgiving feast? That shouldn't be a problem, except for the hoards of other travelers, foul weather, heightened security - you get the idea. Already, the forecast is in and the outlook for many regions is grim: lots of wintry weather, meaning delays for travelers. The blizzard in the...
Mobile Users Are Using Their Devices in Your Store. Are You Taking Advantage?
November 23, 2010, 3:20 pm9 out of 10 mobile Internet users have accessed the mobile web while at a store, according to a new study from Yahoo and Nielsen. Furthermore, 51% of those users indicate that they make a purchase after doing research on their mobile device.
"As consumers increasingly turn to their mobile device throughout the day, particularly when...
TouchGraph Google Browser: Visual Web Relation Tool
November 23, 2010, 2:59 pmTouchGraph Google Browser is an amazing free tool that lets people build up visual charts that show the ways in which websites are connected through the use of Google's RELATED advanced operator tag. This shouldn't be mistaken for a backlink checking tool, as it doesn't show that type of connectivity between sites (unless links have .
Holiday on eBay: Buy Now and Pay Later
November 23, 2010, 2:34 pmHi everyone - Doug Filak here from the PayPal Credit Team. As PayPal's Shopping Specialist, Claudia Lombana, mentioned in her recent post Bill Me Later has special offers for select eBay shoppers this holiday season. $10 Back - From now through December 31, 2010, eBay shoppers will receive $10 back on their first Bill Me Later purchase.
If "Likes" Are The New Links, Content Quality Should Increase
November 23, 2010, 2:28 pmMore WebProNews Videos It's become increasingly clear that social interactions with content are in important element in the promotion and visibility of that content. Beyond the simple viral nature of Facebook "likes" and Twitter retweets, they have simply become part of the fabric of the web and discoverability of content, in some cases even more...
Improving Site Performance With mod_pagespeed
November 23, 2010, 2:26 pmUsing page speed as a primary factor in the search-engine process will only affect a tiny percentage of sites, according to information from Google. The company provides a number of ways to speed up sites. Webmasters should probably take look at these. code.google.com
The key is using filters that drive down to best performance practices on the...
NASA And The White House Tops In Social Media
November 23, 2010, 2:13 pmNASA and the White House lead other public sector organizations when it comes to social media and online strategy, according to a new report from The George Washington University School of Business (GWSB) and digital think tank. Authored by the dean of GWSB, Doug Guthrie, NYU professor Scott Galloway and team from L2, the report looked at the...
Rumor Puts Google In Pursuit Of Miramax Movies
November 23, 2010, 1:57 pmYouTube's selection of movies has been largely awful to date, both in terms of size and quality. That may soon change in a big way, though, as a new report puts Google in discussions to buy the digital rights to over 700 Miramax films. Claire Atkinson wrote, "Google is in talks with Filmyard Holdings, the soon-to-be owners of famed film studio...
Top online shopping trends for the holiday season
November 23, 2010, 1:21 pmAs Black Friday approaches, should you plan ahead or procrastinate this holiday season? While Black Friday warriors may get their list done sooner, procrastinators who wait until the last minute to make their purchases hope to take advantage of deeper discounts from retailers as the holiday nears. . If youre a last minute December shopper, youve...
Inconsistent results when viewing bookmarks?
November 23, 2010, 1:16 pmAs you all know Delicious is growing and more and more bookmarks are added every minute, as a result we've gotten to the point where we need to expand into new machines. It's time for us to grow to accommodate all the bookmarks we currently have and the millions more we expect over the coming year. We have plans in place to complete this expansion...
Help Delicious From Yahoo! Support Classrooms Across the Country!
November 23, 2010, 1:16 pmKnowing that Delicious is a darling Internet product for so many of you teachers and professors, (we currently have over 1,555,308 bookmarks saved under the tag teacher alone) we wanted to share this opportunity with you and ask your help in getting the word out. This holiday season, Yahoo! is rallying teachers, students, and its entire Delicious...
Small Business: Why Negative Keywords are Essential, and How they Work
November 23, 2010, 12:20 pmIf youve ever heard me speak at one of our monthly Introduction to Advertising on Bing & Yahoo! Search webinars , youre likely familiar with my explanation of negative keywords and the observation that in my experience, I believe they are a necessity for all search advertising campaigns. If youre a fairly advanced search user that understands the...
Google Gives $100,000 Toward Bid For Turing Papers
November 23, 2010, 11:49 amGoogle has a habit of decorating its corporate offices with interesting, science-oriented objects. Its headquarters in Mountain View sport a model T-Rex skeleton and a SpaceShipOne replica, for example. But when it came to some papers authored by Alan Turing, Google offered to give $100,000 to support another entity's bid for ownership today....
Facebook COO: Facebook More Valuable When You're Older
November 23, 2010, 11:49 amWhile Facebook may have half a billion users, there's a good chance you've had some experience with someone from an older generation dismissing it as something for the young. While there are plenty of older people using the service, middle aged is a demographic Facebook would like to get more engaged with its offerings. Facebook COO Sheryl...
The 4 Ws (and one H) of Emailing Marketing
November 23, 2010, 11:33 amHow do you get the most out of your email marketing campaigns? You need the right strategy for calling prospects to action. If you want your web marketing strategy to engage buyers, how you use emails, how you construct them, who you send them to and when you send them, all become important. Here's the who, what, when, the why and the how of email...
Win holiday cash with the Bing Holiday Shopping Facebook App
November 23, 2010, 11:28 amThe holidays are upon us and you know what that meansshopping, baked goods, parties, shopping, decorating, baked goods, shopping, and, well, for most of us, its the one time of year that were doing more shopping than wed like. Finding the perfect gift for everyone on the list is tough: Cashmere sweater or silk-scarf? Xbox 360 or digital camera?...
Check out the New PayPal Security Center
November 23, 2010, 11:23 amHello everyone! This week marks the start of the busiest shopping season of the year. More people than ever are choosing to avoid the crowds and are going online to look for the best deals and gift ideas. So, before you polish off your turkey and open up your browser, I wanted to take a moment to tell you about some new PayPal security initiatives...
Retailers Increasing Paid Search Ads Ahead Of Black Friday
November 23, 2010, 11:18 amU.S. paid search spend from retailers has increased nearly 37 percent ahead of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, compared to last year, according to a new report from SearchIgnite. The increase in retailers online PPC spend appears to be paying off as the economy bounces back from the recession; the rate at which consumers converted after clicking on...
Is a Twitter News Service What Consumers Need?
November 23, 2010, 11:02 amMany are getting a substantial amount of their news today from Twitter, but Twitter appears to have higher aspirations for becoming an important news service. Co-founder Biz Stone told Reuters this week, "From the very beginning this has seemed almost as if it's a news wire coming from everywhere around the world....I think a Twitter News Service...
What I'm grateful for'
November 23, 2010, 10:42 amDo you celebrate Thanksgiving on auto-pilot? You eat. You party. You watch sports and check out the latest movies. You hang out with friends and family. And in the back of your mind, you're thinking, "Hey, I better get as much downtime as I can. Monday is just around the corner." That's true - but the question is, "What are you grateful for?" Did...
Optimizing Your Facebook Page for Search
November 23, 2010, 10:05 amWhile the introduction of MySpace and early social networks was greeted with skepticism, there isn't a single doubter left in the audience these days. Facebook has conquered Google as the most visited site, trounced television as the biggest waste of time, and become the primary way that many people connect. It's not unsurprising, then, that .
Bing Feature Update: Bing Movies streamlines movie search
November 23, 2010, 10:05 amProviding the best movie results for everyone who uses Bing is not an easy task. Many times, youre looking for a movie because its received great reviews, has a mind-blowing trailer or is playing at your favorite theater. Other times, youre looking for a movie based on where you happen to be, or what time the film is showing. And if youre like...
Tim Berners Lee: A Call for Continued Open Standards and Neutrality
November 23, 2010, 10:04 am"Why should you care? Because the Web is yours. It is a public resource on which you, your business, your community and your government depend."
Creating Conversation Between Client and Consumer: How the MSN UK Specials Team Can Help
November 23, 2010, 9:55 amAdvertisers are no less demanding now than they were before Microsoft introduced paid-content to its MSN portals circa 2000. And its no surprise. Digital advertising opens an exciting and competitive realm of potential for brands, wh ich advertisers hope to confront and use to build relationships with their consumers. Recently,
Buzz Reading List: Political Book Roundup
November 23, 2010, 9:50 amby Claudine Zap Barack Obama and Sarah Palin may not see eye to eye on much, but they do have one thing in common: They are both very popular authors. And now they each have another book coming out. Plus, the super-busy ex-president Jimmy Carter adds another book to his long list. Your political book buzz roundup. Saying Palin The...
Empower your clients or staff for the holidays
November 23, 2010, 9:50 amAre your clients in need of a little "consciousness raising"? How about your employees? I have a (somewhat self-serving) solution for you. Send them signed copies of Empowered with your own custom message inside. Just seeing the lightning bolt will brighten their recession weary souls ;-) Here's how it works: 1. Contact my book assistant, Jennifer...
Hilton Launches Facebook Sweepstakes For Free Holiday Weekend
November 23, 2010, 9:40 amHilton Garden Inn has launched a Facebook sweepstakes for a chance to win a free weekend getaway aimed at helping people recover from the holidays. Facebook users can enter the sweepstakes at Facebook.com/HiltonGardenInn and five people will be chosen at random to receive a free-two-night weekend stay at their choice of more than 510 locations...
Weekly Search & Social News: 11/23/2010
November 23, 2010, 9:40 amIt's time for another ' 7 Days of Search and Social '. With PubCon in full swing last week, you'd think it would be quiet out there. Strangely, things rolled along just fine. Really, the only sections lacking this week are the tools and social search areas. Other than that, there was plently to keep a geek thinking. And again, we made it through...
How to Get More Subscribers for Your Email List
November 23, 2010, 9:09 amEmail subscribers are the lifeblood of the online business. We all know we need them, and we all have specific ideas about how to capture them. Ethical bribes, free eBooks, special reports, pop-up forms, Internet radio shows . But if you want to have a truly fantastic conversion rate, you need to look deeper at the mind of the email subscriber....
Businesses Can Offer Customers Deals for Checking In with Yelp
November 23, 2010, 9:09 amYelp has announced check-in offers for businesses, meaning that businesses can offer Yelp users special deals for checking in at their place of business. Check-ins are tied to Twitter and Faecbook (for Android and iPhone users), so when a user checks in, they are potentially sharing it with a lot of their friends. The feature is part of the...
One Out Of Five Facebook Users May Be Exposed To Malware
November 23, 2010, 9:09 amHowever careful you've been when using Facebook up until now, it may be time to grow even more cautious. New stats from BitDefender indicate that at least one out of five Facebook users have been exposed to threats via their news feeds. That conclusion's based on data from BitDefender's Safego app, and may actually be conservative. The data...
Internet Marketing Cornucopia
November 23, 2010, 9:04 amI have many reasons to be grateful this year on many fronts for many reasons. One area happens to be the fact that I'm blessed to be working in such an amazing industry, with such amazing people. Thanks to all the people I get to work with, to my clients, to all the amazing friends I've come to have in the industry, my life is richer, more...
Yelp Joins Check-In Offer Crowd
November 23, 2010, 8:53 amYelp is truly trying to leverage its history as the local business review site of choice (depending on your age and your location for the most part). It has rolled out Yelp Deals in New York City and is now giving business owners the chance to provide check-in offers as well. Mashable reports With Yelp Check-in Offers, business owners can...
Preserving Alan Turing's papers at Bletchley Park
November 23, 2010, 8:43 amAs you may have seen , some key papers from British computer scientist and wartime codebreaker Alan Turing are up for auction today at Christie's in London. Dr Turing is a hero to many of us at Google for his pioneering work on algorithms and the development of computer science. (He's also an important figure for many across the world who face...
The perfect number of keywords for your website
November 23, 2010, 8:36 amThe purpose of SEO is to get a lot of new customers through high rankings on Google and other search engines. If you have taken the time to find the best keywords for your website, you probably have a very long list with many keywords. How do you add that list to your website and what is the right number of keywords per page?
How To Select And Identify Your Ideal Hosting Provider
November 23, 2010, 8:23 amHow do I choose an ideal web hosting provider? Which are the specific features and options to look for when selecting a web hosting solution? What are the key criteria to be used when selecting among multiple competing hosting services?
Photo credit: Robin Good
If you are new to the web publishing world, you should know that a web hosting...
Real-Time Social Classified Ads by Yakaz
November 23, 2010, 8:17 amParis-based Yakaz has recently launched a new real-time social classified ad system designed to quickly facilitate transactions between buyers and sellers. The Yakaz website offers visitors the chance to view and post to live classified feeds from across the country or in the city or state of their choice. My initial test drive of Yakaz was a...
Common Thread in Social Media for Business: Hiring
November 23, 2010, 8:17 amOn some level, most larger businesses are engaged in social media. I say larger only because we have discussed the plight of the SMB in this space before and it is not safe to assume they are doing anything at all with social media. To what degree and with what level of success these businesses use social media varies across the entire spectrum of...
What's New In SEO for November 23, 2010
November 23, 2010, 8:12 amWe have compiled the latest news and updates from the big three, Google, Bing and Yahoo as it relates to SEO and the search engines overall. WHAT'S NEW THIS WEEK WITH GOOGLE: Petits Fours In Your Search Results Google announced an expansion to their update search results feature. Now when we search, instead of two results from an official site,...
The Redeeming Qualities of Links with a Bad Reputation
November 23, 2010, 7:37 amJennifer Van Iderstyne explains why all links that can trigger human traffic are worth getting: "Some links are the redheaded stepchildren of the link building world. They are considered the low-hanging fruit, or even the spoiled fruit, but they're nowhere near the pick of the bunch. But even though we'd never put apples from the ground into a...
How To Gain A Competitive Edge In Local Search
November 23, 2010, 7:30 amSo far in this series, we’ve talked about whether Local Search is important for marketing your own business online, how to determine who your strongest online competitors are, how to tell if your competitors have claimed their listings and how to determine which categories in which to place your business. Now, we’ll talk about citations and...
How Bloggers Can Find Journalistic Credibility
November 23, 2010, 7:26 amMore WebProNews Videos What is the difference between a blogger and a journalist? Is the guy labeled a journalist automatically more credible because of that label? How can a blogger attain that kind of credibility? WebProNews recently sat down with freelance journalist Greg Ferenstein, probably best known for his articles at Mashable . He talked...
Think Local. Act Global. How Google Places Fails the Tourism Industry
November 23, 2010, 7:26 amFor location-based businesses, ranking highly in Google Places can be a boon to sales. This is not only true on Google.com, but also on many of the country-specific versions of Google as well. In the tourism and hospitality industries, business can use this medium to promote services to people planning trips to their location. Take for example a...
Gogobot SEO Enters the Social Networking Scene
November 23, 2010, 7:10 amIn a general sense, just about everything imaginable can be found on the Web through social networking. There are all sorts of varied opinions, reviews and referrals that you can find from your friends and followers on places like Facebook and Twitter. Most people would rather get their friend's opinion about something before they take .
Marketing Content During the Customer Lifecycle
November 23, 2010, 7:05 amWe've established the value of content marketing here through many different posts. Most of the focus has been on creating value from content at the top of the funnel in a buying cycle. That's where a lot of marketing dollars are focused and it's an area of focus for the consulting offered by many online marketing agencies. Content is the source...
How to Use Google Instant Previews to Drive More Traffic
November 23, 2010, 6:55 am"WebmasterWorld Members discuss what impact Google instant previews will have on traffic, who will benefit, and how we can all benefit from it."
Did Senator Wyden Save The Internet?
November 23, 2010, 6:24 amThere is - well make that was - a new internet censorship bill being considered in Washington DC - Combating Online Infringements and Counterfeits Act (COICA) - that would have allowed the Justice Department to use court orders to shut down websites thought to infringe on copyright even before a violation is proved in court. Fortunately, Democrat...
Google Chrome Ads Now in Print Newspapers
November 23, 2010, 4:15 amOne week ago, Google CEO Eric Schmidt surprised we media folk at the Web 2.0 Summit with the news that Chrome Operating System was a " few months away ." Try as I might, I never did get a good reason why. Now it seems Google, after months of hyping the Chrome browser on ESPN.com and The New York Times onlone, has turned to serving up print ads....
The Impact of Twitter Feeds on Google SERPs
November 23, 2010, 3:58 am"WebmasterWorld Members experiment with Twitter feeds and discuss the impact of the data on Google's SERPs, with some interesting results." (-subscription required)
Segmenting Social Traffic in Google Analytics
November 23, 2010, 3:50 amPosted by randfish If you use Google Analytics, you've undoubtedly seen a report like this: The problem is, there's no breakdown of "social media" in this view of traffic sources, and with the dramatic rise of social media marketing, marketers need an easy way to segment and "see" this traffic separately from the rest of their referrers. We know...
Opera 11 Beta Released; Includes Tab Stacking and Extensions
November 23, 2010, 3:02 am"Opera 11 beta is available for Windows, Mac and Unix."
Live online course on how to define and analyze conversions on your site using Analytics Goals
November 23, 2010, 1:05 amOn Wednesday November 24th we're hosting a free, live, online course about Goals in Google Analytics. Goals help you measure conversions or successful actions on your website, such as visits to a 'thank you' page after a customer makes a purchase on your site. In this live course you'll learn how to set up Goals and how they can benefit you. We'll...
Google Doodle Offers Turkey Cooking Tips
November 23, 2010, 12:14 amSo you could use a little help improving your turkey cooking skills. Well Google has gathered some great tips and if you click on the Doodle on their search page you get them. Click to read the rest of this post.
Does Your Business Need a Mobile App?
November 22, 2010, 11:07 pmMobile phone applications overlap a great deal of areas when it comes to online marketing. Often time's people don't realize that a mobile phone application can really help their business grow and keep current customers from leaving. Perhaps a mobile phone application has never crossed your mind or maybe it has but the reality is that the mobile...
Five Essays on the Open Web - Post 2 - Chris Tolles
November 22, 2010, 10:52 pmOur next mini-essay contributor, Chris Tolles, takes a bullish view of the future open playing field of the Web, due to the continued prevalence of' of all things' spam! Chris Tolles: Spam as a social asset I'm not worried about the future of the web. And you know why? Spam.
SEO is Undead Again (Profiles, Phrases, Entities, and Language Models)
November 22, 2010, 10:34 pmBill Slawski takes a look at how search engines have evolved their ranking methodology, and the various patents that support a shift from keywords and links to phrases, semantics, and user behavior/intent - and why SEO as a practice needs to continue to evolve alongside.
Have Other Analytics Companies Fixed Instant Previews Issues?
November 22, 2010, 8:23 pmOkay so Google addressed the Instant Previews pageview count issues for their analytics. But now we have to ask how is this effecting counts in all other programs. Just in case the companies have not seen the numerous mentions on Twitter and various forums and blogs, those little popups of people's websites in the Google search results were being...
Should You Be Archiving Your Social Media Data?
November 22, 2010, 6:30 pmImagine throwing all of your company's hard copy files off the roof of twenty-story building in Manhattan. Tax returns, meeting notes, personnel files, all of it, gone with the wind. That's the brick and mortar version of the business data that's currently speeding along the social media super highway. From public Twitter Tweets to private...
Track Google Site Preview Bot in Google Analytics
November 22, 2010, 5:13 pmRasmus Himmelstrup ( @rasmusgi ) tweeted a link to a post on Web Analytics Island about how to track the Google Site Preview bot in SiteCatalyst. The tracking relies on the face that Google site preview shows a rendered image of the page so it must execute any javascript on the page. If Google are executing the Site Catalyst code then maybe they...
Stating the obvious: On Social Media & Marketing
November 22, 2010, 4:52 pmTerrific post that covers the fundamentals that are often lost amongst buzz words and trends - that social media is just another marketing channel focusing on customer relationships, and should approached and executed as such. From the article - "Marketing on social media channels isn’t “social.” It is just marketing. Just as publishing...
How To Create an Action Tag
November 22, 2010, 4:37 pmIn my previous post, I talked about the benefits of using action tags. You can track how many people visit your website's home page, searched for something, and finally purchased. You can also track metric or category data, pass that information to Media Console for advanced reporting, let publisher networks 'piggyback' on action tags, and share...
comScore to Speak at the Credit Suisse 2010 Annual Technology Conference
November 22, 2010, 3:25 pmLocation-Based Services Too New to Know How They'll Be Abused
November 22, 2010, 3:19 pmLast week, Symantec's MessageLabs Intelligence Sr. Analyst Paul Wood shared some predictions for online threats in the coming year with us. With the increasing emergence of location-based services, we wondered what kind of threats (beyond the obvious) come with this new territory. "One attack that may be predicted is for malware faking location...
Home Depot Personalizes Gift Cards with Video
November 22, 2010, 3:19 pmA gift card may seem like the last act of a desperate gift giver, but Home Depot is determined to change that feeling by adding video to their cards. When sending a Home Depot e-card, you can now upload a video up to 3 minutes long, or, you can use a webcam to record a message. Then, the recipient uses the code they receive in their email to...
Twitter To Add European Employees Next Year
November 22, 2010, 2:43 pmIt looks like a whole new push to gain users, attract advertisers, or do both will soon get underway at Twitter. The company's confirmed that it'll have employees based in Europe starting sometime next year. Unfortunately, not a lot more details are available right now. We don't know, for example, if this development will increase Twitter's...
The Ultimate Small Business Website Resource
November 22, 2010, 2:40 pmThis is a really great 101-level starter guide from Samir Balwani. It covers everything from hosting and design to CMS concerns, SEO, blogging, local visibility and a whole heck of a lot more.
Yahoo: For All Your Dining Needs
November 22, 2010, 2:23 pmYahoo was once the Emperor of the search engine world. Since 1998, however, they've been on a steady decline, repeatedly narrowing their focus as they seek a niche to conquer. With the release of three new applications, it's become clear what their current target is: your entire dining experience. Sketch-a-Search This touch-based application...
eBay Releases Updated iPhone Application
November 22, 2010, 2:12 pmeBay has released a new version of its iPhone app that adds selling functionality and RedLaser barcode-scanning technology. The updated iPhone app allows users to comparison shop by scanning barcodes and accessing a wider a variety of merchandise including electronics, movies and videogames. More shoppers are turning to their mobile phones to save...
How and Why Remarketing Can Gain Back Lost Customers
November 22, 2010, 2:12 pmLate last year, Advertise.com and the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO) shared some interesting findings from a survey on ad technology, and found that remarketing (sometimes called retargeting) was considered the most under-utilized online marketing technology by nearly half or respondents. Since then, Google has launched...
Future of 'Harry Potter' Series, Don't Meet in St. Louis, and Netflix Fees Go Up: What's the Buzz
November 22, 2010, 1:52 pmby Claudine Zap Our top picks from the day's hottest searches. J.K. Rowling (Searches increased by 3,594%). Hope for Potterheads: The author of the "Harry Potter" series told Oprah Winfrey that she could write an eighth or ninth "Potter" book. But will she? Sweet potato casserole with marshmallows (+1,100%). Something to be thankful for: The one...
Ten Question Litmus Test for Professional SEOs
November 22, 2010, 1:46 pmPosted by randfish A few years back, I wrote a popular post on SEOmoz featuring a set of questions I felt were a litmus test for SEOs seeking to charge for their consulting services. It's time to revisit that, as many of the answers have changed and the baseline has moved (forward). If you're in the SEO business professionally - either as an...
Google Cloud Connect May Be Important Piece in Google's Overall Strategy
November 22, 2010, 1:06 pmGoogle announced a new feature of Google Docs today, called Google Cloud Connect for Microsoft Office. The feature comes from Google's acquisition of DocVese, a company that specialized in the real-time sharing and editing of documents, earlier this year. They paid $25 million for it, and it could turn out to be a huge piece of the puzzle in...
Coming Soon: Skippable YouTube TrueView Ads
November 22, 2010, 1:00 pmYouTube is set to premiere a new kind of advertising called TrueView, which lets users either choose between three different ads, or skip them completely.Click to read the rest of this post...
PayPal Welcomes Patrick Dupuis as CFO
November 22, 2010, 12:23 pmI'm happy to announce that Patrick Dupuis has joined PayPal as our new chief financial officer. Patrick brings more than 25 years of corporate financial experience, along with expertise in all areas of business development and operations. He's held senior executive and CFO roles at some of the world's leading companies, including Sitel, BJC...
Valuing Facebook's Ads
November 22, 2010, 12:20 pmThe Wall Street Journal takes a look at the disconnect between the amount of ads being served at Facebook, vs. the budgets applied to display ads at the network, and speculates as to why that disparity exists. From the article - "New data from comScore Inc. show that in September 24% of all online display ads in the U.S. appeared on...
Infoseek Name Up For Auction Next Month
November 22, 2010, 12:17 pmThe trademark and domain name that once belonged to popular '90s search engine Infoseek will up for auction Dec. 8 in New York, for those interested in owning a piece of search engine history. Click to read the rest of this post.
The new AdSense interface: More insights
November 22, 2010, 12:12 pmNow that you've had some time to dive deeper into the new AdSense interface, we want to be sure that you're taking advantage of the additional insights at your disposal to help you make smart business decisions. You can now customize graphs and run detailed performance reports to analyze the amount you've made from various ad formats, ad sizes,...
Do You Really Want to Grow Your Online Network?
November 22, 2010, 11:55 amAt least once per day I get asked by someone this very ambigous question: “How do I grow my online network?”. I am done answering this question because when I ask people what they are doing – it’s as if they have completely forgot about everything PRE-SOCIAL MEDIA....
Amazon Launches Price Check App For iPhone
November 22, 2010, 11:28 amAmazon.com has introduced a new free price comparison app for iPhone that lets people compare in-store prices with prices from Amazon and other online retailers. The app called Price Check, allows iPhone users to scan a barcode, take a picture, or say or type a product name to receive prices for an item from Amazon and other online retailers. This...
comScore Media Metrix Ranks Top 50 U.S. Web Properties for October 2010
November 22, 2010, 11:23 amcomScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released its monthly analysis of U.S. web activity at the top online properties for October 2010 based on data from the comScore Media Metrix service. Americans stayed up-to-date on the approaching midterm election by visiting political news sites in October. Online...
Skippable Ads On Deck At YouTube
November 22, 2010, 11:13 amHowever much marketers might like to think otherwise, trying to force a person to watch an ad online does little good. The average person will open a different tab, run to the bathroom, or perhaps just stare at the nearest wall. So YouTube may be onto something as it prepares to give users the option of skipping certain ads. According to Irina...
Growing Amount of Users Turning to People Search When Social Networks Fall Short
November 22, 2010, 11:13 amWhile Facebook's numbers continue to grow, it remains a reality that not everyone is on Facebook. So where do you turn to find people that you're looking for online when they don't have a Facebook account, or even if they do, but Facebook's search results don't do the best job of providing the result you're looking for? An increasing number of...
Viacom Joins the Google TV Blockade
November 22, 2010, 11:00 amViacom, owner of networks such as Comedy Central, MTV, and Nickelodeon, is the latest to join the fight against Google TV. Click to read the rest of this post...
Social Networking in the Carribean
November 22, 2010, 10:06 amSocial networking is quite popular, and you would think that it actively exists universally. Many businesses have realized the power of social media and networking, and have harnessed that power to work in their respective industries and areas of business concentration. But no matter how popular it is and despite its phenomenal growth, social...
The Bing Million Dollar Giving Challenge to help schools launches for the holidays
November 22, 2010, 10:06 amBing is ready to share some holiday cheer with deserving schools our goal is to give one million dollars to schools in need before December 31 st ! Starting today, you can help us help kids with one simple click at www.bing.com/gives . The Bing One Million Dollar Giving Challenge is in partnership with DonorsChoose.org, a long-term partner of...
Jobs: iOS 4.2 Makes iPad a Completely New Product
November 22, 2010, 9:50 amApple made the latest version of its iOS operating system (4.2) available today. The OS, which powers the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch devices includes some important updates for the iPad with features like multitasking, folders, a unified Inbox, Game Center, AirPlay and AirPrint. "iOS 4.2 makes the iPad a completely new product, just in time for...
Web's Inventor "Disturbed" By Current State of Creation
November 22, 2010, 9:19 amThe inventor of the web is not thrilled with the current state of his creation or the direction it's taking. Tim Berners-Lee has released a new report at Scientific American, entitled Long Live the Web: A Call for Continued Open Standards and Neutrality , with the subtitle: "The Web is critical not merely to the digital revolution but to our...
Netflix Launches Streaming-Only In U.S.
November 22, 2010, 9:04 amNetflix said today it is introducing a $7.99 streaming-only subscription plan in the United States, the first time it is offering a full streaming-only option in the U.S. "We are now primarily a streaming video company delivering a wide selection of TV shows and films over the Internet," said Reed Hastings, Netflix co-founder and CEO. "Today's...
Will Your Site Survive the Google Shrink Ray?
November 22, 2010, 8:54 amGoogle likes to play a little game with those of us who do business online. The game is called "change all the rules and see who survives." It's often a fun and rewarding game for Google users, but it can be painful for business owners. In the latest version, Google has rolled out a feature called Instant Previews . When enabled, users see a cute...
Google TV Dead on Arrival as Viacom Blocks Access Too
November 22, 2010, 8:54 amIf you recently bought a Google TV device, I hope you kept the receipt! If you're on the fence, then this might convince you that Google's foray into set-top boxes is dead on arrival: Viacom just yanked access to its content. Viacom has joined the ranks of NBC, ABC, Fox, and CBS-all of which have blocked Google TV in some form or another. Comedy...
Google Negotiating to Bring Miramax Films to YouTube
November 22, 2010, 8:23 amIn an attempt to bolster YouTube, Google is trying to reach a deal with the new owners of Miramax about gaining access to the movie company's archives of more than 700 films, such as "Pulp Fiction," "Chicago," "Shakespeare in Love," and "No Country for Old Men," the New York Post reported. Click to read the rest of this post.
7 Keyword Suggest Tools Beyond Google
November 22, 2010, 8:02 amWe all know about the value that you can find while performing keyword research using the Google Suggest feature for regular search as well as images, videos, and more. But let's look beyond Google for a moment - other sites are incorporating the suggestion feature in their search box as well. Here are just a few of them, as well as some examples...
Google Adwords Cost
November 22, 2010, 8:02 amI hope this article encourages people to look at testing different AdWords strategies as it is important to trial new methodologies using parts of your campaign to ensure you clients stay ahead of the competition. The first point is I personally feel any method you read such as over bidding on keywords to kill off competitors profitability is...
Murdoch's Own Version of "The Daily" Show
November 22, 2010, 7:52 amRupert Murdoch is determined to take the free out of Internet publishing if it's the last thing he does on this earth. In his latest effort to do so he is even in cahoots with someone that seems a bit surprising, Steve Jobs. Murdoch's News Corp has apparently sunk $30 million into hiring 100 people to produce an iPad only paper in the very near...
Subtle Facebook Message to Users Sends Big Message to Google
November 22, 2010, 7:47 amWhen you get on the web, where is the first place you go? If you regularly close your browser, it's whatever you have your home page set as. Is the page the destination of the majority of your online activity? If so, there's a good chance you have Facebook set as your home page. Maybe it's Google or Yahoo or Bing. Whatever it is, Facebook appears...
Murdoch’s Own Version of “The Daily” Show
November 22, 2010, 7:43 amRupert Murdoch is determined to take the free out of Internet publishing if it’s the last thing he does on this earth. In his latest effort to do so he is even in cahoots with someone that seems a bit surprising, Steve Jobs.
Murdoch’s News Corp has apparently sunk $30 million into hiring 100 people to produce an iPad only paper in the very...
Let Me Teach You a Thing Or Two About Domain Sales
November 22, 2010, 7:38 amPowerful advice about a topic that makes most of us a bit uncomfortable and nervous.
How many of your employees love your products? (And why it matters.)
November 22, 2010, 7:31 amby Josh Bernoff In a world where you need to depend on your staff to reach to increasingly empowered customers, you won't get very far if your employees don't believe in what you're doing. I mention this now because of two items I've noticed - employees in commercials and the data we collected on employee advocacy. First, as noted in an article in...
5 Ways to Win More Business with Google Places
November 22, 2010, 7:26 amWith the rise of smart phone use in the US, (Google Android and iPhone are currently reporting roughly 500,000 activations a day ) it's more important than ever to have your Google places listing up to speed because when people use voice search on Android phones, the first results they see are from Google local. Let's start with a few facts.
Online Marketing for Black Friday Shoppers
November 22, 2010, 7:16 amAttention Shoppers: Pull out your credit cards, and begin shopping! Black Friday is normally an event that commences the Friday after Thanksgiving and is chock-full of savings, discounts, sales and bargains for the savvy and money-conscious holiday shopper. However, this year, retailers are doing the Black Friday event a few weeks earlier, much...
Get Instant Access to Multiple Google Services with Google Shortcuts (FireFox)
November 22, 2010, 7:15 amGoogle is launching more and more free tools and services. I use some of them daily if not hourly (like Google Search, Google Docs, Gmail, Google Image Search, Google Analytics, more!); I hardly use some of them weekly (Buzz, Blogger) and I never use some of them at all (Picasa, Google Wave, Knol, etc). Due to such a variety of services and ways...
Don't Do A Half-Apped Job on Mobile
November 22, 2010, 6:34 amThe Age of the App is truly upon us. Not shocking or daring at all to announce it but this industry has come to life in a very short period of time and it is starting to settle in a bit. How do we know this? It's when app users en masse are no longer willing to accept just anything that is called an app. Once the new industry smell is gone, app...
7 web tools to detect useful insights and trends
November 22, 2010, 6:32 amIn order to create a successful SEO campaign, you need to have a good understanding of the way that people search, predict what keywords they will use for a given query and have a good knowledge of the market and of the industry. In this article we will examine 7 tools that if you use correctly, they can help you find the current trends,...
Singular and Plural Keywords Are Not Always the Same for SEO
November 22, 2010, 6:19 amby Mike Moran I received an interesting question the others day from a student in a class that I am teaching on SEO. He's on the process of optimizing a landing page for the keywords "waterproof jacket" (singular) and "waterproof jackets" (plural), he is noticing that each keyword produces different organic search results across multiple search...
Don’t Do A Half-Apped Job on Mobile
November 22, 2010, 6:17 amThe Age of the App is truly upon us. Not shocking or daring at all to announce it but this industry has come to life in a very short period of time and it is starting to settle in a bit. How do we know this? It’s when app users en masse are no longer willing to accept just anything that is called an app. Once the new industry smell is gone, app...
Apple Releases iOS 4.2 For iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch
November 22, 2010, 5:58 am"Once again, the iPad with iOS 4.2 will define the target that other tablets will aspire to, but very few, if any, will ever be able to hit."
YouTube Prepares to Offer Skippable Ads
November 22, 2010, 4:47 amMY DVR is precious to me for many reasons but one is the ability to skip over the commercials while watching my favorite shows. Now, YouTube is going to give their viewers the same choice and it raises some interesting questions. They call it TrueView, and according to AdAge, it's going to launch very soon. TrueView has a number of options...
Google Getting its Groupon Would Make a Merry Christmas
November 22, 2010, 4:16 amBoomtown last week set the blogging world ablaze with the rumor that Google is working up the nerve to buy local deal-making phenomenon, a startup several experts at the Web 2.0 Summit was worth billions. Groupon , which Boomtown said Google would shell out $3 billion for, offers subscribers local daily deals and the ability to pass them deals...
Blog about it! A smart content marketing strategy
November 22, 2010, 4:16 amGreetings! Today we're picking up our discussion of content strategy, specifically, how to develop and leverage our content by writing blogs. As you've surely noticed, blogging is big and is only getting bigger, and with good reason: besides helping to build search rankings and an online brand, blogs present a fantastic content marketing venue!...
It’s not Goodbye, it’s “See You Later”
November 22, 2010, 3:28 amHi Everyone and welcome to what will probably be my last blog post as a member of the Distilled family. Now that we have notified all of my clients, Duncan and I thought it would be appropriate to notify the rest of the search community about the fact that this will be my last month at Distilled.
I have learned a tremendous amount in my time here...
Tools to Predict and Monitor Competitor Traffic
November 22, 2010, 1:06 amPosted by Sam Crocker Today we're going to break down a number of different tools and resources for getting insights into competitors traffic data. We have looked at a handful of tools here and will break them down one by one as to their strengths and weaknesses, as well as the validity and usefulness of the data provided.
10 Questions With Donna Fontenot
November 21, 2010, 11:58 pmA former tradition on my old “SEO Honolulu” blog was that I would fire out a 10 question list to someone in the industry that I wanted to know more about. Also, it was a great way to meet this person, and of course, possibly introduce them to new people. Today, I am proud to announce that I have re-ignited that fire, and my guest of...
Twitter Improvements That We Need!
November 21, 2010, 11:18 pmI entirely embrace Twitter and what it has done for the business and personal world as far as online communication goes. What boggles my mind is how does a company which receives so much venture capital funding fail to evolve the overall user experience of their product? I'm not talking about rebuilding the website I am talking about basic changes...
Five Essays on the Open Web - Post 1
November 21, 2010, 9:35 pmThe World Wide Web turns 20 next month. Will it make it safely into middle age, or flame out like Jim Morrison? Tim Berners-Lee sparked debate this week with a timely piece in Scientific American - Long Live the Web: A Call for Continued Open Standards and Neutrality . Some observers felt he was taking a particular swipe at Facebook and Apple. Sir...
Branding in the Digital Age: You’re Spending Your Money in All the Wrong Places
November 21, 2010, 5:28 pmComprehensive look at the changing nature of how and when consumers interact with brands on purchase decisions, including analysis of an in-depth case study. From the article at the Harvard Business Review - "Marketers have long used the famous funnel metaphor to think about touch points: Consumers would start at the wide end of the funnel with...
Bride-to-Be Paralyzed at Bachelorette Party
November 21, 2010, 3:52 pmby Mike Krumboltz A few weeks before her wedding day, Rachelle Friedman went out for her bachelorette party with some close friends. After a night out on the town, the group went to the home of Rachelle's best friend, who has a swimming pool. The friend playfully pushed Rachelle into the pool, something they'd done to each other many times before,...
Google Promotions For Webmaster Tools Instead Of Ads
November 21, 2010, 12:31 pmSeems Google really wants everyone to add tagging to their web pages. I was doing some research on the SEW forums and I saw a promotion where normally there would be a sponsored listing - sorry where an Ad would be now. a So I did some more tests and apparently if you do a site: search you will see this ad.Clever really as it asks if you are site...
Using Your Phone As Your Credit Card Could Be Coming To U.S. Soon
November 20, 2010, 9:16 pmWhile using your mobile phone to make purchases has been around in Eurpoe and Asia for a number of years, there always seem to be some legal or financial hurdle stopping it being offered in the United States. Well not any more, if reports by Internet Retailer are accurate. "In a move that could one day replace wallets with mobile phones, three...
Essential Black Friday Tool: Google Launches Desktop Store Inventory Checker
November 20, 2010, 8:10 pmJust in time for the hectic shopping season, Google has rolled out a desktop app that many people venturing out on Black Friday will love - the ability to check if items are actually in stock at the store location they are going to!! Click to read the rest of this post.
Google Releases on a New Guide to Browsing
November 20, 2010, 2:15 pmThe Internet is closing in on the two-billion users mark, and average users are spending more and more time online each day. However, for all of the popularity of the web, only a select handful understand the technology that powers it. Browsers, the engine of the web, seem to be surrounded by a shroud of .
Bing's Social Searching Takes it Up a Notch
November 20, 2010, 11:00 amNow, when you need to know the rating of that new restaurant in town, or if you should shell out the money to see that new flick that looks promising, you don't have to search all over the web for feedback and reviews. Just go to your Bing search engine and let your fingers do .
Are the Unsung Heros of Search and Social Media Marketing Sartorially Challenged, Too?
November 20, 2010, 9:02 amOn Thursday, I asked, " Are the Brains of Search Engine Marketing and Search Engine Optimization Sartorially Challenged? " And I put together a list of the Top 10 SEMs who were working hard to change the industry's collective image - "sometimes in unpredictable ways." Click to read the rest of this post.
Cup of Joe: Do Your Customers Look Like Idiots?
November 20, 2010, 8:31 am[ via ] Flame-Resistant Sleepwear For Everyone In The Family. Wow! Just wow! It seems to me that if you and your family were sleeping in a location that is especially conducive to catching on fire, then maybe, just maybe, you might want to find a new place to sleep. I mean I think finding new sleepwear would be the last thing on my list. But, for...
Search Week in Review for Nov. 20, 2010
November 20, 2010, 7:24 amHere's a roundup of this week's columns and news stories for the week of Nov. 15 to 19, as reported by Search Engine Watch , as well as search news and tips from around the web. Click to read the rest of this post.
Stunning : Facebook Book Accounts for 25% of all Page Views
November 20, 2010, 6:19 am"... Facebook.com saw 3% more web visits and almost five times more pageviews than Google.com."
Bing SERPs Update?
November 19, 2010, 8:46 pm"Anyone else seeing changes in their Bing positions?"
Celebrity Romance: Buzz Week in Review
November 19, 2010, 7:29 pmby Mike Krumboltz If you're a celebrity in a relationship, then guess what? The Internet wants to know every little detail. This past week, there was plenty of celeb news to keep Web searchers happy. A pop princess got engaged, a TV personality did the same, and a primetime diva split from her hoops-playing hubby. Check out those stories and more...
