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Intel Acquires McAfee: Now It’s Official
February 28, 2011, 4:03 pmLast summer, Intel announced its intention to acquire McAfee for about $7.68 billion at $48 per share in cash. Today, the company announced the completion of that acquisition.
McAfee will maintain its own brand, and the first "fruits" of the partnership will hit the market later this year, the companies said.
"In the...
GaoPeng (The Chinese Groupon) Makes Its Debut
February 28, 2011, 10:37 amGroupon announced today that the Chinese group-buying portal GaoPeng.com is officially live today. The portal is funded by Groupon, Tencent Collaboration Fund and Yunfeng Capital, and is now accepting email registrations. Deals will premier on the service in March.
“As the pioneer of the space and the market leader in over 40...
Big JPMorgan Twitter Investment Rumored
February 28, 2011, 8:51 amEarlier this month, JPMorgan Chase raised $1.2 billion to establish a digital growth fund, and it looks the organization is wasting no time in putting that money to use. Reports now claim that JPMorgan intends to acquire a 10 percent stake in Twitter (assuming it hasn’t done so already).
Here’s the it-hasn’t-happened-yet...
How do you leverage social media for SEO?
February 28, 2011, 7:47 amby Mike Moran
You can't look up without reading about another link between social media and search engine optimization. Bing is now integrating Facebook "Like" data into its rankings and Google has just started integrating activity from Twitter, Quora, and FlickR. So the question is starting to be asked, "How do you leverage social media for...
SearchReviews.com – A New Way to Do Product Research
February 27, 2011, 5:14 amIt was always believed that “word-to-mouth” is the best form of advertising. Before buying certain product, one would generally consult with those who already bought it, asking their opinion as well as the observed pros and cons. Advertising could make the product recognizable, but it were always the reviews that could make it a really popular...
A Pilgrim's Look Back, February 27, 2011
February 26, 2011, 11:22 pmStarting today, we will take a look back at the past week's Internet marketing industry news that we didn't get a chance to talk about. This feature will occur every Sunday so you can enjoy a quiet Sunday look back at what else happened. Be sure to come back every Sunday to catch up and be a well informed Pilgrim.
A Pilgrim’s Look Back, February 27, 2011
February 26, 2011, 11:05 pmStarting today, we will take a look back at the past week’s Internet marketing industry news that we didn’t get a chance to talk about. This feature will occur every Sunday so you can enjoy a quiet Sunday look back at what else happened. Be sure to come back every Sunday to catch up and be a well informed Pilgrim.
YouTube Looking to...
Mahalo, Business.com, Article Aggregators Hardest Hit By Google Update
February 26, 2011, 6:19 pmThe impact of Google's latest search ranking algorithm update is starting to show. While Mahalo is getting a bunch of the press, the ezine article aggregators seem to be the ones most heavily hit - along with some of the business directory sites. And apparently, eHow is a high-quality site in Google's eyes. For now, anyway. Early data suggests...
I Disagree with Fred; Marketing is for Companies that Have Great Products
February 26, 2011, 6:09 pmPosted by randfish One of the people I admire and respect most in the technology, startup world is Union Square Ventures' Fred Wilson . A little more than a year ago, I had the opportunity to sit down and chat with Fred in his New York offices, just as SEOmoz was ending a failed fund raising attempt . The writer I'd come to know and love through...
Google Kills eHow Competitors, eHow Rankings Up
February 26, 2011, 4:13 pmEconomics Drive Literally Everything Media is all about profit margins . eHow was originally founded in 1998 & had $36 million in venture capital behind it. But the original cost structure was flawed due to high content costs. The site failed so badly that it was sold in 2004 for $100,000 . The original site owners had GoogleBot blocked. Simply by...
Google Mobile Launches Open Now Feature for Local Mobile Search
February 26, 2011, 4:13 pmThe Google Mobile team announced a new feature in local search that factors in the hours a business is open. Over the past year, Google has added a sidebar full of options for searching what's near you or other various options to narrow down your search options. Now they're bringing it to mobile search, too. Searching on mobile devices is all...
Number Crunchers: Who Lost In Google’s “Farmer” Algorithm Change?
February 26, 2011, 3:28 pmFrom Danny Sullivan at Search Engine Land, a clearinghouse list of sites affected by the latest algorithm change at Google (the 'Farmer' update) that rolled out earlier this week and was designed to weed out shallow and low-quality content from its top search results. Please chime in on what you're seeing in the comments here, or over at Search...
SEO Salaries Higher This Year [Report]
February 26, 2011, 12:21 pmIf you're thinking about working in the search engine optimization (SEO) industry, now is a good time to get started. Starting salaries have increased 17.5 percent versus last year, according to a salary guide prepared by executive recruitment firm Crandall Associates. Base salary for SEO specialists is $59,000 (up from $50,300 in 2010); average...
Search Week in Review for Feb. 26, 2011
February 26, 2011, 11:03 amHere's a recap of this week's columns and news stories for the week of Feb. 20 to 26, 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...
Google Farmer Update: Quest for Quality
February 26, 2011, 10:04 amGreat data showing which sites got torched the most in the Google Farmer Update. Thanksfully it appears to be lots of article directory type sites which are typically full of very low quality content.
Cup of Joe: Send Me Money Right Now Because I Want It
February 26, 2011, 9:23 amThe other day I realized that most of you have never sent me any money. Well, I want to change that right this minute! Below is my PayPal address. Sent me as much money as you can to it as soon as you can.
Ok, cool. I am glad I got that out of the way. I can’t imagine how long we would go with out you sending me what I am entitled to. Oh...
Did Google’s Algorithm Update Go Far Enough on Content Farms?
February 26, 2011, 8:50 amAs you probably know by now, Google has implemented a new algorithm change that the company says impacts 11.8% of their queries. While Google would not come out and say directly that the update is aimed at content farms, this is widely understood to be the case.
Are you satisfied with Google’s Update? Tell us what you think. ...
Verizon iPhone 4 Gets Called Out By Consumer Reports
February 26, 2011, 8:49 amConsumer Reports blasted the iPhone 4 when it first came out for AT&T , citing reception problems. You may recall Apple's "antennagate" scandal, where it gave away free bumpers to make up for the issue. Now, Consumer Reports is making a similar case for Verizon's incarnation of the iPhone 4 . The nonprofit organization says, "Bottom Line: The...
Oscar 2011 Predictions: Can Search Trends Tell Us Who Will Win?
February 26, 2011, 7:28 amIt's that time of year again! The lists are out and the voting has begun. No, I'm not talking about the Academy, I'm talking about the search engines. For the past few years, speculation about Oscar winners and search trends have grown. Click to read the rest of this post.
CNN: Growing Backlash to AdSense Farm Update
February 26, 2011, 3:17 amCNN: "Google made one of the biggest changes ever to its search results this week, which immediately had a noticeable effect on many Web properties that rely on the world's biggest search engine to drive traffic to their sites. Comments from site operators lit up on the WebmasterWorld.com forum starting on Wednesday. Many webmasters complained...
Taro Okamoto Tower of the Sun Google Japan Doodle
February 26, 2011, 1:51 amOn the 100th anniversary of his birth, Google Japan has a new Doodle dedicated to Japanese artist Taro Okamoto: Click to read the rest of this post.
You've Got Lots of Friends in San Jose
February 25, 2011, 7:53 pmThe stars of the search advertising world find their way to Northern California March 8-10 for SMX West Do a search on Yahoo! for "search marketing conference" and at the top of the list will be SMX, the Search Marketing Expo, which is run by Third Door Media and search guru Danny Sullivan. Ten SMXs are held around the globe each year, and the...
What Exactly Are We Trying to Keep Private on the Internet?
February 25, 2011, 6:47 pmMost people would think twice about typing their social security number into an online profile, but what about your driver's license number? What about your grades? The organizations that you work for or even your mother's maiden name? The Center for Media Design at Ball University conducted a very interesting study about what kinds of information...
Searching for Celebrities' Real Names
February 25, 2011, 6:17 pmby Claudine Zap The news that Charlie Sheen's sitcom " Two and a Half Men " had been dropped swept the Web. But another question also drove searches: " what is charlie sheen's real name "? Meet one Carlos Irwin Estevez. Charlie Sheen is the actor's professional name. Searches for celebrities' birth names drove traffic on Yahoo! this week. Here,...
Google Enhancing Oscar Night Viewing With 3D Venues, Flying Red Carpets
February 25, 2011, 5:11 pmGoogle is making use of its virtual tour abilities in Maps to provide Oscar fans with a walk through of the Kodak Theatre where the event is held and 3D models of " the Red Carpet , Hollywood and Highland Center , and the Kodak Theatre ." The Academy Awards show is one of those major events that cross over many demographics and have an...
Congratulations to Ken Thompson
February 25, 2011, 4:56 pmPosted by Bill Coughran, Senior Vice President of Engineering I'm happy to share that Ken Thompson has been chosen as the recipient of the prestigious Japan Prize . The Japan Prize is bestowed for achievements in science and technology that promote the peace and prosperity of mankind. Ken was awarded the prize along with Dennis Ritchie for their...
Groupon's CEO Pegs 2010 Revenue At $760 Million
February 25, 2011, 4:31 pmWhen Groupon was said to have turned down a $6 billion acquisition offer from Google, many onlookers wondered what could possibly have motivated that decision. Now we know: the ability to earn $760 million in revenue in 2010, along with the goal of bringing in over a billion this year. Those figures were mentioned in an internal memo that leaked...
Groupon’s CEO Pegs 2010 Revenue At $760 Million
February 25, 2011, 4:20 pmWhen Groupon was said to have turned down a $6 billion acquisition offer from Google, many onlookers wondered what could possibly have motivated that decision. Now we know: the ability to earn $760 million in revenue in 2010, along with the goal of bringing in over a billion this year.
Those figures were mentioned in an internal memo that...
Apparently, No One Likes Mobile Device Users
February 25, 2011, 4:16 pmWhile we may be a nation of mobile device users - largely, anyway - its clear almost no one is using their device in a respectful, concerned-for-others manner. Whats worse is, even if a large majority of users knows mobile device user behavior is largely inconsiderate, it doesnt stop them from acting the same way when theyre using their own...
Google Offers Virtual Red Carpet Tour For Oscars
February 25, 2011, 4:16 pmTo mark the 83rd annual Academy Awards on Sunday, Google is allowing users to take a virtual tour of the event via its earth service. The Google Lat Long Blog explains . Take a virtual tour of the Kodak Theatre in Google Earth - as if you're actually there! It includes the red carpet, paparazzi and even the Oscar statues. If youd like to take...
Bing Puts Flight Prices Right in the Search Box
February 25, 2011, 4:16 pmBing has introduced flight prices in auto-suggestions. You can simply enter your query, and it will bring up a prediction for what Bing Travel deems the best flight price deal within the next 90 days. "Bing travel crunches over a billion airfares on a daily basis to bring you Price Predictors, and we use that data to uncover cheap airline tickets...
Discounted Admission ($175 off!) to the 6th Annual Small Business Summit in New York City on March 8, 2011
February 25, 2011, 4:11 pmMarch is just chock full of events for small business and search professionals! Coming up we have SMX West in San Jose , SES New York and on March 8th, SMB thought leaders, journalists and entrepreneurs of all shapes and sizes will descend on Digital Sandbox in New York for the 6th Annual Small Business Summit. Check out the Small Business Summit...
SES London 2011 - The Opportunities of Social Media within the Marketing Mix
February 25, 2011, 3:56 pmImagine living in Iceland. First your economy gets badly damaged by the global recession, than a volcano named Eyjafjallajoekull erupts. For weeks not a flight can enter or depart your country. If you happen to depend on the tourist industry, this isnt.
Facebook Picks Up New Employees From Pursuit
February 25, 2011, 3:25 pmPursuit, a small startup designed to connect employers with job candidates via social networks, has secured what some people (though not all - more on that in a minute) would consider the ultimate prize. A post on the company's homepage indicates that it attracted Facebook's attention in a big way. Now, as you see for yourself below, it looks...
(Almost) Everybody Loves Facebook
February 25, 2011, 3:20 pmThis week's not surprising fact is that 52.2% of internet users log in to Facebook at least once a month. eMarketer says that number will climb to 62% by 2013 and after that, Facebook will simply take over the entire internet and we will all be made slaves to the "like" button. Okay, that last part is mine, but eMarketer is an expert at predicting...
Ad of the Week: California Lottery
February 25, 2011, 2:50 pmA buck and a hope gets Phil into the "Set for Life Club" At a bodega, or, as we refer to them in Southern California, a convenience store, a blue collar guy named Phil scrapes the cash icons off his Scratcher lottery card like he presumably does every day of his life. Lost in his numbers-revealing reverie, Phil is then elevated through a hydraulic...
Is Email Really in Danger Because of Social Media?
February 25, 2011, 2:24 pmI'm not sure which came first, the idea that social media is killing blogs or social media is killing email. Both arguments are brought up every so often, and both are equally ludicrous if you ask me. Earlier this week, we examined the former, and interestingly enough, the latter was also brought up by recent data from comScore and the Pew...
Sony Targets PS3 Hackers With Anti-Piracy Legal Team
February 25, 2011, 2:10 pmSony continues to arm itself as they are pulling out all the stops in order to combat what they view as piracy across the PlayStation 3 platform. Saving the whos right discussion for another day, its clear that, critics and questions about the definition of ownership be damned, Sony is out for blood when it comes to cracking down on those trying...
Did Google's Algorithm Update Go Far Enough on Content Farms?
February 25, 2011, 1:50 pmAs you probably know by now, Google has implemented a new algorithm change that the company says impacts 11.8% of their queries. While Google would not come out and say directly that the update is aimed at content farms, this is widely understood to be the case. Are you satisfied with Google's Update? Tell us what you think . What Google did...
'Idol' Talk: 24
February 25, 2011, 1:45 pmby Vera H-C Chan For an allegedly kinder " American Idol ," getting down to the top 24 involved a lot of unkind cuts. The judges gave out a record number of Hollywood golden tickets, which meant inflating that many more hopes before pricking them. The Fox reality show had overtones of "Lord of the Flies" after kid favorite Jacee Badeaux was...
Designed To Fail: Why Many Tests Give You Meaningless Results
February 25, 2011, 1:36 pmThere are many reasons why a well-designed test might fail. For example, seasonal effects might be ignored, the dataset might be too small or the marketplace might change during the test.
However, a very common error in test design is not accounting for volatility – fluctuations in performance due to unpredictable events in the marketplace...
Three Easy Steps to Achieve IA Greatness
February 25, 2011, 1:19 pmby Stoney deGeyter
We live in a digital age, but haven't quite gotten to that mythical paperless society that we've been reading about for the past couple of decades. Those of us that make our living via websites still rely on good old fashioned compressed wood to fulfill a number of our daily tasks.
One of those tasks that often takes us...
Google Encourages "Nuanced" Approach to No-Follows
February 25, 2011, 12:49 pmMatt Cutts is often the insider who lets us - John Q Public - know what's going on inside the giant Google machine. He's the one who told us that the search algorithm makes more than a change per day on average, that Google is focusing on preventing cloaking as part of its first quarter goals in 2011, and much more. His most recent Webmaster Help...
Chrome Introduces High-Powered Background Pages
February 25, 2011, 12:49 pmChrome is certainly an industry leader in innovation, even if it hasn't quite swept the market yet. The Google-powered browser has still managed to show such high degrees of security that hacking competitions turn it down at such high levels of speed that Microsoft has to cheat to make their latest browser look more powerful. Chrome may be making...
Google AdWords Adds "Conversion Optimization" Option
February 25, 2011, 12:49 pmThere's little doubt that the AdWords interface from Google is both powerful and appealing; after all, that's how Google has managed to achieve an estimated $27.4 billion per year in online advertising sales, eclipsing all competitors combined . But Google never sleeps, and AdWords itself is certainly not short on innovation. The most recent...
Facebook Privacy Policy Gets "Re-imagined"
February 25, 2011, 12:19 pmFacebook announced today that it has started a new version of its privacy policy to make it easier to understand. I could've swore they did that before, but now they're going even further. This one is relying on user feedback before the company even considers implementing it. Facebook says if users like it, they'll consider making it the official...
How to Write (and Execute) a Powerfully Simple Business Plan
February 25, 2011, 12:19 pmEveryone has an opinion on it. Should you or shouldn't you write a business plan? Are they a total waste of time , or a necessary vehicle on the path to online entrepreneurial glory? What if there were a third way to think through and write a business plan for an online business, a much simpler way? If you're awake and breathing, it's obvious...
Google Goes Boom on Low-Quality Sites...So They Say
February 25, 2011, 12:14 pmChances are good that you are someone you know has seen some ranking changes today as Google rolled out a new algorithmic update. With the recent announcements aimed at "low quality sites" (many interpret this to mean content farms), even less than two weeks ago, Google stated they were exploring different new methods to detect spam . "This update...
New Search Engine of Search Reviews
February 25, 2011, 12:14 pmFor users who are looking for a collection of reviews across the Web, or for reviews on a certain product, there is a new search engine that was recently launched where people can search a myriad of customer reviews across the Internet. The new search engine called SearchReviews allows searches of products with specific terms .
Planned Outage for Some Merchants
February 25, 2011, 11:43 amHi Everyone, Anuj here from the Comms team. PayPal is in the process of facilitating a data center move to a new facility, in an effort to create an improved hardware infrastructure. As a result, some merchants will be unable to process LIVE transactions for roughly one hour, beginning March 18 th at 2:00 a.m. PDT. While affected merchants have...
Bing Feature Update: Check the cheapest airfares in a blink with Bing Travel's new Autosuggest Flight Prices
February 25, 2011, 11:43 amBing travel crunches over a billion airfares on a daily basis to bring you Price Predictors, and we use that data to uncover cheap airline tickets every day. To help you find great deals even faster, we are introducing Autosuggest Flight Prices which display flight prices and the Price Predictor for key markets directly in the search box. Before...
Samsung Named As Possible Google TV Partner
February 25, 2011, 11:28 amGoogle TV got off to a rough start, but its fortunes may soon improve thanks to Samsung Electronics. A new rumor indicates that the organization, which is the largest electronics company in the world, could start to integrate Google TV software into its products. A Bloomberg article stated late yesterday, "Samsung Electronics Co., the largest...
Consumer Watchdog Targets Google Over Doodle Contest
February 25, 2011, 11:28 amConsumer Watchdog, an organization known for being critical of Google, has asked Rep. Rep. Ed Markey, D-MA, and Rep. Joe Barton, R-TX, for hearings on why Google collected children's social security numbers on entry forms for its Doodle 4 Google contest. In a letter to the Congressmen, who are co-chairmen of the Bipartisan House Privacy Caucus,...
Facebook Infographic Reveals We Really Like Facebook
February 25, 2011, 11:13 amMuch like the surprising resurgence of animated gif popularity, another favorite form of content production via images has to do with the extensive use of inforgraphics. Normally oversized, these image-based representations of statistical information have exponentially grown in popularity, especially with bloggers. One of these latest creations,...
SES London 2011 - How to use Social Media for your Business?
February 25, 2011, 11:08 amSocial Media has now become a major piece of the search marketing puzzle. You can already see how important it has become with the number of sessions offered at SES London this year about this topic. Lisa Myers , CEO, Verve Search , in her session.
Help us learn how you create and share your online content
February 25, 2011, 11:08 amWe want to learn more about our publishers, so we've put together a very short survey to help us better understand what types of content you create and how you share it with others. Please take a few minutes to fill out this survey - your feedback is important to us, and your input can help us improve AdSense! We really appreciate you taking the...
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Google Looks to Make ID Info More Transparent
February 25, 2011, 10:58 amGoogle has an interesting post on its Public Policy blog , talking about how users can identify (or not identify) themselves, when using Google services. The company says it's looking at ways to make such information more transparent. According to Google there are three types of product use, and they each "have a home" at Google, but for different...
American Idol FINALLY Uses Facebook!
February 25, 2011, 10:38 amTired of dialing to vote for your favorite Idol contestants but can't get through? Now all you have to do is login to your Facebook account and vote. After their MySpace audition breakthrough this season, the Fox hit show is adding online voting for the first time. Entertainment Weekly recently reported that Facebook users will .
Apple iPad 2 Promise Blankets Motorola Xoom in FUD
February 25, 2011, 10:28 amThe Motorola Xoom launch Feb. 24 was exciting enough, but Apple helped work us media types up into a lather by announcing it was holding an iPad 2 event one day before the Xoom hit Verizon Wireless and Best Buy stores. It was a strategic stroke of genius. The public was already somewhat put off by the $599 price tag, plus two-year deal of the Xoom...
Google Enhances Social Search Engine
February 25, 2011, 10:03 amWhen Google introduced 'Google Social Search' back in 2009, it revolutionized the way searches were performed and used. Users could gain relatively better information in a more usable fashion for their specific search needs. That was because its searches were connected towards building and sustaining social networking circles between the friends...
Search Google For Just Businesses That Are Currently Open
February 25, 2011, 9:52 amGoogle has launched a feature for its iPhone and Android mobile search that lets you see results for only local businesses that are actually open at the time of the search. While this may not seem incredibly helpful during normal business hours, it marks a tremendous boost in relevancy for late night searches. Google uses the example of if you're...
Demand Media Looks to Ease Investors' Searching Minds
February 25, 2011, 9:47 amIf you are Demand Media yesterday's Google events were probably a little disconcerting to say the least. The company is just coming out of the quiet period after raising some serious coin in a January IPO. All along they have warned about how dependent they are on results like Google search to drive traffic and that their model could suffer if...
Demand Media Looks to Ease Investors’ Searching Minds
February 25, 2011, 9:34 amIf you are Demand Media yesterday’s Google events were probably a little disconcerting to say the least. The company is just coming out of the quiet period after raising some serious coin in a January IPO. All along they have warned about how dependent they are on results like Google search to drive traffic and that their model could suffer if...
FBI: Internet Crime Complaints Top 300,000 In 2010
February 25, 2011, 9:22 amIn 2010 there were 303,809 complaints of Internet crime, the second-highest total in 10 years according to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3). The IC3 received an average of 25, 317 complaints per month in 2010. Non-delivery of payment or merchandise accounted for the most common complaints (14.4%). Scams using the FBI's name (13.2%)...
Murder, Abortion and Googlebombs
February 25, 2011, 9:20 amProving the adage that what’s old is new again, Googlebombs are back in the news, and, of course, they’re being used to grandstand about a sensitive subject. Considering the subject matter -- murder and abortion -- the back and forth for this one should be a clean and respectful discourse concerning the different reactions such a...
Inspired by Iceland & Microsoft - Social Media & the Marketing Mix
February 25, 2011, 9:12 amThe last session of the day on the last day of SES London was on Social Media in the Marketing Mix with Kristjan Hauksson of Optimize Your Web in Iceland and Mel Carson of Microsoft in London. Kristjan started things off: What happens when a volcano goes wrong? He recounted the situation last year when Eyjafjallajokul erupted (say that 3 times...
The Copyblogger Party at SXSW
February 25, 2011, 9:07 amThis is a guest post by Wooderson from the film Dazed and Confused . Alright, alright, alright - spring break for the Internet, otherwise known as SXSW, is coming in March right here in my beautiful hometown of Austin, Texas. Number one on everyone's mind is showing up at the best parties. Not to worry, there's a new fiesta in the making. The...
YouTube Movie Service May Launch In UK
February 25, 2011, 9:07 amYouTube users in the UK may soon gain access to a bigger and better selection of movies through the site - if they're willing to fork over a fee. Rumor has it that Google intends to begin testing a Netflix-like subscription service in the region. Claire Atkinson reported late last night, "The search giant, which has been in talks with Hollywood...
Yahoo! Scientists Explore the "Three Dimensions of Search"
February 25, 2011, 8:52 amEver wondered if searches for topics such as "stock quotes" are made mostly by people from a high income bracket? Or whether it's only young people who search for "miley cyrus"? Web search engines serve millions of people worldwide - yet, we know very little about who is searching for what, and how they are searching. In a study, recently...
Does Google Algo Update Really Target Entire Content Farms?
February 25, 2011, 8:47 amSometimes a farm can just have a bad year. One field doesn't produce like it has in the past so the quality of one crop suffers while the rest of the farm does fine. Google's latest update (which Search Engine Land's Danny Sullivan is trying to call the "Farmer" update but I am going with the "Discontent" update) is really saying to everyone that...
World's First Hotel Room Search Engine Launched
February 25, 2011, 8:27 amWe have seen recipe, real estate, books, prices, and job specific search engines, but never one specifically for hotel rooms. Yesterday, Room 77 unveiled a search engine that does just that. Click to read the rest of this post.
London SES: Overview of Day 1
February 25, 2011, 8:22 amOn Tuesday I was at SES London. I was also at SES for a day last year and I thought that this year was much better in terms of the quality of the presentations and speakers. Hats off to the organising team for making these improvements. The Keynote The keynote was by Jeff Hayzlett, the former CMO of Kodak. He was an amazing speaker. In fact he was...
Gnomes Debut on Facebook Social Networking Games
February 25, 2011, 7:41 amGaming on social networking platforms has quickly become a highly popular and fun way for social users to interact, compete, find new games and set new gaming records. Some of the largest offline gaming manufacturers in the industry include names like Nintendo, Wii and others, but for online gaming, new games are being developed and .
The Fastest Ways to Share Anything on Twitter (FireFox and Google Chrome)
February 25, 2011, 7:31 amLet's face it, we tweet a lot. Most of us have a great habit of sharing any interesting article we come across. And I am sure you are already aware of quite a few browser tricks to quickly grab the page URL, add a comment and share on Twitter. Let me share a few more to add to your arsenal: the following browser extensions off the fastest way to...
Demand Media Responds to Google Content Farm Update
February 25, 2011, 7:16 amDemand Media issued a statement in response to Google's algorithm change, announced last night . The update "noticeably impacts" 11.8% of Google queries, according to Google . While Google's announcement doesn't come right out and use the phrase "content farms", the update is widely considered to be aimed at them. Demand says that some of its...
Searchfest Recap: My Favorite Takeaways
February 25, 2011, 6:46 amOn Wednesday, the 5th annual search marketing conference, Searchfest took place in my humble town of Portland Oregon. This is always a great conference with amazing speakers and really smart people asking really smart questions. I attended the advanced track sessions and thought I'd share my favorite takeaways from the day.
Google drops reverse phone number lookup
February 25, 2011, 5:30 amOne of the earliest specialist services provided by Google was reverse phone number lookup. If you used the "phonebook:" or "rphonebook:" operators together with a 10-digit US phone number, Google would show you the owner of that phone number, unless the number was unlisted. Google no longer provides that service. Not surprisingly, there was no...
SEO Spider Review – Xenu on SEO steroids
February 25, 2011, 3:10 amThis review of the SEO Spider comes with handy usage tips, where Branko Rihtman not only explains what the tool does, and how, but why particular analytics / methodologies make sense for SEO audits.
Bing Extends Facebook 'Liked Results'
February 25, 2011, 1:20 am"A few months ago, we announced an exciting partnership with Facebook to make search more social. As part of that work, we introduced Liked Results, which promotes links your friends have publicly liked or shared via Facebook. Today we are extending Liked Results to annotate any of the URLs returned by our algorithmic search results to all users...
Google Finally Cracks Down on Content Farms
February 25, 2011, 12:22 amGoogle used their Official Google Blog to announce a change to their search algorithm that impacts 11.8% of their queries. Google explains : "This update is designed to reduce rankings for low-quality sitessites which are low-value add for users, copy content from other websites or sites that are just not very useful. At the same time, it will...
Stop Advertising in Your Phonebook; Spend Your Money Here Instead!
February 25, 2011, 12:12 amBy now you have probably realized that having an ad in the local phonebook just isn't worth the price anymore. With everything going digital and less people really wanting to fill up their cabinets with those big clunky phonebooks, more and more businesses are starting to shift their hard earned money into new directions other than the phonebook....
Outreach for Linkbuilding - Whiteboard Friday
February 24, 2011, 11:52 pmPosted by Aaron Wheeler Linkbuilding: can't do it alone, can't not do it! While some people may prefer to avoid interaction with people they don't see every day, others flourish when communicating with strangers. The field of SEO is flush with both of these personality types, though to an outsider it could seem like SEO is an inherently...
I am Long Mahalo...
February 24, 2011, 10:26 pm...too bad Google is not ! Google just did their first content farm update & Mahalo appears to have taken a swan dive in the search results, freeing up space for higher quality websites. Google's Amit Singhal & Matt Cutts wrote : Many of the changes we make are so subtle that very few people notice them. But in the last day or so we launched a...
Google Forecloses On Content Farms With “Farmer” Algorithm Update
February 24, 2011, 10:21 pmIn January, Google promised that it would take action against content farms that were gaining top listings with “shallow” or “low-quality” content. Now the company is delivering, announcing a change to its ranking algorithm designed take out such material.
New Change Impacts 12% Of US Results
5 Brands Making a Splash in Social Media This Spring
February 24, 2011, 9:56 pmBeing a smart brand means taking full advantage of social media marketing. Even the most mundane product or service can have life breathed into it with a creative marketing campaign. Blenders might sound boring, but Blendtec's "Will It Blend?" videos on YouTube nearly quintupled the company's sales. If you're a business owner, social media...
Smartphone Adoption Continues to Grow in Japan
February 24, 2011, 7:59 pmcomScore Japan KK, a wholly owned subsidiary of comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released the latest insights into mobile usage in Japan from its comScore MobiLens product. The report found that Japanese users are continuing to adopt smartphone devices, with Apple and Google platforms seeing significant...
Social Media: More than Twitter and Facebook? Uh, yeah.
February 24, 2011, 7:54 pmThe following post is based on a discussion at the Cincinnati Social Media LinkedIn Group.
In what seems to be a race to oversimplify EVERYTHING, we're creating misdefinitions. In many cases there's simply (a lot) more to the story.
Social media provides the latest example. Do you know anyone with "T&F Tunnel Vision?" This...
Google Adds Recipe Filter For Foodies: Calories, Ingredients, Cooking Time Filters
February 24, 2011, 7:34 pmFinding a recipe in Google is not that hard - you mention an ingredient and they will start suggesting - but with the new Recipe View Google rolled out today you can filter those results by time to cook the meal, what ingredients to include or by how many calories it has. Yes, Google wants to be the ultimate Foodie resource. Click to read the rest...
James Franco Back on 'General Hospital'
February 24, 2011, 7:34 pmby Claudine Zap It's official: James Franco - the movie star/Oscar co-host/soap king/graduate student - is everywhere you look. The man sure likes to keep busy. And this weekend is no exception as he takes over TV . Franco will be juggling a return to the soap opera " General Hospital " on Feb. 25 and 28. On Sunday he will host the Academy Awards...
Next on Oprah: Smartphone Addicts and the Women Who Love Them
February 24, 2011, 7:04 pmAre you addicted to your smartphone? Be honest? Would you break out in a sweat if you lost if for more than an hour? Or even more telling, would you fish it out of a public toilet? Crowd Science surveyed 800 smartphone users and 1 in 5 said they were addicted! The others. . . . pure denial. 26% of the smartphone junkies were iPhone users while...
Is Your Brand a Social Network or a Social Tribe?
February 24, 2011, 6:49 pmAnthropologist says "Go Gaga" and aim for the latter to ignite fan passion and get action What do Ducati, Lady Gaga, Dunkin' Donuts and the Egyptian protests have in common? On the surface it wouldn't seem a whole lot. Yet each of these entities has cultivated an audience that passionately identifies with its ideology; displays special lingo,...
Have a Cellphone, Go to Jail
February 24, 2011, 6:14 pmby Claudine Zap Does the punishment fit the crime? A Kentucky judge who had had it with ringing cellphones interrupting his courtroom procedures handed down a harsh sentence . William Brian is serving 72 hours of jailtime for not switching off his cell in the courthouse. Circuit Judge Dennis Foust does allow mobile noisemakers in court, as long as...
Stopping Scrapers From The Start
February 24, 2011, 6:01 pm"I'm putting a *huge* number of pages of content online. I'm looking to stop the scraping/copying/bots from the outset and I need bandwidth kept to a minimum."
Top eBook Publishing Trends For 2011
February 24, 2011, 6:00 pmEveryone is talking about them: eBooks. Whether you like, have tried or have yet to get exposed to this relatively new electronic publishing medium, you can be sure that ebooks will play a role in your future. Particularly so if you are an author. From the world of academic publishing to the one of independent writers there is a universe of new...
Google Goes After AdSense Farms With Update
February 24, 2011, 5:47 pm"Google said Thursday that it had made a major change to its algorithm in an effort to improve the rankings of high-quality Web sites in its search results and to reduce the visibility of low-quality sites. While the company did not say so explicitly, the change appears to be directed in part at so-called content farms like eHow and Answerbag,...
The Joys of a Scott Richter Moment
February 24, 2011, 5:28 pmWhen I went to sleep last night all was well. When I woke up my inbox was exploded with angry emails about people getting dozens and dozens of emails from us...in some cases perhaps almost 100. Since we put the new design live on the site I think people are more receptive to it. And there are not many Drupal websites which have more registered...
American Idol and UFC Make Facebook Part of the Show
February 24, 2011, 5:28 pmIn another sign that Facebook is taking over the world, American Idol and mixed-martial arts masters UFC are both moving forward with applications that make the social media site a big part of their plans. This past January, UFC offered two exclusive mixed-martial arts fights on their Facebook page and watched as 130,000 new people clicked the...
The Oscars on Yahoo!
February 24, 2011, 5:28 pmA first-ever partnership, search insights, massive reach, mobile spikes and unique content Oscar viewers won't just be huddled around their TV sets this year"increasingly, more of them are going online. In the last several years, Yahoo! Entertainment has seen growing online engagement around award shows. Mobile and web users are not only searching...
PayPal Statement on Courage to Resist Situation
February 24, 2011, 5:18 pmWhile it is generally not our policy to comment publicly on account dealings, we are sharing the following statement to clarify information regarding the Courage To Resist organization's PayPal account and their claim that this is somehow associated with their support of U.S. Army Pfc. Bradley Manning. Let me be clear, this decision was nothing to...
My 2011 B2B Marketing Handbook Arrives March 1st
February 24, 2011, 4:58 pmI got your attention with that title didn't I!? No, it isn't actually a book I wrote' I wish! That said, it is a great book I just bought from Marketing Sherpa and I am really looking forward to reading it. Although I have been practicing web marketing for 14 years I have absolutely no illusions that I know everything (far from it). As a result,
Fashion Brands Using Facebook To Best Effect
February 24, 2011, 4:28 pmLots of companies have a strong presence on Facebook, with Chipotle, Ford, and NBC all making significant moves just this week. But when it comes to effective marketing in the UK, new data from Experian Hitwise indicates that fashion brands know how to use Facebook best. Robin Goad, who shared that finding in a corporate blog post earlier today,...
Netgear Talks Ramifications of Transition to IPv6
February 24, 2011, 3:27 pmIt was recently revealed that the pool for IPv4 addresses had been depleted , meaning that the protocol for the Internet as we know it has been used up, and the transition to the next-generation IPv6 is beginning. Drew Meyer, Senior Director of Marketing for Networking product vendor Netgear shared some thoughts on the transition with WebProNews....
Report: Pres. Of MySpace Music To Step Down
February 24, 2011, 3:27 pmIn fairness to MySpace: its brand recognition is off the charts, and it still receives traffic for which many sites' owners would kill. But just about everyone who doesn't work for the unit agrees that it's declining, and now it looks like the president of MySpace Music has joined that crowd. Peter Kafka reported this afternoon, "Myspace Music...
Yahoo Officially Ends MyBlogLog
February 24, 2011, 3:22 pmAfter announcing what they called the sunset of various properties , Yahoo today announced the end date of MyBlogLog is May 24, 2011 and recommended users move to Yahoo Pulse. Yahoo made the announcement to its users via an email to their user base and by a giant yellow notice at the top of users' profiles. Those who paid for premium services will...
ChaCha Sues HTC Over ChaCha Trademark
February 24, 2011, 3:12 pmEarlier this month, HTC unveiled some new mobile devices with Facebook hardware buttons . One is called the Salsa, and the other is called the ChaCha. Believe it or not, ChaCha, the company, wasn't thrilled with the name. ChaCha is suing HTC over the trademark. ChaCha co-founder Scott Jones gave us the following statement: "ChaCha has registered...
Test, Test, Test
February 24, 2011, 2:32 pmI'm going to borrow this quote from Seth Godin, who borrowed it from Kevin, who borrowed it from The Count Of Monte Cristo: "I have been told," said the count, "that you do not always yourselves understand the signals you repeat." "That is true, sir, and that is what I like best," said the man, smiling. "Why do you like that best?" "Because then I...
Public Relations and the Social Newsroom at SES London 2011
February 24, 2011, 2:26 pmA long time ago, just after I graduated, I worked for a PR agency. For five years I studied inter-cultural communications, journalism, advertising, photography, PR, copyright and the internet (a new module introduced in 1998) and other exciting stuff. At the PR agency I was sat down at a desk and asked to make paper clippings. I left not long...
MyBlogLog Coming to An End
February 24, 2011, 2:21 pmYahoo is shutting down MyBlogLog , a service acquired by the company a few years ago, that lets you see who's been visiting your blog. It's been known for quite some time that it would happen, but users received an email today setting the date. It said: You have been identified as a customer of Yahoo! MyBlogLog. We will officially discontinue...
Google Gets Cooking With Recipe View
February 24, 2011, 2:06 pmGoogle has introduced a new way to help people better find recipes with a new feature called Recipe View. Recipe View allows users to narrow their search results to show only recipes, and it displays ratings, ingredients and pictures on the search results page. When searching for a recipe, a link for "Recipes" will appear in the left-hand...
Another Shake-Up in the AOL Content Leadership Department
February 24, 2011, 1:51 pmAOL recently lost a couple of editors of its popular gadget blog Engadget. Now, an even bigger player in the company's content strategy is leaving. President of AOL Media and Studios, David Eun told staff he is leaving the company in an email. The letter started: I wanted to reach out to you personally about my decision to leave the company. I...
MySpace's Rise and Fall - A Timeline of Highs and Lows
February 24, 2011, 1:31 pmIf you have any connection to the online marketing space then you know MySpace has been on the way out for a couple of years now. Well, apparently the situation is far worse than popularly known!
Demand Media Goes on the Defensive About Content Quality
February 24, 2011, 1:01 pmDemand Media CEO Richard Rosenblatt mentioned in the company's earnings call the other day that Demand Media was ready to set out and rigorously start defending its content, as it falls victim to a great deal of criticism over quality. As I noted then, the criticism is often geared more towards Google for surfacing the less quality content over...
Join us on the bridge for International Women's Day 2011
February 24, 2011, 12:51 pmI lead a global team at Google and travel extensively. When I speak about my work, the questions I get are often about the efforts we make to bring more women into engineering and how I maintain my work/life balance with two young children. These are very important questions, but I'm acutely aware that they reflect a certain amount of privilege...
Bing Extends Facebook Likes to All U.S. Search Results
February 24, 2011, 12:40 pmIf you live in the U.S. and have connected Bing to your Facebook account, you should now see integrated Facebook Likes whenever you conduct a search on Bing. If one of your Facebook friends (or multiple friends) have 'liked' or shared any pages that Bing shows in your search results, a picture of that friend, along with a note saying "X liked...
Renren.com Social Network Gaining on Facebook
February 24, 2011, 12:40 pmIn China, Facebook social networking services are banned by Chinese authorities from developing an online presence in the country. With over 500 million registered users in over 25 countries, Facebook as the largest social networking service in the world can't compete on level playing ground with the quickly-rising new social network that's based...
Introducing Recipe View, based on rich snippets markup
February 24, 2011, 12:20 pmWebmaster level: All Today, we're happy to introduce Recipe View, a new way of finding recipes when searching on Google. Recipe View enables you to filter your regular web search results to show only recipes and to restrict results based on ingredients, cook time,
SES London 2011 - Day 3 Coverage #SESUK
February 24, 2011, 11:55 amHere's a roundup of today's live blogging and coverage of SES London 2011 Day 3. If I missed your site's coverage, please make sure to leave a note in the comments. Click to read the rest of this post.
Google Search Gets Recipe View Refinement
February 24, 2011, 11:45 amGoogle has added Recipe View, a neat new refinement for its search engine that helps users find food recipes on the Web. Previously, users who wanted to do recipe searches had to type text searches for dishes, such as beef bourguigon , in the search box on Google.com. The new Recipe View feature, accessible via the "Recipes" link on the left-hand...
Corona Launches Text Campaign To Raise Money For Cancer Cure
February 24, 2011, 11:39 am Corona is launching a new text donation campaign to help The V Foundation for Cancer Research raise money for a cancer cure.
Starting March 1 through April 5, the “Find a Cure” text donation campaign invites people to text “DontGiveUp” to 85944 to donate $5 to The V Foundation, with all of the money going to...
Bing Spreads Facebook "Liked Results"
February 24, 2011, 11:24 amPeople who use both Facebook and Bing should soon become more familiar than ever with the concept of "social search." The integration of Facebook "Likes" into Bing's results is continuing so that searchers can see which sites have earned their friends' approval.
A post on the Bing Search Blog explained this morning,...
Google Launches Cloud Connect Worldwide
February 24, 2011, 11:10 amGoogle has announced the worldwide availability of Google Cloud Connect for Microsoft Office . The product was first announced in November, spawned from the company's acquisition of DocVerse, which specialized in real-time sharing and editing of documents. Cloud Connect lets Office users automatically sync and backup their documents with Google...
Optimize for Conversions With New AdWords Feature
February 24, 2011, 11:05 amA new ad rotation setting in AdWords lets you choose to show ads you expect to provide the highest conversions rate, rather than receive the highest click-through rate, Google announced via its Inside AdWords blog. To use the new "optimize for conversions" setting, you must have Conversion Tracking in your account, because Google uses data from...
The Guilt-Ridden Writer's Confession
February 24, 2011, 10:24 amMy general theory since 1971 has been that the word is literally a virus. ~ William S. Burroughs Writing is a strange and dangerous calling. I do mean calling. Like Burrough's word virus , the craft of writing compels us to it in a way that is beyond our ability to resist. A writer writes. A writer that does not write inevitably descends into a...
Overstock.com Hit with Google Penalty
February 24, 2011, 10:24 amThere is an interesting trend of big brand sites getting busted for gaming Google, and gaining mainstream media attention lately. A couple weeks ago, JCPenney was busted for paid links, then Forbes attracted some similar attention.
Now, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that Google has penalized overstock.com on somewhat similar, but...
Payvment Opens Social Shopping Mall On Facebook
February 24, 2011, 10:15 amSocial ecommerce platform Payvment has launched the first-ever shopping mall on Facebook.
Payvment says its “Shopping Mall” on Facebook offers over one million searchable products and includes a directory of ecommerce stores, from celebrity brands to local merchants.
“The Shopping Mall on Facebook is where online...
Bing expands Facebook "Liked Results"
February 24, 2011, 10:09 amA few months ago , we announced an exciting partnership with Facebook to make search more social. As part of th at work , we introduced Liked Results, which promotes links your friends have publicly liked or shared via Facebook. Today we are extending Liked Results to annotate any of the URLs returned by our algorithmic search results to all...
Preparing for The Death of RSS
February 24, 2011, 10:04 amMichael Gray writes, "While I personally am a big fan of RSS, I stand by my position that RSS is not being adopted by the mainstream population and is therefore a dying technology."
Detroit Needs Robocop campaign
February 24, 2011, 10:04 amOnce again, the Internet provides the opportunity to make dreams come true, or at least get a viral campaign off the ground quickly. Despite the mayor shooting down the idea to build a statue of RoboCop (from the 1987 movie) in Detroit via Twitter on Feb 7th, a group of fans decided to begin raising awareness and funds anyway through a Facebook...
Apple Macbook Pro Release Complemented by Mac OS X Lion Developer Preview
February 24, 2011, 9:54 amApple made a couple significant announcements today. The major one is that it has updated its Macbook Pro family of devices, but they have also launched a developer preview of the Mac OS X Lion operating system.
Apple says Lion takes some of the best ideas from the iPad and brings them to the Mac - the tabletization of the desktop computer...
Google Map Tracks Protests in Libya
February 24, 2011, 9:49 amTwitter had played an enormous role in the recent protests in Africa. This was evident and a reason for why the Egyptian government shut down Internet services during the Egyption protests . An activist and active Twitterer from Iran has created a Google map of the violence and protests and shared it publicly to chronicle the protest reports on...
A motivational trick: your password
February 24, 2011, 9:44 amby Josh Bernoff If your company is like mine, you need to change your password every three months or so. Next time, don't just create something easy to remember that fits the IT department's arcane requirements. Think of something that will motivate you. When I was considering writing Groundswell, my password was "Writer50", a reminder that if I...
Google Releases Bragworthy YouTube Statistics
February 24, 2011, 9:44 amStarting in 2009, people started quoting an interesting search engine statistic. "What's the most popular place to do searches on the web?" The answer, of course, is Google, but what was surprising was the follow-up. "What's the second most popular place?" The answer? YouTube. Google has given us even more to gawk at, however, with .
Content Marketer or Content Farm?
February 24, 2011, 9:29 amYou've probably been hearing a lot about content farms, the low-rent district for content marketing. Google has avowed a crackdown on content farming, threatening to lower their rankings in search results. In case you don't think content farms can have much effect on search results, you should know that just one company many claim to run a...
Google Earth Pro Data Layers: Refresh Everything
February 24, 2011, 9:24 amSince we launched data layers in Google Earth Pro , we've seen strong and steady growth in use. To make the data even more valuable to our users, we're providing an update that greatly expands coverage for all layers. We hope you enjoy the data refresh! If you're new to Google Earth Pro, watch a video about the layers or download a free trial and...
Global Android Activations Visualized
February 24, 2011, 9:19 amAnyone who's unimpressed by the adoption rate Android's enjoyed since its launch should consider setting aside three minutes to watch a new video. The Android Developer Channel on YouTube has created a visualization of the mobile operating system's spread, and it's an interesting sight to see. Stylistically, the whole video's a little bit...
TD Ameritrade Launches iPad App
February 24, 2011, 9:19 amTD Ameritrade said today it has launched a free new mobile trading platform for iPad users. The TD Ameritrade app is designed specifically for the multi-touch functionality, larger screen size and portability of the iPad. Key features of the app include: *Touch to trade stock, complex options, ETFs, futures and forex *Real-time quotes *Scroll...
Apple Macbook Pro Gets Processor, Graphics, Thunderbolt I/O Update
February 24, 2011, 9:19 amThe Apple Macbook Pro family has been updated with new next-generation processors and graphics, high-speed Thunderbolt I/O technology and a new FaceTime HD camera. FaceTime has become a popular selling point of Apple's iPhone, and the iPad 2 is expected to accommodate it as well. "The new MacBook Pro brings next generation dual and quad Core...