Google to Delete U.K. WiFi Data
November 19, 2010, 7:19 pm"Data that should never have been collected in the first place can, at last, be deleted," according to U.K. Information Commissioner Christopher Graham, in referring to the e-mails, passwords, and other data Google inadvertently collected off unencrypted wireless networks with its Street View cars (last month called a " gross invasion of privacy...
Google Blurs Its Own Building in Germany as Street View Expands
November 19, 2010, 6:12 pmStreet View images of Germany's 20 largest cities, including Berlin, Hamburg, and Munich, are live in Google Maps, Google announced yesterday. One funny note (as spotted by CenterNetworks ): Google has been forced to blur out its own office building. Click to read the rest of this post.
Google Docs Improves Mobile Features
November 19, 2010, 6:07 pmGoogle has changed almost every field that it has entered. When it started Gmail, the features and face of web based email were altered forever. Further, when Google stepped into document creation and collaboration with their Google Docs tool, more than just a few people took note. In fact, new versions of Microsoft Word are .
Apigee releases new API console for PayPal X Developers
November 19, 2010, 6:02 pmHi everyone"Damon Hougland here, senior director of PayPal X. If you're like me and want to play with APIs before actually writing code, I think you'll really like what our friends at Apigee.com have just built. They've released a new API console that provides a great way for PayPal X developers to send and receive API calls for a variety of...
Google Plans to Hire 2,000+ Worldwide; Salaries Revealed
November 19, 2010, 5:10 pmEarlier this week, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said that "people are dying to come and work here," and that media reports of people abandoning the company for Facebook and other start-ups were "fundamentally wrong." Click to read the rest of this post.
The Value of Storytelling & Persuasion in Content Marketing
November 19, 2010, 4:34 pmWhile taking a short flight from Auckland to Queenstown, NZ I was thinking about the role of content as a tool of persuasion. Let me know what you think: In every marketplace, when something new like technology comes along that requires a change in behavior, there's a fairly predictable range of responses. Based on original research represented by...
Google Aids Borders With Local Availability Tool
November 19, 2010, 4:29 pmEarly this week, Borders announced a new version of its website on which users could (sometimes) employ Google Books to preview a novel. Now, the two organizations are building on that relationship, as would-be Borders shoppers should be able use Google Product Search to determine whether a local store has a given piece of merchandise in stock....
Editing Web Sites for Success: Does Bad Grammar Really Matter?
November 19, 2010, 4:24 pmIn short, yes, bad grammar matters. Customers are looking for a way to decide between advertisers and products. Some customers may go through the effort of researching products and stores, but more decide based on their initial impression. If your first impression is a misspelled word in an ad, you could easily become concerned that this isnt a...
Give Kindle Books As A Gift Via Email
November 19, 2010, 4:14 pmAmazon.com said today people can now give Kindle Books as gifts to anyone with an email address even if they don't own a Kindle. "We're making this functionality available in time for the holidays to offer an easy, stress free holiday shopping option for anyone - not just Kindle owners, said Russ Grandinetti, Vice President, Amazon Kindle. To...
Gnip Gets Its Hands on Twitter's Firehose
November 19, 2010, 3:33 pmSocial media data company, Gnip has announced a partnership with Twitter that will allow them to sell up to 50% of Twitter's data stream to anyone who can afford the price. And it's quite a price. According to ReadWriteWeb, "Gnip will offer 50% of all the messages posted to Twitter for $360,000 per year, or 5% of all messages for $60,000 per year.
Glee's Cast Keeps Growing
November 19, 2010, 3:27 pmby Mike Krumboltz " Glee " is growing. The Web is abuzz over Harry Shum, Jr. and Darren Criss joining the cast as series regulars (though Criss says he still hasn't been told that he got the promotion). Given the show's massive popularity, it's no surprise that fans are turning to the Web for the scoop on the new additions. Fret not, Gleeks. We've...
Yahoo Mimics Google Instant with Rich Search Assist
November 19, 2010, 3:27 pmIt's no secret that the search engines mimic each other when it comes to features. No release stays "new" or "unique" for very long. Such is the case with Google Instant. Released just a few weeks ago, Google Instant is now receiving the "most sincere form of flattery" from Yahoo. While Yahoo already had a .
Twitter Offers A Free Analytics Product for Tweeps
November 19, 2010, 3:27 pmWhen Twitter first became available in 2006 and started gaining in popularity (which was rather fast), many industry professionals wondered aloud if the new, exciting business venture was ever going to charge for their services. There was so much value offered by the service, and businesses and entrepreneurs alike were using Twitter at breaking...
Spinning Insults Intelligence, Steals Money and Hurts Businesses
November 19, 2010, 3:27 pmArticle spinning has become increasingly prevalent over the last couple of years. Bad enough that it has existed for quite some time… there are those in any industry that prefer to leech off the work of others. But now, a whole new sub-industry has risen.
Grougle? Googlepon? Rumors Anyone?
November 19, 2010, 2:53 pmWell, this will be a nice way to tidy up the week by adding to the rumor mill that has Google actively looking to purchase Groupon. Yup, that’s right. There is some rumor mill fodder to consider but from the heavy hitters like Kara Swisher at AllThingsDigital’s BoomTown as she reports
According to multiple sources close to the situation,...
Gnip Gets Its Hands on Twitter’s Firehose
November 19, 2010, 2:45 pmSocial media data company, Gnip has announced a partnership with Twitter that will allow them to sell up to 50% of Twitter’s data stream to anyone who can afford the price. And it’s quite a price.
According to ReadWriteWeb, “Gnip will offer 50% of all the messages posted to Twitter for $360,000 per year, or 5% of all messages...
What!?! That's My Competitor in My Google Places Listing! Or, How to Change the Street View Image in Google...
November 19, 2010, 1:56 pmImagine that you are diligent about maintaining a good quality Google Places listing for your business, complete with video, images, accurate information, monthly specials and discounts, even an experimental Tag. Imagine that you've ranked well for over a year now in Google Places and that your listing generates good leads to your business. Now...
Make Yahoo Your Homepage To Help Schools
November 19, 2010, 1:50 pmYahoo has launched Yahoo Homepages for Homerooms, a program aimed at helping teachers and classrooms get funding for projects.
Users can help teachers receive funding for projects by making Yahoo their homepage. The Yodel Anecdotal blog offers more details. “Through Yahoo Homepages for Homerooms, public school teachers...
Google Gets OK To Delete UK Street View WiFi Data
November 19, 2010, 12:31 pmAt least in the UK, Google may finally be able to put its recent Street View privacy gaffe behind it. The company's signed a commitment to improve its handling of data, and as a result, the UK Information Commissioner's Office has given Google permission to delete the sensitive information it collected by accident.
The last time we heard...
Usability. It’s Not Just for Hippies.
November 19, 2010, 12:30 pmThe next time you’re in a rush to push out that website: Just remember, one wrong design mis-step can really cost you ($12m). Asking users for feedback, can save more than just a few dollars.
Retailers Promoting Black Friday Via Twitter, Facebook And Email
November 19, 2010, 11:25 amUp to 138 million Americans plan to shop Black Friday weekend (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday), more than the 134 million people who planned to do so last year, according to a new survey from the National Retail Federation and BIGresearch.
"The rules for Black Friday have changed significantly,” said NRF President and CEO Matthew...
5 Reasons NOT to Delete Negative Reviews
November 19, 2010, 10:45 amWhile it may seem counter-intuitive, there are quite a few reasons why business owners want to resist the urge to delete comments and reviews that are critical of them. Sometimes, negative reviews can actually help, not harm, your business. Lisa Barone explains a few reasons why it’s okay to let negative reviews lie on your page.
SEO Advice for Bootstrapped Startups
November 19, 2010, 10:33 amSEO can provide a hugely valuable source of traffic, if done right – especially for a bootstrapped startup where money is tight. If your new product can rank for terms that potential customers are searching for, it can allow you to turn your startup into a success and can send you traffic that you may not be able to justify using AdWords for....
Open Positions At Google Top 2,000 In Number
November 19, 2010, 10:10 amAs of September 30th, Google had 23,331 full-time employees, and that's an impressive number, considering the company had just 21,805 full-time workers three months earlier. But now the number's set to jump again, as Google is looking to hire an additional 2,000 or so new employees.
Reuters thought to tally the number of positions listed on...
Winners of the 2010 Forrester Groundswell Awards (Consumer International)
November 19, 2010, 10:04 am[Reposted from Nate Elliott's blog] Social media adoption has grown in leaps and bounds over the past few years, and not just in North America. Did you know Italian and South Korean online users are more likely to engage with social media than American online users? Likewise, most of the European countries we study have a higher percentage of...
Delivering Converting UK Customers, Right to Your Door
November 19, 2010, 9:54 amClearing the Way to Your Door The weeks ahead of Christmas and Boxing Day in the UK are one of the busiest, and most critical time of the year for online retailers. This is the month during which annual turnovers are made, or missed. At the same time, thousands of stressed Christmas shoppers are searching the web for their products. So, how do you...
SMB's STIIL Not Sure About Online Space
November 19, 2010, 9:38 amI write quite a bit about the SMB space. I do it because I like the space v. the FortuneInternetRetailerInc. 500-5000 crowd because A) I know a lot of SMB's and I frequent their establishments and B) It is a growth market that seems to elude the Internet marketing industry for the most part.
SMB’s STILL Not Sure About Online Space
November 19, 2010, 9:32 amI write quite a bit about the SMB space. I do it because I like the space v. the FortuneInternetRetailerInc. 500-5000 crowd because A) I know a lot of SMB’s and I frequent their establishments and B) It is a growth market that seems to elude the Internet marketing industry for the most part.
Over the years I have tried to figure out just why...
Google Chrome Releases: 20 Things I Learned About Browsers and the Web
November 19, 2010, 9:23 amThe creative team that gave us Google Chrome has released an online book "20 Things I learned About Browsers and the Web" and it is not an ebook. The book has been done in HTML5 and is a clever overview of things many people may not know. Click to read the rest of this post.
Acquisition Rumors Link Google, Groupon
November 19, 2010, 9:13 amDaily deals site Groupon might soon become the property of another company whose name starts with "G" and contains a couple "o"s, according to a new report. Supposedly Google (the company in question, if you couldn't guess) is willing to write a pretty big check, too. Kara Swisher reported earlier this morning, "According to multiple sources...
Netflix CEO "Very Bullish" on Google TV, Apple TV
November 19, 2010, 9:13 amGoogle TV was a frequent topic of conversation at the Web 2.0 Summit this week. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings provided a very CEO-style answer Nov. 17 when asked what he thought about the Web-meets-TV-surfing service and Apple's own Apple TV streaming service. He's a good man to ask, though not exactly unbiased; Netflix is a big reason to buy both...
Could A New Technique Change How Search Engines Work?
November 19, 2010, 9:12 amResearchers at Georgia Tech have developed a machine-learning technique that gathers and stores word associations to enhance the search process. The technique uses, from what I understand of it, a form of keyword or semantic latency to associate terms and long tail searches to provide better search results.Click to read the rest of this post...
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Amazon Introduces Shape Search For Shoes
November 19, 2010, 9:07 amAmazon.com today introduced a new visual search feature for shoppers looking to purchase men's and women's shoes.
The new visual search feature allows people to browse for shoes based on how they look with the aim of helping them find the styles they want more quickly.
“With the launch of this new search feature, finding the right pair of...
How to Make Your Website Mobile Friendly (And Keep Your Readers Happy)
November 19, 2010, 8:52 amIs your website content ready for mobile devices? By the year 2013, forecasts predict that there will be 1.7 billion mobile internet users. And it's a pretty safe bet that at least a few of them are visiting your site, and seeing it on a screen that takes up just a few inches. So what happens when readers feel cramped or have to work hard to...
Build and Manage Custom Google Search Engines with this Cool FireFox Addon
November 19, 2010, 7:40 amCustom Google Search is a FireFox addon that provides the user with great tools to easily create and switch between Google custom search engines. First, have the addon installed and immediately after the restart you will be asked to name your very first search engine and look through the "How to start" guide. Let's try to create one simple, but...
Forget Clicks, iProspect Study Shows Ad Impressions Drive Purchases & Boost Brands
November 19, 2010, 6:43 amBy now you should have heard of the 'last click' attribution methodology and how it is a wrong headed analysis that risks biting the hand that feeds it. But have you heard of the 'no-click' attribution analysis? Neither have I, but iProspects latest investigation suggests that whatever market sector we are in, it might be time for marketers to...
SearchIgnite DSP Makes Display Advertising More Like Paid Search
November 19, 2010, 6:28 amMost companies manage their display advertising and search marketing activities in 'silos', having separate teams and platforms to manage it all. This week, SearchIgnite have enhanced their DSP to change all that, allowing marketers to manage, optimize and attribute more digital media than ever before from a single platform. Click to read the rest...
Forget "The Social Network" SEOktoberfest The Movie Is Here
November 19, 2010, 6:28 amThe 2010 movie of the SEOktoberfest conference is now available thanks to Marcus Tandler - the event organizer and prominent German marketer. It is a thrilling movie about the goals of successful online marketers and the struggles they go through to keep informed on the latest changes at Google and the other engines. The movie can be seen below....
A Harry Potter Charm Bewitches the MSN UK Homepage
November 19, 2010, 6:12 amApparently "Nowhere is Safe" on the MSN Homepage today , as our Creative Solutions team have joined forces with the magical Unicast to create some enchanting pushdowns and skins to help promote the latest Harry Potter movie, The Deathly Hallows Part 1. Clicking on "Reveal Video", after the initial ad animation, does just that, but also exposes...
Shaky Yahoo Could Undermine Bing Search Efforts
November 19, 2010, 5:57 ameWeek has written an interesting article about how Microsoft is worried that an unstable Yahoo could seriously impact the efforts of Bing in the search wars with Google. Quoting Wall Street Journal's Kara Swisher and other sources, eWeek reported investors and private equity investors had shown interest in having former News Corp. President and...
UK: Google To Delete Street View Personal Data
November 19, 2010, 5:55 am"Google is to delete the sensitive information, including full emails and passwords, it illegally captured from Wi-Fi networks when its Street View cars mapped the UK's towns and cities."
Video: Multi-Screen Marketing & Microsoft Partnership
November 19, 2010, 5:06 amIn the last in our series of Digital Insights Videos after Multi-Screen & What's next in Emerging Media and Multi-Screen Advertising and Creative Innovation , this 4 minute spot showcases how partnership with Microsoft turns the challenges of multiple platforms and complex technologies into opportunities for creative success. Features...
MySpace Mashup With Facebook
November 19, 2010, 3:53 am"With a simple one-click set-up, the likes and interests of a user's Facebook profile are ported over to Myspace, enabling a user's stream to become immediately populated with the entertainment content they already love."
comScore Publishes Whitepaper Entitled "Proposal For an Accurate Person-Centric Measure For Website Server Measurement in the French Market"
November 19, 2010, 3:53 amcomScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released a whitepaper that proposes an accurate person-centric measure for website server measurement in the French market. This whitepaper presents a new approach to integrating panel and site server data to adjust for potential overstatement of audience size caused by...
Google's Web Preview Spider
November 19, 2010, 2:38 am"WebmasterWorld Members discuss the Web Preview Spider, whether it obeys robots.txt, and how to block it."
Building a Monthly SEO Action Plan! - Whiteboard Friday
November 19, 2010, 12:12 amPosted by Aaron Wheeler Feeling lost or listless, like your head is in the sand? It's clear what you need: a monthly action plan! What with all the resources available to SEOs these days, it can be hard to stay on track and maintain a campaign without getting bogged down in minutia and losing track of the big picture. Well, for this week's...
How to Get Eyeballs to Your Article
November 18, 2010, 11:16 pmThere are lots of articles floating around online and some people think it might be a bit too much for everyone. Analysts say we are in a content overload period and they might be right but there are still ways to get people to see what you are all about when it comes to article writing. Here are some recommendations of how to get people reading...
Should You Buy An Exact Match Domain Name?
November 18, 2010, 10:35 pmAccording to Matt Cutts, speaking at a recent PubCon, Google will be looking at why exact domain matches rank so well . For example, if you have a site at blue-widgets.com it may rank a bit too well for the keyword phrase [blue widgets]. Curious. Don't Google know? ;) More likely, Matt would not make a concrete statement, one way or the other....
Facebook Tests Play Now, Pay Later Plan
November 18, 2010, 9:38 pmSometimes you need a virtual magic gem stone right now and you simply don't have the money to pay for it! What's a person to do? Same as in real life - charge it! Facebook is rolling out a play now, pay later plan which will allow people to buy virtual goods on credit then pay off the balance with Paypal or a credit card at a later date.
Get Involved! Two new OpenSocial workgroups!
November 18, 2010, 9:23 pmAs President of the OpenSocial , I'm pleased to announce the formation of two new Foundation sponsored workgroups (officially called Board Advisory Committees), that will focus on two areas of great importance; alignment with key open source and standards efforts, and interoperability. OpenSocial has grown organically over the last few years,
FBI Seeks Google's Help in Wiretapping
November 18, 2010, 6:44 pmFBI Director Robert Meuller met with execs at Google and Facebook on a trip to Silicon Valley earlier this week, the New York Times reported . The subject at hand: making it easier to wiretap their users. Click to read the rest of this post.
Australian eCommerce on the Rise
November 18, 2010, 6:34 pmG'day! It's Malte Feller, Managing Director of PayPal Australia. We've had an exciting week in Australia, launching our 'eCommerce: Secure Insights' report which examines the current state of the eCommerce market in Australia, in partnership with Forrester Research and The Leading Edge. Some fascinating and somewhat surprising results came out of...
What do you honestly think of adCenter API?
November 18, 2010, 6:29 pmWhether you've been using adCenter API since 2006, or just recently started, here's your chance to provide feedback on your API experience. We want to know what you think works, what doesn't and what you'd like to see more/less of in the future. It's your candid feedback that helps steer the planning of future releases, so if you'd like to see...
Google's Buzz May Eventually Buzz Away
November 18, 2010, 6:08 pmRight now, it's unclear as to whether or not Google will have to remove its new Buzz feature from its Gmail offerings. The pending settlement in the class action suit against the internet giant alleges that Google may have compromised the privacy of their Gmail users when they introduced the Buzz feature back in February .
Matt Cutts Calls For "CEO Of Google" Ideas
November 18, 2010, 4:46 pmIf you've ever wanted to have a say in what Google does next, a visit to Matt Cutts's blog may be in order. This afternoon, Cutts published a post asking readers what actions they'd take as Google's CEO, and although no official contest is in effect (and Eric Schmidt's definitely not stepping aside), the question may be more than random link...
Chow Down with Yahoo! Search: Quick Apps with Added Flavor
November 18, 2010, 4:10 pmAfter receiving lots of positive feedback on our Netflix Quick App launched last month , we are excited to roll out additional Quick Apps today that help you find restaurants, make reservations, and compare local eateries. These locally relevant Quick Apps empower you to take action on things you discover with Yahoo! Search. Sketch-a-Search Quick...
Consumers Expected to Spend 7 Billion on Imaginary Goods
November 18, 2010, 4:05 pmWhen you talk about buying "virtual goods" it kind of feels like you're actually getting something for your money. But if you think about it, virtual goods are imaginary. Sure, you get a picture representing what you bought but you don't really own that cow or that casino or that designer outfit you bought to use in an online game. According to a...
Should Gmail Be Worried About Facebook?
November 18, 2010, 4:00 pmYou've no doubt heard or read about Facebook's new messaging announcement this week. If not, the company announced a new messaging system to combine email, SMS, IM, Chat, and other forms of online communication, bringing them into one inbox. Along with this comes @facebook.com email addresses. CEO Mark Zuckerberg described the system as "starting...
Google Secures Verizon FiOS TV As TV Ads Partner
November 18, 2010, 3:40 pmThe last time we wrote about Google TV Ads, it was due to a defeat: NBC Universal had ended an advertising partnership. But it looks like that wasn't entirely indicative of things to come, as Google announced today that it's managed to sign a partnership with Verizon FiOS TV. Google's more than a little excited about this development, and it has...
comScore Releases October 2010 U.S. Search Engine Rankings
November 18, 2010, 3:19 pmcomScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released its monthly comScore qSearch analysis of the U.S. search marketplace. Google Sites led the explicit core search market in October with 66.3 percent of searches conducted, an increase of 0.2 share points from September 2010.
Officially Time to Stop Comparing Myspace to Facebook
November 18, 2010, 3:04 pmMyspace and Facebook announced an integration today that pretty much confirms Myspace is a place for entertainment content more than it is a social network. Myspace users will be able to use Facebook Connect to bring Facebook info, specifically info about entertainment that they "like", into Myspace. The integration is called Myspace Mashup with...
MyTies App Ties Everybody Together
November 18, 2010, 2:33 pmJust when you thought there wasn't possibly another iPhone app that could enter the social networking parade, another onejumps in line and might just have more bells and whistles than the other apps. There are a handful of social networking apps for the iPhone that users can download to let them communicate, share photos and .
Microsoft, Google and Facebook Rank as Most-Visited Online Destinations in Argentina
November 18, 2010, 2:12 pmcomScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today presented the State of the Internet Argentina in conjunction with the IAB Argentina. Among the presentation's highlights included a look at the top online destinations for Argentines. The report found that Microsoft Sites led as the most-visited Internet property in the...
What would you do if you were CEO of Google?
November 18, 2010, 1:57 pmEvery so often I like to play a game I call "CEO of Google." The idea of the game is that through some combination of weird circumstances, you are now the CEO of Google. Don't worry about how you became CEO-maybe you won a contest to be CEO for a day. I'd like to know: what products would you launch? What ideas would you fund? I'm specifically...
Americans Still Abandoning Online Purchases Due To Security
November 18, 2010, 1:52 pmNearly two-thirds (64%) of Americans have not made an online purchase because of security concerns, according to a new poll by the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA). When asked to explain why they did not make that purchase, 60 percent said it was because they were not sure if the site was secure, 51.4 percent were worried about providing...
Google Apps Gets Much More Useful to Businesses
November 18, 2010, 1:21 pmGoogle has widely expanded Google Apps to incorporate many more of the company's offerings so that businesses and other organizations can use and administrate them more efficiently. Before Google Apps users only had access to a few of Google's products like Google Docs, Gmail, Google Calendar, and a few others.
6 Techniques for Optimizing Your Local Search Business Profile
November 18, 2010, 1:00 pmClaiming and validating local listings on Google, Bing and Yahoo! can drive high-quality, targeted traffic and help your site rank higher within in local search results. It's possible that unclaimed local listings can sometimes outrank claimed listings, however it is vital to claim your business profiles considering it gives you complete control...
The new AdSense interface: Take the tour
November 18, 2010, 12:08 pmTo help you learn more about the new AdSense interface, we've created a series of videos that focus on different features and benefits now available to you. Over the next few weeks, we'll post new videos to the blog to ensure you learn all about the greater insights, control, and efficiency now at your fingertips. Today, we invite you to take a...
Google Launches New Fashion Site, NoIndexes Entire Domain
November 18, 2010, 12:04 pmPerhaps Google is human after all? Despite a major PR blitz in the run up to the launch of their new fashion retail site, they have made a schoolboy error by excluding all robots from indexing their website.
Payments - Coming to a TV Near You Soon?
November 18, 2010, 12:03 pmHi all - Osama Bedier, VP of platform, mobile and new ventures at PayPal. You may have seen one of our PayPal X developers, FourthWall Media , demonstrate an innovative TV Buy Button on stage at Innovate last month. This button is all about a new shopping experience called T-commerce, as in "television commerce," which will allow consumers to...
Leading Australian Businesses "Go Google"
November 18, 2010, 11:38 amGoogle Apps has been on something of a roll lately, sealing deals with a number of American universities and businesses. But it seems to have achieved success on a grander scale in Australia, where two very large companies today announced plans to "go Google." We'll give you the official description of both businesses in case you're not familiar...
Gift Cards and Social Networks
November 18, 2010, 11:37 am'Tis the season for giving that is fast approaching. This leaves many consumers thinking about giving the gift that is always the right size, shape and color. The eGift Card. A consumer report recently conducted by Javelin Strategy & Research reported that gift card sales will increase from a reported $1.6 billion (2009) to over .
Everything I Know About SEO I Learned in the 80's
November 18, 2010, 11:27 amby Stoney deGeyter There was no commercial internet in the 80's, but that doesn't mean that we can't reach into the recesses of our past to see that, everything we know now about SEO, we already knew back then. How? From the greatest, most magical music of all time: 80's hair band glam rock! They just don't make music like this anymore, and it's a...
The Incredibly Shrinking Conversion Window
November 18, 2010, 11:27 amThe consideration time that marketers allot between a consumers engagement with an advertisers brand and eventual conversion is dwindling. In fact, one of the most frequently requested analyses by marketers over the past 5-10 years has been the Time to Convert Analysis, a report designed to measure the quantity of time that passes between a...
The Power of Two: Search + Display
November 18, 2010, 11:12 amIn todays digital world, marketers have so many options when they want to get the word out about a product that it can seem daunting. Should you create a search marketing ad? A display banner? Write some content ads? Tweet it? Post it on Facebook? Make a mobile ad? Create a promotion on Foursquare? Write a blog about it? In fact, this overload...
Google Apps Connects to 60 Apps, Sheds Standard, GAPE Titles
November 18, 2010, 11:12 amGoogle in May began retooling its Google Apps infrastructure to make all Google applications available via single sign-on from users' Apps accounts. The company ratcheted up this effort in September, allowing users of Blogger, Google Reader, Google Voice and calling-in-Gmail Picasa Web Albums, AdWords and iGoogle from their Google Apps accounts....
Ten times more applications for Google Apps customers
November 18, 2010, 11:12 amCross-posted on the Official Google Blog and the Google Small Business Blog As customers begin to recognize large productivity gains with Gmail, Google Docs and the rest of Google Apps , they frequently ask when they'll be able to use services like Google Voice, Reader, Blogger and AdWords with their Google Apps accounts. We've steadily added new...
25 SEO copywriting tips and content ideas you can implement today
November 18, 2010, 11:12 amIt doesn't make a difference if you're a big brand or a DIY small business. One of the hardest things about launching a Web writing campaign is figuring out how to start. If you've been facing content marketing overload, here are 25 SEO copywiting tips you can implement right now: Does your About Us page work against you? Have a typical (boring)...
Getting Added Twitter Value From Press Releases
November 18, 2010, 11:07 amMore WebProNews Videos As you may know, press releases can cater to traffic from search engines and social media , for one thing just getting them out there to be found and shared is huge. Lisa Buyer, CEO of The Buyer Group shared some other ideas with us in a recent interview. "It used to be with public relations that we were reaching out to the...
Calling Bullsh*t on Social Media
November 18, 2010, 10:47 amDon't miss out on Tamsen McMahon's 32 dos and donts! Read, reread, then rethink your social media strategy.
Are the Brains of Search Engine Marketing and Search Engine Optimization Sartorially Challenged?
November 18, 2010, 10:41 amThe Boston Globe has just published it's list of " The 25 most stylish Bostonians " and I'm not on it. And I'm starting to think that I may owe SEM industry observer, Meredith A.C. Roth, an apology. Click to read the rest of this post.
Gowalla Checks-In With Disney
November 18, 2010, 10:35 amLocation-based social network Gowalla has formed a new partnership with Walt Disney Parks and Resorts. Starting today, visitors to the parks can engage with others through custom Disney Gowalla pages and Passport Stamps. Hundreds of locations within Disneyland and Walt Disney World Resorts will feature custom Stamps created by Gowalla the largest...
The 6 Flavors of SEO Your Company Needs
November 18, 2010, 10:23 amLisa Barone writes about the 6 people in your company who will likely be touching the SEO in one way or another and therefore need to have at least a basic understanding of it, and how it fits with the company vision.
Real Life Link Building: Leveraging Real Relationships
November 18, 2010, 10:13 amGreat, in-depth post that drives home the concept "link building IS relationship building."
Beginner's Guide To Web Data Analysis: Ten Steps To Success
November 18, 2010, 9:51 am"What if I was given the login and password to someone's web analytics data and asked to "find something interesting?" How would I start the process of web data analysis right?" Avinash Kaushik outlines 10 steps for getting started with Web data analysis. It's a good overview.
Stop Thinking About Social Media as a Separate Marketing Channel
November 18, 2010, 9:28 amMore WebProNews Videos For those who are finding the greatest success in social media marketing, social media is just instinctually part of the mix. It's not an afterthought, and it's not a completely separate undertaking. It's just part of how it's done. Making It All Work Together Few companies have illustrated this better than Ford. WebProNews...
The Truth About Getting Rich Quick
November 18, 2010, 9:18 am"Ask your physician how to feel good, and he'll look you squarely in the eye and say, 'Eat right and exercise.' Yet for every dollar spent in fitness centers, Americans spend nineteen dollars on cocaine. "The reason? Two seconds after you snort cocaine you feel like Superman. Two weeks of diet and exercise just makes you hungry and sore." ~Roy H....
Zynga Launches CityVille On Facebook
November 18, 2010, 9:07 amSocial game developer Zynga, the creators of the popular Farmville and Mafia Wars on Facebook, has launched its latest game called CityVille. Zynga says CityVille is its most social game to date with new features that allow players to build a city, interact with friends' cities, and build franchise with the help of their friends. CityVille is...
Google Enters Toolbar Deal With AVG
November 18, 2010, 9:07 amChalk up another victory for Google in terms of edging out its competitors. Today, well-known security company AVG announced that the Google will replace Yahoo as the search foundation of its antivirus and security products. This is development supposed to "broaden the search functionality of AVG's Security Toolbar product and real-time Internet...
Google Looks to Help You Get Dressed With Boutiques.com
November 18, 2010, 9:02 amGoogle CEO Eric Schmidt has talked about being able to help people decide what to do next or to even know what is best to do next (just Google "creepy CEO ideas" and you'll see his full library, no kidding). Now through its new Boutiques.com (which was the offspring of the Like.com purchase of a year ago) Google can help women decide what to buy...
Google's 4-Pack for Branded Searches: A Subtle Penalty for RipOff Report?
November 18, 2010, 9:02 amBack in August, we reported that Google was testing a change to its algorithm that would see more than the standard two-results per web site-if it could be sure that doing so would match the searcher's intent. Yesterday, the search giant announced a small revision to that rollout-one that I believe offers hope to those with a negative reputation....
comScore: Google, Bing Gain More Search Share in October
November 18, 2010, 9:02 amGoogle and Bing made slight gains in October, while the other major search players saw their search market share drop, according to the latest comScore data. Click to read the rest of this post.
Google’s 4-Pack for Branded Searches: A Subtle Penalty for RipOff Report?
November 18, 2010, 8:56 amBack in August, we reported that Google was testing a change to its algorithm that would see more than the standard two-results per web site–if it could be sure that doing so would match the searcher’s intent.
Yesterday, the search giant announced a small revision to that rollout–one that I believe offers hope to those with a...
What is Spam? - Visualized
November 18, 2010, 8:11 amA few weeks ago we've published a fun post on How Social Media Sites Are Fighting Spam . One of our guest bloggers decided to visualize it. The author extends the topic far beyond social media and looks at the subject from different angles. Enjoy! To embed this infographic, please use the following code:
Blog Posts To Read Week of November 18, 2010
November 18, 2010, 8:05 amBelow you will find our favorite blog posts that are related to SEO, search engine marketing and social media marketing from this past week. Please feel free to visit each, we hope you find them as helpful as we do! Google Instant Previews Choke On Meta Description Tags This post talks about Google's instant preview feature, and how the use of the...
10 Things from 2010 that May Shape Your 2011
November 18, 2010, 7:55 amA compendium of random stats I've found interesting from 2010 It's that time of year again, where people are in full swing of 2011 planning so I thought what better time to share a few of the takeaways from 2010 news and views that may well rock your 2011 world. I normally write a more typical search business column , but this time around as I've...
Just Say No to Articles Written for SEO Purposes!
November 18, 2010, 7:41 amGreat piece by Jill Whalen, her summary: So banish the notion of "SEO articles" from your vocabulary. Optimize the actual pages of your site that are there to do business, and provide as much additional information as you can that will set your business apart from the others. Get into the head of your potential customers and give them exactly...
Why You Must Look Beyond Google Adwords Click Through Rate Concept
November 18, 2010, 7:34 amIn Google adwords advertising space, click through rate also known as "CTC" is a familiar term. It is the mathematical end result of a situated ad campaign number of impressions divided by the number of clicks acquired at a particular point in time. Google uses this mathematical denotation to measure the relevance of a given ad and accords the ad...
German Internet Users Received 188 Billion Display Ads in Q3 2010
November 18, 2010, 7:29 amcomScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released an overview of the German online display advertising market for Q3 2010, using the comScore Ad Metrix service. The data revealed that German internet users received more than 188 billion display ads during the quarter.
Twitter Sells Data, Provides Analytics, Gives Users "Reputation Scores"
November 18, 2010, 7:17 amThere are some interesting things going on with Twitter this week, and while they may not be as sexy as Facebook's news, they could have a pretty big impact on the way Twitter is used by developers and marketers.
The Data
For one, Twitter has partnered with social media data provider Gnip to sell large amounts of public Twitter data....
U.S. Senate Passes Bill Over Counterfeit Goods Websites
November 18, 2010, 7:04 am"If the registry is located outside the United States, the U.S. Attorney General could go after the website by requiring U.S.-based Internet service providers, payment processors and advertising networks to stop doing business with it."
Twitter Co-Founder Admits 'Screwing Up' With Developers
November 18, 2010, 6:48 amWhile I tend to find some of the applications that people use Twitter for annoying as they serve the self-serving side of human nature, I am learning to appreciate their co-founder Ev Williams. Why? Well, amidst the bluster of the Internet industry he is one of the few industry leaders who appears to be comfortable in his own skin and who comes...
Twitter Co-Founder Admits ‘Screwing Up’ With Developers
November 18, 2010, 6:44 amWhile I tend to find some of the applications that people use Twitter for annoying as they serve the self-serving side of human nature, I am learning to appreciate their co-founder Ev Williams.
Why? Well, amidst the bluster of the Internet industry he is one of the few industry leaders who appears to be comfortable in his own skin and who comes...
Sâtop Comparing Social Media to SEO to Denounce One of Them
November 18, 2010, 3:53 am* Those who know me outside of my role as an SEOptimise writer are aware that I advocate a new approach to SEO called SEO 2.0 which encompasses both social media and SEO elements. I haven't pushed my own agenda here on SEOptimise but I still believe that it's true. On the modern Web you don't focus solely on Google or other search engines. Some...
November Linkscape Index Update Live (and new Linkscape Wordpress Plugin)
November 18, 2010, 1:44 amPosted by randfish Tonight, our 33rd Linkscape update launched. You'll find new link data in OpenSiteExplorer , the mozBar , Linkscape classic and the Link Intersect Tool. E.g. this post from mid-October now has link data in OSE This update represents data crawled from the middle of October to the start of November - processing was unfortunately...
The Era of the (SEO) Tool(s)
November 18, 2010, 1:28 amEvery year there seems to be a trend in the panels at PubCon (the search engine marketing conference I was at last week). Social media and mobile were two hot topics, followed by remarketing over on the PPC side of things. There was one trend (to rule them all) that seemed to arise in every panel: tools.
One of my sessions was even dedicated to...
LinkedIn Adding A New Member Every Second
November 17, 2010, 11:51 pmSpeaking at the Web 2.o Summit, LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner said Linked has 85 million members and is adding a new member every second or 86,400 members a day and over 2 million a month. It took the company 477 days to get their first million and only 9 days to get the last million, Weiner said. Click to read the rest of this post.
Google TV Is Not On Wall Street Journal Christmas Present List
November 17, 2010, 11:05 pmWall Street Journal tech reporter Walter S. Mossberg had a look at Google TV and said he would "wait for Google TV to improve." In his All Things Digital column Mossberg gives a very detailed review of the product and notes it "made an admirably bold effort, but, like others before, it has missed the mark, at least in its first effort." Click to...
Event Link Building Tips
November 17, 2010, 11:05 pmAlmost every single industry has some sort of events that occur every year. Whether it is a user conference for a software company or a trade show for a whole industry there are opportunities to build nice relevant links to help your search engine optimization efforts by utilizing these types of events. Write Blog Posts Prior You usually know well...
Twitter Analytics: The Beta Test is On
November 17, 2010, 9:12 pmMashable is reporting that the anticipated Twitter Analytics roll-out has begun. Word is that Twitter has invited a select group of Tweeters, which doesn't include me, to test the new product. This goes along with previous estimates that the product would be live for all by the end of the year. Measuring success on Twitter has been a problem for...
Google Introduces Credit Tags For News Listings
November 17, 2010, 8:57 pmThe Google News blog introduced credit tags this week for attributing sources for news stories. "Credit where credit is due" is the appropriate title and involves site owners including the tags to show Google the source of their stories. One wonders how long before Yoast will develop a Wordpress plugin to help add the tags. Right now it may be...
Four Listings Now Magic Number In Google Page One Results
November 17, 2010, 8:05 pmThe Google Webmaster Central Blog announced they are now allowing up to four listings from a single domain in the first page of their search results. Add site links, a more results search box and a map and one site can really dominate the first page of Google results. Click to read the rest of this post.
National Unfriend Day on Facebook
November 17, 2010, 8:00 pmTalk show host Jimmy Kimmel's previously announced National Unfriend Day is here. The premise is that most of our friends on Facebook are not in fact friends at all and should therefore be unfriended. Kimmel says that if one of your Facebook friends doesn't have your phone number he should be deleted. Do you agree? For more information check out...
Review Roundup: 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part One'
November 17, 2010, 7:29 pmby Claudine Zap " Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part One ," the final installment of the hugely popular franchise, is finally here. But unlike the final book, which is contained in one volume, the film version is divided into two parts. We wonder: Is it worth splitting the J.K. Rowling book into two movies? "Part One" alone clocks in at a...
Discover the perfect Windows Phone 7 app with Bing
November 17, 2010, 5:57 pmWe have teamed with Windows Phone to help you find the perfect app. Announcing the Bing Visual Search Gallery for Windows Phone 7 apps. If youre in the US or UK, you can now use Bing Visual Search Gallery (VSG) to quickly and easily narrow the library of Windows Phone 7 apps down to the precise one youre looking for . Whether youre looking to sort...
Yahoo! Gets Some Clues
November 17, 2010, 5:05 pmYahoo! seems to have figured out what search engine marketers and optimizers are looking for these days. The release of their Yahoo! Clues beta is an intriguing look at the Yahoo! search population and their trends. While the Clues tool is still in early stages, its features are nonetheless worthwhile. What Is Clues? For those .
Kate Middleton's New Title
November 17, 2010, 4:50 pmby Mike Krumboltz Kate Middleton's engagement to Prince William sparked an avalanche of Web interest on Tuesday. Top of mind today - what will Kate's new title be? Is she in line to be queen? And how does Prince Harry figure into all this? Figuring all this out can be a royal pain, so we did the legwork for you. Here's a quick summary of...
Just Say No to SEO Articles
November 17, 2010, 4:39 pmEd's note: Every so often we publish a guest column (reprint) of our favorite candid SEO experts out there, Jill Whalen. This latest rant/sensible-advice appeared in this week's High Rankings Advisor. Enjoy! Last week I was speaking with a potential client in need of SEO consulting who told me that they had been working on their product part...
Google Reaches Deal With France's Biggest Publisher
November 17, 2010, 4:26 pmFollowing a significant period of inactivity (brought on by outright hostility), Google Books has made a breakthrough. France's largest publisher has agreed to an arrangement that'll allow Google Books to scan many of its out-of-print works.
The last time we heard about Hachette Livre and Google was probably when Hachette objected to the...
Facebook Pages for B2B Social Media Marketing
November 17, 2010, 4:19 pmYesterday in Auckland, NZ (which is today in the U.S.) I gave an all day workshop on Social Media Content Marketing & Strategy at Social Media Junction . I'm used to giving workshops to 20-30 people so it was an interesting and enjoyable experience with such a large group. (Thanks to Bullet PR staff who are amazing ). One of the questions that...
Mark Zuckerberg Shares Philosophy Behind New Facebook Messaging System
November 17, 2010, 4:18 pmFacebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg spoke at the Web 2.0 Summit and faced an interrogation from Tim O'Reilly and John Battelle. He spent a good portion of the discussion talking about the new messaging system announced this week.
He said that Facebook was not looking to build an email product, but more what a "modern messaging system"...
US Internet Advertising Hits All Time High
November 17, 2010, 4:08 pmThe Interactive Advertising Bureau released new numbers today that show record-breaking growth in online ad sales. Their third quarter 2010 study showed a 17% increase over the same period in 2009 " a full $6.4 billion in ad revenue. When revenue is up, it's always a good thing, but these numbers point to a combination of factors which is very...
CTRs Jump After Google Changes Name of Ads [Report]
November 17, 2010, 3:37 pmGoogle's recent renaming of "Sponsored Links" to "Ads" has been a positive for advertisers, according to a new study . Click to read the rest of this post.
Neil Young's Hybrid Car Starts Fire, Sparks Web Searches
November 17, 2010, 3:32 pmby Claudine Zap Hybrid cars are normally known as vehicles that improve gas mileage and air quality. They're not usually blamed for starting warehouse fires. But one such auto is reportedly the instigator for a fire at a San Francisco Bay Area site that housed Neil Young 's stored memorabilia . The performer had experimented with converting a 1959...
Ads Aren't the Only Way to Make Money Blogging
November 17, 2010, 3:16 pm
More WebProNews Videos
"'Free is not a business model'. That was one of the seven "harsh realities" discussed in a recent keynote from CopyBlogger's Brian Clark, ProBlogger's Darren Rowse and Remarkable Communication's Sonia Simone. This was an hour-long discussion about what it takes to make money blogging and using social...
Google Docs Delves Into Mobile Editing
November 17, 2010, 3:09 pmPerhaps 99 percent of the time, a person's cell phone is within five feet of him (or her). Desktops and even laptops are often much more remote. So businesspeople, students, and writers may owe Google a "thank you" as the company's taken steps to ensure Google Docs users can edit their documents when all that's handy is a...
Beyond Good and Evil in SEO
November 17, 2010, 3:01 pmPosted by DragonSearch This post was originally in YOUmoz , and was promoted to the main blog because it provides great value and interest to our community. The author's views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of SEOmoz, Inc. I recently heard a story about a local SEO shop whose customers, overnight, almost ALL lost ranking...
Deals.com and MyType Profile Coupon Lovers & Avoiders [STUDY]
November 17, 2010, 2:26 pmHaving surveyed over 8,500 consumers on questions related to online coupon use, Deals.com together with MyType have released a very interesting study profiling the demographics and psycho-graphics of both coupon "lovers" and coupon "avoiders." One of the more surprising findings was that six-figure earners are actually twice as likely to ...
Testing a Richer Yahoo! Search Assist
November 17, 2010, 2:15 pmHere at Yahoo!, we know that sometimes search is just about getting things done - fast. Whether you're looking for the latest game score, nutritional facts about that latte you ordered this morning, or your favorite TV show - you should be able to find answers with little to no effort. Today, Yahoo! Search is testing a beta version of a more...
Facebook App Makes Ordering Food Social
November 17, 2010, 2:10 pmExit41, a provider of social ordering apps for restaurants, has introduced a Facebook application that allows people to place food orders from a restaurant's Facebook page and share and Like their favorite menu items. The restaurant industry is ahead of the curve in embracing social media to engage with and interact with consumers. Our goal is to...
Hate Google Instant Previews? Here's How To Get Rid of Them
November 17, 2010, 2:00 pmGoogle's Instant Previews launched last week, and not long after some people began searching for ways to turn off the feature since Google doesn't provide one (even if Instant is turned off).Click to read the rest of this post...
U.S. Online Hispanic Consumers More Likely to Have Positive Association with Advertising than Non-Hispanics Online
November 17, 2010, 1:33 pmcomScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released results of a study of U.S. Hispanic consumers, including insights into their online behavior and engagement with advertising. The study found that U.S. online Hispanic consumers' sentiment towards, and response to, advertising often varies significantly from...
Threats to Expect in Mobile, Social, Location and Email in 2011
November 17, 2010, 1:23 pmIt's getting late in the year, and it's about time to start looking forward to 2011. While we can speculate about a great many topics, few trends are going to be as important to anticipate as those related to security. We asked an expert in the field about some of the things he is anticipating. WebProNews interviewed Paul Wood, MessageLabs...
Emma Watson Wins Sexy Poll, Ryan Reynolds Does, Too, and Princess Di's Ring Worn Again: What's the Buzz
November 17, 2010, 1:23 pmby Claudine Zap Our top picks from the day's hottest searches. Princess Diana (Searches increased by 1,003%). It's déjà vu all over again: Prince Williams' bethrothed is wearing Princess Diana's engagement ring . Barbra Streisand (+905%). The actress reunited with Robert Redford as part of Oprah Winfrey's star-filled final season . "Green...
The Google Goggles Experiment
November 17, 2010, 1:07 pmGoogle Goggles isn't new, but it's certainly a less known feature from the search engine giant. This unique visual search feature comes in the form of a mobile application. Rather than typing in a search command for results, you can simply take a snapshot and get relevant results. While there are certainly some major limitations .
Twitter's Official Analytics Product Has Arrived
November 17, 2010, 12:33 pmTwitter Analytics will crunch a lot of data about a user account, including which tweets are most successful, which tweets caused people to unfollow, and who the most influential followers are.
Google Maps Directions Get Facelift
November 17, 2010, 11:50 amA service that has helped millions of people reach their destinations - and inspired at least one misguided (and lawsuit-happy) woman to take a stroll alongside a highway lacking a sidewalk - has received an overhaul. Directions calculated by Google Maps are now more colorful, and perhaps more clear. Fair warning: the new design definitely moves...
comScore Releases 2010 U.S. Online Property Insurance Report
November 17, 2010, 11:40 amcomScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released its 2010 Online Property Insurance Report, based on behavioral data from comScore's 1 million person U.S. panel and a survey of more than 2,000 U.S. Internet users aimed at understanding attitudes and intentions with regard to conducting insurance transactions...
Google Boost Ads Available in More Cities
November 17, 2010, 11:35 amGoogle's beta test of Boost , the AdWords program that auto-generates search ads to appear in Google's "Ads" section and Google Maps search results pages, is expanding to more U.S. cities. Click to read the rest of this post.
DOTW: What's the Best Piece of SEO-related Advice You've Ever Received?
November 17, 2010, 11:32 amWe all give and get advice: on our blogs, at conferences, on the phone with co-workers and peers, etc. But what's THE BEST piece of SEO advice anyone's ever given you? That's the subject of our "Discussion of the Week" this week.
Online Ad Revenue In US Hit Record $6.4 Billion
November 17, 2010, 11:30 amU.S. Internet advertising revenues hit a record $6.4 billion in the third quarter, an increase of 17 percent from the same period in 2009, according to a new report by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PwC. The Internet has transformed consumers lives and how they experience entertainment, information and brands, said Randall...
Recipe for a Blog That Doesn't Suck
November 17, 2010, 11:30 amMore WebProNews Videos There are plenty of opinions out there about what makes a blog good and what it takes to have a successful one. At the recent BlogWorld & New Media Expo, that was obviously a consistent theme. WebProNews interviewed a lot of people at that show, and several gave their advice on this matter. Here is a discussion with...
Editing your Google Docs on the go
November 17, 2010, 11:19 amCross posted on the Official Google Blog, Google Enterprise Blog and the Google Mobile Blog With Google Docs, we're always trying to make you more productive"and part of that means making it possible for you to get things done from anywhere, at anytime. That's why we're excited that the new documents editor now supports editing on your mobile...
Recent Insights Into Search User Behavior
November 17, 2010, 10:53 amDavid Harry at Search News Central provides a really nice roundup and summary of data gathered by a Performics study on user behavior with search engines. Data includes SE usage, preference, loyalty as well as query refinement behavior, vertical usage, interaction with organic vs. paid, and more.
Users Drool Over Yahoo's Improved Sketch-a-Search
November 17, 2010, 10:43 amImagine a world where you can simply picture the food you're craving and have it appear before your eyes. Technology like this, while vividly depicted in shows like Star Trek and the Jetsons, has been tragically absent in the non-fiction world; however, we're getting a lot closer. The search engines may well be doing more .
Leveraging Mobile Consumer Insights to Drive Greater Audience Reach and Engagement
November 17, 2010, 10:18 amAs I get ready to step on stage at this years Mobile Marketing Forum in Los Angeles, I cant help but think of consumers or more specifically, the changing consumer behaviors that are unique to the mobile medium and how this affects everything we do. Achieving Scale With the rise in popularity and increasing power of smartphones, mobile is...
Google Establishes New Call Center In Hyderabad
November 17, 2010, 10:13 amIndia's the second-most populous country in the world, and it looks like Google's getting increasingly serious about acquiring customers there. Today, Google opened a call center in Hyderabad designed to deal with local small and medium-sized businesses in any of four languages.
Sridhar Seshadri, Google India's head of online sales and...
Will Music Marketing Be Hurt By Facebook Messaging?
November 17, 2010, 9:47 amYesterday, Facebook announced their own "modern messaging system" that combines email, text messaging, and instant messages into a single stream that founder Mark Zuckerberg says goes well "beyond email". The new service, which will debut Monday with an iPhone app and roll out over the next few months, mimics the behavior of teens who are already...
Adwords Beta Testing New Layout In SERPs
November 17, 2010, 9:33 amFor a moment I thought I was using Yahoo as I scrolled down the Google search results today. There were ads at the bottom of the SERPs! I blinked and realized I was searching with Google and things were definitely different.
I asked some friends to check it out and some saw it and others didn't. I tried it Firefox, the search I did was using...
Amazon Looks For New Filmmakers With Launch Of Amazon Studios
November 17, 2010, 9:26 amAmazon.com has launched Amazon Studios, a new online business that allows filmmakers and screenwriters to submit full-length movies and scripts to get their movie made and make money. Through the monthly and annual Amazon Studios Awards, Amazon Studios will offer a total of $2.7 million to the top submissions received by Dec. 31, 2011, and will...
What Does Path Have to Offer vs. Facebook and Others?
November 17, 2010, 9:26 amThis week a new photo sharing social network received a great deal of attention. It's called Path and has a pretty impressive list of names backing it. These include Ashton Kutcher, Ron Conway, Kevin Rose, Keith Rabois, Dustin Moskovitz, Marc Benioff, Gary Vaynerchuk, Steve Anderson, Tim Draper, Joi Ito, Fadi Ghandour, Matt Cohler, Sam Lessin,...
Hulu Plus Gets 20 Percent Price Cut
November 17, 2010, 9:10 amHulu Plus has - at least to some degree - heard and acknowledged its critics. This morning, an announcement indicated that the service's content library is growing and its price is shrinking as it launches out of preview. Also, as a sort of bonus, Hulu Plus is becoming available on Roku. The price-related announcement has the most potential to...
SEOs Should Focus On Where Google Is Heading
November 17, 2010, 8:45 amInteresting little snippet from Mr Cutts: "Matt recommends SEOs do not "chase the algorithm" and instead try to predict where Google will be going in the future". Matt was addressing PubCon . Good advice, methinks. Trying to predict where Google is going is something we do a lot of at SEOBook.com. Whilst no one has a crystal ball, it's good...
How to Get Some Action: IMfSP Radio #3
November 17, 2010, 8:39 amIt was an unbearably hot night. In a run-down apartment in the seediest neighborhood of Hollywood, the gift shop manager flicked on the discount computer his dad had just bought him. He started typing. A small email list of friends grew to a thousand, then ten thousand, then one hundred thousand. A few months later he cobbled together a simple...
The Key To Increasing Inquiries, Leads, Sales'
November 17, 2010, 8:03 amIf you want to increase _ by _% then you need to pay close attention to this post. There is one thing most site owners could do to increase results that they aren't doing. What is that one thing? Split testing! So, testing - that's nothing new. What's the big deal? The big deal is that most people overlook this and miss the opportunity to...
Yahoo Hyperlocal Betas With Little Fanfare
November 17, 2010, 8:02 amYahoo is making a lot of bets on its ability to create content as a big part of its future. Things must be getting better at the beleaguered company because at yesterday’s Web 2.0 Summit cnet points out that CEO Carol Bartz was able to answer the new favorite question regarding Yahoo which is “What exactly is Yahoo?”. Her answer
She has, at...
8 Ways to Optimize Your AdWords Campaign
November 17, 2010, 7:48 amYou may have noticed that Google makes it easy to set up an AdWords campaign, but not so easy to get a return on your investment in pay-per-click. There are a lot of levers you can pull in your AdWords campaign to influence results. Here are eight ways to optimize your AdWords campaign for better ROI . 1. Know your target audience profile Knowing...
Speed: Recommended for Content, Conversions and Holiday Traffic
November 17, 2010, 7:38 amIt's become clear that site speed and performance have become increasingly important on the web, particularly with Google. The company has made a plethora of announcements over the past year or two directly related to making the web faster in general. Most recently, for example, Google announced mod_pagespeed, a tool for webmasters to use to...
More Than 100 Million Mobile Consumers in EU5 Received SMS Advertising
November 17, 2010, 7:22 amcomScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released data from its comScore MobiLens service showing that mobile marketing in the EU5 countries UK, France, Germany, Spain and Italy reached 100 million mobile phone subscribers via SMS ads. Conversely, more than 57 million subscribers recalled seeing an ad on their...
What's the next shoe to drop from Google?
November 17, 2010, 7:05 amby Mike Moran
Image by circulating via Flickr
Last week, I asked the musical question, "Are you keeping up with Google?" In that post, I tried to stimulate some thinking around the idea that waiting for the ranking algorithm to change is not the best time to begin doing something new in response. If you work that way, you are constantly...
Twitter Pushes Out Instant Notifications
November 17, 2010, 7:02 amThe news cycle in the Internet space these days is interesting in that it seems to have a herd mentality of sorts. There is one group that dominates the landscape for a short period of time, which gets everyone's attention.
12 Tips For Using Twitter to Grow Your Business
November 17, 2010, 6:46 am1. Monitor Your Name and Brand Use the search feature to find out who's talking about you and your products. If someone tweets something nice about your company, thank them. If it's really good, ask if you can use their tweet as a testimonial on your site. When someone tweets something nasty about you, apologize publicly, fix the screw up and let...
IE9 Preview 7 Now Available
November 17, 2010, 6:27 am"Based on the progress since the last platform preview, we're releasing an updated platform preview build today so developers can try it out and provide feedback about the changes."
Just Goggle It! Say Buick, Disney, Diageo, T-Mobile and Delta Airlines
November 17, 2010, 6:15 amIf the race for the best geo-social network gave you the impression that local and mobile were converging and that the future involved words like 'Mocal' or 'Lobile' (ok, I just made that up - you probably didn't think that), then Google Goggles would like to remind you that the combination of technologies in your mobile phone can do a lot more...
Google Indexing Text In Flash Files
November 17, 2010, 6:15 amGoogle recently announced that it is now able to index text within a Flash (.swf) file. The latest update means that any text that a user interacts with in your SWF file can be indexed by Googlebot and used to match queries and generate snippets for results in Google searches. Furthermore, external URLs within the file can be followed, crawled and...
SEO content marketing roundup, week ending November 17th
November 17, 2010, 5:08 amReady for the rainy season? This week's latest and greatest web writing news features slick new developments, smart analyses, and forecasts for SEO, content, and social media marketing, as well as some solid advice for addressing that sometimes-slippery issue of industry credibility. So gear up with your muck boots and umbrella, whatever your...
Radio Shack Wants You To Check-in Somewhere Else
November 17, 2010, 5:08 amRadio Shack is running an interesting new Foursquare promotion that asks you to check-in some place other than your local Radio Shack. How odd is that? The badge you're looking for is called Holiday Heroes and when you earn it you get a coupon good for 20% off your purchase. To get the badge, Radio Shack is asking you to check into "Hero...
Buy Tourism Online 2010, Florence - Italy
November 17, 2010, 4:06 amBuy Tourism Online (BTO) kicks of tomorrow at Stazione Leopolda in central Florence - a 2 day web marketing event with a focus on the travel industry - an opportunity to discover trends and opportunities of the Italian travel sector. Live coverage of the event in English will be available on my search marketing blog and via Twitter with the...
Yahoo Clues: New Fun Search Keyword Tool
November 17, 2010, 1:32 amIs it just me, or does this look like a pretty cool keyword research tool? And it's from Yahoo?! Who'da thunk it?
Google Launches Boutiques, Personalized Shopping
November 17, 2010, 1:03 am"...a personalized shopping experience that lets you find and discover fashion goods, by creating your own curated boutique or through a collection of boutiques curated by taste-makers-celebrities, stylists, designers and fashion bloggers."
Yahoo Adding A Number of Local Features
November 17, 2010, 12:35 amThe Yahoo blog announced a number of new local features it will be rolling out in the near future. A Sketch-A-Search app that allows you to draw a circle around an area on their maps and get restaurants in the area and then allow you to filter by various criteria such as type of cuisine or ratings. This is going to be tied in with Zagat ratings....
Getting Your Company Onboard with LPO
November 17, 2010, 12:35 amPosted by JoannaLord I don't like the word "optimization." It has surpassed the level of buzz word and has officially been overused in every which way. While the word itself annoys me, the process of improving what you have to get more from it still rings true. I think we can all get onboard with the concept, but what about the process behind it?
After 2 Years Yahoo CEO Bartz Thinks She Gets It
November 17, 2010, 12:20 amSpeaking at Web 2.0 Summit, Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz said after two years she gets it. She now understands what Yahoo is about and she summarizes it into four words. "Content, Communications, Media and Innovation." "I think Yahoo has always stood for those words," Ms. Bartz said. "It went off track a bit when people thought it was a search company."...
Youtube SEO Experiment & Useful Tips
November 17, 2010, 12:13 amInteresting post from Distilled with a step-by-step walkthrough a YouTube experiment that began with a new account and ended with good visibility.
Google Goggles Tested on Disney, Delta, T-Mobile G2 Ads
November 17, 2010, 12:00 amAs demonstrated at AdAge in September, Google is leveraging the Google Goggles visual search technology for its advertising purposes. Goggles is a mobile application that lets users take pictures with their Apple iPhones and Google Android phones to search products, landmarks, places and other items on the Web. Because it lives on the Web,...
Google Places Adds Hotpot, FourSquare Clone
November 16, 2010, 11:59 pmGoogle Places added a new social element - Hotpot. This FourSquare-like program allows you to make recommendations that then get shared with your friends. Smartly, Hotpot pushes Places, getting business owners to claim their free listings to help Google build their efforts in the online Yellow Pages space, while using social networking to build...
A Breakdown of the Google Webmaster Guidelines
November 16, 2010, 11:13 pmHave you ever actually stopped and taken a moment to really look through what Google has to say is good and bad when it comes to how you conduct yourself online from a communication and business standpoint? You should always be following Google Webmaster Guidelines when marketing your business online to ensure the utmost safety of your website.
Artists unite for education reform at REDU HOMEROOM
November 16, 2010, 9:15 pmAs we highlighted last week, REDU HOMEROOM, a two-week fundraising exhibition featuring original art by five renowned artists is up and running in New York. The featured artists: Scott Campbell, Neck Face, José Parla, Lucien Marc-Smith, and Luis Gispert are drawing from their personal experiences to produce works that inspire dialogue and...
Guest Post: Bing National Tailgating Championship hits Denver
November 16, 2010, 9:15 pmLast weekend the regionals of the Bing National Tailgate Championship moved to Denver's Mile High, where team Bronco Bus won the battle for tailgate supremacy. Chase Boswell, owner of the vehicle that gave the team its name, said the team has spent countless weekends upgrading the bus which has become a parking lot fixture in Denver. The Bronco...
How to Disable Google Instant Previews
November 16, 2010, 9:10 pmIf you find Google's Instant Previews feature as useless as I do - you know, those images popping up when you hover over search results, often similarly unwanted (when triggered by a wrong click) as Snap site previews - maybe this User script is for you. I use several machines and browsers, though, so always installing add-ons when Google rolls...
Baidu Fires Back At Google Claims Of Advantage In China
November 16, 2010, 7:32 pmBaidu CEO Robin Li called Google's decision to leave China a gift and stated his company had to deal with the same restrictions. Speaking at the Web 2.0 conference, Li said "he has more competitors than Google does in the US, including some with direct government sponsorship, and that Western companies aren't seen as public enemies if they...
Baidu Ready To Expand In To Other Countries
November 16, 2010, 7:16 pmBaidu CEO Robin Li told the Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco yesterday that his company is ready to expand to other countries beyond China and Japan. The Financial Times reported Baidu "is planning to expand into new countries and offer more languages to users beyond the dominant Chinese search engine's two-year-old foray in Japan". Beyond the...
Google To Enter Fashion Space
November 16, 2010, 6:56 pmGoogle is expected to launch in to the fashion business tomorrow at their High Tech Fuses With High Fashion event in New York. Fashion bloggers have been discussing this and the impact it may have on stores currently selling fashion. Google has bought boutique.com and already has been testing like.com - their comparison engine. Click to read the...
Google Releases White Paper Criticizing Countries Blocking Internet Access
November 16, 2010, 6:56 pmIn their Public Policy blog , Google discusses their release of a white paper that explores how " governments impose limits on the free flow of information online." "Over the last two decades, the Internet has delivered tremendous economic and trade benefits. It has driven record increases in productivity, spurred innovation, created new...
Congress Discussing Do Not Track Registry
November 16, 2010, 6:09 pmThe US Congress is discussing the possibility of instituting a registry for people who do not want websites to track them, the Washington Post reported . While privacy advocacy groups support the move, seems Google and others are against it. Click to read the rest of this post.
Yahoo! Clues Offers an Inside Look at Trending Search Patterns
November 16, 2010, 5:54 pmYahoo! is coming on strong this week with several announcements that prove they are well and truly still in the game. Today, they've unveiled the beta test of Yahoo! Clues and I could play in this one all day. Yahoo! Clues is designed to help you data-mine trending search terms. When you research a term, you're presented with a graph that shows...
Bing Search: 'Tis the Season for Tax Tips (and Negative Keywords)
November 16, 2010, 5:54 pmRegister to Attend a Free Webinar with the Author - Nov. 18 - Intro to Advertising on Bing Its almost December, and you know what that means: its time to find more ways to keep money in your pockets. No, Im not Ebenezer Scrooge. Im just highlighting the observation that December is the most popular time of year for searchers to start looking for...
Spam the hell out of Google’s new source attribution meta elements?
November 16, 2010, 5:51 pmThe moment you’ve read Google’s announcement and Matt’s question “What about spam?” you concluded “spamming source attribution tags is a breeze”, right? You’re not alone.
Before we discuss how to abuse it, it might be a good idea to analyze Google's new toy within its context. Maybe it's not that spammable ...
Google on Duplicate Content Filtering and News Attribution Metatags
November 16, 2010, 5:37 pmGoogle was granted a patent this morning that describes how Google might identify duplicate or near duplicate web pages and decide which version to show in search results, and which ones to filter out. It’s a process possibly close to what Google has been using for a while.
Using Review Sites to Increase SEO Presence
November 16, 2010, 5:18 pmSearch engine optimization features a tool belt of options that would put Batman to shame. For some reason, however, many optimizers ignore a large number of these tactics in order to focus on nothing more than link building. While getting more inbound links is important, that doesn't mean that other areas should be abandoned. One .
FairSearch Asks Congress, DOJ To Challenge Google-ITA Deal
November 16, 2010, 4:25 pmWhether you agree or disagree with its cause, FairSearch, the organization that exists for the sole purpose of stopping Google's acquisition of ITA Software, deserves credit for its resolve. Today, FairSearch addressed letters to every member of Congress, asking them to contact the Department of Justice.
One small clarification (and another...
Carey Mulligan Grabs "Great Gatsby" Part
November 16, 2010, 3:55 pmby Claudine Zap Carey Mulligan may actually be entering her second act: She will play the iconic role of Daisy Buchanan, opposite Leonardo DiCaprio as Jay Gatsby, in Baz Luhrmann's remake of the literary classic " The Great Gatsby ." The 25-year-old screen star of " Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps " beat out major some major contenders: Scarlett...
Dr Bing: A life remembered
November 16, 2010, 3:40 pmIt is with great sadness that I write this post. Last week, at the age of 101, Dr. Richard Bing passed away. Our thoughts go out to his loved ones as well as the countless others that his life touched. His life and the countless lives he touched with his work are an inspiration to all of us here at Bing and in particular those of us who were...
Can Trust in Journalism Be Boiled Down to Meta Tags?
November 16, 2010, 3:29 pmGoogle today released a couple of meta tags it wants news publications to use in order to indicate original and syndicated reporting to Google News. To be fair, the company says it is "experimenting" with the tags, but this seems like an experiment that is destined to fail. Don't get me wrong, the concept behind the tags is noble enough - get...
Google Voice For iPhone (Finally) Launches
November 16, 2010, 3:29 pmiPhone users may need a moment to verify that today isn't April 1st, but it's official: Google Voice for iPhone has been released. Google made the announcement this afternoon, potentially overshadowing Apple's own iTunes- and Beatles-related news item. After all, true Beatles fans have surely figured out a way to obtain the band's music in...
Find information faster with mobile Ad Sitelinks
November 16, 2010, 3:03 pmCross-posted from the Google Mobile Ads Blog We recently launched Mobile Ad Sitelinks, a search ad format that displays additional links to content located deep within your site. Available globally on high-end mobile devices, Ad Sitelinks are an easy way to introduce customers to multiple landing page options for your website. Ad Sitelinks on...
The Ring's the Thing
November 16, 2010, 2:33 pmby Claudine Zap Prince William finally popped the question to long-time girlfriend Kate Middleton, and he sealed the deal with his late mother's engagement ring. See a slideshow of the oval sapphire surrounded by diamonds that William's father, Prince Charles, presented to Princess Diana for their engagement. The ring is certainly a sentimental...
Weekly Search & Social News: 11/16/2010
November 16, 2010, 2:27 pmIt's time for another ' 7 Days of Search and Social '. There was plenty of search madness going on again last week, even though PubCon was on, which tends to slow things down. Seriously, the last while has been chock full of changes and a distinct lack of drama, ya just gotta love it. Lead Story It's all semantics to me This week I am gonna'...
Yahoo Partners With Groupon On Local Deals
November 16, 2010, 2:07 pmDaily deal shopping website Groupon has reached a distribution partnership with Yahoo to bring local deals to users. Yahoo is delivering technology at scale that connects people to the things that matter most to them with fresh and engaging experiences, said Blake Irving, Executive Vice President and Chief Product Officer, Yahoo . As content and...
Yahoo Aims to Be THE Place for Local Deals
November 16, 2010, 1:22 pmIt's quite a day for local search. Not only has Google launched a new social recommendation engine to tie into its local results, Yahoo has made a handful of announcements having to do with local and social features.
The company is launching local "quick apps" for users to find restaurants they want and "take action on...
Google Goggles Ties Online and Offline Brand Experience Together
November 16, 2010, 1:05 pmGoogle Goggles, while still relatively new, has a lot of potential (in my opinion so feel free to disagree) and will become more important in the future. Essentially it's visual search technology. Google is taking that technology and working with some big brands to integrate visual search with brand campaigns in the mobile space. The idea is to...
Bing Search Mobile App is Released
November 16, 2010, 12:39 pmMicrosoft, the company behind the search engine Bing (formerly known as Live and MSN), has been falling behind in the world of mobile phones. While their efforts with the Blackberry have been improving notably, they are still being ranked well under both the iPhone and Android series. However, with the release of Windows 7 also .
Play "Decode Jay-Z by Bing" for a chance to win a lifetime pass to see Jay-Z live
November 16, 2010, 12:39 pmJay-Z and Bing are proud to announce the addition of a final prize to the 'Decode Jay-Z by Bing experience: The Jay-Z Lifetime Pass . To anyone who locates all of the pages online, we are adding the chance to win free access for you and a friend to every single Jay-Z show anywhere in the world for the rest of your life. In order to be entered, you...
11 Productivity Tools for Firefox
November 16, 2010, 12:09 pm
So a few weeks ago, I ploughed through the annals of Firefox plug-ins available online – fun times! And I found a bunch of tools that are wicked for improving workflow (and a fair few pointless ones too).
So I powered up Firefox to become a productivity ninja. After a while, I found myself using some a lot more than others.
The ones I...
All About Kate Middleton
November 16, 2010, 12:08 pmby Mike Krumboltz Buckle up, royal watchers - this is the moment you've been waiting for. Kate Middleton and Prince William are engaged. The news set off a furious number of Web searches on the bride-to-be. Folks want to know a lot more about the future princess, so here are some quick facts that'll bring you up to speed. The engagement ring...
PayPal's top 5 tips for buying holiday gifts online
November 16, 2010, 12:03 pmHi this is Claudia Lombana, the PayPal Shopping Specialist. The time has come to start thinking about making those holiday purchases and PayPal can help! Fresh off a fantastic event in New York City - PayPal's Cashless Utopia - and a national media tour on holiday shopping tips, I now bring those tips to you! This season there's no need to brave...
More Americans Accessing Internet And Social Media For Medical Advice
November 16, 2010, 11:42 amAmericans looking for medical advice are visiting medical websites, social media sites, and online communities in greater numbers than the websites of pharmaceutical companies, according to a new survey from Accenture. More than two-thirds (68%) of Americans go online for health information,
Google Brings New Level of Relevancy to Local
November 16, 2010, 11:26 amGoogle has combined local search with personalized search, and social search to make a potentially powerful new kind of Google result that should benefit both users and businesses. These results come from a new Google product called "Hotpot", a recommendation engine designed for integration with Google Places. The concept is simple: rate...
Chrome Tops New List Of Vulnerable Applications
November 16, 2010, 11:25 amGenerally speaking, Google does well when it comes to lists. It's often labeled a favorite employer, most trusted brand, or dominant competitor. Unfortunately for the company, Chrome earned the number one spot on a list titled "Top Vulnerable Applications - 2010" today.
Bit9, which created the list, did so by pulling...
Kinect for Xbox 360 and the Changing Face of Gaming
November 16, 2010, 11:11 amIve been saying for some time that the Xbox LIVE audience is not only growing, but broadening demographically . Some recent audience numbers confirmed this, and in a very big way. The Xbox LIVE audience has grown to more than 25 million members a global community larger than any city in the world! But, more noteworthy than the absolute size of the...
Introducing Yahoo! Clues
November 16, 2010, 11:11 amYahoo! Clues is a new beta service that gives you a unique "behind the scenes" look into popular trends across the millions of people who use Yahoo! to search each day. With Yahoo! Clues, you can discover and compare trending information for search terms of interest to you, or explore popular trending search terms on Yahoo! You can see search...
Win a free 3-month subscription to the SEO Copywriting Certificate program!
November 16, 2010, 10:55 amIt's that time of year. I've been sick in bed for five days now (yes, FIVE days) and I'm doing everything I can to feel better. Then I realized - what other way to feel better than by giving away a free, 3-month subscription to my SEO Copywriting Certificate program? (Not familiar with the Certificate program? Check out the fantastic SEO...
Sneak Peek: New Local Search Features Coming Soon
November 16, 2010, 10:50 amAt today's Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco, Yahoo! will unveil a range of new local and social products focused on personalizing your Web experience. Building on the search features we launched last month, this new generation of search experiences lets you do more by taking action right from the results page. Restaurant searches are most popular...
Barnes & Noble Begins Shipping Nookcolor E-Reader
November 16, 2010, 10:45 amBarnes & Noble said today it will begin shipping its Nookcolor ahead of schedule to people who pre-ordered the device. The Nookcolor will begin arriving today and through the week to people who pre-ordered the device online and at Barnes & Noble stores. The e-reader will also start arriving at Barnes & Noble, Best Buy, Walmart and Books-A-Million...
Politics and the Social Media Factor
November 16, 2010, 10:35 amSocial media certainly played a major role in politics back in 2008 when President Obama was voted in and elected to serve. Many social media platforms grew exponentially over a short period of time when new voters began registering and getting excited about their opportunity to make an impact on the political landscape. President Obama .
Major Advertisers Sign On For Google Goggles Test
November 16, 2010, 10:29 amGoogle's augmented reality tech might soon make the shift from interesting plaything to revenue-generating tool. A Google Goggles marketing experiment has begun, at least, and Buick, Delta Airlines, Diageo, Disney, and T-Mobile are all taking part. Shailesh Nalawadi, a product manager over Google Goggles, explained this morning on the Official...
Why You Should Stop Using CAPTCHAs
November 16, 2010, 10:20 amOskar Smith explains why CAPTCHAs create a horrible user experience, can even cost sales / leads / whatever, and discusses alternatives.
AT&T And Verizon Aim To Create Mobile Payment Network
November 16, 2010, 9:23 amAT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless have announced the formation of a joint venture called ISIS, a mobile payments network. Discover Financial Services and Barclays Plc are also participating in the joint venture which will allow people to pay for purchases with their smartphones. ISIS is expected to be introduced in larger markets during the...
Trackur Launches Social Media Monitoring API
November 16, 2010, 9:21 amMy company, Trackur, is fast approaching its 3rd birthday–that makes us practically ancient among social media monitoring tools!
To celebrate, we are finally launching a feature that has been requested pretty much since day one: an API!
Yes, the Trackur API will free companies from the Trackur dashboard and instead allow them to take our...
Twitter Introduces Translations, More Local Trends
November 16, 2010, 9:07 amAt the moment, a Trending Topic on Twitter if you're not signed in is #seharrypotterfossebrasileiro, which highlights two problems. First, the average person may not be interested in Brazil's fondness for Harry Potter. Second, even if he or she is, the average person definitely doesn't know Portuguese, the official language of Brazil. So...
5 Ways you Can Use Blog Comments to Obtain Organic Links
November 16, 2010, 9:02 amby Stone Reuning Anyone whose run a blog knows you get literally hundreds of useless comments from people just looking for a quick link. It's easy to ignore these and many newer versions of WordPress and other blogging platforms do a pretty good job of weeding out those "spammers." With this in mind, it's almost counterintuitive to think you can...
Official: The Beatles Now Available Via iTunes
November 16, 2010, 9:01 amUPDATE: iTunes has officially been updated and now features The Beatles prominently on the front of the iTunes store, as well as the company homepage. For more information check out The Beatles page on Apple.
ORIGINAL ARTICLE: Yesterday Apple posted an announcement teaser on their homepage, for something "That you'll never...
Will Facebook's New Social Inbox Get Businesses Using Personal Profiles More?
November 16, 2010, 8:49 amFacebook made its big "email" announcement, and yes, you will be able to get an @facebook.com email address." It's not all about email, however, as CEO Mark Zuckerberg explained. It's about "seamless" integration across email, IM, SMS, and all these ways of communication.
Will use Facebook's new messaging system?...
What's Your Story?
November 16, 2010, 8:46 amBack in early 2009, Naomi Dunford of Ittybiz announced that she'd taken on a guinea pig. And, because it was Naomi's guinea pig, it had a fair amount of attitude and tended to swear a lot. This guinea pig explained its presence in the IttyBiz big picture by telling a story about what online marketing looked like from the average customer's...
Four things that you can do to get more sales
November 16, 2010, 8:36 amIt can be difficult to convince your website visitors to buy from you. Your visitors have to trust you before they buy. There are four easy things that you can do to make your website more trustworthy.
RUMOR: iTunes Finally Getting Beatles Catalog
November 16, 2010, 8:36 amYesterday Apple posted an announcement teaser on their homepage, for something " That you'll never forget ". Immediately people began to speculate what it could be: streaming music , wireless sync , cloud storage , subscription service , new logo , Beatles catalog ... the speculation went on and on. Not to start this old rumor up again, but it...
What's New in SEO for November 16, 2010
November 16, 2010, 8:36 amWe have compiled the latest news and updates from the big three, Google, Bing and Yahoo as it relates to SEO and the search engines overall. WHAT'S NEW THIS WEEK WITH GOOGLE: What A Feeling! Even Better Indexing of SWF Content Google discusses the measures it has taken over the past couple of years in collaboration with Adobe in regards to...
The latest on Yahoo-Google partnership in Japan
November 16, 2010, 8:21 amWhen Yahoo Japan and Google Japan announced its plan for search service tie-up (both organic search and PPC services) in July, Japan Fair Trade Commission (JFTC) gave a statement that they didn't think it would violate the Antitrust (or Competition) Law. Last month, Rakuten submitted a report and a request to investigate the tie-up to JFTC, and...
Google's Hotpot Recommendations and Reviews for the In Crowd
November 16, 2010, 8:15 amThere has been a lot of talk about Google developing a social product that we will see this fall (Google Me). Actually that talk was over the summer and since then there has been little talk at all. In fact, when it comes to the social front all of the talk has belonged to location based services in general with Facebook making announcement after...
Increasing SEO Competition and Change: Survival Not Mandatory
November 16, 2010, 8:15 amImage by Rebekah May It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory. - W. Edwards Deming It's safe to say the way search engines work is changing; but then, it's been safe to say that since the first engine rolled out. Is SEO changing, though? Think about it: Since people first started using the Web to advertise their business, they've...
How To Speed Up Your Website Page Load Performance By Delaying The Load Of JavaScript And Widgets - Part 2
November 16, 2010, 8:15 amWhile knowing how to speed up your website is a crucial technical competence for any serious webmaster, the new frontier is knowing how to avoid getting a web site to perform poorly after having added third-party widgets, add-ons and plugins. As a matter of fact, as mentioned in Part 1 of this guide, Google has already started using also the speed...
Google’s Hotpot: Recommendations and Reviews for the In Crowd
November 16, 2010, 8:11 amThere has been a lot of talk about Google developing a social product that we will see this fall (Google Me). Actually that talk was over the summer and since then there has been little talk at all. In fact, when it comes to the social front all of the talk has belonged to location based services in general with Facebook making announcement after...
Is Ranking Number One in Google Losing Its Significance?
November 16, 2010, 8:05 amAs you may have noticed, Google has been putting a great deal more emphasis on local these days than in years past. That includes everything from the introduction of Google Places and Place Pages to automatically showing more local results for certain searches, as well as various other solutions offered to businesses at the local level, such as...
Google CEO Schmidt on Google TV, Chrome OS, NFC Chip
November 16, 2010, 7:29 amSan Francisco - A bunch of us media peeps here at the Web 2.0 Summit had the pleasure of chatting with Google CEO Eric Schmidt after his mysterious non-unveiling of the Nexus S smartphone powered by T-Mobile Nov. 15. Schmidt waved around the smartphone you see above, which he declined to name. However, he noted that the device was loaded with...
Can't Get Those Rankings? Maybe Your Social Circle Can Help!
November 16, 2010, 7:08 amI started noticing some new natural search terms in my Google Analytics keyword report. Highly competitive terms like SEO, SEO Blog, and SEO Blogger were bringing me decent Google traffic. But in all honesty my SEO blog isn't big enough to rank well for these vital keywords. Yes - it hurts, but I can admit it. I started wondering how I was getting...
10 Steps to Better Content Marketing & SEO
November 16, 2010, 6:32 amHow would you rate your content marketing efforts? How well are you incorporating SEO and Social Media? If you're not sure or need to improve, read on. We're big fans of content marketing as you probably know and there's a presentation on Content Marketing Optimization that I've been doing at search conferences lately (SES SF, SES CHI, Pubcon and...
Google Hotpot: Local Recommendations In Google Places
November 16, 2010, 4:21 am"With Hotpot, we're making local search results for places on Google more personal, relevant and trustworthy."
Comparing SEO & Social Media as Marketing Channels
November 16, 2010, 3:57 amPosted by randfish You may have seen the recent string of posts about SEO vs. Social Media, starting with this effective, but poorly argued controversy-bait , which was excoriated by Elysia Brooker and Hugo Guzman , then followed up with a more nuanced view by Darren Rowse . While I'm not particularly interested (nor do I think there's much value)...
The Blekko SEO Guide You've Been Waiting To Read
November 16, 2010, 3:50 amThis guide explains how to use Blekko for checking links and other common SEO tasks.
Global Spam E-mail Down After Arrests Of Botnet Owners
November 15, 2010, 11:41 pm"One of the biggest successes was against the Pushdo or Cutwail botnet, which had been in operation since 2007 and was thought to be sending about 10% of global spam."
10 Ways to Mess Up Your SEO
November 15, 2010, 11:05 pmI see it and hear it all the time. I speak with potential clients that claim everything was going great and then all of a sudden everything hit the fan. Rankings gone, traffic gone and business down. Here are 10 ways to royally mess up your SEO: 1. Not asking enough questions When you hire a search engine optimization company make sure to ask...
Google's Newest Q&A Service: "baraza"
November 15, 2010, 10:34 pmGoogle's newest Question and Answer service is Google baraza beta , launched on 25 October 2010. Baraza is offered in English and French, although Google's links to the French questions aren't working for me. Baraza operates on a Points basis. You get 20 points for signing up, and 4 points each day you log in. If you are already logged into your...
We've Acquired Silicon Valley Moms Group and launched Technorati Women
November 15, 2010, 10:24 pmWe're excited to announce the acquisition of leading mom's network, Silicon Valley Moms Group, and the launch of our new Women's Channel . The Silicon Valley Moms Group bloggers will combine with Technorati's existing women bloggers to offer content about parenting, food & living, fitness, finances and style. The overall womens' channel will...
Google - Now With More Google in Your Google TM
November 15, 2010, 9:01 pmBen Edelman did it again :) This time he highlighted how Google hard codes their search results : [When] we roll[ed] out Google Finance, we did put the Google link first. It seems only fair right, we do all the work for the search page and all these other things, so we do put it first... That has actually been our policy, since then, because of...
Yahoo! Search Blog's New Look
November 15, 2010, 8:05 pmYou may have noticed that the Yahoo! Search Blog has a new look " we've updated the blog's look and feel. We'll be making some small tweaks to the blog design in the coming weeks. If you notice any issues with the blog's new design, please let us know. Yahoo!
Facebook Messaging Sounds Good. . . In Theory
November 15, 2010, 8:04 pmBang the gong. Facebook has an announcement. They’ve taken the wraps off their new messaging system which has been referred to as the “Gmail Killer.” Gmail can send the bodyguards home, they’re not in danger. . . not yet.
I spent some time watching the videos and reading the articles and I’ve come to the conclusion...
Transition Complete: Troubleshooting Campaign Performance Questions in Microsoft Advertising adCenter
November 15, 2010, 7:34 pmSo here we are, winter is approaching, the clocks have been moved back an hour for daylight savings time and your Yahoo! Search Marketing campaigns have transitioned to adCenter. While most of you should have had a relatively easy and smooth transition experience, others have needed to contact support for assistance in troubleshooting performance...