30 Ways to Optimise Your Site for Speed
February 24, 2011, 9:09 am* Site speed has been the foremost discipline of website optimisation since even before SEO appeared. In the early days of the Internet, connections were so slow that people jokingly referred to the WWW as the world wide wait . I remember those days. I used to type in a URL and then take a book to read while it was loading. I've been using a high...
Emerging Markets, Display Advertising And International Search
February 24, 2011, 8:58 amEastern Europe, The Middle East and Africa are all regions that are rapidly developing when it comes to web use and becoming increasingly popular targets for global organisations. We speak to Google's Steffen Ehrhardt ahead of the International Search Summit Munich to find out more about targeting these emerging markets, display advertising and...
Would you report a competitor to Google?
February 24, 2011, 8:48 amI was recently involved with an interesting situation with (yet another) large brand falling out of the good graces with Google. For those playing along at home, this time it was Overstock.com ( via the WSJ ) walking the path that J.C Penney and Forbes had before it in previous weeks. Fun stuff all around. Borne from some conversations with my...
Overstock.com Lands in Google's Penalty Box Over Links-for-Discounts Deal
February 24, 2011, 8:43 amOverstock.com was enjoying some great rankings earlier this year. Unfortunately for Overstock, Webmaster World began examining why they were seeing such great rankings for numerous common terms, a review which led to yet another mainstream news organization "outing" a major retailer for linking practices. Last night,
Doing the right thing – get the SEOmoz discount for our Linkbuilding seminars
February 24, 2011, 8:38 amWhen we announced the pricing for our 2 link building seminars (London and New Orleans) we included a discounted price for all SEOmoz pro members. SEOmoz, and their members have been incredibly good to Distilled and we want to repay them whenever we can.
The discount code meant that SEOmoz Pro Members got a £100 saving for the London seminar...
R.I.P MyBlogLog - Yahoo Announces Shutdown of Service
February 24, 2011, 8:28 amAfter many rumors over the past twelve months, Yahoo has officially announced the shutdown of MyBlogLog in an email to users: Dear MyBlogLog Customer, You have been identified as a customer of Yahoo! MyBlogLog. We will officially discontinue Yahoo! MyBlogLog effective May 24, 2011. Your agreement with Yahoo!, to the extent that it applies to the...
R.I.P MyBlogLog – Yahoo Announces Shutdown of Service
February 24, 2011, 8:17 amAfter many rumors over the past twelve months, Yahoo has officially announced the shutdown of MyBlogLog in an email to users:
Dear MyBlogLog Customer,
You have been identified as a customer of Yahoo! MyBlogLog. We will officially discontinue Yahoo! MyBlogLog effective May 24, 2011. Your agreement with Yahoo!, to the extent that it applies to the...
Blog Posts to Read for February 24, 2011
February 24, 2011, 8:08 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! The 3 Phases Of Social Media Strategy This post includes 3 core ideas for an effective social media strategy. According to this...
Attention Traditional Companies: Stop Trying!
February 24, 2011, 7:43 amFor the past couple of weeks, I've been hesitant on writing this article because I felt that I might end up feeding the ranting mill, but to save you from all the twitching and wincing, I felt that a simple statement will drive my point: "Traditional companies/marketers should stop trying. Period." Trying to go online that is. Don't get me wrong,...
Facebook Lets Site-Owners Target Content Based on Individual "Likes"
February 24, 2011, 7:41 amDid you know you can publish content directly to people that click the "like" button on any piece of content on your site?
A recent post on the Facebook Developer blog discusses just that. "As part of Operation Developer Love, we are are continuing to update our documentation," said Facebook's Ankur Pansari. "Recently,...
Google's Eric Schmidt Steps Aside for Larry Page
February 24, 2011, 7:38 amLarry Page and Sergey Brin, from the initial conception of Google, were engineering wizards. They knew how to make a product, they knew how to deploy it, and they knew how to focus effectively on the consumer experience. What they didn't know was how to run a multi-billion dollar corporation. For that reason, back in .
Does your Web SEO copy need a makeover?
February 24, 2011, 7:33 amSo, I have a question for you' Do you like your existing Web copy? I don't mean "how well is it doing in the engines," or "how much time/energy/stress did it take you to write it in the first place." I asked, "Do you like it?" If your answer was, "I don't," you're not alone. A large number of B2B and B2C companies are looking at their Web SEO copy...
My PPC Campaign Isn't Driving any Traffic: What Next?
February 24, 2011, 7:28 amIf you're a PPC campaign manager you're probably at least somewhat familiar with this sequence: Do a painstaking amount of keyword research and segmentation, carefully crafting twenty or so nicely targeted ad groups. Create two to four ads for each group,
Google Drops Facebook Contact Merging From Latest Android Version
February 24, 2011, 7:23 amAndroid smart phone owners have been waiting for the Gingerbread, the latest operating system upgrade. Android 2.3 is deploying now and gives users new interface features and better application and power management features. What it won't have is the ability to load contact information for Facebook friends. Click to read the rest of this post.
News Corp's The Daily Happy to Have People Put Its Content in Blogs
February 24, 2011, 7:12 amRemember when News Corp. first launched The Daily - the Apple iPad news app (early review here ) - and somebody indexed all of its stories in blog format so they could easily be read on the web? Well, that guy (Andy Baio) has put a post up about how he did it, and said that he's taking it down, but it's not for the reasons you might think. "For...
Flash Based e-Commerce Website? No Need to Compromise on SEO Benefits
February 24, 2011, 6:57 amWe know there are people to say - "Flash is not good for e-commerce website design". Will you really digest the remarks just for sake? There are wave of polemics and heated disputes around Flash. Eventually, designers get into the controversy - whether to use it or not? Will it render SEO benefits? Getting out of Turmoil: Well, we do not intend...
Opportunity Clicks: Social Media and Converting Clicks into Action
February 24, 2011, 6:42 amSocial Media is celebrated for its power to cultivate influential relationships and foster viral conversations. As consumer attention shifts away from traditional mediums and migrates to the golden triangle of mobile, PC, and next generation Web appliances, businesses are racing to engage in the hopes of capturing fleeting awareness and igniting...
Video Marketing Tips From SES London
February 24, 2011, 6:32 amThe first session of the day for me here at SES London is a topic I've been interested in for a very long time: video marketing and optimization. It's a great panel featuring Jonathan Allen from Incisive Media, Paul Carff from Google and Will Critchlow from Distilled. All three speakers offered plenty of interesting tips. First up is Paul Carff...
Is Search Remarketing/Retargeting Right for You? - Day 2: SES London 2011
February 24, 2011, 6:27 amHave you ever looked over your shoulder because you have that unnerving feeling that you are being watched or possibly, *god-forbid*, stalked by a particular website or ad when surfing around cyber space? You have! Well carry on reading Remarketing or retargeting as it is sometimes known is the maligned and much misunderstood child of the digital...
Majestic SEO Unveils Site Explorer
February 24, 2011, 6:22 amBacklinks make the web go 'round. Sites achieve top search engine rankings in large part due to the backlinks pointing to their site, also known as a "backlink profile." So, it makes sense there is a large demand for finding out who has the good links, where they found them, and even monitoring the links pointing to your own domains. There are...
Register for the UK and French Search Alliance Webinars on the 3rd and the 8th of March
February 24, 2011, 6:02 amA competitive choice in search advertising is coming soon in Europe with the Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance . Just like in North America today, it will offer you a cost-effective way to connect to a high quality audience through a global Microsoft Advertising adCenter account. Whether you are based in the UK,
Yahoo to Close MyBlogLog
February 24, 2011, 5:20 amUsers of MyBlogLog, a start-up that Yahoo acquired in 2007 for about $10 million, received an e-mail early today announcing the service's demise.The announcement is not exactly a surprise. MyBlogLog was one of the Yahoo services listed on a leaked presentation screenshot from December as a property that would likely be sold or shut down as the...
comScore Releases "The 2010 Europe Digital Year in Review"
February 24, 2011, 3:35 amcomScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released The comScore 2010 Europe Digital Year in Review. This inaugural report provides a comprehensive overview of key trends in the European digital media landscape, including market-level data on user demographics, social networking, online video, mobile, and search...
Link Building Games and Schemes
February 24, 2011, 3:30 amWhat has the link building business gotten into!WebmasterWorld members debate the common, time wasting approach to asking for links.
Yandex Needs More Money?
February 24, 2011, 2:56 amRussian top search engine, Yandex, which was founded in 1997, has made an outstanding progress in recent years. Despite constantly growing competition from both the local Rambler and the “global” Google, it has succeeded to increase its market share in 2010. According to Yandex report, for the first time in four years the engine’s share of...
Questions to Ask an SEO Professional
February 24, 2011, 12:13 amNot all search engine optimization companies and professionals are the same. The industry is jam packed with lots of companies and individuals performing a variety of search engine optimization activities but unfortunately, not all companies are considered equal. Here are some questions that you should ask an SEO professional before you hire them:...
Do Your Very Own Site Structure Audit
February 24, 2011, 12:04 amIt’s easy to forget about the importance of a strong site architecture when so much focus is put on other on and off-page SEO efforts. When your site was being designed you might have built a sitemap to help keep things in order, but things can get out of hand pretty quick.
A nice, SEO friendly site architecture at launch.
A Few Months...
Google Penalizes Overstock for Search Tactics
February 23, 2011, 11:28 pmGoogle Inc. is penalizing Overstock.com Inc. in its search results after the retailer ran afoul of Google policies that prohibit companies from artificially boosting their ranking in the Internet giant's search engine.
Overstock Overstocks .edu Links and Google Schools Them
February 23, 2011, 11:13 pmGoogle has handed out another penalty to a high profile retail site after it discovered that the site's techniques to get to the top of the SERP's was not above board. This is the second high profile public flogging by Google of a rogue site in the past few weeks. Couple this with the strong 'war on spam' rhetoric and one might think that Google...
Into The Minds of Link Builders
February 23, 2011, 11:13 pmThis isn't a hidden fact; link building is the missing piece of most online marketing plans. Onsite SEO and content are just part of the game, but there is no part of code you can change that will have an impact on ranking like good, strong, focused links to your site's pages. Naturally, link building is the one thing we all hate doing . Most...
I'm Ranking, So Where's My Traffic?!
February 23, 2011, 9:47 pmPosted by Dr. Pete It's an old story Boy meets Girl, Girl promises top rankings, rankings finally arrive, and Boy suddenly realizes he has no traffic. Wait, that's not quite it. Replace "Girl" with "SEO company" and "Boy" with "client" - yeah, there we go. In SEO, nothing is quite as frustrating as pouring time and money into your chosen keyword...
Infographic of the Week: Mobile Internet Activities
February 23, 2011, 7:46 pmBy far, email is the thing people do most with their smartphones I only joined the smartphone revolution eight months ago, but it didn't take long for me to realize just how much my new mobile was going to improve the quality and efficiency of my life (the GPS function, which guided my family and me on our east coast trip last summer, was by...
And MySpace Came a Tumbling Down
February 23, 2011, 6:30 pmI feel bad for MySpace. They came to us with a plan to socialize the internet. It was an easy way for everyone, from the student to the CEO to get together and share their interests, their thoughts and the ups and downs of their day. With a single click, strangers from across the world could become friends. It's like that old Coca-Cola commercial...
Baidu Executives Fly to U.S. For Meeting With Facebook
February 23, 2011, 5:55 pmLast week, executives from the Chinese search engine Baidu flew to the United States to meet with Facebook in their Silicon Valley offices. While the trip was kept quiet, and Baidu representatives have yet to comment publicly, both Chinese and U.S. news services have confirmed the story. The speculation about whether Facebook will penetrate...
Ad News: 7 Things You Want to Know Now
February 23, 2011, 5:40 pmThe state of digital in 2020; social media mapping; audience sharing; protesting for Justin Bieber and more Digital advertising, 2020 Most folks in digital media are afraid to predict what's next in the next six months, let alone the next decade. Not so Jack Meyers, media economist and chairman of the Media Advisory Group. Writing in The Wire, a...
Christine O'Donnell Tapped for 'DWTS'
February 23, 2011, 5:25 pmby Claudine Zap Christine O'Donnell didn't make it to the Senate, but perhaps the Deleware resident will have a better chance on " Dancing With the Stars ." According to the Tea Party favorite's Facebook page, the dance competition has tapped the conservative for a spot on the show. She writes to her fans, "I just got the official 'Ask' from...
Foursquare Announcements Coming at SXSW
February 23, 2011, 4:59 pmThis week, we posted an article about some comments Foursquare co-founder Dennis Crowley made about competing with Facebook. He responded to this, and we exchanged a few tweets. Bottom line: expect multiple announcements from the company at SXSW. In a recent interview on CNBC, Crowley said, "They're [Facebook] a huge platform and a big...
Most People Leave Twitter Because it's Pointless
February 23, 2011, 4:54 pm52% of people who stopped using Twitter said they did it because they realized Twitter was pointless. Imagine that. The stat comes from the latest installment of ExactTarget's Subscribers, Fans and Followers report. This one is called "The Social Breakup" and it's all about why people stop following a brand on social media. Yesterday, we talked...
You Asked for It: Microsoft Advertising adCenter API Access for All!
February 23, 2011, 4:49 pmUntil recently, access to the Microsoft Advertising adCenter Application Programming Interface (API) has been restricted to a small set of invitation-only pilot customers that met stringent criteria. Now, advertisers of all shapes and sizes can request API access . If youre not familiar with managing PPC campaigns via an API, the adCenter API...
Most People Leave Twitter Because it’s Pointless
February 23, 2011, 4:45 pm52% of people who stopped using Twitter said they did it because they realized Twitter was pointless. Imagine that. The stat comes from the latest installment of ExactTarget’s Subscribers, Fans and Followers report. This one is called “The Social Breakup” and it’s all about why people stop following a brand on social...
Zacks Investment Research Downgrades Google
February 23, 2011, 4:44 pmInvestors who own shares of Google are sure to be thankful of that fact today; Google's stock rose 0.18 percent even while the Dow and Nasdaq sank 0.87 percent and 1.21 percent, respectively. But not all the news is good, as Zacks Investment Research also downgraded Google to "neutral." That doesn't mean it's time to panic, of course. Zacks is...
Angry Birds: Now in Cake Form
February 23, 2011, 4:04 pmby Mike Krumboltz 'Angry Birds,' the wildly popular series of video games, has now been immortalized in cake form. A lucky young man named Ben was treated to an incredibly elaborate homemade birthday cake from his parents. But to call it a 'cake' isn't really doing it justice. It's more of a 3-D desert extravaganza. The cake, which appears to be...
Bing Adds Tiles to Search Results
February 23, 2011, 4:04 pmBing is rolling out a new "tiles" feature in its SERPs. Bing Director Stefan Weitz revealed the arrival of the new "visual indicator" in an interview with SEOmoz . Bing has not yet made an official announcement, but I'm seeing this in Bing's results. The tile is basically a small box to the right of the organic result with data pulled from select...
Google Posts "3 Laws Of Display Advertising Physics"
February 23, 2011, 3:24 pmIf anyone's in a position to write (or rewrite) the rules of advertising, it's Google, the company that was founded in 1998 and now has a market cap of $197 billion. Marketers may want to pay attention, then, as the search giant outlined three "laws of display advertising physics" this afternoon. There's actually a lengthy blog post on the Agency...
Google Posts "Three Laws Of Display Advertising Physics"
February 23, 2011, 3:13 pmIf anyone's in a position to write (or rewrite) the rules of advertising, it's Google, the company that was founded in 1998 and now has a market cap of $197 billion. Marketers may want to pay attention, then, as the search giant outlined three "laws of display advertising physics" this afternoon.
There's actually a lengthy blog...
Google Posts “Three Laws Of Display Advertising Physics”
February 23, 2011, 3:13 pmIf anyone’s in a position to write (or rewrite) the rules of advertising, it’s Google, the company that was founded in 1998 and now has a market cap of $197 billion. Marketers may want to pay attention, then, as the search giant outlined three "laws of display advertising physics" this afternoon.
There’s actually...
IBM Watson Research Team Answers Your Questions
February 23, 2011, 3:08 pmLast week you requested someone who worked on Watson over in IAMA , and IBM Watson Research team was game to answer your top questions about Watson, how it was developed and how IBM plans to use it in the future . Below are answers to your top 10 questions, along with some bonus common ones as well. Thanks for taking the time to answer, Watson...
SES London 2011 - Day 2 Coverage #SESUK
February 23, 2011, 2:48 pmHere's a roundup of today's live blogging and coverage of SES London 2011 . If I missed your site's coverage, please make sure to leave a note in the comments. Click to read the rest of this post.
10 Years of Link Building Advice
February 23, 2011, 2:48 pmGreat link building advice through the years from folks ranging from Jill Whalen to Darren Rowse to Wil Reynolds.
John Boehner to Answer Budget, Spending Questions on YouTube
February 23, 2011, 2:33 pmSpeaker of the House John Boehner will be doing a YouTube interview on Sunday, February 27 at midnight ET. YouTube is calling for questions from users. YouTube will use Google Moderator to determine which questions get asked. The ones with the most votes will be selected. "With many U.S. states facing budget crises, and the President's recent...
YouTube Negotiating to Stream Live NBA, NHL Games
February 23, 2011, 2:28 pmLast September, Google's YouTube property started streaming live broadcasts. Since that time, they have begun showing numerous live events including IPL Cricket matches , conversations with the President of the United States and even a 24-hour Conan O'Brien marathon event. This morning, Bloomberg reported Google is in talks with the National...
Wedding Weight Loss Show Causes Buzz
February 23, 2011, 2:13 pmby Claudine Zap It was only a matter of time before weight loss and wedding reality shows merged: " Shedding for the Wedding " premieres Wednesday night on the CW. As you could probably guess, the premise of the show goes like this: Nine overweight couples compete to lose weight and win the wedding of their dreams. Apparently, a dream wedding...
iPad Dominates Tablet Shipments
February 23, 2011, 2:03 pmIn the third quarter of 2010 4.5 million media tablets shipped, according to a new report from ABI Research. Among those, 93 percent were Apple iPads. Over time, Apples first-to-market iPad advantage will inevitably erode to some extent, said Jeff Orr, Senior practice director, ABI Research.
Update on Real-Time Search: I Want it Now! Day 2 SES London 2011
February 23, 2011, 1:38 pmA panel session led by Jon Myers, Head of Account Management Yahoo! for UK & Ireland, asked key industry speakers, Dave Coplin, Paddy Moogan and Aaron Kahlow, their thoughts on real-time search and their top tips and insights. Dave Coplin, Director of Search, Microsoft Bing Today we are looking at search in society; what search means to us and...
Let's Talk about Keyword Density
February 23, 2011, 1:23 pmRecently, I received an email question wanting to know about keyword density, asking questions like how do I deal with it, is it still a factor, and how important is it. As with most things in SEO, the answer is … it depends…
Sherman, set the Wayback Machine to the Interwebz circa 2001 …
Page rank was the big magilla...
Let’s Talk about Keyword Density
February 23, 2011, 1:23 pmRecently, I received an email question wanting to know about keyword density, asking questions like how do I deal with it, is it still a factor, and how important is it. As with most things in SEO, the answer is … it depends…
Sherman, set the Wayback Machine to the Interwebz circa 2001 …
Page rank was the big magilla...
Talking User Intent and Bing UK with Dave Coplin at SES London 2011
February 23, 2011, 1:22 pmI just love the word evangelist! It conjures up all sorts of inspiring images of exciting and delighting the masses, and when Dave Coplin, the Bing Evangelist for the UK, took to the stage at SES London this morning, he gave an inspiring overview of where search is broken and where social signals and user intent will play a larger part in how we...
PayPal Opens New Office in Chandler, Arizona
February 23, 2011, 1:17 pmHi Everyone- John McCabe here from global operations. Today is a great day for PayPal as we celebrate the grand opening of our office in Chandler, Arizona and officially welcome new global operations teammates here. So far we have hired over 500 new staff and have space to hire up to 2,000 positions this year. The employees in Chandler will help...
SES London 2011 - PPC or SEO? What's the Best Marketing Tactic?
February 23, 2011, 12:52 pmThis year Im attending my first Search Conference at SES London. It seems the best place to be if you want to network with European search marketing professionals, learn about search and hear great speakers. Yesterday, I attended.
SES London: Top Tips to Take Your Pay Per Click Account to the Next Level
February 23, 2011, 12:47 pmYour campaigns are performing ok, now to take them to the next level? Brad Geddes (Founder bgTheory.com) and Thomas Bindl (SES Advisory Board & Founder and CEO Refined Labs GmbH) gave some pointers as how to do this at SES London today. Photo: Brad Geddes and Thomas Bindle Testing why and how Testing is one of the best ways to take PPC campaigns...
Google Calendar: Missing Data Fiasco Finally Resolved
February 23, 2011, 12:22 pmImagine logging into your calendar to check your agenda for the day. When you login you see absolutely nothing - no events, no calendar entries, or notes. That's exactly what happened to numerous Google Calendar users today. Several reports were submitted earlier today about missing data in Google Calendar. Not just an entry here, or an entry...
Will publishers back the new iPad?
February 23, 2011, 12:12 pmApple announced another "special event" to the media this morning. All the rumors point to unveiling the next generation iPad and I found myself wondering if Apple will have any publishers onstage to tout its new subscription plan for digital content. Somehow I doubt it. We have heard from a number of publishers since last week who are outraged at...
The Group Buying Effect
February 23, 2011, 11:57 amGroup buying and daily deals have increased exponentially in the past year or two- and they will only grow larger. The benefits on both side of group buying a daily deals are what have made this become to wildly popular. Fair warning: this article is geared more towards those who may not know much about group buying. On one end,
PayPal Opens New Customer Service/Operations Center
February 23, 2011, 11:23 amThanks to PayPal, the unemployment rate in Chandler, Arizona should dive rather soon. PayPal announced today that it's opening a new customer service and operations center in the city, and the center is designed to accommodate as many as 2,000 employees.
This move earned PayPal a warm reception from Chandler's mayor, Jay Tibshraeny. ...
Stress and Social Networking Sites
February 23, 2011, 11:21 amDoes interacting on social networking sites really cause stress? Apparently, according to author Dr. Gennaro D'Amato of the Department of Respiratory Diseases who has noted that this unusual occurrence is becoming more common as more people interact on social networks. He noted that many social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn...
FTC Cracks Down On Mortgage Spammer
February 23, 2011, 11:14 amThe Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said today it has asked a federal judge to shut down a company that allegedly sent people millions of spam text messages.
The text messages allegedly advertised for a deceptive mortgage modification website called “loanmod-gov.net.” The FTC is asking the court to freeze the defendant’s...
YouTube To Stream NBA and NHL Games?
February 23, 2011, 11:06 amSports-seeking cord cutters might have reason to rejoice, or at least reason to hope: theres a possibility YouTube will become a major player in the way sporting events, specifically, the NBA and the NHL, will be consumed by their fans. After the success YouTube enjoyed from streaming of cricket from the Indian Premier League, Googles online...
Apple Event Invitations Sent, iPad 2 Basically Confirmed
February 23, 2011, 11:06 amApple event invitations have been sent out for March 2nd. News of the event leaked out yesterday , but now it's official, as reporters have started receiving their invitations. It will take place at 10am Pacific on March 2nd in San Francisco at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. "Come see what 2011 will be the year of," the invitation teases,...
Google Analytics Adds SDK for iOS
February 23, 2011, 11:01 amThe Google Analytics blog has announced the availability of the Google Analytics SDK for iOS devices. The iOS SDK joins the Android SDK announced last year. Click to read the rest of this post.
Google Doodle Celebrates World Ski Championships
February 23, 2011, 11:01 amVisitors to Google Norway today saw a new Google Doodle that celebrates the start of the 2011 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships. The 50-nation skiing games kicked off this morning in Oslo, Norway and will continue through March 6. Click to read the rest of this post.
The What and Why of Google Boost
February 23, 2011, 10:53 amIt’s not Google that needs a boost. Nor is it Google that gets a boost. It’s Google Boost, with a capital “B.” Which is what?
It seems a bit odd to talk about Internet marketing and advertising in terms of history but the truth is this online giant has been in the ‘Net advertising game for several years.
Not too long ago Google...
The Power of Dashboards in Google Analytics
February 23, 2011, 10:53 amAnd any technology...can be more than a little intimidating at first. Even a platform that prides itself in being as intuitive as Google Analytics does. Additionally, with any analytics platform, you have to adopt a measurement mentality to know where to get the data most useful to you and what to do with that data once you have it in hand.
DOTW: Is it Possible for Us to Educate the Media About SEO?
February 23, 2011, 10:45 amThere has been some discussion this past week about SEO and the media. Lisa Barone discussed it yesterday and Shari Thurow discussed it on Search Engine Land. We all know about JcPenny and Forbes. We also know that myths and misconceptions about SEO are everywhere. The media often confuses things...is this because so much is wrong on the net...
New Interface Wednesdays: Chart and change metric feature
February 23, 2011, 10:36 amHave you ever changed ad formats and wanted to see which actually performed better? Now you can, with the new chart and change metric features. If you've created and saved an ad unit in your account, you'll now be able to do this easily in your ad sizes report.
How To Design A Web Registration Process for Kids
February 23, 2011, 10:21 am"When designing a registration flow for adults, the key is to make it quick and easy, allowing fast access to content and information. For kids, the journey is the destination. It’s important to make that journey as fun, engaging, and rewarding as possible." -- Even if you don't create sites for children, you will gather a few interesting UX...
BrightCove Partners with LG on Content for Smart TVs
February 23, 2011, 10:21 amBrightcove and LG Electronics have announced a partnership to expand online video content on LG's Smart TVs. "The deal enables Brighcove's 2,700+ customers brands including New York Times, Fox, A&E to extend their reach into the living room via LG's Smart TVs, while LG is able to increase the high-quality online video content available through...
Foursquare Hosts Developers at Hackathon
February 23, 2011, 10:21 amRecall, it was not too long ago that Foursquare released their latest developer toolset, the foursquare API v2. Recently, in an effort to bolster the developer community and kick start more Foursquare-based apps, the company hosted their first Hack Day event in New York. According to the Foursquare dev blog, some 150 developers showed up at the...
Analyst Estimate: CBS Deal Cost Netflix $200 Million
February 23, 2011, 10:21 amThe combined value of The Andy Griffith Show , Cheers , Frasier , every Star Trek series, The Twilight Zone , and Twin Peaks is in many ways incalculable. They're some of the greatest series ever made. But if anyone was wondering, the cost of yesterday's Netflix-CBS deal was probably in the neighborhood of $200 million, according to a new...
Russian Search Engine Yandex Plans $1 Billion IPO
February 23, 2011, 10:16 amYandex, Russia's top search engine and contextual advertising company, plans to raise $1 billion with an initial public offering (IPO) on NASDAQ in either June or July of this year, according to numerous reports. Deutsche Bank and Morgan Stanley will manage Yandex's IPO. Yandex reported revenue of 12.5 billion rubles ($410 million) in January, a...
Egyptian protest footage on YouTube
February 23, 2011, 10:16 amIt's been hard to open a laptop or turn on the television over the last week without hearing news of the unrest in Egypt. On YouTube, thousands of videos of the protests have poured in, whether as unfiltered footage from the demonstrations themselves, or as news reports from our media partners around the globe. We understand how closely the world...
Google Awards $2.7 Million Grant To International Press Institute
February 23, 2011, 10:05 amGoogle said today it has awarded a $2.7 million grant to the International Press Institute (IPI), based in Vienna, to sponsor the “IPI News Innovation Contest,” a project aimed at creating breakthrough ideas in digital news.
Grants will be awarded to non-profit and profit organizations working on digital, including mobile,...
15 Questions That Will Change The Way You Think About SEO Forever (Q's 11-15)
February 23, 2011, 9:51 amby Stoney deGeyter As much as the title is vastly overstated, these questions will at the very least help you ponder SEO in a way you hadn't pondered before. At least that's my theory. Question 11. How much time should I spend getting my SEO perfect? Tough question to answer. You really have to weigh the cost/benefit ratio. Many small business...
The PR Society of America responds to my email policy
February 23, 2011, 9:46 amThe PRSA sent this response to my post requesting that PR clean up its industry. Notionally, we support this call to action, as we do any effort that helps advance the public relations profession. However, PRSA's main mission as a membership organization is professional development and education. We have focused our efforts and resources on...
Google Tasks Updates on Google's To-Do List
February 23, 2011, 9:46 amGoogle has a mighty big to-do list of their own. Luckily, the large size of the company and their multi-billion dollar buying power does allow them to get more done than your average citizen (even when using that term on a corporate level). They consistently work on updates to their search engine (there's over 400 .
PR professionals - clean up your industry
February 23, 2011, 9:30 amby Josh Bernoff In the 1970s, the Ad Council created the Keep America Beautiful campaign, featuring the iconic actor Iron Eyes Cody in Native American garb, shedding a tear as people littered along the highways. What that campaign changed was people's attitudes about littering. Before that, people thought, what difference does it make if I throw a...
The Jersey Shore Guide to Irresistible Personal Branding
February 23, 2011, 9:15 amThe Jersey Shore is back and up to its old antics again. My guess " you being a respectable content marketer who finds that sort of display crude, irresponsible and embarrassing " is that you're not tuning in. Hey, I hear you. But do you know who isn't offended by it? The 8.4 million people who tuned in to the season premiere last month, making it...
MySpace Music, Songtrust Partner
February 23, 2011, 9:15 amMySpace, which has long enjoyed a reputation for being a good place for individuals to get familiar with different bands, may soon become even more useful to up-and-coming musicians. MySpace Music has partnered with Songtrust in an effort to introduce better music publishing management services. An official statement on the matter explained,
Guy Levine makes 'PPC as Sexy as Possible' in his Introduction to Paid Search at the SES Conference
February 23, 2011, 9:10 amThis morning I went to a brilliant SES session by Guy Levine (@guylevine from www.returnondigital.com ). Aiming to 'make PPC as sexy as possible', he covered all the basics of paid search, plus a few added extras, and generally left the audience with a comprehensive starter pack for creating an effective account on Bing, Yahoo!, Google and...
Ford Launches Facebook Page For Electric Vehicles
February 23, 2011, 9:00 amFord said today it has launched an Electrified Vehicle Facebook page in an effort to educate and share information with people about its electric offerings. The Electrified Vehicle Facebook page offers users links to videos and photos of Ford's electric vehicles. Users can participate in discussions, take polls, and ask the company questions about...
China's State News Agency Fires Up Its Own Search Engine
February 23, 2011, 8:55 am"If you can't get the results from Google that you want you should just go out and start your own darn search engine!" How many times have we heard that one? Most people just turn tail and hide, resigned to the fact that making a search engine isn't all that easy. That is unless you are the Chinese government's press agency! Since Google doesn't...
China’s State News Agency Fires Up Its Own Search Engine
February 23, 2011, 8:51 am“If you can’t get the results from Google that you want you should just go out and start your own darn search engine!”
How many times have we heard that one? Most people just turn tail and hide, resigned to the fact that making a search engine isn’t all that easy. That is unless you are the Chinese government’s press agency! Since Google...
Is Sony Working on an "Unhackable" PS3?
February 23, 2011, 8:45 amSo far, the Sony-versus-the-PS3-Hackers war has been largely fought to a stalemate. True, Sony has perhaps the bigger victory with the GeoHot ruling, but that clearly hasnt stopped the hackers from counterattacking Sonys position. Sometimes, with a little help/friendly fire from Sony themselves . However, if the reports are true, Sony has had...
Is Sony Working on an “Unhackable” PS3?
February 23, 2011, 8:32 amSo far, the Sony-versus-the-PS3-Hackers war has been largely fought to a stalemate. True, Sony has perhaps the bigger victory with the GeoHot ruling, but that clearly hasn’t stopped the hackers from counterattacking Sony’s position.
Sometimes, with a little help/friendly fire from Sony themselves.
However, if the reports are...
Google Collects Part of Kids' Social Security Numbers for Contest
February 23, 2011, 8:25 amGoogle can't seem to get out of its own way sometimes. Of course, it is a big company that may have certain parts doing one thing while another part does another without real knowledge of each other's plans. That happens in big business. Of course, you would suspect that there is some kind of algorithm keeping everyone in order, right? If it is,...
New Google PageRank Algorithm Debunked
February 23, 2011, 8:15 amIn my recent article on SEJ about Google PageRank I suggested that a new formula could be in action. The article has gone big on Twitter and LinkedIn, with hundreds of shares. And from some comments, it looks like many people accepted it for a fact. Now I hate to break it but I have to admit that I was most probably wrong. So I need to write this...
Google Collects Part of Kids’ Social Security Numbers for Contest
February 23, 2011, 8:09 amGoogle can’t seem to get out of its own way sometimes. Of course, it is a big company that may have certain parts doing one thing while another part does another without real knowledge of each other’s plans. That happens in big business. Of course, you would suspect that there is some kind of algorithm keeping everyone in order, right? If it...
To Improve Search Quality, Google Must Penalize Sources of Link Pollution
February 23, 2011, 7:44 amIf you've been in SEO for more than a few weeks, it's a safe bet you've seen poorly moderated blog comments or forum threads that have been polluted with spammy links. It's also likely you've found evidence of "link hacking," the unauthorized placement of links on an otherwise quality website via some sort of hacking mechanism. These are forms of...
Tool Alert! Create a Twitter Digest to Easier Keep Up with Your Closest Friends
February 23, 2011, 7:44 amKeeping up with your social media contacts is one of the most important steps in building online presence. But how not to get lost and cluttered? Today's tool may be an answer. Twitter Digest is an interesting tool that (as the name suggests) allows to create a digest of tweets from your favorite Twitter users to more efficiently keep up with...
Click Distribution & Percentages by SERP Ranking Position
February 23, 2011, 7:39 amEver wonder what an organic click might really be worth? For that matter, ever wonder what is the number of clicks you might gain by moving from position #5 to position #1 in the search results?
Banyan Branch Reaches 100 Million
February 23, 2011, 7:19 amCompanies need customers to be profitable. People become customers when they know and like a company's products or services and decide to patronize them. There are some companies that specialize in providing customers with creative ways on finding and retaining customers, and just recently, Banyan Branch achieved a record milestone that will...
Eric Schmidt Speaks at Humboldt University: Full Video
February 23, 2011, 7:09 amGoogle CEO Eric Schmidt spoke at Humboldt University in Berlin last week. Google has now made video of the entire speech available. He talks about Google increasing its presence in Europe and Germany, and the funding of a center for discussing/debating the evolution of the web. He also announces a small business initiative. He then talks about...
Google Nexus One, Nexus S Gets Gingerbread Bump
February 23, 2011, 7:09 amListen up, all you die-hard Google fans: Google tweeted last night that Android 2.3.3 would be zipping over-the-air to the Nexus One and as an incremental upgrade to the Samsung Nexus S, which launched with the Gingerbread build in December. I could go on and on and make up some reason why this is a big deal, but it's not. Google's Nexus phones,...
7 Key Elements to a Successful Business Blog
February 23, 2011, 6:59 amOver the past 7 years of blogging, one could say I've become quite familiar with the world of blogging. Online Marketing Blog has received a lot of kudos recently but more importantly, our experience with reviewing others' blogs has been a learning experience to say the least. I've looked at over 1,000 blogs to create the BIGLIST and recently...
Doodle 4 Google Contest a Tool to Collect Kids Social Security Numbers?
February 23, 2011, 6:34 amWhy would Google need the date of birth, city of birth, and last four digits of children's social security numbers for what is supposed to be an innocent art project? Was it to try to get parents to unknowingly hand over the full social security numbers of their own children, while providing Google with invaluable marketing data? The fourth annual...
Government Controlled Search Engine Panguso Launches in China
February 23, 2011, 5:28 amPanguso , a new search engine from state-owned Xinhua News Agency and China Mobile, launched yesterday in China. The new search engine is touted by Xinhua as an "accurate search service for news, websites, images, videos and audio data," although it will be strictly censored by the Chinese government. Click to read the rest of this post.
How Will the New Chrome Look?
February 23, 2011, 4:19 amGoogle Chrome is currently world’s third popular browser, after the Internet Explorer and Mozilla FireFox. Although it is only two-and-something “years old”, the Chrome has quickly gained popularity due to extensive advertizing campaign – Google can afford that, of course. However, in order for advertizing campaign to succeed, the featured...
Link Building Training: do you already have all the links you need?
February 23, 2011, 4:02 amPosted by willcritchlow You've got all the links you need, right? No matter how advanced an SEO you are, there are few people who can make that claim (in-house at Wikipedia, maybe?). For the rest of us, there's more to learn. Over the last couple of weeks, I have been working with our speakers to plan the sessions for the advanced link building...
SEO content marketing roundup, week ending February 23rd
February 23, 2011, 2:16 amGoogle amping up its social search results tops this week's latest and greatest web-writing news: content marketing, SEO, search and social media folks all weigh in on the integration of influences in their respective spheres with posts about strategy, recommendations, and implications. Here are the week's selections across the spectrum: Content...
35% of Viewers Watch Skippable YouTube TrueView Ads [Report]
February 23, 2011, 12:15 amSome early results are in on YouTube TrueView video ads , the cost-per-view skippable ad model launched back in December. In a beta test conducted by one of the first TrueView advertisers - sports camera-maker GoPro - 35 percent of viewers who were served GoPro ads watched them in their entirety, according to a ClickZ report. The company's...
Is Social Media Replacing Traditional Communication?
February 23, 2011, 12:10 amYou hear the social media verbiage everywhere you turn these days, but have you ever stopped to take a look at the serious impact social media marketing is making on our personal and business lives? Social media has increasingly moved in and replaced a variety of communication efforts and I think that it is not slowing down anytime soon. How does...
Demand Media: We're "Very White Hat"
February 22, 2011, 10:14 pmDemand Media CEO Richard Rosenblatt, speaking on an earnings call today, took to defending his company's content, which is often subject to a great deal of criticism, though I would contend that much of the criticism is really geared toward Google for surfacing some of the more questionable (in quality) content over other results that would appear...
Demand Media Posts First Earnings Report as Public Company
February 22, 2011, 9:14 pmDemand Media posted its fourth quarter financial results today - the company's first earnings report since going public last month. Demand posted revenue of $73.6 million, an increase of 33% compared to $55.5 million in the same quarter the previous year. Income from operations was $2.8 million compared to a net loss from operations of ($3.2)...
iPad 2 Expected to Be Unveiled By Apple on March 2nd
February 22, 2011, 8:59 pmKara Swisher at AllThingsD is reporting that Apple will unveil the iPad 2 on March 2nd at in event in San Francisco. Recent reports have indicated that the next iPad will be available through both AT&T and Verizon, and will be thinner, lighter, and will have at least one camera on the front, as well as more memory, and a more powerful graphics...
iPad 2 Expected to Be Unveiled at Apple Event on March 2nd
February 22, 2011, 8:41 pmKara Swisher at AllThingsD is reporting that Apple will unveil the iPad 2 on March 2nd at in event in San Francisco.
Recent reports have indicated that the next iPad will be available through both AT&T and Verizon, and will be thinner, lighter, and will have at least one camera on the front, as well as more memory, and a more powerful...
VIDEO: What Can Yahoo! Do for You?
February 22, 2011, 8:08 pmYahoo! Advertising Solutions is Science + Art"at just the right scale The video below starts with math for very good reason. Fact is, advertising today is about the numbers more than ever, And Yahoo! scientist R. Preston McAfee's formula to help advertisers run ads when and where they want them to get the best results is a great illustration. But...
Headsmacking Tip #17: Use Your Bio as an SEO Advantage
February 22, 2011, 7:23 pmPosted by randfish Your online identity is going further, faster and with more impact than ever before, yet many of us miss out on the seemingly obvious SEO power of our personal and company biographies. It may be a headsmacker, but it's a good one - use your bio! Personal/professional bios appear most frequently in four types of online sources:...
Follow the Leader
February 22, 2011, 7:23 pmIt's a new year, but comScore Media Metrix numbers show that Yahoo! is still #1 Did you visit a Yahoo! site during January? If so, you're one of the almost 179 million Americans who pointed their browsers toward Yahoo!, helping us to rank #1 in the comScore Media Metrix Audience Rank tabulation for the month. That marks a "three-peat" for the...
83rd Annual Academy Awards "Projections" from Yahoo! Search Data
February 22, 2011, 6:32 pmACCORDING TO YAHOO! SEARCH DATA, BLACK SWAN REIGNS SUPREME AND THE WEB IS BUZZING ABOUT CO-HOST ANNE HATHAWAY The 83 rd Annual Academy Awards are set to air on Sunday February 27 th . As the world prepares for Hollywood's biggest night, Yahoo! looked at which films and actors are getting the most buzz online in the past 30 days. According to...
The Ethics of Pay Per Post
February 22, 2011, 6:02 pmSuppose you ask me to write something nice about your company. I do it and you give me a $10 bill. If I work for you, then it’s a paycheck. If I don’t work for you, then it’s Pay Per Post and that’s a whole different bowl of noodles. . . or is it?
If I disclose the fact that you paid me the money to write the post as...
Google Defines Mobile Sites & Offers Advice on Being Mobile Friendly
February 22, 2011, 5:11 pmWith the explosion of mobile users and projected growth showing staggering numbers, it's a great time for Google to clear the air on mobile sites. A new post published on Google's Webmaster Central Blog clarifies several common mobile site issues and focuses on Google-bot mobile interacting with a users site. Click to read the rest of this post.
Google Gets Behind Tax Data Visualization Contest
February 22, 2011, 4:46 pmPrepare to take some pride in what your tax dollars achieve (or decide to disappear into the forests of Canada). Google's throwing $5,000 and its PR machine behind a contest meant to show the public how American tax money is spent. A post on the Official Google Blog explained this afternoon, "Last year, Andrew Johnson and Louis Garcia, two...
Can Groupon Own The Deals Space?
February 22, 2011, 4:46 pmCan Groupon own the deals space the way Google owns search? It's hard to imagine the space being dominated by any one company. Forget for a second that it has Google and Facebook to contend with, and even LivingSocial (previously cited as its closest competitor). Deals sites are popping up everywhere - some focusing on local markets and different...
Google Launches API for Chrome Omnibox
February 22, 2011, 3:56 pmGoogle announced the launch of a new omnibox API for Chrome. This means developers will be able to do new cool things with the omnibox (the address bar in Chrome, which also serves as a search box). "One of the most powerful aspects of Google Chrome is the omnibox, also known as the address bar," says Google software engineer Matt Perry. "You can...
Facebook Hires Google's Latin America Head
February 22, 2011, 3:25 pmAlthough Google's famous for being one of the world's best employers, Facebook has been able to lure workers away on a regular basis, and the social network's starting to get quite aggressive about it. Indeed, the latest switch involves Alexandre Hohagen, Google's (former) top-ranking exec in Latin America. Hohagen's exact title at Google was...
On Facebook Breaking Up is Not So Hard to Do
February 22, 2011, 3:20 pmGetting customers to follow you on Facebook is hard enough, but once you have them, it's just as much of a chore to keep them. According to the latest Subscribers, Fans and Followers report from ExactTarget, social media followers are like Goldilocks. Too big, too small, too hard, too soft " finding a happy medium that suits the majority of your...
Leader of Libya Moves the Web
February 22, 2011, 3:20 pmby Claudine Zap The popular uprising in Libya has fueled Web searches on the country and its longtime leader, Moammar Gadhafi. Here the top lookups generating the most interest on the Internet. Martyr The Libyan leader appeared on television to quash rumors he had fled to Venezuela. Gadhafi said, "I will not leave the country. I will die as a...
Netflix and CBS Strike Content Streaming Deal
February 22, 2011, 3:10 pmNetflix announced a new deal with CBS that will allow it to stream CBS content for two years (non-exclusively). The deals enables Netflix to stream select TV shows like Medium, Flashpoint, Frasier, and Cheers. Other shows included in the deal are: Family Ties, the original Hawaii Five-O, Star Trek, Twin Peaks, The Twilight Zone, and The Andy...
Google Chrome 11 Will Have an Omnibox (Fear Not)
February 22, 2011, 2:50 pmGoogle isn't jettisoning the Omnibox, the URL address bar/search box combination the company introduced at the product's inception in 2008. At least, the Omnibox isn't going anywhere soon sources in the know told Google Watch . What Google is experimenting with are a few variants where the Omnibox has been removed to add more space in the browser...
Looking to Get Out of Jury Duty? Be a Social Media Dimwit
February 22, 2011, 2:45 pmAs is the case in many things in life, just because a lot of people have something it doesn't mean they know how to use it. Back in the Stone Age of video everyone had a VCR but no one could program the darn thing. We are now seeing the same happen with social media. There are a lot of people with accounts or profiles or whatever in the social...
PayPal Mobile for iPhone makes Raising Money Easy While on the Go
February 22, 2011, 2:35 pmHi all, Laura Chambers here, senior director of PayPal Mobile. Straight out of last week's Analyst Day , which showcased our mobile offerings and the future of mobile payments; we are thrilled to bring you our newest version of the PayPal Mobile for iPhone application. Saving for an upcoming alumni event? Or trying to muster up funds for an...
SES London: Search Engine Marketing is an Art and Science
February 22, 2011, 2:30 pmWe are at SES London! Weve turned up at a great location at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, right in the heart of the city. Westminster Abbey and the Big Ben are beautiful backdrops to this great annual search event. Over the next few days we will keep you up to date with blog posts, tweets and a photo feed from our Flickr account. If...
Square Eliminates Transaction Fee, Calls it a Revolution
February 22, 2011, 2:20 pmSquare , the mobile payments company co-founded by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, just announced that it is removing a 15¢ transaction fee on credit card payments - a move that is sure to capture merchants' attention. The company says: Now when you swipe a card with Square there is just one fee: 2.75%. What you see is what you pay. Square lets...
ForRent.com Partners With Oodle On Facebook Marketplace
February 22, 2011, 2:05 pmForRent.com said today it has partnered with online classified company Oodle to integrate its apartment listings in the Facebook Marketplace. Looking for and acquiring a home (be it renting or buying) has been called one of lifes major stressors. Engaging feedback from ones social network can ease the anxiety of this decision, said Brock MacLean,...
Facebook Continues to Improve in Search
February 22, 2011, 1:50 pmI wrote an article a couple months ago, asking: What if Facebook goes search while Google struggles to go social? I looked at some of the things Facebook has done related to search, and made the case that the social networking giant has a lot of potential for becoming a bigger player in search in general. Now, they're making more adjustments to...