From PR to SEO to PR Again
November 15, 2010, 7:08 pm[ Note from Lee: Adam has been a tremendous resource and part of the TopRank Online Marketing team. His PR and social media background brought a very complimentary perspective to the SEO, Content and Social Media work we've been doing for the past 10 years. We wish him the best of fortune with his return to the PR world and will look forward to...
The JetBlue Guy Gets a Job
November 15, 2010, 6:22 pmby Claudine Zap When your grand exit from your last job is covered by the world, like flight attendant Steven Slater 's departure from JetBlue , you have to wonder how the interviews for the next gig will go. Earlier this year, the renegade JetBlue employee basically told the airline, and its passengers, to take his job and shove it. He announced...
The Followers of Location-Based Services
November 15, 2010, 6:06 pmWhere are you, and who knows you're there right now? With location-based services such as Foursquare and Gowalla, your whereabouts can be discovered and tracked in an instant. Pew Research recently conducted a survey that concluded about 4% of the 3,001 recipients surveyed showed that they used social networking sites consistently while 8% of them...
The Scoop on J-Simp's Main Man
November 15, 2010, 5:04 pmby Mike Krumboltz One week after ex-husband Nick Lachey announced his engagement to TV personality Vanessa Minnillo, Jessica Simpson told the world that she is going to tie the knot with former NFL pro Eric Johnson. Not surprisingly, Jessica's surprise announcement led to a tremendous number of Web searches. But hold the phone. The biggest search...
Hulu Sets Ad Impression Record In October
November 15, 2010, 4:49 pmNew comScore video data is out, and as usual, a few corporations traded places in terms of successfully attracting unique viewers. The bigger story, though, may be the fact that Hulu showed its users over 1.1 billion ads in October, which is more than twice as many as the number two entity, Tremor Media Video Network. comScore called the 1.1...
Video - Overwhelming Proof that Social Media Has Taken Over
November 15, 2010, 4:49 pmHere is a powerful video on YouTube which shows the blinding growth of social media and it states, without a doubt, social media is here to stay while providing glimpses of the future where social media will dictate everything we see online: Click here to view the embedded video.
Deja Vu Facebook Email Address Selling On eBay
November 15, 2010, 4:18 pmI remember when Gmail accounts were hot items being sold on eBay and now it seems Facebook mail accounts may be next. AllFacebook.com - the Unofficial Facebook Resource - is offering an account fro sale . Money from the sale will be donated to charity. Click to read the rest of this post.
Is a Shake-Up Brewing in the Search Market?
November 15, 2010, 4:13 pmMore WebProNews Videos Google has been dominating the search market for years. Simply put, if you ask most people to search for something on the web, their first instinct is to go to Google. More and more people might be getting reprogrammed to go to Bing, however. The "decision engine" still has a ways to go before it reaches Google-like numbers,...
Click-Through Rate Jumps 11.4% After Google Changes “Sponsored Links” to “Ads”
November 15, 2010, 4:03 pmGoogle’s switch from “Sponsored Links” to “Ads” has not had a negative impact on advertiser performance. In fact, it may have had just the opposite effect – searchers have clicked on a higher percentage of ads since Google made the switch. (Not yet. Wait til they become used to it.)
Are Deal Sites Making Consumers Jaded?
November 15, 2010, 3:16 pmIf you visit Whole Foods in the next few weeks, you could earn yourself a refreshing Tazo tea just for checking-in at the checkout counter. The promotion is being run by Foursquare competitor Gowalla and it includes opportunities to earn a $25 Whole Foods gift certificate or other related "goodies." This is another great example of using...
Teens and the Social Sites
November 15, 2010, 2:18 pmAs if the perils of social networking hadn't taken a huge hit in the teen community, another instance of "cyberbullying" has surfaced, bringing even more attention to this growing problem. Recently, a controversy surrounding students at Green Valley High School in Las Vegas prompted a panel discussion about it at the Paseo Verde Library in .
Hear about best practices for moving to Google Apps from Google's Deployment Lead, Alex Diacre
November 15, 2010, 2:07 pmGoogle's Deployment Lead, Alex Diacre, will be hosting a live webcast this Thursday, November 4th at 11:00 AM PT. Alex has been at Google since 2007 and has been leading the Enterprise Deployment Team in deploying Google Apps at businesses all over the world. Join us to hear from Alex and his team about exactly what you need to do to deploy Google...
Search and Social Media Marketing Strategies for Decade of Deflation
November 15, 2010, 2:07 pmEven in mid-November, many marketers are still preparing their marketing budgets for next year - which will probably be revised in three months - which is why virturally no one prepares a five-year plan anymore. But what if you were asked to come up with some smart search and social media marketing strategies for a decade of deflation? Click to...
comScore Releases October 2010 U.S. Online Video Rankings
November 15, 2010, 1:57 pmcomScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released data from the comScore Video Metrix service showing that 175 million U.S. Internet users watched online video content in October for an average of 15.1 hours per viewer. The total U.S. Internet audience engaged in more than 5.4 billion viewing sessions during...
Borders.com Rolls Out New Website
November 15, 2010, 1:54 pmBorders.com has launched a new website featuring discounts on 100,000 bestselling titles, free shipping offers and new product lines.
To promote the new website, Borders is offering free shipping on all orders placed on its site today. Borders Rewards Plus members receive free standard shipping on their online orders and an additional 10...
The Benefits of Using Action Tags: Part 1 in the Atlas Blog Action Tag Series
November 15, 2010, 1:36 pmWith Media Console action tag reports, you can see how many people visit your website's home page, and what they dosuch as searching your site, confirming orders, or buying something. But what are action tags? How do they work? Essentially, an action tag is a string of HTML code on a webpage that registers customer activity on that page. You can...
Social Media vs. SEO: My Approach
November 15, 2010, 1:36 pmDarren Rowse follows up on last week's debate with a post detailing his approach to balancing SEO and social media as a blogger. His bottom line: it depends what your goals are, who your target audience is, etc. Agreed.
5 Staggeringly Simple Ways to Create Custom Facebook Landing Tabs
November 15, 2010, 1:25 pmDid you know? "Research from Jeff Widman of Facebook fan page consultancy BrandGlue estimates that 199 out of every 200 interactions (99.5%) come from the Wall. This means that almost nobody is coming back to your fan page after they visit it the first time." Jay Baer shares a handful of tools that make the first fan page visit more likely to...
Facebook Announces Email Service Launch
November 15, 2010, 1:21 pmFacebook announced the launch of its much discussed email service. So now anyone on Facebook can get an @facebook.com email address. And they must be geared up to deal with a lot of email as they are offering the service to anyone who has a Facebook - over 500 million users. Click to read the rest of this post.
Facebook Unveils Social Inbox, Conversation History, and Yes, Facebook Email Addresses
November 15, 2010, 1:21 pmFacebook made its big "email" announcement, and yes, you will be able to get an @facebook.com email address." It's not all about email, however, as CEO Mark Zuckerberg explained. It's about "seamless" integration across email, IM, SMS, and all these ways of communication. It's also about "conversation history", meaning you can keep a running...
Finding Audiences - Wrap Up from the Monaco Media Forum
November 15, 2010, 1:21 pmLast week, I had the pleasure of participating on a panel at the Monaco Media Forum in Monte Carlo called "Audience Factories: Where's the money? Along with moderator Brian Morrissey, Digital Editor of AdWeek, I joined the panel with Kate Burns, AOLs Head of Ad Sales in Europe; Curt Hecht, President of the VivaKi Nerve Center; Dev Patel, VP of...
'Unstoppable' Movie Stopped, 'Walking Dead' Lives, Black Friday All Month: What's the Buzz
November 15, 2010, 1:00 pmby Claudine Zap Our top picks from the day's hottest searches. Black November (Searches increased by 1,882%). Forget Black Friday " the day after Thanksgiving that traditionally launches the holiday season. Now the deals last all month . "Unstoppable" (+1,622%). That may be the title of the just-out movie, but "Megamind" put a stop to the...
The New Ask.com is Here: What's Your Question?
November 15, 2010, 11:48 amBack in November, Doug Leeds, President of Ask.com, shared this post providing a glimpse into the future of Ask.com. At the risk of sounding like a bad sci-fi movie, we're excited to say the future starts now. Today we've officially launched the public beta for the new Ask.com, which combines our proprietary answers technology (specifically...
Hitwise Supplies Info On Google-Facebook Email Clash
November 15, 2010, 11:43 amMany analysts believe that Facebook will essentially declare war on Google later today, launching an email product that will compete with - and perhaps overthrow - Gmail. So this morning, Experian Hitwise Research Director Robin Goad weighed in with some stats pertaining to the possible conflict. Goad wrote, "As Facebook continues to grow it is...
eBay Launches "Love To Give" Holiday Shopping Campaign
November 15, 2010, 11:43 ameBay has introduced its Love to Give holiday shopping campaign which focuses on what the company describes as unwrap attacks, emotional moments that happen when someone receives the perfect gift. eBay is calling on people to upload videos of their best unwrap attack moment to its Love to Give gallery. Samantha Bee, correspondent on The Daily Show...
eBay Launches “Love To Give” Holiday Shopping Campaign
November 15, 2010, 11:29 ameBay has introduced its “Love to Give” holiday shopping campaign which focuses on what the company describes as “unwrap attacks,” emotional moments that happen when someone receives the perfect gift.
eBay is calling on people to upload videos of their best unwrap attack moment to its Love to Give gallery. Samantha Bee,...
Article Spinning - Spin like a pro
November 15, 2010, 11:18 amTo avoid duplicate content links, everyone is spinning their articles these days. Yes, even spammers. Learn how to spin like a pro, so you won't be mistaken by the search engines for a spammer.
The Appropriate Use of the Alt Tag
November 15, 2010, 11:07 amWhen it comes to the world of search engine optimization, one of the tools that's often misunderstood is the alt tag. While some groups completely ignore this powerful HTML tag, others put far too much weight on it. This entry will go into the alt tag, what it is, and how to use it right. .
Google Adds Product Search Enhancements Sometime in the Very Near Future ' We Guess
November 15, 2010, 9:34 amIn fine Google fashion the search giant has 'announced' some feature additions to their Product Search offering that can be explained in post on their blog but not replicated in the wild (at least by the blogger yet). As was pointed out to me, the post actually said the improvements would be made 'this week' so silly me for reading a post on new...
Google Adds Product Search Enhancements Sometime in the Very Near Future … We Guess
November 15, 2010, 9:28 amIn fine Google fashion the search giant has ‘announced’ some feature additions to their Product Search offering that can be explained in post on their blog but not replicated in the wild (at least by the blogger yet). As was pointed out to me, the post actually said the improvements would be made ‘this week’ so silly me for reading a post...
How to Optimize Your Social Profiles
November 15, 2010, 9:19 amBy Renée Revetta
While you might be optimizing your website for search and participating in social media, are you optimizing your social efforts for search? Looking at four of the main social networks; Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube, here are some tactics to implement for each profile. While maintaining an active presence on social...
7 Ways to Improve Your Writing' Right Now
November 15, 2010, 9:18 amMany of you would love to write more compelling blog posts, articles or web copy. You've heard all the old advice. Practice makes perfect. Get your 10,000 hours in. Just show up and write . And of course, that's all a good idea. It just takes so danged long. Meanwhile, I've got a couple of fast ways you can improve your writing immediately . No...
There's More to Social Media For Small Businesses than ROI
November 15, 2010, 9:18 am
More WebProNews Videos
WebProNews recently had a conversation with Shirley Tan of ECommerceFastStart.com, who says, "Social media is actually a level playing field for small business owners."
"Small business owners can really take control...[of] all their messaging and their branding, and really just engage their customers in...
Report: Facebook Tops eBay In Value
November 15, 2010, 9:03 amA certain social network may now trail only Google and Amazon in value when it comes to American Web companies. Facebook's privately traded shares have apparently appreciated to the point that the organization's passed even eBay. Brian Womack reported this morning, "Facebook's stock is trading at more than $16 on SecondMarket Inc., an exchange...
Yahoo Introduces Its Contibutor Network
November 15, 2010, 9:03 amYahoo has launched the Yahoo Contributor Network, a new platform for people to publish their creative content. Yahoo says its Contributor Network will bring contributions from more than 400,000 writers, photographers and videographers to media destinations, including Yahoo News, Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Sports and the Yahoo homepage. "The launch of...
Facebook Mail may kill Gmail but can it tackle Hotmail?
November 15, 2010, 8:57 amFacebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is hosting a media event later today which is expected to announce the launch of a Facebook email service - already being dubbed the 'Gmail Killer'. Facebook have remained tight lipped about the announcement, but the codenamed Project Titan is predicted to offer a new email service to rival the likes of Hotmail, Yahoo!...
How Many "Dark Patters" Can You Name?
November 15, 2010, 8:00 amI have always been amazed by and supportive of simple but genius ideas I keep coming across daily. This time it's " Dark Patterns " community initiative by Harry Brignull . " Dark Patterns " is the wiki of "dirty tricks" designers use to cheat people into doing things they are aimed to.
Social Media and Blogging: The Common Sense Approach
November 15, 2010, 7:55 amMore WebProNews Videos Businesses face a lot of pressure when trying to craft their blogging and social media strategies. There are so many tools and approaches that it can be quite overwhelming. While keeping up with the latest trends and technologies is one thing , another factor is just the approach you take at the personality level, which in...
The Power of Listening in Social Media
November 15, 2010, 7:19 amI'm amazed at how few marketers spend time listening to social networks before deciding whether or not to invest in them. Twitter and Facebook are often the perfect examples of networks you don't necessarily need to participate in, but often companies get pressured into it because of all of the buzz they get. So what are you supposed to do when...
Facebook Launches Seamless Messaging
November 15, 2010, 7:10 am"We'll be launching Messages and email addresses gradually and making it available to everyone over the next few months."
Zero In On Your Problem Areas
November 15, 2010, 6:58 amBuilding links is tedious work, whether you enjoy it or not. I've done almost every form of SEO at one time or another, and I can truly say that link building is the absolute most time-consuming (and occasionally boring) bit. The results can be amazing, but you definitely have to work hard to see them. If you haven't yet experienced link builder...
"Research": Social Media and E-Mail Integration Examined
November 15, 2010, 6:53 amToday's research tidbit is about the integration of social media and e-mail. It's a match that is made in heaven from a theoretical standpoint for sure. In practice, of course, these things tend to be a little more like real life: great intentions but messier than any of us would like. Today we get more information about how this marriage is...
“Research”: Social Media and E-Mail Integration Examined
November 15, 2010, 6:52 amToday’s research tidbit is about the integration of social media and e-mail. It’s a match that is made in heaven from a theoretical standpoint for sure. In practice, of course, these things tend to be a little more like real life: great intentions but messier than any of us would like.
Today we get more information about how this marriage is...
AOL Announces Email Redux Ahead of Expected Facebook Email Announcement
November 15, 2010, 6:48 amFacebook is expected to make an announcement today that could have a huge impact on the email industry, but AOL made an announcement first. The company has unveiled a preview of a new version of AOL Mail, which it's referring to as "Project Phoenix." "Email remains one of the most vital communication tools despite all of the new sites and apps...
Content strategy: building out your content with articles
November 15, 2010, 6:22 amWelcome back! Today we're continuing our discussion of content strategy , namely, how to develop and leverage our content by writing articles. As you may recall, last week we stressed that an essential part of our ongoing content strategy is to reach our prospects in the research phase of their buying cycle, when they're actively gathering...
Educating The Client About SEO Is The Best Way To Recover The Reputation Of The SEO Industry
November 15, 2010, 6:12 amJust the other day I came across a discussion regarding the The SEO Industry's Reputation Problem on Sphinn.com. After going through the discussion, I strongly feel that if the reputation of the SEO industry has been tarnished by people who call themselves SEOs despite not having any knowledge or experience in anything search-engines-related,
Yahoo Launches Contributor Network
November 15, 2010, 5:56 am"Associated Content has been known for maintaining the industry's largest contributor base, and with the launch of the Yahoo! Contributor Network, we've added scale and reach that sets us apart from any other crowdsourced media platform."
Statistics on Internet Usage in Italy September 2010
November 15, 2010, 4:23 amAudiweb published a new report new on Internet usage in Italy based on data harvested in September 2010: 32,9 million Italians between 11 and 74 are now connected to the Internet "on a permanent basis" i.e. from "anywhere" with "any device" during the last year mobile internet access has increased 26,
Mobile voice search goes world wide
November 15, 2010, 3:17 amHave you ever been on the highway thinking "I have to Google that"? You probably have and some of you might have even have done it. With the risk of a ticket (at least here in Holland you are not allowed to do that) or worse, the risk of an accident. In the English speaking countries like the UK, US or Australia that wasn't an issue anymore when...
Untitled 2
November 15, 2010, 3:01 amAudiweb published a new report new on Internet usage in Italy based on data harvested in September 2010: 32,9 million Italians between 11 and 74 are now connected to the Internet "on a permanent basis" i.e. from "anywhere" with "any device" during the last year mobile internet access has increased 26,
Why Facebook Has Google Over a Barrel: Social Ads
November 15, 2010, 2:51 amWhen we journalists talk about the rivalry between Google and Facebook, which Columbia Law School professor Tim Wu sees (WSJ paywall) as our new resident monopolists, we tend to speak in blanket scenarios. We might juxtapose the fact that Google has 1 billion searchers to Facebook's 500 million-plus users with the fact that Facebook is now leading...
Taped an iPhone to my remote-controlled car and hit the Record button
November 15, 2010, 2:30 am[By Philipp Lenssen | Origin: Taped an iPhone to my remote-controlled car a ... | Comments ] [Advertisement] Want to make money with your website? AllPosters.
Election results and trends, live on YouTube tonight
November 15, 2010, 12:47 amIt's been a memorable campaign season on YouTube, but the time for persuasion and debate is over - now it's time to vote. As polling results come in from across the country, we're partnering with CBS News to live stream election results and highlight election trends on YouTube and Google. Tune in starting at 9 p.m. ET to youtube.com/CBSNews ....
301 Redirect or Rel=Canonical - Which One Should You Use?
November 14, 2010, 11:40 pmPosted by Paddy_Moogan There has been quite a lot of discussion lately about the use of rel=canonical and we've certainly seen a decent amount of Q&A from SEOmoz members on the subject. Dr. Pete of course blogged about his rel-canonical experiment which had somewhat interesting results and Lindsay wrote a great guide to rel=canonical ....
Internal Linking Recommendations to Consider
November 14, 2010, 11:19 pmOften times I see websites that think a certain effort is really important and required for success but the entrepreneur or website owner fails to realize the thin line between too much and too little of that effort. Too much of a certain effort can cause your website to receive a penalty from any of the major search engines so it is important to...
Changing Site Structures with Care
November 14, 2010, 5:56 pmIf you must change a web site's structure, this offers an overview of what to consider before and after flipping the switch.
San Diego Man Balks at Scan
November 14, 2010, 3:36 pmby Mike Krumboltz Folks have been surrendering their dignity in the name of safe air travel for years. Most of the time, this happens without incident. But John Tyner, who was scheduled to fly from San Diego's Lindbergh Field to South Dakota for a hunting trip on Saturday, drew the line when he was asked to submit to either a full-body scan or a...
BlogPress SEO Plugin: Spam!
November 13, 2010, 1:06 pmThis one is a couple weeks old, but contains a strong warning about a Wordpress plugin that claims to help with SEO, but may actually get your blog hacked, penalized, and who knows what else.
Cup of Joe: Are You Listening? To Yourself?
November 13, 2010, 7:34 amThe other day I was browsing Twitter and I saw a tweet that annoyed me. I guess the tweet itself wasn’t that bad, but this user has become increasingly more and more annoying. So annoying that I decided to stop following him.
Honestly, I am surprised I don’t stop following people more often. Don’t get me wrong, I am pretty easy...
Search Week In Review for Nov. 13, 2010
November 13, 2010, 7:28 amHere's a roundup of this week's columns and news stories for the week of Nov. 7 to 12, as reported by Search Engine Watch , as well as search news and tips from around the web. Click to read the rest of this post.
Conference Agenda Posted for SES London 2011
November 13, 2010, 2:39 amIf you haven't looked lately, the conference agenda has been posted for SES London 2011 . Click to read the rest of this post.
AdSense Unveils Cleaner, Clearer Interface
November 13, 2010, 1:06 amAdSense has finally rolled out their new interface to all users and it's a welcome sight. The new dashboard is clearer, easier to use and much more intuitive than what was there before. The new AdSense interface is designed to get you want you need with fewer clicks and gives you more control over the ads that run on your sites. It all begins with...
Conducting a Marketing Audit: The 5 Essential Questions
November 13, 2010, 12:28 amConducting a marketing audit is an essential move for sucessful business practice. Here are five of the most important questions to ask in the marketing strategy process.
Google Partners With NHL, Adds Real-Time Scores to Search Results
November 12, 2010, 10:11 pmGoogle has begun partnering with NHL.com to add real-time game scores to its search results. Using results from the NHL's site, you can more easily find snippets featuring links to live scores, live streams, standings, previews, game recaps, video highlights, and a link to buy tickets. Click to read the rest of this post.
Google Boosts Salaries of Execs by 30%
November 12, 2010, 9:20 pmA regulatory filing today reveals that several top executives at Google are getting 30 percent hikes. Click to read the rest of this post.
Wonder Woman, Black Friday, and a Stranded Ship: Buzz Week in Review
November 12, 2010, 7:42 pmby Mike Krumboltz The Web is for everyone. And this past week, the searches seemed to come from all over the place. There were Web lookups on a lighthearted celebrity tiff, interest in looming Black Friday sales, and big searches on a crippled cruise ship that finally made it back to port. Theme? Who needs a theme - this is the Buzz Week in...
Key Takeaways From Matt Cutts Talking At PubCon
November 12, 2010, 5:12 pmWe've had the PubCon round up post earlier on Sphinn, but this deserves special attention -- and overview of interesting and some new things that Matt Cutts shared during his talk that will be of interest to SEOs.
See potential placements for Google Display Network campaigns
November 12, 2010, 4:37 pmSince the inception of the Google Display Network , contextual targeting has helped you to reach users effectively. This type of targeting allows you to show your ads next to related web content that users visit across millions of sites on the Display Network. Today, we're announcing an AdWords feature that provides you with example sites in the...
Distinction Between Email And Social Networks Eroding
November 12, 2010, 4:24 pmThe popularity of social networking services, along with changing demographics and work styles, will lead 20 percent of employees to use social networks as a main business communication tool by 2014, according to a new report from Gartner.
With Facebook expected to launch its own email service on Monday, analysts at Gartner seem to be right on...
Hulu Plus Makes Appearance On Sony Dash
November 12, 2010, 4:23 pmHulu Plus, the $9.99 per month service that has so far failed to attract much positive attention, scored another (small) victory today. Now Hulu Plus is available through the Sony Dash, a device designed to inhabit bedrooms, kitchens, and offices.
A little more info on the Dash in case you're unfamiliar with it: Sony describes it as "a...
5 Stages of Digital Marketing Professional Development
November 12, 2010, 4:16 pmTrade shows and conferences are like the Energizer Bunnies of the digital marketing industry. Despite hard times, demand for events has grown. I think I've figured out why. But first let's walk through what it's like to kick off a digital marketing career these days. Someone launching, say, a search marketing career will encounter information...
Tweeting Your Way to Success
November 12, 2010, 4:16 pmThis morning, as I skimmed through my newsfeeds and email messages, I found three posts that had to do with finding a way to excel on Twitter. Since the bird seems to be in the collective consciousness today, I thought I'd take a moment to add my two cents to the communal pot. Let's start with Business News Daily. For some strange reason, they...
Clicks But No Conversions? It's the Landing Page Every Time.
November 12, 2010, 4:08 pmAre you putting enough thought into your landing pages? If not, it's probably the main reason your conversions, or more importantly your revenue, aren't higher. At PubCon in Las Vegas, WebProNews spoke with Brad Geddes, Founder of PPC training firm bgTheory about advanced PPC and landing page optimization.
Why Landing Page Optimization is...
PayPal's Cashless Utopia
November 12, 2010, 4:06 pmHi everyone - Sam Shrauger, VP of global product strategy at PayPal, here. I just got back from New York and PayPal's first Cashless Utopia , where we invited guests to experience the "seven wonders of a cashless world" and demonstrated the ease and simplicity of using PayPal to pay for everything - whether you are online, offline, or on a mobile...
Editing Web Sites for Success: How Content Affects Reputation
November 12, 2010, 3:35 pmLet me start by saying that I dont correct my friends email when there are spelling or grammar errors. I also dont correct people in day-to-day life or pull out my red pen at parties. I only correct language when I am working as an editor, and I feel that a content error could damage the customers ability to understand the website, ad copy, or...
Google Site Search Pricing Changes
November 12, 2010, 3:09 pmA complicated pricing structure does few people any favors. Businesses just risk annoying or alienating potential customers who don't feel like pulling out three spreadsheets and a graphing calculator in order to predict their bill. So it may be a good thing that Google Site Search gained a simpler pricing structure today.
A post on...
#1 Mistake Marketers Make with Tracking Social Media
November 12, 2010, 2:56 pmReally great piece from Annie Cushing, who says "... the lack of tracking from social media has become pandemic for companies -- even enterprise companies that are investing tens of thousands of dollars into social media." Several specific, actionable ideas in here.
Michael J. Fox Is Good on "The Good Wife"
November 12, 2010, 2:38 pmby Claudine Zap Michael J. Fox became a megastar from his " Back to the Future " movies, but it's a guest role on a TV show that's causing big buzz for the actor now. The star, who has suffered from Parkinson's since 1991, appeared on the legal drama " The Good Wife ." Fox played a lawyer with symptoms of the disease in an episode titled "...
Marketing and Personal Implications of a Facebook Email Service
November 12, 2010, 1:51 pmRumor has it that Facebook will unveil its webmail product on Monday. That means look out Yahoo Mail. Look out Hotmail, and more interestingly in the grand scheme of things, look out Gmail.
I was going to wait until the official announcement from Facebook on Monday to talk about this, so we can get all the real details about what this will...
A Warning Shot or an Accident? Does it Matter?
November 12, 2010, 1:26 pmOn the 22nd of October Google had an indexing issue and a separate algorithmic change . Some of the sites associated with the indexing glitch quickly came back, whereas others seemed like they were hosed for weeks and headed toward the path of perpetual obscurity. To give a visual of how dire this situation was for some webmasters, consider the...
The Definitive Guide to SEO for Images: 6 Steps to Image-Ranking Success
November 12, 2010, 1:07 pmHere's a good overview of image optimization from Stephen Chapman at ZDNet. Some very hands-on tips for those who haven't spent a lot of time in this area of SEO.
Don't Know What to Make of Blekko? Overview & 2 SEO Ninja Tactics
November 12, 2010, 12:29 pmBlekko may be little more than a week old, but in order for it to achieve its aim to be the third voice in search , it is going to have to deliver a pretty sweet search experience to differentiate itself in the market. It need only look to Bing, Yahoo, and Ask to gauge the challenge ahead. Search is an expensive business and getting users to...
Seeing Red: Why the "Harry Potter" Stars Wore Red Flowers on the Red Carpet
November 12, 2010, 12:24 pmby Claudine Zap While fans of the "Harry Potter" series headed to the Web on Thursday to catch the London red carpet premiere of the latest movie, others wondered why the actors wore matching red poppy boutonnieres. Stars Daniel Radcliffe , 21, Emma Watson , 20, and Rupert Grint , 22, who play Harry Potter and his best friends, Hermione and Ron,...
Now All Blogger Outreach Campaigns Will Be Considered Spam Too :)
November 12, 2010, 12:19 pmNot that long ago I highlighted how infographics were largely being destroyed as a link building tool by some unscrupulous folks who were offering to pay people to host the infographics to their sites - in a sense making the word infographic seem & feel like spam, just like paid links. :D After killing that source of links, the folks behind that...
Yahoo Continues Circling the Drain: Big Layoffs Likely
November 12, 2010, 12:14 pmYahoo is expected to announce significant layoffs next month, with reports ranging from 10 and 20 percent, or anywhere from 650 to 2,500 employees. Click to read the rest of this post.
Code Site In Five New Languages
November 12, 2010, 11:48 amGoogle Analytics is not only a product but also a platform, supporting an ecosystem of developers, tools, users, and partners. The Google Analytics APIs are an important part of this ecosystem and platform. In fact, over 80 new applications have been added to the Google Apps Gallery since we announced it 6 months ago. We love seeing this kind of...
Thank you, Houston. Hello, Denver: The road to the Bing National Tailgating Championship
November 12, 2010, 11:38 amOur search to find the nations best tailgating team kicked off in Houston last Sunday. It was a parking lot battle of bean bags, brisket and bull-horns. Houstons own Bulls Eye Tailgaters beat out the competition proving their mettle across four key categories: cooking, sports trivia, parking lot athletics and team spirit to take the prize. They...
College Football Player Suspended for Negative Tweeting
November 12, 2010, 11:38 amYou would think that your Facebook and Twitter accounts are your personal spaces and you should be able to say whatever you'd like to, wouldn't you? After all, why would anyone care or think twice about your babbling tweets or your mundane status updates? Well apparently sports athletes don't have the freedom to say whatever .
Video: Multi-Screen "How To" - Integrated Digital Marketing Across Multiple Devices
November 12, 2010, 11:27 amWelcome to the second in a series of Digital Insights Videos that showcases interviews with advertisers, marketers and thought leaders from the industry, which show how digital advertising is evolving and what planners need to think about when they consider their next campaign. In the first, on Emerging Media at Microsoft , we showed how different...
Google Vulnerability Program Meets With Early Success
November 12, 2010, 11:24 amPerhaps the best possible thing, from Google's point of view, would have been if it had announced its vulnerability reward program and then heard nothing at all. But a short while after the program's launch, Google's seen a response that it still characterized as "fantastic" as people have been quick to bring problems to light.
A...
Tips For Increasing the Chances of Customers Buying From You Online
November 12, 2010, 11:22 amIn the fast-paced digital age where everyone wants a piece of that sweet Internet money, competition for small businesses is greater than ever. Fortunately there are more tools available to small businesses than ever as well. Still, there are so many factors to consider, and so little time.
Going Google across the 50 States: Two California-base companies find a common solution with Google Apps
November 12, 2010, 10:57 amEditor's note : Over 3 million businesses have adopted Google Apps . Today we'll hear from PlayPlainIt.com and Medialcoate, two companies based in California. To learn more about other organizations that have gone Google and share your story, visit our community map or test drive life in the cloud with the Go Google cloud calculator . San...
AdWords Product Listing Ads Now Available For All U.S. Advertisers
November 12, 2010, 10:36 amWithin the week, all U.S. advertisers will be able to use Google Product Listing Ads, Google announced yesterday. Product Ads feature product images, price, and merchant names in shopping related searches. Click to read the rest of this post.
Significant Yahoo Layoffs Rumored
November 12, 2010, 10:20 amAt a time when people should be decorating their offices in a festive manner, it seems that a large number of Yahoo employees will instead have to carry away their belongings in cardboard boxes. Multiple sources indicate that Yahoo intends to conduct another round of layoffs in December. Indeed, it's almost certain at this point that layoffs will...
Google, Thank Apple for Buoying the Mobile Ad Market
November 12, 2010, 9:55 amIt might be one of the most clichéd aphorisms running, but Apple has again proven to be the the rising tide that lifts all boats. The Wall Street Journal has an interesting piece on how the company's iAd in-application advertising platform for its iPhone, iPod touch and iPad is boosting advertiser interest in mobile phones and other gadgets with...
Good Times, Bad Times for Silicon Valley Employees
November 12, 2010, 9:28 amIt appears to be some of the most interesting times to be employed, seeking employment or trying to stay employed in the world of the Internet space. Facebook continues to grab up top employees from the likes of Google while Google is offering ridiculous sums to the right employees to stay ( as well as rewarding ALL employees except those who...
How to Build Your Business by Walking Away from the Sale
November 12, 2010, 9:24 amSome marketing feels almost impossible to resist. Your favorite product is 85% off! This really smart expert is only offering advice until Monday! This service will change your life or your money back ! Smart marketers know how to reduce risk, boost urgency , and tempt our wallets with irresistible offers. But are there times when those techniques...
Target Launches Online Daily Deals For The Holiday Season
November 12, 2010, 9:23 amTarget has introduced new online daily deals for the holiday shopping season.
Target.com's Daily Deals will offer one-day sales of up to 50 percent off regular prices. New deals this holiday season include:
*“Mega Merry Mondays,” beginning each week with deals on 17 popular items.
*“Total Toy Tuesdays,” offering...
Check-In Apps Add Key Relevancy Factor to Your Marketing
November 12, 2010, 9:18 amAre check-in apps just a fad or are they the future of local business marketing? It may still be too early to tell, but I'm starting to lean toward the latter, because this space is only picking up more and more steam, and businesses and marketers are getting excited about it as more apps continue to flood the mobile app markets. At PubCon this...
'Friends' App May Become Your New Contact List
November 12, 2010, 8:58 amHow much time do you spend trying to keep with all your friends on the various social platforms? Chances are it's quite a bit. Most of your friends are probably on Facebook , some are hard die heard Twitterers , and some won't let go of MySpace . Enter the Friends app from Taptivate for the iPhone and iPod Touch. The official blog states, "...
Try a Little SEO Romance
November 12, 2010, 8:47 amby Stoney deGeyter I was thinking the other day about how influencing search engines is like influencing people. Short of brute force and absolute control, you can't force anyone to do your bidding. With search engines, you might make a spam brute force attack, but that will be short lived. And absolute control? Well, no one has that, not even...
Make the Most of Twitter Lists with Formulists
November 12, 2010, 7:40 amWhen Twitter lists were first introduced many people were very skeptic, others (like myself) didn't have the time to use them properly and to figure out how the feature can benefit them. Through the months after the feature launch I've been randomly experimenting with it and came to some great results.
Facebook Jumping Into Email Game on Monday?
November 12, 2010, 7:09 amFacebook has announced another event to announce more activity by the social media giant and the strong rumor has it that a full-fledged email offering is hitting 'the 'book'. It's something that has been speculated about for quite some time. TechCrunch's Jason Kincaid says this Back in February we wrote about Facebook's secret Project Titan " a...
Playable JavaScript app of my new iPad game Knights vs Knightesses (Google Chrome/ Safari needed)
November 12, 2010, 1:14 amHere's a fully playable web demo of my new free iPad two-player game Knights vs Knightesses... it runs in Google Chrome and Safari. Note the graphics load much slower than the iPad app because it's online. If you're interested, the full source is viewable. It's all JavaScript because I'm using the PhoneGap wrapper for this one. [By Philipp Lenssen...
Search Engines and Brand Entities - Whiteboard Friday
November 12, 2010, 12:07 amPosted by Aaron Wheeler Brands and company-specific brand name products have become much more important to search engines recently. Google tries to serve us with relevant content, so if it thinks we want to know more about Adidas or Puma, it's going to tell us about these brands rather than about the random online shoe stores that we'll probably...
PubCon Las Vegas 2010 Big Recap
November 11, 2010, 11:54 pmSearch Engine Land's link roundup to all of the excellent live blogging and articles about this year's PubCon in Las Vegas.
How to Increase Your Friends, Fans, Likes and Followers
November 11, 2010, 11:11 pmIf you are a website or business that is really trying to make an impact in your industry in more ways than one at some point you might find that it is important to make friends with some of your industry professional colleagues online. How can I get the attention of my colleagues? One great way is to locate all of the high powered blogs in your...
Common Mistakes in Enterprise Pay Per Click
November 11, 2010, 7:29 pmIn another article we looked at large scale SEO with Bill Hunt. We also sat down with Eric Enge of Stone Temple Consulting at PubCon, who talked about enterprise PPC. "There's some things that change when you get to a very large account, whether it's greater than 50k a month spend or greater than 100k a month spend, you know, whatever it may be,"...
Business.com to close down
November 11, 2010, 6:38 pmbusiness.com will be phased out as a stand-alone B2B directory.
Who's Got the Time for All This Technology?
November 11, 2010, 6:23 pmIn a recent article , we asked how business owners and CEOs can keep up with new technologies and strategies in the digital age. It's a topic we discussed with a few people at Pubcon in Las Vegas. "The pace of change is frightening," New York Times tech columnist David Pogue told us. "In the last three or four years...it's becoming overwhelming...
comScore Veteran Amy Weinberger Appointed Vice President for Australia and New Zealand
November 11, 2010, 6:02 pmcomScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today announced the appointment of Amy Weinberger as vice president for Australia and New Zealand. Ms. Weinberger brings nearly 12 years of digital research industry experience to her new role, including 8 years of experience with comScore in its San Francisco office where she...
Super Bowl Ads and the Evolution of Online Marketing
November 11, 2010, 5:57 pmDo you remember Pets.com? Back in 2000, the internet company made a big splash with a clever Super Bowl ad that had pet owners rushing to the site to buy dog food. Actually, not the second part. Like a lot of companies during the dot.com boom, the Super Bowl ad was the first and final hurrah for Pets.com. While you won't see the return of the...
Reducing the Yahoo-to-adCenter Campaign Friction
November 11, 2010, 5:52 pmAs you may know, the Yahoo and Microsoft advertising transition is complete. Yahoo and Microsoft paid search advertisers must use adCenter to manage their campaigns. But how smooth has the transition been for advertisers? WebProNews took a few moments to talk about the transition with PPC expert Christine Churchill of Key Relevance at PubCon in...
Twitter Founders Discuss The Origin Of The Name With Jimmy Fallon
November 11, 2010, 5:52 pmLast night, Twitter founders Evan Williams ( @EV ) and Biz Stone ( @Biz ) were guests on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon and pair discussed the origins of the Twitter name, and a few that didn't quite make the cut. According to Biz Stone, the names that were initially kicked around were, " Jitter " and " Twitch ", but those seem to much like a " drug...
Connecting with Consumers on the Go with Windows Phone 7 - Monaco Media Forum
November 11, 2010, 5:41 pmToday at the Monaco Media Forum in Monte Carlo, I had a chance to keynote a session on Going Mobile that outlined how innovative technologies can help advertisers reach quickly moving consumers. In this new world, where everything is a screen and a conduit for content, the marketing opportunities on mobile devices are endless. Take our exciting...
IAB Puts Out Plan to Standardize Mobile Metrics
November 11, 2010, 4:50 pmIf you're running a marketing campaign with no means of measuring the results, you're wasting your money. Trouble is, with the marketing world changing as fast as it is, we haven't even developed a baseline for what's considered a success in Twitter or Facebook and mobile is even further behind. Because of this,
Link Building Tips for Personal Blogs
November 11, 2010, 4:34 pmPosted by randfish I've gotten to spend some time recently with folks who run small, personal blogs (including my wife , friend Kim , and a travel blogging dinner meetup SEOmoz sponsored in Seattle this week), and many of them have asked me whether SEO, in particular link building, is an activity they can take on to help grow their online presence.
Google India To Hire "Hundreds Of Engineers"
November 11, 2010, 4:29 pmGoogle India's HR managers may be in for a hectic time. Days after Google announced $1,000 bonuses and ten percent raises for all the company's workers, a high-ranking employee has committed to hiring at least 200 engineers in the country. Peeyush Ranjan, Google India's head of research and development, told the Economic Times , "Between Google...
YouTube Tries Being Topical Directory
November 11, 2010, 4:27 pmOn Wednesday, YouTube said that users can opt-in to an experimental service called "YouTube Topics on Search," an attempt to meld keyword queries with a topic-oriented directory.
Think the Big Brands Got it Great in Search?
November 11, 2010, 3:42 pmThere's no question that big brands often rank very well in search, but you might be surprised at just how difficult it is to scale SEO for large sites and to get the right wheels in motion for big companies.
Challenges of Scale
Bill Hunt of Back Azimuth Consulting knows a lot about it. "Scale is the big point, so when we're talking...
Facebook Commits To Second Custom Data Center
November 11, 2010, 3:22 pmEarly this year, Facebook announced that it would build its first custom data center in Oregon. Then, in August, Facebook announced that it would more than double the size of the still-under-construction facility. And now the company's charged forward yet again, committing to build a $450 million data center in North Carolina. The Rutherford...
Helping you find emergency information when you need it
November 11, 2010, 3:22 pm(Cross-posted from the google.org blog ) We know that in times of crisis, it's especially important for you to find the crucial information you're looking for"and find it fast. Today, in 13 countries, we'll begin displaying some combination of special search results for searches around poison control, suicide and common emergency numbers that...
Product Listing Ads rolling out to all U.S. advertisers
November 11, 2010, 2:46 pmOne year ago today we launched the initial beta of Product Listing Ads. With Product Listing Ads, we wanted to introduce a basic ad format that makes it easy for you to promote your entire product inventory while still providing potential customers with high-quality, relevant results. Over the last year we've been impressed with the results. In...
How to design for Google Instant Preview
November 11, 2010, 2:33 pmA nice tutorial by Ivan Raszl on how to design your site so it shows up nicely with Google's new Instant Preview. Amazing that he came up with this so quickly!
What Does The Future Of Search Look Like?
November 11, 2010, 2:20 pmTim Mayer, the former head of search product and business at Yahoo, spoke in the keynote session Future of Search: Mobile, Social, and Vertical. Coverage of PubCon will continue at WebProNews Videos . Stay with WebProNews for more notes and videos from the event this week. Mayer said Bing is gaining ground and Google is responding with things like...