Yahoo Japan will give points when you search
February 22, 2011, 1:29 pmYahoo Japan will run a Yahoo Point Campaign in March. During a month of March, all registered users (Yahoo ID is required) will gain Yahoo points every time they search. Members can use Yahoo points to pay for several services including Yahoo Music, Yahoo Shopping and Yahoo Travel. Detail: http://search.yahoo.co.jp/campaign/2011a/ (in Japanese)...
BC Social Media Summit 2011
February 22, 2011, 1:14 pmTonight join StepForth's CEO and SEO Specialist, Ross Dunn as he discusses the best ways to merge social media with search engine optimization for best effect. Ross is only one of the speakers - read on for the official advertisement for this event to raise money for the BC Cancer Foundation. How much would it be worth to you or your business if...
Google Invests Further in NFC Technologies
February 22, 2011, 1:14 pmGoogle often is the cutting edge of technology, but when they themselves aren't developing the new concepts, they are at the very least on the cusp of new movements. Such is the case for near-field communication (NFC) technology. This technology allows mobile devices and other handheld hardware to communicate with nano-technology incorporated into...
Google Simplifying Chrome UI, Hiding URL Bar
February 22, 2011, 1:14 pmGoogle chrome is getting a new look. In an e-mail sent to the Chromium-dev mailing list, Jeff Chang, Google Chrome Product Manager, hinted at four new designs being considered for the browser, including removing the address bar from the product. Wait.. what? How will we enter addresses in the browser? Click to read the rest of this post.
Why Digital Marketing Challenges Everyone
February 22, 2011, 12:29 pmSometimes I can see it in their eyes. During a speaking appearance, I'll look out at the audience and see fear. Not the "Big F" kind of "Run for your lives, citizens!" terror that you see in a B-movie. No, I am talking about the kind of fear that makes you stop and check things out just one more time before trying something. The fear that causes...
SES London 2011 - Day 1 Coverage #SESUK
February 22, 2011, 12:24 pmHere's a roundup of today's live blogging and coverage of SES London 2011 . If I missed your site's coverage, please make sure to leave a note in the comments. Click to read the rest of this post.
German Town Tells Google Maps: Give Us Back Our Harbor
February 22, 2011, 11:54 amGoogle Maps has angered officials and residents of Emden, Germany, by placing their port in the Netherlands. Emden's City Council has been trying for more than a year to get back its harbor, most of which Google Maps places under Dutch sovereignty, newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung reported yesterday. Click to read the rest of this post.
Graphic.ly Introduces Android App
February 22, 2011, 11:43 amOnline comic service Graphic.ly has launched an app for Android that offers users access to more than 150 publishers and over 2,000 titles. Publishers include Marvel Comics, Archaia Entertainment, Archie Comics, BOOM! Studios and IDW Publishing. Like our community, we are firm believers in the explosion of the Android market, said Micah Baldwin,...
Russian Official Faults Google For "Manipulations" In Egypt
February 22, 2011, 11:24 amGoogle's attempts to "do no evil" and defend Wael Ghonim may have raised the Russian government's ire. Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin has been quoted blaming more than one executive for contributing to the Egyptian revolution.
According to a new Reuters article, Sechin said, "Look what they have done in Egypt, those...
Russian Official Faults Google For “Manipulations” In Egypt
February 22, 2011, 11:24 amGoogle’s attempts to "do no evil" and defend Wael Ghonim may have raised the Russian government’s ire. Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin has been quoted blaming more than one executive for contributing to the Egyptian revolution.
According to a new Reuters article, Sechin said, "Look what they have done in Egypt,...
Two new optimizations guides: One Click Optimizer and Optimization Lab
February 22, 2011, 11:23 amWe'd like to introduce you to two new optimization guides: the One Click Optimizer and the Optimization Lab . These guides have been designed to provide you quick and easy-to-implement optimization tips to help you maximize your site's revenue and performance. One Click Optimizer Do you own a news site, a classifieds site, a game site, a forum, or...
Foursquare's Dennis Crowley Talks Facebook Competition
February 22, 2011, 11:08 amFoursquare co-founder Dennis Crowley appeared on CNBC, discussing how Foursquare can compete with Facebook. "They're a huge platform and a big competitor, but we look at the things we're doing, and they're really kind of fundamentally different than what Facebook is doing," he said. "Facebook has really figured out how people share information...
MyLife Search Engine Expected to Turn Big Profits
February 22, 2011, 10:48 amWhat is probably one of the most frequently-found tasks on the Internet besides shopping and gaming is people-searching. To this end, there are a few well-known people search engines where people go to find other people that they're looking for. To be successful in that industry, the company needs access to good resources and a .
Google Antitrust Deal in Works? Schmidt Meets With Key EU Regulator
February 22, 2011, 10:48 amOutgoing CEO Eric Schmidt met with Joaquin Almunia, vice president of the European Commission, during the World Economic Forum in Switzerland to discuss the ongoing EU antitrust investigation . During the meeting, Schmidt asked Almunia to quickly complete the inquiry, which consists of sending out questionnaires to companies (and were due back by...
Zagat Introduces New Website
February 22, 2011, 10:38 amRestaurant information company Zagat has relaunched its website to include more free content and increased recognition of its user reviews. Zagat has always been a brand powered by people and passion. Having listened to our users, weve re-envisioned Zagat.com, said Nina Zagat, Co-Founder, Zagat Survey. Weve greatly expanded our free content,...
Yahoo Japan Agrees To Video Deal With Ooyala
February 22, 2011, 10:38 amYahoo Japan's approach to online video technology will soon change a great deal. Indeed, the company's partnered with Ooyala, an online video specialist, and its tech is supposed to be incorporated into just about everything Yahoo Japan owns. A quick note/reminder: Yahoo Japan is not exactly the Yahoo most Americans know. Yahoo only owns 33...
7 Mistakes that Lead to Guest Post Failure
February 22, 2011, 10:23 amGuest posting! The highway to unbridled blogging success! Nab yourself a spot on an A-List blog and suddenly it's your name in lights. Traffic, engagement, the undying adulation of the unwashed masses! Sounds great, right? Well, it is, actually. But what about those of us who really crave a bit of failure? The ones who like to start every anecdote...
The New York Times' Pathetic Case for the Decline of Blogging
February 22, 2011, 10:18 amIf you feel that the New York Times has the pulse of the Internet then the answer to our headline would be yes. In fact, the Times article which ran on Sunday is titled "Blogs Wane As Young Drift to Sites Like Twitter". That's a pretty heavy statement especially when you are saying even the shortest blog post idea can be just as effectively...
The New York Times’ Pathetic Case for the Decline of Blogging
February 22, 2011, 10:03 amIf you feel that the New York Times has the pulse of the Internet then the answer to our headline would be yes. In fact, the Times article which ran on Sunday is titled “Blogs Wane As Young Drift to Sites Like Twitter”. That’s a pretty heavy statement especially when you are saying even the shortest blog post idea can be just as effectively...
Is Blogging Really in Danger Because of Social Networks?
February 22, 2011, 9:49 amHere we go again with another one of those silly social media vs. blogs debates. The New York Times stirred the pot this time with an article called, "Blogs Wane as the Young Drift to Sites Like Twitter."
Can you imagine ever reading only social media updates and no blogs? Share your thoughts.
"Blogs were once the outlet of...
Think Keyword Density is Still a Factor? Prove It!
February 22, 2011, 9:46 amA thought provoking piece that refutes and challenges keyword density and an SEO practice. - As I read her email I could literally feel my blood pressure rising. She’d heard me speak at a webinar I did for Wordtracker about ecommerce copywriting where I said keyword density hadn’t been a factor in SEO copywriting for years. The lump in...
WANTED: Software Engineers REWARD: $12,000
February 22, 2011, 9:37 amPosted by randfish In 2010, SEOmoz's software business grew from 4,000 - 7,000 subscribers and $3.1mm - $5.7mm in revenue (more transparency on details coming soon). Our customers have been loving our products (our web app now supports nearly 30K campaigns) and our data (over 250 companies use our API ), but we're nowhere near satisfied. (*note:...
Weekly Search & Social News: 02/22/2011
February 22, 2011, 9:37 amHello and welcome back to ' 7 Days of Search and Social '. It was another fun filled week out in the trenches last week. Some (big?) news from Google. More drama. But we avoid that for the most part right? I hope this week is going well and your kicking a$$ and taking SERPs! On with the news'. Lead Story Google Gets Social, again' While there was...
Libya Protest Tweets Mapped Using Google Maps
February 22, 2011, 9:17 amAn activist has put together a Google Maps mashup , mapping out tweets from those involved in the protests in Libya. On the map page, the description reads: "This map has been created by compiling reports from trusted accounts on Twitter. Nonetheless, these reports are in general unconfirmed. This information should be considered in the context...
Twitter Poaches MySpace's Director Of Business Development
February 22, 2011, 9:17 amDepending on your perspective, Twitter's recruiters have either succeeded or struck again. After luring employees away from Google, Yahoo, and Facebook, they've now also brought Rita Garg, Director of Business Development at MySpace, onboard. Garg has a rather impressive resume . For starters, she attended both Stanford (getting a BA in...
Yahoo Launches Finance App For The iPad
February 22, 2011, 8:47 amYahoo has introduced a finance app for the iPad called MarketDash. MarketDash allows iPad users to manage views of stock charts, scroll across hours, days or months of market activity; plot points in time; and compare multiple stock tickers in one chart. The Yodel Anecdotal Blog offers more details. Want to take a look at how your portfolio...
Amazon Launches New Netflix Competitor
February 22, 2011, 8:47 amAmazon has announced the launch of an unlimited, commercial-free instant streaming movie and TV show service for Amazon Prime members. The service will give subscribers access to 5,000 movies and shows. Prime members will not be charged any extra. The price will remain $79 per year for the membership. The service also provides members with...
Watch out: Google continues to penalize spammers
February 22, 2011, 8:36 amLast week, J. C. Penney was penalized by Google because they used paid links to advertise their website. This week, Forbes.com has been penalized because they sell links. Is your website in danger? Which search engine optimization methods are safe to use?
Christchurch, New Zealand Earthquake - People Finder Tool Released by Google
February 22, 2011, 8:32 amGoogle has launched a people search tool to help people affected by the earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand. With the tool, users have to options: - I'm looking for someone - I ahve information about someone The tool can be accessed here . Google allows people to embed the tool on their own sites as such: Get the code here . You can also add...
Google Simplifies Bidding on the Display Network
February 22, 2011, 8:16 amGoogles display network is a great way for small business advertisers to dabble in the banner advertising space. Whilst the planning, set up and management of banner advertising through Googles display network is fairly straight forward, one part of the process was a bit more convoluted than it should have been the bidding on managed placements.
User-Friendly SEO
February 22, 2011, 8:14 amSome web designers (and many web content writers) view on-page SEO as a necessary evil to an effective content strategy on the web. However, when properly executed, SEO can actually enhance a site visitor’s experience, rather than detract from it.
The Profits in Social Media Data-Gathering
February 22, 2011, 8:11 amMost of the revenue generated exists in ad placement for targeted audiences, right? After all, it is widely believed that advertising is the wheel that keeps most internet sites, especially large social networks, turning. But in a recent report generated by AdWeek, studies reveal that although advertising is indeed a cash cow, the real profits .
What's New in SEO for February 22, 2011
February 22, 2011, 8:06 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: An update to Google Social Search Google has made a few updates to its social search. Social search results will now be mixed throughout your results based on their relevance...
Skype Breaks Record with 29 Million Users Online
February 22, 2011, 8:01 amSkype has broken a new record, hitting 29 million people online. On Skype's "Big Blog", Peter Parkes writes : We've passed another milestone at approximately 1800 GMT yesterday, there were more than 29 million people online on Skype. Another record broken, and an opportunity for us to remind you that you can get Skype in all sorts of places on...
Link Building Tools I Wish Someone Would Build
February 22, 2011, 7:41 amBy now most of us know that any sort of automated link building (or buying) service isn't going to go out and build awesome links in bulk. Theoretically it may provide some ROI, but it'll likely be short-lived, and either way it wouldn't be safe to build a whole strategy around the tactic. Conversely, manual link building is a time-consuming...
Social Brands and the Seven Deadly Sins
February 22, 2011, 7:30 amCompanies establishing a social media presence may make some missteps. Some of the brands known for their social presence, including Best Buy and Starbucks, can point to mistakes made along the way and to what the brand learned from it.
It’s understandable. Social marketing requires a company to shift from broadcasting an anonymous, singular...
Why the SEO Industry Changes So Often
February 22, 2011, 7:26 amLet's face it the SEO industry is a lot like a runaway train at times and all you can really do is just hold on for dear life and embrace the ongoing changes. SEO changes because technology changes and the SERP's sometimes have to parallel everything that is occurring in society as well as overall technology (from the search engines, visitors,...
Eric Schmidt's Mobile World Congress Speech: Full Video
February 22, 2011, 7:11 amGoogle has made video available of CEO Eric Schmidt's speech at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona last week. At the event, he discussed the company's current operating system focuses: Android Gingerbread and Honeycomb, and Chrome OS. "We've got an OS for phones called 'Gingerbread' and one for tablets called 'Honeycomb'. G and H. You can imagine...
Apple In-App Subscriptions Not for SaaS Apps, According to Steve Jobs
February 22, 2011, 7:11 amApple's subscription policy has been the subject of a great deal of controversy since it was introduced a week ago. It has been heavily in the spotlight this week, with app developer Readability having posted an open letter to Apple, In the letter, Readability creator Rich Ziade wrote : We're obviously disappointed by this decision, and surprised...
4 Ways to Find Business Facebook Fan Pages
February 22, 2011, 6:46 amEither as a consumer that loves different brands or a B2B marketer who's looking to connect with prospects, Facebook Fan pages offer an easy way to engage with others that have similar interests. It's easy enough to find the brand names you know, but when looking using other criteria, it can be tough.
9 Sins of Google Analytics
February 22, 2011, 6:41 amGoogle has created business and consumer applications for just about any occasion imaginable, exemplified by its popular programs like Google Maps and Google Analytics. Because of their ease-of-use and zero cost, many people have come to rely heavily on these solutions. Yet like all things in life, Google Analytics isn't without flaws, and users...
PPC Summit arranges SEO and Social Media Success Event
February 22, 2011, 6:10 amThe PPC Summit Internet Marketing Institute is arranging a newSEO & social media marketing success event on April 5 to 14. This is an online training seminar for developing up to date search engine and social media marketing skills.
2 Minutes with Jeffrey Hayzlett Former CMO of Kodak at SES London 2011
February 22, 2011, 6:10 amWe're at SES London this week right smack bang next to where Kate and William will be getting married in a few months. When it comes to marketing, take the former CMO of Kodak - Jeffrey Hayzlett - add a microphone and a keen audience and you have the perfect union to wave flags at and applaud. After Jeffrey's keynote we grabbed two minutes with...
SEO Strategies for Google News
February 22, 2011, 5:29 amIf you’re already creating great news content, it’s relatively easy to get it indexed in Google News and the traffic can be substantial. Here are some strategies for getting the most out of your content in Google News.
Go Universal
When Google News results are pulled into Google’s main SERPs, it offers a great opportunity to...
Traffic jam alert: your social media search results
February 22, 2011, 4:39 amGuest Author, Pam Foster Google just announced that they're beefing up social search results. The official 2/17/2011 Googleblog stated, "Today we're taking another step forward"enabling you to get even more information from the people that matter to you, whether they're publishing on YouTube, Flickr or their own blog or website," and then,
Google Ignores Your Title Tags? There Should be a Reason…
February 22, 2011, 4:24 amNumerous websites reported that Google is ignoring the page title tags, replacing them with something “equivalent”. The discussion started on the WebmastersWorld forum with several “upset” webmasters claiming that Google is shoeing page titles that are different from what is included in the page HTML.
Well, instead of being upset, I would...
Blaming SEO for Bad Search Results is like Blaming Mechanics for Bad Roads
February 22, 2011, 3:34 am* For most people, SEO still is either a complete unknown, magicâ or the scapegoat for almost everything that doesn't work on the Web.â In particular, bloggers seeking attention, publicity and links love to leverage all the ignorance and prejudiceâ and launch attacks on SEO as a whole again and again. Recently, another popular...
The Secret to Getting 50,000 Followers on Twitter
February 22, 2011, 2:45 amThe secret is that it isn't a secret. Even in the magical world of social media, it comes down to a lot of hard work.
Klout for Business: A Useful Metric –but an Incomplete View of Your Customer
February 22, 2011, 2:05 amGreat article from Jeremiah Owyang that throws cold water on companies who put too much stock and trust in Klout influence scores. In a nutshell ... it's not all that.
10 Tips to Inspire Your Audience to Take Action in Social Media
February 22, 2011, 1:56 amAll the followers and fans in the world aren't worth a dime unless you can inspire them to take action -- this is a good piece that talks about how to communicate with social media connections in a way that inspires them to DO SOMETHING.
Making A Site Mobile and Search Friendly
February 22, 2011, 12:50 amWe've noticed a rise in the number of questions from webmasters about how best to structure a website for mobile phones and how websites can best interact with Googlebot-Mobile. In this post we'll explain the current situation and give you specific recommendations you can implement now.
Questions to Ask Your New SEO Employees
February 22, 2011, 12:12 amWith so many resumes and cover letters bouncing around in the search space right now it is going to be difficult to pick the right one. How do you know if that resume is not lying or if it is not completely fabricated? There are some ways you can pin point if the person you are speaking with is the right candidate to fill your search engine...
Alibaba CEO and COO Step Down
February 21, 2011, 9:31 pmAccording to reports, Alibaba CEO David Wei and COO Elvis Lee have both resigned, following findings of fraudulent activity among thousands of sellers. Neither executive was found to be actually involved in the fraud, but the company found a significant increase in claims against particular sellers over the last year. In a statement, Alibaba said...
9 Ways To Start A New Local Business Using Facebook, Twitter, Groupon And Google
February 21, 2011, 9:15 pmA nice list of affordable steps you can take to build a solid online presence for your local biz.
News Journalism Online: A Future Guide To Key Trends And Predictions
February 21, 2011, 6:00 pmWhat are the key trends influencing the future of news media and online journalism? Are the news being commoditized and used as a free-marketing vehicle to sell higher-value premium content, or are we going to see more and more news sources finding ways to charge for their previously free information services?
Photo credit: Paulino...
$1 Billion Yandex IPO Set For This Summer
February 21, 2011, 4:24 pmAnyone who would like to invest in Russia's most successful search engine may want to start saving pennies and talking to his (or her) stockbroker. Reports indicate that Yandex, which has had little trouble fending off Google in its home market, will go public and try to raise $1 billion this summer.
A post on the Quintura Blog stated...
Ted Ulle aka Tedster On Information Architecture
February 21, 2011, 4:24 pmThe main navigation – the core Information Architecture – needs to be a fundamental beacon that the visitor can depend on to stay oriented. The job of the Information Architect is to create a consistent structure that most people will relate to easily.
Deals, Discounts and Coupons: The Thrill is Gone
February 21, 2011, 3:46 pmIt's President's Day and you know what that means! Low low prices on mattresses, bedding, jewelry and cars, cars, cars. If George Washington were alive today, he'd be lining up to get a great price on a new Toyota! Honest, says Abe! Do you remember the days when Washington and Lincoln were respected men of history and not hyperactive, humorous...
Facebook Chat In Hotmail Goes Live Worldwide
February 21, 2011, 3:21 pmFive months ago, Microsoft announced that Hotmail users in Brazil, France, Germany, Russia, the U.K., and the U.S. could begin to chat with their Facebook friends while checking their email. Now the integration of Hotmail and Facebook Chat is complete in every place where Facebook is available. We'll admit: this may not sound like a big deal...
Readability to Apple: "Your New Policy Smacks of Greed"
February 21, 2011, 3:00 pmThe Apple subscription drama continues. Apple has rejected the Readability app, pointing to a section in its App Store Review Guidelines , which says, "Apps utilizing a system other than the In App Purchase API (IAP) to purchase content, functionality, or services in an app will be rejected." Readability isn't thrilled. Readability is an app that...
Google to Circumvent Domain Names?
February 21, 2011, 2:14 pmA couple days ago there was a blog post on TheDomains about "how stupid SEOs are" and "the amazing power of domaining" where they highlighted how awesome domaining was because a guy registered a domain name he saw in a comic and it sent a bunch of traffic.
Access The Oscars Online
February 21, 2011, 2:00 pmThe Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has launched an online All Access pass for Oscar night on Oscar.com. Beginning at 3:30 p.m. PT, Sunday, February 27, visitors to Oscar.com will be able to view red carpet arrivals of actors and celebrities via multiple camera angles. During the broadcast on ABC, users can view the backstage Thank You...
comScore Media Metrix Ranks Top 50 U.S. Web Properties for January 2011
February 21, 2011, 1:55 pmcomScore, 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 January 2011 based on data from the comScore Media Metrix service. Americans' Web activity in January saw gains in a few main content categories: Taxes, Travel and Career Resources. Many...
Google Search is going social
February 21, 2011, 1:25 pmGoogle has once again implemented a new search criteria, adding social networks such as Twitter and Facebook to SERPs. The updated functionality will be rolled across the English language search engines when a user is logged in his or her Google mail account. This is not a new feature for Google Search but an update of what was developed in 2009....
Hail to the Chief: Celebrate the US President's with Bing Visual Search Gallery
February 21, 2011, 1:19 pmIn celebration of Presidents Day, Bing has created a Visual Search Gallery highlighting the past 44 US leaders. Who was the youngest president in office? Which presidents are depicted on US currency? What were their professions prior to holding office? Discover all of this and more in a matter of clicks. Use the left rail to refine your search or...
Social Media Killing Blogs...Here We Go Again.
February 21, 2011, 1:14 pmHere we go again with another one of those silly social media vs. blogs debates. The New York Times stirred the pot this time with an article called, " Blogs Wane as the Young Drift to Sites Like Twitter ." "Blogs were once the outlet of choice for people who wanted to express themselves online. But with the rise of sites like Facebook and...
Navigating PPC Trademark Rules
February 21, 2011, 1:06 pmMicrosoft adCenter just updated their policies for bidding on trademarked keywords so it is a good time for a refresher. Lucky for you there is one right here...
Google Chrome May Remove Address Bar?
February 21, 2011, 12:54 pmThe Amazing Power of Domains! A couple days ago there was a blog post on TheDomains about "how stupid SEOs are" and "the amazing power of domaining" where they highlighted how awesome domaining was because a guy registered a domain name he saw in a comic and it sent a bunch of traffic. What that article failed to mention was: That traffic wasn't...
Combining Social Media with the Real World
February 21, 2011, 12:44 pmThe gist of social media and networking is, of course, to connect people, to bring them together for socializing and sharing. People do this in a variety of ways that can include text messaging, through social networking sites and through sharing videos and pictures. For some people, their choice to network may be through personal .
Zynga Launches CityVille In More Languages
February 21, 2011, 11:54 amZynga said today its newest game CityVille is now available in Indonesian and Turkish bringing the number of offered languages for the game to eight. Indonesian and Turkish are more language firsts for Zynga and are important markets for the company as it expands internationally. Building from the success of CityVille, an increased number of...
Yahoo Highlights Role In Creation Of Watson
February 21, 2011, 11:39 amPretty much everyone knows by now that Watson, the Jeopardy -playing supercomputer that was able to cream two human champions, was created by researchers at IBM. And IBM's made clear that Watson doesn't work its magic by searching the Internet. But apparently Yahoo tech did play a role in the creation of the machine. A post on Yahoo's official...
Squeeze Page Optimisation: How to Get 700+ Free Leads and a 64% Conversion Rate
February 21, 2011, 11:18 amA very smart post from Viperchill on how he created a high conversion landing page.
Augmented Reality To Become Our Sixth Sense?
February 21, 2011, 11:08 amMore WebProNews Videos Late last month, augmented reality developers Layar announced that it was making its platform available to all developers of iOS apps , opening the door for a lot more innovation and practical use-cases for AR technology. "All apps and services that have a location aspect can now easily and without license costs be enhanced...
Live World Cup Cricket Action from Y! Search
February 21, 2011, 10:53 amAt Yahoo!, we are always striving to provide our users with answers and not the typical 10 blue links. We got the opportunity to do just that with one of the biggest sporting events in the world, the ICC Cricket World Cup played in India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. We wanted to bring relevant information from Yahoo!'s popular Cricket property to...
Google Pushes Hotpot on Mobile
February 21, 2011, 10:43 amGoogle representative Marissa Mayer recently spoke with some bluntness about Google's failures in the world of social networking. Of course, this wasn't news to anyone who paid attention to the anticlimactic puff of smoke that was Buzz. "We haven't gotten social right yet," says Mayer. She also clarified that a part of the effort that .
54% Wouldn’t Use Group Buying Again
February 21, 2011, 10:19 amAn Internet2Go and Merchant Circle survey of over 8,000 Small and Medium Businesses (SMB) reveals interesting trends.
Wajam Makes Google and Bing Results More Relevant
February 21, 2011, 10:05 amPersonalization is one of the key components of search relevancy. It's not the only component (Google uses over 200 signals for a reason), but it's a pretty big component. If results are tailored to you specifically, there's a good chance they will often provide relevance to you. One of the best ways to achieve personalization through search is to...
The Idealist's Guide to Raking in Tons of Cash
February 21, 2011, 9:35 amI know what you're thinking. You see the title of this post and you see who wrote it and you just might assume that I'm going to ask everyone to join hands and sing Kumbaya. Again. Maybe you figure that idealism is all well and good for pink-haired bleeding hearts, but it doesn't pay the bills. Sure, it's great to donate and volunteer and do pro...
Verizon Updates V Cast Music App For Android
February 21, 2011, 9:20 amVerizon said today it gas updated its V Cast Music app for Android smartphones. The new version of V Cast Music is available for Android 2.1 or higher. The service allows users to buy full-track songs in an MP3 format without DRM. V Cast Music will now also offer full-track songs for 69 cents, 99 cents or $1.29 per song, which can be downloaded...
The 'AOL Way' Too Much for Exiting Engadget Editor
February 21, 2011, 9:10 amAOL fights very hard to remain outside of the conversation when it comes to being a content farm at its heart. The recent purchases of The Huffington Post and TechCrunch are given as continued evidence of AOL's desire to produce more than just keyword driven drivel that is designed to run vacant eyeballs past ads. Well, the longest experiment of...
The ‘AOL Way’ Too Much for Exiting Engadget Editor
February 21, 2011, 9:00 amAOL fights very hard to remain outside of the conversation when it comes to being a content farm at its heart.
The recent purchases of The Huffington Post and TechCrunch are given as continued evidence of AOL’s desire to produce more than just keyword driven drivel that is designed to run vacant eyeballs past ads.
Well, the longest experiment...
Report: Baidu Execs Visiting Facebook In CA
February 21, 2011, 9:00 amA partnership between Facebook and Chinese search giant Baidu - long the subject of rumors and speculation - might be closer than ever. An unconfirmed report indicates that Baidu execs are visiting Facebook in California for the sake of discussing a deal. Bill Bishop , who's bilingual and thereby able to read the original story, wrote yesterday,
Introducing Marketing Pilgrim Channels: Sponsors Welcome!
February 21, 2011, 8:55 amWe are excited to provide our Marketing Pilgrim readers and sponsors new opportunities. For our readers we are going to create content channels that make stories about important subject areas easier to find. These channels will include: SEO (search engine optimization), paid search (PPC), social media, Google, Web Site Analytics, Social Media...
SES New York To Feature 'Focus Latino' Track
February 21, 2011, 8:40 amAccording to Carlos Vassallo, CEO of LatinVision Media , "The Census of 2010 results will confirm the U.S. Hispanic Market is the most attractive one for advertisers and marketers with a purchasing power above one trillion dollars." He adds, "The exponential growth of the Hispanic Market as a segment is changing the rules forcing marketers to...
Should Your Employer Have Access to Your Facebook Account?
February 21, 2011, 8:19 amYesterday, I read a report in the American magazine The Atlantic which asked the question Should Employers Be Allowed to Ask for Your Facebook Login?
It's the story of a man in the US state of Maryland who applied for a job at the state's Department of Corrections (prison service) and who was obliged to disclose his Facebook log-in credentials...
How to be a Twitter Guru
February 21, 2011, 8:02 amI had a little “episode” over the weekend.
You see, I finally got sick of seeing the types of tweets that have very little substance, yet seem to be the staple of many so-called “gurus.” Instead of complaining, I decided to have some fun.
In rapid succession, I tweeted what I consider to be the type of tweets that tend to...
Another Engadget Editor Leaves, Cites "AOL Way" as Catalyst
February 21, 2011, 7:57 amThe other day, Engadget editor Paul Miller announced his resignation from the AOL-owned publication, specifically blaming "The AOL Way".
"I'd love to be able to keep doing this forever, but unfortunately Engadget is owned by AOL, and AOL has proved an unwilling partner in this site’s evolution," he wrote on his...
Features vs. Benefits: master this conversions opportunity
February 21, 2011, 7:49 amGreetings! In today's video how-to, we're addressing the web-writing fundamental of distinguishing a product/service feature from its benefits. Understanding the difference is crucial for effective copywriting, and presents a tremendous opportunity to dramatically increase site conversions. But before you can master the art of transforming a mere...
Piracy of eBooks: A Growing Problem, Or An Opportunity?
February 21, 2011, 7:46 amIf you're an author with little or no following, surely this is an opportunity. If you're an established author that relies on sales, it's going to hurt.Should the established author fight, or ignore, and should the unknown author grasp this as an opportunity to get known.
Google Legal Briefs: Rosetta Stone, Jurin, Oracle, VoIP
February 21, 2011, 7:24 amHere's a quick recap of recent developments in four of Google's legal battles. Click to read the rest of this post.
Google Fights for Autonomy in Europe and U.S.
February 21, 2011, 7:24 amAs far as modern political struggles go, one of the most fiery has long been the battle on how much autonomy a business should have; with too little, they cannot grow or thrive, and with too much, they can overrun the market (becoming a monopoly, engaging in unfair practices, etc.). There are few places in .
Keynoting with Experian at Technology for Marketing & Advertising 2011 in London
February 21, 2011, 7:14 amOn the 1st March at 11.30am, our EMEA Director for the Microsoft Media Network Zuzanna Gierlinska will be joined by Mark Zablan, Managing Director of Experian Marketing Services in the UK & Ireland, to deliver a keynote presentation at Technology for Marketing & Advertising in Londons Earls Court. Heres a deep-dive into what theyll be talking...
5 Free Tools for Competitor Keyword Research
February 21, 2011, 7:14 amIf you're trying to figure out what keywords to go for, chances are you are going to take a look at some of your competitors to see what keywords they are ranking for. But if you don't have access to professional and premium SEO tools, how do you find out this kind of information? Here are five free tools to get you started in finding a variety of...
Chrome Address Bar Could Be Eliminated in Future Release
February 21, 2011, 6:58 amWould you use a web browser that didn't have an address bar? A report from ConceivablyTech.com points out that Google is working on new user interface layouts for Chrome, and one of these would eliminate the address bar. The publication's Wolfgang Gruener quotes Google's Jeff Chang as telling developers, "There are a number of UI / frontend...
Executives at Alibaba Resign Over Frauds
February 21, 2011, 6:50 amThe chief executive of e-commerce group Alibaba.com has resigned after an internal investigation showed sales staff "intentionally or negligently" allowed more than 2,300 fraudsters to set up verified stores.David Wei and chief operating officer Elvis Lee departed amid what the firm, one of China's biggest internet success stories, described as...
All about Atlas APIs: Interview with Gordon Scott
February 21, 2011, 6:48 amIn recent months, weve interviewed Microsoft employees working in Atlas Customer Service & Support (EMEA) and Atlas Asia Pacific (APAC) Sales . Now well take you behind the scenes to the Atlas Engineering team. In an interview with program manager Gordon Scott, we get a closer look at the world of Atlas application programming interfaces (APIs). ...
Non-professional SEO Optimization for Small Business Organizations
February 21, 2011, 6:38 amSearch Engine Optimization is a crucial need of every business organizations that serves under a particular keyword for their consumers online. However, this amazing tool is often an expensive investment choice for small business organizations that struggles with proper budget solution. SEO being an experimental art of regular testing and...
Don't Let Your Content Marketing Fail Because of This One Thing
February 21, 2011, 6:28 amOnline Marketers world-wide are looking towards content marketing as a way to educate, connect with and influence prospects to become customers. Content can also play a big part in lead nurturing and engagement with existing customers. With 9 out of 10 B2B marketers using content in their mix and predictions from the likes of Geoff Ramsey of...
Google Becomes Social - Twitter Flickr And Quora Are All Invited
February 21, 2011, 6:23 amThe search giant Google has thrown its hat into the social networks ring. With social networks growing and expanding wildly, Google has decided to get its share of the action. It all started with the launch of Google's Social Search as a beta for English speaking users. Social Search was previously in the Google Labs section. It displays its...
Why Should Long Tail Keywords Be Targeted First?
February 21, 2011, 6:23 amPlan - Prioritize - Progress Keywords are the foundation on which the whole structure of SEO is based on. The user searches in the keywords and the search engines execute their search algorithms on the basis of these keywords. Hence, the selection of keywords and keyword research is what the SEO journey starts with. The main objective of ranking...
Integrating offline and online – most organizations missing the point….
February 21, 2011, 5:29 amPeter Young always watches with interest the adverts which increasingly use the ‘search for’ options within the above the line advertising activity, particularly television. This is something we increasingly see the larger brands utilising, sending offline consumers of their advertising online – and then tracking them back via online...
Site Speed - Are You Fast? Does it Matter?
February 21, 2011, 12:25 amPosted by Geoff Kenyon When Google made their page speed is now a ranking factor announcement, it wasnt a significant new ranking factor, but it is significant because it means Google wants to use usability metrics to help rank pages. Your site speed should be a priority as slow sites decrease customer satisfaction and research has shown that an...
5 Free Google SEO Tools to Use
February 21, 2011, 12:15 amSearch engine optimization is one of those things that truly needs to have a human touch to it, but there are some tools that can really help anyone out when conducting or monitoring the search engine marketing efforts of either their own site or someone else's.
AAI Antitrust Group Argues Against Google's ITA Bid
February 20, 2011, 11:19 pmIt's hard to find too many supporters of Google's $700 million bid for travel software company ITA Software these days. The FairSearch.org coalition of online travel specialists such as Expedia and search providers such as Microsoft Bing, have a new ally in their effort to get the Justice Department to strike down the deal.
Ignoring social media just stopped working
February 20, 2011, 6:41 pmby Mike Moran OK, OK, maybe it stopped working a while ago. Maybe you thought it stopped working when Google debuted Universal search. Or maybe you thought it stopped working when Bing hooked up with Facebook. But if you were hanging on and saying, "Google doesn't personalize THAT may results," then this wakeup call is for you. If you think...
Bahrain Protest Photos Flood Flickr
February 20, 2011, 1:59 pmTwitter, Facebook, and YouTube often get a lot of the attention when it comes to social media spreading news of revolutions and uprisings in foreign nations, but Yahoo-owned Flickr is reminding everyone that it plays a significant role as well. Photos can say a lot, and Flickr has plenty of those. The company is highlighting user-submitted photos...
Eminem Chrysler Ad Wins YouTube Blitz
February 20, 2011, 1:13 pmYouTube announced that the winner of its Ad Blitz contest is Chrysler, for its Super Bowl commercial, which featured Eminem driving around Detroit. The contest was based on viewer votes.
"It's been about two weeks since the Super Bowl aired, but our ears are still ringing from the noise of advertisers jockeying for position in Ad...
A Week With My Verizon iPhone
February 20, 2011, 1:13 pmAll the other reviews youve seen are from journalists who received Verizon iPhones from either Verizon or Apple and didnt have to pay for them. I had no such loaner, so had to do the honorable thing: I bought one and used it for a week now. It cost me about $250 because I already ahd a Verizon account. Heres my report. PROS FOR VERIZON 1. No...
Google Changing Titles in Search Results, SEOs Not Happy
February 20, 2011, 11:11 amGoogle is altering the appearance of a site's title as it appears in the SERPs. And SEOs are getting frustrated.
Complaints about Google ignoring title tags have appeared on websites and in forums in recent days.Click to read the rest of this post...
Pandia Search Engine Marketing News Wrap-up Feb 20
February 20, 2011, 9:21 amHere is the most recent search engine marketing news nicely wrapped for you. Google Webmaster Tools Advances Towards Analytics Savviness Lately, Webmaster Tools has been improving its analytical capabilities significantly. This trend comes as a great benefit to webmasters and search marketers, both of whom are gaining access to important data in...
Pandia Search Engine News Wrap-up Feb 20
February 20, 2011, 9:21 amHere are this week's main search engine news headlines from all over the Web. Deconstructing Microsoft AdCenter's Missed Opportunities when Microsoft is in second place, they cannot afford to offer bad usability and disempowered customer support.
Ads on Google Finance
February 20, 2011, 8:10 amPosted by R.J. Pittman, Director, Product Management We've introduced something new to Google Finance. You will notice we are now displaying small, targeted advertisements on some pages of Google Finance. The ads are visible on the homepage next to the market summary, and on company summary pages below the first few news stories. We have worked...
Market Researchers and Online Video: Blind Men and the Elephant
February 20, 2011, 7:16 amRecently, The Nielsen Company reported that 143.9 million unique viewers in the U.S. had streamed online video in January 2011. A few days later, comScore Video Metrix reported that 171.2 million unique viewers in the U.S. had watched online video content that month. Click to read the rest of this post.
Webucator Contest, Win Free Online Google Analytics Course
February 20, 2011, 6:11 amYou can learn a lot about search, search engine marketing and social media marketing by reading online blog posts and articles. Still, there is a lot to be said for discussing tools and practices directly with an expert. Webucator provides customized instructor-led training services in a wide variety of web, technology and business related topics.
Mihály Munkácsy Google Hungary Doodle
February 19, 2011, 11:27 pmIn honor of Hungarian realist painter Munkácsy Mihály's 167th birthday today, Google Hungary has posted a Doodle: Click to read the rest of this post.
Mihaly Munkacsy Google Hungary Doodle
February 19, 2011, 11:01 pmIn honor of Hungarian realist painter Munkácsy Mihály's 167th birthday today, Google Hungary has posted a Doodle:
Click to read the rest of this post...
Search Week in Review for Feb. 19, 2011
February 19, 2011, 11:33 amHere's a recap of this week's columns and news stories for the week of Feb. 13 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.
Engadget Editor: AOL Has Its Heart in the Wrong Place with Content
February 19, 2011, 8:02 amOutsiders have been wondering how all of the content properties AOL has been buying up will hold up as part of the media giant. Engadget has been part of AOL for quite a while, having been purchased in 2005 - some time before AOL's real push for mass content, most recently punctuated by its purchase of The Huffington Post.
AOL's strategy appears...
Please Take Accountability For Your Social Media Experience
February 19, 2011, 7:26 amMaybe its a coincidence, maybe its a trend, but Ive noticed a few posts lately with a theme of how social media is becoming a mind-mucked echo chamber of mind-numbing sameness. If youre in this camp, Id like to give you a figurative kick in your sweet patootie. This attitude seems incredibly WHINY to me. You are accountable for your own...
Google Android Music Store Closer to a Reality
February 19, 2011, 7:14 amA Google music service has been rumored and reported on for a while now. Those speculations have been surfacing more and more in recent weeks. Click to read the rest of this post...
Want to Get Results From Multiple Search Engines? Yes, You Can!
February 19, 2011, 4:39 amIt is no secret that Google is dominating the search engine market. However, it is also no news that there are people (about 35% of users, actually) who prefer other search engines – such as Yahoo!, Bing and others. Blekko is gaining some ground as does GoDaddy… It this situation, it was only a matter of time when another level of search is...
Constantin Brancusi 135th Birthday Google Doodle
February 19, 2011, 12:52 amConstantin Brancusi was a sculptor who worked in bronze, marble, wood and stone. In his 81 years, his works include some 215 sculptures and over 1,000 photographs. Today marks his 135th birthday. Click to read the rest of this post.
Google Scores With 2011 Cricket World Cup Doodle
February 19, 2011, 12:06 amThe 2011 Cricket World Cup begins today in India, where India faces off against Bangladesh in Mirpur, Dhaka. In celebration of the first match in the Cricket World Cup, Google today posted a special cricket Doodle on Google India : Click to read the rest of this post.
Cup of Joe: How To Kill A Relationship With 30 Years Of Wheelchairs
February 18, 2011, 11:16 pmSome of you know that I use an electric wheelchair to get around. In fact I have used a wheelchair my whole life. You can get the whole story elsewhere . For now I just want to talk about my wheelchairs. The first chair I had was red. It had a wooden seat assembly with an aluminum frame. The next chair I got was made of titanium and had custom...
The Five Best Things in Social Media
February 18, 2011, 7:54 pmThis week: partying in Silicon Valley, cookie versus rapper, Red Cross buzz, Twitter ROI and Apple anti-trust concerns Best Silicon Valley dinner party'EVER: Last night's presidential gathering Yesterday, nerds everywhere were green with envy. Most of us didn't get an invite to THE techie meeting of the minds of the year. In a scene out of Mr....
'Migraine With Aura' Moves the Web
February 18, 2011, 6:18 pmby Claudine Zap This past week, a CBS correspondent's on-air reporting that devolved into incomprehensible speech went viral on the Web. The scary episode had viewers turning to the Web to watch and wonder what medical condition had befallen reporter Serene Branson. Turns out, Branson suffered from a very nasty kind of headache. Searches...
Google Docs Viewer Opens Up To 12 More File Types
February 18, 2011, 4:24 pmStarting today, Gmail and Google Docs users should run into many fewer problems when it comes to opening different types of existing files. Google launched support for 12 new file formats this afternoon, and several of them are pretty common.
Here's the full list of formats in the order Google itself presented them: Microsoft Excel (.XLS...
Groupon Brand Perception Doing Well, Despite "Flubs"
February 18, 2011, 4:17 pmYouGov BrandIndex shared some findings with us regarding brand perception around Groupon in light of the company's (what some might refer to as) blunders.
A spokesperson for the firm tells WebProNews, "With two strikes under its belt within 10 days of each other (Super Bowl ad, flower debacle), how's Groupon consumer perception...
Billboard Brings Chart App To iPhone
February 18, 2011, 4:12 pmBillboard has launched a chart app on the iPhone, aimed at music fans, artists and people in the industry.
The Billboard Chart App features 15 charts from the Hot 100 and Billboard 200, along with genre rankings and ringtones.
Users can view 60 years of chart history, search by artist, album, song, view ranking details, listen to...
YouTube Wants to Make Stars Out of Stars!
February 18, 2011, 3:46 pmWanted: High profile celebrity interested in breaking into the online video business. Imagine success on the ultimate small screen. No money required. No experience needed. Apply at YouTube where we make stars out of stars! Yes, it's true. At least according to Vulture it is. (They're a sister site to New York Magazine, so don't dismiss the story...
Celebrate President's Day With Google Earth
February 18, 2011, 3:46 pmGoogle has created an interactive set of animations they're calling the U.S. Presidents Showcase that uses Google Earth to help celebrate President's Day. Google LatLong announced the "visually fun and interactive" feature this morning. Click to read the rest of this post.
Will the 'RoboCop' Statue Stand Tall?
February 18, 2011, 3:36 pmby Mike Krumboltz Detroit is taking pride in its rough and tumble reputation. Now on the table - a proposed statue of RoboCop, the (obviously) fictional law enforcement enthusiast who was part man, part machine, but all cop. The 1987 action film of the same name was set in the Motor City. Now a privately funded group has raised enough money to...
How Much is a Tweet or a Like Worth to You?
February 18, 2011, 3:36 pmChompOn has released some interesting findings (pdf) related to social media sharing and its value to e-commerce. Specifically, the firm sought out to answer the question: "What is the value of a social action in online commerce?" What they came up with is that a Facebook Share was worth $14, a Facebook "like" was worth $8, a tweet was worth $5,...
PS3 Hackers Respond to Sony's Threats
February 18, 2011, 3:36 pmEarlier , Sony threatened those who hack their PlayStation 3s with permanent banishment from their Playstation Network. Naturally, some of these would-be hackers didn't take too kindly to Sony's threats, and have responded with perhaps another hack that threatens to make a mockery of Sony's method of punishment. According to a post at...
Bing Gets Behind "Future Of Search" Series
February 18, 2011, 3:36 pmAnyone who's interested in what Bing will do next can perhaps relax. Rather than make onlookers fight for every scrap of information, the organization seems to be tending towards openness, announcing today that it will back a sort of multimedia series called "The Future of Search." A post on the Bing Search Blog explained, "Here at Bing we don't...
If Google Tweaked Its Search Results ...
February 18, 2011, 2:32 pmGoogle's search quality has been a heated topic of discussion in recent weeks - mainly with regard to content farms permeating search results. It's not only an issue with Google, but Google is by far the largest search engine, dominating the market by a landslide, so it gets the most scrutiny.
We thought it would be fun to look at what...
Trusted Reviews Do Exist
February 18, 2011, 2:17 pmJust admit it, you're sick of one-way commercials from brands. You'd rather read a review of books, movies, cars, housings' almost anything, before you finally decide a purchase no matter how small. Why? Because purchases, be it big or small, means parting with your hard-earned cash, and for that you want everything to be a .
15 Questions That Will Change The Way You Think About SEO Forever (Q's 6-10)
February 18, 2011, 2:02 pmby Stoney deGeyter Below is the second set of questions from an interview I had given late last year. If you started this series with the introduction , you already know that the answers here differ from the answers given in the interview. One of the reasons I like written interviews is that it gives you a better opportunity to provide a more...
Latest Google Chrome Beta is Polished for Speed
February 18, 2011, 2:02 pmLet the Browser Wars continue unabated! Google Chrome saw its tenth incarnation delivered in beta format today, and the search engine company - is that even accurate anymore - is boasting about some major speed improvements for the ever-gaining Chrome browser. Over at the Google Chrome blog, the browsing speed improvements have been posted , and...
Like Privacy? You May Have Some Opting Out To Do.
February 18, 2011, 1:46 pmMore WebProNews Videos Have you ever looked at Spokeo? If not, you might want to check it out - that is if you're concerned about your online privacy. There's a good chance they have a profile on you, and it may have more information than you care to have publicly accessible in any one place. And that's just the free part, if you pay, you can get...
Idol Talk: Changing up the Classics
February 18, 2011, 1:46 pmby Vera H-C Chan " Lord of the Rings ," meet " American Idol ." The Fox singing competition may be " kinder " these days, but nobody told the contestants. The cutthroat instinct bubbled up during Groups week, when would-be divas and divos had to make harmonic alliances. Exes fell apart (even further), the Snooki lookalike got a comeuppance but...
Graduate Student Creates a New Search Engine
February 18, 2011, 1:46 pmA search engine that searches all search engines. It sounds like a great idea, and it really does exist. The new search engine, www.megasearches.com, can be credited to its creator and developer, Md Arshat Ali Suzon, a 29-year old graduate student from CSUN (California State University). The new search engine searches all of the top .
Beyond Times and Arial - The New Web Safe Fonts
February 18, 2011, 1:35 pmWebmaster level: All In the past, when you created a website or web app, you were largely limited to a few select "web safe" fonts such as Times and Arial. If you deviated from these fonts, you were required to use Adobe Flash or your embed text in images, which introduced a whole new set of trade offs. For example, images aren't semantic, cannot...
American Antitrust Institute Discusses Google ITA Deal
February 18, 2011, 12:20 pmThe American Antitrust Institute (AAI) has stated the proposed acquisition of ITA Software by Google may be "straining the boundaries of antitrust analysis, but serious consideration of a challenge is warranted."
The organization has issued a White Paper discussing this.
"Apart from the very difficult analysis, this...
Jeep Brand Surpasses 1 Million Fans On Facebook
February 18, 2011, 11:42 amJeep said today it has become the first domestic automotive brand to surpass 1 million fans on Facebook. Jeep said it exceeds the next closest domestic automotive brand by more than 450,000 Facebook fans. "We are honored to be the first and only domestic automotive brand that can claim more than 1 million Facebook fans," said Mike Manley,...
5 Hot Tips to Make Your Readers Fall in Love
February 18, 2011, 11:27 amYou've tried to get their attention. You've read the right books, listened to all the gurus, and freshened up your appearance, but it's not working. You aren't being noticed by the one you love. Your ideal customer isn't giving you the time of day. They're ignoring your offers. All of your overtures are rebuffed. They're just not that into you. To...
David Cameron To Take Questions On YouTube
February 18, 2011, 11:27 amLast month, something called "World View" began when YouTube users were asked to submit questions for President Obama. Now, the series is continuing, as YouTube users have been asked to submit questions for Prime Minister David Cameron. This is a big deal for Google's video-sharing site. Many different politicians have been happy to use YouTube...
Ecommerce SEO: Black Hat Tactics That Are Not Black Hat
February 18, 2011, 11:19 amGood one from Linda Bustos, who looks at "common ecommerce practices that are similar to black hat techniques but are are not against Google’s quality guidelines, provided you play by Google’s rules." Not sure everyone will agree with her tactical definitions, though!
Watson's Next Move: The Medical Industry
February 18, 2011, 10:57 amAfter wowing viewers and technophiles alike during that masterful Jeopardy appearance, IBMs Watson and its incredible language-comprehension abilities will be targeted towards the assisting the medical industry. Now that IBM is finished showing off Watsons ability to the world, and perhaps scaring some of us who grew up watching the Terminator...
This Photo Needs Your Caption!
February 18, 2011, 10:52 amSince we already gave a comic's view of last night's dinner of tech heavyweights with President Obama we thought it might be fun too. In attendance are Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs, Eric Schmidt, Carol Bartz, Larry Ellison and more! Collect'em all and trade with your friends! What we are asking our Pilgrim Readers to do is give us what you think is...
Bing and O'Reilly Radar - The Future is Now
February 18, 2011, 10:37 amWhen we look ahead, the one thing we can safely predict is the rate of innovation happening in the 21st century will only get faster. Over the past 10 years, we have seen the rise of a strong online economy, bloody revolutions tweeted globally and the compression of information into tiny amounts of physical space. Thanks to those changes, the...
Watson’s Next Move: The Medical Industry
February 18, 2011, 10:30 amAfter wowing viewers and technophiles alike during that masterful Jeopardy appearance, IBM’s Watson and its incredible language-comprehension abilities will be targeted towards the assisting the medical industry.
Now that IBM is finished showing off Watson’s ability to the world, and perhaps scaring some of us who grew up watching...
Obama Talks Innovation, Stumps for Donations During Doerr Dinner
February 18, 2011, 10:27 amOh what I wouldn't give to be a fly on the wall at this meeting of the President Barack Obama and high-tech heavyweights at Google board member and KPCB rock start investor John Doerr's home Feb. 17. President Obama was joined by Doerr and other Silicon Valley superstars, according to the San Francisco Chronicle : Eric Schmidt, chairman and CEO,...
An Inside Look at wikiHow Content Quality Control
February 18, 2011, 10:27 amWe recently spoke with Jack Herrick, founder of wikiHow, about how wikiHow's quality differs from a site like eHow , which is often labeled a content farm with suspect quality. Herrick's insight on this is particularly interesting, given that he used to run eHow, before selling to Demand Media. Herrick has now shared more information with us...
Yahoo! Experts Video: Guy Yalif
February 18, 2011, 10:11 amYahoo! Network Plus, targeting, video and going beyond traditional ads Yahoo! Director of Global Advertiser Product Marketing, Guy Yalif, has his imprint on nearly aspect of our advertising solutions. Recently, Guy was asked the question, "What does Yahoo! offer advertisers that can't be found elsewhere?" It's not a trick question, nor is it a...
SMX West: SEM, PPC, Social Marketing and More' See You There!
February 18, 2011, 10:06 amWere in the home stretch of preparations for this years SMX West in San Jose, CA during March 8-10th. As always, well be there with session coverage both via Twitter and here on the adCenter Blog. If youre still making decisions on which sessions you plan to attend, heres a quick look at the schedule of Microsoft speakers we have lined up: You...
New Report Pegs Zynga's Valuation At $10 Billion
February 18, 2011, 9:06 amSocial gaming company Zynga, which is the force behind sensations like FarmVille and CityVille, continues to be a hit with investors. Days after rumors indicated Zynga would raise $250 million at a valuation of $7 billion to $9 billion, a new report's claimed it will actually raise twice that amount at a valuation of $10 billion. Kara Swisher -...
PS3 Fanboys Stand Up for Sony
February 18, 2011, 9:06 amSony released a statement concerning their recent PS3 hacking issues, and while the content was about what youd expect, the PS3 fans showed support for the decision by offering 15 pages of here-here comments. Over at the Playstation 3 blog, a post discussed Sony Computer Entertainments statement concerning the GeoHot hubbub and how the act of PS3...
Old Folks and Social Media
February 18, 2011, 9:06 amGo ahead and click "Accept." It's just your mom trying to friend you on Facebook. A recent research study by Pew Research showed that social networking among the "elder" crowd is pretty active. People over 50 are now using the social networking platforms just as much, if not more than, the younger demographic, ages 18-29 .
New Report Pegs Zynga’s Valuation At $10 Billion
February 18, 2011, 8:53 amSocial gaming company Zynga, which is the force behind sensations like FarmVille and CityVille, continues to be a hit with investors. Days after rumors indicated Zynga would raise $250 million at a valuation of $7 billion to $9 billion, a new report’s claimed it will actually raise twice that amount at a valuation of $10 billion.
Kara...
Look Who Came To Dinner!
February 18, 2011, 8:46 amLast night, President Obama went to San Francisco and had dinner with many of the technology elite including Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, Dick Costolo and Eric Schmidt. If you would like all the details the San Francisco Chronicle did a great job of looking at the gathering from many angles. Now, if you would rather just have a laugh read the...
Apple Subscription Service Being Monitored By Antitrust Regulators
February 18, 2011, 8:35 amEarlier this week, Apple introduced its Subscription service for the App Store. Immediately, it was met with waves of criticism (though it's certainly had its share of defenders). It didn't take long at all for whispers of antitrust to start going around. The Wall Street Journal started that off, though nothing had been made of the situation by...
Google Celebrates President's Day With Showcase Map
February 18, 2011, 8:35 amGoogle has introduced a U.S. Presidents Showcase to map the birthplaces of all 44 presidents to celebrate President's Day (also know as Washington's Birthday). In Google Earth , users can see a progression of the states that voted during each president's election (shaded in red). Other features as highlighted in the Google Lat Long Blog...
What’s the Matter with the Search Alliance?
February 18, 2011, 8:34 amAn up-to-date post about the Yahoo-Bing Search Alliance and how it is/has affected clicks, costs and volume.
Smaller iPhone Probably Not Happening
February 18, 2011, 8:20 amRumors have been going around (stemming from a Wall Street Journal report ) that Apple is working on a smaller, and cheaper version of the iPhone to come out this summer. Some have been calling it the "iPhone Nano". Now the New York Times reports that its sources say Apple is not working on a smaller iPhone. Of course sources from either...
2 Free Tools to Find and Analyze SERP Dominators (for Competitor Research)
February 18, 2011, 7:50 amWe have seen quite a few tools and tips on researching your competition. This quick post shares two free tools that have one thing in common: they let you generate the list of domains that get ranked high for several related search queries (we call them " SERP dominators "): Competitor List Builder : WhoICompete Search engines crawled Google...
Google Turns Vulture with New Delicious Bookmark Importer
February 18, 2011, 7:45 amGoogle is no different than any other company (other than it is one of the top brands on the planet and has a virtual crapload of cash but let's not quibble). When a competitor shows a sign of weakness they need to be able to swoop in and pick the competitive carcass clean to feed itself.
Google Acquires "eBook Technologies"
February 18, 2011, 7:20 amSometimes we hear about a new Google acquisition because they make a big announcement about it; they're excited about the features, the additions, what it will means for the industry! They want to tell the world. However, there are plenty of occasions where we hear about new moves only because of some insider information or .
Klout Score Chrome Extension Makes Twitter Even More of a Popularity Contest
February 18, 2011, 7:18 amKlout, the company that assigns scores to Twitter users based on their alleged influence has released a Chrome Extension that lets users see Klout scores for Twitter users right from the Twitter timeline.
"Klout Score" is described as the measurement of your overall online influence. The official description says:
The scores...
Thoughts on the Future of Advertising by Michael Aged 21
February 18, 2011, 7:04 amWe love a bit of engagement on our Twitter handle. We dont see our foray into social media as being all about broadcasting our news, but very much about listening to our audience as well. For the last few months Ive been following @MichaelGillet whos been following Microsoft for some time now, and we struck up a conversation about advertising as I...
12 Bloggers Already Blogging About SES London 2011
February 18, 2011, 5:23 amNormally, events like SES London 2011 generate a great deal of buzz during the conference. But a dozen bloggers are already blogging about the leading search and social marketing event, which doesn't get underway until next week. Click to read the rest of this post.
Google Changing Page Titles and Descriptions
February 18, 2011, 3:22 amDoes anyone have a good reason why Google couldn't just leave my home page title and description alone when I put noodp on the page?I personally can't think of one. I can understand wanting to let their users know what the site has, but there's NO WAY they know the other titles and descriptions on the SERP pages better than I know them for my...
Director of Bing Discusses Holistic Search and Clickstream Data - Whiteboard Friday
February 18, 2011, 12:15 amPosted by Aaron Wheeler A little over a couple weeks ago, Search Engine Land broke the story that Bing uses clickstream data from Google searches as a ranking factor in its results. The article was entitled, "Google: Bing Is Cheating, Copying Our Search Results," and as you can imagine, there was a lot of response from the SEO community. After...
Google Controlling Search Engine Crawling and Indexing
February 18, 2011, 12:05 amOnce a website owner starts to get to a slightly more advanced stage of search engine optimization they are going to want to view some highly detailed and technical information regarding how their website is crawled. Crawl rate and the ability for search spiders to access certain aspects of a website can play a significant role in search engine...
Analyze Competition adds new markets and new features
February 17, 2011, 8:03 pmAfter its launch in all English-language AdWords accounts last year, Analyze Competition is now available in 8 more languages: French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Chinese, and Japanese. All Analyze Competition users also benefit from a new feature. You may remember that we blogged about the "see search terms" link in August of...
PPC News and Notes - Twitter's New Ad Platform
February 17, 2011, 7:48 pmby Mike Fleming Check out some of the latest news and notes in the world of the PPC advertiser... Twitter's New Ad Platform Although in beta and only open to VIP advertisers that are invited, Twitter has finally released their ad platform called Promoted Tweets . The general format is that you can use tweets you've created or that have been...
Yahoo! Marketing, Tech and Management in the News
February 17, 2011, 7:48 pmA trio of stories from across the globe shows Yahoo!'s leadership Marketing mavens The U.K.-based magazine Marketing Week has gone the full monty, profiling two of the top minds in marketing. Elisa Steele has been Yahoo!'s EVP and CMO since 2009; Mollie Spilman, our SVP, Global B2B Marketing, joined the team in 2010. Together, this dynamic duo...
eBay Makes the Fast Company World's 50 Most Innovative Companies List
February 17, 2011, 7:33 pmHi there, Anuj here with the communications team. We have some great news to share with you - Fast Company just named eBay one of the World's 50 Most Innovative Companies for 2011! Along with leading companies like Apple, Google and Facebook, eBay made the list at number 22 . PayPal's mobile payment system was lauded for helping eBay "transform...
Ad of the Week: Lover Come Back
February 17, 2011, 6:32 pmYahoo! Mail helps mend a couple of broken hearts in a sweet, animated vignette Valentine's Week is the perfect time to spotlight this recent ad for the photo slideshow feature in the new Yahoo! Mail. In the 30-second spot "Lover Come Back," produced by Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, a real-life guy types "I'm sorry" into an email, which then...
eBay and PayPal Developer Communities Come together
February 17, 2011, 6:02 pmHi Matthew Mengerink here - head of the Platform team. The developer community has told us eBay and PayPal offer really powerful ecommerce and payments technology but, they are even more powerful when managed together. And, the market is evolving really fast. Online and offline commerce are converging into a "new retail" experience, powered by...
Social Networks Consume 22% Of Australians' Time Online
February 17, 2011, 4:26 pmFacebook (along with a few other social media sites) exerts a strong pull in many countries all over the world, and new stats from comScore confirm that one of them is Australia. comScore's found that Australians dedicated almost 22 percent of their time online in December 2010 to social networks, versus 16.6 percent a year earlier. A quick note...
TV Drama Based on Real-Life Drama Causes Buzz
February 17, 2011, 4:26 pmby Claudine Zap Talk about ripped from the headlines. The Lifetime made-for-TV movie, " Amanda Knox: Murder on Trial in Italy ," couldn't be more current. The imprisoned Amanda Knox, convicted of murdering her roommate Meredith Kercher in 2007 while on an exchange program in Perugia, is appealing her 26-year sentence in a trial that convenes next...
Bing and Yahoo Change Policy to Allow Trademark Keywords
February 17, 2011, 4:21 pmAs of March 3, Bing and Yahoo will change their policy to allow the use of trademarked names as keywords in search ads. They say the change will bring their policy "in line with search industry practices" and some outlets say this is due to Google's hard won victories in court over such matters. Here's the wording straight from Microsoft...
Do You Know Pop Culture? Ashton Kutcher Is Hiring VP To Cover Events
February 17, 2011, 3:46 pmSo does traveling to various pop culture events around the world sound like fun? Is working with an actual pop icon one of your dreams? Well Popchips and Ashton Kutcher are hiring a VP of Pop Culture "to report on-location from the hottest pop culture events, helping discover what's popping, and weighing in on all the important issues," the job...
Rumor: YouTube Will Pay Celebs Millions For Custom Content
February 17, 2011, 3:20 pmEver hear of the term "YouTube famous"? It relates to a person who isn't a household name, but might be familiar to frequent visitors of the site. Only soon, YouTube may redefine the expression (and become much more popular) by paying genuine celebrities to create new channels and content. Claude Brodesser-Akner reported,
Google Integrates Social Into Search Results
February 17, 2011, 3:12 pmStarting today, you will be seeing what Google calls "social search results" interspersed throughout the traditional Google search results, based on Google's idea of relevance. If you are connected to people on Blogger, Twitter, flickr and similar publicly available sites, Google will be letting you know who shared or published the information...
Digital Signage is Getting Smarter and More Attractive to Advertisers
February 17, 2011, 3:05 pmEarlier this month, we had a conversation with AdCentricity President Rob Gorrie , about the potential of digital out-of-home marketing, as location technology fuels the trend. His firm counts Disney, American Express, Verizon, Bank of America, Toyota, GM, Samsung, and Evian among its recent clients. AdCentricity has released a new report...
Stay.com: Searching for Mr. Good Travel
February 17, 2011, 3:05 pmNorwegian travel startup Stay.com , was the proverbial "toast of travel town" at the end of last year. Moreover, judging from today's release of their version 2.3 Beta, it looks as if the Scandinavian startup is ramping up for some more accolades for 2011. While Version 2.3 is not a Noah's Ark of online travel exclusivity, users will find adding...
Google Music in 2 Months?
February 17, 2011, 2:35 pm"Google Music" is one of those legends that seems like it's been around as long as Google itself (ok, maybe not quite that long). Rumors pop up from time to time, then they die back down a bit. Then they always come back. Right now, they're in full force due to some comments made by Motorola Mobility CEO Sanjay Jha at Mobile World Congress....
Thoughts on Apple Subscriptions and Google OnePass from President of the Online Publishers Association
February 17, 2011, 2:04 pmOver the past week, Apple announced its subscriptions plan for the App Store , following the model of " The Daily ". Under the plan, publishers set the price and length of the subscription, users choose the length of the subscription and are charged based on how long they subscribe. Apple keeps 30% of the revenue. Google also announced a...
National Broadband Map Launches
February 17, 2011, 2:04 pmThe National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has introduced a searchable nationwide map of broadband Internet availability along with the results of a new survey on broadband adoption. Update: The National Broadband Map is having technical issues. Original Article The National Broadband Map is a searchable database of...
Does Web Conferencing Hurt Business?
February 17, 2011, 2:04 pmI just saw a short online article summarizing results of a survey sponsored by CareerBuilder.com. The article had the provocative headline Survey: Cutting business travel cuts business. It opened with two bullet points in bold face on a highlighted background: Less business travel adversely impacts their business, say more than a third Some...
Where in the World Is Bahrain?
February 17, 2011, 2:04 pmby Claudine Zap The unrest spreading across the Middle East and North Africa has led to many lookups on the Web to find out where, exactly, the countries are located. Searches on "where is dubai" and "where is yemen" all topped the search box in the last day. But the news around a small Persian Gulf sheikdom has sparked the highest number of...
In Video Advertising Size Doesn't Matter
February 17, 2011, 1:59 pmThirty seconds is the magic number for a TV ad, but for online video, fifteen seconds is much more common. Undoubtedly this comes from the idea that people won't tolerate watching anything longer when they can easily skip the ad with the push of a mouse button, but that thinking appears to be wrong. According to a new study by FreeWheel, the...
Bing Allowing Trademarked Terms In PPC Now Google Did Legal Heavy Work?
February 17, 2011, 1:59 pmBing and Yahoo will allow advertisers to use trademarked terms in their PPC keywords starting next month, according to PaidContent.org , suggesting they allowed Google to fight the legal battles before adding the option to their service. Previously Yahoo and Microsoft were stricter about the use of trademarked terms. Companies could get any ads...
Social Networking Accounts for 1 of Every 5 Minutes Spent Online in Australia
February 17, 2011, 1:59 pmcomScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released The State of the Internet in Australia, which looks at the latest trends in digital consumer behavior in the market. The findings of the report were also recently presented at a comScore-hosted industry event in Sydney. Among the report's key findings was that...
Google Adwords Opens Automated Rules For Ads To All Users
February 17, 2011, 1:59 pmLate last year, Google launched a beta test of "Automated Rules" for Adwords - "that lets you save time by scheduling automatic changes to your account based on criteria that you specify," the Adwords Blog announced "If you regularly log in to your account to pause or enable ads, adjust your bids, or perform other manual tasks, automated rules may...
In Video Advertising Size Doesn’t Matter
February 17, 2011, 1:44 pmThirty seconds is the magic number for a TV ad, but for online video, fifteen seconds is much more common. Undoubtedly this comes from the idea that people won’t tolerate watching anything longer when they can easily skip the ad with the push of a mouse button, but that thinking appears to be wrong.
According to a new study by FreeWheel, the...
Waiter? There's a Social Media Spammer in my Google SERPs!
February 17, 2011, 1:39 pmI've never been a big fan of adding as many "friends" to my social networks as possible. Why add unwanted noise to my socially-connected world? Well, I'm now even more glad that I've been selective with who I friend and follow because Google just shoved everyone into my search results. First, social search results will now be mixed throughout your...
Waiter? There’s a Social Media Spammer in my Google SERPs!
February 17, 2011, 1:33 pmI’ve never been a big fan of adding as many “friends” to my social networks as possible. Why add unwanted noise to my socially-connected world?
Well, I’m now even more glad that I’ve been selective with who I friend and follow because Google just shoved everyone into my search results.
First, social search results...
Righthaven Appeals Fair Use Ruling
February 17, 2011, 1:29 pmRighthaven has reportedly appealed a court ruling from last fall, which deemed the use of 8 sentences of one of its clients' 30-sentence article "fair use". The ruling had temporarily led Righthaven to reconsider its strategy, and focus on full copies of articles. As we looked at yesterday, it's entirely possible that a ruling will come down on...
Guillermo González Camarena Inventor Of Color TV Gets Google Doodle
February 17, 2011, 1:24 pmGuillermo González Camarena invented the color TV and he was born in Mexico February 17, 1917 and Google Mexico has a Doodle to honor his work. Color TV was a major social change worldwide - so it gives cause to wonder why it was just a change to the Mexico logo. Click to read the rest of this post.
New Bing Toolbar Adds Facebook Connection, Limited To IE Browsers
February 17, 2011, 1:24 pmGoogle may have had an edge in the search engine toolbar application, but the launch of Bing's new toolbar with its Facebook connection may be offering Google some serious competition, though limiting access to the Internet Explorer browser may hurt its adoption. ""Now, as you live more and more in the browser, actually pulling in all the...
Great Innovations in the Past Century
February 17, 2011, 1:14 pm1921: Insulin discovered. 1932: Prototype atom smasher gun invented in California. Unfortunately does little more than chip away at particles, leaving nuclei intact. 1939: First atom definitively smashed by scientist in Berlin. 1965: Moore's Law posited. One of Google's co-founders later refers to it as a "management innovation," primarily,
Don't Laugh. Bing Has a New Toolbar.
February 17, 2011, 1:14 pm"OK, don't laugh," an email we received from a Bing representative began. "I'm really e-mailing you about a toolbar, but it's actually pretty cool." Yes, Bing has a new toolbar, or " Bing Bar " if you will. It includes things like Bing Search, Facebook, email, Bing Rewards, Maps, Games, etc. "I know what you're thinking another toolbar?" the rep...
Google in 2011: Fighting the War for Mobile
February 17, 2011, 1:14 pmGoogle is fighting the war for dominance on all fronts. Currently, the company is ranked as the top search engine in the world, but they continue to push for greater share and recognition across the globe " with recent television advertisements garnering them the number one position in yet another country, leaving only five left .
Google Adsense Warns On Comment Spam
February 17, 2011, 12:43 pmI was surprised this week to receive a notification from Google Adsense, claiming my account was in policy violation. There was no personalised address, just Hello, which made me immediately think it was spam. However, it was sent to an email address I only use for managing Adsense, and the email specifically referenced the URL of one of my...
33 Quora Q&A Resources: get actual ROI out of using it
February 17, 2011, 12:33 pm* The hype of 2011 is Quora , the new Q&A site that attempts to become much better than Yahoo Answers by aiming at high quality replies.â Everybody and his mum is on Quora it seems, especially SEO industry leaders like Rand Fishkin or Danny Sullivan. â I'm not very active at Quora yet but I watch it closely. While at it, I collected so...
Two Great Twitter Visualization Tools: Twiangulate & MentionMap
February 17, 2011, 12:23 pmToday I've discovered two terrific Twitter visualization tools that I would like to share with you. Both can help you find very interesting people to follow on Twitter.
Questions Every Small Business Should Ask
February 17, 2011, 12:08 pmSmall businesses should always ask questions of themselves. You might ask how you can increase your profit margin. You might ask how you can communicate better with your customers. You may try to find new customers. There are always ways to boost the bottom line and asking questions about your goals, your customers and challenges your company...
New Bing Bar available for download today
February 17, 2011, 12:08 pmToday we are excited to announce the launch of Bing Bar, available for download here . Engineered from the ground up, the new Bing Bar gives you quick access to all the stuff you do online. Conducting a search, checking Facebook or keeping tabs on email, Bing Bar centralizes the most common things you do while helping you discover new features...
How to Kick Groupon to the Curb and Become a Local Hero
February 17, 2011, 11:27 amEveryone's talking about Groupon these days. From daily deals to tasteless Super Bowl commercials, this company is getting a lot of attention. And the attention they want most is from the local small businesses that power their revenue model. Does your local business need Groupon? No, not at all. In fact, there are much better alternatives if...
Jagtag Expands Its QR Code Technology
February 17, 2011, 11:27 amJagtag said today it has expanded its mobile marketing platform with a new QR code offering. To date, QR codes have only been accessible to U.S. users with an installed QR code-reading app on their smartphones. Now users with feature phones can send in a picture of a Jagtag QR code and receive video, images audio or text. The multimedia message is...
New Map Shows Extent Of Facebook's Dominance
February 17, 2011, 11:25 amMark Zuckerberg may not have planned to achieve a sort of global domination while he was coding away at Harvard, but his social network continues to get closer all the time. A new illustration showing the countries in which Facebook doesn't rule has been released, and there aren't a whole lot of them left.
Take a look at the diagram (based...
Turn Stolen Copy Lemons Into Link Lemonade
February 17, 2011, 11:14 amThis stealing of content is what’s known as copyright theft, and it’s against the law. The minute you create original content, you become the copyright owner which means it’s yours and yours alone, even if you share, rent, or pass it out. Here's how to combat content theft ... and potentially gaining links as well!
Google Social Search Improves, Still Has Major Hole
February 17, 2011, 10:52 amInterestingly enough, just after I wrote about how Greplin had some social search benefits that Google is lacking, Google announced that it has updated its own social search. Google social search results will now appear mixed throughout the organic results, as opposed to just at the bottom, as they have done in the past. It's a good move, as I...
Google Lets Evil People Block Your Domain
February 17, 2011, 10:52 amYeah, I thought that title would grab you. Google announced a new extension to its Chrome browser, an extension that could truly rock the SEO World. The extension does two things: It enables searchers to block domains from search results. It tells Google what domains have just been blocked. Says Google anti-spam spokesman Matt Cutts , " If...
TripAdvisor Adds Street View To iPad App
February 17, 2011, 10:21 amTripAdvisor has added a new virtual tours feature to its iPad app using augmented reality technology. The new feature allows users to take a virtual tour to travel destinations with local places superimposed over Google's Street View. Users can view hotels, restaurants and other attractions. "With virtual tours on the TripAdvisor iPad app , we've...
Attention Small Businesses: Help Us Help You by Sharing Your Online Advertising Success Stories
February 17, 2011, 10:16 amI think Jerry Maguire may be one of my favorite movies, top 10 at least. Iconic one-liners aside (I can think of 3 off the top of my head), the idea of a freelance agent in a highly competitive industry seeing success after taking a leap of faith is definitely a story thats worth telling dont you think? Do you have a story worth telling? Here at...
Spammers Hijack Google Brand to Push Online Pharmacy
February 17, 2011, 10:06 amSymantec's MessageLabs Intelligence recently tracked a new pharmaceutical spam campaign that promotes an online pharmacy, claiming that it is "Google-accredited". "This is obvious brand hijacking: Google does not host or approve any pharmacy sites," a representative for the security firm tells WebProNews. "The spam message contains text...
Morrisons can learn online lessons from Kiddicare
February 17, 2011, 9:56 amYesterday supermarket chain Morrisons announced that it had bought baby products group Kiddicare for £70 million. The acquisition is an exciting development for Morrisons who can leverage Kiddicare's digital platform to increase online sales and market presence. Currently Morrisons is the sixth most popular online grocery website in the UK. In...
Half the pitches I receive are irrelevant
February 17, 2011, 9:36 amby Josh Bernoff This is the second of three posts analyzing the contents of my inbox. Yesterday I looked at all my email . Today I take up the 51 emails I received from PR people over a week in January. Do the math: that's ten a day. My topics range has increased since two years ago, when I was exclusively covering social technology - now I cover...
The Relative Opinion of Surveys and Social Media
February 17, 2011, 9:36 amMuch of what we read online in terms of surveys, polls and ratings when it comes to social media is sometimes all a matter of opinion " a company's opinion that is. Companies can conduct their surveys in whatever manner and style they want to, and can report the results in the same manner. That .
Have your say at a Microsoft Advertising Focus Group at SES London
February 17, 2011, 9:31 amIf you want to get your head around the competitive new choice that is about to be offered to search marketers in UK, France, and Ireland, why not come and see us at SES on Tuesday the 22 nd there will be a Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance session (1:15-2:15pm) for agencies and advertisers. Jon Myers from Yahoo! and Mark Richardson from...
Does Facebook Stress You Out?
February 17, 2011, 9:21 amThe more Facebook friends people have , the more likely they are to feel stressed out by the site, according to a new study by Scottish researchers.
Do you feel stressed by the number of Facebook Friends you have? Let us know in the comments.
Psychologists from Edinburgh Napier University surveyed 200 students on their use of Facebook, and found...
Kiva Revealed as Charity for the 2011 USA TODAY Cannes Lions Young Marketers Competition
February 17, 2011, 9:21 amLast week, I wrote about the fabulous opportunity were giving young marketers to travel to Cannes for the International Festival of Creativity in June. The Young Marketers Cannes Lions Competition , in association with USA Today, hopes to attract the best marketing leaders of tomorrow and have them create an exquisite digital campaign on behalf of...
How to save time and money on Web copy revisions
February 17, 2011, 9:16 amThere's nothing worse than seeing a SEO content strategy stall because the revision process gets hairy. I've seen writers quit, team members refuse to speak to each other and turf wars break out between agencies - just because everyone had a different idea of what the copy should read like. It doesn't have to be that way (really!) Here's how to...
Rumor: Google Has Eye On Local Platform SinglePlatform
February 17, 2011, 9:13 amGoogle has reportedly been in talks with SinglePlatform, a local business content publisher network that provides hotels, restaurants, bars and PR firms with a place to manage their digital presence and gain customers.
According to Business Insider, Google has been "sniffing around" the company, with possible (AKA: speculative)...
8 Excellent WordPress SEO Plugins
February 17, 2011, 9:11 amA list of 8 top-notch SEO Plugins that will help you get maximum exposure for your WordPress blog.
Google Buys Tallest Office Building In Dublin
February 17, 2011, 9:05 amIn 2003, Google opened its first office in Ireland, and following a rapid expansion, it doesn't look like the company intends to reverse course anytime soon. Google's now purchased the tallest office building in Dublin for about $136 million. The Montevetro Building, as it's known, is 15 stories high and offers 210,000 square feet of office...
Stephen Colbert Mocks The Huffington Post, Starts "Colbuffington Re-Post"
February 17, 2011, 9:05 amStephen Colbert recently made fun of the Google vs. Bing debate , and now he's taken on the Huffington Post's content strategy, which has been in the news a lot since its acquisition by AOL. "Huffpo is famous for its extensive, comprehensive coverage of things other people produced and put on the Internet," says Colbert. "Hopefully HuffPo will be...
Twitter Video Tutorial on Promoted Tweets Makes the Rounds
February 17, 2011, 9:00 amThanks to Peter Kafka of All Things Digital's MediaMemo, the world can see how Twitter is trying to educate people to use (to Twitter this is the code word for 'pay for') their Promoted Tweet service which is not exactly setting the ad world on fire as of yet. He does a great job of summarizing the video here .
Blog Posts to Read for February 17, 2011
February 17, 2011, 8:55 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! A More 'Organic' Experience This blog post points out that Google's sponsored ads look more like organic results recently....
3 Ways Social Media Is Changing Public Relations
February 17, 2011, 8:55 amThe widespread use of social media has fundamentally changed how people communicate and share information. According to recent data from comScore , Facebook now accounts for 12.3 percent of the time spent online in the U.S. versus 7.2 percent just a year ago. Twitter now counts approximately 200 million accounts and over 110 million tweets per day.
What It Takes To Be an Independent Search Marketer
February 17, 2011, 8:50 amPosted by Lindsay If you're a Search Marketer working at an agency, in-house or are out-of-work entirely, you've probably considered going independent at least once. A bad day at the office can inspire daydreams of earning more money and working from home in your pajamas. There are clear advantages to becoming your own boss but the grass isn't...
SMB Website Study: Frequent Updates + Social Media = Greater Traffic
February 17, 2011, 8:50 amSiteKreator, a small business website builder, has just released the results of their study in which they analyzed 5,000 random websites through 2010. The results revealed that small businesses who update their site content more often receive more traffic on a monthly basis vs sites who make less frequent updates. Additionally, sites which...
Greplin Open to Everyone - Search Across Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, LinkedIn, etc.
February 17, 2011, 8:50 amEarlier this week, Greplin announced it had raised a new $4 million from Sequoia Capital , and revealed that it might open up to the public this week. Now it has. Until now, it has been in closed beta, and now everyone can see what it's all about. While not perfect, Greplin has some interesting things going for it (you have to pay if you want to...
Texas Attorney General Uses Google as Political Platform
February 17, 2011, 8:50 amWhat is it about Google that attorney generals with no technology background smell blood in the water and decide they want to use the search giant as their political springboard? The short answer would be Google's growing size. The longer answer is the AG's political ambitions are commensurate with Google's desire to feed every facet of the Web....
Ad Text Evolution: 5 Changes to Your AdWords Ads & How They Affect Your Bottom Line
February 17, 2011, 8:50 amThere's a lot going on over on the AdWords product development team. Keywords are dying , new AdWords features are rolling out all the time, campaigns are being experimented with , and AdWords is running small business campaigns and letting you automate your campaigns . Amidst all the innovation and commotion they haven't forgotten about ad text.
Using Drupal? Here's the Best Modules for Onsite SEO Optimization
February 17, 2011, 8:50 amWithout a doubt, Drupal is one of the most popular content management systems around; there are millions of websites using it. Many users face one common issue - selecting Drupal modules that are both easy to use and the best at improving the visibility of their website in the search engines. Although this seems like a difficult and time-consuming...
SearchFest 2011 Interview: Matthew Brown
February 17, 2011, 8:50 amMatthew will be speaking about "Advanced On-Site SEO" at SearchFest 2011, which will take place on February 23rd at the Governor Hotel in Portland, Oregon. Tickets are available now. To purchase, please click the following link . 1) Please give us your background and tell us what you do for a living. In January 2011, I left a six year stint at the...
NASA Ranks High in Social Media
February 17, 2011, 8:45 amAs things go in the public sector with various organizations and interests, companies who are focused on research, education and other interests as opposed to profits and bottom lines are not immediately thought of in terms of being successful when it comes to gauging social media activities. After all, public companies or those organizations with...
Lost: Internet Marketing News, If Found Please Let Us Know
February 17, 2011, 8:40 amYou've heard of a slow news day, right? How about a slow news year? So far, 2011 has been a bit of a snoozer. If you were wondering why JC Penney getting busted for blackhat SEO was such a big deal, it's because there's been little else to report on recently. For example, today's big story is that President Obama plans to meet with Mark...
SMB's Optimistic But Still Struggle With Economy and Marketing
February 17, 2011, 8:40 amSMB's are an interesting group. Many of these people are just regular folks. Most are not true business people in the sense that they went to business school and have applied rigid business principles to their business. Many don't have marketing teams,
Google Social Search Integration: Get Ready For Search Marketing Optimization
February 17, 2011, 8:30 amFirst, social search results will now be mixed throughout your results based on their relevance (in the past they only appeared at the bottom)Second, we've made Social Search more comprehensive by adding notes for links people have shared on Twitter and other sites.Third, we've added a new option to connect accounts privately in your Google...
Facebook Beats Google to Claim Second in the “50 Most Innovative Companies” List
February 17, 2011, 7:58 amThe battle between FaceBook and Google mightbe overrated, but in terms of innovation, both companies are definitely doing their best. In the “50 Most Innovative Companies of 2011” list, published by Fastcompany Magazine, Facebook, the leader in 2010 is placed third (“For 600 million users, despite Hollywood”).
Notably, one place ahead of...
SMB’s Optimistic But Still Struggle With Economy and Marketing
February 17, 2011, 7:51 amSMB’s are an interesting group. Many of these people are just regular folks. Most are not true business people in the sense that they went to business school and have applied rigid business principles to their business. Many don’t have marketing teams, on staff PR people or any of the niceties that make talking about Internet marketing and...
New Google Navigation Bar Rolls Out - Social Layer Coming?
February 17, 2011, 7:16 amGoogle users may notice a new top navigation bar across Google search, Gmail, and possibly other Google services.
Google's statement: "Last week we tested a new top navigation bar, which increases consistency across most of Google’s properties and is a visual update over the previous top navigation bar. We are now rolling this...
How Google Uses Twitter, SafeSearch - Matt Cutts Changes Advice
February 17, 2011, 6:52 amMatt Cutts posted a new Webmaster Help video in which he answers his own question rather than a user-submitted one (like usual). Specifically, he asks if there's any advice that he'd like to change from what he's said in the past.
"I did a video back in May of 2010, that said we don't use, for example, Twitter at all in our rankings...
How Google Uses Twitter, SafeSearch – Matt Cutts Changes Advice
February 17, 2011, 6:52 amMatt Cutts posted a new Webmaster Help video in which he answers his own question rather than a user-submitted one (like usual). Specifically, he asks if there’s any advice that he’d like to change from what he’s said in the past.
"I did a video back in May of 2010, that said we don’t use, for example, Twitter...
Bing Testing Personalized and Location-Based Search
February 17, 2011, 5:40 am...something relatively simple: automatically tailoring search results based on your physical location. As 76% of people use search engines to plan trips, events or social gatherings, Bing Local has always provided you with maps to nearby business listings, authoritative reviews and areas of interest. Starting today, we're going a step further...
Quick Website SEO Audit Recommendations
February 17, 2011, 12:17 amIf you are not sure how to spot an un-optimized website just yet, don't worry at all because all it really takes is conducting a visual glance in a variety of locations on the website. Many people still seem to think that you have to get into the coding and do deep technical analysis in order to find out if a site is optimized. In reality, all you...
Bing Results More Successful than Google?: Hitwise Study Says Yes
February 16, 2011, 10:45 pmMore interesting to me is their data on "success rate". Here there is no month-over-month change for any of them. However, the baseline shows a major difference. Success rates on Bing are measured at 81.5% and at Google, 65.6%One reason for this is probably the definition of success. The detail isn't made very clear, but it does involve visiting...
Forbes is Caught Buying Links by Google
February 16, 2011, 7:24 pmNow it's Forbes' turn at getting caught by Google for selling links. This time it didn't take the New York Times to uncover the issue. This past weekend Google was tipped off that JCPenny was selling links and according to Techcrunch there are several other prominent sites such as eWeek and CIO Magazine on Google's radar as well.
Forbes is Caught Selling Links by Google
February 16, 2011, 7:12 pmForbes has been caught and penalized by Google for selling links. And it didn't take the New York Times to uncover this violation of Google's quality guidelines. This past weekend Google was tipped off that JCPenny was buying links after a New York Times investigation.
According to Techcrunch there are several other prominent sites that may...
Tuning Google Analytics for Dense Pages
February 16, 2011, 6:15 pmIt has become increasingly common for websites to put all information for a product on a single page and deliver that information to the user in manageable chunks through JavaScript or CSS or some other web-devilry. This presents an Analytics conundrum for these sites, which many site owners won’t even bother themselves with.
But you might...
Your Profile Just Got a Whole Lot Snazzier
February 16, 2011, 5:52 pmPosted by jennita Disclaimer : This post has absolutely nothing to do with SEO or even online marketing. You've been warned. Please keep reading to see the awesomeness that is your new profile. *happy dance* :) Before I jump into the new profiles and what's so great about them. Let's take a look back, a look at the profiles of yesteryear. Back in...
Explaining the Story View Counts
February 16, 2011, 5:36 pmTweetDeck: Now With Longer Tweets
February 16, 2011, 5:30 pmBigger is always better, right? That’s the idea behind Deck.ly, a new service from TweetDeck that allows you to Tweet as long as you like. In the two weeks since the service has been active, 1.35 million extended Tweets have been posted to the program, like the one below from Tony Robbins.
But isn’t allowing you to tweet over the...
Using Regular Expressions to Group Keywords in Google Analytics
February 16, 2011, 4:46 pmA useful post on how to group your keywords in order to analyze them in segments. >>> Earlier this week, SEER held a “Google Analytics 101″ training for our interns. Questions were asked about RegEx, and I ended up sending an email out to the team with my most commonly used Regular Expressions, as used for Keyword Analysis within...
Behold the Solar Flare
February 16, 2011, 4:19 pmby Mike Krumboltz On February 14, the sun let loose its biggest solar flare in four years. The eruption inspired no small amount of Web interest on the celestial phenomenon. Space.com explains that this recent eruption hurled "a massive wave of charged particles from electrified gas into space and toward Earth." The result: A very intense visual...
Bruce Clay Re-Builds SEO Toolset To Create Fastest Ever Rank Checker
February 16, 2011, 4:09 pmBruce Clay has fundamentally re-written every one of his well known SEO Tools. Starting from scratch the entire codebase has been re-built in .Net and Python and, where appropriate, is using Amazon's EC2 cloud. The service sells for $9.95 per month, per domain but will also retain a free offering for users to experiment with. Currently 50k people...
Justin Bieber, Facebook and MTV Partner on Cyberbullying Initiative
February 16, 2011, 3:43 pmPop superstar (and Grammy nominated) Justin Bieber is partnering with Facebook and MTV's A Thin Line to help stop digital abuse - things like cyberbullying, online stalking, and "textual harassment." If anyone has the power to do so, it would be Bieber, who has a ridiculous amount of influence over the young'ns . Facebook and MTV are pretty big...
Google Yet Again: We Don't Use Bing Data to Influence Our Search Results
February 16, 2011, 3:28 pmI thought this was already made fairly clear, but Google has said again that it does not use Bing data to influence its search results, the way Bing apparently uses Google data to influence it's search results. Danny Sullivan has dug into this topic again , and got some new quotes from Google fellow Amit Singhal, who oversees Google's ranking...
Too Many Facebook Friends Causes Stress
February 16, 2011, 3:28 pmThe more Facebook friends people have , the more likely they are to feel stressed out by the site, according to a new study by Scottish researchers. Psychologists from Edinburgh Napier University surveyed 200 students on their use of Facebook, and found that a for a significant number of users the negative effect of the social network outweighed...
comScore Reports Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2010 Results
February 16, 2011, 3:28 pmcomScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today announced financial results for the fourth quarter and full year of 2010.
More Link Spam Examples in Google
February 16, 2011, 3:22 pmThe New York Times published an article near and dear to my heart over the weekend about JCPenny manipulating Google results as a result of paid links. Apparently it's news to many people that this kind of activity is taking place. But to those of us who optimize Web sites using "white hat" tactics it is certainly no surprise as we investigate why...
Forbes Busted For Selling Links by Google
February 16, 2011, 3:17 pmJC Penny and now Forbes...AGAIN! I personally feel Google is outing a few big dogs to validate they actually are trying to fight SPAM more effectively and serve as a warning to small guys that no one is safe. To bad their alog cant handle this on its own.
Getting Creative With The New Facebook Page Image Ribbon
February 16, 2011, 3:12 pmSince last week's sweeping changes to Facebook Pages people have been scrambling to unearth all the little tricks that the new format affords. One of the bigger changes from a look a feel standpoint involves the placement of five recently updated images along the top of the Wall page. The images are now one of the most prominent features of the...
Google Finally Admits Toolbar Data is a Ranking Signal
February 16, 2011, 3:11 pmMany SEOs have long believed that Google uses data it collects from the Google Toolbar to influence search results. Now Google has finally confirmed it.
What search activity are they using? Google still won't say beyond what they're previously revealed (malware detection and page load time).Click to read the rest of this post...
Are Manual Solutions The Answer To Content Farms?
February 16, 2011, 3:07 pmDave Harry discusses various approaches to deal with mass produced Web content --as well as Web spam-- from a geek's point of view. Obviously explicit feedback mechanisms don't work well, because they're spammable and active user participation is rare, also usually too biased to lead to results capable to satisfy the masses. Maybe Google's...
Google Adds Republican Lobbyist
February 16, 2011, 3:07 pmWith a greater number of Republicans on Capitol Hill, Google is looking to add GOP members to its lobbying ranks. Google earlier this month added Stewart Jeffries, House Judiciary Committee antitrust counsel for Republicans, and the company "hopes to add one more Republican to its federal relations staff," which is headed by Pablo Chavez, Politico...
Latest Chan-wook Park Film Paranmanjang (aka: Night Fishing) Shot Entirely on iPhone 4
February 16, 2011, 2:52 pmChan-wook Park is one of my favorite directors working today thanks to his films like Joint Security Area, Oldboy, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, and Lady Vengeance. His films, while often brutally violent, tend to be shot beautifully well, which makes news that his latest, a 30-minute short called Paranmanjang, was shot entirely with an iPhone 4,...
Apple, Google Unveil Competing Subscription Plans
February 16, 2011, 2:31 pmApple has a brand new system that will allow online content producers to sell subscriptions. Google has a brand new system that will allow online content producers to sell subscriptions. Is that a coincidence? Coming only a few days apart, it does seem that Google is trying to one-up Apple especially since Apple is taking nothing but flack from...
Demand Media Has New Leader for Fashion and Beauty
February 16, 2011, 2:21 pmDemand Media announced today that it has appointed former NBC Universal and Viacom executive Lisa Kraynak its new General Manager and Senior Vice President for its New Fashion and Beauty property typeF.com . The site itself is a product of Demand Media's partnership with Bankable Enterprises (the one run by Tyra Banks), which we reported on last...
SlideShare Zipcasts for Real Time Collaboration
February 16, 2011, 2:21 pmA long time ago Tim Oren scribbled this on a napkin to help explain a little of what he learned about collaboration. We put wikis in the top left, email in the bottom left and IM in the bottom right. He described that at the top right is a collaboration sweet spot, but a place that is very hard to start off with. You create something to the left...
Norton Launches Cybercrime Index
February 16, 2011, 2:05 pmNorton has introduced a cybercrime index, which tracks and warns computer users of daily threats. The Norton Cybercrime Index alerts people to online risks, including the day's most dangerous websites, the most hijacked search terms by cybercriminals, as well as scams identity theft and spam. The Norton Cybercrime Index answers the question,...
Google Wants You To Upload Your Data
February 16, 2011, 2:05 pmGoogle announced today that it's opening up its Public Data Explorer tool to everyone, meaning you can use it to upload your own datasets. "We're making a new data format, the DataSet Publishing Language (DSPL), openly available, and providing an interface for anyone to upload their datasets, so they can benefit from the same powerful, animated...