8,000
November 11, 2010, 2:10 pmTHANK YOU! This is the 8,000th post on Marketing Pilgrim. We're now 5 years old and still growing strong. My sincere thanks to all of our readers, supporters, sponsors, and friends! PS. Almost forgot, a special thanks to Frank and Cynthia and all of the great writers that have made Marketing Pilgrim a success over the past 5 years! Pilgrim's...
Bing for Mobile now available on all major US mobile operators
November 11, 2010, 2:05 pmIts been an exciting week for us here at Bing. On Monday, Windows Phone 7 hit US store shelves giving people access to Bing for Mobile out of the box. And for you Verizon Wireless customers, with the release of the Samsung Continuum and the Motorola Citrus, we are happy to announce the Bing for Mobile Android App will come preinstalled. Since the...
A Life on Facebook and Yahoo's Fall from Grace is Examined
November 11, 2010, 2:00 pmIn the course of my day at StepForth I come across a ton of interesting stuff which I Tweet, Facebook, Stumble etc. on a regular basis. That said, the following are two pieces of media which I simply could not pass up sharing with you. #1: Video: "A Life on Facebook" This video was created by Maxime Léure and it is so brilliant I think it...
The Yahoo! Story
November 11, 2010, 1:44 pmWorth a click,
10 Practical Twitter Tips for Publishers
November 11, 2010, 1:41 pmPublishers are still making mistakes and missing opportunities with their Twitter profiles. 10 tips for getting better results from Twitter.
FCC Acknowledges Google Street View Investigation
November 11, 2010, 1:29 pmGoogle's winning streak with respect to the Street View privacy breach might be coming to an end. Although the UK's Information Commissioner's Office and the Federal Trade Commission let the company off the hook, the Federal Communications Commission confirmed this week that it's started looking into the matter. Not much else is known about the...
Google Has Internal Debate About Content Farms as Spam, Cracks Down on Link Spam
November 11, 2010, 1:29 pmAs usual, Google's Matt Cutts had some interesting things to say, speaking at Pubcon in Las Vegas. The biggest thing Google has probably done for its users recently is increase the speed of search results. Cutts referred to things like Caffeine, realtime search, Google Instant, Instant Previews , and Gmail's priority inbox as examples. Things...
Using Canonical Tag to Get More Than One Anchor Text Value
November 11, 2010, 1:03 pmPosted by fabioricotta This post was originally in YOUmoz , and was promoted to the main blog because it provides great value and interest to our community. The author's views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of SEOmoz, Inc. Hi SEOmoz folks, Some weeks ago my coworker Leandro Riolino published in our blog an experiment he...
Megan Fox Disses Wonder Woman, Robert Pattinson Turns Down Burberry, Vets Get Freebies: What's the Buzz
November 11, 2010, 12:58 pmby Claudine Zap Our top picks from the day's hottest searches. Lynda Carter (Searches increased by 30,880%). Oh no she didn't: Megan Fox called Wonder Woman a "lame" superhero. The original Amazon said Fox shouldn't have trashed her. Perhaps she should have used her lasso. Call of Duty: Black Ops (+1,178%). Not bad for one day of business: The...
Breaking: Breaking News
November 11, 2010, 12:37 pmDigg is an amazing place to find out what's happening in the world. From the latest videos to trapped miners to midterm elections, it's awesome how news makes its way to Digg.
Yahoo plans 10 percent layoff in product unit
November 11, 2010, 12:35 pmYahoo is preparing to lay off about 650 employees, in a reduction in force that will be done in December.
Dish Discounts Google TV Logitech Revue for $179
November 11, 2010, 12:06 pmGoogle TV hasn't been on Logitech Revue boxes or Sony Internet TVs and Blu-ray players for a month, but are sales lagging? Google won't say, but the company promoted Dish Network's amazingly reduced sale of the Logitech Revue for $179, or 40 percent off of the $299 retail price from last month. The offer, which requires a DVR integration service...
Splitting Up Your Social Strategy for Better Results
November 11, 2010, 11:56 amMarketing is about achieving goals, and that goes for social media marketing as well. In fact, you might say it's about "micro goals". At least that's what Jennifer Evans Laycock, President of SugarSpun Marketing says. "The concept of micro goals is really about looking at all of the little things that can happen with your social media...
Fox Jumps On The "Block Google TV" Bandwagon
November 11, 2010, 11:56 amMuch like its competitors (ABC, CBS, and NBC) Fox has decided to block Google TV from accessing its website to stream video content . Currently if you go to any of the networks website youre met with an error message that reads, This content is not compatible with your device . Does it make any sense that networks are blocking content from Google...
Walmart Offering Free Holiday Shipping
November 11, 2010, 11:56 amWalmart said today it will offer free holiday shipping on nearly 60,000 items with no minimum purchase through December 20. The free shipping offer includes all electronics, select video games, toys, home appliances, furniture, jewelry, and baby items. "Customers are doing all they can to save money this holiday, so we're excited to offer free...
Client management tips from Captain Hindsight
November 11, 2010, 11:25 amAs my faithful readers know, I love South Park (if you don't believe me, check out this pos t'and this one , too!) Recently, South Park introduced a new superhero character - Captain Hindsight. The Captain's special superpower was to be able to fly into any situation, tell everyone exactly how the situation could have been prevented (like the BP...
Thank You Veterans!
November 11, 2010, 11:25 am
To all our readers that served in the military…
To all their family members that fight for our freedom…
To all those that battled so that we may live in “the land of the free….”
Thank You!
Awesome Video: Is Social Media a Fad?
November 11, 2010, 10:23 amIt's been over a year since we shared the awesome "Is Social Media a Fad?" video. Well, at yesterday's PubCon keynote panel, they played an updated version of the video. Enjoy! Worthing noting? This video is now 6 months old, so perhaps we need a third version. Any takers?
Google Commerce Search Webinar: Helping Chemist Direct focus on their core business
November 11, 2010, 10:07 amThis live webinar will be held on Thursday, October 28 at 10:00 ET/15:00 BST . Register here ChemistDirect.co.uk, Europe's leading online chemist, provides more than 20,000 health and beauty products and prescription medicines on the web. Fast, relevant search and the ability for customers to easily find the right products is key to the success of...
No Joke? Blekko is 63rd Largest Pure Search Entity in the World
November 11, 2010, 9:05 amPreviously in beta, Blekko opened it's doors to the rabble of the web last week. Now Blekko have said that they are handling 1 million searches per day. The site has also seen a 10x growth in use of it's most distinctive function - slashtags. Subsequently many have asked if it can be a "Google-killer", which is arguably the wrong question - and to...
HP Settles E-Rate Fraud Charges For $16 Million
November 11, 2010, 9:02 amHewlett-Packard has agreed to pay the government $16.25 million to settle e-rate fraud charges.
The E-rate program, which funds Internet connections in schools and libraries, has brought Internet connectivity to virtually every classroom in the country.
The Department of Justice and the Federal Communications Commission, acting on tips from...
The Simple Way to Get Everything You Want From Online Marketing
November 11, 2010, 8:50 amI want to tell you a story about two women. One is my hairdresser and the other is my massage therapist. Of the two, I have a stronger connection with my massage therapist. I see her more often, she's closer to my age, and well, there's just a certain bond that develops when you get naked that often with a person. A month or two ago, my...
YouTube Video Upload Rate Hits 35 Hours Per Minute
November 11, 2010, 8:49 amGiven that they start out with zero users, it’s not too rare for young sites to achieve hockey stick growth. Sites that were created more than five years ago, on the other hand, tend to have less impressive numbers. But new YouTube data indicates the site is still taking off in terms of the volume of video uploaded per minute.
Hunter...
FCC Targets Google Over Wi-Fi Data Collection
November 11, 2010, 8:29 amGoogle escaped an FTC investigation without incurring any penalties, but now they face a new investigation from the Federal Communications Commission over data they collected off unencrypted wireless networks with their Street View cars, The Wall Street Journal reported. Click to read the rest of this post.
Blog Posts To Read Week of November 11, 2010
November 11, 2010, 8:24 amBelow you will find our favorite blog posts that are related to SEO, search engine marketing and social media marketing from this past week. Please feel free to visit each, we hope you find them as helpful as we do! Search Engine Marketing Guide for Entrepreneurs This is a great post that outlines some tips for entrepreneurs looking to get into...
Half of Irish people will buy their 2010 Christmas presents online
November 11, 2010, 8:19 amThe average European household Christmas budget is set around â¬uro590. The average Irish household 2010 Christmas budget is â¬1020 , keeping Ireland as the second largest Christmas budget in Europe right after Luxembourg. On average, Irish consumers will spend a third of their presents budget on the internet. Online shops have become just...
Local Business Listing Optimization Becomes Important For All Businesses
November 11, 2010, 8:09 amYou may have noticed that a Google search result now shows the local map on the right side and the local listings (aka as Google Places at Google) are part of the organic search results. If you follow the evolution of local business listings on search engines since 2007 you will find that this local marketing tool is invaluable to any business....
Lions and Tigers and Emails - Oh My!
November 11, 2010, 7:48 amWhat do you think are the most visited sites on the Internet today? If you said Facebook, Google, Twitter, Yahoo and YouTube, you would be absolutely correct. However, there is one very important site that you visit more than any other site - that site is your email inbox! Research shows almost 50% of internet users check their email account(s)...
Microsites VS One Large Website: An SEO Argument For Each
November 11, 2010, 7:44 amShould I develop multiple microsites or create one big website? This seems to be the big question in the last couple of months. Does each one of these techniques offer a unique value? What’s best for short term? What’s best for the long term? Is there a simple answer to this question? You may think you know the answer to these ...
Social Media in the Industry: Customization is the Key to Success
November 11, 2010, 7:12 amThis is a guest post by Angela Denby. Over the past couple years, one of the most common questions from business owners has been, "Do I need to be on Facebook and/or Twitter?" Without a clear methodology of measuring ROI, many businesses are still cautious to spend their marketing budget on social media and web 2.0. On top of that, let's add all...
SMB's Still Working to Get Websites Right First
November 11, 2010, 7:12 amFor all the talk of social media, the importance of the communication revolution and the industry spouting on ad nauseum about how the social web is changing the way we breath, you would think that SMB's are getting it. There are some that absolutely are. They have embraced the web and the options it provides.
Over 35 Hours of Video Uploaded Every Minute to YouTube
November 11, 2010, 7:12 amAccording to the YouTube Blog , the amount of video uploaded to YouTube has increased to 35 hours per minute. Click to read the rest of this post.
SMB’s Still Working to Get Websites Right First
November 11, 2010, 7:06 amFor all the talk of social media, the importance of the communication revolution and the industry spouting on ad nauseum about how the social web is changing the way we breath, you would think that SMB’s are getting it.
There are some that absolutely are. They have embraced the web and the options it provides. The trouble is that when we parade...
A New Look for Google AdSense
November 11, 2010, 6:56 amGoogle overhauled its AdSense interface for all of its 2 million publishers yesterday. If you can't see it yet, keep your eye out over the next few weeks for a "Try the new AdSense interface" link in the upper corner of your account. Click to read the rest of this post.
Google Says: No Bonus Or Raise or Job For You!
November 11, 2010, 6:25 amIt looks like the folks at the Googleplex are channeling their inner Soup Nazi. Yesterday, it was leaked that Googlers across the board were getting a 10% raise and a $1,000 bonus just for being a Googler. Pretty sweet. The trouble is that in order for the rest of us non-Googlers to get that information someone had to get the digital equivalent of...
Google Fires Leaker Of Payrise Info
November 11, 2010, 5:18 amCNN Money reports Google fired the employee who leaked the confidential internal memo about the company's pay raises. The pay increase - 10% across the board and $1,000 - has been seen by many as an attempt by Google to improve company morale. Click to read the rest of this post.
YouTube Trials Smarter Video Search with Topics
November 11, 2010, 5:18 amYouTube last night launched a new search feature on TestTube called Topics on Search. The new feature brings up related searches, which are retrieved via an algorithm that looks at video tags, comments, shares, viewing patters, and other signals. Click to read the rest of this post.
30 Ways to Use Blekko for Search & SEO
November 11, 2010, 4:00 amBlekko , the advanced search engine for power users has so many advantages that it took me quite a while to find out about them. There are plenty of use cases for both search users as well as webmaster and SEO practitioners. Blekko basically replaces a dozen of others tools if you use more than the obvious features. Thus I have compiled a list of...
Public Outcry Gets Amazon To Remove Pedophile Guide From Inventory
November 11, 2010, 2:38 amPeople were outraged with Amazon and used social media to tell them that their sale of the ebook "The Pedophile's Guide to Love and Pleasure" and their defense of doing so would lose them customers. Yesterday Twitter was filled with disgusted comments for Amazon and people tweeted their intentions of boycotting the company and return purchases....
Search Power Plays, And How To Avoid Getting Crushed
November 11, 2010, 2:12 amThe little guy often loses. As market niches get saturated, the winners are typically those with the deepest pockets. Up until the last few years, the little guy has been able to prosper with SEO. The little guy didn't face much competition from big companies, because the big companies didn't get SEO. However, Google's current algorithmns and...
Recycle Your Old Blog Posts
November 10, 2010, 11:22 pmEveryone who has been writing in a blog for some period of time probably has some blog posts from way back that are a bit outdate, sloppy or just plain boring. There is good news though because there are some things you can do to those pesky old blog posts to pump some vital life back into them so they can serve some sort of purpose on your blog.
D'oh! Fox.com the Latest to Block Content From Google TV
November 10, 2010, 10:25 pmFirst Hulu . Then NBC, CBS, and ABC . Now Fox has joined in the effort to block content from Google TV devices. Click to read the rest of this post.
Google Chrome Giving Free Inflight WiFi Becoming Holiday Tradition
November 10, 2010, 8:48 pmGoogle Chrome announced it will be giving holiday travelers the gift of free inflight WiFi again this year. Travelers flying on AirTran Airways, Delta, and Virgin America between Nov. 20 and January 2 will be able to access the web for free. Click to read the rest of this post.
Ford Drops Super Bowl Ads For Online Spends
November 10, 2010, 8:17 pmFord Motor Company will not be advertising during the next Super Bowl and are using that money to increase their spend in online marketing, Reuters reported today. "Customers are spending as much time with the mobile smart phone or online as they are watching TV now, so our advertising dollars have to flow to where the people are," Ford's...
Microsoft Advertising adCenter Desktop Fall 2010 Upgrade: Improvements in Targeting, Distribution and More
November 10, 2010, 7:46 pmContinuing on with the recent Fall 2010 Upgrades , the adCenter Desktop Beta team has just released some new improvements and features based on the insights provided to us by your detailed feedback. Below are the new features now available in this latest release: For All Advertisers Exposing Reasons for Disapproved Ads and Keywords. By exposing...
Microsoft Advertising adCenter Desktop Fall 2010 Upgrade: Improvements in Targeting, Bidding and More
November 10, 2010, 7:31 pmContinuing on with the recent Fall 2010 Upgrades , the adCenter Desktop Beta team has just released some new improvements and features based on the insights provided to us by your detailed feedback. Below are the new features now available in this latest.
Great videos on a budget: how to fake a zombie attack
November 10, 2010, 6:23 pmHeather Menicucci, Director, Howcast Filmmakers Program , is writing weekly guest posts for the YouTube blog on filmmaking in the digital age. You can catch up on previous posts here . Last week , we made some arguments for why quality matters in web video, and we heard from Howcast filmmaker Luke Neumann , who said that it matters "because you...
Yahoo Names New North American Ad Sales Head
November 10, 2010, 4:18 pmYahoo’s ad sales in Mexico, the U.S., and Canada may soon take off. That’s the idea, at least, as Yahoo announced this afternoon that it’s hired Wayne Powers, a Time Inc. Media Group exec, to act as Senior Vice President, North American Advertising Sales.
Powers come to Yahoo with an impressive track record. At one point,...
Consumers Plan to Use Mobile Phones for Holiday Shopping
November 10, 2010, 4:14 pm59% of mobile consumers plan to use their mobile phone for holiday shopping and planning holiday celebrations, not including making phone calls. That's a huge jump over 2009, when the number was only 25%. The numbers come from the October 2010 U.S. Mobile Consumer Briefing , which was conducted on behalf of the The Mobile Marketing Association and...
18 Things A New Site Should Do To Measure Success
November 10, 2010, 3:28 pmThis was a really nice, detailed list of things any new site owner may wish to consider about how to track visits, mentions and other metrics to help in their marketing.
Google Adds Instant Previews to Search Results
November 10, 2010, 3:12 pmGoogle is now more instant than ever before thanks to a new feature called Instant Previews. Now, when you skim a list of Google search results you have the option of turning on a preview of the webpage. To do this, you simply click the magnifying glass beside any result. Once it's toggled on, all of the previews will appear as you skim down the...
The 10 Business Implications of Google Instant Previews
November 10, 2010, 2:25 pmIn Google's announcement, they've talked vaguely about lean page designs that make for a terrific preview on their SERPs. Ruud Hein's article goes far beyond that. He explains what's Ok, shows what to avoid, and why. Go read it and then check out your own site's previews, maybe you want to consider some tweaks then.
It's The Customer Experience, Stupid!
November 10, 2010, 1:50 pmBack in 1992, George Bush Sr. was considered unbeatable in the US presidential race due to major successes in foreign policy developments, such as the ending of the Cold War and the Persian Gulf War. However, recession was hitting hard so James Carville, then Bill Clinton's senior campaign manager, got the team to rally around the team the slogan...
Social Media’s Relevancy Debated At PubCon
November 10, 2010, 1:45 pmIt’s easy to imagine that social media will be around forever; Facebook and its 500 million users are hard to ignore. On the other hand, everyone’s also watched sites like Friendster and MySpace fade over time. So at PubCon, a keynote panel addressed the question of whether social media is relevant or just a passing fad.
Coverage of...
It’s The Customer Experience, Stupid!
November 10, 2010, 1:43 pmBack in 1992, George Bush Sr. was considered unbeatable in the US presidential race due to major successes in foreign policy developments, such as the ending of the Cold War and the Persian Gulf War. However, recession was hitting hard so James Carville, then Bill Clinton’s senior campaign manager, got the team to rally around the team the...
PubCon Keynote Review: Social Media is Not New
November 10, 2010, 1:41 pmThere is a huge trend in search conferences today – and that is social media. It’s the new hot and hip thing. Have you hired your Director of Social Media yet?
Distilled utilizes social media for marketing and link building all the time. Here’s the thing: It’s not new.
I’m listening to the second keynote...
How Can Business Owners and CEOs Keep Up in the Digital Age?
November 10, 2010, 1:40 pmHow does a business owner know what online marketing strategies to choose from? There are seemingly new tactics, new ideas, and new tools coming out every day, and most companies simply don’t have the resources to jump right into every one of them. Decision makers must figure out which ones will work best and be the most cost-effective for...
3 Tips on the Future of Online Marketing
November 10, 2010, 12:22 pmIn the world of online marketing , search and social media are evolving at an incredible pace. Consider these stats: Google sites handle about 88 billion queries a month but did you know, twitter is approaching 20 billion ? Facebook added over 200 million users in less than a year and Hitwise has reported that Facebook tops Google in weekly web...
Yahoo on Bing/adCenter Transition Through Eyes of an Advertiser
November 10, 2010, 12:15 pmAt PubCon Las Vegas, WebProNews spoke with David Roth, Yahoo’s Director of Search Marketing, who has an interesting perspective on the recent Microsoft/Yahoo search advertising transition (or “Search Alliance“), because not only does he work for Yahoo, he does Yahoo’s own search marketing. He’s an advertiser...
DOTW: When, if ever, will another search engine beat Google?
November 10, 2010, 12:05 pmA new search engine, Blekko, launched last week. Others have come and gone (Cuil, Ask.com, etc.). Yahoo and Microsoft have combined their search efforts. But Google's market share in most of the world is still at least double anyone else's, depending on which stats you use. Our "Discussion of the Week" asks this: When, if ever, will another search...
Dish Network Offers Google TV To Customers For $179
November 10, 2010, 11:29 amDish Network said today it is offering its customers the chance to purchase the Logitech Revue with Google TV for $179 instead of the standard $299.
“Only Dish Network customers will have access to the most fully-featured Google TV experience available, which includes our unique pairing protocol for simultaneous search capabilities across...
AFP: Argues Tweeted Pics Are Its To Take
November 10, 2010, 11:06 amI always was annoyed at the wire services and mainstream media that take pictures that have been tweeted and just use them without permission. Unlike web publications, there's no way to link credit or easily pull down if there's a complaint. The wire services even redistribute the pics. Here, the AFP is arguing in a court case that the act of...
Corporate Twittering: Dividing Up the Twitter Tasks
November 10, 2010, 11:00 amSome people have asked: Is the press release dead? Has Twitter killed the press release? Believe it or not, popular press release distribution service PRNewswire doesn't think so. "No, it's enhanced it," the company's Director of Audience Development, Victoria Harres, tells WebProNews. "So, social media (Twitter, Facebook, and...
Rich Skrenta Talks Blekko as "The Third Search Engine"
November 10, 2010, 10:56 amIf you follow the search industry closely, or even just tech news, you've probably heard that there's a new search engine in town, from the co-founder and former CEO of Topix and NewHoo (which went on to become The Open Directory Project or DMOZ), Rich Skrenta. It's called Blekko, and it turns to the public to help make search results more...
Google Initiates Rollout Of New AdSense Interface
November 10, 2010, 10:10 amOver the next few weeks, the way in which around two million people and organizations make their living (or at least earn additional income) will change. Google announced this morning that it’s rolling out a new AdSense interface for publishers.
This should be quite an event. The launch starts today, and is meant to occur on a global...
MusicRevolution Launches Internet Music Stream For Businesses
November 10, 2010, 9:22 amMusicRevolution.com, an online marketplace for royalty-free production music, has introduced its Internet Music Stream for a variety of commercial music applications, including retail, restaurant, fitness clubs, business and website background music.
Starting at $14.99 for a 1-month subscription and $129.99 for a 1-year subscription, the...
Internet Marketing for Smart People Radio No. 2
November 10, 2010, 8:56 amOver the last decade, a prolonged magnitude 9.1 technological earthquake completely altered the landscape of online marketing and public relations. The entire topography has shifted from one of cold, repetitive interruption to the gentle, authentic drip of attraction over time. A large part of navigating this strange, new terrain is the building...
Google Arranges 10% Raises, $1,000 Bonuses For All Employees
November 10, 2010, 8:51 amThe next time you drink, eat, or maybe buy new furniture in the company of a Googler, consider letting him or her pick up the tab. Leaked info indicates that everyone at Google will get at least a 10 percent raise and a (post-tax) $1,000 bonus as part of an employee retention effort.
Credit goes to Henry Blodget for obtaining an internal...
Google AdSense Rolls Out New Interface
November 10, 2010, 8:41 amGoogle AdSense has rolled out a major interface change that they have been testing for a good month or so, which has the new ability to bring in more of a ad manager type interface style in the AdSense dashboard. With further integration of video ads and retargeting as part of the AdSense makeup, Google AdSense is becoming much more of the full...
A brand-new interface for AdSense
November 10, 2010, 8:20 amIf you're an online publisher running a website that relies on ad revenues"whether it's a blog or an entertainment website"it can sometimes be complex to get started and to find new ways to make more money from your ads. As I've previously written , we're committed to helping online publishers"large and small""find the advertising gold hidden...
Introducing the new AdSense interface, now available globally
November 10, 2010, 8:05 amLast November we announced that we were starting to test a new interface with a limited group of publishers. Since then, we've been focused on adding new features and incorporating feedback from our testers. Today, we're excited to announce that we've begun rolling out the new AdSense interface to all publishers globally. Within the next few...
Explore the Bing homepage
November 10, 2010, 8:05 amBing always strives to bring you more, and our homepage is no exception. We offer a new image every day to help you explore the world around you. The homepage loads in stages so that the image never gets in the way of your ability to search. Ever wanted to know more about the pictures? If you have a little time to spend and want to explore the...
Android OS Smartphones Show Dramatic Year Over Year Increase
November 10, 2010, 7:54 amAt the risk of seeming hypocritical (don't worry it's not the first time and won't be the last time, just ask my wife) I am going to look at some research and make a big deal out of it. First, it comes from Gartner , which gives some measure of reassurance that there is an impartial bend to it. I say some reassurance because you can never be sure....
When Local SEO is not Local – The Regional Factor
November 10, 2010, 7:42 amAn in-depth article from Alan Bleiweiss highlighting some of the weirdness being seen in Google's new local search results. For instance, why are they showing radically different results for "Dentist in San Francisco" and "Dentists in San Francisco"?
Google Place Search'what about PPC?
November 10, 2010, 7:39 amWhat a big couple of months for the Google SERPs. First they add the "instant" feature (which I'm still getting used to) and most recently, they release a game changer in Google Place search. Google Place search is arguably the most significant change they have made in many years and as a result there is a lot of chatter on what this means for...
Don't be Another Link in the Chain: Quality Content and PR is Key to International SEO
November 10, 2010, 7:13 amSEO is categorized into two broad categories: off-page and on-page optimization. On-page is more straight-forward, in that full control lies with the optimizer. In the simplest terms, they have to incorporate key search phrases into the main copy of their website so that search engines can link the site to searches made by the web-browsing public....
Are you keeping up with Google?
November 10, 2010, 7:03 amby Mike Moran Image by stevegarfield via Flickr It was only recently that a number of critics were talking about how Google is standing still and Bing is the real innovator in the search space. I think that Google Instant has quieted those critics, at least for now. Love it or hate it, Google Instant certainly is innovative and it is not the only...
comScore y AIMC acuerdan el uso de EGM como universo de referencia para las mediciones de audiencia de comScore en España
November 10, 2010, 6:52 amcomScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), líder en la medición del mundo digital, y AIMC, Asociación para la Investigación de Medios de Comunicación, anuncian la firma del acuerdo por el cual los datos de audiencia proporcionados por comScore en España contarán con el Estudio General de Medios (EGM) como estudio referencial de universo.
Ask.com Throws in Towel on Search Development
November 10, 2010, 6:47 amAsk.com is always an interesting subject when it comes to search engines. Every once in a while the IAC property will announce another iteration of itself, advertise it for a while then go away until we see the anemic search share numbers each month where we don't even mention their 'share. It's been denounced as an arbitrage play in the past ....
Blekko Goes Gaga with 1M Daily Queries, 30K Slashtags
November 10, 2010, 6:16 amBlekko said Nov. 9 that users made more than 1 million queries per day and created more than 30,000 slashtags in the curated search engine's first week in public beta. Launched Nov. 1, Blekko tries a crowd-sourced approach to search results to help users better pinpoint answers. The idea is to provide an alternative to the traditional...
Googlers Get 10% Raise, $1,000 Bonus
November 10, 2010, 5:25 amAll Google employees will get a $1,000 holiday bonus and a 10 percent raise in 2011, according to a company-wide e-mail from CEO Eric Schmidt that was obtained by the Silicon Alley Insider . Click to read the rest of this post.
SEO content marketing roundup, week ending November 10th
November 10, 2010, 4:38 amGreetings web writers and online marketers! It's King Content and Queen SEO dominating this week's latest and greatest web writing news, with much discussion about semantic SEO, the valuation of content, and some interesting developments in search. There's a lot to cover and a good deal of links here, so let's get to it! It's the hot new topic of...
Ask.com/Ask Jeeves gives up its search engine technology
November 10, 2010, 2:55 amAsk has decided to abandon its search engine in favor of using search results from Google. That is: Ask will keep its database of questions and answers, based on information from selected quality sites, which means that the search site is back where it started: as a natural language search service providing answers to regular questions. By...
Google adds thumbnails of web pages to search results
November 10, 2010, 2:34 amGoogle launches Instant Previews, presenting screen shots of web pages in search results. This is not a new invention. Other search engines have included thumbnails of web pages in search results before. Still, Google's new Instant Previews is one of the most elegant implementations of this concept we have seen so far. Each search result now has a...
Google Mobile Updates: News Redesign; Windows 7 Search App
November 10, 2010, 2:29 amGoogle has announced updates to Google News for Android, iPhone, and Palm Pre. Also, it's search application debuted yesterday on Windows Phone 7 devices. Click to read the rest of this post.
Terminated Google Ad Resellers In China On Hunger Strike
November 9, 2010, 11:50 pmHas the loss of their income from Google left them with not enough money for food, or are the terminated Google ad resellers protesting their dismissal with a hunger strike? According to PC World , 40 of the employees of the ad resellers companies impacted by Google's decision are on strike, Click to read the rest of this post.
Google Maps Excuse For Central American Invasion
November 9, 2010, 11:29 pmNicaragua crossed in to Costa Rican territory claiming it as part of their country and cited Google Maps as the arbitrator of their borders, despite the San Juan River being the recognized border, the Washington Post reported . Click to read the rest of this post.
Google Protest in China: Dropped Ad Resellers Go On Hunger Strike
November 9, 2010, 11:29 pmA group of Google AdWords resellers who saw their contracts terminated a couple months ago are protesting at Google's Shanghai offices. They want an apology and the equivalent of $7 million (U.S.) in compensation, PCWorld reported . Click to read the rest of this post.
Great Ways to Kill Your SEO Progress
November 9, 2010, 11:14 pmThere are many ways that you can really hurt your search rankings in today's search space and it is important that if you are planning on doing anything online you consult with a professional especially if you base your livelihood on your organic rankings. Website Overhaul If you are doing a large sweeping website overhaul and you are planning on...
Ask Joins Jeeves In Retirement, Leaves Search Space
November 9, 2010, 10:27 pmIt went from AskJeeves.com to Ask.com and now IAC has folded its search engine and will use either Google or Bing to provide their searches, while concentrating on the question and answer service they returned to in July, New York Times reported . Click to read the rest of this post.
Calculating and Improving Your Twitter Click-through-Rate
November 9, 2010, 9:51 pmPosted by randfish As marketers, many of us leverage Twitter as a direct traffic tool - sharing URLs via the service to encourage clicks and visits to help increase awareness, branding and possibly drive some direct actions (singups, sales, subscriptions, etc). But, from what I've seen and experienced, not many of us spend time thinking about how...
Microsoft Advertising London Innovation Day: Xbox 360 Kinect and Windows Phone 7
November 9, 2010, 8:19 pmThe Microsoft offices at London Victoria were the scene of Innovation Day on Tuesday, 9 November 2010. It was an event for agencies and advertisers alike to showcase the potential of Windows Phone 7 and Xbox 360 Kinect . An impressive line-up of speakers was on hand to demonstrate the exciting features of both devices and what they could mean to...
Japan Seizes Google User Records
November 9, 2010, 6:52 pmJapanese prosecutors on Tuesday seized user records from Google in an investigation into the leak of a video on YouTube
Is Talking Bad About the Boss on Facebook Grounds for Termination?
November 9, 2010, 5:16 pmIf the U.S. Army isn’t that strict about what its soldiers can say on social media channels (as long as no lives are on the line), then perhaps you should be a little lenient with your employees too. At least that’s the impression one might get from the National Labor Relations Board, which has accused an ambulance company of illegally...
Ask.com Repositioning Its Own Corpse
November 9, 2010, 5:08 pmIn 1998, two new search engines came out, both eventually going public, both capturing an immense amount of user mindshare and both becoming amazingly popular. One was Google. The other was Ask Jeeves. One did a lot better than the other. But the other did something unforgiveable.
To Infinity and Beyond: The Future of Business Blogging
November 9, 2010, 5:08 pmThe world seems to be getting smaller as new phones, portable eReaders and laptops with worldwide wi-fi flood the market, just in time for holiday buying. While it's not Christmas quite yet, you may be wondering what can differentiate your business in a market full of new ideas trying to get the economy back on track. While the economy struggles,...
TV Ads Don't Equal Big Sales for Online Products
November 9, 2010, 4:32 pmYou're the author of a book on how to turn kitchen waste into cash and you want to spread the word. So what do you do? Why not invest in a snazzy TV commercial to play on the Food Network or during Pawn Stars. This is your audience, foodies who love to treasure hunt! But author Joel Comm says don't waste your money because despite all the hype, TV...
YouTube Remote App Debuts
November 9, 2010, 4:25 pmA recent study by Logitech determined that the modern living room is awash in remotes, with at least 40 percent of living rooms in five different countries playing home to four or more of them. Google’s (partial) solution came today in the form of the YouTube Remote app.
A post on the YouTube Blog explained this afternoon,...
TV Ads Don’t Equal Big Sales for Online Products
November 9, 2010, 4:22 pmYou’re the author of a book on how to turn kitchen waste into cash and you want to spread the word. So what do you do? Why not invest in a snazzy TV commercial to play on the Food Network or during Pawn Stars. This is your audience, foodies who love to treasure hunt! But author Joel Comm says don’t waste your money because despite all the...
Tips to Help Local Businesses Succeed on Yelp
November 9, 2010, 3:44 pmA Yelp Community Manager dishes out a detailed list of actionable items that can help a small business succeed at Yelp.
iTunes 10.1, OS X 10.6.5 and iOS 4.2 Available This Week
November 9, 2010, 3:40 pmRumors have it that these eagerly anticipated updates will soon be released.
Ask.com Raises White Flag In Search Fight
November 9, 2010, 3:10 pmA Web pioneer of sorts is retiring from one of the industry’s most visible fights. Today, the president of Ask.com announced that Ask will dedicate all its resources to improving its Q&A service, and as a result, will no longer attempt to compete in terms of Web search.
From certain angles, this move makes quite a lot of sense. ...
Seth Rogen's Engagement News Stirs the Web
November 9, 2010, 3:09 pmby Claudine Zap Conan O'Brien 's premiere of his new late-night gig on TBS made headlines " but first guest Seth Rogen stole the show with details of his engagement. The actor and long-time girlfriend Lauren Miller are finally tying the knot . Word of wedding bells sent fans to the Web to look up " lauren miller " and " lauren miller seth rogen "...
Turn Your Android Phone into a Youtube Remote for any Web TV
November 9, 2010, 2:59 pmYoutube has just released a new app in the Android Marketplace called Youtube Remote . It pairs with Youtube.com/leanback , a web TV friendly interface, so you can use your phone to control what you are watching. Click to read the rest of this post.
Google's Next Big Change: Infinite Scrolling Search Results?
November 9, 2010, 2:38 pmUpdate: The Next Web reports: This is actually a Chrome extension known as FastestChrome. What it does, in essence, is load the next page via a pre-cache, allowing you to continually scroll. So, sorry to disappoint, but Google doesn't appear to be the ones responsible for this. At least not yet. Google's latest search experiment appears to be...
Searching for TV Teen Role Models
November 9, 2010, 2:02 pmby Claudine Zap Are you more of a Miranda or a Miley? That is what TV Guide set out to discover with its poll on female teen role models on TV. The publication lined up four young stars and asked readers to vote. (You can add your opinion , too.) Results? Well, put it this way ... pop star Miley Cyrus and "Dancing With the Stars" contestant...
Launching a New Website: 18 Steps to Successful Metrics & Marketing
November 9, 2010, 1:52 pmPosted by randfish The process of launching a new website is, for many entrepreneurs, bloggers and business owners, an uncertain and scary prospect. This is often due to both unanswered questions and incomplete knowledge of which questions to ask. In this post, I'll give my best recommendations for launching a new site from a marketing and metrics...
Scaling SEO by Eliminating Pain Points
November 9, 2010, 1:49 pmGood piece from Ross Hudgens about improving SEO processes with a list of tools in different categories that can help ease the 'pain points' of doing SEO.
A Hidden Subway Stop Found
November 9, 2010, 1:31 pmby Mike Krumboltz Hidden deep under New York City, a "secret" subway stop is drawing visitors. The Big Apple's City Hall station, a beautiful structure that opened in 1904, but has out of use for decades, can be seen by riders ... if they know how to make the journey. Check out these photos below, courtesy of John-Paul Palescandolo . Click image...
Ask.com Ends Search Effort
November 9, 2010, 1:27 pmIAC's Diller Surrenders to Google, Cuts Jobs, Ends Ask.com Search Effort
Army Chief of Strategic Communications Talks Soldier Social Media Limitations
November 9, 2010, 1:01 pm
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How much information is too much for a soldier in the United States Army to divulge through blogging and social media? Anything that puts other soldiers’ lives at risk. According to the Army’s Chief of Strategic Communications, Lt. Col. André Dean, that’s about it.
WebProNews recently sat down with Dean...
Google Gets Instant Previews
November 9, 2010, 11:13 amNow Google is showing large images of pages right within the search results, called "Instant Previews." My detailed look at how the system works.
Online Holiday Retail Sales To Reach $52 Billion
November 9, 2010, 11:10 amOnline retail sales in the U.S. will reach nearly $52 billion this holiday season, a 16 percent increase over last years numbers, according to a new report by Forrester Research.
The 2010 growth rate is twice the rate in 2009, when holiday sales grew by 8 percent during the global recession. Forrester defines the holiday shopping season as...
Why Windows Phone 7 Could Be Google's Biggest Threat
November 9, 2010, 10:46 amAs you're probably aware, Windows Phone 7 devices went on sale in the U.S. this week. As we've speculated upon a few times, the success of these devices could play an integral role in the future success of Bing, which has already shown impressive growth since its launch.
We asked Microsoft just how important the success of Windows Phone 7 is to...
Does Windows Phone 7 Have What it Takes?
November 9, 2010, 10:38 amOne of the big questions this year is: Will Windows Phone 7 succeed? Windows Phone 7 devices went on sale in the U.S. this week, and the world is waiting to see if Microsoft can finally carve out a real name for itself in the mobile space. WebProNews spoke with New York Times tech columnist David Pogue today, just off his keynote at PubCon Las...
Pro SEO Seminar 2010 – Key Takeaways
November 9, 2010, 10:11 amSo the Distilled Pro SEO Seminar 2010 is done and dusted; and we’ve just about recovered here
We’ve had some fabulous feedback from our attendees, but whether you made it along or not, hopefully you’ll find this round up post featuring the key takeaways useful.
Hope to see you next year!
Day One
Session One – Duelling...
Weekly Search & Social News: 11/09/2010
November 9, 2010, 10:10 amIt's time for another ' 7 Days of Search and Social '. What a week' I mean like, WOW. The SERPs continue to change over at Google. This is certainly something to do with the Caffeine update if you ask me. There was just a TON of buzz around the changes of late. This week's edition is truly a worth one. I hope you're keeping well. On with the show;...
Google Unveils Instant Previews
November 9, 2010, 10:07 amSearchers who enjoy knowing what they’re getting into and don’t mind the idea of a slightly less “clean” interface than is normal should appreciate a new feature from Google. This morning, the company unveiled something called Instant Previews.
A post on the Official Google Blog explained, “Instant Previews...
Consumer Online Brand Interaction: Satisfied or Indifferent
November 9, 2010, 9:50 amMarketers are constantly looking for the silver bullet, the holy grail or the big kahuna, if you will, that can truly define just how much interaction people are actually having with their brands online. What are people looking for? Are they are truly interacting or are they just serial "Likers"?
How To Speed Up Your Website Page Load Performance By Delaying The Load Of JavaScript And Widgets - Part 1
November 9, 2010, 9:41 amAre you looking to speed up your web site speed performance and page load speed but you don't know what to do with all those third-party widgets and JavaScripts you have been adding on your side columns? Have you just finished testing your web site speed with Google Page Speed, YSlow or GTMetrix only to find out that you have a ton of third-party...
When Local SEO is not Local - The Regional Factor
November 9, 2010, 9:29 amSo by now you should know how the search industry landscape completely changed overnight with the integration of Place Page results into the organic results for local search. If you don't think the change is that radical, I suggest you pause and really comprehend the possibilities . Just one issue that's being talked about is how it is possibly...
Google Unveils Instant Previews: Visual Search Results
November 9, 2010, 9:19 amGoogle today will unveil a new feature called Instant Preview that allows searchers to fully preview a website within Google's search results before visiting it (an experiment we reported last month ). Click to read the rest of this post.
How to work with big brands without going insane
November 9, 2010, 9:19 amMany smaller vendors dream of, someday, working with the "big boys." That allure of a big reputation builder (and what you think will be big money) is a wonderful intoxicant. I fondly remember my first big-brand experience. An apparel client wanted to me write the copy for an ad scheduled to appear in The New York Times Magazine (I literally had...
Forrester CEO Expresses Misgivings About Mark Zuckerberg
November 9, 2010, 8:53 amGeorge Colony, who founded Forrester Research about 17 years ago and continues to act as its CEO, knows a thing or two about both the tech industry and leadership. Unfortunately for Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, that means a harsh new critique is likely to garner lots of attention over the next few days.
Colony’s analysis didn’t...
'Tis The Season' to Shop
November 9, 2010, 8:48 amHi I'm Claudia Lombana, your PayPal Shopping Specialist. Today, I'm going to give you some insight on the best ways to shop this holiday season as well as give you the inside scoop on some great deals so you can save on that perfect gift. We all know it's hard to have that holiday cheer when fighting crowds, so my first suggestion is to shop...
How Not To Ruin Content With SEO
November 9, 2010, 8:43 amby Stoney deGeyter There are a lot of different ways to say the same thing. Anyone who has performed keyword research knows that people search for a lot of the same things using very different phrases and terminology. For example, if you're looking to build your online business, you could search for: internet marketing, website marketing, online...