News Corp's Content Aggregation Double Standard
February 16, 2011, 1:50 pmRupert Murdoch and News Corp. have long conveyed a disgruntled outlook on news aggregation . It wasn't that long ago when there were stories everywhere about the company blocking access to its content from news aggregation sites, and the never-ending verbal sparring with Google over the issue. Yet News Corp.-run Wall Street Journal has been...
Michelle Pfeiffer Moves the Web, Solar Flares Shoot from Sun, Bonnaroo's Big Lineup: What's the Buzz
February 16, 2011, 1:40 pmby Claudine Zap Our top picks from the day's hottest searches. Michelle Pfeiffer (+33,768%). As Yahoo! searches show, fans are obviously thrilled that the star may team up with Johnny Depp in the new Tim Burton flick " Dark Shadows ." Amanda Knox (Searches increased by +10,796%). The parents of the American exchange student convicted of murder...
Groupon Has "Invisibility Cloak Wednesdays"
February 16, 2011, 1:14 pmGroupon has posted a video showing off what a typical Wednesday looks like at the Groupon headquarters. It's almost as if nobody's there at all... Groupon says the video is an "effort to remain transparent." Rimshot. It could turn into a nice little viral video to follow up the ill-concieved Super Bowl spots .
Why It's OK to Offend People in Social Media
February 16, 2011, 12:59 pmRecently, Kenneth Cole took a bit of criticism in the social media space for making what many considered an insensitive tweet . I'm going to disagree with the social media guru's here and say it's ok to offend people. In fact, it's probably something you should do on a regular basis. In case you missed it, here's the tweet in question Kenneth Cole...
Is Human Google Phone Support the Internet's Bigfoot?
February 16, 2011, 12:59 pmEveryone wants to believe that something spectacular and mysterious is true. Among the many legends are Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster (Nessie) and more. Well, for the Internet marketing set one of these legends is the mysterious monster that isnt so much a being but an action. Its called the Legend of Humanoid Google Customer Service Support...
Is Human Google Phone Support the Internet’s Bigfoot?
February 16, 2011, 12:49 pmEveryone wants to believe that something spectacular and mysterious is true. Among the many ‘legends’ are Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster (Nessie) and more.
Well, for the Internet marketing set one of these legends is the mysterious monster that isn’t so much a being but an action. It’s called the Legend of Humanoid Google...
Why It’s OK to Offend People in Social Media
February 16, 2011, 12:44 pmRecently, Kenneth Cole took a bit of criticism in the social media space for making what many considered an insensitive tweet. I'm going to disagree with the social media guru's here and say it's ok to offend people. In fact, it's probably something you should do on a regular basis. In case you missed it, here's the tweet in question
Kenneth...
Texas AG Wants Google's Formula for AdWords Rates, Ranking Sites
February 16, 2011, 12:02 pmThe Texas attorney general leading an antitrust investigation of Google wants to know how Google determines the prices for its AdWords paid search advertising program and how sites are ranked in Google's search results. According to various reports, a civil investigative demand from Texas AG Gregg Abbott from July 29 asked Google provide his...
Sources of the "I hired a crappy SEO" syndrome
February 16, 2011, 11:52 amSome observers - some Googlers included - are going pretty easy on J.C. Penney for being the latest big company to fall "victim" to black hat SEO techniques. And the ensuing tips on how to separate the wheat from the chaff are still too soft on the whole issue, as pointed out by Lisa Barone in this excellent piece . Like Lisa, I think the advice...
Oreo Sets Guinness Record For Likes On Facebook
February 16, 2011, 11:52 amOreo said today it set a Guinness World Records with the most likes for a brand on a Facebook post in 24 hours. The record attempt began on Tuesday, February 15 at 9 a.m. EST, when the Oreo Facebook community of 16 million fans from around the world was invited to "like" the following post: "'Like' this post to join other Oreo fans around the...
DOTW: How to Hire an SEO/SEM Consultant?
February 16, 2011, 11:50 amThis "Discussion of the Week" is inspired by personal experience: Over the past 2-3 weeks, my IN box has been bombarded by small business owners realizing they need SEO/SEM help but not knowing where to start and, more specifically, how to find the right consultant/company to help with online marketing. So, what ONE TIP or piece of advice would...
Google Approaches the World of Gaming
February 16, 2011, 11:41 amGoogle has entered almost every field that exists online, so it's not surprising to hear that they're working on solutions for game development. What may be surprising is how much investment they've been making. In June of last year, Google showed up as a committed player when they invested a full $100 million in Zynga, .
Getting Started with SEO, PPC and Social Media
February 16, 2011, 11:31 amNever mind the BAFTAs, the British Academy Awards or even the Oscars: the events to be at lately are clearly the advertising ones. The buzz words are Social and Search and not apart like relatives suffering from sibling rivalry but very much in tune and complimenting each other in a way identical twins are said to behave. After a flurry of...
How To Tell If Your SEO Will Get You Banned
February 16, 2011, 11:11 amWhether you’re in the process of hiring an SEO or you have one you’re already working with – it’s important you know what’s being done to your site. If you’re not sure, here are some good questions to ask either yourself or the person applying their magic.
SEO Confessions of a Former “Dirty Little Secret” Keeper
February 16, 2011, 10:55 amMarty Weintraub shares how he used to game the search engines...back in the good ol' days :.)
Google Launches Own Subscription Service
February 16, 2011, 10:50 amGoogle has introduced a new subscription service aimed at allowing publishers to offer their content to people on a wide range of devices. The new service called Google One Pass allows publishers to control how and when they charge for content. Users who buy One Pass can access content on tablets, smartphones and websites using a single sign-in...
Could Full Article-Copying Be Ruled as Fair Use?
February 16, 2011, 10:50 amWe've written about Righthaven a couple times. This is a company with a business model based on suing publishers and bloggers on behalf of newspaper clients like the Las Vegas Review-Journal, bringing lots of fair use questions into the forefront. For more context and background on this, read our articles " Fair Use Controversy: The Gift That...
Google Announces One Pass Subscription Service, Rivals Apple
February 16, 2011, 10:45 amGoogle announced a new subscription payment service today called One Pass . Google One Pass is toting itself as a "purchase-once, view-anywhere" service, enabling users to view subscription based e-content on any device. Click to read the rest of this post.
Who Will Survive In The New Networked Media Oceans?
February 16, 2011, 10:17 amMedia companies used to exist in their own separate waters. The newspaper industry was the newspaper industry. TV was TV and so on and so forth. Each of these unconnected territories had a few super-predators that were top of their respective food chains, untroubled by the small fry. This was also true of technology and telecoms. However, in...
Google Updates Productivity Features
February 16, 2011, 10:07 amGoogle is well more than a search engine these days, with the company taking on a major role in both providing services and pioneering new areas of web-based technology. The core concepts of Gmail and Google Docs make up much of Google's current fighting force, and increases customer loyalty and potential business solutions. Always on .
Local Deals Company DealOn Acquired by ReachLocal
February 16, 2011, 10:02 amLocal marketing firm ReachLocal announced that it has acquired New York-based Deals company DealOn, as company's everywhere try to get in on the hot local deals goldrush. ReachLocal is paying $10 million for the acquisition. "This will allow ReachLocal to enable other deal sites and publishers to supply and/or resell deals, as well as greatly...
Doxo Looks to Disrupt Payments Industry, Gets New $10 Million in Funding
February 16, 2011, 10:02 amDoxo, a startup looking to overhaul the payments industry, has raised a new $10 million round of funding from new and existing investors like Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' Bezos Expeditions . What Doxo does is enable consumers to securely receive, manage, store and now PAY their bills and other documents from multiple service providers from one place...
Apple Subscriptions Raise Antitrust Questions
February 16, 2011, 10:02 amThis week, Apple launched a subscription service for the app store . It enables all publishers of content-based apps (including magazines, newspapers, video, music, etc.) to follow the model of the recently launched The Daily from New Corp. According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, the service has raised concerns about antitrust, though...
How to Turn Dating Agony Into Sales Success
February 16, 2011, 9:35 amAt some point in your life, you've had one. I've had one. Everyone's had one. I'm talking, of course, about a really awkward, torturous, embarrassing first date. You misread a cue and leaned forward for a kiss when your date was just reaching forward to grab their laptop bag. You find yourself with nothing to say for a full ninety minutes, and sit...
SEO content marketing roundup, week ending February 16th
February 16, 2011, 9:30 amLet the games begin! In this week's latest and greatest web writing news, it is on : Google (seemingly) takes on black-hat SEO practices in a widely-publicized scandal while (actually) continuing to wage war on content farms, content marketing talks influence and smart branding strategy, and social media flexes its muscle with its growing role in...
MapQuest Android App Launched
February 16, 2011, 9:29 amMapQuest has unveiled a new Android app that comes with voice-guided/turn-by-turn Navigation, voice search, a map toolbar (making it easily find restaurants, gas stations, etc. with one click), walking/driving directions, recommendations for the best routes, rotating maps, and live traffic flow/incidents.
On the traffic feature, the company says...
VEVO Second Only To YouTube In January
February 16, 2011, 9:27 amA total of 171 million U.S. Internet users watched online video in January for an average of 14.5 hours per viewer, according to the latest report from comScore.
Google sites remained the top online video content property in January with 144. 1 million unique viewers, driven mainly by YouTube. VEVO landed in the second spot with 51 million...
Attention Marketers! In App Deals Make Smartphone Users Most Happy
February 16, 2011, 9:05 amSince smartphones will be taking over the world very soon (that's just a foregone conclusion, right?) it's important to know what people respond on these devices. If the information coming from a Pontiflex Harris Interactive survey (via eMarketer) is any indication it will require marketers to adhere to the old KISS adage: Keep It Simple Stupid....
5 Reasons To Create A Facebook Fan Page AND 5 Reasons Not To:
February 16, 2011, 8:35 amWhile I've been known to ramble on and on, I'm going to keep this one short and simple. Shocking, I know! J 5 Reasons You Should Create A Facebook Fan Page: Fan Pages get indexed by the engines and we are seeing them pop up in the SERPs (search engine results pages) more often! When done well,
Blekko & Stack Overflow Team Up; Is The Future Celebrity Endorsed Search Indexes?
February 16, 2011, 8:25 amSearch engine upstart, Blekko, continuing it's quest to form an alliance against spam has partnered with Stack Overflow, "a programming Q&A site built by programmers for programmers". This follows a blog post at the start of 2011 from StackOverflow's CTO, Jeff Attwood which cited Trouble in the House of Google and, along with a rising tide of...
Analysis of my inbox: 2 out 3 emails I get are from a machine
February 16, 2011, 8:20 amby Josh Bernoff Is your inbox a communications channel? Or is it a target? To find out, I analyzed a week's worth of the contents of my Forrester.com inbox. (I did this two years ago ,too.) Why do this? Because I think even as we embrace social, email is still the bread and butter of many of our interactions - and it's a channel that's being...
Video Demo: Livestand from Yahoo!
February 16, 2011, 8:04 amYahoo! CEO Carol Bartz struts our cool new stuff in Barcelona Earlier today in Barcelona, Carol Bartz, Yahoo! CEO, delivered a keynote at Mobile World Congress on The Evolution of the Mobile Internet. She and Irv Henderson, VP of Yahoo! Mobile Products and Connected Devices, provided a demo of Livestand from Yahoo!, a new product we announced last...
Google Steps Up Fight Against Spam
February 16, 2011, 7:49 amComplaints about Google's current spam results are whirling around like a hurricane. The huge attention to this critical issue (which began with reports in November of last year) has done at least three things. One: It prompted new search engines to push for "anti-spam" features. Two: It increased attention to Blekko, the search engine that .
Gain More from Your Link Building
February 16, 2011, 7:44 amLink building is rarely a favorite task for a webmaster to perform but it is certainly one of the most important. There are many ways to obtain backlinks, some of which take a lot of time and patience before seeing any benefits of all your hard work. The good news is that some link building techniques help you grow your network and gain traffic...
The Power of Unique Product Descriptions
February 16, 2011, 7:28 amWhether it's online or offline, words help sell products. If you are setting up an e-commerce store you should take the time to really focus on your product descriptions. This can deliver a wide range of benefits, which I'll describe later in this article. How is online selling different to offline? When it comes to product descriptions there is...
YouTube Closed Caption Fun
February 16, 2011, 7:23 amWith all of the focus on IBM's Watson computer kicking butt and taking names on Jeopardy (even if it thinks that Toronto is a US city but let's not nit pick) we were introduced to this video about the totally automated close captioning capabilities of YouTube (hat tip to @BreRoz ). Let's just say it needs a little work but, hey, nothing's perfect...
Salesforce.com isn't Sole Reason Google Won't Enter CRM
February 16, 2011, 7:13 amSoftware Advice analyst Lauren Carlson rekindled an oldie but a goodie topic in a blog post last week: Will Google Enter the CRM Market? That was one of several questions I posed to Google Enterprise President Dave Girouard in his office at the Googleplex in Mountain View, Calif., in December 2007. Girouard replied : I think we're smart enough to...
Top Marketing and Sales Execs Jump Ship to Facebook and Twitter
February 16, 2011, 7:08 amThere is always plenty of talk about Twitter and Facebook and their money making potential. Well, actually Twitter's is more about potential where Facebook is already a considerable success. Now both are looking to ratchet up their efforts and they have each turned to interesting competitors to get new talent. As reported by Kara Swisher at...
How to Overcome 4 Social Media Headaches
February 16, 2011, 7:03 amSocial Media Marketing has taken a firmer position within the marketing mix of most companies in one way or another. For some, social web participation is a natural fit. For many others, being more social isn't in the management DNA. Regardless, marketers are held accountable for improving the bottom line and with that comes a number of common...
Google One Pass Launched, A Digital Content Management Service
February 16, 2011, 5:32 amGoogle One Pass, a service that lets publishers set their own prices and terms for their digital content.With Google One Pass, publishers can customize how and when they charge for content while experimenting with different models to see what works best for them, offering subscriptions, metered access, "freemium" content or even single articles...
Not Your Father's Auto Ads
February 16, 2011, 5:10 am5 tips for optimizing your auto campaigns for mobile Editor's Note: This post is the third in an ongoing series exploring findings from a recent, comprehensive study undertaken by Yahoo! and Nielsen to discover how people interact with their mobile devices, and the opportunities those findings present to advertisers. Remember the ad, " This is not...
Your Site is Finally on Google News? Not Forever!
February 16, 2011, 1:50 amGetting included in Google News database is not an easy task. Their guidelines are not that clear and sometimes it appears that you have to do something special to get listed. Here is an example of our communication with Google regarding the matter. Doesn’t make much sense, right?
However, it seems that even if you are among those fortunate...
A Tweet's Effect On Rankings - An Unexpected Case Study
February 16, 2011, 1:18 amPosted by jennita Let me tell you a tale of an unexpected case study on the value of a tweet on a page's ranking and traffic. This tale will mostly be told using graphics, as the images tell the story better than I can. Let's begin... Last Monday while I was checking the morning tweets, I noticed a ton of tweets about our Beginner's Guide to SEO ....
Has Your Online Marketing Reached a Saturation Point?
February 16, 2011, 12:12 amIf a business sits in a tight niche it does run the risk of reaching an online saturation point if the search engine optimization efforts are very aggressive and not diverse enough. Does it happen easily? No, not at all, but it could happen for some businesses that are not surrounded by heavy competition all around them.
PayPal's Take on Key Trends Emerging from #MWC11
February 15, 2011, 8:52 pmHi everyone, I'm Fabio Sisinni from the mobile team, writing straight from Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona. Over the years, it's become clear that CES and MWC are the two conferences that truly define the trends ahead in mobile technology. And this year, it's all about tablets, dual-core smartphones and Near Field Communication. LG,...
2 Books Promising Inside View of Google Due Out This Year
February 15, 2011, 8:31 pmTwo books scheduled for release in the coming months are promising to give us a glimpse inside Google - one from the perspective of a journalist and the other from a former employee. The first, " In The Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives ," is by Wired writer Steven Levy and due out in April. " I'm Feeling Lucky: The Confessions...
Twitter for Customer Service? Fortune Puts it to the Test
February 15, 2011, 8:00 pmThe answer to a customer service question should always be accurate, as simple as possible while still covering the problem completely and it should arrive in a timely manner. For most companies, this means running customer service phone lines or responding to email, but some intrepid explorers are giving Twitter a whirl. It's a logical step,...
Glenn Beck Attacks Google As Government Shills
February 15, 2011, 6:54 pm"Is anyone willing to do their own homework? Cause the media is not going to," Fox News Commentator Glenn Beck asked Monday - and as a member of the media - he quickly showed he had not done his, claiming Google was "deeply in bed with the Federal government." Click to read the rest of this post.
Online Video Trends: The Future Guide To The Best Predictions For 2011
February 15, 2011, 6:00 pmIf you are looking to identify the key trends that will affect video, the convergence of Internet, social media and television, the role of mobile in video distribution as well as the relevance of video for developing effective marketing strategies, this guide to the best video predictions and anticipations for 2011, covers all of these topics and...
Facebook Won't Go Steady With Only One Phone
February 15, 2011, 5:52 pmThe Mobile World Congress in Barcelona is really heating up. Today, it's all about Mark Zuckerberg and his plans for mobile phone domination. For a long time, it's been rumored that Zuckerberg was backing a Facebook-branded cell phone, but the man says it's not going to happen. Instead of going steady with only one manufacturer, Facebook is going...
Possible Ninth Planet Rocks the Web
February 15, 2011, 5:27 pmby Claudine Zap Forget the "Sputnik moment." If two astrophysicists are correct, we may be having a "Tyche moment" - a ninth planet to add to our solar system. But that's a big "if." The two scientists who make the claim, Daniel Whitmire and John Matese from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, say a planet they named Tyche - that is four...
Facebook Won’t Go Steady With Only One Phone
February 15, 2011, 5:23 pmThe Mobile World Congress in Barcelona is really heating up. Today, it’s all about Mark Zuckerberg and his plans for mobile phone domination.
For a long time, it’s been rumored that Zuckerberg was backing a Facebook-branded cell phone, but the man says it’s not going to happen. Instead of going steady with only one manufacturer,...
What Google Results Could Look Like with Some Minor Quality Adjustments
February 15, 2011, 4:51 pmGoogle's search quality has been a heated topic of discussion in recent weeks - mainly with regard to content farms permeating search results. It's not only an issue with Google, but Google is by far the largest search engine, dominating the market by a landslide, so it gets the most scrutiny. We thought it would be fun to look at what Google's...
eBay, Telefonica Agree To Major App Deal
February 15, 2011, 4:35 pmMobile purchases - which were already becoming much more common - may soon really increase in frequency in the UK. eBay and Telefonica have struck a two-year deal that will see eBay apps and/or links preloaded on most of the phones O2 sells in the region. This move's rather significant. For starters, eBay's already one of the first sites many...
comScore Releases January 2011 U.S. Online Video Rankings
February 15, 2011, 3:28 pmcomScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released data from the comScore Video Metrix service showing that 171 million U.S. Internet users watched online video content in January for an average of 14.5 hours per viewer. The total U.S. Internet audience engaged in nearly 4.9 billion viewing sessions during the...
Ernest Shackleton, Antartic Explorer Honored With Google Doodle In UK
February 15, 2011, 3:23 pmSir Ernest Henry Shackleton was born on 15 February 1874 and died on 5 January 1922. He was famous for his exploration of the Antartic and at one time had gone the furthest into the South Pole region. The Google Doodle today honors those efforts which ultimately took his life. Click to read the rest of this post.
Small Business: Your Questions Answered - Keywords, Bids and Costs Per Click
February 15, 2011, 3:08 pmHappy February! This is round two of the Your Questions Answered series (be sure to check out the first one if you haven't yet). This week Ill be responding to your recent questions about keywords, bids, and cost per click (CPC). KEYWORDS: · Where do you find your keyword relevance scores? At this time, adCenter does not show keyword...
The Woman Behind Superman: Inspiration for Lois Lane Dies
February 15, 2011, 2:11 pmby Claudine Zap Here's some very sad news: Lois Lane has died . The woman who inspired the character from the " Superman " comic, Joanne Siegel , was 93. Her husband, Jerome Siegel, modeled Lois Lane after the woman who eventually became his wife. The Cleveland native met the Man of Steel co-creator Siegel and his partner Joe Shuster when she was...
Move over Valentine's Day'Anti-V-day is here!
February 15, 2011, 2:11 pmHi there. Claudia Lombana, PayPal Shopping Specialist here to tell you that today, February 15 th is Anti-Valentine's Day. With February 14 th behind us, the red roses, the chocolates and the mushy pre-written cards of this pseudo national holiday have been delivered to those who participate in the day loved by some and loathed by others. For...
HP Finds Twitter Trending Topics Often Dictated by Mainstream Media
February 15, 2011, 1:51 pmHP has released an interesting report looking at where Trending Topics come from on Twitter. It claims that mainstream media are responsible for a lot of them. "You might expect the most prolific tweeters or those with most followers would be most responsible for creating such trends," says HP Senior Fellow and director of HP Labs Social...
Connecticut AG Asks Facebook About Security
February 15, 2011, 1:51 pmConnecticut Attorney General George Jepsen is asking Facebook for information about its security measures for detecting and disabling fraudulent accounts following a complaint by a state legislator that her identity was used in a scam that asked her friends for money. Rep. Kim Rose, D-118th District, said Facebook did not respond quickly to...
Google "Ice Cream Sandwich" OS on the Horizon
February 15, 2011, 1:09 pmAt the consumer electronics show which took place early in January of this year, Google Android swept across a variety of booths, appealing to the tens of thousands of visitors to the convention. Android, after all, had a number of strong items to showcase. Its Nexus S phone, newly released in December, was sporting the .
Appsumo Reveals its A/B Testing Secret: Only 1 Out of 8 Tests Produce Results
February 15, 2011, 12:38 pmA nice reminder that you are not alone in failing 7 out of 8 times as not not all split tests will be positive. >>> Only 1 out of 8 A/B tests have driven significant change AppSumo.com reaches around 5,000 visitors a day. A/B testing has given us some dramatic gains such as increasing our email conversion over 5x and doubling our...
How To Use Param1 and Param2 in AdCenter to Customize Paid Search Ads [Tutorial]
February 15, 2011, 12:16 pmA step by step tutorial for how to use params in AdCenter to customize paid search ads. Params are unique to AdCenter and can help search marketers provide the most relevant ad text possible, while also driving users to custom landing pages.
Oreo Aims To set Guinness Record For Likes On Facebook
February 15, 2011, 11:57 amOreo is asking people to help it set the Guinness World Records for the most likes on a Facebook post in 24 hours. The record attempt started today at 9 a.m. EST and will finish tomorrow. Oreo says it has 16 million Facebook fans around the world. Oreo Join us tomorrow to help set the first ever Guinness World Record for the most for most "Likes"...
MerchantCircle Study: Small Businesses Favor Facebook
February 15, 2011, 11:57 amFacebook, with its 500 million active users and (unofficial) movie and books, is also quite the hit with small businesses, according to a new report. MerchantCircle found that Facebook is the favorite online marketing service of small businesses, and Facebook Places is doing quite well, too. To sort of set the stage: the Merchant Confidence Index...
Weekly Search & Social News: 02/15/2011
February 15, 2011, 11:42 amHello and welcome back to ' 7 Days of Search and Social '. Another week, another drama. While I've not looked historically to past years, one does have to wonder if the winter blaaah creates more drama in the search industry? After so many months of peace, each week brings more excitement lately it seems. For our part, we'll side-step it as much...
How IntoNow Plans to Monetize Your Conversations About the Shows You're Watching
February 15, 2011, 11:11 amA new startup called IntoNow has been generating some buzz with a social TV app for the iPhone/iPad. Founder and CEO Adam Cahan told WebProNews about how it works, and why users will find it useful for entertainment content discovery based on what you have in common with your friends' viewing habits. "About 60% of people watching television are...
10 Facebook Page Upgrades We “Like”
February 15, 2011, 11:03 amHighlights of the new Facebook Page upgrades. The changes open up new ways for administrators to manage and market their pages. Good stuff here!
Amazon And Netflix Tops In Customer Satisfaction
February 15, 2011, 10:35 amCustomer satisfaction with ecommerce websites is down 2.6 percent to 79.3 on a 100-point scale, it lowest score since 2004, according to a new report from The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) and ForeSee Results. Satisfaction with e-commerce and retail is off from a year ago overall, but the individual company results are mixed, and...
YouTube Details Processing Speed Improvements
February 15, 2011, 10:35 amNo one could have expected that YouTube's decision to allow lengthier, higher-quality video clips would come without a price. Specifically, it only made sense that it would take longer for the clips to go live. But YouTube's made great strides in improving the processing and publishing speed for videos. A post on the YouTube Blog explained late...
Publishers and Livestand from Yahoo!
February 15, 2011, 10:25 amHow Livestand benefits publishers Last week, we announced Livestand from Yahoo! It's a totally new way of delivering magazine-like, multimedia-rich content and advertising on tablets and other connected devices. Last week, we gave you a sneak peek at just some of the benefits Livestand holds for advertisers . But what about us publishers, you ask?...
User Feedback: The Next Google Ranking Signal?
February 15, 2011, 9:48 amGoogle's Matt Cutts has indicated in recent weeks that Google is working on projects that will deal with some of the search engine's quality issues with regards to content farms. It looks like one of those projects is now here. Google has launched a Chrome extension that lets users block sites from search results. Will you use the Chrome...
Happy birthday, SuccessWorks
February 15, 2011, 9:28 amWhat a difference 13 years can make. I started SuccessWorks in 1998, one month after my father passed away. Back then, I had no idea how much my life would be influenced by my leap into self employment. All I was thinking was, "I want to be a writer." My father lived life on his own terms. I wanted the same for myself. Today, I feel extremely...
HTC ChaCha and Salsa Help Cement Facebook's Future As Social Leader
February 15, 2011, 9:18 amFacebook is now officially a hard key on phones, thanks to HTC, which announced two new Android devices with such a feature: the HTC ChaCha and the HTC Salsa. Like most smartphones have a button for search, these two phones have a button for sharing. The concept is simple, whatever app you're in or whatever content you're viewing, you can...
Introducing the Social Eyes Theme for WordPress
February 15, 2011, 9:18 amThe importance of owning your own online real estate is becoming more obvious every day. Why make others rich off the sweat of your labor and your passions? So if you're in love with all the traffic and reach that social networking sites provide, you'll want to take a long look at one of the latest creations from Copyblogger Media's StudioPress...
CMO Survey Results Reported
February 15, 2011, 9:13 amThe CMO Survey from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and the American Marketing Association is a comprehensive look into the minds of C-suite marketers like few others. The press release for the survey describes the participants
The CMO Survey, is a nationwide poll of chief marketing officers (CMOs) conducted twice annually by Duke...
New Shopper Journeys: Making Post-Purchase Conversations Count
February 15, 2011, 9:12 amTraditionally advertisers place significant resource and emphasis on their pre-purchase marketing strategy, but in a recent study released by Microsoft Advertising entitled New Shopper Journeys compelling new evidence came to light about the importance of having - in addition to a strong and integrated paid advertising campaign - a robust...
Google Chrome Team Member Discusses Development Pattern
February 15, 2011, 9:07 amPeople often wonder how often Google is updating its various programs. In some cases, the releases are monumental occasions, seeing flagship products, release parties, and giving users a new reason to live (for example, the OS updates " which happen two to three times per year); in other cases, the changes are so minor that .
Criterion Collection Comes To Hulu Plus
February 15, 2011, 9:02 amFilm students, movie buffs, and people who are simply budget-minded now have more reason than ever to join Hulu Plus. A new deal will see hundreds of Criterion Collection movies become available through the service without commercial interruption and at no extra charge. The Criterion Collection is legendary in some circles. Since 1984, it's...
Is Long Tail SEO Really SEO?
February 15, 2011, 9:02 amI've had many discussions with others in the SEO arena over the years regarding the value of long tail SEO. But until this weekend I've never had anyone in our industry tell me that long tail is NOT SEO. So when I read that, I had a big WTF moment. The ensuing discussion essentially got nowhere as far as anyone changing their minds. For me, it's...
Dig a Little Deeper in your Keyword Research to Really Learn What Your Prospects Are Looking For
February 15, 2011, 8:47 amby Stone Reuning Let's face it, a lot of us can get lazy sometimes. When it comes to keyword research, a lot of times we just take a brief look at our favorite keyword research tool and go with whatever looks good and in high demand. If a phrase has strong demand, we naturally think this is what our prospects are trying to find, learn or buy. When...
Groupon Launches as Stardeals in Australia
February 15, 2011, 8:47 amGroupon has officially launched in Australia, under the brand Stardeals. Why not Groupon? Because A company previously known as "Scoopon" has the rights to that name in Australia at the moment. Last month, Groupon CEO Andrew Mason explained the situation in a blog post. Groupon is suing Scoopon, which is now running as "Groupon Pty Limited". At...
Apple Introduces Subscription Service On The App Store
February 15, 2011, 8:47 amApple has introduced a new subscription service on its App Store for magazines, newspapers, video and music. This is the same subscription service that Apple recently launched with News Corp.'s The Daily app. Read the review here . Publishers set the price and length of the subscription (weekly, monthly, bi-monthly, quarterly, bi-yearly or...
30 Efficient Web Tools that Save Time and Make Money for Power Users
February 15, 2011, 8:37 am* Web tools are useful when they don't require a significant time investment to master them or use them. The best tools out there save time and make money at the same time. They don't even have to deal with time and money like time management or micropayment tools do. They just have to make sure you reach your goals as fast as possible and that...
Paid links: do you still have to worry about them?
February 15, 2011, 8:36 amOnce again, paid links are a hot topic in the search engine optimization community. The website of J. C. Penney had number 1 rankings for many competitive keywords. It turned out that the J. C. Penney website obtained these rankings through buying links on over 2000 pages. Now that Google found the links, J. C. Penney faces a major problem.
Blekko Partners with Stack Overflow for Programming Queries
February 15, 2011, 8:25 amBlekko just announced it is now using the Stack Overflow community to help improve and maintain programming-related slashtags for its search engine. Stack Overflow, if you're unfamiliar with it, is a programming Q&A site built by programmers for other programmers. Stack Overflow, a representative for Blekko tells WebProNews,
Don’t Break The Cardinal Rule Of LinkBait
February 15, 2011, 8:22 amDebra's linkbait failed? How could that happen? Read her dissection of what went wrong in this interesting post at The Link Spiel.
What's New in SEO for February 15, 2011
February 15, 2011, 8:15 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: More "I do"s, less "to-do"s: wedding planning simplified Your wedding day is one of the biggest days of your life. To help you plan, Google teamed up with wedding planner...
Google Lets You Androidify Yourself
February 15, 2011, 7:54 amGoogle has launched an app called Androidify , which allows you to make a version of the Android mascot that looks like you. Expect these to start popping up everywhere like the South-Parkified avatars you currently see. There's not much to say. It's a free app that can be downloaded from the Android Market on your Android device. You can then...
Social Media ROI, Automation, Monitoring and the Woman Scorned
February 15, 2011, 7:54 amStark, raving mad and angry enough to do some damage. That was me after having what started out as a quick, pleasant Q & A. This article about social media ROI is what resulted from the conversation, after my editor took out all the cuss words and indecent language not fit for general consumption. Oh yes, the topic was "How do you measure your...
Internet Marketing as a Team - 10 Steps to Success
February 15, 2011, 7:53 amWhen it comes to working on an internet marketing project, are you the strong solo player or do you work well interacting with other internet marketing professionals? Most of us in online marketing feel very strongly that our 'branch' of the industry - SEO, PPC, etc. - is the most important part of the process and often believe we each have enough...
Citysearch Enters Daily Deals Fray
February 15, 2011, 7:48 amIt's getting pretty crowded in the daily deal space these days. Groupon and LivingSocial are big enough and backed by big bucks but the hundreds (maybe thousands) of variations on the theme are making it pretty messy in the deal of the day space. Today add to the list Citysearch. They are taking a slightly different approach in that they will...
Report: iOS Grew Faster Than Android in January
February 15, 2011, 7:21 amMillennial Media released its Mobile Mix report for January, looking at trends for connected devices, mobile manufacturers, operating systems, and apps. "Last month we saw significant OS and Manufacturer growth on our network," a representative for the firm tells WebProNews. "iOS outpaced all other operating systems experiencing a 47% increase...
CitySearch Launches Daily Deals Aggregator
February 15, 2011, 7:21 amTaking advantage of all the buzz about daily deals, CitySearch has taken it upon itself to provide a convenient way for user to check out available deals from one spot (an iPhone or Android app ). CitySearch, a business of IAC, has launched Deals by Citysearch, a location-enabled local deals app that aggregates deals from advertisers from its...
Vast Majority of UK Mobile Minutes Spent on Facebook
February 15, 2011, 7:16 amSometimes there are results or measurements that make you stop for a second and wonder exactly what it means. The chart below comes from comScore via Silicon Alley Insider and shows how those in the UK spend their time on mobile devices. Note from SAI site: ComScore's UK data is unique because it has access to anonymized mobile web data through...
Bing Further Enhances Destination Search
February 15, 2011, 7:11 amHow can any search engine compete against a mega-corporation like Google? Their two-thirds majority makes them a practical monopoly in the industry, easily muscling out groups and acquiring start-ups as if they were snack cakes. Well, Bing, a search engine undoubtedly on the rise in 2011, has their solution: Focus, focus, focus. But what,...
JC Penny's Black Hat SEO Backfires
February 15, 2011, 7:11 amYou probably have heard the black hat search engine optimization (SEO) tactics JC Penny's pursued in order to be ranked well for various search terms particularly in planning for the 2010 holiday season. The news was uncovered by the New York Times. Although, one has to wonder if the New York Times was tipped to this issue by a competitor of JC...
Strategies To Sharpen Your Keyword List
February 15, 2011, 7:11 amIt does not matter if you are optimizing your website or doing AdWords pay-per-click. Keyword research should be the foundation of very online marketing strategy. Keyword research can indicate to you holes in your search engine optimization and paid search strategies. It can also help you find new keywords with high-potential and content for your...
Are you keeping up with paid search trademark policies?
February 15, 2011, 7:06 amby Mike Moran There are some topics in search marketing that you can revisit every couple of years and write about all over again, because they never stop changing. Paid search trademark policies is one of those, because search engines never stop toying with their policies, which are often influenced by changes in case law within the various...
Laymen's Terms for Analytics? What Could You Expound On?
February 15, 2011, 6:15 amAlthough a very broad term, analytics is a word people hear quite often in the business world. That is because analytics is extremely important to the future and survival of a company, yet many struggle to grasp what it is and its necessity. What are Analytics? Basically, analytics is the method of gathering insight by .
The Next Generation of Ranking Signals
February 15, 2011, 4:30 amPosted by randfish Every 3-4 years, there's a big shift or addition to the key metrics Google (and, to a lesser extent MSN/Bing and Yahoo!) uses to order competitive search results. 1996-1999: On-page keyword usage + meta data 1999 - 2002: PageRank + On-page 2002 - 2005: Anchor text + Domain name + PageRank + On-Page 2005 - 2009: Domain authority...
Google Enters Another Niche – Makes Partnership with GoDaddy
February 15, 2011, 3:56 amGoDaddy might not be as familiar name as Google to ordinary internet users, but most webmasters had, of course, heard this name. GoDaddy is currently on of the leaders in webhosting industry, providing various related services, such a website hosting, domain registration, dedicated servers, email plans, etc. Although dominating the market is not...
Yahoo! And Microsoft Take Search Alliance Global
February 15, 2011, 3:49 amThe Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance is finally coming to fruition with marketers and advertisers in Europe beginning to feel the effects of the partnership in early 2010. In advance of his session at the International Search Summit Munich on April 4th, Microsoft's Cedric Chambaz, gives an insight into the development of the alliance and what...
Somewhere at MountainView ...
February 15, 2011, 3:17 am... two GoogleGuys talk about way too much low-quality farmer garbage in search results. Fortunately for us mere mortals, a SEOBook spy eavesdropped their conversation. Enjoy his coverage about the birth of a Chrome extension gathering data on which particular sites techno dudes and valley geeks like and dislike.
My Picks: 5 Top Online Marketing Blogs from the UK
February 15, 2011, 2:28 amThank you to all who participated in our little poll seeking votes for the best UK Online Marketing Blog last week. That link will take you to the ful list as well as the voting results. The purpose was to create awareness of UK centric blogs that share as much of a passion for Online Marketing topics as we do here at Online Marketing Blog. 35...
Google's Advice on Multiple Websites
February 15, 2011, 12:14 amAt some point in time businesses attempt to run multiple websites in the search space, which is either good or bad depending on how you look at things. If you don't watch yourself on the technical aspects of executing this you could quickly see a penalty lingering on your website, so you must be careful on how you approach it.
Motorola Atrix 4G Hands-on from Citrix VP
February 14, 2011, 11:33 pmI was perturbed recently to learn that I'd been left off of the first batch of Motorola Atrix 4G review units. To my peers: please send your demo units back so I can take a crack! For now, I'll settle for and share with readers some YouTube hands-on demos from the likes of Chris Fleck, vice president of community and solutions development at...
New Chrome Extension Feeds Back Reports Of Content Farms and User Marked Spam to Google
February 14, 2011, 11:30 pmWe've been exploring different algorithms to detect content farms, which are sites with shallow or low-quality content. One of the signals we're exploring is explicit feedback from users.To that end, today we're launching an early, experimental Chrome extension so people can block sites from their web search results. If installed, the extension...
Somewhere at MountainView
February 14, 2011, 9:15 pmSomewhere at MountainView. Late afternoon. Google Guy: Sigh. Our algo really does suck, sometimes..... Other Google Guy: How so, dude? GoogleGuy: It keeps returning low-quality farmer garbage Other Google Guy: Mahalo! Google Guy: Huh? Other Google Guy: Sorry, just shouting out "Thanks!" to Marissa. She left me a cup cake this morning. You were...
Behavorial Advertising Takes Another Hit from Washington
February 14, 2011, 7:23 pmThis morning, Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) was named chairman of a new Judiciary subcommittee for Privacy, Technology and the Law. The list of activities that the committee will oversee is a long one and it includes the collection of information for behavioral advertising and privacy in social networks.
Says Franken:
“The boom of new...
Using Paid Search Campaigns Correctly to Build Your Online Business
February 14, 2011, 7:19 pmby Mike Fleming
Last week, we talked about PPC trick #1 to building your online business for the long-term - using keywords correctly. This week, let's talk about another "trick of the trade" that will also help on the way to this goal.
Trick #2 - Using Campaigns Correctly
As the number of targeting options for PPC
increases, so do the...
Modules, Comments, Views and RSS
February 14, 2011, 6:51 pmThe Digg team has been hard at work since rolling out the new design two weeks ago, and we've put together another release for your enjoyment. Today we're rolling out a couple of new features, a much requested bug fix, and two big changes: new modules, including modules recognizing popular comments and submitters, displaying the number of times a...
The Love Love Lives
February 14, 2011, 6:41 pmby Mike Krumboltz In the tradition of the guy who hung a mannequin from his second story gutters, comes French sculptor Julien Berthier . A trickster as well as an artist, Berthier has created a 21-foot sculpture that looks just like a capsizing ship. In fact, it's so convincing that many a boater has stopped to assist. The sculpture looks just...
Speed Thrills - Tackling the YouTube video processing challenge
February 14, 2011, 6:00 pmFew things can be more frustrating than waiting for what feels like years for that amazing video you just shot to finish uploading to the site so you can publish it and share it with your friends. Whether it's the speed a video plays back, or the speed a video uploads, at YouTube speed matters. Why do we care so much about speed? Because we know...
Go Daddy and Google Pair Up
February 14, 2011, 5:50 pmIf you only knew a dozen names of web-related companies, chances are that two of those names would be Google and Go Daddy. Google, which currently has more than two-thirds of the search engine market, is likely the one name to know. Go Daddy, however, is almost as powerful in its own specific industry, and .
The results are in: Your celebrity dream dates
February 14, 2011, 5:39 pmReady or not, Valentines Day is here! As you know, Bing can help get you in the spirit , plan the perfect date , choose a great gift or find that romantic track to set the mood. But while were at it, we thought wed settle an important question: Which celebrity would folks in the US most like to spend Valentines Day with?
Family-owned Pithy Little Wine Co. runs on Google Apps
February 14, 2011, 5:39 pmEditor's Note: Since today is one of the more popular days for wining and dining, we invited Jeff Munsey, co-owner and Vice President of Pithy Little Wine Co., to tell us about his company's move to Google Apps . Learn more about other organizations that have gone Google on our community map or test drive life in the cloud with the Go Google Cloud...
VIDEO: What the Yahoo Contributor Network Offers Advertisers
February 14, 2011, 5:36 pmYahoo!'s Luke Beatty shares the benefits of crowd-sourced content for brands The Yahoo! Contributor Network "adds the people's voice" to the Yahoo! experience, according to Carol Bartz . Which sounds cool, but what does that mean exactly for advertisers? What can 400,000 writers, photographers and videographers do for your brand across Associated...
New Chrome extension: block sites from Google's web search results
February 14, 2011, 5:36 pm(Cross-posted on the Google Chrome Blog ) We've been exploring different algorithms to detect content farms , which are sites with shallow or low-quality content. One of the signals we're exploring is explicit feedback from users. To that end, today we're launching an early, experimental Chrome extension so people can block sites from their web...
All About Pippa Middleton
February 14, 2011, 5:36 pmby Mike Krumboltz The three most important people at any wedding, in order, are: the bride, the bride, and the bride. But you wouldn't know that from the latest Web searches surrounding the upcoming royal wedding. Following Kate Middleton's announcement that her sister, Pippa, will serve as her maid of honor, searches on the younger sibling shot...
Scar Jo Denies Dating Rumor, Surprise Grammy Winner, Dog Show: What's the Buzz
February 14, 2011, 5:36 pmby Claudine Zap Our top picks from the day's hottest searches. The Arcade Fire (+2,044%). The band won album of the year award at the Grammys. Eminem had led with 10 nominations but won just two . Happy Valentine's Day poems (+502%). Yep, it's time to express yourself to your beloved. Inspiring ideas can be found here . Pell Grant (+230%). The...
YouTube, See3 Organize DoGooder Nonprofit Video Awards
February 14, 2011, 4:25 pmIt's time for charitable organizations to dust off their camcorders and put on their thinking caps. YouTube and See3 Communications have partnered for the second time to present the DoGooder Nonprofit Video Awards, a competition that will grant the winners cash, publicity, and a new gadget.
More specifically, a post on the YouTube Blog...
Why It's Easier for a Startup (Than For Google) to Take Action on Content Farms
February 14, 2011, 4:01 pmA couple weeks ago, we reported that DuckDuckGo had followed its own blocking of content farms (like eHow) by promoting content from wikiHow. This begged the question: how much better is wikihow's content? We had a conversation about that with Jack Herrick, founder of wikiHow (and one-time owner of eHow). In fact, we had a second conversation...
DuckDuckGo Founder Makes the Case For His Search Engine (vs. Google)
February 14, 2011, 3:31 pmGabriel Weinberg, founder of alterative search engine DuckDuckGo sat down to talk with WebProNews about what people can get out of DuckDuckGo that they can't get from the Google experience.
"I'm not anti-Google," he says. "I know that they take privacy very seriously, and I respect what they're doing, but they're doing a few...
Let the Google v. Content Farm Games Begin!
February 14, 2011, 3:21 pmGoogle has announced an interesting Chrome extension with regard to content farms and their pesky low quality content. Essentially, Google is saying that you can remove certain sites from your own search results because you don’t want to be bothered with that craptent. In exchange for this ability, Google gets to see what you think falls into...
Google Outsourcing Spam Checking To You, Could Be Abused
February 14, 2011, 3:19 pmGoogle announced today that they have added a new extension to their Chrome browser that allows you to block sites from their search results. And "the extension also sends blocked site information to Google, and we will study the resulting feedback and explore using it as a potential ranking signal for our search results," their Official Blog...
Twitter Makes (More) Money
February 14, 2011, 2:59 pmSpeaking at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week, Twitter’s CEO Dick Costolo said that the service is “already making money.” But as the reporter for The Wall Street Journal pointed out, he didn’t specify whether that was income or profit.
Let’s go with profit, as Twitter is now poised to raise the cost of...
Valentine's Day 2011: Search Engines Feelin' the Love
February 14, 2011, 2:53 pmGoogle's Robert Indiana Doodle wasn't the only special logo or Valentine's Day treat put out by the search engines. Bing, Yahoo, Ask, DuckDuckGo, and even Wolfram|Alpha are also feeling the love in their own ways today.
Click to read the rest of this post...
Google Chrome Extension Provides Search Quality Signals, Blocks Content Farms
February 14, 2011, 2:41 pmGoogle's Matt Cutts has indicated in recent weeks that Google is working on projects that will deal with some of the search engine's quality issues with regards to content farms. It looks like one of those projects is now here.
Google has launched a Chrome extension that lets users block sites from search results. If you're a Chrome user,...
Infographic: Answers.com Ask What Should You Get your Girlfriend for Valentine's Day?
February 14, 2011, 2:38 pmAnswers.com have created an infographic for their blog illustrating the current fad for Q&A sites. Below are some of the answers they found on the current industry leading Q&A sites: Answers.com, Ask.com, Facebook Questions, Yahoo Answers and, of course, "the love it or you hate it" site of the moment, Quora.Click to read the rest of this...
YouTube Attracts 8.4 Billion Streams In January
February 14, 2011, 1:46 pm Online video usage in the U.S. is up significantly from the same time last year as time spent viewing video on a PC/Mac/laptops from home and work locations increased 45 percent, according to a new report from Nielsen.
The number of unique online video viewers only increased by 3.1% from last January, but the level of activity was up as...
RIM to Improve BlackBerry Contacts with Gist
February 14, 2011, 1:39 pmBlackBerry maker Research in Motion (RIM) announced that it has acquired Gist.
Gist provides information about contacts, by creating a business profile for each one that includes recent news, status updates, and work details. It works by pulling contacts from various inboxes, address books, social networks, and other sources, then adding...
JCPenney Responds to the New York Times and Google
February 14, 2011, 1:15 pmAlan Bleiweiss shares an email response that he got from JCPenney's PR department. Hilarity ensues.
Greplin Reportedly About to Open Up to the Public
February 14, 2011, 1:13 pmWe've written about Greplin a couple of times - once after the service launched, and again last week, when the company sent users an email with some new updates. If you're unfamiliar with the service, the best way to describe it is truly personalized search.
You give Greplin access to your various accounts across services like Facebook,...
HP Buys Vertica, A Data Analytics Company
February 14, 2011, 12:35 pmHP announced that it has signed an agreement to acquire a real-time analytics platform company Vertica.
HP says the pick-up will enhance the company's capabilities for information optimization, and that Vertica's platform will help its customers analyze massive amounts of data for "real-time business intelligence."
"In today's...
Twitter Translation Center Opens Up
February 14, 2011, 12:23 pmTwitter has announced the launch of the Twitter Translation Center, which crowdsources translations from Twitter users.
"Translators will be translating the product itself, not the Tweets. If you go to the settings page on Twitter.com and change your language, you’ll see what we mean," explains product manager Jinen Kamdar....
2010 USA Search Engine War: Google is King!
February 14, 2011, 12:21 pmSearch Engine Marketing industry web statistics key reference comScore's recently issued its '2010 U.S. Digital Year in Review' report comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni says '2010 was a very positive year for the digital media industry, highlighted by a strong rebound in e-commerce spending , significant innovation and increased demand for online...
Using Facebook Connect for Product Q and A
February 14, 2011, 12:13 pmLinda Bustos takes a look at a new tool that lets shoppers ask questions to people who have already purchased products on your site. She suggests that Facebook Connect could help get over the friction of otherwise forcing people to login to engage on an e-commerce website.
Universal "Begone": a program for marketers on Valentine's Day
February 14, 2011, 12:10 pmEmail has gone too far. Our inboxes are full of unsolicited crap. And I don't mean spam. I just mean legitimate companies of all kinds emailing us about everything. If you are a marketer, we have this Valentine's Day message for you: if you love your customer, let them go. Marketers say that they want to be responsible, and many include links and...
Need More Customers? 5 Ways to Get Them to Know, Like and Trust You
February 14, 2011, 12:05 pmIt's Valentine's week on Copyblogger! This week's posts will focus on how to improve reader and customer relationships to grow your business. Dating and business are both all about forming relationships. You need to get out there and be seen. You need to "romance" potential customers and get them comfortable with what you have to offer. If you've...
Social Media Week NYC and the Future of Social Advertising
February 14, 2011, 12:05 pmThis week I attended Social Media Week in New York, held at the JWT offices . I was lucky enough to give a brief presentation on new ad formats weve developed that incorporate social into the ad experience and then had the pleasure of speaking on a panel with some fantastic colleagues from our industry. As a group, there was no shortage of...
comScore Releases Inaugural Report, "The 2010 Mobile Year in Review"
February 14, 2011, 12:05 pmcomScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released The comScore 2010 Mobile Year in Review. This inaugural report recaps key trends in the mobile landscape in 2010 throughout the U.S., Europe (EU5) and Japan. The report highlights important components of the mobile market including device trends, smartphone...
Extend Your Reach with Content Ads
February 14, 2011, 12:00 pmFree webinar tomorrow will show you how to take advantage of contextual advertising Want to get more out of your advertising on Yahoo! Search and Bing? Then join us at a free webinar tomorrow, which will focus on Content Ads "text ads that are displayed next to relevant content on Yahoo! and Microsoft sites, and on participating partner web pages.
UK Insurance Tips For Valentine's Day? You Really Shouldn't Have'
February 14, 2011, 12:00 pmShakespeare once wrote: If music be the food of love, play on. I think what he was trying to say is that if insurance is in season, then its time to fill your boots! Now is certainly the time to be devoting your full attention to.
How to create clickable page Titles
February 14, 2011, 12:00 pmWelcome back! In today's video post, Heather discusses how to create compelling, clickable page Titles for your website. Page Titles are important to master, as they not only weigh heavily in search engine positioning but also serve as your first conversions opportunity on the search engine results page.
Google's JC Penney Move Like a Grain of Sand in the Desert
February 14, 2011, 12:00 pmWhile the SEO and search engine world in general is all fired up about the New York Times' piece on JC Penney's search dalliances it's probably important to recognize what Google's actions in response to the situation were: PR. Now, that the New York Times is the new Google police (that's for another discussion but between this,
Do You Know When Your Customers Participate the Most? Part 1
February 14, 2011, 11:55 amThis is a question I ask myself all of the time and make a point to analyze with any data I can get my hands on. The idea is simple: if you know when your audience's participation is at its highest, you'll know when the best time to seed your social content is. In my opinion it is very important that you collect your own data and not go with any...
Good Metrics to Determine the Link Value: NOT Toolbar PageRank
February 14, 2011, 11:55 amIf you asked me to name the biggest irritation that I encounter when dealing with links, I'd have to say that it's the belief that Google's Toolbar Page Rank is the best method of defining quality. A notoriously tricky little metric, the TBPR has become a very common source of headaches for almost everyone. Two reasons: 1. Sometimes TBPR checkers...
Kleiner Perkins Invests $38 Million In Facebook
February 14, 2011, 11:55 amAlthough it arguably doesn't need much more support at this point, popular social network Facebook now has the backing of one of Silicon Valley's most respected venture capital firms. Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers is said to be investing about $38 million at a valuation of $52 billion. Sabrina Willmer reported this morning, "The venture...
Smartphones Driving Mobile Media Consumption
February 14, 2011, 11:55 amSmartphones aggressively saturated the mobile market in 2010, driving an increase in mobile media consumption by users worldwide, according to a new report from comScore. 2010 was a game-changing year for the mobile industry, said Mark Donovan, comScore senior vice president of mobile. Smartphone adoption, 3G penetration and unlimited data plans...
MWC11: IE9 Coming to Windows Phones This Year
February 14, 2011, 11:55 amMicrosoft CEO Steve Ballmer announced several new features for Windows Phone today in a keynote at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. One feature is a "dramatically enhanced" version of Internet Explorer 9, which will become available for the mobile operating system in the second half of this year. We don't know exactly when we'll see the fruits...
Pin your love on the map
February 14, 2011, 11:55 am(Cross-posted from the Lat Long Blog ) This Valentine's Day, tell your friends, family or significant other that you love them with a fun message from Google Maps. Location can be a powerful trigger of memories"from the Italian place in San Francisco where you went on your first date to the cabin you rented at Lake Tahoe with your roommates. For...
Rappers Jay-Z and Kanye Use Social Media to Promote New Album
February 14, 2011, 11:50 amThese days, businesses and entrepreneurs are not the only ones who have discovered the power of social networking. Rappers Kanye West and Jay-Z recently used Facebook to their advantage to promote a new song, H.A.M., the lead title on their new album Watch the Throne. But, not just everybody has been able to access and .
How does Google handle reviews and sentiment?
February 14, 2011, 11:02 amDavid Harry digs in yet again and examines how Google handles reviews (and sentiment.)
The Data and Details Behind “The Dirty Little Secrets of Search”
February 14, 2011, 10:46 amEverybody is talking about the NY Times piece regarding JCPenney's approach to SEO, but Doug took a little time to dig deeper into some of the shadier techniques that were employed.
Barnes & Noble Works To Attract Amazon Affiliates
February 14, 2011, 10:41 amBarnes & Noble has issued an open letter to Amazon.com affiliates trying to convince them to join its network.
The letter comes after Amazon's decision to stop its affiliate program in some states that require the online retailer to collect sales tax on purchases.
In the letter, Barnes & Noble President, John Foley, says...
Product Out-of-Stock Checklist
February 14, 2011, 10:33 amEver wonder what to do with an "Out-of-Stock" product on an ecommerce site? If you own, manage or market one, then this post should help. >>> Both your business and your customer suffer when products are out of stock. How can you minimize the damage?
February 14, 2011, 10:27 am
How to Optimise your Dating Profile
Online Dating Magazine estimates that there are more than 20 million users of dating websites, and in the United States alone, over 30,000 marriages a year occur as a direct result of free internet dating.
Now here at Distilled we’re pretty adept at optimising sites for search; but as it’s Valentine’s...
How to Optimise your Dating Profile
February 14, 2011, 10:27 am
Online Dating Magazine estimates that there are more than 20 million users of dating websites, and in the United States alone, over 30,000 marriages a year occur as a direct result of free internet dating.
Now here at Distilled we’re pretty adept at optimising sites for search; but as it’s Valentine’s Day; today we figured why not try...
Send a Valentine's Day E-Card Google Style with "Map Your Valentine"
February 14, 2011, 10:24 amGoogle is no stranger to holiday celebrations. It almost seems like there are more days that Google posts "doodles" for its logo than days it doesn't. Today, being Valentine's Day, is of course no exception. Here's what the Google Doodle looks like today, if you're one of many who rarely goes to Google.com to do your searching (as...
YouTube, LG Partner Over Mobile 3D Video
February 14, 2011, 10:09 amOwners of Android smartphones made by LG may soon begin to lead the way when it comes to mobile 3D video. YouTube and LG announced a partnership this morning that will result in users being able to view, record, and share 3D clips without glasses.
Compared to needing spectacles and being limited to a handful of special big screens, this...
JC Penney has a bigger problem than paid links
February 14, 2011, 9:45 amAlan Bleiweiss explains why "getting only 7% of all traffic from organic search" counts as epic failure, and elaborates why that's not 70% without utilizing any link broker.
Cheap iPhones Coming This Summer?
February 14, 2011, 9:34 amRumor has it that this summer, Apple will release a new line of cheap iPhones, which will cost about half as much as the current iPhone 4.
A report from the Wall Street Journal, citing "people familiar with the matter," says:
One of the people, who saw a prototype of the phone late last year, said it is intended for sale...
Qualcomm To Bring Netflix Streaming To New Android Devices
February 14, 2011, 9:10 amWireless company Qualcomm said today that new Android devices using its Snapdragon platform will have access to instant streaming of TV shows and movies from Netflix.
“We’re excited about this collaborative effort to help bring the Netflix application to Android devices running on the Snapdragon platform,” said Liat Ben-Zur,...
Investors May Value Zynga At Between $7B, $9B
February 14, 2011, 8:51 amLate last week, reports indicated that several different companies (including Facebook and Google) have shown interest in acquiring Twitter for $8 billion to $10 billion. Now, although nothing's certain, fresh rumors indicate that investors might assign a similar value to Zynga.
The Wall Street Journal reported this morning,...
New Radiohead Album "The King of Limbs" Marks Band's 2nd Web-First Release
February 14, 2011, 8:49 amRadiohead announced that its new album, "The King of Limbs" will be released on the web this Saturday - February 19. This is the second time the band has gone web-first with an album release.
In 2007, Radiohead released "In Rainbows," allowing fans to pay whatever they wanted for downloads of the album. Radiohead will...
Google’s JC Penney Move Like a Grain of Sand in the Desert
February 14, 2011, 8:39 amWhile the SEO and search engine world in general is all fired up about the New York Times’ piece on JC Penney’s search dalliances it’s probably important to recognize what Google’s actions in response to the situation were: PR.
Now, that the New York Times is the new Google police (that’s for another discussion but between this,...
Microsoft Reportedly Paying Billions for Nokia Deal
February 14, 2011, 8:02 amNokia dominated the tech headlines last week, when it unveiled a new strategic partnership with Microsoft to bring Windows-based smartphones to the market. CEO Stephen Elop said that there was now a "third horse" in the race.
While there may be more than three horses, this horse will certainly be one to watch. Elop made some more...
Single On Valentine's Day? Maybe Your Gadget Is to Blame
February 14, 2011, 7:51 amGeeks like their toys. Apple has certainly sold the public on the cool factor of owning an iPhone or an iPad.
But is geek really chic? According to a recent Retrevo Gadgetology study, not necessarily.Click to read the rest of this post...
Send Your Valentine a Special Google Maps Message
February 14, 2011, 7:16 amDid you forget to send your sweetie a Valentine’s day card?
Is the florist all out of flowers?
The candy-isle picked over?
Never fear! Google is here to your rescue! Using a romantic interface and Google Maps, the search engine is hoping you’ll remind your valentine of that special place you… [fill in the blank]
Here’s...
Does Everyone Search Valentine Info On Day? Or Do They Use Other Terms?
February 14, 2011, 5:25 amOver the past week I have been looking at the various search suggestions being made as I type in Valentine - seems we may not use the holiday name itself when doing shopping or looking for places to take that special someone.
Christmas and Thanksgiving are two that do get heavily searched by name - so I thought so would V Day. So any online...
Top Ten Things Not To Do On Valentine's Day
February 14, 2011, 4:15 amOkay you no doubt have had all sorts of suggestions on things to do for Valentine's Day - buy roses and chocolates and make dinner reservations, but there needs to be a list of things not to do - that can offer some advise to both people in a relationship or not.
So here are the Top Ten Digital Things Not To Do On Valentine's DayClick to read the...
U.S.: New Do Not Track Privacy Bill Introduced
February 14, 2011, 3:58 amThe bill is the first in this session to specifically tackle the creation of a do-not-track system, according to a spokesman for Ms. Speier. In December, the FTC issued a report recommending the creation of a do-not-track system and suggested that lawmakers use the report as a template for legislation.Since the FTCs recommendation, Mozilla Corp....
Start to 'Think Mobile' in a new live online course in the AdWords Online Classroom (UK)
February 14, 2011, 2:04 amThis Wednesday, February 16th, we'll be hosting a live online course in the AdWords Online Classroom (UK) , where you can learn how to start using mobile advertising to reach more customers. With over four billion mobile phone owners globally, half of all new Internet connections now come from mobile devices. This live course discusses the...
Getting SEO Value From Your Affiliate Links
February 14, 2011, 12:42 amPosted by Paddy_Moogan There are various industries online where traffic and revenue from affiliate programs is a huge part of the overall revenue stream. If you work in one of these industries (gambling for example) then you may have the opportunity of optimising the affiliate program to get more value from an SEO point of view. In this post I'm...
Reasons to Decrease Your Website Bounce Rate
February 14, 2011, 12:16 amThere is much more to launching a website than just building a few web pages and standing back and watching the visitors come in. There will be certain elements and efforts that work much more efficiently, but more importantly it will come down to analyzing data and watching how things respond and react on your website. Analyzing your visitor's...
Google Punishes J.C. Penney for Gaming Search
February 13, 2011, 11:35 pmCheck out the great New York Times expose on how J.C. Penney gamed Google's search engine to push up its Website in search rankings, racking up solid sales for the holiday season. The Times takes awhile to get into the meat, but Search Engine Land nutshells it best: The investigation found that thousands of seemingly unrelated web sites (many that...
Google Gets Painter Robert Indiana To Doodle Valentine Doodle
February 13, 2011, 11:20 pmHappy Valentine's Day! If the Google Doodle looks familiar, it was done by artist Robert Indiana who did the popular Love painting. The Doodle is another international one - appear in Google sites for various languages and countries. Keep coming back to the site as we will be exploring how Valentine's Day impacts search and online marketing.
Google Gets Painter Robert Indiana To Do Valentine's Day Doodle
February 13, 2011, 11:00 pmHappy Valentine's Day!
If the Google Doodle looks familiar, it was done by artist Robert Indiana who did the popular Love painting. The Doodle is another international one - appear in Google sites for various languages and countries. Keep coming back to the site as we will be exploring how Valentine's Day impacts search and online marketing.
...
Start-ups and Products With a Finger on Your Pulse
February 13, 2011, 7:55 pmIt seems like every time you turn around another web startup has made it big. Over the past year, Groupon and Digg were the big winners, but you can expect a new set of addictive applications in the coming year. For 2011, keep your eye out for these start-ups and products: 1. This or That- .
Google Tracking Health Searches For Disease Mapping!
February 13, 2011, 5:51 pmThe BBC reported that Google tracks people's searches for disease information and is mapping them to find trends. While this may work as a way to gather insights in to where diseases are occurring, there is a big question on the privacy issues involved. "Type in a search for flu in Google and you will not only find out how sick you are but your...
Who Was Saint Valentine?
February 13, 2011, 2:16 pmby Mike Krumboltz Sweet chocolates, cheesy poems, and overpriced roses can only mean one thing: Monday is Valentine's Day. Over the past 24 hours, Web interest in Saint Valentine has soared like an errant arrow. Searches on Yahoo! for "saint valentine" and "who was saint valentine" each spiked over 300 percent. So who was St. Valentine? Was he a...
Pandia Search Engine News Wrap-up February 13
February 13, 2011, 8:56 amHere are this week's main search engine news headlines from all over the Web. New UCLA Project Streams Twitter Updates From Egypt Unrest on Digital Map of Cairo Subtitled "Voices from Cairo through Social Media," the program displays a new tweet every four seconds over a digital map of Egypt's capital. Fifty Things You Can Do With RSS RSS, a...
Pandia Search Engine Marketing News Wrap-up February 13
February 13, 2011, 8:56 amHere is the most recent search engine marketing news nicely wrapped for you. The FTC Privacy Report, "Do Not Track" Options and Web Analytics A closer look at the "Do Not Track" options of the maim browsers from both the perspective of consumer privacy and web analytics. Local Internet Marketing Is Too Complex No wonder local Internet marketing is...
NY Times Publishes First Best Seller List That Includes eBooks
February 13, 2011, 5:56 amThis weekend the New York Times Best Seller List includes eBooks for the first time. From the numbers eBooks appear to have outsold all print books in the fiction field and dominated the non-fiction purchases as well. Interestingly, the numbers only include sold books - I am sure if the pirated versions available online would make the numbers even...
Twitter Cashing Out? Unlikely, But…
February 13, 2011, 3:44 amTwitter has been here for over five years, but it has become a real “hit” only recently. During the last Superbowl game, a new record for number of over 4000 tweets-per-second was recorded, emphasizing the usefulness of this tool when you want to share your thoughts/impressions/ideas/anything else quickly.
But maybe the founders/owners...
Bing Sending More SEO Traffic Than Yahoo! Search?
February 13, 2011, 2:25 amWith some lower traffic smaller sites it is easy to get outlier data that is skewed & somewhat irrelevant (especially true if you have a website which happens to have relevant content in a category that Ask is spamming the heck out of Google in), but one nice thing about comparing Yahoo! and Bing against each other is that they are generally...
NY Times Outs JC Penney Shady Link Building, Are They Working For Matt Cutts?
February 12, 2011, 9:12 pmThe New York Times must be in need of cash, or repaying favors for Google's new 'content farm' cleaning from the search results which helps their rankings to rise. The newspaper has broken two stories about shady link building lately. The latest being JC Penney and how it seems to rank at the top for every product they sell. Three months ago,
New York Times Exposes J.C. Penney Link Scheme That Causes Plummeting Rankings in Google
February 12, 2011, 8:26 pmFrom Vanessa Fox at Search Engine Land: "Today, the New York Times published an article about a search engine optimization investigation of J.C. Penney. Perplexed by how well jcpenney.com did in unpaid (organic) search results for practically everything the retailer sold, they asked someone familiar with the world of search engine optimization...
JCPenney Gets Caught Gaming Google
February 12, 2011, 8:20 pmThe New York Times did a little undercover work in the world of search and discovered that JCPenny was benefiting enormously from paid links. They ranked number one or close to it for some very prominent search queries including skinny jeans, home decor, comforter sets, furniture", tablecloths and many other highly searched for terms. The JCPenny...
NY Times Outs JC Penney Shady Link Building
February 12, 2011, 7:29 pmThe New York Times must be in need of cash, or repaying favors for Google's new 'content farm' cleaning from the search results which helps their rankings to rise. The newspaper has broken two stories about shady link building lately. The latest being JC Penney and how it seems to rank at the top for every product they sell.
Three months ago, the...
Fake-company RFQ's: unethical or actually illegal?
February 12, 2011, 11:37 amThis week, news has surfaced that an Ottawa-based startup did damage to established B2B vendor SuccessFactors by obtaining extensive private business information from them through the ol' "fake customer" subterfuge. This wasn't the usual casual fakery. Allegedly, the startup went to the trouble of creating a fake company, complete with website and...
Search Week in Review for Feb. 12, 2011
February 12, 2011, 11:32 amHere's a recap of this week's columns and news stories for the week of Feb. 6 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.
How Facebook, Twitter and Google helped bring down Mubarak
February 12, 2011, 11:27 amToday the Norwegian newspaper Dagens Næringsliv gives a vivid insight into how the young Egyptians started using the social web as a vehicle for free expression and revolutionary collaboration. The death of Khaled Saed On June 6 2010 the 26 year old business man Khaled Saed (alternative spellings: Said and Saeed) entered an internet-café in...
Paid Links at JC Penney - Google Takes Manual Action
February 12, 2011, 8:50 amThe New York Times has quite an article about white hat and black hat SEO - entitled "The Dirty Little Secrets of Search." It seems that all through the holiday season, Penney's website was at the top for all kinds of retail searches, including single keywords like "dresses". Given the amount of competition for all these keywords. something...
Why Local Online Marketing is a Mystery to So Many
February 12, 2011, 7:25 amNo wonder local Internet marketing is a mystery to many SMB's and even much larger businesses and organizations. Setting aside the fact that there are so many different channels, sites, directories etc that need to be considered, there is a new (and somewhat unfortunate) aspect that is creeping into the picture: complexity. Take Google, for...
Bing, adCenter Get Boost from Nokia/Microsoft Alliance
February 12, 2011, 12:03 amNokia will adopt Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 as its primary operating system, which means Bing will become the default search engine on all Nokia phones. This alliance potentially could have some impact on search market share and paid search advertising. In an open letter from Nokia CEO Stephen Elop and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, it was...
Cup of Joe: How To Pick Up Chicks
February 11, 2011, 11:48 pmDon't tell Andy and Frank , but my secret goal with this weekly column is to meet cute girls on the internet. OK, maybe not really. But, I do want to talk about successful ways to pick up chicks. So, I know what you are thinking, pick up chicks? What the heck does that have to do with marketing? Whether you like it or not, breaking the ice with...
More Men Than Women Use Location-Based Services
February 11, 2011, 7:46 pmIn a short period of time, location-based applications have become common place to the point where most of us don't even think about it when a search engine suggests a store in your neighborhood when all you typed was pizza. Location sharing sites such as Foursquare and Gowalla, however, still make some of us think twice. Some of us being, those...
Yahoo! @ Mobile World Congress
February 11, 2011, 5:48 pmBarcelona gets ready for the big one It has been said that the rain is Spain falls mainly on the plain. Next week though, the big rain is falling on the ancient seaside port city of Barcelona, Spain, as thousands of telecomm and wireless Web pros descend on Mobile World Congress 2011 , February 14-17. MWC is indisputably the biggest yearly...
A True Social Revolution: Egypt President Mubarack Steps Down
February 11, 2011, 4:36 pmWith the resignation of Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak, the world may have witnessed a true social revolution. Would the changes have occurred without the help of social media? Sure, but the fact that the world was fully aware of what was happening through these media and protest communications were made easier and quicker definitely helped with...
Report: Ad Startup Rejects Google Acquisition Bid
February 11, 2011, 4:23 pmAs a rule, Google doesn't put out press releases when it fails to acquire companies, making a new rumor difficult to confirm. But the search giant may have tried to purchase an advertising firm called Admeld, and, despite having a solid reputation and more cash than many countries, been unsuccessful.
Of course, Google probably didn't bring...
At 100, "The Great Communicator" lives on via YouTube
February 11, 2011, 4:16 pmThis Sunday marks what would have been the 100th birthday of Ronald Reagan, America's 40th President. Although his Presidency ended 20 years ago, his legacy as a transformational politician has lived on, with Democrats and Republicans alike trying to adopt his mantle of change and openness. President Reagan, widely referred to as "The Great...
Lucy Was a Walker, Study Finds
February 11, 2011, 4:10 pmby Mike Krumboltz Lucy may be 3.2 million years old, but she still has the ability to surprise. Scientists recently reported that Lucy, aka Australopithecus afarensis , likely walked on two feet. The findings came when researchers discovered a new foot bone belonging to Lucy. The bone's structure suggests that Lucy walked much like we do today....
Online Do Not Track Bill Introduced In Congress
February 11, 2011, 4:00 pmU.S. Representative Jackie Speier (D-CA) introduced Do Not Track Me legislation in Congress today that would let people block the tracking of their online activity. People have a right to surf the web without Big Brother watching their every move and announcing it to the world, said Speier . The internet marketplace has matured, and it is time...
Matt Cutts Responds To Hitwise's Report
February 11, 2011, 4:00 pmWhether or not Bings search results are more accurate than Googles isnt up for discussion here. Aside from the inherent sampling errors when comparing the actions of either group - a 65 percent market share and a 27 percent market share are not equal sample sizes, leading to large amounts of variability - Hitwises conclusion seemed more like...
comScore Releases January 2011 U.S. Search Engine Rankings
February 11, 2011, 3:50 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 January with 65.6 percent of searches conducted.
Matt Cutts Responds To Hitwise’s Report
February 11, 2011, 3:45 pmWhether or not Bing’s search results are more accurate than Google’s isn’t up for discussion here. Aside from the inherent sampling errors when comparing the actions of either group -- a 65 percent market share and a 27 percent market share are not equal sample sizes, leading to large amounts of variability --...
A More ‘Organic’ Experience
February 11, 2011, 3:39 pmOn the RKG blog, Joy Barberio writes: "Google is pretty clever! The sponsored ads are looking more and more like organic listings recently. The two spaces are blending together. The new features, listed below, are both taking up more real estate on the page and feeling a lot like natural results."
Facebook Pages Upgrade is a Boon for Marketers
February 11, 2011, 3:29 pmFacebook is making a big push over the next few weeks to get all fan pages over to their new layout. You can choose to do it now or wait for it to be forced upon you in March, but don't wait. This upgrade is huge for marketers. Here's why. Many businesses have Facebook Fan Pages which is great if you have lots of followers coming to you. But when...
How NOT to Use Social Media
February 11, 2011, 3:24 pmIf your business hasn't yet sailed on the online social media ship, you're behind the times. Most consumers now obtain information on products and services through online outlets. As such, if you aren't yet reaching out to your target market through online channels, you're missing out on prime profits. While online social media is a .
Idol Talk: Boulevard of Broken Dreams
February 11, 2011, 3:09 pmby Vera H-C Chan First the treats, then the Valentine's Day massacre. With two new judges, a magnanimous mood prevailed during " American Idol " auditions. Golden tickets were handed out like Sweet Tarts " but that means Hollywood becomes the killing grounds for 159 dreams . Before the sudden death competition in SoCal, though, Wednesday showcased...
Facebook Updates Fan Pages (Finally Does Something Right)
February 11, 2011, 3:09 pmOn Thursday February 10, Facebook made some much anticipated changes to their Fan Pages. For a good part of the day, confusion reigned supreme. Some were excited, some were mad and many were just plain confused. Let's explore the changes and what they mean to you. There was a glitch that caused the pages to be truncated and there was a lot of...
What Twitter and Facebook meant in the Egyptian Revolution
February 11, 2011, 2:38 pmby Josh Bernoff We now read that Hosni Mubarak has resigned due to popular unrest in Egypt. Throughout the coverage, we've read about how Twitter and Facebook were essential to the protesters. But in a blog post on the New Yorker site , Malcolm Gladwell says that the communications tools didn't make the difference. Defending his earlier article...
Bing Personalizes Results, Adds Location & Search History
February 11, 2011, 1:51 pmYour physical location and past search results will now influence the order of the results you see on Bing, much like features Google has offered for years already. For example, now if you're searching for pizza place in San Francisco, in the past you would have to type [ San Francisco pizza ]. Now you can simply search for [ pizza ] and Bing will...
Egypt's 'Berlin Wall Moment'
February 11, 2011, 1:46 pmby Claudine Zap The announcement of the resignation of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak sent crowds cheering in Cairo's Tahrir Square - and sent many more to the Web. Searches on other historical shifts caused lookups on " Berlin Wall " to immediately surge. News show host Rachel Maddow called the situation a " Berlin Wall moment " on her program....
Remote Controls over Sex?
February 11, 2011, 1:46 pmIf you had your choice, would you get up and turn the television manually or would you give up sex? The answer, at least 36% of them, might surprise you. Thanks to a just-in-time-for-Valentines-Day survey conducted by Logitech, they discovered 36 percent of Americans would rather give up having sex instead of their remote control. Its been said...
Believe the Unbelievable
February 11, 2011, 1:46 pmYahoo! rich media campaign for Dr. Pepper drives engagement The Leprechaun. Sasquatch. The Alien. The Tooth Fairy. The Easter Bunny. Santa Claus. We've loved (and sometimes feared) these imaginary characters since we were kids. (Well, we all know that Sasquatch and aliens are real, though they haven't yet been discovered by science.) Yahoo! and...
Eggs and Insights, Over Easy
February 11, 2011, 1:31 pmJoin Yahoo! in NYC for some food and thought on the rise of emerging platforms In September , Yahoo! hosted the first of three Leadership Breakfasts at the AD Club of New York City. If you didn't attend, you missed a lot of great discussion on the power of the consumer. But not to fear, your chance for redemption has arrived. Just point your GPS...
Compelling business stories, a lesson from Ira Glass
February 11, 2011, 12:55 pmThis weekend I got to see a talk at Harvard by the estimable Ira Glass of NPR's " This American Life ." If you've ever heard the show, you know it's "can't turn it off and get out of the car" radio. Ira not only told stories, he told how he tells a good story, This-American-Life style. As he put it, in a story, you have to tell the sequence (or...
15 Questions That Will Change The Way You Think About SEO Forever
February 11, 2011, 12:50 pmby Stoney deGeyter All right, I'll admit, the title is somewhat over dramatic. But, when you don't have much to offer, hype it up anyway! Kinda like the movies! This post started from talking about How NOT To Do An Interview: The Basics . What was originally going to be an intro paragraph, turned into a full post. When this happens, I just do what...
5 Questions with James Bray
February 11, 2011, 12:03 pmM&C Saatchi's creative director opens up about good and bad Super Bowl ads, the "brutality" of his work, and what makes his new gig special You can almost hear James Bray's story told by the "Behind the Music" narrator: "The award-winning creative director was riding high, creating campaigns for Sprint, Netflix, Adobe and the NBA at San Francisco...
Does Sony Want to Leave iTunes?
February 11, 2011, 11:53 amRecently, Apple rejected a Sony e-reader application due to a rules compliance issue. How did Sony respond? By stating they'd like to remove all of their music from Apple's iTunes store. After reading about such a petulant reaction , my first thought was to title this post "Grown Men Fighting Over Money." While that might be a little more...
Google Makes Job Offer To Nokia Engineers
February 11, 2011, 11:53 amEarlier this week, Google Vice President of Engineering Vic Gundotra raised a few eyebrows by calling Nokia and Microsoft "turkeys" on Twitter. That jab apparently wasn't aimed at all of Nokia's workers, however, as someone else at Google has now extended an offer of employment. Aidan Biggins, a technical recruiter who's based in London, made a...
Online Video Drives Super Bowl Ad Revenue
February 11, 2011, 11:53 amIn the 3 days after the Super Bowl was broadcast, the top 10 ads have earned a total of over $1 million in impressions via online video, according to a new report from Kantar Video. Volkswagen's The Force ad was the most popular, earning the brand $538,000 due to its successful viral strategy by launch a week before the Super Bowl and attracting...
Will the Nokia and Microsoft Mobile Alliance Move the Needle for Windows Phone?
February 11, 2011, 11:53 amThe mobile space has taken on a slightly different look today as the result of the announcement that Nokia and Microsoft are going to work together in the mobile space. The talk had been that Nokia was speaking with Microsoft and Google about strategies that could halt the free fall that Nokia was seeing happen to their market share and the...
Screening Room now showing short films from the 2011 Sundance Film Festival
February 11, 2011, 11:38 amCan't make it to Park City, Utah to mingle with independent film's glitterati at the Sundance Film Festival this year? We'll bring the magic to you. To celebrate the kickoff of one of the world's most acclaimed independent film festivals, YouTube and the Sundance Film Institute are teaming up to present a collection of past and present short films...
The Growing Popularity of Social Networking in Indonesia
February 11, 2011, 11:12 amThe Indonesians are reportedly the second-largest market users of Facebook, and the third-largest users of Twitter. Research firms recently conducted a study that showed how popular and active the Muslim community is when it comes to social networking and interacting online. Although the popularity of the sites and fan bases are rising, there are...
Sports Illustrated Launches Apps For Android Tablets
February 11, 2011, 11:02 amTime and Sports Illustrated are introducing a new All Access digital subscription plans for Android tablets and smartphones. Beginning today, Sports Illustrated "All Access" includes new magazine apps for the Samsung Galaxy and Android smartphones (OS 2.1 and higher); web access to the issue (after log in). The plans are: *Print/Digital (Samsung...
Huffington Post Reporter: Critics Have it All Wrong
February 11, 2011, 11:02 amThe Huffington Post has taken a lot of criticism since the announcement of its acquisition by AOL . Much of this has been more aimed at Google as part of the whole content farm debate (though nobody is really saying the quality of Huffington Post's content is as poor as some known content farms). It's more about search results being saturated by...
Google's Cutts: Bing's Higher Search Success Rate Due to Bad Hitwise Data
February 11, 2011, 11:02 amGoogle's Matt Cutts is skeptical about the latest Hitwise data that showed Bing provided users with more accurate results than Google. As we reported earlier this week, Bing had its highest search success rate in January (81.54 percent), while Google had a 65.58 percent success rate. Hitwise defines a successful search as one that results in a...
A Closer Look at Facebook Pages Changes
February 11, 2011, 10:15 amMaybe you remember a couple of months ago when Facebook accidentally rolled out some changes to fan pages, giving all of us a sneak peek of what was to come. Well, now those changes are actually here. Throughout the day, I manage and monitor multiple fan pages. I just received a notification at the top of the screen to "preview" or "upgrade" to...
Opera Mini Mobile March Targets iPad
February 11, 2011, 10:15 amThe Opera browser is very much like the little engine that could. While it’s not the predominant name mentioned when users get into browser spats -- Firefox! No, Chrome! No, Internet Explorer! -- judging by Opera’s market share, especially with regards to the mobile industry, they are still very much an active player when it...
Israeli Leaders Set To Evaluate Street View
February 11, 2011, 10:09 amThe advantages of Google's Street View program, which critics have sometimes said invades privacy and aids burglars, will now be weighed against the security demands of one of the world's most well-protected countries. Israeli authorities should soon decide whether or not to let Google take pictures of their two biggest cities.
Ayala Tsoref...
The Bad Ol' Days Of Search...What's Next?
February 11, 2011, 10:05 amInteresting post from Matt Cutts, talking about how Google is so much better now than it was in 2000. But it's a misconception that there was no spam on Google back then. Google in 2000 looked great in comparison with other engines at the time, but Google 2011 is much better than Google 2000. I know because back in October 2000 I sent 40,000+...
Shoestring Budget SEO Tips for Small Businesses
February 11, 2011, 10:05 amStarting the Process Cash (lots of it). Work in PJ's from Home. Fame. Fake Twitter Friends. For many folks who decide to give SEO the good ol' college try those are likely some of the major reasons why they decide to dive into the industry. Those same tenets are typically reinforced by slimy internet marketers most new entrants run across in their...
Facebook's New Photo Viewer Rolls Out To Everyone
February 11, 2011, 10:00 amLast fall, Facebook announced some new features for Photos . Among these were a new photo viewer. Now, the company has announced that the new viewer has been rolled out to everybody. "We are rolling out the new Photo Viewer to everyone over the course of the next few weeks," says Facebook's Sam Odio. "Now, you can browse more photos faster...
Nokia Names New North American President
February 11, 2011, 10:00 amNokia said today it has named Chris Weber as President of Nokia (US), and head of Markets, North America. Weber comes to Nokia from his own consulting business focused on helping companies with sales. He spent 16 years at Microsoft in a number of senior executive roles, including sales, marketing and professional services.
Nokia Deal Could Be Huge for Bing
February 11, 2011, 9:39 amAs you may know, Microsoft and Nokia have entered a strategic partnership, which will see Nokia producing Windows Phone platform smartphones. More on that here . One interesting part of the announcement that hasn't gotten a whole lot of attention is that Bing will power Nokia's search services across the company's devices and services, and...
Why Everyone Hopes You'll Be the Hero
February 11, 2011, 9:29 amI walked into the small, yellow audition room and stopped twelve feet in front of the cheap plastic fold-out table. There were three of them sitting in there, bored, distracted, glancing at their watches. The big heart inside my chest was pounding on the rib cage, hoping this was the one. "Hi, uh '. Mr. Bruise is it?" No. 1 said. "Yes, it's...
Additional thoughts on Facebook,Google and Bing (Microsoft) buying Twitter
February 11, 2011, 9:28 amWoke up this morning thinking further about my statement yesterday that Microsoft should by Twitter. I really think that if Google does not buy Twitter and it lands in the hands of Microsoft, it could potentially become a great equalizer. Bing’s real time search results would be exclusive and therefore at the very least very different from...
Facebook Page redesign: 10 things admins should do RIGHT NOW
February 11, 2011, 9:24 amA great article highlighting all the changes that were made with the Facebook Page redesign.
Interview: Jay Baer on The Now Revolution
February 11, 2011, 9:24 amWhile at OMS and SES Accelerator this week, I bumped into (literally) my friend Jay Baer who has just published a new book with co-author Amber Naslund called The Now Revolution . I am reading it now and may do a full review, but I asked Jay about a few core principles or shifts from the book that I think are essential for helping organizations...
German Government Bans Google Analytics
February 11, 2011, 9:18 amThe application, Google Analytics, is used by various online websites and businesses to track different ports of information: You can track your advertising projects to see how well they're doing and to determine your investment return from them. You can track your social networking sites interaction to see how you're faring as it compares to .
Quora Visits Tripled Last Month
February 11, 2011, 9:08 amAccording to the latest post on the Hitwise blog , the volume of visits to Quora nearly tripled in January due to considerable coverage from technology news websites. Below are highlights from the post: Search has been the major driver of traffic of Quora over the past 6 months and accounted for nearly 49% of the visits last week. Social...
More Lawmakers Express Concerns Over Google-ITA Deal
February 11, 2011, 9:08 amThe passage of time doesn't seem to be working in Google's favor when it comes to the company's proposed acquisition of ITA Software. More than six months after the deal was announced, three additional lawmakers have decided that extra scrutiny is needed. Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster, Representative Howard Coble, and Representative...
Steve Jobs Soldiers On
February 11, 2011, 9:08 amWhile Im not the Apple fanboy others are, even I understand the impression Steve Jobs has had on the tech industry. From the earlier days of being the upstart competitor to Bill Gates Kingdom of Microsoft, to the current ruler of the tech gadget movement, Jobs overall impact is quite apparent. However, in recent years, Jobs has been battling...
The Power of Social and Search from Social Media Week London
February 11, 2011, 9:08 amSocial media and the socialization of the internet will at some point be just as important as the invention of the internet itself On Thursday the 10 th of February industry experts and an interested audience got together in Microsofts Victoria offices to talk about the future of social and search as part of Social Media Week London. The panel of...
Amazon to Texas: Adios!
February 11, 2011, 8:25 amAs a result of an ongoing tax dispute with Texas, Amazon.com has decided to take its ball and go home.The online retailer said Thursday that it would shutter its Irving distribution facility April 12 and cancel plans to hire as many as 1,000 additional workers rather than pay Texas what the state says is owed in uncollected sales tax.Texas wants...
Slacker Preps On-Demand Launch, Raises $3 Million in Funding
February 11, 2011, 8:17 amSlacker has raised $3 million in debt funding according to a SEC filing. This adds to the growing number of music startups that have gained additional funds in 2011. While Slacker is known more commonly as a rival to Pandora in the coming months, they will be taking MOG, Rdio, Rhapsody, and Thumbplay Music head-on in the subscription music service...
Using Dayparting Effectively in PPC, Part 2: Advanced Tactics
February 11, 2011, 8:08 amOne of the areas that PPCers often overlook is the times of the day, or days of the week, that conversions are generated. Since ROI tends to be higher during these times and days it is important to understand how to use Dayparting to for your campaigns. - The 2nd part of In Part 1, we talked about basic dayparting techniques, such as...
Discover Pages Similar to the Current One with "Similar Pages"
February 11, 2011, 8:01 amWe've seen quite a few ways to search the web by similarity including similarity-based image search , Ambiently bookmarklet (that searches for "related" pages) and TouchGraph Google Browser (that works based on Google's RELATED: advanced operator ). This week we are looking into an alternative app: Similar Pages The tool uses its own crawler to...
9 Questions To Ask After A Site Links To You
February 11, 2011, 7:58 amInbound links increase the value of your website in the eyes of Google and the other search engines. And, they help more people find your website and all you have to offer. Each inbound link is like your website just got another vote of confidence.
So, once the link has been set up, your job is done. Or is it?
Getting links to point to your...
Groupon Cries Uncle and Pulls Ads
February 11, 2011, 7:46 amGroupon is trying to close the book on a very interesting week if you are into reputation management. To summarize: Groupon runs ads on Super Bowl that appear to make light of certain social causes There is a public "outcry" regarding the ads Battle lines are drawn but most people think the ads are a mistake at best and an incredibly stupid move...
Groupon Pulls Controversial Ads, Apologizes Again
February 11, 2011, 7:46 amOn Super Bowl Sunday, Groupon began running some ads that that some people found offensive . After the widespread outcries, Groupon CEO Andrew Mason posted an apology/explanation on the company's blog. Still, talk of the ads has hardly died down. Conan O'Brien has been ripping into them all week long. Mason posted a follow-up post about the ads,...
Twitter Profile "PageRank" and the Search Engines
February 11, 2011, 7:30 amI've been writing about how Social Media links are impacting Search Engine results lately. It's really an area we have consciously tried to stay ahead on because we think that Social Media link sharing is going to have an even greater impact on search in the future. See: " Twitter and Facebook Links Worthless for SEO? I Wouldn't Be Too Sure...
Nokia and Microsoft Partner To Create "Third" Smartphone Horse
February 11, 2011, 7:15 amNokia and Microsoft announced a strategic partnership for creating a new mobile ecosystem presumably aimed at taking on Apple, Android, RIM, and HP, though Nokia CEO Stephen Elop says it's now a "three-horse race." It feels like there are more than three horses, but here's what he said: "Today, developers, operators and consumers want compelling...
The Fallacy of AdSense Failing: It's Not Really That Bad!
February 11, 2011, 7:15 amPeople are constantly saying AdSense is failing, going down the toilet, and of course everyone claims absolutely everyone is having these problems. The only thing is "everyone" is just the limited finite group of usual complainers constantly complaining which assumes the AdSense universe is only comprised of all of their complaining peers.Have you...
Flirting Site at Floxx.com Relaunches
February 11, 2011, 7:05 amMost people know that social networking sites are the best place to find people, connect, catch up and even strike up a dialogue in a new love interest. The popularity of these sites is determined by the users and how well and effective they interact with one another. Some of the sites have multi-purposes where .
eBay Expects $13 Billion in Revenues in 2013
February 11, 2011, 6:23 ameBay said it expects double-digit annual revenue and earnings growth over the next three years. The company outlined its growth plans in a meeting yesterday. eBay expects revenues to reach at least $13 billion in 2013 (compared to $9 billion in 2010).
"New rules of retail are being written today," said President and CEO John...
Nokia Eschews Android For Fears of Commoditization
February 11, 2011, 6:18 amSo I was reading AllThingsDigital reporter Ina Fried's live blog notes of Nokia's blockbuster, bet-the-company play to put all of its chips on Microsoft Windows Phone 7. We knew this was coming, especially after Google telegraphed it with Vic Gundotra's "two turkeys don't make an eagle: smackdown. My BS detector was set to high alert because I was...
Google Rolls Out Special Analytics For Boutique.com In Time For Fashion Week
February 11, 2011, 6:08 amGoogle announced its 'boutique analytics' for its fashion site - Boutique.com - with Designer Analytics for its design partners and Trend Analytics "that gives curious fashionistas a view into the latest, site-wide fashion trends." "Coinciding with New York Fashion Week, which kicks off today, Boutiques.com introduced two analytical tools -...
Google Goes In To Wedding Business In Time For Valentine's Day
February 11, 2011, 6:08 amGoogle announced its new wedding site that uses various Google products to make the wedding process simpler - to do lists, a personalized website, announcements and save the date cards are some of the services Google offers to help you down the aisle.
Just in time for the most romantic day of the year - Valentine's Day - Google has come up with a...
Google Trying To Buy Content Network
February 11, 2011, 5:17 amThe Wall Street Journal reported Google is trying to acquire Next New Networks. The company website claims they are "the leading provider of original entertainment programming for the Internet. With the two most-viewed videos of 2010," "Founded in 2006, Next New Networks creates its own shows, but today a greater amount of its content comes from...
Thomas Edison Birthday Google Doodle
February 11, 2011, 4:10 amIt is the 164th birthday of Thomas Edison and Google has honored him with an animated Doodle featuring a number of his inventions including the electric light bulb, the phonograph and the motion picture camera. Happy Birthday Tom and thanks for all your gifts to mankind.
Bing Follows Google Tactics, Applies City-Based Localization in USA
February 11, 2011, 3:57 amBringing the most relevant results to the user is the quest of every search engine. Fighting spam is one aspect of this issue. The other one is personalization – showing the results that would be the most interesting to the SPECIFIC searcher. Hence the localization, hence the search history….
Bing has recently followed Google on that path,...
A Better Mobile Experience for More People
February 11, 2011, 3:08 amWe want people to have a great mobile experience no matter what type of phone they carry. Smartphones have offered better features for sharing with friends but aren't used by most people around the world. Today, we're launching a new mobile app to bring Facebook to the most popular mobile phones around the world. The Facebook for Feature Phones...
How We Increased Our Twitter Followers By 250% - Whiteboard Friday
February 11, 2011, 12:19 amPosted by Aaron Wheeler There are a lot of hep cats out there in the offline world, but they can be a bit quiet about sharing what they like with other people. Fortunately, there are huge flocks of rad birds online! Tweeting birds, actually. The kind that like to tweet all day about how many worm-selling websites they have ranking in the SERPs...
SEO and SEM Things to Leverage
February 11, 2011, 12:13 amWhen it comes to search marketing and promoting a website online, if you are trying to do it yourself you will quickly realize how much area there is to cover as a business. You have the social media giants in one corner, the search engines in another corner, and everyone is waiting for your company press releases and article marketing. Honestly,
Microsoft and Nokia Team Up Over Smartphones
February 10, 2011, 10:50 pmNokia has joined forces with Microsoft in an attempt to regain ground lost to the iPhone and Android-based devices.The deal would see Nokia use the Windows phone operating system for its smartphones, the company said.Microsoft's Bing will power Nokia's search services, while Nokia Maps would be a core part of Microsoft's mapping services.
Twitter, Foursquare Set Records During Super Bowl
February 10, 2011, 8:07 pmSuper Bowl XLV between the Green Bay Packers and Pittsburgh Steelers attracted record television ratings, but Twitter and Foursquare also achieved some major milestones during the big game.