Amazon Offers Higher Kindle Royalties For Publishers
November 9, 2010, 8:41 amAmazon has introduced a new revenue sharing model for magazine and newspaper publishers who sell content in the Kindle Store.
For each magazine or newspaper sold, publishers will be able to earn 70 percent of the retail price. The new 70 percent royalty terms will become available on December 1.
“We are constantly working at improving the...
Get local: how to get on Google's first results with Google Places
November 9, 2010, 8:36 amGetting listed in Google Places has become very important with Google's recent algorithm change for local results. If you offer local services, you should make sure that your website is listed correctly. This week's article will help you to improve your results.
How to Improve Your SEO Copywriting
November 9, 2010, 8:32 amNote from Lee : Content is royalty in the online marketing world whether it's for search, social or email. Copywriting skills are essential for effective content and provide marketers a distinct, competitive advantage. I've asked one of our Account Managers , Ken Horst, to check out a SEO copywriting course to share with our readers. Please...
The Social Assisted Search Conversion - Hard to Track, But Harder to Ignore
November 9, 2010, 8:22 amFirst, I'm sure you are wondering where you can find this metric. Let's start by drilling into Google Analytics to find the report. Access the Goals tab in Google Analytics and then click the Social Assisted Conversion Link. This will take you to the Social module within GA. OK' I just made that up. You can't actually do this yet, although I wish...
Wake Up! 7 Simple Ways to Energize Your Writing Powers
November 9, 2010, 8:12 amDo you sometimes feel like you're in a rut with writing? We all do from time to time. It comes from getting too comfortable with the way we do things. We fall into familiar patterns and it puts us to sleep. But waking yourself up isn't as hard as you might think. My wife and I were driving around a few days ago. Like most people, we fall into a...
Trip report: Google and YouTube in Iraq
November 9, 2010, 8:06 am(Cross-posted from the YouTube Blog ) Earlier this month, a small team from Google and YouTube spent a week in Iraq on a trip arranged by the Department of Defense's Task Force for Business and Stability Operations ( TFBSO ). Our goals were to explore opportunities for Google in Iraq,
Q&A with Jeff Staple: REDU HOMEROOM kicks off in New York
November 9, 2010, 8:06 amStarting today in New York City, REDU will be teaming with renowned designer and fashion pioneer Jeff Staple to raise awareness and inspire dialogue around education reform with HOMEROOM . A fundraising art exhibition, HOMEROOM provides a forum for people to join with the creative community to discuss ways to fix the challenges facing the American...
Alleged Facebook Firing Gets Attention of National Labor Relations Board
November 9, 2010, 8:05 amWe talk a lot here at Marketing Pilgrim about how what you say or do online can impact your business or career. In fact, someone even wrote a book about that kind of thing. Since this is such a growth area in the online space you can almost sit back and wait for the next level to be reached because people are screwing up online in droves on a...
Using Reference Sites for Acronyms, Colloquialisms and Internet Slang for Inspiration
November 9, 2010, 8:01 amWith the rise of modern instant forms of mass communication, the languages we use in our daily lives are evolving at a pace never before experienced in the history of mankind. People living in the same country, separated by just a few generations, often have a completely different ways of communicating with each other. Words, phrases, even meme's...
The Lazy Man's Internet: Why Online Videos Reign Supreme
November 9, 2010, 7:46 amThe internet; never happy with what it's got and always on the lookout for something bigger, better and more complex. Whether you are new to this ever-changing industry or an old croc still pulling hair out trying to keep on top of trends, one thing must be understood; technology will never stop trying to outdo itself. If it's not SEO updates,...
Attract More Clients With The Correct Marketing Message
November 9, 2010, 7:30 amThis brief post is all about how you can attract more high quality clients or make more sales, by understanding and servicing the needs of your marketplace.
For example, if Bob is really hungry and he smells something great cooking from a nearby food outlet, it will immediately capture his attention and he will almost certainly walk over and see...
What's New in SEO for November 9, 2010
November 9, 2010, 7:20 amWe have compiled the latest news and updates from the big three, Google, Bing and Yahoo as it relates to SEO and the search engines overall. WHAT'S NEW THIS WEEK WITH GOOGLE: A Chrome Extension for Reporting Webspam For those who like to report web spam, or at least would like to have the option to do so, Google has released an easy convenient...
Google Needles Bing with Search App for Windows Phone 7
November 8, 2010, 11:20 pmGoogle Nov. 8 launched a version of its search application tailored for Windows Phone 7, which debuted today on handsets from AT&T and T-Mobile. AT&T is selling the Samsung Focus and HTC Surround for $199 with a two-year contract. T-Mobile is offering the HTC HD7 for $199. Of course, just as Apple's iPhone from AT&T and the Google Android-based...
Add Flickr Into the Marketing Mix
November 8, 2010, 11:05 pmMany businesses out there venturing into the world of search engine optimization don't realize that photos often make for great ways to push through the SEO space online. You might already have many company photos sitting around that you have never really thought about putting online, but now you should. Take your images, fire up a Flickr account...
Twitter Poised to Let Businesses Claim Their Place
November 8, 2010, 8:52 pmThis puts Twitter in direct competition with FaceBook and Foursquare
Ccigarette Company Sponsors Volcano Relief Efforts
November 8, 2010, 7:54 pmIn Indonesia, volcano victims, most of which are suffering from breathing disorders, are being treated inside a tent sponsored by Sampoerna. Americans may not see the irony there, but how about if I tell you that Sampoerna is owned by Phillip Morris and is one of Indonesia's largest tobacco companies. It's not unusual for corporations to pitch in...
Cigarette Company Sponsors Volcano Relief Efforts
November 8, 2010, 7:40 pmIn Indonesia, volcano victims, most of which are suffering from breathing disorders, are being treated inside a tent sponsored by Sampoerna. Americans may not see the irony there, but how about if I tell you that Sampoerna is owned by Phillip Morris and is one of Indonesia’s largest tobacco companies.
It’s not unusual for corporations to...
One of many reasons to get your hands on Windows Phone 7
November 8, 2010, 6:11 pmWindows Phone 7 is now available in the US. Our congratulations go out to the team for delivering an elegant and intuitive device. Not surprisingly, were excited by what the team has done with Bing on Windows Phone 7. Here are a series of screen grabs that give you a sense of Bing on Windows Phone 7. First, the team delivered amazing fidelity with...
Cloud photo contest winner snags Bing homepage
November 8, 2010, 5:56 pmIn the past, weve held Bing photo contests to showcase the talent of our Bing enthusiasts on the Bing homepage . Earlier this month, we teamed with Windows Live to help celebrate how Windows Live Essentials connects the PC to the cloud. The contest asked participants to submit photos of clouds which would be featured on the Bing homepage and...
Developing a Successful Content Strategy
November 8, 2010, 5:40 pmDeveloping a winning content strategy is one of the most important aspects of online marketing. It allows organizations to build a level of trust among their consumers, making it easier for them to complete the purchasing process. If done correctly and effectively, content can draw visitors to your site and keep them coming back for more. It can...
The Queen Goes on Facebook
November 8, 2010, 5:09 pmby Mike Krumboltz Warren Buffett is no longer the most random person on Facebook. Queen Elizabeth II has her own profile up and running on the insanely popular social networking site. And while you might not be friends with the British monarch, you can access her page, check out photos, and keep up with her doings around Buckingham Palace. Of...
Why Social Media Is a Better Investment than SEO
November 8, 2010, 5:03 pmInteresting article on ProBlogger, where Gary Arndt lays out several reasons bloggers should focus on social media instead of SEO. His summary: "What I am saying is that outside of a few things you can do in the creation of your blog, don’t worry about SEO. Make sure your permalinks make sense, create a site map, install the appropriate...
Content Optimization: Revisiting Topic Modeling, LDA & Our Labs Tool
November 8, 2010, 4:43 pmPosted by randfish Many times as SEOs, we think about the "on-page optimization" process as simply following the best practices for placing our targeted keywords (and possibly, some variations of them) on the page. My previous blog post about Perfecting Keyword Targeting covers this in some detail. But, we also know that search engines aren't...
Keep it Here for Live Coverage of PubCon This Week
November 8, 2010, 4:27 pm
More WebProNews Videos
PubCon Las Vegas gets started tomorrow (at least content-wise), and promises to deliver tons of great information about social media marketing, search engine marketing, etc. WebProNews will be covering the event with many exclusive...
Gap's Facebook Places Giveaway: Success or Failure?
November 8, 2010, 4:23 pmThis weekend, The Gap helped Facebook Places claim their place as a viable Foursquare contender by giving away 10,000 pairs of free jeans. On the surface, it seemed simple enough. Show up at your local Gap store on November 5th. Check in using Facebook Places. Show the cashier your check-in acknowledgment and get a coupon for free jeans as long as...
Priceline Smashes Q3 Earnings Expectations
November 8, 2010, 4:22 pmWilliam Shatner is due a raise, a bonus, or both. This afternoon, Priceline - which has wisely used Shatner as its spokesman for years - posted its third-quarter earnings report, and it seems the company has lots more money to spread around than analysts expected.
For starters, Priceline managed to report revenue of $1.0 billion. ...
Will the iOS 4.2 Update Speed Up the iPhone 3G?
November 8, 2010, 4:18 pmThe recent iOS updates to the 3GS and iPhone 4 have been mostly received with open arms, but the same can't be said for iPhone 3G users. They've been faced with watered down updates and a serious performance problems.
Did you notice any performance issues when you updated your iPhone 3G to iOS 4.0? Let us know
But, there could be some light at...
Gap’s Facebook Places Giveaway: Success or Failure?
November 8, 2010, 4:12 pmThis weekend, The Gap helped Facebook Places claim their place as a viable Foursquare contender by giving away 10,000 pairs of free jeans.
On the surface, it seemed simple enough. Show up at your local Gap store on November 5th. Check in using Facebook Places. Show the cashier your check-in acknowledgment and get a coupon for free jeans as long as...
Crime and Facebook: Another Way to Catch the Bad Guys
November 8, 2010, 3:46 pmChasing and shooting at criminals is what a lot of law enforcement agencies do to catch the bad guys. Yes, it still works and will always be the method that law authorities use, but as criminals become more sophisticated, so must the methods used to stop them. Those methods don't have to be anything elaborate .
Removing Pages From Google: A Comprehensive Guide For Content Owners
November 8, 2010, 3:35 pmWhat if sensible stuff slipped through your crawler/indexer steering and became visible on SERPs by accident? Vanessa Fox explains how you can react.
Google Solicits AdWords 10th Birthday Tributes
November 8, 2010, 3:21 pmFor quite some time, AdWords has been good to Google and a lot of other companies, and Google would now like some outside help as it celebrates that fact. Advertisers have been asked to contribute YouTube videos or written pieces in recognition of the tenth birthday of AdWords. Admittedly, this may sound a little self-involved on Google's part,...
100,000 Heartbeats For Women Social Media Campaign
November 8, 2010, 3:05 pmDid you know that heart disease is the leading cause of death for American women? To be honest, I didnt know that either, until we started working on a collaboration between Nature Made and WomenHeart called 100,000 Heartbeats For Women . This social media campaign was created to educate women and highlight the fact that heart health should be a...
Learning PR From The NFL
November 8, 2010, 3:05 pmIm a Vikings fan. Have been my entire life. And Ill tell you, its a curse. The 97 season. 41-0. The NFC championship game in New Orleans last year ( Tom Martin , not a WORD!). I can only compare it to what it must be like to be a Cleveland Indians fan (sorry Chuck Hemann ). Heartache. Year, after year, after year. And this year is no different....
Totally Nuts: Mr. Peanut Gets a Makeover
November 8, 2010, 3:00 pmby Claudine Zap It's official: The Planters Peanut guy is getting a voice . And a gray flannel suit. And a sidekick. The suavest of actors, Robert Downey Jr ., will speak for the until-now, not-talking nut. Mr. P has come a long way since his yellow animated self showed up in 1916. The new and improved Mr. Peanut will be introduced on his Facebook...
An Important Message about the Atlas Universal Action Tag and Privacy
November 8, 2010, 2:29 pmMicrosoft understands that protecting personal privacy online can be complex. Through the many services that we offer, we are committed to helping our customers and end users achieve the benefits of technology, while preserving control over how information is used and protected online. Microsoft Advertising, through its Atlas services, enables...
Facebook And Yahoo Tops In Display Advertising
November 8, 2010, 1:58 pmNearly 1.3 trillion display ads were delivered to U.S. Internet users during the third quarter of this year, representing a 22 percent increase compared to a year ago. Facebook led all online publishers in Q3 with 297 billion display ad impressions, representing 23.1 percent market share. Facebooks market share has increased 13.9 percentage points...
Android Gingerbread Arriving This Week?
November 8, 2010, 1:12 pmTechnology site V3.co.uk reports that this week Google could be releasing Gingerbread , the lastest version of it's Android mobile operating system software, following a tweet from Alvaro Fuentes Vasquez, a member of the leadership team at the Open Handset Alliance concerned with Android. Click to read the rest of this post.
Google Aims to Prevent Losing Mobile Users to Bing on Windows Phone 7
November 8, 2010, 1:12 pmGoogle has launched a Google Search app for Windows Phone 7. The first Windows Phone 7 devices in the U.S. became available today. While, we will no doubt see a flood of apps for the platform rush in, it is smart for Google to get theirs out there immediately, as Windows Phone 7 devices come with Bing as the default search option (via a hard key)....
Facebook Could Buy RockMelt to Beat Google
November 8, 2010, 12:56 pmI've spent the morning playing with and writing about RockMelt, the social Web browser. RockMelt hooks into Facebook Platform to let users browse content online and share it with their Facebook friends and tweet to Twitter. Users can also integrate RSS feeds. Pretty much anything anyone wants to do to read or share content can be done in RockMelt...
Windows Phone 7 for Advertisers and Marketers. Just the Beginning''
November 8, 2010, 12:20 pmToday, with the U.S. launch of Windows Phone 7 , Microsoft Advertisings U.S.-based in-app ad solution for Windows Phone 7 is also live, enabling advertisers to reach this new and growing audience with relevant and engaging advertising experiences, as well as providing a new platform for Windows Phone 7 application developers in the U.S. to...
Google Exec Commits To More Huge Acquisitions
November 8, 2010, 11:49 amGoogle's legendary war chest may finally be put to use. Although there's almost no way the company will spend all its cash, a vice president of corporate development did indicate in a recent interview that it's looking to make one or more gigantic acquisitions. David Lawee hinted at this possibility by telling Douglas MacMillan and Aaron Ricadela...
AOL Launches New Video Program
November 8, 2010, 11:34 amAOL said today it has launched an original video program that will be featured on its recently relaunched homepage. AOL's The One, launches today and was created in partnership with Next New Networks, a provider of original video content. The One is a two-minute commentary from a number of contributors including bloggers, journalists, and...
Why Email Marketing Still Trumps Social
November 8, 2010, 11:18 amSocial media has been at the center of marketers' attention for years now, as many still grapple with finding their ideal strategies. There's no question that social media has opened up many new doors, and should not be ignored. That said, email marketing is still one of the most effective channels. WebProNews recently had a chat with Chris...
Claim Your Twitter Place - Coming Soon for Businesses?
November 8, 2010, 11:02 amBusinesses may soon be able to claim their location on Twitter Places. If (or when) the service goes live, it will provide a permanent URL for specific locations, along with a list of people who have recently tweeted from that location and their tweets, Mashable reported.Click to read the rest of this post...
Investors Show Support For Yahoo-AOL Deal
November 8, 2010, 10:27 amStarting late yesterday, a fresh round of rumors began to circulate about a possible Yahoo-AOL deal. Then other sources and experts denied that anything's taking place. But investors still seem to be excited about the concept, sending Yahoo and AOL's stocks up a significant amount in early trading.
Yelp Launches Windows Phone 7 App
November 8, 2010, 10:27 amNow that Windows Phone 7 devices are available in the U.S. we can expect that apps to start flooding in. Yelp announced its new Windows Phone 7 app today, available in Europe and the U.S. The app lets users use location-aware technology to find restaurants, shops, bars, etc. and read reviews for businesses, browse photos, map business locations,...
U.S. Online Display Advertising Market Delivers 22 Percent Increase in Impressions vs. Year Ago
November 8, 2010, 10:16 amcomScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released an overview of the U.S. online display advertising market for Q3 2010, which showed strong gains following softness for much of 2009. Data from the comScore Ad Metrix online advertising intelligence service indicated that nearly 1.3 trillion display ads were...
Amazon To Purchase Diapers.com For $545 Million
November 8, 2010, 10:11 amAmazon.com said today it has reached an agreement to acquire Quidsi, which operates Diapers.com and Soap.com. Under the terms of the deal, which was approved by Quidsi's stockholders, Amazon will purchase all outstanding shares of Quidsi for $500 million in cash, and also take on $45 million in debt. The acquisition is set to close next month....
Foursquare Founder to Fall Foul of FTC?
November 8, 2010, 9:24 amLast Year the FTC revised guidelines governing the use of endorsements and testimonials in advertising. As you may recall , the big news then was the addition of a rule stating that bloggers who accept free merchandise or services from companies they write about must reveal the terms of that endorsement to their readers or be found in violation of...
Official British Monarchy Page Launches On Facebook
November 8, 2010, 9:24 amFacebook is far past the point where it's an "ooh, look at that" moment every time an important person joins the site. Another celebrity here or there hardly matters when it's got more than 500 million users. Still, it may be worth noting that an official British Monarchy Page has launched. Posts on the Page actually date back to mid-September,...
Timing is EVERYTHING in Online Marketing
November 8, 2010, 9:09 amThere are three main factors dealing with time and online marketing and each one is critical to successful online marketing campaigns: Time Management When I ask most people why they are not using social media more, most answer that they do not have the time. On the other hand, many complain about how much time is wasted online using these...
Windows Phone 7 Devices Available in the U.S. How Will They Sell?
November 8, 2010, 8:53 amWindows Phone 7 devices went on sale in the United States today with models available in AT&T and T-Mobile , stores. Microsoft is sharing results from a Harris Interactive survey to help push its new operating system. The thinking is that Windows phones are "designed to get users in, out and back to life." "Although consumers love their phones,...
Google Offers Free Inflight Wi-Fi For The Holidays
November 8, 2010, 8:53 amThe Google Chrome browser team said today it has partnered with AirTran, Delta and Virgin America, to provide free Gogo Inflight Internet to travelers during the holiday season. People flying on AirTran, Delta or Virgin America between November 20, 2010 and January 2, 2011 will have free Wi-Fi on any of their domestic flights. We are constantly...
Bazza's 28 Link Building Suggestions
November 8, 2010, 8:48 amNew to link building? Don't know where to start? Maybe you're already experienced or class yourself as an expert in this industry. Either way, this article will either teach you something new or refresh your mind when it comes to building links on the web. 1. Define Your Link Building Strategy The first thing we do when we're pitching to a client...
5 Free Tools for Monitoring Brand Mentions on Facebook
November 8, 2010, 8:22 amMonitoring brand mentions on twitter is as easy as choosing one of the few dozen (or so) free tools currently out there. And for the rest of the social web, it's almost that simple. That is, except for Facebook. The major hurdle of Facebook monitoring is its users' preference for privacy (not to mention the limited historical data). In fact, none...
How to Use Blekko to Rock at Your Job
November 8, 2010, 8:11 amMarshall Kirkpatrick compares Blekko to Google CSE and explains how to use custom search to quickly gather relevant information on any topic. A good read with lots of tips and partly funny background information.
Disturbing study suggests where Web spam is heading
November 8, 2010, 8:00 amMichael Martinez explains why spammers and low-quality-high-output content farms not only can fool search engine algos easily, but gain credibility in your brain cells, too. Worth a read for every copy writer and marketer.
Groupon Seeks $3 Billion Valuation: Get It While It Can?
November 8, 2010, 7:46 amGroupon is looking for more money to expand its quickly growing business. Anyone in their position would be doing the same especially when the valuation being tossed around is in the $3 billion range. That's rarified air for sure but one has to wonder how long that air will be available to breath. Bloomberg Businessweek reports Groupon Inc., owner...
3 Steps to Foolish Online Advertising
November 8, 2010, 7:46 amLet's face it' most online advertising is foolish, especially your typical banner ad. The general approach to banner ads is ineffective, easily blocked, and regular site surfers literally become blind to them . Even pay per click - perhaps the greatest ROI advertising ever devised - is used foolishly. High dollar clicks sent to poorly written,...
Competitive Keyword and Link Research that Works
November 8, 2010, 7:41 amHaving an effective link building strategy is crucial to the success of any SEO campaign. That being said, a great link building strategy for one client or site, may not not translate to another. The cookie cutter link building mentality is where many SEO's often fail. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say it's probably not the best idea to...
From Sponsored Links to Ads: What Does Google Have Up Its Sleeve?
November 8, 2010, 7:15 amNormally, the change of terminology in any company is a pure marketing move designed to breath new life into something that has some wear and tear. Aside from just the "new and improved" kind of changes, you occasionally get a completely different word to make a person think about the product again. Rarely, however, do you see a change like Google...
Is This the Web Browser Experience People Want?
November 8, 2010, 6:44 amToday, nearly everybody in the tech community is talking about a new web browser called RockMelt, just introduced over the weekend. The browser promises to make it "easy for you to do the things you do every single day on the web." This means sharing, keeping up with friends, staying up to date on news and information, and of course search. The...
The Junction of Social Media & Content Marketing in New Zealand
November 8, 2010, 6:08 amIn a little over a week I'll be giving the opening keynote at a social media conference in Auckland, New Zealand called Social Media Junction . The topic? The answer to one of the most common questions asked about social media: "The Truth About Social Media ROI".
Money is an Arbitrary Value System*
November 8, 2010, 5:58 am* If you think otherwise, do you care to debate the following video? "Perhaps the only lessons learned by the banks in the crisis is that the rules don't apply to them." Ain't that the truth. The video is completely accurate : Richard M. Bowen, former chief underwriter for Citigroup's consumer-lending group, said he warned his superiors of...
Are you leveraging these content strategy opportunities?
November 8, 2010, 4:19 amGreetings! In today's post, we're moving beyond the mechanics of SEO copywriting (and editing) and venturing into content strategy. Specifically, we're going to discuss how we might develop and leverage new content opportunities, no matter the size of our business. As with a smart keyphrase strategy , a savvy SEO content strategy seeks to capture...
Multi-Screen Consumer Research and Your Media Multiplier Effect
November 8, 2010, 4:04 amMulti-screen consumers are changing the rules for advertising in Europe, disrupting the traditional purchase funnel and creating new opportunities for campaigns that embrace multi-screen advertising solutions. Not only are multi-screen consumers more valuable, but the media multiplier effect can also make them more responsive. Our latest research...
PayPal's local Israeli site now available in Hebrew
November 8, 2010, 12:38 amHi everyone. I'm Oded Zehavi, regional director for PayPal's business in Israel and South Africa. I'm pleased to announce the launch of PayPal's local Israeli site in Hebrew - www.PayPal.co.il . The new site will streamline the setup process for local businesses and allow them to fully integrate our services, in Hebrew, into their online checkout...
How to Get Your Community to Build Links For You
November 8, 2010, 12:12 amPosted by Geoff Kenyon Building links is widely regarded as one of the most difficult and time consuming aspects of SEO. If you have a community centric site, you should spend some of your time allocated for link building on creating features that will get your users to do your link building for you. Implementing these community link building...
How to be a Great SEO Client
November 7, 2010, 11:05 pmBeing a good SEO client will ensure a smooth and effective relationship with your search engine marketing company. Not to bash anybody but there are some things that a client should understand when they get involved with either a freelancer or an SEO company. You Are Not Our Only SEO Client You have to understand that you are probably not the only...
Sitemaps for Search Engines
November 7, 2010, 8:42 pmA traditional sitemap is a rather simple and efficient way for a Web site visitor to find a specific page or section on a complex Web site. It’s best to start with a home-page link then offer a list of links to main sections of the site. Those sections can offer details to pages. Be absolutely sure the links are accurate and take the visitor to...
What You Should Know about the Like Button
November 7, 2010, 12:42 pmThe Consumer Appeal Businesses that use social networking sites have a way of appealing to the population network by offering things that appeal to them based on their demographics. They make it their job to know what you like, what you want to see, and what your interests are. If photography or cooking is your .
How Embedding Content (to Third-party Services) Benefits Your Marketing Efforts
November 7, 2010, 12:42 pmThe problem of online content theft has always been hot. You may have spent weeks and months producing some great piece of content (be it a photo, a video or anything else), and once it is live online, before you know it, hundreds of website owners are already republishing it (with or without credit) and .
10 Social Networking Sites You Can Ignore
November 7, 2010, 12:42 pmWhile there are hundreds of social networking sites out there, you only really need to worry about "the big four:" Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube. Other sites pale in comparison to the big four, which garner the most visits and have the most users of any social networking sites. Ever wondered what other social networking .
Nielsen Numbers Glitch Results in Low Traffic Numbers
November 7, 2010, 9:51 amWhen it comes to online marketing, traffic is everything. It determines what marketers pay per click, which web sites get which ads, and if traffic is low enough, it may keep a site from getting ad dollars at all. That's why the latest faux pas from The Nielsen Company may be bigger than it seems. On Thursday, the company sent out a note to all of...
Rutgers Mini MBA Program Offers Accelerated Social Media Marketing Course
November 7, 2010, 8:29 amThe Rutgers Mini MBA Program is offering an accelerated Social Media Marketing Course from December 6 through 10, 2010, on the Piscataway campus. Click to read the rest of this post.
Using Broken Links As An Opportunity For New Link Requests
November 6, 2010, 9:07 pm"A WebmasterWorld Member tip to help find new link opportunities."
Customer Service Scorecard: What’s Your Grade?
November 6, 2010, 1:21 pmA really great overview of what goes into a user-friendly, customer service-oriented online shopping experience. Many small retailers may not have the budget/technical setup to implement all of these things, but it's something to strive for in any case.
Google Employee Claims Unwanted Sexual Contact by Twitter Software Engineer
November 6, 2010, 9:11 amNoirin Shirley, who is Director at the Apache Software Foundation and a techinical writer at Google uses her blog and Twitter to expose a Google employee she says touched her inappropiately. She sent this message to her Twitter followers:
"It is not my job to avoid getting assaulted. It is everyone else’s job to avoid...
Search Week in Review For Nov. 6, 2010
November 6, 2010, 9:00 amHere's a roundup of this week's columns and news stories for the week of Nov. 1 to 5, as reported by Search Engine Watch, as well as search news and tips from around the web.Click to read the rest of this post...
Search Engine Blekko, the hype and the facts
November 6, 2010, 8:45 amBlekko is a brand new search engine, the latest "Google killer". It was founded by Rich Skrenta, the man behind what came to be known as the Open Directory Project , which was the best bet for quality search results back in 1998. What does his newest invention bring to the world of search? Slash the Web Blekko's slogan is Slash the Web .
The New Blekko Search Engine and Other Search News Nov 6
November 6, 2010, 7:02 amThis week saw the birth of a new search engine: Blekko. Here is some of the online Blekko coverage, as well as other search engine news articles found this week. Google Does Away With Sponsored Links Label, Now Ads Are Labelled Ads SE Land: The rollout is only on English language domains for now,
Cup of Joe: How To Make Money In The Future
November 6, 2010, 6:36 amI have a secret to tell you. I can see the future. Well, kind of. You see, I can see the future of making money. At least, I hope I can. But before we talk about the future, let's talk a bit about the present. What is the most successful business model to date, on the Internet? Yep, you guessed right! Advertising! The predominant model for success...
Automated Forum Profile Link Building: Does it Work?
November 6, 2010, 1:01 am"WebmasterWorld members debate whether automated forum profile link building works."
Agency vs In-House SEO for Small Businesses
November 6, 2010, 1:00 amSusan Esparza asks: Should you rent or buy your SEO inhouse solutions? Obviously the answer is going to depend on your business, your market and your life. But one thing is for sure, you need an online presence and that means investing in SEO.
Google Updates and SERP Changes - November 2010
November 5, 2010, 9:36 pm"WebmasterWorld's monthly SERP monitoring and update thread for November 2010."
Burgers, McRibs, and a Ban on Happiness: Buzz Week in Review
November 5, 2010, 7:53 pmby Mike Krumboltz The election? What election? This week was all about fast food, baby. There was the return of the McRib sandwich (cause for celebration in blue and red states), a ban on Happy Meal toys in the City by the Bay, and a curious study that calls into question the legend of the non-decomposing burger. Strap on your feedbag, kids - it's...
Google's 'Sponsored Links' Renamed 'Ads'
November 5, 2010, 7:40 pmGoogle is rolling out a change to its search ads on all English language domains, Search Engine Land reports. "Sponsored links" will now simply be known as "Ads." Click to read the rest of this post...
Launched Today: Advanced Usage Settings for Greater Control Over Your Feeds
November 5, 2010, 6:51 pmWhen we launched the Google Merchant Center , our goal was to create a central place for merchants to upload and manage their product listings. Merchants are now using their Merchant Center data to get qualified traffic from Google Product Search , improve their on-site search with Google Commerce Search , and enrich their AdWords campaigns with...
Chuck Norris Sells Cell Phones ... in the Czech Republic
November 5, 2010, 6:15 pmby Claudine Zap That Chuck Norris appears in TV commercials is no surprise. But the actor's latest gig is appearing in ads for T-Mobile ' in the Czech Republic. The 70-year-old shows up in a series of Christmas-themed commercials for the wireless network. The bearded, flannel-shirt-wearing star plays along in the non-English-speaking ads, pretty...
Mayo Clinic & What Happens When a Facebook Wall Goes Terribly Wrong
November 5, 2010, 6:06 pmA firestorm erupted on the Mayo Clinic Facebook Fan Page when allegations against one of their doctors got ugly. Here's a look at what happened and what the Mayo Clinic did to bring the situation under control.
Michael Barrett wins 2010 Information Security Executive Award
November 5, 2010, 5:54 pmHi everybody. Anuj with PayPal's communications team here. Our own Michael Barrett, PayPal's chief information security officer, received the top honor for this year's Information Security Executive Award in the commercial category. Michael shares this title with other well respected security executives for top companies and agencies, including...
71% Of Internet Users Utilize Up-To-Date Browsers
November 5, 2010, 4:47 pmThe people who work on Chrome, Firefox, Opera, and maybe even Safari and Internet Explorer can take comfort in the fact that their efforts aren't going unappreciated. A new report from Pingdom indicates that a significant majority of Internet users are running the most recent version of their browser of choice. Indeed, according to Pingdom's...
Google vs. the World: A Week of Conflicts, Disputes, and Lawsuits
November 5, 2010, 4:29 pmThis was a fight-filled week for Google. From squabbles with the travel industry, to suing the U.S. government, and various privacy disputes overseas, here's a recap of some noteworthy conflicts involving Google this week.Click to read the rest of this post...
The Call for Call Tracking Is Answered
November 5, 2010, 4:19 pmThis summer, Eric Enge posted on SEW an article entitled A Call for Call Tracking. This week it looks like it has been answered. Both Google AdWords and Marin Software have announced solutions to track phone conversions and attribute their source to paid search campaigns. This is great news for local business chains and companies that have a more...
Study Says Social Media Users Follow Only 5 Brands
November 5, 2010, 4:12 pmMore than ever, social media users are including brands in their list of friends and follows but according to the 2010 Cone Consumer New Media Study , five is the magic cutoff number. How do you become part of the small, inner circle? You already know the answer to that. 77% of users said they followed a brand for free products or discounts. No...
Netflix Users: Time Warner Considering Delays Longer Than 28 Days
November 5, 2010, 3:20 pmNetflix and Redbox customers might have to wait even longer to get a Warner Bros new release from their queue, as Time Warner is thinking about upping the wait time . Would you consider dropping Netflix if they don't feature timely new releases? Let us know . Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes said, "So far the 28-day window has clearly been a success...
SEO Audit Tool Comparison
November 5, 2010, 3:16 pmDoing an SEO audit? Outspoken Media does a big review of five major tools.
Good, Creative Marketing Creates Tension and Takes Risks
November 5, 2010, 3:04 pmGood, creative marketing can be simplified into "four E's": engage, educate, excite, and evangelize. That's how former Kodak Chief Marketing Officer Jeff Hayzlett presents it anyhow. Obviously, each of these "E's" can get complicated in themselves, but if you really want to look at it in the simplest form possible, this is as good a place to start...
Gingerbread Release Rumored For Thursday
November 5, 2010, 2:28 pmWith Halloween behind us, the holiday season is here. Retailers, radio stations, and grocery stores have all started breaking out their Christmas-themed products, and Google may soon join them. Rumor has it the Gingerbread version of Android will launch on Thursday. Please note: nothing's certain. And if you believe Google wouldn't want Samsung...
Google to Block Facebook's Access to Gmail Contacts
November 5, 2010, 2:05 pmFacebook is losing access to Gmail data due to a change in Google's term of services, but really because Facebook won't share its social graph data with Google, TechCrunch reports. Click to read the rest of this post...
Guest Post: The Commissioner of Tailgating on best football food across the nation
November 5, 2010, 1:57 pmWith The Bing National Tailgating Championship kicking off in Houston this Sunday, we invited Joe Cahn the nationally recognized Commissioner of Tailgating and master of ceremonies at the event to share his thoughts on the best part of tailgating the food. For those of you not able to make it to the games, a quick reminder that Bing Recipes is a...
Facebook Like Numbers are Inflated
November 5, 2010, 1:41 pmWhen a Like isn't a Like. The Like number shown to users around the Internet is actually the total_count – “the total number of times the URL has been shared, liked, or commented on.” Large Like numbers throughout the Internet make it seem like the functionality is being used frequently. Yet, here we see that the specific Like feature...
Google Woos Devs With Events Page, Advocate Bios
November 5, 2010, 1:26 pmBoth in terms of holding a person's interest and making sure he (or she) does things right, allowing an individual to spend hours alone, staring at a computer screen, is not always the best way to handle a situation. So to better engage with developers, Google's introducing Advocate Bios and Developer Events pages. A post on the Google Code Blog...
Valerie Plame's Hollywood Debut, Guy Fawkes Day, Oprah Winfrey's Plane: What's the Buzz
November 5, 2010, 1:26 pmby Claudine Zap Our top picks from the day's hottest searches. Valerie Plame (Searches increased by 12,438%). The CIA spy who was outed is in the spotlight again with a Hollywood movie of her story. Meghan McCain (+8,533%). The daughter of John McCain said Bristol Palin looked " ridiculous " for not voting. Guy Fawkes (+368%). Remember, remember,...
Facebook's Data Tactics: Disrupting or Disturbing?
November 5, 2010, 12:09 pmMany people like to talk about the disruption that Facebook is creating in the business landscape. Most prominent of those is Mark Zuckerberg himself. Funny thing is that when he talks about the new world order that is being brought about by Facebook (and I suppose there are others but that's not his job to say anyone is as smart as he is now, is...
Facebook’s Data Tactics: Disrupting or Disturbing?
November 5, 2010, 12:03 pmMany people like to talk about the disruption that Facebook is creating in the business landscape. Most prominent of those is Mark Zuckerberg himself.
Funny thing is that when he talks about the new world order that is being brought about by Facebook (and I suppose there are others but that’s not his job to say anyone is as smart as he is now,...
How Pre-Paid Yahoo! Search Marketing Balances Will Transition to Microsoft Advertising adCenter
November 5, 2010, 11:38 amConfusion is never fun, especially when it involves money. With that in mind, were hoping this post will help Yahoo! Search Marketing users to clarify some of the questions and concerns you may have about whats going to happen to the pre-paid funds still in your YSM account when ad serving fully transitioned to Microsoft Advertising adCenter and...
Case Study - Social Security Administration
November 5, 2010, 11:33 amThe Social Security Administration may not be the first website that comes to mind when thinking about search or social, but these two sources combined accounted for half of the traffic referrals in October 2010. Search engines referred 43% of the upstream traffic to the website of the Social Security Administration and of those visitors, 72% were...
Ask.com Launches Mobile App For iPhone
November 5, 2010, 11:17 amAsk.com has released its mobile application for iPhone that allows users to ask and answer questions from their mobile devices. Previously only limited to a subset of Ask.com website users, the full Ask.com Q&A experience is now available to anyone who downloads the app. Millions of people come to Ask.com with their questions everyday now they...
Google Officially Announces Arrival of Instant Mobile
November 5, 2010, 10:41 amWe reported that Google Instant beta was appearing on Android devices last week. Yesterday, Google made it official, introducing the predictive search-as-you-type functionality for iPhones and Android. Click to read the rest of this post...
What Can Brick and Mortar Teach You About SEO?
November 5, 2010, 10:16 amby Stoney deGeyter
Operating an online business has a lot of advantages over brick and mortar shops. But, contrary to what many believe, being online is not the holy grail of business success. Brick and mortar stores have been successful, to varying degrees, for millennia. Comparatively, the web is barely a twinkly in Al Gore's...
Yahoo's CIO Out
November 5, 2010, 10:15 amFor the sake of its image, if nothing else, Yahoo would no doubt like to slow or stop the constant flow of departing employees. But it looks like the stream is as steady as ever, with an especially central person - the company's CIO - leaving this week. One mitigating factor: Michael Kirwan didn't spend an especially long time at Yahoo, with his...
Military Invasion Blamed On Google Maps
November 5, 2010, 9:24 amNot long ago, a Nicaraguan military commander caused an international incident by leading his soldiers into Costa Rican territory. He replaced a Costa Rican flag with a Nicaraguan one, too. And according to the commander, this all occurred because of an error on Google Maps. Apparently maps used by both the Nicaraguan and Costa Rican governments...
Never Forgotten (Online)
November 5, 2010, 9:18 amSo last night I made my BBC Newsnight debut discussing Reputation Management and the impact of the new European Union strategy for dealing with personal data online. See it here on the BBC iplayer
Yay I'm famous!
In addition to getting a wonderful mention of Distilled on the BBC , I also managed to explain some of the difficulty around...
Yahoo Introduces Weekend Edition
November 5, 2010, 9:08 amYahoo has introduced Weekend Edition on Yahoo News, a new program offering original video and editorial content sponsored by Buick. "With Weekend Edition, we've established a destination that features lighter lifestyle-oriented news programming, which we already know is more popular with our weekend audience," said Mark Walker, vice president and...
Search Behavior Has Not Changed With Google Instant
November 5, 2010, 8:53 amA study by Conductor compares 880,000 visits from 10 high traffic sites by search term length over two weeks and shows virtually no change in search traffic distribution.
The Secret Weapon that Makes Your Content Successful
November 5, 2010, 8:48 amEvery time you sit down to write, do you get a sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach? Do you worry that what you're about to write won't be as awesome as the posts you read on popular, established blogs? It's a fear many writers know well: the fear that you just won't be good enough to size up to your favorite writers. It can be inspiring to...
Last Day to Save on Scribe
November 5, 2010, 8:16 amHey everyone, I just wanted to give you a heads up that the STEPUP discount code for Scribe SEO expires today at 5:00 PM Central Time. (That's 3 PM Pacific and 6 PM Eastern). Have no idea what I'm talking about? Click here to read all about it . Or, head over to the Scribe site to sign up . This post will self-destruct at the end of the day (along...
Facebook Becomes Lowe's Black Friday Marketing Tool
November 5, 2010, 7:40 amBlack Friday is *the* biggest shopping day of the year, why not use Facebook to push it? A look at how Lowe's is leveraging Facebook ads to push Black Friday sales.
Google Preps Product Search Overhaul to Battle Amazon, eBay
November 5, 2010, 7:40 amGoogle is reportedly close to releasing a refreshed Google Product Search service leveraging the technology it acquired from Like.com, which it picked up in August . Like.com makes a visual search engine that helps consumers match clothes and other apparel online and purchase them from retailers. It's part comparison shopping site and part fashion...
Google Instant In Your Pocket
November 5, 2010, 7:24 amWhile Google is trying to get into your wallet all the time it now has added its latest search ‘improvement’ to its mobile offering so you can have that with you as well.
Google Instant for the desktop was rolled out in September to much fanfare. It’s mobile cousin is being rolled out as a beta and can be used on iPhones or Android 2.2...
SEOmoz 2010 Survey Results Candidly Reveal Industry Dilemma
November 5, 2010, 7:04 amSEO tools company, SEOmoz, has released the results of a survey of the SEO industry, which received 10,000 respondents making it the largest ever conducted. Answers were given to 45 questions by over 10,000 people from over 90 countries on topics ranging from earnings, job title and responsibilities to tactics and tools.
UK Copyright Laws To Be Reviewed And Made "fit for Internet age"
November 5, 2010, 7:02 am"...the law could be relaxed to allow greater use of copyright material without the owner's permission."
Burma Hit By Ongoing Net Attack
November 5, 2010, 6:35 am"An ongoing computer attack has knocked Burma off the internet, just days ahead of its first election in 20 years."
The Future of SEO in a Big Brand, Google-Only World
November 5, 2010, 12:57 am"...what once seemed like a limitless world to me for marketing my ideas now seems like the most narrow..."
3 Steps To Mid-Tail PPC Profitability
November 5, 2010, 12:39 amArticle suggesting 3 key PPC strategies for taking advantage of less relevant keywords. Firstly, the separation of keywords into campaigns depending on their level of qualification. Secondly, the qualification of ads to reduce wasted clicks. And finally, the persuasion in ad messages to capture flexible searchers and increase conversion rates.