Twitter announced a new record: highest tweets per second during a sporting event. Meanwhile, Foursquare announced that the Super Bowl became the most...
Oops! Mobile Users Don't Mean to Click
February 10, 2011, 7:47 pmOops, I did it again, and again and again. Me and forty-seven percent of mobile application users who responded to a recent Harris Interactive survey click on mobile ads more often by mistake than we do on purpose. That's a lot of wasted coin-for-click and as Mobile Marketer points out in their review of the situation, it's got to stop. With the...
AOL Has Algorithm For Finding Content Topics For Reporters
February 10, 2011, 7:47 pmThe Columbia Journalism Review mentioned AOL's Demand/ROI tool and how it is being used to find topics that will generate pageviews and ROI - along with the news that AOL is hiring reporters. Demand/ROI is "used to suggest to writers topics that they should write about, either on a seasonal demand basis, or on a trending topic basis. While...
Yahoo Unveils Livestand An Online Newsstand For Tablets, Mobile
February 10, 2011, 7:47 pmNot to be outdone by Rupert Murdoch's The Daily, Yahoo is launching Livestand, "a digital newsstand that continually offers new content to consumers, based on their interests," the Yahoo News Center reported . Slated for release in the first half of 2011, and "launching first for tablets, Livestand from Yahoo!
Ad of the Week: Old Spice Log-In Page Takeover
February 10, 2011, 7:41 pmJust in time for Valentine's Day, it's the return of the Guy women can't get enough of We've highlighted a lot of ads in this space that had nothing to do with Yahoo! (aside from garnering our admiration), so it's high time we give accolades to an execution a little closer to home. Yesterday, the Yahoo! log-in page was taken over by 2010's most...
Oops! Mobile Users Don’t Mean to Click
February 10, 2011, 7:12 pmOops, I did it again, and again and again. Me and forty-seven percent of mobile application users who responded to a recent Harris Interactive survey click on mobile ads more often by mistake than we do on purpose.
That’s a lot of wasted coin-for-click and as Mobile Marketer points out in their review of the situation, it’s got to...
eBay Analyst Day: "Incredible Opportunity for PayPal"
February 10, 2011, 5:59 pmWhen I joined PayPal back in 2005, I was blown away by the innovation and the opportunity for this company. And today, six years later, the story just gets better. We're fundamentally changing the way people pay around the world. Today, the Internet is now at the center of everything we do - the way we get so many important things done in our...
Searches on Bing: This Time, It's Personal
February 10, 2011, 5:54 pm"With the launch of Personalized Search , you can use that search history you've been building to get better results. You probably won't notice much difference at first, but as your search history grows, your personalized results will gradually improve." Oh wait, that's from Google's blog back in 2005. Let me try again. "We're introducing a...
John Batelle's Highlights from Signal LA
February 10, 2011, 5:48 pmFederated Media Publishing CEO shares his favorite moments We had the pleasure of speaking with John Batelle, the man behind the successful and star-studded Signal LA event. The CEO and founder of Federated Media Publishing artfully moderated the day's best sessions. After a well-deserved cocktail, he shared his highlights from the eventful event....
Searches on Bing: This Time, It’s Personal
February 10, 2011, 5:24 pm“With the launch of Personalized Search, you can use that search history you’ve been building to get better results. You probably won’t notice much difference at first, but as your search history grows, your personalized results will gradually improve.”
Oh wait, that’s from Google’s blog back in 2005. Let me...
Starbucks CEO Joins Groupon Board Of Directors
February 10, 2011, 4:42 pmGroupon employees might want to look for the quality of coffee at their workplace to improve in the near future. This afternoon, Groupon announced that Howard Schultz, the CEO of Starbucks, has joined its board of directors. Groupon got an unspecified amount of money from a VC firm, too. Let's cover the funding news first, since there's not much...
Quora Gaining Momentum
February 10, 2011, 3:55 pmWhenever I start to see friends posting about joining a new website on Facebook or Twitter , I always begin to monitor the traffic patterns to for more widespread adoption. One good example is Quora.com , a much-talked about crowd sourced question and answer website, where visits have been steadily growing since the public launch in June 2010.
SAT Scores Stir the Web
February 10, 2011, 3:55 pmby Claudine Zap For high school students, it's judgment day. College-bound kids who took the SAT admissions test a few weeks ago can now look up exam results on the Web, which caused a surge of searches on Yahoo! for "SAT test scores." Those who haven't had to go through that grim high school ritual lately may not know that the test is more...
Embed Facebook Posts In Articles With SocialDitto
February 10, 2011, 3:47 pmSocialDitto is a new tool designed to let content producers, such as journalists and bloggers, embed Facebook posts/status updates into their content. You can think about it like the Twitter BlackBird Pie tool, which lets you embed tweets.
The developers of SocialDitto, part of iEntry (which also publishes WebProNews) thought a Blackbird...
Imagine2011: The Marketing Leadership Summit
February 10, 2011, 3:35 pmWhat is marketing leadership in a transparent and interconnected digital world? Who are the consumers of tomorrow? How will technology enable and change us? How do we, the global advertising community, transform? To address these questions and ignite dialogue on the most pressing challenges and most brilliant creativity in marketing and...
Twitter for Android Becomes More Like Other Twitter Apps
February 10, 2011, 3:28 pmTwitter has launched a new version of its Android App. The company says its designed to feel more like its other official Twitter apps to provide a more consistent experience.
"You can use Twitter for Android even if you haven't signed in or don't have an account," says Carolyn Penner with Twitter Communications. "You can...
Acquisition Rumors Again Connect Google, Next New Networks
February 10, 2011, 3:24 pmRumors have indicated that Google could acquire a company called Next New Networks since at least December, and as of now, neither company has anything to announce. A new round of reports has surfaced, however, indicating that the purchase might soon occur. The acquisition would make sense in a number of ways. First, whether or not you've heard...
Two-Factor Authentication Comes to Google Accounts
February 10, 2011, 3:14 pmYou have your Gmail account and you use it for everything. But it's more than just e-mail; it's also tied to your calendar and stored documents. For some, it also means your Google Voice phone number. It is probably your email address of choice for Amazon, Facebook and a host of other services. Some of those sites may store your credit card...
Facebook Pages Get Profile-Like Redesign Treatment
February 10, 2011, 3:09 pmFacebook announced some new changes to Facebook Pages today that effectively make the Page design more like the recently re-designed profiles. For one, you can now navigate and interact with other areas of Facebook. "This means you can choose to receive notifications about fan activity, Like and comment on other Pages as your Page, and get your...
CozyTag.com Gives a Social Network Platform to Objects
February 10, 2011, 3:09 pmYes, now your "things" have a social networking site to interact with one another. CozyTag.com is a new social networking platform for the things that people own. The name suggests that the members (objects via site users) on the site are more personal and share intimate information about themselves. This is likely what the creators .
Signal LA: Stories about Storytelling
February 10, 2011, 3:09 pm5 expert tips for creating compelling content The speaker lineup at the first Federated Media event in Southern California was, well, sooo LA. With a VIP list filled with social media celebrities like host John Battelle, Arianna Huffington, and Twitter co-founder Biz Stone-and actual celebrity will.i.am fresh off his Super Bowl half-time...
Android Ad Revenue Forecast to Top $1 Billion in 2012
February 10, 2011, 2:59 pmAndroid advertising revenue could potentially generate $1 billion for Google next year. Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster says Android generated $5.90 per user in mobile advertising in 2010, and that number is expected to jump to $9.85 in 2012, aided in part by in-app advertising from the Android Market app store. Click to read the rest of this...
Spring Allergies: Optimizing Health and Wellness PPC Campains for the Hay Fever Season
February 10, 2011, 2:53 pmAfter a winter with very unusual weather patterns, everyone seems to be looking forward to Spring, but some people actually dont. Each year, 35 million Americans fall prey to seasonal allergic rhinitis, more commonly known as hay fever. [1] For them, when Spring is in the air, its just misery. Looking for help, many suffering from hay fever turn...
PayPal Digital Goods Payment Product Released
February 10, 2011, 2:33 pmToday at eBay's 2001 Analyst Day, PayPal announced the general availability of its digital goods solution, aptly called PayPal for Digital Goods. The product is designed for online publishers. "The solution makes paying for content online convenient and secure for consumers, a long-time challenge for all sorts of digital content providers," a...
Bing Needs Users to Break the Google Habbit
February 10, 2011, 2:19 pmOne of Bing's Facebook fans brings up a good point about the search market. Google is simply ingrained in so many people's online habits, Bing's biggest challenge is to simply keep Google users from being sucked back into the Google way.
Of course when Bing is just starting to personalize search results based on location, it's got to be...
Travel Technology Europe & THack - Instigating Creativity
February 10, 2011, 2:12 pmTnooz THack initiative promotes innovation, momentum, and maybe the "edge" the next great travel giant wants. Tnooz Co-founder Kevin May explores what's next. Technology touches every area of our lives these days and nowhere more significantly than in the travel and mobility spaces. Online travel business is rapidly outdistancing traditional...
Who Is Using Facebook & Twitter in the US?
February 10, 2011, 2:00 pmAccording to Comscore data of U.S. users, Facebook saw its share of visitors between the ages of 35-54 drop 3.6% to 35.4%, while the share of visitors under 18 (up 1.2 to 11.1% and age 55 and older (up 1.9 to 13.2%) made the biggest gains. Twitter saw a 9.4%t gain in the share of 18-34 year olds visiting the site while those under 18 use fell 8...
Why Google, SEOs & Users Must ‘Blekko Up’
February 10, 2011, 1:59 pmAs a professional writer, there’s a lot I could say and a lot that I want to say about the issue of content farms and its effect on search engine relevance, SEO, and branding. But I know me. It would get angry and passionate and people would accuse me of ranting. So I won’t. The fact that content is the red-headed step child of the...
Google results without Twitter or Facebook links
February 10, 2011, 1:50 pmI was in the shower this morning, considering the impact that Twitter and Facebook have had on Google’s search results. After reading Rands test results from Twitter links versus traditional text links in ranking pages within the Google search results, it is clear that Google is placing significant weight on links from Twitter and Facebook....
Blogs That Make The Most Money Put Content First
February 10, 2011, 1:45 pmIf you want to generate more advertising revenue and affiliate income from your blog, this post is just for you!
I visited a blog earlier, which had Google adwords inserted several times into the post I was hoping to read. The sidebar was auto-running video ads, which were extremely distracting. This combined to make the site look...
Oscars to Get VIP Treatment Online
February 10, 2011, 1:41 pmDisney/ABC Television Group is going all out this year for Oscar.com during the Academy Awards. A representative for the company tells WebProNews that they're set to deliver "one of the most extensive live, interactive 'second-screen' experiences ever offered."
Intrigued?
"Movie fans and film buffs will have unprecedented...
Yahoo To Launch Digital Newsstand For iPad And Android Tablets
February 10, 2011, 1:31 pmYahoo said today it would launch a digital newsstand called LiveStand, aimed at tablets and mobile phones, in the first half of this year.
The company said LiveStand will offer content to people based on their personal interests.
Content from Yahoo will include sports, news, finance, Flickr, omg!, and its contributor network.
“Adoption...
Bing Adds Personalized Search Features Based on History and Location
February 10, 2011, 1:20 pmBing has started testing new personalized search features, aimed at making individual search results more effective. "Personalized search is not new, but Bing is taking a different approach, focused on the type of search a person is doing and understanding more about what that person is likely searching for," a spokesperson for Bing...
Testing, Testing, 1-2-3: A/B Tests Boost Creativity, Productivity, and Bottom Line
February 10, 2011, 12:49 pmYes, you guessed it, the topic of this post is testing. More specifically the topic is testing alternative website content and features to produce the best possible traffic conversion rates. I have illustrated some of my points with tests conducted using Monetate’s testing, targeting, and optimization platform. However, the need to test, and...
The New Networking Site: Global14.com Released by Jermaine Dupri
February 10, 2011, 12:40 pmThe hip-hop mogul and Grammy-winning producer, Jermaine Dupri, has had great success with social networking. With that success, he has gone on to recently launch his own social networking site, Global14.com. The new social site will be a place where fans can interact with one another and share fashion advice, music news and connect on .
Why You Need a Content Marketing Strategy
February 10, 2011, 12:20 pmGoogle sites handle about 88 billion searches each month. YouTube is the second most popular search engine second only to Google. Facebook is now over 600 million users. Twitter has nearly 200 million accounts. LinkedIn is at 101 million users and FourSquare grew 3,400% in 2010.
The variety of options for customer marketing and engagement ranging...
Google launches two-factor authentication
February 10, 2011, 11:54 amGoogle just launched two-factor authentication , and I believe everyone with a Google account should enable it. Two-factor authentication (also known as 2-step verification) relies on something you know (like a password) and something you have (like a cell phone). Crackers have a harder time getting into your account, because even if they figure...
Introducing Livestand from Yahoo!
February 10, 2011, 11:54 amA new Yahoo! mobile experience for consumers and advertisers Livestand from Yahoo! is about to change the digital ad game for good. It's no secret that tablets and mobiles are dramatically changing the way people consume content. You could make the argument that print itself is undergoing its biggest revolution since Johannes Gutenburg invented...
Link Building Techniques: Online PR
February 10, 2011, 11:51 amPR link building is about getting excellent high quality links back to your site. There are many PR tools and techniques that can be beneficial for SEOs. The most obvious one is the Press Release, however too often I see unnecessary mistakes preventing these from being a success. In this post, I want to give some tips and tricks specifically...
PayPal: The Best Way to Buy and Sell Digital Goods
February 10, 2011, 11:48 amHi everyone, Carey Kolaja from the PayPal Digital Goods team here. Today PayPal officially launched its faster, safer way for consumers to purchase their favorite digital content: PayPal for digital goods. Late last year, when PayPal announced this new solution, it was a game-changing moment for developers, newspapers, bloggers, media companies,...
Inc. 500 Social Media Use
February 10, 2011, 11:48 amHere is the latest in the very useful series of longitudinal studies on social media use by The Center for Marketing Research at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth led by Nora Barnes. This one covered Social Media Usage in the Inc. 500. In contrast here is their most recent one on Blogging and Twitter by the Fortune 500. In this...
Google Makes Users Accounts More Secure
February 10, 2011, 11:31 amGoogle has introduced its opt-in security feature called 2-step verification to all users in an effort to make their accounts more secure.
The 2-step verification includes your password and code you get via your phone. The Google Blog provides more details.
“Take your time to carefully set up 2-step...
Sonos Controller For Android Debuts
February 10, 2011, 11:24 amPeople who happen to own both Sonos multi-room music systems and Android phones are in for treat. Today, Sonos announced an app called the Sonos Controller for Android, and it'll grant individuals precise control over the different system components.
An official statement promised, "With the award-winning Sonos S5 in any room and an...
How to Legally Steal Copy That Converts Like Crazy
February 10, 2011, 11:12 amEveryone knows better copy gets you more buyers, but professional copywriters are ridiculously expensive, right? And of course every entrepreneur should study copywriting, but it takes time to get really good. You want a great sales page today, not in three years when you've finally read all those copywriting books on your bedside table. Wouldn't...
Making search yours
February 10, 2011, 11:07 amFor years people have talked about personalized search as the next evolution of our amazing technology. Over the years, the biggest obstacle facing search engineers is the simple fact that human behavior is not predictable. Dont get us wrong, people can be creatures of habit and we can build functions that enable us to display different results...
Monster To Power Yahoo Job Listings In Latin America
February 10, 2011, 10:47 amYahoo said today it has partnered with Monster on a deal under which the career site will provide job listings in Latin American markets. Monster will become Yahoo's provider of career and job content in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru. Monster says the partnership will give it access to almost 55 million new Internet users in...
Advanced sign-in security for your Google account
February 10, 2011, 10:47 amHas anyone you know ever lost control of an email account and inadvertently sent spam"or worse"to their friends and family? There are plenty of examples (like the classic "Mugged in London" scam ) that demonstrate why it's important to take steps to help secure your activities online. Your Gmail account, your photos, your private documents"if you...
Google Reaches Global #1 Position for Mobile OS
February 10, 2011, 10:16 amWhile it's easy to talk about the realm of smartphone operating systems as if there were only two competitors (Google and Apple, with the Android and iPhone systems, respectively), it's a fair deal more complicated. In the U.S. alone, Google is only the number two competitor, while Apple is in third place, with RIM (the .
President Of Akamai To Join Yahoo's Board Of Directors
February 10, 2011, 10:09 amHeads up, Yahoo watchers. On April 1st, the company's board of directors will undergo a change, with longtime board member Eric Hippeau resigning his post. David Kenny, the president of Akamai, will then join the group.
To first give some info on the departing member: Hippeau's been on Yahoo's board of directors since 1996. He's also...
Report Highlights Need for Online Talent Now
February 10, 2011, 9:53 amIn a young industry such as social media, defining talent and experience is a dicey proposition at best. The age of the space will vary greatly depending on who you speak with but the maturation has truly escalated in the past 5 years or so (feel free to debate that if you wish ).
So it’s little surprise that the rapid expansion of the space...
How NOT to Do an Interview: The Basics
February 10, 2011, 9:13 amby Stoney deGeyter
A while back, I was asked to participate in an over-the-phone interview that would be later broadcast online. This is one of those interviews where they ask you to provide a list of questions up front so they know what to ask. Sadly, I don't even remember who it was or where the interview ran. But, what I do remember is my...
Amazon Releases Windows Phone 7 App
February 10, 2011, 9:09 amAmazon has introduced a new free mobile shopping app for Windows Phone 7. Amazon says the app is specifically designed for Windows Phone 7 and displays all of a product's details in a single view, allowing users to scroll horizontally to search and buy without have to load new screens or leave the app. Weve combined the unique attributes of...
Facebook, Google Said To Offer $8B-$10B For Twitter
February 10, 2011, 9:09 amNo one's claimed a sale is going to take place - much the opposite, in fact - but if new rumors are to be believed, two very important corporations are interested in paying top dollar for Twitter. Facebook and Google have supposedly both been involved in discussions in which figures as high as $10 billion came up. A Wall Street Journal article...
Malvertising Impacts Billions of Ads in 2010
February 10, 2011, 8:59 amMalware has always been a real problem for the Internet space and now it is spreading further into the world on online advertising. For those keeping score, that’s a bad thing.
According to a post from ClickZ
More than 10 billion online ad impressions served up in 2010 carried malware, according to recent research from Online Trust Alliance. The...
Why Your Business Needs a Content Marketing Strategy
February 10, 2011, 8:49 amGoogle sites handle about 88 billion searches each month. YouTube is the second most popular search engine second only to Google. Facebook is now over 600 million users. Twitter has nearly 200 million accounts. LinkedIn is at 101 million users and FourSquare grew 3,400% in 2010. The variety of options for customer marketing and engagement ranging...
Walking Directions Now on MapQuest (Transit Too)
February 10, 2011, 8:38 amMapQuest announced the availability of both walking directions and transit directions on its service. It's interesting that it has taken this long for MapQuest to get such features, though to be fair, MapQuest did have walking directions available on its MQ4Mobile and Mobile Web apps for a while. But now they're available on MapQuest.com. ...
Blog Posts To Read for February 10, 2011
February 10, 2011, 8:28 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! 10 Blogging Tips for Beginners and Experts This post provides helpful content tips for blog writing. The author stresses that a key...
Public Tweets and Privacy Boundaries Becoming More Defined
February 10, 2011, 8:23 amIf you use Twitter , what you post to the micro-blogging service is public. Unless you post a DM (a private message only visible to the person youre sending it to) or your Twitter account is a private one (none of the tweets are generally visible unless others follow you only with your permission), what you say in a tweet is there for all to see,...
Is Microsoft Unintrusively Adding Search History To Its Algorithm?
February 10, 2011, 8:13 amHarry Shum, Microsoft VP of Search Product Development, is presenting a keynote address at the Fourth ACM International Conference on Web Search and Data Mining in Hong Kong Friday, where he will discuss the role of personal search history as a factor in search results, the conference site reported.
10 Local Search Tools I Simply Can't Live Without
February 10, 2011, 8:12 amIf you were to ask me what the biggest let down in the local search industry was a year ago, I would have answered without hesitation'..tools. There are PPC tools, SEO tools, Social Media tools, and even construction tools' but local search seems to have been the fat kid picked last in gym class. That being said, Local search got a bit more...
Boom or Bubble? Twitter Valued at 100x Revenue!
February 10, 2011, 8:00 amHands-up if you’d like to sell your company for 100 times your projected earnings for 2011?
Sorry, it will…take a little…longer to…type this sentence…with just one hand.
On the back of a recent $200 million investment–and a reported $80m secondary market purchase–the Wall Street Journal is reporting that...
Google Hiring in 2011 to Break Company Records
February 10, 2011, 7:52 amGoogle has a lot of projects on the books. They are developing their various platforms with furious tenacity, with major projects " including Google Hotpot, Google Voice, Google Docs, and Gmail " all receiving frequent updates. More importantly, Google has a lot of projects coming down the line. Two of these are of special note: .
10 ways to search Google like a pro
February 10, 2011, 7:16 amThe main reason Google rose to be the World's most popular search engine is the quality of the search results. But the Web has evolved since Google was launched and so has Google. With these ten tips you can use Google to search new media or old sites in more advanced ways. Find faces : Add &imgtype=face to the end of the URL after doing an image...
Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Released
February 10, 2011, 6:59 amMicrosoft said today that it had sent the first service pack for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 to original equipment manufacturers, with a consumer release to follow later this month.
SEO Competitive Analysis: Your Roadmap to Ranking #1 On Google
February 10, 2011, 6:34 amDoing SEO without competitive analysis is like driving to a place you've never been, without a map, GPS, or any clue how to get from point A to point B. It's not a smart thing to do and will leave you lost. I'll show you how to analyze your website (and other factors) to uncover what you'll need to do to rank #1 on Google. Number of Incoming Links...
Interview with SEO Copywriting Certification Grad, Derek Cromwell
February 10, 2011, 6:19 amDerek Cromwell is a 30 year old self-professed copywriting dweeb and content marketing nerd - his Twitter background states that much clearly. He is the founder of Thunder Bay Media, LLC , a company he started in 2009 based in the Metro-Detroit area of Michigan. From his home office/fortress he provides SEO copywriting and content marketing...
Nokia Poised to Go with Windows Phone 7 Over Android
February 10, 2011, 5:17 amRumors have been swirling about what measures Nokia CEO Stephen Elop will undertake to douse his so-called " burning platform ," which is how he alleged characterized Symbian and the app ecosystem in a memo to his soldiers. Tech watchers have been speculating since Elop left Microsoft for Nokia that he could pick Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 or...
Google Resumes its China Quest
February 10, 2011, 3:47 amHow big should you be to successfully fight Google and beat it? Pretty big probably. Far bigger than blekko.com and DuckDuckGo. Even being a multibillion company, such as Microsoft, is not enough – Bing is still behind in the SE battle. Having the law in your hands, however, might help. Especially, if you are the law. Especially in...
Your iPhone Passwords Can Be Stolen In Under Six Minutes
February 10, 2011, 3:45 amResearchers in Germany say they've been able to reveal passwords stored in a locked iPhone in just six minutes and they did it without cracking the phone's passcode.The attack, which requires possession of the phone, targets keychain, Apple's password management system.Among passwords that could be revealed were those for Google Mail as an MS...
Rumor of The Day: Potential Twitter Buyout by Facebook or Google
February 10, 2011, 3:04 amTwitter has been holding talks with potential suitors, including Facebook and Google, which could value the micro-blogging site at $10bn, reports suggest.The new valuation would be a significant leap for Twitter. Last December it raised $200m in funds from Silicon Valley venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers and existing Twitter...
Teaching Search: Lights, Camera, Action
February 10, 2011, 1:17 amIn light of Distilled’s dedication to education via our webinars, Pro Seminars and link building seminars, I thought it would be a nice change of pace to look at how you go about teach search to others. For the last year I’ve been working with Bisk Education and The University of San Francisco on their Internet Marketing...
European Commission: No Discussions to Halt Google Antitrust Investigation
February 10, 2011, 12:29 amDespite what you may have read elsewhere, Google and the European Commission aren't nearing a resolution on the antitrust investigation launched in the European Union in November , and Google isn't likely to change its algorithm there any time soon. "There are no discussions. As is known, the commission is conducting an in-depth market...
Online Community Building Techniques
February 10, 2011, 12:08 amHaving some sort of online community surrounding your business is just a part of today's commerce model. Online communities help spread your business message throughout their networks creating a nice stream of inbound traffic and eyeballs surrounding your company and its website. Everything has grown into a social level online and, depending on...
Will Apple Release iPad 3 in the Fall?
February 9, 2011, 11:02 pmApple is entering a new phase for the iPad ... competition. On the heals of HP announcing the HP Touchpad today, Daring Fireball blogger John Gruber speculated that Apple could release an iPad 3 about the same time as HP releases the HP Touchpad: "Summer feels like a long time away. If my theory is right, they're not only going to be months behind...
Where's The Love, DMOZ?
February 9, 2011, 10:05 pmPosted by Dr. Pete There was once a directory called DMOZ, which shone forth like a beacon of glorious link-light. From all across the realm, downtrodden webmasters would travel to pay homage to the ones called Editors, that those keepers of the Categories might bequeath a link of great PageRank upon them. Whoa upon those who did not have the...
Preventing Mail Server Hacking Attemps
February 9, 2011, 7:58 pmIt seems like automated spies, programs or whatever are accessing sender page and sending testing mails once or twice a day.How can I avoid those people even sending test mail?
Mobile Trends: The Future Guide To The Best Predictions For 2011
February 9, 2011, 6:00 pmIf you are a web site publisher, smartphones, iPhones, tablets and iPads are in your future. There is no escape. In this light, I have gone out to look for the most interesting and relevant trends, anticipations and predictions about the mobile world and how these will affect any web site publisher work in 2011.
Photo credit: tupikov remixed by...
Intelligent Site Structure for better SEO
February 9, 2011, 5:55 pmWhen developing a new site, or restructuring an existing one, it helps to draw out your site's structure in something like Visio, or even putting it in Excel. What you'll want to do is put all the pages and sections in there as a tree...Once you're satisfied with your site structure, have a look at the names you've come up with for your sections....
comScore Lists Top 10 Digital Media Trends of 2010
February 9, 2011, 5:12 pmIt's time for the comScore, U.S. Digital Year in Review report 2010! I know you've been waiting breathlessly for this, preparing for the moment when you can put these marketing secrets into action and ramp up your sales 200%! Well, here's the real secret. There are no secrets. We've seen these trends coming right at us for the past year and then...
Local Discounts Provided by LivingSocial on Examiner.com
February 9, 2011, 4:47 pmExaminer.com announced it's offering discounts provided by LivingSocial in 130 markets - that's all the markets LivingSocial is currently active in. Deals are accessible through a mix of feeds and local media placements. LivingSocial will also be the headlining daily deal company in Examiner.com's upcoming "Insider Deal" marketplace, an online...
Super Bowl Sets Tweets Per Second Record (For Sporting Events)
February 9, 2011, 4:47 pmThis year's Super Bowl generated a whole lot of chatter. Forgotten lyrics, funny (and controversial commercials), and the football game itself continue to grab headlines days later. It may or may not surprise you, then, that Super Bowl XLV helped set a record when it came to sports-related tweets. A post on the official Twitter Blog announced...
Alicia Keys to Headline HP Ads During Grammys
February 9, 2011, 4:47 pmIt's been a big day for HP, who unveiled the TouchPad iPad competitor, and the Veer and Pre3 smartphones. All of these products run webOS. Robert Scoble says the company has " fired Microsoft " and that it is making Android "look even more creaky (and RIM, Nokia, Microsoft not in the game)." Not bad for PR. The company also announced a new...
"Jeopardy!" is Waiting for You
February 9, 2011, 4:36 pmby Mike Krumboltz If you're one of those armchair geniuses who watches "Jeopardy!" and claims to score higher than the contestants, the time has come to put up or shut up. For a limited time, you can take an online test to see if you qualify to be on the show. The testing period, just the first step in the process, is only here for a few days....
Ken and Barbie Get Social
February 9, 2011, 3:55 pmThe internet is all a twitter today about a brand new social media marketing push from toy manufacturer Mattel. The campaign is all about how Ken plans to woo Barbie back into his life by Valentine's Day and it's pretty brilliant. The entire event revolves around a website where people can vote if Barbie should take Ken back. The simplistic...
Jana Kramer Goes Country
February 9, 2011, 3:50 pmby Claudine Zap Jana Kramer played a sorority girl on " Entourage " and a fallen starlet turned model in " One Tree Hill ." Now the 27-year-old will play a country singer in real life: The Detroit native debuted her single " I Won't Give Up " on The CW show. The song spurred searches on the Web. Lookups hit a high note for " jana kramer ," soaring...
Five People Who Have Way Too Much Power
February 9, 2011, 3:29 pmPlatforms. Progress. "The user experience." The wisdom of crowds. "The network is the computer." A link "is like a vote". You "don't own your brand anymore." Always On. "Privacy is dead. Get over it." Don't be evil. Everybody's connected. These types of statements characterize the mostly-hopeful, mostly-progressive flavor of digital culture.
Major VC Firm Buys $80 Million In Twitter Stock
February 9, 2011, 3:09 pmThe way in which it's done so is a bit unusual, but the venture capital firm founded by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz has thrown its weight behind Twitter. A report's indicated Andreessen Horowitz spent something like $80 million to buy into the company.
Kara Swisher wrote this afternoon, "Andreessen Horowitz has invested more than...
HP TouchPad, Veer and Pre3 Smartphones with webOS Introduced
February 9, 2011, 2:53 pmHewlett-Packard (HP) today announced the TouchPad, described as a version of webOS for the big screen. It's essentially an iPad competitor, and is due out this summer. "Today we're embarking on a new era of webOS with the goal of linking a wide family of HP products through the best mobile experience available," said Jon Rubinstein, SVP and GM of...
The Getty Family in Focus
February 9, 2011, 2:27 pmby Mike Krumboltz The recent death of J. Paul Getty III sparked massive interest in the Getty family, its source of wealth, and its many triumphs and tragedies. Getty, 54 when he died, was the troubled grandson of an oil magnate and the father of actor Balthazar Getty. J. Paul Getty III was infamously kidnapped in the 1970s at the age of 16. The...
Amazon To Launch Kindle App For HP TouchPad
February 9, 2011, 1:51 pmAmazon said today it is launching a free Kindle app for the new HP TouchPad coming out this summer. Amazon said its Kindle app for the TouchPad will gives users access to more than 810,000 titles from its Kindle store. When you buy a Kindle book, you can already read it on Kindle and our free Buy Once, Read Everywhere apps for iPad, iPhone,...
Excuse Me While I Have A Ranking Report Rant
February 9, 2011, 1:33 pmSadly, this is still incredibly relevant, since so many companies (and their agencies) still rely on rankings and ranking reports as the primary success metric for an SEO program.
Google Tests Profile Pictures in Social Navigation Bar
February 9, 2011, 1:31 pmGoogle is testing a new-look navigation bar that could offer a hint of what the company's plans are for incorporating social elements into search to compete more in Facebook's territory. This test by Google ditches the traditional blue links in favor of a new stripe on top and a more modern look for the links to Web, Images, Videos, etc.
Searching for the Best Way to Say 'Happy Valentine's Day'
February 9, 2011, 1:26 pmby Claudine Zap Roses are red, violets are blue - quick, we need something that rhymes with "I love you." That's right, it's almost Valentine's Day , and that means it's time to express how you feel in card form. So budding romantics have taken to the Web to search for just the right way to say it. Lovey-dovey searches on Yahoo! for " short...
How Split-Testing Our Opt-In Form Increased Our Conversion Rate by 102.2%
February 9, 2011, 1:02 pmAn interesting post on split-testing email opt-in forms for newsletter subscribers. - I’ll admit it… when I design opt-in forms, I’m confident that my form converts well. It’s simple really. Make a compelling offer, demonstrate social proof, and ask for action, and bam! Instant subscribers. Well, the other day, I discovered that my...
The n00b Guide to Online Marketing - with a giant Infographic
February 9, 2011, 12:30 pmA 6-month course containing 50 marketing activities designed to take a new business from zero to hero.
Why Tim Wu Advising FTC is Bad for Google
February 9, 2011, 12:14 pmFor Google, something just went rotten in the State of the Federal Trade Commission. The Wall Street Journal said Tim Wu, a well-regarded Columbia University Professor known for coining the term "network neutrality, is joining the FTC as a "senior advisor" in the agency's Office of Policy Planning beginning Feb. 14. That's Valentine's Day, but...
AdWords Background Turns a Paler Shade of Yellow
February 9, 2011, 12:06 pmLooks like Google is once again tinkering with their AdWords background colors. Have a look at the new background color:Click to read the rest of this post...
Visa Buys Online Payment Platform For $190 Million
February 9, 2011, 12:03 pmVisa said today it is buying online payment platform PlaySpan for $190 million in cash, plus additional consideration for performance milestones. Visa said the acquisition complements its further expansion into digital and mobile commerce. The deal follows Visa's purchase of another online payment company, CyberSource in July.
Microsoft Search Head Gets Big Promotion
February 9, 2011, 11:48 amWhoever's in charge of printing Microsoft employees' business cards is sure to be loading the machines with some of the best paper and ink available. Microsoft announced today that Satya Nadella has been promoted, gaining the title "President of Microsoft's Server and Tools Business." Nadella used to be a senior vice president, and was previously...
Google 2000 vs. Google 2011
February 9, 2011, 11:48 amI sometimes hear people say "Remember when Google launched and the results were so good? Google didn't have any spam back then. Man, I wish we could go back to those days." I know where those people are coming from. I was in grad school in 1999, and I remember that Google's quality blew me away after just a few searches. But it's a misconception...
The Noob Guide to Online Marketing (With Giant INFOGRAPHIC)
February 9, 2011, 11:38 amPosted by Oli Gardner 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. Get me to page 1 of Google, while emailing our customers a bi-weekly newsletter, engaging...
DOTW: Can Marketers Ignore the Facebook Opportunity?
February 9, 2011, 11:29 amThere are many businesses that survive just fine without doing PPC advertising, and many that do fine without focusing much on SEO. Studies suggest a combination of SEO and PPC is the best, but companies have been making it work for years by focusing on just one and ignoring the other. But what about Facebook? Can you ignore it? Considering its...
Top 10 Social Media Tips to Build International Brands from Social Media Week London
February 9, 2011, 11:17 amIts Social Media Week ! From New York to Istanbul and Hong Kong to sunny London people are talking about social media. Very much in the global spirit of the event, this morning three experienced social media experts spoke at the Design Council about how social media can help you build an international brand. Ash Choudhury, UK Head of Digital...
SEO content marketing roundup, week ending February 9th
February 9, 2011, 11:17 amIt's a new twist on the old theme of art imitating life - and vice versa " in this week's latest and greatest web writing news: the boundaries between offline and online marketing and realities effectively dissolved, from a Google executive's social media ignition of Egypt's revolt on one extreme, to the Super Bowl advertisements feeding an online...
Bing Search Results Spread to Overseas Yahoo Sites
February 9, 2011, 11:12 amAt about 70% of market share, there's no doubt that Google is winning the war of the search engines. Their immense power has allowed them to push and shove as they see fit (all, hopefully, while "not being evil"), forcing Bing, Yahoo, and other competitors to the side. How do you stand up to a .
Yes, SEOs do need to learn a programming language
February 9, 2011, 10:49 amAn interesting article (and conversation) regarding SEOs needing to be able to program to be successful.
Sony Wants Google To Give Info On Commenters, Viewers Of PS3 Hack Video
February 9, 2011, 10:46 amSony has gone to court to have Google give them access to information of viewers and the people who have commented on a private YouTube video that shows how to jailbreak their PS3, Slashdot reported . PS3 had been not been fully hacked until recently, but now that there is a full fledged jailbreak available Sony is aggressively prosecuting anyone...
Huffington Post Attracts New Round of Criticism
February 9, 2011, 10:26 amEarlier this week, I asked how much content is too much? The premise is that the web and search engine results are being saturated with content in all areas, and most of it is coming from a handful of companies - companies like Demand Media and AOL/Huffington Post. Demand Media has come under plenty of fire, and even more so in recent weeks on...
Facebook Establishes New Sales Office In Hong Kong
February 9, 2011, 10:26 amFacebook's ad sales in Asia should soon pick up by a significant amount. The company's opened a new office in Hong Kong, and it means to make sure local firms learn all about using social media to reach potential customers. This undertaking might not be immediately successful. The Hong Kong office is only Facebook's second sales office in Asia...
Ford Launches Explorer Road Trip Contest On Facebook
February 9, 2011, 10:24 amFord has launched a social media campaign on Facebook to promote its new Explorer.
The campaign called “Go. Do. Adventures,” asks people what they would do and where they would go if they had a new Ford Explorer for a week.
People can submit essays, photos and videos via the Ford Explorer website and Facebook. The...
Sony Shares Jailbreak Code Via Twitter
February 9, 2011, 10:21 amPerhaps “laughing stock” is too strong a term here, but after Sony’s strong-arm tactics concerning jailbroken PlayStation 3s -- tactics that were upheld via a misguided ruling -- the fact that they tweeted the jailbreak code in question, accidentally or no, perhaps it fits.
That’s right. Sony’s official...
The Guaranteed Way to Radically Improve Your Copywriting
February 9, 2011, 10:15 amGood copywriters follow well-established best practices, studying sites like this one to learn more techniques that pull a reader in and motivate action. Great copywriters delve into the psychology of persuasion, and make sure their copy is presented with effective design to make it even more engaging. But the best copywriters don't stop there....
What if everything you did was on Wikileaks
February 9, 2011, 10:10 amDoes Wikileaks terrify you? It probably should. Imagine a world in which everything you write might become public. Every email you send: public. You have a telephone conversation - the person on the other end takes notes. Public. Your support person insults somebody on the phone; she records and posts it. What would people think? Are you...
Microsoft Internet Explorer 9: It's All About Privacy
February 9, 2011, 10:10 amThe different search engines have managed to keep their portions of territory partially thanks to another crucial line of products: their browsers. It may just be that Google is able to keep its top slot so effectively because of its partnership with Mozilla Firefox as well as its own Chrome browser. Meanwhile, Internet Explorer pitches .
Google needs its own social network
February 9, 2011, 9:54 amby Mike Moran
I was talking to a veteran SEO consultant the other day about all the things I am seeing about how social media activity affects organic search. After listening for a few minutes, he abruptly stated, "SEO and social are separate. A lot of people say they do both, but it is too complicated to be good at both. I do SEO and that's...
Concerning Bing's More-Accurate-Than-Google Search Results
February 9, 2011, 9:19 amIts pretty clear that Experian Hitwise has a comfortable familiarity with Tom Smykowskis Jump to Conclusions mat, at least in regards to comparing search result accuracy with Google and Bing. Its either that or perhaps the online competitive intelligence service needs another lesson in correlation and causation. In a recent report discussing...
Gates Foundation Invests In Facebook App For Education
February 9, 2011, 9:19 amThe Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced today it has invested $2 million in education technology company Inigral, to help fund its Schools App on Facebook. The Schools App uses Facebook to create a virtual community for colleges students during the admissions and orientation process and through their first year. The Schools App aims to...
Should There Be an iPod Tax?
February 9, 2011, 9:03 amThe largest performers union in Canada is attempting to place a tax on iPods. A quick search of the TechDirt database reveals that one organization or another has been attempting to achieve this for awhile now. So this is nothing new, but still worth revisiting. The key question is what makes music special? Movies and TV shows are pirated far more...
San Fran Tax Incentives May Lure Twitter Into Rough Part Of Town
February 9, 2011, 9:03 amTwitter employees who like to plan for the future might want to start researching the price of mace, tasers, and/or stab vests. Rumors indicate that the mayor of San Francisco intends to offer Twitter a deal on office space, only the space is located in a less-than-pleasant part of town. Matt Baume explained yesterday, "Ed Lee is expected to...
Will Verizon's iPhone Stop Runaway Android Growth?
February 9, 2011, 8:53 am2010 was a banner year for the Android OS for mobile devices. There is no denying that. We have already taken a look at one firm's analysis of Q4 sales to establish that the Android platform is on a roll. Today, Gartner released more data that shows just how big 2010 was for the Android OS. The report is for sale here (MP does not benefit from...
Will Verizon’s iPhone Stop Runaway Android Growth?
February 9, 2011, 8:48 am2010 was a banner year for the Android OS for mobile devices. There is no denying that. We have already taken a look at one firm’s analysis of Q4 sales to establish that the Android platform is on a roll.
Today, Gartner released more data that shows just how big 2010 was for the Android OS. The report is for sale here (MP does not benefit from...
36 Must-Read Local SEO/Google Places Resources from 2010/2011
February 9, 2011, 8:48 amAt the end of 2010, Google propelled local SEO to new heights by not only showing local results for search queriesâ with a local âmodifier (e.g. [seo london]) but letting local results dominate such queries. Additionally, Google shows local results from Google Places by default, without users even adding a geographic signifier. So when...
Details of Next iPad Revealed
February 9, 2011, 8:15 amThe Wall Street Journal is reporting some new details about the next version of the iPad, based on what "people familiar with the matter" have revealed. Apple has not yet officially commented.
According to the report, the next iPad will be available through both AT&T and Verizon, and will be thinner, lighter, and will have at...
3 Cool Uses of Xfruits
February 9, 2011, 8:12 amIt's been a while since I discovered xFruits , the fun, yet advanced, RSS feed mash-up tool, for myself and I've been amazed since then by finding new and new ways to benefit from the tool. This post shares some cool uses of the tool you may fall in love with! 1. Reputation management Create one combined RSS feed to track your brand name mentions.
Overcoming Language Barriers: A Truly Global Social Network
February 9, 2011, 7:56 amOvercoming language barriers is one of the greatest challenges for any business targeting an international audience, particularly in the social space where multiple conversations are happening on multiple platforms in multiple languages all the time. Here we talk to Jani Penttinen,
AOL Serves Google Search Results. But Is Microsoft Doing Their SEO?
February 9, 2011, 7:51 amWhile AOL has a 5 year deal to use Google for their search results, it seems they may be using Microsoft for their content SEO, according to their recently leaked Master Plan. The plan that Business Insider published shows AOL plans to use "SEO Checker" for optimizing their content. SEO Checker is the built in program for optimizing content in...
Google Making Some Mobile Noise
February 9, 2011, 7:51 amGoogle has been the talk of many for its push in local Internet marketing. That has been happening for good reason since it seems that's where the innovation is occurring for the search leader. Now, some of the same attention is being turned to the mobile environment which, for the most part, plays hand-in-hand with local.
Google Is Coming Back to China
February 9, 2011, 7:46 amGoogle's mission is to provide information as freely and fully as possible to all the people of the world. Nevertheless, right now there are 1.2 billion people in China (including 420 million who actively access the web) who don't have access to Google. The reasons for that, however, are far from simple. The controversy began .
Keywords, Domain Names and the Foreign Language Internet
February 9, 2011, 7:26 amLogo.com was sold in November for $500,000. Whilst we could talk all day about whether any domain name is worth that much money (for the record, a domain name is worth as much as someone's willing to pay!), from a search perspective, it's perhaps more pertinent to discuss the value of having keywords within domain names'and the implications this...
The Ancillary Benefits of Call Tracking
February 9, 2011, 7:05 amCall tracking is nothing new, but it can often be overlooked with all the set up options available for an online marketing campaign. Call tracking is an absolute must in terms of quantifying PPC or other paid initiatives, but let's forget the obvious for a minute and look at some of the other benefits call tracking can provide.
The Single Best SEO Strategy
February 9, 2011, 6:59 amIf you were to choose only one SEO strategy as the most recommended, what would be it?It is common knowledge that multiple factors play in multiple possible manners to affect SERP, but you are to recommend only one.
How To Perform Article Marketing in 2011
February 9, 2011, 6:44 amUnderstanding the Concepts of Article Marketing There has been a definitive reason why article marketing is popular for search engine optimization: it works. Or, more accurately, it works on several levels beyond the mere impact that it has on the search engines. Then again, "mere" may not be the right term to employ since the placement impact...
Adobe Announces Flash Player 10.2 For Windows, Mac and Linux
February 9, 2011, 6:26 amToday, we're launching Flash Player 10.2 for Windows, Mac, and Linux. We're especially excited that this release introduces Stage Video, a full hardware accelerated video pipeline for best-in-class, beautiful video across platforms and browsers.
Google Launches iPhone Translation App
February 9, 2011, 1:11 amGoogle launched their official iPhone Translate App with voice input for 15 languages, their official blog reported . "The new app accepts voice input for 15 languages, and-just like the web app-you can translate a word or phrase into one of more than 50 languages," the blog noted. "You can also listen to your translations spoken out loud in one...
Blog Writing Tips to Engage Your Readers
February 9, 2011, 12:14 amMaking sticky blog posts that really gain some traction online is not always easy. You have to have some sort of plan and process in your head about topics that are really going to stick out in front of your audience. People want to read something that is going to make them think or smile and not possess an expressionless face after reading. How...
Latest eBay Instant Sale means money in your PayPal account for your old smart phone
February 8, 2011, 10:31 pmAnuj Nayar here to share a very cool offer from eBay. In anticipation of this week's iPhone 4 on Verizon release, eBay announced a special two-week promotion that will give people money in their PayPal account in exchange for their old smart phones. Any functional iPhone 3GS, Motorola Droid X, HTC Evo 4G and Samsung Galaxy S Vibrant smart phone...
2010 Presidential Election Helps Boost Online Activity in Brazil
February 8, 2011, 9:45 pmcomScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released a study on key trends in Brazilian Internet usage in 2010. The study found that this year's presidential election and second round run-off caused online traffic to double to the Politics category during October. In addition, categories such as News/Information...
Keyword Research - Using Categories to Make Your Process More Actionable
February 8, 2011, 7:11 pmPosted by richardbaxterseo One of the earliest and arguably most important parts of the SEO process is keyword research. Keyword research helps you answer that all important question, "In what quantities do people use search engines to find the products and services on my website?". Your research process will ultimately govern the method you use...
HuffPo's Achilles Heel - Search Engine Optimization Won't Work Forever
February 8, 2011, 6:59 pmFarhad Manjoo at Slate ponders the long term viability of what has to date been a successful strategy in garnering eyeballs for the Huffington Post (oh and thousands of other sites). From the article: "Not all SEO is bad, and not all HuffPo articles employ shady SEO, but some of the tricks that HuffPo uses to gin up search traffic are pretty ...
Last FM Mobile Switches from Ad-Supported to Subscriber Based
February 8, 2011, 6:15 pmStarting on February 15, mobile Last FM listeners will have to pay $3.00 a month to continue their service. That’s less than most people spend on coffee or soda in a day so no big deal, right? Wrong. As expected, the response to the company’s blog post announcement has been mostly about people ready to jump to a competitor rather than...
RDFa: The Inside Story from Best Buy
February 8, 2011, 4:59 pmAn interesting and insightful interview about the implementation of RDFa on Best Buy's website with Jay Myers, Lead Development Engineer.
OpenX Launches New Ad Platform, Secures Groupon As Customer
February 8, 2011, 4:46 pmAssuming it didn't already, OpenX should definitely have Google's attention now. The company launched an updated version of its OpenX Enterprise ad technology today, and in the process, announced that it's secured Groupon and Orange (the telecommunications entity) as customers. An OpenX spokesperson explained in an email to WebProNews, "OpenX's...
Roman Catholics Tell Your Sins To YouriPhone: There's An App For That
February 8, 2011, 4:37 pmConfession is now not just what you do in church, there is an iPhone app for it! Scroll through the App Store and you can find it - but you do not actually get pennance from your phone.
The app created by Little i Apps, LLC can be used on iPhones and iPads. It has an imprimatur -"iIn the Catholic Church an imprimatur is an official declaration by...
Can You Name the Brand Behind the Little Darth Vader Ad?
February 8, 2011, 3:55 pmProbably not. Nielsen has turned in the numbers on this year's Super Bowl ads and what was popular and what was memorable were two very different things. Little Darth Vader attempting to use the Force on everything from baby dolls to the dryer took the top spot as the most popular Super Bowl ad, but it didn't even make the top ten for brand...
New Google Translate for iPhone App Released
February 8, 2011, 3:29 pmWhen it comes to ordering food at exotic restaurants, meeting foreign exchange students, or perhaps translating a non-subtitled line from a movie, iPhone owners are no longer at a serious disadvantage compared to their Android-using peers. This afternoon, Google released the official Google Translate for iPhone app. This represents a major...
Time to Renew Your Blogging Vows: 16 Vows for 2011
February 8, 2011, 2:45 pmYour blogging is stale. It seems like a chore. You’re not really adding value to anyone. Your blog is not taking off. You question why you, your corporation, your small business or your non-profit has a blog in the first place! Just like a good marriage, every now and again it’s time to think back to why you’re blogging and to Renew Your...
Facebook Gets Ready to Move to Menlo Park
February 8, 2011, 2:22 pmFaceboook formally announced today that it is moving to a new campus in Menlo Park. Actually, they're moving to the old Sun Microsystems campus. Facebook says it has been looking for a space that suits its long-term business needs and allows it to recreate the "small-community feel" it has enjoyed at its current Palo Alto location. "We are...
Majority Of People Have Abandoned Brands On Facebook And Twitter
February 8, 2011, 2:02 pmThe majority (91%) of consumers have abandoned at lest one brand on Facebook, email or Twitter because of irrelevant or boring marketing messages, according to a new study by ExactTarget and CoTweet. Consumers remain willing to engage with marketers via the inbox, Facebook and Twitter, said Jeff Rohrs, principal of ExactTargets Marketing Research...
The Future of Search
February 8, 2011, 1:46 pmIt's a "Web of objects," says Yahoo! chief scientist The future of search on Yahoo! is a "Web of objects," not merely an aggregation of URLs. So says Yahoo! Chief Scientist Raghu Ramakrishnan in a recent interview with Media Post's Laurie Sullivan. "Ramakrishnan defines [Yahoo! search] as a database of recognizable concepts, such as Julia Roberts...
MySpace Partners With .Fox to Handle Ad Sales
February 8, 2011, 1:15 pmThe MySpace headquarters in the United States announced its plans some time ago to layoff over 500 people, which was about 47% of its employed staff. Now the MySpace in the UK is also going through company changes as it hands over the ad sales and sponsorship division to .Fox Networks, which is the online .
Search Engines and ClickStream Data
February 8, 2011, 12:50 pmRecently there was a big kerfuffle over Bing copying Google results , Bing denying it , the Google FUD machine in full force , and some nice conspiracy theory about who is pulling the strings and why . While this makes for some exciting drama and fun twitter banter, there is some actionable information for SEOs: paying attention to and using...
SERP Sniffing - A Long Tail Keyword Strategy
February 8, 2011, 12:45 pmA great article explaining how the data received from running a black hat campaign can help your long term white hat SEO campaign.
Sundance "tweet your decision" snowboard winners announced!
February 8, 2011, 12:29 pmA few weeks ago , for those of you who couldnt make it to Sundance , we brought you exclusive access to film events, speaker series, celebrity interviews and parties from the streets of Park City. We also posed a series of questions (which leading lady do you think will rise to the top in 2011?) and asked you to tweet your decision with the...
Join us for an AdSense Optimisation Session in London, UK
February 8, 2011, 12:09 pmOn Wednesday, February 16th, two of our optimizers will be in London, where they'll hold 20-minute optimization sessions at a local coffee shop in the afternoon. We're aiming to keep this session casual, so we can provide one-on-one consultations to as many of you as possible. We'd love to meet you, so please fill out this form if you'll be in the...
Checking In on Old 'Friends': Where Are They Now?
February 8, 2011, 12:09 pmby Claudine Zap The sitcom " Friends " has been off the air and in endless reruns since 2004. The show, one of the highest rated comedies in TV history, made the cast members household names. One of them, Matthew Perry , is causing buzz for his new show that airs this week. Which led us to wonder, how exactly do you top that kind of career high?...
Google Cheers Jules Verne's 183rd Birthday with Graphic Tricks
February 8, 2011, 11:58 amGoogle has come up with another one its super-cool Doodles for its Web search home page . The latest one honors classic science fiction author Jules Verne , whose 183rd birthday is Feb. 8. Google honored Verne, whose A Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864) and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1870) captured many people's imaginations since they...
Webmaster Tools and Analytics Get More Cozy
February 8, 2011, 11:58 amAccording to Google's Webmaster Central blog , site owners now have the ability to link verified sites using Webmaster Tools to an Analytics profile used by the same Google account. According to the post, this will enable your Analytics profiles to be accessible from within Webmaster Tools. For the really anxious, the how-to instructions for...
PSAs No Longer Brought to You by Google AdSense
February 8, 2011, 11:58 amPublic service ads (PSAs) are being retired in AdSense and will no longer be a backup ad option. Google is now trying to figure out new options. If you're a website publisher and want to avoid having a blank space where a PSA used to appear, you can select and edit your ad unit on the "My Ads" page (for the old interface, edit ad settings by going...
American Airlines Launches Android App
February 8, 2011, 11:53 amAmerican Airlines has launched a mobile app for Android user aimed at improving its customers travel experience. The American Airlines Android app allows users to check in for flights; receive gate, seat and flight status information; view terminal maps; and provides a number of other functions,
More Yahoo Search BOSS Details Released
February 8, 2011, 11:53 amSometime this summer, the latest version of Yahoo Search BOSS (Build Your Own Search Service) will launch, and on March 1st, Yahoo intends to provide lots more technical details. But this morning, Yahoo shared what many developers really need to know: pricing info, along with its search advertising and branding policies. We'll go ahead and paste...
7 Web Design Trends to Watch in 2011
February 8, 2011, 11:33 amIf you're a web designer or you want someone to design a website for you, it's important to stay current. If your site is old and outdated, you may find that people aren't really that interested in what you have to say " simply because you don't look like you're "with it." You want to .
Microsoft Advertising adCenter API Sandbox Environment Maintenance February 9th to 11th
February 8, 2011, 11:22 amMicrosoft Advertising adCenter is undergoing scheduled maintenance on the Microsoft Advertising adCenter API Sandbox environment from February 9 to February 11. During this time, you might experience intermittent issues while accessing the Sandbox environment. While the Sandbox environment will not be available, the API Production environment will...
Greplin Shows Promise In Areas of Search Where Google is Failing
February 8, 2011, 10:26 amI recently wrote a lengthy post about how content is flooding the web , and it's becoming increasingly difficult for any one search engine (including Google) to keep up and deliver the best possible results at all times. Google does a great job for a lot of queries, but the company knows it needs to get better. That's why they're putting a new...
Bing's Market Share Jumps Again
February 8, 2011, 10:26 amIf the people behind Bing happened to make gaining market share a New Year's resolution, they got off to a great start. Experian Hitwise released new stats this morning, and the firm found that Bing's market share increased by a significant amount between December and January. Bing's market share rose from 10.60 percent in December to 12.81...
AutoTrader Adds More Social Features To Connect Dealers Online
February 8, 2011, 10:26 amAutoTrader.com said today it has launched Connections Bundle, which integrates social media, chat, and dealer ratings into the site to create more ways for people to connect with dealers online. The chat feature alerts people when a dealer is available with a link appearing on the vehicle listing that prompts the user to start a chat session.
Bing Searches, Unique Visitors Rise
February 8, 2011, 10:16 amA week after being accused of stealing Google's results , Bing has received some good news: searches on Bing last month increased by 21 percent, according to Hitwise . Also, the search engine passed Wikipedia on Compete's list of the top 50 websites. Click to read the rest of this post.
A Beginner's Guide To AB Testing: An Introduction
February 8, 2011, 9:50 amKiss Metrics offers a fantastic beginner's guide to AB Testing.
comScore Releases "The 2010 U.S. Digital Year in Review"
February 8, 2011, 9:45 amcomScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released The comScore 2010 U.S. Digital Year in Review. This annual report recaps key trends in the U.S. digital media landscape, including e-commerce, social networking, online video, search, online advertising and mobile, with an emphasis on how digital marketers can...
The Latest on Yahoo! Search BOSS
February 8, 2011, 9:40 amAs we announced in October 2010, we are getting ready to launch a new version of Yahoo! Search BOSS in the coming months and will be closing the current version this summer. We are now pleased to provide further details to help developers prepare for the transition, and are planning to provide specific technical documentation by March 1 st 2011,...
The IPO of Demand Media
February 8, 2011, 9:35 amMany small to medium-sized article and content offering companies rely on the stealthiness of search engines to bring traffic to their sites. By tweaking, optimizing and targeting certain keywords and phrases, these sites attract a large portion of search engine traffic. On Wednesday (1/12/11), one of the largest content sites on the web released...
Want More Copywriting Clients? Here's a Surprising Way to Find Them
February 8, 2011, 9:24 amAs a freelance copywriter, I've put together a nice portfolio of major corporate clients, ranging from Bay State Gas to Pizzeria Uno. And I found most of them in a rather unusual way. I didn't use SEO or pay-per-click. I didn't go to networking events and shake hands with half the Rotary Club. And I didn't take out billboards by the highway that...
The Era of the Interest Graph
February 8, 2011, 9:19 amSocial media is maturing as are the people embracing its most engaging tools and networks. Perhaps most notably, is the maturation of relationships and how we are expanding our horizons when it comes to connecting to one another. What started as the social graph, the network of people we knew and connected to in social networks, is now spawning...
What's New in SEO for February 8, 2011
February 8, 2011, 9:19 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: Microsoft's Bing uses Google search results"and denies it Google conducted experiments to understand how Bing is using their search results. This post includes screenshots of...
When to walk away
February 8, 2011, 9:09 amProfessionally, it can be one of the hardest things you'll ever do. Once upon a time, you and your client were best buddies. She was one of your first clients, and you're forever grateful. But you've raised your rates considerably since you started working together - and you don't know if you can afford to keep her on. Or maybe your "great" client...
Facebook App Predicts College Admissions
February 8, 2011, 9:04 amStartup Splash Networks has released a Facebook application that predicts college admissions for high school students. The app called AdmissionSplash, asks users to create a list of colleges, enter their academic and demographic information, and get results based on a proprietary formula. People can share the information with their friends or...
comScore: Android Close To Taking Mobile OS Lead
February 8, 2011, 9:04 amThis may not come as a surprise, but the end of 2010 didn't pose much of a stumbling block for Google's mobile operating system. New numbers from comScore are out, and Android continued to make significant gains in December. comScore pegged Google's share of American smartphone subscribers at 28.7 percent in December, up from 26.0 percent in...
For Keyword Targeting in Paid Search, Beware The Galaxy Effect
February 8, 2011, 9:04 amAre you targeting the entire universe of prospective customers via your paid search campaigns? If you are unsure, you're not alone. There are many factors that go into running a successful paid search initiative, including mapping out the right account structure, performing extensive keyword research, building ad creative, crafting campaign...
Bing's Guerilla Defeating Google's Gorilla?
February 8, 2011, 8:53 amI guess when you're in a war, resorting to guerilla tactics is something that, while ugly, gets the job done. Take, for example, the kerfuffle over whether Bing copied Google's search results-or not. If the Microsoft search engine has in fact been copying Google, then it should just keep on keepin' on! According to Hitwise , Bing saw a 21%...
5 reasons why your SEO campaign doesn't work (yet)
February 8, 2011, 8:36 amMany webmasters face the problem that their SEO campaigns don't deliver the expected results. Why are your campaigns underperforming? What can you do to make sure that search engine optimization works for you?
Bing’s Guerilla Defeating Google’s Gorilla?
February 8, 2011, 8:36 amI guess when you’re in a war, resorting to guerilla tactics is something that, while ugly, gets the job done.
Take, for example, the kerfuffle over whether Bing copied Google’s search results–or not. If the Microsoft search engine has in fact been copying Google, then it should just keep on keepin’ on! According to Hitwise,...
Groupon Defends Its Super Bowl Ads
February 8, 2011, 8:28 amGroupon made a lot of noise with its Super Bowl commercials. Initially, before they ever aired, the simple fact that they were advertising before the Super Bowl was interesting news in itself. It would give a growing company mass exposure, and potentially make it a household name. As competition mounts in the daily deals space, extending that...
Since Everyone Else is Yammering On About Groupon ''..
February 8, 2011, 8:17 amI'm going to keep this post simple. We are looking at the whole Groupon / Tibet / Insensitivity / Non-Apology / You Just Don't Get Us, back and forth that is taking up some online space after their Super Bowl ads from Sunday's big game. From a pure reputation management perspective chime in with a comment whether you think the whole Groupon...
Since Everyone Else is Yammering On About Groupon ……..
February 8, 2011, 7:57 amI’m going to keep this post simple.
We are looking at the whole Groupon / Tibet / Insensitivity / Non-Apology / You Just Don’t Get Us, back and forth that is taking up some online space after their Super Bowl ads from Sunday’s big game.
From a pure reputation management perspective chime in with a comment whether you think the whole...
CMO's View Traffic and Conversions Among Top Measures of Social Media Success
February 8, 2011, 7:46 amSome may already be saying "Well, what else would you use as a measure of social media success?" but it appears that the C-suite marketers are getting on board as well. The early stages of determining social media success have been dominated by questionable metrics such as number of followers and other variables that are considered soft...
Fully Automated SEO - The Future of the Industry?
February 8, 2011, 7:36 amHistory is riddled with examples of machine eradicating the jobs of man. From mining to car manufacturing and call centre operation, the robot - with its unwavering efficiency and tedious accuracy - is now favoured above the humble homosapien in all but a few industries. Prostitution just sprung (worryingly) to mind, but I'm not even sure about...
Mother Jones and the A/B Test
February 8, 2011, 7:36 amThe other day I was reading the latest Mother Jones and came across an interesting note from the editor . They talked about the importance and difficulty of choosing a magazine cover and that despite the fact that they are a non-profit, they still rely heavily on reader support through sales. So when the time came to decide between the crisis in...
Adding Video To Your Marketing To Intensify Reach
February 8, 2011, 7:30 amThis morning’s session at Marketing Profs Digital Marketing Forum in Austin is Integrate Video into Your Marketing to Intensify Your Reach and Engagement. We have a full lineup of speakers today:
C.C. Chapman- Founder, Digital Dads
Jon Schroeder- Multimedia Producer, Crutchfield
Tim Hayden- Chief Strategy Officer & Partner, Blue Clover...
CMO’s View Traffic and Conversions Among Top Measures of Social Media Success
February 8, 2011, 7:24 amSome may already be saying “Well, what else would you use as a measure of social media success?” but it appears that the C-suite marketers are getting on board as well.
The early stages of determining social media success have been dominated by questionable metrics such as number of followers and other variables that are considered soft...
Social Media Super Bowl - Overhyped & Underperformed
February 8, 2011, 7:20 amAt a reported $3 million per 30 second spot , Super Bowl advertising is big business. For a multimillion dollar investment, brands should be maximizing every opportunity to reach potential customers. Which advertisers took advantage of a customer base actively engaged in the big game to extend the conversation? Not too many. In the much-hyped ads...
A Case Study in ORM: How Taco Bell Used Humor & Social Media to Dig Itself Out of Beef Scandal
February 8, 2011, 6:57 amTaco Bell took a bold approach to the early February reputation management crisis by addressing a beef scandal head on. There are still brands today that follow a different course of action when faced with controversy with a see-no-evil/hear-no-evil/speak-no-evil approach -- diverting consumers to a customer service line and countersuing their...
comScore: Online Sales Grew 9.8 pct in 2010
February 8, 2011, 6:20 amBouncing back smartly from the recession, online retail sales increased 11% in the fourth quarter of 2010 from the previous year, and full-year 2010 sales were up 9.8% over 2009,Fourth quarter e-retail sales totaled a record $43.432 billion, versus $39.045 billion a year earlier. For the full year, online retailers sold $142.491 billion worth of...
Social Media Week 2011 - Microsoft Advertising Shares in London and New York
February 8, 2011, 5:38 amSocial Media Week began with a bang yesterday in several cities around the world including London and New York. Youll hear from Jenn Creegan, Senior Director of Brand Advertising at Microsoft Advertising , on this blog later as she gives her thoughts on what she heard on the Paid, Owned and Earned panel she hosted in The Big Apple on Monday.
Prostitutes Using Facebook For Marketing
February 8, 2011, 5:07 amA Columbia University professor has published a report that found New York City prostitutes are using Facebook to find clients, Wired Magaizne reported . Seems the internet are the new streets that are being walked. "According to the survey the use of social media and other technologies has completely altered the trade on the ground, how it is...
Blekko is Growing, Reaches 30M Monthly Searches
February 8, 2011, 4:31 amThe “Slash-the-web” engine is trying to gain ground on its bigger rivals, Google and Bing. The mark of thirty million queries was passed in January – a decent accomplishment for Blekko, launched in November 2010. Additionally, over 100K new slashtags were created by users and editors. If you are not familiar with this term, I would...
Google Honors Jules Verne With Global Doodle
February 8, 2011, 4:16 amFrench-born author Jules Verne is being honored with an international Doodle today. The author of numerous works including Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1870), A Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864), and Around the World in Eighty Days (1873) was born on February 8th, 1828. Verne wrote extensively "about space, air, and underwater...
TripAdvisor Launches a New Rating System for Users
February 8, 2011, 3:55 amA new feature was released today in the United Kingdom and in the US for users of the TripAdvisor website. The new service will allow users to leave feedback and ratings about their experience with the flight search engine product. The hotel review industry giant hopes this service will appeal to its users and create .
Turning The Tables On The Google Toolbar & Disclosure Claims #Copygate
February 8, 2011, 3:30 amDanny Sullivan dissects Google's toolbar for IE and FF, applying Matt Cutt's "Mom test". It seems that over the years Google pretty much lost it's former "better disclosure" about user behavior data the toolbar sends to Google.
Did SEOmoz PRO Just Become Free?
February 8, 2011, 1:00 amPosted by randfish Yes. Yes it did. In fact, you could skip this post and sign up free right here (though there's more cool details I'll explain below). Last week, in the midst of an extremely busy day, the team at SEOmoz huddled around a bowl of green jelly beans to share something even more magical than tiny green candy - our numbers. We...
Push Buttons to Increase Website Conversions
February 8, 2011, 12:09 amI hear all of the time about how websites generate traffic but nothing seems to convert. "We get a decent amount of traffic but nothing seems to happen". Often times it is just little changes that need to be made in order to build confidence or trust in your website traffic. They want to see more than just products or services. Here are several...
PayPal teams with Points.com to turn airline miles into cash
February 7, 2011, 11:13 pmHi everyone, I'm Dan Schatt, GM of Financial Innovations for PayPal. I wanted to alert you to some exciting new ways we have for you to use your PayPal account. Starting today you can redeem your American Airlines, US Airways and Aeroplan miles for cash directly into your PayPal account through our partner Points.com . Airline customers who are...
Happy birthday from 20,000 leagues under the sea
February 7, 2011, 11:03 pmIt wasn't very difficult for something to spark my imagination when I was a child"whether it was a pile of leaves or a couch of stackable cushions, just about anything could jump-start my creativity. My first encounter with Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea , however, sent my imagination into hyper drive. I first found the novel while...
Egyptian Internet, Mobile Shutdown Cost Country $90 Million Plus
February 7, 2011, 10:52 pmThe five to six days that the Egyptian government closed down the internet and cell phone access cost the country over $90 million dollars, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). "The current shutdown of Internet and communications services for five days will have a pronounced economic impact. It is...
How Should Google Spread Word About Google?
February 7, 2011, 10:01 pmBefore I started writing about Google, Bing, Yahoo, and all the rest, I didn't even know about the existence of half their services. This wasn't to say I was some flunky who didn't keep up; actually, I taught webinars, training courses, and wrote documentation on SEO as it regarded the various ins and outs of the search engine world. What my...
Gmail Improves Its Contact Groups
February 7, 2011, 10:01 pmGoogle's productivity services, from Google Docs to Gmail and more, offer plenty of time saving alternatives. Some of these items are hidden away in the labs, such as the ever-valuable "canned response" feature. Some, however, have made their way into the main release. This is the case with Google contact groups " a utility that lets users create...
The Details of Google Honeycomb Spread
February 7, 2011, 10:01 pmGoogle's Honeycomb OS went head-to-head with Apple's "Daily News" for release parties, showing off the details of its interface for both users and developers in its Motorola Xoom press event. The battle continued in Superbowl commercials, where Google's tablet commercials were unafraid of directly attacking the single tablet option of the iPad. As...
Best and Worst of the Super Bowl Ads
February 7, 2011, 9:41 pmThe blog team offers its reviews of the spots that soared and soured In this Age of the DVR, the annual Super Bowl broadcast is the rarest of animals: A national TV broadcast during which viewers look forward to watching the ads, and even watch them again if they like them. In fact, in the Yahoo! offices today, there was more water cooler talk...
Bing and Google Stand Together for IPv6
February 7, 2011, 9:35 pmWhen the Internet was invented by Al Gore (or the countless researchers in various locations around the globe who collaborated and slowly advanced networking concepts until the concept of the Internet was formed " take your pick), corresponding technology to identify computers was required. This is where IP comes in " a web protocol that created...
Google Hotpot Spreads to a Global Scale
February 7, 2011, 9:35 pmWhen it comes to the world of modern technologies, Google has a thriving grasp of almost every major division. However, there are two "areas for improvement": local, where Google's failed Groupon bid and lack of features make it a weak competitor, and social, where the crash of Google Buzz positioned the company in the worst possible ways....
The U.S. Justice Department Probes Google-ITA Deal
February 7, 2011, 9:35 pmThe travel industry plays a key role in the web information field, and each search engine is working hard to create travel features. However, Google's move to take over the biggest flight information provider has been met with concern and scrutiny from the U.S. Government, who's Justice Department is now investigating the potential impact of the...
The Google Bing Sting and Who Came Out On Top
February 7, 2011, 8:24 pmIf you are at all involved in web marketing or follow a single online technology source then you have heard a million comments and discussions about the sting Google used to prove Bing is copying some of its search results: here is the original press release from Google with their evidence . (Just here to vote? Vote here ) The following quote...
Super Bowl XLV Social Media Marketing
February 7, 2011, 7:27 pmSuper Bowl XLV promised to be the 'Social Bowl' of advertising with commercials predicted to be more ingrained in social media than ever before. Starting with early nods to Pepsi Max and Doritos whose Crash the Super Bowl contest put six ads, all created and voted on by consumers, in the Sunday line-up. As well as Bud Light, who gave a sneak...
Google Webmaster Tools and Google Analytics: The Beginning of a Useful Integration?
February 7, 2011, 6:23 pmVanessa Fox breaks some pretty darn exciting news; the beginning of a Google Webmaster Tools & Google Analytics integration.All I can say is "Yay!"
Web Design Future: Guide To The Best Predictions For 2011
February 7, 2011, 6:00 pmWhen it comes to web design, my mantra hasn't changed over the years: let beauty be a consequence of great layout, navigation and usability decisions, not a goal or strategic objective to pursue. This is why I also think that an effective web design strategy can make all of the difference in the world when it comes to marketing, conversions and...
All About Apophis
February 7, 2011, 4:48 pmby Mike Krumboltz Who says the world is only full of bad news? NASA has largely dismissed a Russian report that an asteroid larger than two football fields could hit Earth by 2036. In other words, you can relax. Known as "99942 Apophis," the 900-foot-long asteroid has had the attention of scientists for some time. According to an article from...
How Much Content is Too Much?
February 7, 2011, 4:38 pmAs you probably know by now, AOL has purchased The Huffington Post to further bolster its growing content business. HuffPost co-founder Arianna Huffington (now Editor-in-Chief of all AOL Content) said following the announcement, that earlier this year, the company was looking to expand local sections, launch international sections, add more...
Changing Facebook Places Privacy Settings
February 7, 2011, 4:38 pmWith the roll out of Facebook Places to more locations across the globe (Ireland now being available as of last week) I am predicting there are many digital and social media agencies proposing programmes to make use of this opportunity to businesses for location based mobile marketing. But what there is little coverage of is the impact of the...
Twitter CEO Wins Silicon Valley Popularity Contest
February 7, 2011, 4:38 pmIf a company's success can be linked with its CEO's popularity, then Twitter is going to have a very bright future. New rankings concerning Silicon Valley CEOs are out, and Dick Costolo, who replaced Twitter cofounder Evan Williams in October, came in first place. It's of course possible to like a clueless person or respect someone who's a jerk,...
Hulu's CEO Speaks Out on the Future of TV Advertising
February 7, 2011, 4:33 pmLast week, Hulu's CEO Jason Kilar wrote a blog post about the future of TV and web advertising that folks say was tantamount to him writing his resignation. The crux of the post is that TV execs are stuck doing business the old fashioned way and as such, are squashing the progress of web TV which is much more appropriate for today's mobile society.
Did Volkswagen or Chrysler Have the Best Super Bowl Commercial?
February 7, 2011, 4:17 pmDepending on which source you use, either " Volkswagen Commercial: The Force " or " Chrysler Eminem Super Bowl Commercial - Imported From Detroit " was the best Super Bowl commercial. Click to read the rest of this post.
Hulu’s CEO Speaks Out on the Future of TV Advertising
February 7, 2011, 4:14 pmLast week, Hulu’s CEO Jason Kilar wrote a blog post about the future of TV and web advertising that folks say was tantamount to him writing his resignation. The crux of the post is that TV execs are stuck doing business the old fashioned way and as such, are squashing the progress of web TV which is much more appropriate for today’s...
Building Value With Social Marketing
February 7, 2011, 4:02 pmSocial networks are for far more than kids. Social marketing is a science with many useful strategies for monetization and building value. How can you show value with your social marketing campaign? You might be different. You might be personal. You might get technical, answering questions. You might walk readers through what you do in a day. In...
How to Avoid Being Labelled as a Content Farm
February 7, 2011, 3:41 pm* Google's latest algorithm update has been specifically targeting so-called 'content farms'. Most people probably still don't know what a content farm, is while some sites may already be affected negatively by this update. So today I want to suggest ways to avoid being labelled as a content farm in order to stay afloat on Google. A content farm...
comScore Reports December 2010 U.S. Mobile Subscriber Market Share
February 7, 2011, 3:36 pmcomScore, 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 December 2010. The report ranked the leading mobile original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and smartphone operating...
In Tune: The Star-Spangled Banner
February 7, 2011, 3:26 pmby Mike Krumboltz With its unusual lyrics and octave and a half range , "The Star-Spangled Banner" is a tough tune for any performer. Christina Aguilera is no exception. The Grammy winner performed the national anthem at Sunday's Super Bowl, but left a line out ("o'er the ramparts we watched") and messed up another (" twilight's last reaming...
wikiHow On Why Wikis Deliver Higher Quality Than Content Farms
February 7, 2011, 3:16 pmJack Herrick is the founder of wikiHow . He used to run eHow, the content farm dominating many of Google's search results, before selling it to Demand Media, which has boosted it to its current state. Alternative search engine DuckDuckGo just started hard wiring wikiHow results as the top result for many how-to queries. This prompted us to delve...
Google I/O Sells Out In Record Time
February 7, 2011, 3:16 pmWhenever Google gets around to planning its I/O 2012 event, someone should really consider either hiking ticket prices or finding a bigger place to host it. This afternoon, people were invited to register for Google I/O 2011, and within one hour, the event was sold out. Vic Gundotra, Vice President of Engineering, made the feat official with an...
Live online course on 'Top Tips, Tools and Techniques for AdWords bidding and budgeting'
February 7, 2011, 3:05 pmThis week's tutorial on the AdWords Online Classroom (UK) will cover all things bidding and budgeting-related to help you maximize return on your advertising spend and make the most of your AdWords account in 2011! Are you getting the most out of your target market? Are you appearing on the first page of Google? Are you losing conversions due to...
The Black Eyed Peas Worked for Free: Should You?
February 7, 2011, 2:44 pmIn 2010, The Black Eyed Peas made an estimated 81.6 million dollars from touring, but they didn't make a dime for their performance at yesterday's Super Bowl. Why not? Unlike The Blues Brothers, they didn't lose their fee on a big bar bill, they simply agreed to play for free in the first place. As preposterous as that may sound, a new article at...
Videos Anyone?
February 7, 2011, 2:08 pmHello We want to find out if there is any interest from the adCenter developer community for short instructional videos covering adCenter API topics. Please reply to this post if this is of interest to you, and let us know what specific topics youd like to see covered.
The U.S. Justice Department vs. Google
February 7, 2011, 2:02 pmRecently, Google signed an agreement to acquire the travel software company, ITA, for $700 million. The acquisition for Google was poised to position the Internet leader as a resource for search-related travel information and as a source for locating travel booking sites. However, in another recent chain of events, Google now faces an antitrust...
Google-Microsoft Search Copying Charges: Are We Done Here?
February 7, 2011, 1:57 pmLast week, in the middle of the hysteria over Microsoft being caught Google-aping by a clever Google "honeypot" sting scheme, I was wondering if I should write a post about whether Microsoft would "wriggle out of" this one. As the dust settles , though, the controversy seems like it was over a relatively minor issue. And that leaves us with a...
Google Brings Priority Inbox To Gmail For Mobile
February 7, 2011, 1:57 pmGoogle said today it is bringing its Priority Inbox feature to Gmail for mobile users. Priority Inbox allows users to automatically flag important messages and reduce clutter. It was previously only available for the desktop and on Android devices. The Google Mobile Blog offers more details. Now, once you set up Priority Inbox in the desktop...
Christina Aguilera Flubs, Ad Bowl Recap, Lea Michele Belts It: What's the Buzz
February 7, 2011, 1:47 pmby Claudine Zap Our top picks from the day's hottest searches. National Anthem lyrics (+6,221%). Christina Aguilera got lots of attention for singing, and flubbing , the lyrics to the opener of the Super Bowl. Thin Lizzy (Searches increased by +2,168%). The guitarist for the 70's band, Gary Moore, died suddenly over the weekend. He was 58. Lea...
Young Marketers- Win a Trip to France with Cannes Lions and USA Today
February 7, 2011, 1:42 pmAre you under 30, work client-side, live in the US, and fancy supping espresso, exchanging ideas with, and learning from top creatives and digital marketers on the Cote dAzur? If you fit le bill, were looking for entrants for our 2011 Young Marketers Competition in association with USA Today. It really is as easy as un, deux, trois! Register your...
Does Your Keyword Strategy Take Mobile Into Account?
February 7, 2011, 1:15 pmGoogle mobile search and Google search are two different animals and understanding more about both has become a necessary evil. Currently, the results returned when doing a search on a mobile device can vary greatly from those done on a desktop (SEORoundtable)
The biggest difference being that Google figures if you’re on a mobile...
Google Exec Wael Ghonim Free From Government Custody in Egypt
February 7, 2011, 12:54 pmGoogle exec Wael Ghonim went missing during the protests in Egypt, and has now been released from government custody in the country. The Wall Street Journal obtained a statement from U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner.
Ghonim is the company's marketing manager in that region, and according to the WSJ had helped run social networks...
Google AdWords Rewards Good Sentence Structure
February 7, 2011, 12:43 pmLast Thursday, Google AdWords announced a big change to (select) PPC ads. It seems those marketers who like proper sentence structure will be rewarded with a much longer "headline" – but only if they're already showing up in the coveted "top 3" section. For those ads utilizing sentences for each line of their ads, they'll see the second...
Web Analytics: Frequently Asked Questions and Direct Answers
February 7, 2011, 12:23 pmOver 30 Web Analytics FAQ & Answers - After 416,350 words in posts and 845,128 words in comments on this blog, thus far, there is always more to explore, illuminate and share. Hence every once in a while I flip the tables and ask you for challenges you are facing.
Internet 2010 in numbers
February 7, 2011, 12:16 pmHow many websites were added? How many emails were sent? How many Internet users were there? This post will answer all of those questions and many, many more. If it’s stats you want, you’ve come to the right place.
Aircell Raises $35 Million For Inflight Wi-Fi
February 7, 2011, 11:52 amAircell, the company that provides Gogo inflight Internet service, said today it has raised $35 million in financing with its existing investors. Aircell offers Gogo on nine of the 11 major U.S. airlines and on nearly 6,000 business aircraft. The financing will be used to fund growth in both commercial and business aviation markets. 2010 was the...
Google, EU Said To Be In "Tentative Discussions"
February 7, 2011, 11:37 amThe group that's fined companies like Microsoft and Intel billions of euros in the past few years might reach a less harsh solution where its antitrust probe of Google is concerned. Rumors indicate that Google and the European Commission are holding talks. Note: these rumors are very much unproven, with even the unnamed source who leaked them...
Complaints About The Daily Roll In As Super Bowl Ad Reaches Masses
February 7, 2011, 11:16 amThe Daily - the subscription-based iPad news publication/app that some have indicated would revolutionize the digital content industry has been riddled with problems since its launch last week. While there are certainly plenty of positive reviews out there, many have simply been unimpressed and taken to the web and expressed their disdain. You...
Bing Valentine's Search Trends: Cupid goes mobile
February 7, 2011, 11:11 amIts that time of year. February 14 th is circled on the calendar, romance is in the air and people around the world are racking their brains to plan the perfect night out. According to a recent Bing consumer poll of 16-35 year olds, mobile phones are increasingly becoming a critical tool for Valentines Day. Weve captured some of the top...
YouTube Highlights 2/3/2011
February 7, 2011, 11:06 amThis is the latest in our series of YouTube highlights. Every couple of weeks, we bring you regular updates on new product features, interesting programs to watch and tips you can use to grow your audience on YouTube. Just look for the label " YouTube Highlights " and subscribe to the series. - Ed. Since our last update, we've connected you with...
Mea Culpa: How I Failed At Link Building
February 7, 2011, 10:52 amAdam Audette's post where he details how he lost a valued client due to a low quality link-building strategy.
Examining Google's Claim of Instant's Success
February 7, 2011, 10:40 amLast week, Google was talking about the great success that Google Instant has become. It's the same feature that drew the ire of many in the tech industry when it was first introduced ( me included ) but it has apparently fought through that resistance. As stated in Fast Company magazine last week Since then, have Google users shunned Instant as a...
New Search Engine Tracks Backside Content
February 7, 2011, 10:35 amTransparent Search Engine. That's the name of a recently announced new feature that the company, The SEO Engine, has released that promises to change how website owners add content to their sites. The new software allows users to search the "back end" of any search engine and see statistical information on a website. This can .
Examining Google’s Claim of Instant’s Success
February 7, 2011, 10:26 amLast week, Google was talking about the great success that Google Instant has become. It’s the same feature that drew the ire of many in the tech industry when it was first introduced (me included) but it has apparently fought through that resistance.
As stated in Fast Company magazine last week
Since then, have Google users shunned Instant as a...
Yahoo Launches New Website For Safer Internet Day
February 7, 2011, 10:14 amYahoo said today it is launching Yahoo Safely, ahead of Safer Internet Day on February 8, in an effort to create safer online experiences for young people.
Yahoo Safely allows users in 26 countries and 14 languages to access information and advices on making better choices online. The site aims to to inform parents, educators, and young...
Google Merchant Center Opens In Italy, The Netherlands, Spain
February 7, 2011, 10:09 amIt should soon become much easier for people in Italy, the Netherlands, and Spain to find the best deals online. Google indicated today that it's moving towards launching Google Product Search/Google Shopping in those countries, opening the Google Merchant Center as a preliminary step.
The Google Merchant Center is in large part what makes...
Why Did Yahoo Miss the Huffington Post Boat?
February 7, 2011, 10:05 amKara Swisher broke the news after the Super Bowl that AOL has purchased the Huffington Post for $315M with Arianna Huffington becoming the Editor in Chief in charge of AOL’s content properties. Techcrunch also has the internal AOL memo about the deal.
This is an interesting deal that signifies how serious AOL is about...
Blekko Queries on the Rise, More So Since Content Farm Blocking
February 7, 2011, 9:59 amBlekko says its search queries climbed to a million a day in January. CEO Rich Skrenta tells WebProNews that Blekko has seen growth since its announcement that it has banned some content farms from its index . "We did see a big surge in traffic following our announcement that we banned the top 20 content farms," he says. "We've had a lot of...
Is Your Low Social IQ Dooming Your Blog?
February 7, 2011, 9:59 amWhat's wrong with my blog? That's a very frustrating question that many bloggers ask. You're passionate about your topic and you provide great advice to solve reader's problems. You wrap up your posts with interesting questions, inviting readers to share their opinions in the comments. You offer clear calls to action . Unfortunately, no one seems...
The BBC Introduces Food App In Chrome Store
February 7, 2011, 9:23 amThe BBC said today it has launched its first ever custom food app in Google's Chrome Web Store. The free app called Good Food , allows users to download over a 160 healthy recipes. The app can be used both online and offline. People can find recipes by using Todays Pics, selecting a category, Less than 200 Calories and Healthy Classics, or by...
Groupon Superbowl Ad Makes Light Of Tibet's Political Turmoil
February 7, 2011, 9:13 amThey may have been using controversy to get more press for their company, but Groupon's Superbowl ad that makes light of the troubles Tibet has with China may well backfire on them. When the ad - which starts as a solemn account of Tibet's troubles - turned into a claim that Tibetans can "whip up great fish curry" and if you use Groupon you can...
New Google TV Templates, UI Library Released
February 7, 2011, 9:08 amAny developers who wanted to tinker with Google TV but felt they lacked a solid starting point should look again. Google's released a pair of templates and a user interface library meant to give developers a leg up on building optimized sites. A post on the Official Google TV Blog explained, "We've created two template designs that are focused on...
Super Bowl Ads: What Worked and What Didn't
February 7, 2011, 8:52 amThis is not a post about the funniest ads. Or the most popular. If you're reading this post, you probably care about the marketing lessons you can take away from the Super Bowl. So, without further ado - here is a roundup of the best and worst of the Super Bowl marketing from last nights game. Best Marketing Strategy: Volkswagen From their choice...
AOL Adds The Huffington Post To Its Growing Content Factory
February 7, 2011, 8:37 amAOL has acquired The Huffington Post, one of the biggest content networks on the web, for $315 million. HuffPo CEO Arianna Huffington is now editor-in-chief of all of AOL's content properties. The move is the latest, and possibly the boldest move AOL has made into the content production industry. AOL counts The Huffington Post, TechCrunch,...
Social Media and the Law
February 7, 2011, 8:32 amLast year, my wife finished law school in New York's capital . As a member of the American Bar Association, she receives their monthly ABA Journal, and every month (without fail) she leaves it on my desk with a sticky note bookmarking an article on "Social Media" as it relates to the law. [I love her!] Now, I'm no lawyer; but as an entrepreneur...
Why Does Google Police Links While Ignoring Garbage Content?
February 7, 2011, 8:22 amAaron Wall offers up an interesting take on how Google's treats paid links vs. how it treats content farms.
Is Apple Testing the Social Media Waters?
February 7, 2011, 8:22 amUsers can upload and store their photos from the last 30 days, but that's about all the iOS users can do right now with their devices. Apple's new beta 2 release of iOS 4.3 is leaning heavily towards the making of a social networking platform, with the structuring in place to add more to the .
Google Local Search Strategy Needs Marketing Muscle
February 7, 2011, 8:22 amSo as I was writing this piece about the new developments in Google's local search strategy last week, it occurred to me that while Google has a veritable gold mine of mobile, local and social technology, what it lacks is the marketing oomph to make others aware of it. For example, while it's my job to learn about, grok and report the fact that...
Training Tips for SEOs
February 7, 2011, 8:21 amPosted by robmillard A quick introduction - Im Rob and I work for Distilled in the UK office. This is my first post here on SEOmoz, so I hope you find it useful and I look forwards to your feedback. Running well planned training sessions can be a great way to build the credibility of SEO at the same time as educating your organisation. But if you...
TrustHop: Empowering Consumers by Mixing Social Search with Local Service Quoting
February 7, 2011, 8:16 amA key premise of social search is that the people you know and trust are the best sources of personally relevant and reliable information. As Maureen Heymans, technical lead for Google Social Search said in a BBC article , "When I'm looking for a restaurant, I'll probably find a bunch of reviews from experts and it's really useful information. But...
Nofollow Link Attribute - So How Does Google Treat It (& Do We Need to Care?)
February 7, 2011, 8:16 amA few days ago I came across a post at Search Engine Roundtable that features the Google's thought on link building through comment spamming, the post ended up with the final words of Matt Cutts on how Google treat nofollow attribute: " Let's be absolutely clear about this: Links that use the rel=nofollow microformat do not pass PageRank and are...
The True Impact of Duplicate Content
February 7, 2011, 8:16 amI am always on the lookout for how particular rumored or confirmed search engine algorithmic factors are really impacting how websites are ranking in Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc. In fact I am a bit of an algorithmic buff, having presented a project entitled "Investigating The Factors of a Search Engine Algorithm" at the recent BT Young Scientist and...
Internet Trade European School
February 7, 2011, 8:16 amFrench Internet pioneer Jacques Antoine Granjon , founder of Ventre-privee.com, has now set up alongside with Xavier Niel , Marc Simoncini - a.k.a Mr Meetic - & Alain Malvoisin the Ecole Européenne des Métiers de l'Internet (EEMI) - Internet Trade European School: http://www.eemi.com/ . This is a private school set to kick start in Autumn 2011.
Two Diametrically Opposed Google Editorial Philosophies
February 7, 2011, 8:16 amAn "Algorithmic" Approach When it comes to buying links, Google not only fights it with algorithms, but also ran a 5-year long FUD campaign, introduced nofollow as a proprietary filter, encouraged webmasters to rat on each other , and has engineers hunting for paid links. On top of that, Google's link penalties range from subtle to overt . Google...
AOL Takes A Sharp Left Turn To Prevent Being Left Out?
February 7, 2011, 8:11 amAOL's promise to be a premiere content company is apparently being fulfilled by how willing they are to spend money for established content providers much more than creating that content itself. The latest example of this desire to pick up major properties in the blog space (like the recent TechCrunch deal) is the purchase of The Huffington Post...
Doctor Finder Finds Sweet Spot for Insider Pages
February 7, 2011, 8:11 amFifty percent of consumers polled under the age of 55 said they have spent more time researching the latest tech gadget (like a blu-ray player) than researching a doctor they are going to visit. According to a study recently released by Insider Pages, U.S.
How to transform blah into bang with SEO copy editing
February 7, 2011, 8:11 amWelcome back! In today's video post, Heather elaborates on SEO copy editing, specifically addressing how to edit your existing content with keyphrases to drive more search engine traffic to your website. As you may recall from last week's discussion about SEO editing versus copywriting for SEO, keyphrase editing is a smart strategy for longer...
Blekko Reports 30 Million Queries in January
February 7, 2011, 8:11 amThirty million search queries were conducted on Blekko in January, and its team of human editors has helped create 110,000 slashtags, the company announced today. One of Blekko's missions was to rid its results of spam. In January, Blekko introduced the spam clock to call attention to the fact that 1 million new spam pages are created every hour....
Google Merchant Center Launches in Spain, Italy and the Netherlands
February 7, 2011, 8:11 amLater this year, we plan to launch Google Shopping*, our shopping search engine, in Spain, Italy and the Netherlands. To participate in this free service, merchants use a site called the Google Merchant Center to submit and track their product data feeds . To give all merchants time to submit their products and be included in Google Shopping when...
Media Console Reporting Series, Part 3: About user-defined reports
February 7, 2011, 8:11 amIf youve been following our posts on reporting, youve now seen an overview of the various reporting types and learned more about the standard reports available to all Media Console users. As you learn more about reporting and the needs of your business, you may decide that you need a report customized for you. Thats where user-defined reports come...
Bing Celebrates Football Legends at ESPN NEXT Party
February 7, 2011, 8:11 amAs the official Decision Engine of ESPN The Magazines 2011 NEXT event, Bing presented an open-to-the-public panel at the River Ranch in Fort Worth, Texas yesterday featuring Super Bowl winning quarterbacks including Joe Montana, Doug Williams and Kurt Warner. ESPN Monday Night Football Broadcaster Mike Tirico interviewed this panel of world...
UK Mother's Day PPC Trends - Make a Good Impression This Year
February 7, 2011, 8:11 am3 rd April 2011 may not mean much more to you than being that special day when Coleen Rooney celebrates her 25 th birthday... However, if you were to forget the significance of this date, it might just be another year of guiltily handing over those forecourt-bought flowers. Thats right,
Review: Rock Your Marketing with Content Rules
February 7, 2011, 8:11 amIf I were to write a tactical "how to" book on Content Marketing, I'd like to think it would be a lot like "Content Rules: How to Create Killer Blogs, Podcasts, Videos, Ebooks, Webinars and More that Engage Customers and Ignite Your Business". After knowing Ann Handley online for several years, I finally met her in person at a B2B MarketingProfs...
The Buzziest Super Bowl Ads of 2011
February 7, 2011, 8:06 amby Mike Krumboltz This year's Super Bowl commercials had a theme - random celebrities. There was Eminem for Chrysler (and Lipton Brisk Ice Tea). Faith Hill for Teleflora. Justin Bieber and Ozzy Osbourne for Best Buy. P. Diddy for Mercedes. Will.i.am for Chatter.com . Kenny G for Audi. (Deep breath, we're halfway done.) Joan Rivers for GoDaddy. Kim...
Scoring the 2011 