The Basics of Local SEO - Whiteboard Friday
November 5, 2010, 12:17 amPosted by @aaron_wheeler Howdy mozfans! This week's Whiteboard Friday features the return of Danny Dover, our lead SEO here at SEOmoz. He's going to be discussing the basics of local SEO, a rapidly developing, important niche in SEO land that involves a complex amalgamation of many data sources and metrics. Hey, sounds a lot like the regular SEO...
Juggle Your SEO, But Don't Be a Clown!
November 5, 2010, 12:17 amSearch engine optimization can be a very time consuming process if you don't effectively streamline your efforts. There is an endless amount of work and marketing items you can execute on any given day and you need to figure out how to make a balance between being efficient and over obsessive. Regardless of how much you do and how often you do it...
Lowes, Best Buy Start Black Friday Early
November 4, 2010, 11:05 pmIt's 8:47 pm PST, nearly midnight on the east coast and 2,000 people have just left a comment on a Lowe's Facebook post that went up five minutes ago. Why? Because in just a few minutes, Lowe's is going to launch their Black Friday Sneak Peek Party where they say they'll be giving out coupon codes for up to 90% off items at Lowes.com.
Lowe’s, Best Buy Start Black Friday Early
November 4, 2010, 11:04 pmIt’s 8:47 pm PST, nearly midnight on the east coast and 2,000 people have just left a comment on a Lowe’s Facebook post that went up five minutes ago. Why? Because in just a few minutes, Lowe’s is going to launch their Black Friday Sneak Peek Party where they say they’ll be giving out coupon codes for up to 90% off items at...
Jay-Z finds a new canvas
November 4, 2010, 7:03 pmSince October 18 th Jay-Z Decoded by Bing has taken players from the streets of Brooklyn, to luxury hotels in Miami, to New Orleans rooftops. Over the past 17 days, players have found over 170 pages of Jay-Zs upcoming book Decoded . This week players made the virtual and physical trek- to one of Jay-Zs regular hot spots. The page, which...
SEOmoz PubCon Happy Hour 2010
November 4, 2010, 5:20 pmPosted by jennita It's November! Which here at the mozPlex means a few things: It's sunny and beautiful in Seattle [wait.. uhm what??], we're all getting ready for Thanksgiving and most importantly... PubCon is next week! As usual we're sending a big crew down to Vegas to speak, learn, network and of course party. Both Rand and Joanna will be...
News Corp to MySpace: Shape Up or Ship Out
November 4, 2010, 5:14 pm"We've been clear that MySpace is a problem." "The current losses are not acceptable or sustainable." They must show improvement in "in quarters, not in years." News Corp. president Chase Carey spoke to investors earlier this week and everyone is talking about it. He made it clear that the 70 million drop in ad and search revenue wasn't going to...
Millennial Media Survey Forecasts Big '11 For Android
November 4, 2010, 4:54 pmWhen it comes to receiving attention from publishers and advertisers, rivals of Google's mobile operating system are perhaps not going to do too well next year. New stats from Millennial Media are out, and Android appears ready to grab the figurative spotlight. The graphs below, which were included in the State of the Apps Industry 2010 Report ,...
Google Instant Now Available For iPhone And Android Devices
November 4, 2010, 4:38 pmGoogle said today it is introducing a beta version of Google Instant to most iPhone and Android devices in the U.S. Users can access Google Instant on their iPhone or Android the same way they can on a desktop. The Google Mobile Blog has more details. Like the desktop version of Google Instant, when you type on your mobile device youll see...
Pics or it didn't happen
November 4, 2010, 4:12 pmDiggers, I am happy to announce the return of filtering lists of stories by media content type.
Google Adds PDF Viewer To Chrome Beta Channel
November 4, 2010, 3:47 pmFour and a half months ago, Google indicated that it was developing an "integrated PDF viewing experience" for Chrome. Now it's arrived - sort of. An integrated PDF viewer has at least been introduced to the beta channel. The beta channel represents a step forward versus the developer channel, anyway. Plus, although there are presumably some...
The Small Details Can Make or Break Your Campaign
November 4, 2010, 3:47 pmAt ad:tech New York, Dan LaCivita, President of Firstborn , a creative agency that worked on a well-received campaign for Pepsi's Sobe brand, along with Rami Jabaji, the Associate Brand Manager for Sobe , showed off the campaign kicked off earlier this year at SXSW in which they created a Flash-based app that allowed users to create fake (but...
New Features in Search Funnels
November 4, 2010, 3:41 pmWe've received very positive feedback from advertisers using Search Funnels "the new set of reports launched in Conversions. Advertisers are beginning to understand the path to conversion beyond just the last click and are now able to give credit to assisting keywords and ads that customers saw and/or clicked before converting. Each buying cycle...
Suggesting a Better Remote Control
November 4, 2010, 3:31 pmPosted by Ullas Gargi and Rich Gossweiler, Research Team It seems clear that the TV is a growing source of online audio-video content that you select by searching. Entering characters of a search string one by one using a traditional remote control and onscreen keyboard is extremely tiresome. People have been working on building better ways to...
Fast-Food News Fuels Hungry Web Searches
November 4, 2010, 3:15 pmby Claudine Zap Fast-food chains made big news this week - and saw big searches on the Web. Check out tasty new and nixed offerings, as well as the return of an elusive sandwich with a huge fan base. Dig in. BK Brings on Free Coffee Here's some news that should give you a jolt: Burger King is handing out free cups of coffee every Friday in...
Yahoo and Nielsen Research the "Smarter Marketing Mix"
November 4, 2010, 2:49 pmNielsen and Yahoo introduced some new research on cross-platform optimization today at Ad:Tech NY. The results are interesting, but Nielsen SVP, Media Product Leadership Howard Shimmel warned not to generalize the findings. It's more about how they got to the results. The goal is to help the decision process. "What we want you to take away is a...
Twitter Hires Adam Sharp As D.C. Liaison
November 4, 2010, 2:34 pmPoliticians who don't use Twitter may soon receive a visit from Adam Sharp. Sharp announced this afternoon that he's been hired by Twitter to represent the company in Washington, D.C. We first discussed this position when Twitter put up a job posting in early June, and it doesn't look like the role's changed much since. Sharp's duties should...
Global Smartphone Market Makes Big Gains
November 4, 2010, 2:13 pmThe global smartphone market reached a new milestone in the third quarter of 2010 (Q32010), with the top vendors posting significant growth, according to a new report from IDC. Smartphone vendors shipped a total of 81.1 million units, up 89.5 percent from the 42.8 million units shipped during Q309. For the first three quarters of 2010, vendors...
Google, FairSearch Play Tug-Of-War With Analyst's Comments
November 4, 2010, 1:22 pmNeither Google nor the FairSearch coalition is close to backing down when it comes to the search giant's proposed acquisition of ITA Software. Today, Google attempted to highlight an analyst's comments in support of the deal, and FairSearch fired right back by stressing the same analyst's doubts. This scrap revolves around what Henry Harteveldt,...
5 Ways To Fix SEO’s Reputation Problem
November 4, 2010, 1:04 pmGreat discussion here & good tips for SEOs and how to clean up your image as an SEO.
Report: 7% Of Mobile Internet Users Do Location-Based Services
November 4, 2010, 12:52 pmGreg Sterling breaks down the data in the most recent Pew Internet Project report, including compelling reasons to not ignore this young but growing field of services. From the article: The Pew Interenet Project published findings from a recent survey about usage of “location-based services” (LBS). According to the Pew data, 7 percent of...
Fast Company is Right About This, At Least: Clicks Matter
November 4, 2010, 12:20 pmLike Pace Lattin "doesn't cross paths with Shoemoney at all," I don't cross paths with Pace Lattin at all (although Lattin and I are fellow ClickZ columnists). All I can do is read what he's writing on his blog, accept the words on their face, and try to get meaning out of them. Commenting on the already-well-documented brouhaha about Fast...
IAB Engage 2010: Digital Thought-Leadership, Partnerships and Fish and Chips
November 4, 2010, 12:20 pmIn an industry that is evolving at such a fast pace, it is always good, every now and then, to sit down and reflect on these trends and innovations which are opening new territories to explore, creating new challenges In the UK, IAB Engage is one of these great opportunities to hear from worldwide thought-leaders and the much anticipated 2010...
4 Tips For Search (And User) Friendly Design
November 4, 2010, 12:07 pmIan Lurie offers SEO-friendly design advice that should help bridge the communication gap between the two sides that have frequently divergent interests.
Facebook Makes Green Push
November 4, 2010, 11:43 amThe Information Technology Industry Council (ITI) said today that Facebook has joined the Digital Energy Solutions Campaign (DESC) in an effort to develop energy efficient computing systems. "Our ongoing philosophy has been to improve the efficiency of our infrastructure and we continue to invest tremendous resources to improve our own...
Get to the Point With Your Mobile Marketing
November 4, 2010, 11:43 amI probably don't have to tell you that mobile marketing is incredibly complex. Why is this? Because mobile encompasses nearly all other forms of media in one. Mobile is talking on the phone, the mobile web, images, video, radio, interactive apps, location, etc. "The challenge here is: how do we balance scale with engagement?" said Jeff Plaisted...
How About a Copyblogger T-Shirt?
November 4, 2010, 11:22 amIf you're like me, you love t-shirts. And if you're also like me, you've had that recurring fantasy where you become fabulously wealthy simply by dreaming up pithy statements that throngs of fans proudly display on their chests. That fantasy has never quite worked out for me (or anyone I know). But we've had quite a few requests for Copyblogger...
Hulu Plus Improves Availability, Selection
November 4, 2010, 11:07 amThanks to a sizable collection of updates, anyone who's been wanting to try Hulu Plus can now do so, and anyone who hasn't might want to reconsider his (or her) opinion. This morning, Hulu made Hulu Plus more accessible, and, for some people, cheaper. Product Director Rob Wong announced on the Hulu Blog , "As we scale our infrastructure...
Ho-Ho-Hold Up, Christmas Is Coming: Get Optimised!
November 4, 2010, 11:07 amIf you weren't already aware (and if not where have you been?), the race to Christmas in the UK is well and truly on. eBay have their own festive countdown clock, Amazon 's Lego City advent calendar is out of stock, and Cliff Richard has just released.
The final nail in coffin for Net neutrality
November 4, 2010, 10:51 amBefore Tuesday's midterm elections, there were 95 House and Senate candidates who pledged support for Net neutrality, a bill that would force Internet providers to not charge users more for certain kinds of Web content.
All of them lost -- and that could mean the contentious proposal may now be all but dead.
Major New Features Added To Intelligence
November 4, 2010, 10:51 amToday at Ad Tech NYC, we announced a few major new features in your Intelligence reports which should be very useful: Major Contributors for Custom Alerts, and SMS and Email alerts. Major Contributors When you have a custom alert set up to capture important changes in your account, you can now see a break down of the individual segments that are...
Say hello at PubCon 2010
November 4, 2010, 10:51 amI'll be at PubCon in Las Vegas next week. I'll speaking on the search engine super session on Wednesday, November 10th. If you see me at PubCon, please say hello to me!
Android Will Rule Over Apple iOS for Developers in 2011
November 4, 2010, 10:46 am2010 is hurtling toward its end, and it's always good to take the pulse of the mobile applications industry. This is especially apt considering mobile poses the greatest growth potential of any app sector, when combined with local and social apps. Millenial Media, that intrepid standalone ad shop that did not sell out to Google, Apple, Microsoft...
Essential Statistics from Technorati's State of the Blogosphere 2010
November 4, 2010, 10:41 amJon Sobel of Technorati has published the latest State of the Blogosphere Report for 2010 including stats from 7,200 blogger respondents world-wide. Started in 2004 by Dave Sifry, this annual report has provided insight into the growth of the blogging community and helps answer questions like: who is blogging, why, what are they blogging about,...
StumbleUpon Launches Discovery App For Android
November 4, 2010, 10:20 amStumbleUpon has introduced StumbleUpon App Discovery, a free beta feature of its Android app that suggests mobile apps based on users' interests. "Currently, discovering apps from the over 100,000 apps available in the Android Market is limited to keyword-based search features," said Garrett Camp, StumbleUpon CEO and co-founder. "With StumbleUpon...
News Corp. On MySpace: "Current Losses Are Not Acceptable"
November 4, 2010, 10:20 amTo be clear: we don't mean to spread rumors or alarm anyone. But MySpace employees might want to consider setting aside some extra money and updating their LinkedIn profiles, as one News Corp. exec hinted during an earnings call that a drastic cost-cutting action of sorts may occur. A large round (or two) of layoffs is one possibility. A sale or...
A Slasher's Guide to Blekko - The Most Advanced Search Engine Ever Created
November 4, 2010, 10:10 amLet's just be clear: Blekko is the best thing since sliced bread. It's the most advanced search engine ever created and every SEO professional or webmaster has to use it. No irony here whatsoever . I've been a beta tester before the public launch on Monday but I mainly used Blekko as a replacement for Yahoo Site Explorer, Open Site Explorer and...
Are you creating your own hell?
November 4, 2010, 9:55 amI just got off the phone with a very dear friend of mine. Her normally laid-back life has suddenly turned tumultuous - and she's not quite sure how to handle it. What she is sure about is that she wouldn't be in this situation had she addressed issues a little faster - and had a few more tough conversations. In short, she knows that she created...
5 Custom Google Analytics Reports: Track Changes in Traffic, Page Views, Bounce Rates, etc
November 4, 2010, 9:51 amWe all know that tracking and analyzing our traffic is critical. And we sure know the major metrics to watch. But what's even more important is how they change over time. Here's an easy way to create custom Google Analytics reports that let you do just that: keep track of the change.
New York: Where It’s At for Startups?
November 4, 2010, 9:31 amIt’s an interesting time to launch a startup, which is why you see so many popping up all the time. Word from ad:tech NY is that New York has become the ideal place to start up a startup. "It’s a lot easier and cheaper to start a companies these days," says Linda Gridley, of investment banking firm Gridley & Company....
Is Google’s Size Becoming a Problem?
November 4, 2010, 9:19 amIs Google getting too big to maintain its position as the top player on the web? That is the basic topic of a great deal of discussion going around the Blogosphere as the company has lost a couple more high-profile employees in Kate Vale and Lars Rasmussen from Google Australia.
Is Google getting too big? Tell us what you...
Breeding Good Ideas and Fostering Innovation in Your Company
November 4, 2010, 9:19 amInnovation is running rampant these days. That's why we're seeing so many startups launching and so many acquisitions from bigger companies happening. The good ones come from good ideas, and everybody's rushing to have the next great idea. But where do these ideas come from? How do they get started?
Steven Berlin Johnson, Author of...
Location-Based Services See Light Use
November 4, 2010, 9:13 amFour percent of online adults use a service such as Foursquare or Gowalla that allows them to share their location with friends and to find others who are in their area, according to a new report form the Pew Internet & American Life Project. Location-based services such as Foursquare or Gowalla are significantly more popular with younger internet...
9 Sure-Fire SEO Tips
November 4, 2010, 9:03 am1) Steal Your Competitors' Keywords Look at the keywords they use in their title tags. Look at the keywords they use to link to their "money pages". Some webmasters are dumb enough to include their money keywords in their meta keywords tags. Take a look at these but keep in mind that smart SEO people won't do this. In fact, just to mess with...
E-mail v. Social Media: Utility v. Futility?
November 4, 2010, 8:52 amThe debate rages on as to just how important social media is to the fabric of our changing lives v. just how much of a time suck activity devoid of value it is. People take a stand at either extreme and at all stops in between. Where do I stand? Depends on the time of day and about 1,000 other variables. eMarketer presents a study done by TNS...
New York: Where It's At for Startups?
November 4, 2010, 8:42 amIt's an interesting time to launch a startup, which is why you see so many popping up all the time. Word from ad:tech NY is that New York has become the ideal place to start up a startup. "It's a lot easier and cheaper to start a companies these days," says Linda Gridley, of investment banking firm Gridley & Company . "There's just a ton of...
How to Keep Your Email Marketing List from Hating Your Guts
November 4, 2010, 8:42 am( Nudnik: Yiddish for pain in the ass, nuisance, pest, a marketer who sends too many emails to his house list) Okay, so how do you know when you're being a nudnik? That is, how do you know when you're sending too many emails to your money pot, your gold mine " your email list? Consider the following ' If your email open rate is lower than the...
Location Based Services Used by 1% of US Internet Users on Any Given Day
November 4, 2010, 8:16 amOn the heels of Facebook's announcement of their many different moves to create a mobile platform that includes Deals and expansion of Places into the Android market the Pew Research Center is releasing some interesting data. Personally, I love when Pew does these reports. Why? Because my sense is that they are as unbiased as this kind of research...
How I Got a Do-Follow Backlink from a PR 10 Domain
November 4, 2010, 8:16 amSo you are probably reading this post title thinking that this is too good to be true. Well it's not! And I will prove it' Back in March of 2009, I came across a regular column on CNN: Small Business, called Website Remedies . This column "enlists Web marketing and search-engine optimization specialists to analyze small-business Web sites in need...
The Google Analytics Metrics That Help You To Monitor The SEO Progress And Also Calculate The ROI
November 4, 2010, 8:16 amGoogle Analytics cannot be ignored by any SEO or for that matter any web marketing professional. Google introduces this application which is offered for free by Google as - " Google Analytics is the enterprise-class web analytics solution that gives you rich insights into your website traffic and marketing effectiveness. Powerful, flexible and...
It's Time to Stop ICANN's Top-Level Domain (TLD) Lunacy!
November 4, 2010, 7:52 amLauren Weinstein writes: "It's time to end the TLD madness. It will take both time and some heavy lifting. But there are alternative methodologies -- more efficient, extensible, and far more economical, much better suited to the Internet of the 21st century, and we need to start working on them now."
Blog Posts To Read Week of November 4, 2010
November 4, 2010, 7:40 amBelow you will find our favorite blog posts that are related to SEO, search engine marketing and social media marketing from this past week. Please feel free to visit each, we hope you find them as helpful as we do! Google Place Search - What is it & How Do I Survive? This post talks about the newly launched Google Place search function and the...
New Entry into Enterprise SEO Space
November 4, 2010, 7:14 amTallwave, a venture accelerator firm that develops "go to market" strategies for digital marketing product companies announced its first portfolio company, SyCara, a developer of workflow management platform for search engine optimization (SEO). SyCara provides a single platform for SEO professionals for brands and agencies to collaborate and...
What Is Social CRM?
November 4, 2010, 6:21 amThis article is handy for guiding clients from old school CRM to new school CRM through the social web. Includes helpful graphics and data.
Video: What's Next in Emerging Media from Microsoft Advertising
November 4, 2010, 2:05 amEnthralling video compiled from interviews and footage from our participation at Advertising Week. Experience multi-screen next-generation technology featuring live demos of Kinect for Xbox 360, Deep Zoom, Pivot, and Windows Phone 7. Learn how General Motors plans to launch the new Chevy Volt through emerging media platforms, and hear from...
Facebook Moves To Make It More Dominant In Mobiles
November 4, 2010, 1:59 am"Facebook also revealed plans for a single sign-on that lets users log in to other phone applications with their Facebook name and password."
5 Reasons to Consider Microsoft Access for SEO
November 4, 2010, 1:34 amThe SEO industry has a substantial investment in Excel. It makes sense, to a degree. Data exported from our favorite tools is easily imported into Excel, can be manipulated, can be put into a Pivot Table, and so forth. But perhaps the obsessive reviewing we bring to SEO tools like Open Site Explorer, Raven Tools, and browser plug-ins should...
Google's Unspoken Failures Are Limiting Your Potential
November 4, 2010, 12:48 amPosted by Danny Dover As people in relationships spend time with each other they start to leverage each others natural strengths to efficiently store information about the world around them. "Honey, what is the name of my Aunt's employer?" "Babe, what do you call that thing that heats bread?" They rely on each other to store information that is...
SEM Budget Planning Tips
November 4, 2010, 12:01 amThere are a lot of people online and you know that it is crucial to tap some of them on the shoulder and let them know you are there. How can you do that with a limited marketing budget? What should your budget even be? Are you one of those people who have contacted several search marketing companies to help you only to get back widely different...
Which of your websites, deleted or lost years ago (or on a backup in a box you can't seem to find), would you most like to get back?
November 3, 2010, 10:13 pmThe release of a massive but not complete Geocities archive made me wonder about all the past stuff we probably can't recover anymore (and the usage of stylesheets over time makes design changes so easy that they're also easily undocumented) - so my question: Which of your lost websites would you most love to get back? [By Philipp Lenssen |...
Considering Check-In App Strategies for Business
November 3, 2010, 9:27 pmIt's been an interesting day for location-based services. Facebook of course made its announcements . Yelp announced it will soon introduce check-in offers . At ad:tech NY, location-based services have been a hot topic of discussion (possibly the hottest). Foursquare CEO Dennis Crowley spoke about his ambitions for making Foursquare an incredible...
Amazon Hooks Up with Facebook For Gift Card Giving
November 3, 2010, 7:08 pmJust in time for the holidays! The ability to spend even more time on Facebook! Amazon would like you to know that you can now send Amazon gift cards directly to your Facebook friends instead of having to use that pesky old email. Neat, huh? To make sure everyone gets the picture, they're even running a special Give 5, Get 5 promotion. Give five...
IE 9 Beats Chrome, Firefox, and Safari on Official HTML 5 Test
November 3, 2010, 7:01 pmIn what can only be called an unexpected surprise, the W3C released results of its first-ever HTML 5 compatibility tests and found that the pre-release version of Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) 9 browser offers the best conformance.
Sad News for Happy Meals: SF Ban
November 3, 2010, 5:56 pmby Claudine Zap Sorry, kids: Turns out a happy meal is not a healthy meal, at least according to the standards of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. The board approved a preliminary ban that would strip kids' fast-food meals of toys that don't meet specific dietary guidelines. No fruit cup or carrots? Then no toy. Same goes for meals loaded...
In Case You Missed It: Holiday Resources for PPC Advertisers in the U.S.
November 3, 2010, 5:14 pmOver the last few months there have been a number of great holiday insights and resources posted for North American advertisers. Check out the blogs and resources below for insightful trends and optimization tips that can help boost your campaign performance this holiday season.
Google Mixes Promoted Tweets Into Real-Time Results
November 3, 2010, 4:54 pmGoogle has a market cap of almost $198 billion right now, and most of that money stems from the company's ability to sell ads. So congratulations are due to Twitter, which somehow sealed an ad-related deal whereby Promoted Tweets show up in Google's real-time search results. This is remarkable for two reasons. Number one: this is the first time...
North Face and National Park Foundation Launch Facebook Deals Campaign
November 3, 2010, 4:18 pmThe North Face and the National Park Foundation, the official charity of national parks in the U.S., said today they are participating in the launch of Facebook Deals. Beginning today, The North Face will donate $1 to the National Park Foundation for every individual who checks in at one of Americas nearly 400 national parks or a North Face...
Twitter's Promoted Tweets Appearing on Google
November 3, 2010, 4:16 pmPromoted Tweets from Twitter are beginning to appear in Google's real-time search results today. This is the first time that Google has allowed any form of advertising from a service other than its AdWords network to appear in its results.Click to read the rest of this post...
Mobile Apps and Browser Use Continue to Rise
November 3, 2010, 4:07 pmFor the three month average period ending in September, 234 million Americans ages 13 and older used mobile devices. That's a quote from the latest mobile survey conducted by comScore. The study also showed a slow but steady rise in content usage on phones and that's good news for marketers. Browser usage went up 2.2% and application downloads...
Don’t Just Jump on the Social Media “Brand” Wagon
November 3, 2010, 4:04 pmAt ad:tech, Cheryl Stallworth, CEO North America of Firefly, talked about a social media study the firm conducted in which it explored consumer expectation of brands.
"The thing that was interesting is that when it comes to people who are fairly sophisticated….there are a lot of similarities around the world," she said....
Google Unveils New Tool For Faster Web
November 3, 2010, 3:47 pmSomewhere within Google, there's an organization known as the "Make the Web Faster" initiative, and today, a representative presented the world with a gift. Something new named mod_pagespeed is supposed to make streamlining a site a quick, easy process. Richard Rabbat, a product manager, explained on the Webmaster Central Blog , "We just launched...
Google Ranking Internal Pages Rather Than Home Pages
November 3, 2010, 3:26 pmWhen you get to *really* competitive keywords the results typically tend to be fairly stable because the cost of entry into the game is so high & many of the top players keep building additional signals of quality. You might get minor fluctuations from time to time, but large fluctuations on highly competitive keywords are fairly rare. Over the...
EA Sports Pulls the Plug on NBA Elite 11
November 3, 2010, 3:16 pmby Mike Krumboltz The video game industry is a big business. Make that a huge business. Millions of dollars are spent developing games, and millions more are spent marketing them to the masses. NBA Elite 11 , a basketball game from Electronic Arts Sports, is unusual in that it's been developed and marketed, but it will never see the inside of a...
Don't Just Jump on the Social Media "Brand" Wagon
November 3, 2010, 3:04 pmAt ad:tech, Cheryl Stallworth, CEO North America of Firefly, talked about a social media study the firm conducted in which it explored consumer expectation of brands.
"The thing that was interesting is that when it comes to people who are fairly sophisticated....there are a lot of similarities around the world," she said....
Facebook Announces Single Sign-On, Location Upgrade, Deals Platform
November 3, 2010, 2:45 pmFollowing an introduction by Brandee Barker, Mark Zuckerberg kicked off this afternoon's live Facebook event by talking about the mobile platform. As of today, 200 million people are actively using the Facebook Mobile product across all platforms, he noted, which is triple the number that were using it last year. Next, Zuckerberg announced that...
Is Creating a Unique Experience Enough To Get People to Pay for Digital Content?
November 3, 2010, 2:45 pmJohn Loughlin, Executive VP and GM of Hearst Magazines , which publishes Cosmopolitan, Esquire, Popular Mechanics, and other popular titles, provided an inside look into Hearst's content strategy for the digital age here at ad:tech NY. With 14 magazines and 23 sites, the company has 40 apps to accompany them. "Our digital library is a huge...
Google Voice Leveraged for AdWords Call Metrics
November 3, 2010, 2:35 pmFirst Google Voice has been seamlessly blended with Gmail , now AdWords. Is there anywhere Google won't put the call management application? Google has launched AdWords call metrics, a new feature that helps advertisers gauge calls they receive through Google's click-to-call ad feature. Call metrics, an ad-hoc ad analytics tool, uses the Google...
Conductor says Google Instant has No Impact on Searcher Behavior [study]
November 3, 2010, 2:15 pmA week after the launch of Google Instant, Conductor compared 880,000 visits from ten high traffic websites by search term length with the week prior to the Instant launch and showed "virtually no change in search traffic distribution". This week they posted results for the same test a month prior and following the instant launch and concluded...
Facebook Reveals Deals for iPhone Users
November 3, 2010, 2:14 pmToday Facebook has accelerated its mobile efforts by introducing its Places offering to Android users (but I can't find the updated app in the market despite claims from Facebook in their press event to the contrary) and it is rolling out a Deals offering to iPhone users of the Places feature. Both of these moves firmly places (pun intended)...
Online Holiday Shoppers Plan To Spend More This Year
November 3, 2010, 2:09 pmOnline shoppers plan to spend more on holiday gifts this year, with 66 percent indicating they will spend over $500, according to a new report from PriceGrabber. Last year, more than half (59%) of shoppers spent $500 or more on gifts. This year, the average amount that holiday shoppers plan to spend on gifts is $845. According to survey data,...
Superpages.com and Yellowpages.com top 2010 USA IYP Rankings
November 3, 2010, 2:03 pmI just published an update to the IYP rankings. Many of these sites have done better in the few days since Google released Place Search.Here is my Top 10, although the article ranks the top 26: 1. Superpages.com 2. Yellowpages.com 3. Yahoo.com 4. Yelp.com 5. Citysearch.com 6. Areaconnect.com 7. Insiderpages.com 8. Magicyellow.com 9....
How many HEROes are in your company?
November 3, 2010, 1:53 pmby Josh Bernoff Some companies have more highly empowered and resourceful operatives ( HEROes ) than others. We can actually quantify this, as we did in Empowered and in a recent report called " The HERO Index: Finding Empowered Employees " Here's how we do it. We surveyed information workers at US companies. We ask them two things: How empowered...
Youtube SEO
November 3, 2010, 1:34 pmYoutube SEO Experiment & Useful Tips
Rank #1 on Youtube using these secret tips! Um..not quite, and as I dug further into the world of video SEO, I was falsely promised thousands of views, top rankings and lots of subscribers.
So, I decided to have a crack – or find out as much of the truth about Youtube SEO as I possibly could. Not in the...
Reaching for the top spot? "Estimated Top Impressions" now available in the Bid Simulator
November 3, 2010, 1:32 pmA year ago, we launched the Bid Simulator , a feature that allows you to see how different keyword-level bids may have impacted your advertising results. Using data from the past seven days, the bid simulator re-calculates the number of clicks and impressions your ad could have received with different maximum CPC bids. Today we're announcing a new...
Introducing Deals
November 3, 2010, 1:27 pmEveryone likes getting a good deal, but it's not always easy to find the right one at the moment you could use one. Imagine that while you're looking for a new place to try for lunch, you could see offers from restaurants nearby on your phone. On the other hand, I already love Zachary's Pizza, so imagine if I were rewarded for coming back there...
CEO Dennis Crowley "Bullish" on Foursquare for Local Merchants
November 3, 2010, 1:12 pm"Whenever I hear SMB, I think of Super Mario Bros," Foursquare co-Founder and CEO Dennis Crowley said today. But in all seriousness, he has tremendous pride in his service and its future use for local businesses (among other things).
Speaking here at ad:tech New York, he compared Foursquare to a Google Analytics for people who...
Android Leaps Past 20% Market Share Milestone
November 3, 2010, 1:10 pmIt's a good bet that the codename "gingerbread" causes employees at RIM, Apple, Microsoft, and Palm to flinch. The latest stats from comScore show that Android is still on quite a roll even without help from a fresh version of the mobile operating system.
Below, you can see a chart comScore constructed to show how the mobile...
Kate Middleton Marriage Rumors, Morgan Freeman's Fake Ad, California's New Guv: What's the Buzz
November 3, 2010, 1:07 pmby Claudine Zap Our top picks from the day's hottest searches. Kate Middleton (Searches increased by 9,459%). The parents of Prince William's girlfriend spent a weekend at a royal shooting party " spurring more wedding rumors. Morgan Freeman (+7,573%). The actor received an apology from a Republican campaign that claimed to use the democrat's...
The 2010 SEO Industry Survey Results
November 3, 2010, 12:39 pmThe 2010 SEO Industry Survey from SEOmoz unveils fascinating trends about salary, gender, priorities and more from over 10,000 marketing professionals. Plus there's a cool infographic on "The Anatomy of a Search Marketer"
DOTW: The SEO Industry's Reputation Problem
November 3, 2010, 12:26 pmLike clockwork, every few months a mainstream publication or a prominent online website/writer throws SEO and the entire SEO industry underneath a bus. SEO is all about "tricking" search engines and the SEO industry is nothing but unethical shysters out to make a quick buck while polluting Google's search results. And yet, for an industry that's...
What’s the Blogging Picture Look Like This Year?
November 3, 2010, 12:18 pmHere in New York at ad:tech, Technorati President and CEO Richard Jalichandra gave his annual "State of the Blogosphere" address. This has historically been a chance to reflect upon the Blogosphere’s impact on the world, and that impact is just as great as it’s ever been. That’s obvious up front.
9 out of 10...
How is story buried?
November 3, 2010, 12:10 pmFellow Diggers, I am happy to announce that we've made a few changes to our story list design, including bringing back the bury button.
What's the Blogging Picture Look Like This Year?
November 3, 2010, 11:39 amHere in New York at ad:tech, Technorati President and CEO Richard Jalichandra gave his annual "State of the Blogosphere" address. This has historically been a chance to reflect upon the Blogosphere's impact on the world, and that impact is just as great as it's ever been. That's obvious up front. 9 out of 10 bloggers are reportedly talking about...
Technorati's State of the Blogosphere 2010 Report Launches Today
November 3, 2010, 11:28 amWe are thrilled to announce Technorati's State of the Blogosphere 2010 Report . Since 2004, our annual study has followed growth and trends in the blogosphere. For 2010, we took a deeper dive into the entire blogosphere, with a focus on female bloggers. This year's topics include: brands embracing social media, traditional media vs. social media,...
Google And Microsoft Partner With The Ad Council On Teen Internet Safety
November 3, 2010, 11:23 amThe Ad Council has launched the Internet Safety Coalition, in an effort to educate teens about how to be smart about what they post and share online. The Internet Safety Coalition members include big names such as Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, IBM, Verizon Wireless, AT&T, AOL, Comcast, the Interactive Advertising Bureau, MySpace and MTV Networks,...
Make your websites run faster, automatically - try mod_pagespeed for Apache
November 3, 2010, 11:18 amWebmaster Level: All Last year, as part of Google's initiative to make the web faster, we introduced Page Speed , a tool that gives developers suggestions to speed up web pages. It's usually pretty straightforward for developers and webmasters to implement these suggestions by updating their web server configuration, HTML, JavaScript, CSS and...
Many 2010 Election Results Too Close To Call
November 3, 2010, 10:29 amIf anyone tells you that one vote doesn't matter, go to Yahoo! News or Google News this morning and search for "too close to call."Click to read the rest of this post...
The 12-Step Program for Online Marketing
November 3, 2010, 10:27 amby Stoney deGeyter The 12-Step Program, developed by AA, has been used by countless individuals and copied by many organizations to help people get their lives on track. Here, we present the 12-Step Program for business owners when dealing with their online marketing campaigns. Step 1: Admit you are powerless without SEO and that your online...
comScore Reports September 2010 U.S. Mobile Subscriber Market Share
November 3, 2010, 10:16 amcomScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released data from the comScore MobiLens service, reporting key trends in the U.S. mobile phone industry during the three month average period ending September 2010. The report ranked the leading mobile original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and smartphone operating...
Facebook Top Display Ad Publisher In The UK
November 3, 2010, 10:16 amThe UK online display advertising market for the third quarter of 2010 showed strong gains compared to Q3 2009, according to the latest report from comScore. UK Internet users received more than 221 billion display ads during the third quarter, marking a 34 percent increase compared to a year ago. Following the ad recession that occurred from late...
UK Authority Rules Google Breached Data Protection Act
November 3, 2010, 10:01 amIn the UK, the Information Commissioner's Office has concluded its investigation of Google's Street View privacy gaffe, and there's good news and bad news for the search giant. The bad, which arguably outweighs the good: it's been judged guilty of a "significant breach of the Data Protection Act." In a formal statement, the ICO said,
Google Does Privacy Community Service for Buzz Bomb
November 3, 2010, 9:56 amGoogle understands better than any company that if you throw enough up against the wall something's gotta stick. Take a look at the number of projects they are working on at any given time and there are bound to be successes and failures. One of the most resounding failures of the recent past had been Google Buzz. Not only didn't anyone truly...
How do you give Google what it wants?
November 3, 2010, 9:47 amby Mike Moran
Image by kirainet via Flickr
No matter who you are, at some point it is natural to throw your arms up in frustration and ask, "What does Google want from me?" For most of us, no matter how much we know about SEO and no matter what we do, we eventually feel like we've hit a wall. We just can't seem to (pick one) raise our...
Marissa Mayer Lists Google's Top 3 Mistakes
November 3, 2010, 9:38 amGoogle has had a ton of massive successes -- AdWords, Maps, Gmail, and Chrome to name a few. It's always interesting to get insights from the top execs at Google of what they consider failures. Any good company will learn and grow from its failures.Click to read the rest of this post...
Business to Business SEO: The Key is in the Copy
November 3, 2010, 9:30 amHow do I make this interesting? As an SEO practitioner in the area of B2B online marketing , I ask myself this question regularly. Generally speaking, the optimization of B2B websites is far less glamorous than its flashy counterpart, business to consumer (B2C). B2B sites involve an understanding of products and materials, typically only relevant...
AOL Achieves Big Q3 Profits
November 3, 2010, 9:04 amEarlier this morning, AOL delivered its third-quarter earnings report, and while there were significant problems, the company was able to impress investors. AOL's stock is now up 6.05 percent, which is more than a decent way for it to start the day. That increase is in part due to the fact AOL was able to report $563.5 million in total revenue,...
Groupon Introduces Browser Deal App
November 3, 2010, 9:04 amSocial shopping website Groupon has launched a new Groupon Browser App powered by Conduit. The Groupon Browser App alerts users no matter where they are online, when new deals are available. Using location-based targeting, the app works directly in the browser and shows users Today's Deal. The app allows users to share deals with others via email,...
Zero Day Threat: Microsoft Security Advisory For IE 6, 7, 8
November 3, 2010, 9:02 am"Impacted versions include Internet Explorer 6, 7 and 8, although our ongoing investigation confirms that default installations of Internet Explorer 8 are unlikely to be exploited by this issue."
Introducing Internet Marketing for Smart People Radio
November 3, 2010, 8:43 amAfter years of saying we're going to do it, we're doing it " a Copyblogger weekly podcast (that we won't be calling a podcast). It's Internet Marketing for Smart People Radio , and it's designed to help tie together the things we talk about on Copyblogger into a coherent strategy you can use to build your business with online marketing. The show...
Google Sues the United States Govt (Interior Dept)
November 3, 2010, 8:39 am"When the request for bids on the email contract was ultimately posted, Google said, it stated that Microsoft's technology was the department's 'product selection of choice,' based on market research on security controls, among other factors."
Should Your Blog Allow Every Comment with a Link?
November 3, 2010, 8:23 amA few months ago I decided to turn my blog into a do-follow blog to see if it helps increase activity, but honestly I can't really say how much it's helped or not. Sure, I've gotten some spam comments, but I always remove them. Just because it's a do-follow blog doesn't mean I have to approve every comment or allow every link. However, I have a...
Google to Pay $8.5 Million in Buzz Privacy Class Action Settlement
November 3, 2010, 8:17 amGoogle will pay $8.5 million to settle a class action lawsuit brought against the company after its launch of Google Buzz. Google's attempt at challenging Facebook and Twitter in the social networking realm was greeted with hostility by privacy advocates after it shared personal data without Gmail users' consent.Click to read the rest of this...
mod pagespeed Makes Your Sites Run Up To 2x Faster
November 3, 2010, 8:02 am"mod_pagespeed integrates as a module for the Apache HTTP Server, and we've released it as open-source for Apache for many Linux distributions."
Top 10 Blogs to Inspire Business Productivity
November 3, 2010, 8:02 amOne of the most important things for any business is productivity. Business owners need to stay productive if they are going to grow their businesses. They need to inspire employees to remain productive in order to keep profits up and make their employment worthwhile. One simple but great way to stay motivated towards business productivity is to...
Google Supports Rich Snippets For Ecommerce Sites
November 3, 2010, 7:38 am"In time for the holiday season, we now support rich snippets for shopping (e-commerce) sites."
How Google may Manage Reputations for Reviewers and Raters
November 3, 2010, 7:17 amBill Slawski: "Do reviews of businesses and products at Google influence how well those might show up in Place searches or product searches? It’s possible that they may, and a bigger question might be how much weight might Google give to each review that it sees. An answer, in part, to that may depend upon a reputation score associated with the...
How Not to Suck Being a Conference Moderator or Speaker
November 3, 2010, 6:44 amA fine looking audience at PRSA International 2010. There are several roles to be played at successful industry conferences. Most of my experience is specific to Search, PR and Direct Marketing events - assuming social media and interactive fit in there somewhere as well. What roles? There's the conference organizer and all that comes with the...
Who Can Get You a .cn Domain?
November 3, 2010, 6:34 amIt is no secret that China is now the biggest "net citizen" in the world. Even as far back as 2008 there were over 250 million people logging on. In addition, the number of .cn domain names registered exceeded 12 million - more names than in all Germany for instance. Cyber-squatting, domain name scams and a range of net entanglements ensued,...
Online Display Advertising Market Grows 34 Percent in the UK Versus Year Ago
November 3, 2010, 5:42 amcomScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released an overview of the UK online display advertising market for Q3 2010, which showed strong gains compared to Q3 2009. Data from comScore's Ad Metrix services showed that UK internet users received more than 221 billion display ads during the third quarter, marking...
We'll be at IAB Engage 2010 Speaking and Tweeting!
November 3, 2010, 5:37 amJust had an email from those fab folks at IAB UK to say that tomorrow's event in London is SOLD OUT! A packed Mermaid Theatre are set to be thrilled by industry heavy-weights such as Yahoo!'s Carol Bartz, Spotify's Daniel Ek, YouTube's Bruce Daisley, researcher and broadcaster Dr Aleks Krotoski, and the icing on the digital cake, comedian Jimmy...
New AdSense Interface Rolling Out
November 3, 2010, 5:32 am"WebmasterWorld members discuss the new AdSense interface."
Google in 'significant breach' of UK Data Protection Laws
November 3, 2010, 4:46 am"...the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) will audit Google's data protection practices."
Using Query String Parameters to Track Customer Information in Microsoft Advertising adCenter
November 3, 2010, 2:47 amAs search marketers, were constantly reminded of the need to deeply understand the sources of our paid search traffic in order to optimize campaign results and improve return on ad spend or investment. The good news is that, by adding query string parameters* (Part of a URL that is used to pass information from one webpage to another. The passed...
SEO content marketing roundup, week ending November 3rd
November 3, 2010, 2:36 amCool tools and new stuff! It was difficult to choose what to include in this week's latest and greatest web writing news, given all the great content generated: elaborate how-to's, in-depth pieces, new search engine rollouts and applications, the real-time marketing buzz, and some really nifty SEO and content marketing tools. :: Whew :: Enjoy, and...
Google Analytics Reporting Bug
November 3, 2010, 12:37 am"WebmasterWorld Members are seeing zeros on their Google Analytics stats: A reporting bug or data loss?"
2010 Industry Survey Results, Infographic & Surprising Trends
November 3, 2010, 12:26 amPosted by randfish Earlier this year we asked the community to take our SEO Industry Survey. We had originally hoped to get at least 3,000 responses and were completely blown away when over 10,000 people ended up taking the survey! Of course, it never hurts to have an iPad as the grand prize, but I'm still very excited about the extent of this...
SEO Planning Can Help Speed Things Up!
November 3, 2010, 12:16 amYou can't really do much to speed things up but if you are not operating at 100% efficiency than you really can make serious improvements if you just make some changes. There are certain elements and efforts of search engine optimization that you can tweak in order to see movement that much quicker. Of course this all depends on what industry,...
Conversions: Making Your Web Site Work
November 2, 2010, 11:22 pmSo many creative people step into the online world expecting great things from their Web site, their product or their service. But there is really only one way to find success in this field and that’s through conversion. If you can move a solid percentage of your visitors into leads (then into customers) you are on the right track. Keys to this...
Google Buzz Class Action Settlement
November 2, 2010, 11:15 pmGoogle will pay $8.5 million to settle a class action lawsuit brought against the company after its launch of Google Buzz. Click to read the rest of this post...
Redefining Friends vs Followers
November 2, 2010, 7:19 pmIf you search the word "friend" in Google images, you'll get lots of cute cartoons hugging each other but you also get Facebook logos. Facebook has become so synonymous with the word friend that Webster may have to change the definition in the dictionary. Think about it. How many people on your Facebook are actually your friends? Friends in the...
Fake Morgan Freeman Ad Stirs the Web
November 2, 2010, 6:12 pmby Claudine Zap The voice-over of a campaign ad for Republican candidate for Congress, B. J. Lawson , in North Carolina, sounds so familiar. It's soothing, authoritative, and wait, is that Morgan Freeman ? It's not, but it sure sounds like him . That was exactly the point. But a sound-alike for Freeman is not an endorsement . Confusion over the...
Stand out to shoppers with the Google Checkout holiday promotion
November 2, 2010, 5:46 pmThe holiday shopping season is quickly approaching, and we know merchants are busy planning ways to stand out to the right buyers and increase sales. We're excited to present a way for active Checkout merchants to partner with Google to help drive Google Checkout leads and sales during the upcoming shopping season: You can sign in to your Google...
Google Buzz Privacy Suit Settlement Announced
November 2, 2010, 4:25 pmThe launch of Google Buzz did not go well, as you may remember. Automatic opt-ins and privacy scares created quite a stir. But Google's putting the matter behind it, as the search giant has settled a class action suit by agreeing to create a privacy-centric fund.
Google is supposed to contribute $8.5 million to the fund, and according...
LinkedIn Introduces New Company Pages
November 2, 2010, 4:24 pmBefore I get into this post about the latest LinkedIn update I want to make it perfectly clear that I do not use LinkedIn to its utmost. Of the three 'majors' (Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn) the social networking choice of professionals finishes a distant third in order of importance to me personally. I am not saying that this is the way to go I...
Bookmarks into Facebook using Yahoo! Pulse
November 2, 2010, 4:13 pmSome of you might have noticed that in the last month Facebook removed the ability for users to import data from 3 rd party sites, one of the services impacted was Delicious. For those of you that wish to have your bookmarks appear in Facebook you can follow the instructions for doing so on the Yahoo! Pulse Help page here . If you happen to have...
comScore Reports Third Quarter 2010 Results
November 2, 2010, 3:58 pmcomScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today announced financial results for the third quarter of 2010.
Google Tests AdWords, Call Metrics Integration
November 2, 2010, 3:27 pmWhen creating a form for customers to fill out, it's easy for business owners to slip in a question asking who referred them. Finding out how someone got a phone number is a more delicate matter, though (it's important not to waste customers' time or act like they called a private line), and AdWords call metrics represents Google's potential...
Mobile Coupons Stalled at the Gate
November 2, 2010, 3:01 pmThe latest eMarketer graphic shows that 85% of mobile phone users have never used a mobile coupon. That's not where we thought we'd be by now. With the wide spread of Smartphones and the rise in mobile marketing, cell phone coupons should be a given but something has stalled the concept at the gate. Even Cellfire,
Bing-Facebook Social Search Rollout Complete
November 2, 2010, 2:57 pmAll U.S. Bing users now have access to the new social search features added with the assistance of Facebook, the company announced today. Click to read the rest of this post...
The Bing-Facebook Partnership's Features Roll Out Today
November 2, 2010, 2:56 pmA few weeks ago I posted about the Bing-Facebook partnership ; their plan was to make search more social. This morning on Bing's Search Blog Group Program Manager, Paul Yiu, posted that they have successfully and completely deployed the new social features they have created in partnership with Facebook. According to Yiu ,
EA In Five-Year Deal With Facebook
November 2, 2010, 2:10 pmElectronic Arts said today it has signed a five-year agreement with Facebook under which Facebook Credits will become the exclusive payment method for EA games on the social networking site. As part of the agreement, EA will receive the same 70 percent revenue share for Facebook Credits as is standard for all developers on Facebook. Pet Society...
Oracle Acquiring E-Commerce Company ATG for $1 Billion
November 2, 2010, 1:54 pmOracle announced today that it's buying e-commerce software company Art Technology Group (ATG) for about $1 billion. "Driven by the convergence of online and traditional commerce and the need to increase revenue and improve customer loyalty, organizations across many industries are looking for a unified commerce and CRM platform to provide a...
The McRib Returns
November 2, 2010, 1:49 pmby Mike Krumboltz It's like running through a field of four-leaf clovers. It's like finding a unicorn chillin' at the fountain of youth. It's like a hundred Christmases slathered in barbeque sauce. It's the return of the McDonald's McRib sandwich. And, to many people, it's an event to get excited about. The McRib phenomenon is something special in...
Bing Activates Facebook Features, Makes Some Changes
November 2, 2010, 1:33 pmBing announced today that it is completing its deployment of the new Facebook features announced last month. They should be available to all U.S. users. Bing has made some adjustments to the features as originally announced due to user feedback. "Early users told us that they expected the same access to their friends inside Bing as they already...
Digital Marketers Need to Work on Elevator Pitch for Holiday Season
November 2, 2010, 1:24 pmYesterday, comScore released its Q3 2010 U.S. retail e-commerce sales estimates, which showed that online retail spending reached $32.1 billion for the quarter, up 9 percent versus year ago. This growth rate represented the fourth consecutive quarter of positive year-over-year growth following a year of flat or negative growth rates.Click to read...
If you sell stuff online, don't advertise
November 2, 2010, 1:23 pmNo, I don't mean it that way. Of course you should advertise! What I mean is, if your economic engine is driven by product sales, customer acquisition, and the like, then what are you doing on your website distracting users with ads? Unless your business is advertising-driven, it's almost always a bad idea to entice users to click away from your...
Promotional Products Fast-Go Promotional
November 2, 2010, 1:21 pmSEO Moves wanted to thank our Promotional Gifts Supplier http://www.gopromotional.com for the exceptional prices, service and prompt delivery. We wanted a little toy to give out during our visit to Pubcon and waiting til the last minute to order them. Well low and behold we got these little flash drives in 4 days! Unreal.
Check them out:
Share...
Watch the Election Results on YouTube
November 2, 2010, 1:03 pmYou can watch the elections on YouTube tonight if that is your preferred video hub or if you're not near a television (though you can still watch them there from your TV if it's connected). At 9PM, the CBS YouTube channel will stream the results live. "It's been a memorable campaign season on YouTube, but the time for persuasion and debate is...
What Is Google Boost?
November 2, 2010, 12:58 pmGoogle Boost is a new online advertising product that Google is offering.
Google Boost allows business owners to create ads directly from their Google Places account. These ads will appear in the Sponsored Links area of Google.com and in the maps.google.com results page.
Learn about using Sitelinks in a new online course
November 2, 2010, 12:57 pmAd Sitelinks is an AdWords extension feature that allows you to extend the value of your existing AdWords ads by providing additional links to specific, relevant content deeper within your sitemap. Rather than sending all users to the same landing page, Ad Sitelinks will display up to four additional Destination URLs for users to choose from....
Brooke Mueller's Divorce Gets Big Buzz on the Web
November 2, 2010, 12:47 pmby Claudine Zap Actor Charlie Sheen has filed for divorce from his third wife, Brooke Mueller . News of the split caused searches on " brooke mueller " to soar 4,000% in just one day. Interest also rose on " brooke mueller biography ," and " brooke mueller sheen " on Yahoo! search. The " Two and a Half Men " star filed divorce papers on Monday,...
Blekko Has Usability Issues as it Seeks to Bite Google
November 2, 2010, 12:21 pmIt may never be fair to cry "Dead Man Walkin'" for a brand new Web service, but unfortunately that's the conclusion I've come to after playing with new curated search service Blekko this morning. Blekko is geared to cut out the clutter of Web search on Google, Bing and Yahoo. You know, the kind of clutter where you search for something and get...
Bing's new social search features arrive today
November 2, 2010, 12:16 pmToday we are completing our deployment of our new social features that we built in partnership with Facebook. Were really excited to get these features in the hands of all our US users. As with all the work we do at Bing, we have been focused on user feedback in an effort to make sure the features are really useful to customers, and we have made a...
The Google Holiday Update Conspiracy Theory
November 2, 2010, 12:10 pmDoes Google engineer changes to occur right before the holidays to drive up ad revenue?Michael Gray doesn't think so, "Google makes its decisions based on what it thinks is best for users … not publishers" .
Death of Original 'Hawaii Five-0' Danno Stirs the Web
November 2, 2010, 11:55 amby Claudine Zap Beach-bound criminals, beware: The elite crime task force that is " Hawaii Five-0 " is back in business " and big in Yahoo! searches. Lookups in the last week for " the new Hawaii five 0 " grew 500%. Searches also crested on " Hawaii five 0 characters ," " Hawaii five 0 behind the scenes ," and " new hawaii five o series ." The...
New Android Fragmentation Stats Available
November 2, 2010, 11:40 amAndroid's relatively quick upgrade cycle is something that excites fans, as it leads to new and better versions being released on a regular basis. But it's also something that stirs up critics, since fragmentation results. Now, for better or for worse, there are new stats on the use of different platform versions. The "better" part: the new data...
Basics Of SEO Infographic
November 2, 2010, 11:25 amInspired by a tweet from @Avinash, this is a very simple infographic that explains exactly what SEO is all about.
Some Microsoft adCenter Accounts Reporting Problems
November 2, 2010, 11:14 amSince the Yahoo & MSN Search Alliance has finalized , many PPC advertisers are just now getting familiar with the Microsoft adCenter system and learning the differences between adCenter and Google AdWords . Apparently though not all transitions are smooth ones and this one is no exception. According to a thread over at WebmasterWorld jtron9k wrote...
Chris Brogan Talks Online Video's Ongoing Evolution
November 2, 2010, 11:09 amMore WebProNews Videos Online video has come a long way in the last few years, and it's only going further. With the release of new devices and formats, online video content production is going to do nothing but grow. WebProNews recently spoke with Chris Brogan, popular social media guy, President of New Marketing Labs and part of the Pulse...
Weekly Search & Social News: 11/02/2010
November 2, 2010, 11:04 amIt's time for another ' 7 Days of Search and Social '. Conference season is well and truly in swing now and so the blogging world seems to slow down, though there's lot's of 'live blogging', something we don't tend to cover here. Other than that, the whole Google Places shake-up seems to have had the most buzz last week. Let's see what else what...
The Essential DIY Guide to Successful Linkbait (Infographic)
November 2, 2010, 11:02 amAn interesting visual look at the process of creating and promoting a successful linkbait campaign.
Google's "Related Searches" Now Include Brands, Types, and Stores in Results
November 2, 2010, 10:22 amOver the past few months Google has been testing out 3 new categories in "related searches": brands, stores, and types. Search Engine Roundtable tried out the new feature using the terms "diamonds" and "cameras", while I performed queries using the key words "laptops" and "smartphones". Both searches displayed the new "related searches"...
Yahoo Expands Connected TV To Europe With Samsung
November 2, 2010, 10:12 amYahoo and Samsung have expanded the availability of Yahoo Connected TV to 26 countries in Europe, bringing the total to 39 countries globally.
Yahoo Connected TV on Samsung televisions allow people to access video content on YouTube, view headlines and videos on Sky News and Bild news, view photos from Flickr, find travel deals on Teletext...
Slashtag Search Engine, Blekko, is Now Live
November 2, 2010, 9:56 amYesterday, alternative search engine, Blekko finally went live after 3 years of development and just over 3 months of beta testing. Back in July , Search Engine Land did a write up on the new search engine, highlighting some of its shining features and big flaws. One of, if not the main feature,
Blekko: a new search engine with a new approach
November 2, 2010, 9:36 amBlekko is a new search engine that started a public beta test some days ago after a development period of 2.5 years. It uses an interesting new approach to improve the quality of the search results.
Are you too busy to blog?
November 2, 2010, 9:36 amThere's an interesting blogging conversation in the LinkedIn SEO Copywriting group . One woman said that she creates a monthly newsletter (which she posts to the site) instead of blogging. In her words, "I don't have a separate blog; I've got enough to do." Tell an online marketer that you don't blog and you're liable to get a shocked response....
Facebook Advertising vs. Google AdWords
November 2, 2010, 9:36 amDo You Really Have To Build A Fan Base? Not sure about building a fan base on Facebook? Facebook advertising straight to your website is not necessarily wrong. Maybe you aren't prepared to invest thousands of dollars to build a fan base, or the audience-building step won't help your business. To be sure, Fan Pages are one of Facebooks most unique...
Google Street View Debuts In Germany
November 2, 2010, 9:15 amGoogle's had a difficult time launching Street View in Germany; over the past two years, there have been random outcries, more formal protests, and a first-of-its-kind opt-out program. Finally, though, Google's made it possible to drag Pegman over the country and view at least a few spots from the perspective of a pedestrian. This move doesn't...
What are Cookies and What They do for Privacy (Infographic)
November 2, 2010, 9:15 amThe topic of cookies seems to come up more as part of the larger privacy discussion. There are apparently cookies creeping into our information, taking bits of us and sending it to anyone who we can imagine wouldn't want to see it. All of the search engines use them, the advertisers, Facebook and social networks. With all of this fear, uncertainty...
Google Street View Live & Slightly Blurry in Germany
November 2, 2010, 9:14 amGoogle Street View has debuted in Oberstaufen, Germany -- blurs and all. Taking a quick virtual tour of the city reveals only a few blurred out buildings so far, and one stretch completely blacked out. Click to read the rest of this post...
Journalist Guide To Crowdsourced Data Collection With Amazon Mechanical Turk
November 2, 2010, 9:00 amIf you are looking for a cost-effective solution to offload any amount of tedious, time-consuming tasks to a qualified, on-demand human workforce, Amazon Mechanical Turk, or one of its new international competitors, may be your best choice. These services not only help you match your task to an always-on distributed workforce, but they also save...
Send Amazon Gift Cards To Your Facebook Friends
November 2, 2010, 8:59 amAmazon.com has introduced a new way for sending its gift cards to people on Facebook. People can now connect to their Facebook account on Amazon and create a personalized gift card that will be sent to the recipient's Facebook Wall. We think our customers who use Facebook will be thrilled that weve made gift-giving more social, said Michal...
New Brightcove Offers Deep Video Analytics, Apple HTTP Streaming
November 2, 2010, 8:59 amCloud-based online video platform Brightcove has launched a new version today - Brightcove 5. This comes with increased mobile support, YouTube Sync, Apple HTTP streaming, advanced analytics for HTML5, and more. "At a high level, improvements include advanced distribution methods with more social sharing to help brands get the most mileage,...
Fanning the Social Media Flame for Viral Exposure
November 2, 2010, 8:49 amAre you a content marketer ? If so, you have a choice to make. You can sit around and wait for your content to go viral. You can hope you'll get sudden bursts of traffic, hope your readers will spread the word, hope your content will catch fire. Or you can bring your own matches and lighter fluid to set the dang thing aflame yourself. As bloggers...
I'm Voting for Structured Data
November 2, 2010, 8:33 amOn this Election Day, I'd like to discuss what I believe to be one of the most critical topics in search today: structured data. As millions of new pieces of content are added to the web each day, all in different types of formats and each with their own purpose, search engines need ways to effectively parse out this data based on user intent.
Using Social Media for the Success of Small and Medium Businesses
November 2, 2010, 8:33 amIf there's one aspect small and medium-sized businesses should look into, it's social media marketing. And it is proving to be an integral part of today's business landscape, adapting to the rapidly evolving socially-aware Web. Word-of-mouth has been transmuted to real-time tweets. TV reportage has been elevated to live Web streams and on-demand...
Free Twitter Tools to Help You Manage and Acquire More Followers
November 2, 2010, 8:13 amSo many people use Twitter to get the latest up to the minute news these days that you need some help pruning the wheat from the chaff. If you can follow just those users with the best information and produce some high quality tweets and re-tweets of your own then you will keep everyone happy, including yourself. These are web based tools that you...
Information Architecture 101: Techniques and Best Practices
November 2, 2010, 8:09 amCameron Chapman provides a ton of useful information to help you create the website hierarchy that will best meet the needs of your particular website.
Google is Polluting the Internet
November 2, 2010, 7:53 amFrom The Guardian: "An advertising agency has monopolised, disorganised, and commercialised the largest library in human history. Without a fundamental rethinking of the way knowledge is organised in the digital era, Google's information coup d'état will have profound existential consequences."
What's New in SEO for October November 2, 2010
November 2, 2010, 7:47 amWe have compiled the latest news and updates from the big three, Google, Bing and Yahoo as it relates to SEO and the search engines overall. WHAT'S NEW THIS WEEK WITH GOOGLE: Best Practices for Running Multiple Sites: In this post, Google discusses important items when running multiple sites, and the importance of ensuring that your sites have...
German Street View Is Up, Blurred Houses and All
November 2, 2010, 7:42 amUsually in Germany things along a roadside are blurry because of driving at excessive speeds in the German engineered rocket car of your choice. Well, now courtesy of Google you can stroll virtually along streets in at least one German city, Oberstaufen, and experience that same blurring of the sites but for a very different reason. The picture...
Oracle Acquires Art Technology Group Inc. For $1 Billion
November 2, 2010, 7:19 am"Art provides companies such as retailers with technology for online merchandising, marketing, automated recommendations, and live-help services."
MarketingSherpa 2011 SEO & Social Media Benchmark Report
November 2, 2010, 7:00 amMarketingSherpa has done it again with their SEM report for 2011 . With the help of Lead Author, Research Analyst Jen Doyle, they've put together an excellent resource for marketers looking for strategic guidance as well as real data about search engine marketing. This particular report focuses on Search Engine Optimization with an emphasis on the...
Twitter Provides Election Info In a Variety of Ways
November 2, 2010, 6:33 amTwitter is pointing to some key accounts to follow to keep up with the conversation around the elections today. You can follow the Democrats , Republicans , Tea Party , or Libertarians . The company is also pointing to some lists compiled by CSPAN of House , Senate ,and gubernatorial candidates . Twitter's @twittermedia team is working with news...
Meet Brick Marketing at PubCon Las Vegas 2010
November 2, 2010, 6:07 amFull service search engine optimization and search engine marketing firm, Brick Marketing is proud to announce that their President and Founder, Nick Stamoulis will be a featured speaker and exhibitor at this years' Webmaster World's PubCon Las Vegas on November 8-11, 2010. The PubCon Las Vegas session that Nick Stamoulis will be a featured...
New in Google Search Results: Stores and Types
November 2, 2010, 5:05 amGoogle began highlighting brand names related to search queries in May. Now they have added links to stores and types in their related searches for some product search queries.Click to read the rest of this post...
10 Million UK Consumers Sought Financial Advice Online in September 2010
November 2, 2010, 4:13 amcomScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released a ranking of top Financial Information/Advice Sites in the UK based on September 2010 data from its comScore Media Metrix service. Nearly 10 million internet users turned to the web for financial advice, spending an average of 15 minutes on sites in the category...
Twitter Starts Trialling Ads In Users' Streams
November 2, 2010, 1:10 am"...this new kind of paid ad would appear in a user's Twitter stream regardless of whether they follow that advertiser or search for anything on Twitter."
Search and Social Media FAILs by California Gubernatorial Candidates Meg Whitman and Jerry Brown
November 2, 2010, 12:58 amPosted by laura This post was originally in YOUmoz , and was promoted to the main blog because it provides great value and interest to our community. The author's views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of SEOmoz, Inc. The race for governor positions across the U.S. is on, and in California it has been a hotly debated race...
PayPal Beats Google Checkout To Local Space
November 2, 2010, 12:02 amPayPal released a new iPhone app that allows users to find businesses near by that accept PayPal, the feature encourages merchants to post deals and promotions as incentive for customers to visit their businesses
Facebook Fan Page Promotion Tips
November 2, 2010, 12:02 amFacebook fan pages have become a very important branding tool when it comes to building up a nice fan base of cheerleaders. Facebook fan pages are a bit different in the sense that you almost have to let the fan be part of what you offer from being who you are. In order for that to happen you need to entice people to come over to your fan page and...
Audience Targeting for Optimal Reach in Search and Display Advertising Campaigns
November 1, 2010, 11:57 pmIf you're looking for ways to refine your audience, you may want to consider adding targeting to your campaigns as a means of helping to increase their effectiveness. Targeting for Search Advertising in adCenter Who are your customers and how do you find them? In Microsoft Advertising adCenter, you can use the targeting reports to determine the...
You've Got a Clean Design! AOL Gets a Facelift
November 1, 2010, 9:28 pmAOL has joined the ranks of many aging divas - she got herself a facelift in hopes of looking young and stylish. The new design which launched today, still has way more content than one person needs on the front page, but it's cleaner than ever before. They've done away with the heavy color header bars and they've pushed down the menu on the left...
You’ve Got a Clean Design! AOL Gets a Facelift
November 1, 2010, 9:13 pm AOL has joined the ranks of many aging divas – she got herself a facelift in hopes of looking young and stylish.
The new design which launched today, still has way more content than one person needs on the front page, but it’s cleaner than ever before. They’ve done away with the heavy color header bars and they’ve pushed...
Facebook Provides Users With Election Resources
November 1, 2010, 8:24 pmFacebook shared some things with us that it is doing to help people vote in the upcoming elections. "Tomorrow is Election Day and Facebook is committed to encouraging people who use our service to participate in the democratic process. As a result, Facebook is focused on ensuring that all of our users know where they can participate in this...
Google Intros API Console, New Custom Search, Translate APIs
November 1, 2010, 7:57 pmGoogle announced some API news today. "Primarily, we introduced a new dashboard for APIs (APIs Console) to help developers manage their API usage across all their sites and apps," the company tells WebProNews. "We also rolled out a Custom Search API and a Translate API (all built on the API Architecture introduced at Google I/O), and we have...
Organic Search Results for Travel On The Decline?
November 1, 2010, 7:18 pmAccording to most encyclopedia definitions, organic searches are natural listings/results from a search-engine spider crawling a Web site. The process begins when a keyword is used in a search engine. There is no monetization (pay for these listings. It’s simply the most accurate results according to the work of the search engine. The key word...
The new Google Search Appliance"a bridge to the cloud
November 1, 2010, 7:16 pm(Cross-posted from the Enterprise Blog ) In the last year, businesses have started using cloud-based applications from Google and other technology providers at an accelerated rate. While many organizations still have information that resides in on-premise systems, more and more important business information today is living in the cloud, in...
Sharpen Your Pencils: It's Write a Novel Month
November 1, 2010, 7:00 pmby Claudine Zap Ever wanted to write a novel but were put off by, well, everything about it? This is your lucky day. It's the kick-off of National Novel Writing Month , or NaNoWriMo. The event challenges wannabe novelists to pen a 50,000-word book in 30 days, starting on November 1. That's roughly 1,667 words per day. Or, if you don't sleep,...
Best practices for running multiple sites
November 1, 2010, 4:42 pmRunning a single compelling, high quality site can be time- and resource-consuming, not to mention the creativity it requires to make the site a great one. At times-particularly when it comes to rather commercial topics like foreign currency exchange or online gambling-we see that some webmasters try to compete for visibility in Google search...
LinkedIn Presents Product Recommendations
November 1, 2010, 4:24 pmProduct recommendations can be useful to both buyers and sellers, putting good offerings in the spotlight and helping sales proceed. LinkedIn members may be happy (if surprised) to hear, then, that the network has started to show product recommendations on companies' profile pages.
You can see an example of how this works below. While...
Twitter Toys With Promoted Tweets in User Timelines
November 1, 2010, 4:18 pmTwitter announced today that it has begun limited testing of its Promoted Tweets, announced earlier this year, in users' timelines. For starters, they're only doing this with partner Hootsuite for some users.
Later, the company says, Promoted Tweets will be available to a wider audience. They simply want to get it right before they roll it...
Turning Your Blog Into a Book
November 1, 2010, 4:05 pmMore WebProNews Videos WebProNews recently spoke with Ellen Gerstein, the Director of Marketing at John Wiley & Sons , the publishing firm behind the "For Dummies" books among many others. She discussed the impact blogs and social media have had on the publishing industry and gave some advice for bloggers looking to get books published. "I think...
Know your Page's Goal or Purpose before Writing
November 1, 2010, 3:30 pmby Stone Reuning
There are many reasons why it's good to develop content for
your website. It gives the search engines more reasons to rank your site high.
It informs potential customers, answers their questions and allays their fears
about ordering products and services from you online.
And with the ever increasing importance of social...
NYU Commits To Google Apps
November 1, 2010, 3:29 pmEarly last month, we talked about "most or all" of the students in New York being put in touch with Google as the state of New York became a Google Apps partner. Now that's even more the case, as New York University has also signed on. Obviously, the two developments won't take place on the same scale, considering that around 3.1 million students...
The Empire Grows: Google's Q3 Filing Reveals Aquisition Prices
November 1, 2010, 3:19 pmAccording to Google's Q3 filing with the SEC, the search giant bought social application maker Slide for $179 milion in cash. Previous estimates had the price as high as $228 million while the company, started in 2006 by Paypal co-founder Max Levchin, was valuated in 2008 for $550 million. This marks another step by Google which could indicate a...
How To Use Infographics for SEO & Linkbait
November 1, 2010, 3:04 pm2010 is the year of the infographic. Infographics are probably the most popular way not only to visualize data but also to get links this year. In modern SEO linkbait is the most common method of "link building". To be more exact: Linkbaiting is not link building as you don't build them manually like say in directory submission but you create...
Twitter Promoted Ads Show in HootSuite Timeline
November 1, 2010, 2:48 pmLook what I found on HootSuite this morning. It's funny because I went there to get some information about the new Promoted Tweets program and lo and behold " I got one. As of this morning, Twitter has begun inserting Promoted Tweets into the timeline of HootSuite users only. When I visit my Twitter home page directly, the ad is nowhere to be...
Another Video Paints Google and Eric Schmidt as Creepy
November 1, 2010, 2:28 pmIf you have a beef with Google's actions, the trendy thing to do these days appears to be making a video about it, and using Eric Schmidt quotes and likenesses, making them as creepy as possible. The latest such video comes from FairSearch.org . This is an organization that refers to itself as, "a group of businesses united in support of a...
The Scoop on Where to Vote
November 1, 2010, 2:12 pmby Mike Krumboltz Republican? Your party needs you. Democrat? If the pundits are correct, then your party really needs you. Election Day is here and supporters of both parties are looking to the Web for information on where to cast their ballot. Assuming you didn't already vote absentee, you could probably use a list of the best resources on where...
Online Retail Spending reached $32 Billion In Q3
November 1, 2010, 2:12 pmOnline retail spending reached $32.1 billion in the third quarter, up nine percent over the third quarter of 2009, according to a new report from comScore. The growth rate represents the fourth consecutive quarter of positive year-over-year growth after a year of flat or negative growth rates. Retail e-commerce growth in the third quarter remained...
DMOZ Co-Founder "Crowd Sources" Search with New Search Engine Blekko
November 1, 2010, 1:31 pmRick Skrenta , co-founder & former CEO of Topix and NewHoo (which went on to become The Open Directory Project or DMOZ), has a new search engine called Blekko that is drawing a great deal of attention. Blekko aims to use the public to refine its algorithms and make search results more relevant and less spammy. Can it succeed? Tell us what you...
Fall Housekeeping
November 1, 2010, 1:11 pmWhen we introduced this blog over four years ago, the term AJAX was only a year old, and Google had exactly one relevant API . Ajax has since become a mainstream part of the Web, and our family of APIs has grown. Like many growing families, we've accumulated a lot of cruft over the years, and have outgrown our first home. Time for some...
Google Unveils Helpful Voting Tools
November 1, 2010, 1:00 pmIf you live in the U.S. you're undoubtedly aware that tomorrow, November 2nd is midterm elections day. In order to help you get out and vote, Google is providing an array of tools and services in hopes to make finding what you need easier.
Not sure where you're supposed to vote or need some last minute informations? Google can help! Find your...
Who's The Most Influential Person Online?
November 1, 2010, 12:27 pmWho would you expect to win a "most influential person online" contest? A Googler? Seth Godin? Ashton Kutcher? 30,000 names were submitted to Fast Company and the results are now in...
Interview: Barry Cupples CEO Omnicom Media Group Asia
November 1, 2010, 12:19 pmDuring my trip to Singapore and SES Hong Kong a few weeks ago, I was fortunate to get video time with some of the agency leaders in the region. In this first interview with Barry Couples, CEO of OMG based out of Singapore, we talk marketing data, consumer trends, effective measurement of digital advertising, and the digital campaign for Dell...
Facebook SEO: The Definitive Guide to Facebook Search (so far)
November 1, 2010, 11:53 amWith the implementation of the Open Graph, the focus of your Facebook efforts should shift to search engine optimization. This isn’t about optimizing your ‘fan’ page to appear in Google search results, but instead is about optimizing your own site and pages to appear in Facebook search results.
Google at Gartner in Orlando and Tokyo
November 1, 2010, 11:33 amThis week the Google Enterprise team is excited to be participating in the Gartner Symposium ITxpo in Orlando, Florida. Thousands of IT leaders and CIOs from around the world have gathered to hear about the latest trends and innovations in IT, discuss issues facing their teams, and learn how to deliver more business value to their organizations....
Google Loses Maps Founder, AdMob CEO
November 1, 2010, 11:29 amGoogle lost Google Maps Co-Founder Lars Rasmussen and AdMob CEO Omar Hamoui on Friday. Click to read the rest of this post...
Chrome Sees Market Share Gain In October
November 1, 2010, 11:28 amThe latest browser-related stats from Net Applications are out, and October represented more of a trick than a treat for Internet Explorer and Firefox. But in terms of market share, Safari gained a tiny bit of ground, and Chrome definitely came ahead. On a month-over-month basis, Net Applications believes Chrome's market share increased from 7.98...
Google Launches Resource to Prepare Retailers for Holidays
November 1, 2010, 11:13 amGoogle has launched a new site called "ThinkHoliday" , which counts down the days until Christmas, and provides information for businesses and marketers that will help them prepare for the holidays. According to the site, 71% of consumers have started researching their holiday purchases, and 89% of them have started shopping online. The site is a...
Charity searches up for Poppy Appeal and Help for Heroes
November 1, 2010, 11:13 amChristmas is a time for giving, and whilst the giving of presents will occupy the minds of most of us as the festive season approaches, Christmas is also a key time for giving to charities. Charitable trends have been changing online in the last three years, with searches for charity gift donations dropping by almost a third since 2008. Branded...
Search Engine Employee and Customer: Take Me Where I Want to Go, Destination URL
November 1, 2010, 11:08 amTo the detriment of my bank account, I recently started collecting model cars. One brand in particular: AUTOart. They make a 1:18 scale model so realistic looking its like Im able to simulate the feeling of actually buying a Lamborghini Gallardo without the very real sticker shock and buyers remorse I imagine would normally accompany such a...
comScore Reports Q3 2010 U.S. Retail E-Commerce Spending Up 9 Percent vs. Year Ago
November 1, 2010, 10:52 amcomScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released its Q3 2010 U.S. retail e-commerce sales estimates, which showed that online retail spending reached $32.1 billion for the quarter, up 9 percent versus year ago. This growth rate represented the fourth consecutive quarter of positive year-over-year growth...
Is Google's Size Becoming a Problem?
November 1, 2010, 10:27 amIs Google getting too big to maintain its position as the top player on the web? That is the basic topic of a great deal of discussion going around the Blogosphere as the company has lost a couple more high-profile employees in Kate Vale and Lars Rasmussen from Google Australia. Is Google getting too big? Tell us what you think . Rasmussen is...
AdMob Founder, Google Wave Creator Leave Google
November 1, 2010, 10:21 amGoogle saw two high-level departures last week, with AdMob Founder Omar Hamoui and Google Maps and Google Wave creator Lars Rasmussen. Who knows what Hamoui is doing, but Rasmussen has gone to Facebook, the latest of the 20 percent of former Googlers that now make up Facebook. Google confirmed both departures in different statements to me. For...
Amazon Partners With MasterCard On Free Shipping
November 1, 2010, 10:13 amAmazon.com has released its annual 2010 Holiday Toy List, which features this year's most popular toys, video games, sporting goods, electronics, music, movies and books for kids.
The online retailer has introduced free two-day shipping , or a $10 credit towards a future purchase for Amazon Prime members, when they use a MasterCard to buy $75 or...
AOL Launches New Homepage
November 1, 2010, 9:35 amAOL has rolled out a newly redesigned homepage with more of a focus on video and local content. The redesign includes local news headlines for the first time and moves video closer to the top of the homepage. AOL has added day part-programming, different content at different times of the day. Day-part programming includes: Morning: The top stories...
The Accidental Link Request Clinic
November 1, 2010, 9:35 amIf you send me a link request, I'm going to go ahead and assume you want my feedback. What? You don't? You just want the valuable back link that I can provide? Wow, I feel dirty and used. No not really, because unfortunately I'm used to it by now. Sure sometimes link requests are annoying, sometimes they make me giggle, and sometimes I just shake...
Meta What? Quick tips to transform web page descriptions into killer marketing statements!
November 1, 2010, 9:25 amWelcome back! Today's treats include one fun trick, as we pick up our discussion of that hidden world of code, and specifically, how we can transform meta descriptions into powerful marketing statements. As you (hopefully) concluded from last week's de-mystifying explanation of code, technical terms needn't paralyze or intimidate you'they just...
The Two Huge Problems That Will Prevent Mainstream Success for blekko
November 1, 2010, 9:25 amThere's a new search engine kid on the block: blekko blekko is different because it uses what it calls "slashtags" to help the searcher refine their search results. There are two major problems that will prevent blekko from reaching mainstream success. I'll reveal both, after this video intro to blekko: OK, so the two big problems? You just...
Android Takes Lead In U.S. Smartphone Shipments
November 1, 2010, 9:20 amCanalys, a company that deals in market data, confirmed this morning that Android is on a roll in terms of shipments. Android supposedly attained a U.S. market share of about 44 percent in the third quarter, up significantly from the period before. As you might expect, this puts Android (or "OHA" for "Open Handset Alliance") in the lead. Apple...
Blekko: the Two Huge Problems that Will Prevent Its Mainstream Success
November 1, 2010, 9:19 amThere’s a new search engine kid on the block: blekko
blekko is different because it uses what it calls “slashtags” to help the searcher refine their search results.
There are two major problems that will prevent blekko from reaching mainstream success. I’ll reveal both, after this video intro to blekko:
OK, so the two big...
The Art of the Landing Page
November 1, 2010, 8:59 amOut there in the big wide world of search engines and sites, you have ads and you have search results. Your website is getting traffic from both. The search results go to your Home page, while the ads go to your Products page. Both pages are landing pages; the visitor "landed" on them from wherever they clicked. Consider the Landing Page A landing...
The Mad Men Guide to Changing the World with Words
November 1, 2010, 8:54 amMad Men made writers sexy again. Donald Draper is dark and moody and mysterious in all the right ways. He's powerful, able to send staff scurrying from his office with a scowl. And he's a creative genius too, lounging on his office couch, sipping bourbon, and crafting the perfect slogan to capture the minds of America. He makes it all look so...
Blekko, The “Slashtag” Search Engine, Goes Live
November 1, 2010, 8:36 amBlekko, the slashtag search engine launched by Rich Skrenta, went live today. Danny Sullivan outlines why it's different and how to use it.
Easily Find Local Election Info with Tools from Google
November 1, 2010, 8:28 amWith the midterm elections taking place tomorrow, Google is highlighting some tools it offers to help voters make their decisions. This is not a new concept for Google, but it's one that many may still find useful. Google's Election Center is available to users as an "experimental" service. It lets election officials provide data directly to...
6 Reasons Why Your Site Sucks
November 1, 2010, 8:18 amEven as an intern I know these things make your site suck. They are things I come across all too frequently and drive me crazy to the point where I want to either delete the site from the existence or go in and fix the issue myself. Unfortunately, most of the time, I cannot do either of those things. What I can do is announce the problems to the...
How to Optimize a WordPress Blog [Video Guide]
November 1, 2010, 7:57 amMost bloggers are aware of basic WordPress SEO plugins like the 'All in One Pack', so here I'm going to run through some of the lesser known - yet powerful techniques, such as; choosing the right permalinks, understanding LSI and getting the most from your RSS feed. Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal .
What Makes a Successful Social Media Marketing Team?
November 1, 2010, 7:42 amAs companies test and deploy social media marketing efforts, the organizational structures for effective social media teams begin to evolve. On the client side, Public Relations often leads social media but that doesn't mean other functional areas of the business aren't involved as well, especially Marketing and Customer Service. Being more social...
Medallion Speaker Award Goes East At #ISSLON
November 1, 2010, 7:21 amThe sixth International Search Summit London has been and gone. And it was a very international event, with over half of the speakers coming from non-English speaking countries, and only 3 speakers from the UK. As is now customary at International Search Summit events, the delegates voted at the end of the day for their favourite speaker of the...
Google Replacing Page Titles in Search Results With On-Page Headings
November 1, 2010, 6:20 amWhen Bing launched, one of the interesting things they did to make the organic search results appear more relevant was to use link anchor text to augment page titles (where relevant). This would mean if people searched for a phrase that was mostly in your title (but maybe your page title was missing a word or 2 from the search) then Bing might...
Google Analytics: Event Tracking vs Virtual Pageviews
November 1, 2010, 5:46 amAssume that visitors are arriving at a landing page of your website, what’s their next step? How do they interact before leaving that page? In this article we focus on how to use the 2 advanced tracking options that Google Analytics provides: the Event Tracking and the Virtual Pageview. Both are useful, but it is important to understand why and...
On the Google Streetview WiFi Scandal
November 1, 2010, 5:07 amA German reader has asked us about our take on the Google Streeview Scandal. The Google Streetview cars, the cars they are using to take photos of streets for its Google Maps service, have recorded and stored private information from local WiFi networks. Here is Per's comment: There is no doubt about it: Google has made a real mess out of this. I...
EBay To Overhaul Design To Aid How Shoppers Find and Buy Products
November 1, 2010, 5:04 am"As eBay Inc. prepares for a critical holiday shopping season, the company this week plans to unveil new elements of an overhaul in how shoppers find and buy products on its Web site."
Google Now Showing Brands, Stores, Types In SERPs
November 1, 2010, 4:33 am"Now I'm seeing Stores and Types in the related searches area just below the given query."
Co Founder of Google Maps Quits for Facebook
November 1, 2010, 4:24 am"Rasmussen said another reason for leaving was that Google was becoming too unwieldy."
Twitter Still Logging Impressive Growth Numbers
November 1, 2010, 2:44 amTwitter continues to grow at break neck speed according to some recent numbers that were revealed in an interview with founder and ex-CEO Evan Williams. Usually the term ex-CEO has an incredibly negative vibe but as we talked about when Williams stepped aside to let Dick Costolo take the lead it was actually a move that was filled with smarts and...
Millennials Shout for Brands but Don't Listen in Social Spaces
November 1, 2010, 2:13 amI admit that the headline here may be a little harsh but if the data that is being presented by a study performed by Edelman is any indication it seems to ring true. Millennials are those folks born between 1980 and 1995. There is apparently a push to name this group the 8095ers but I vote right now to remove that because its just plain dumb....
Millennials Shout for Brands but Don’t Listen in Social Spaces
November 1, 2010, 2:09 amI admit that the headline here may be a little harsh but if the data that is being presented by a study performed by Edelman is any indication it seems to ring true. Millennials are those folks born between 1980 and 1995. There is apparently a push to name this group the 8095ers but I vote right now to remove that because its just plain dumb....
SEO is a Building Process
November 1, 2010, 12:20 amBuilding a business online is not a game or a one-time step, it is a process, just like SEO. I use the analogy in my SEO trainings and workshops that SEO is just like building a house, layer over layer. There is a process to everything in life and building up the brand of a website online comes with a process that is calculated and strategic. Most...
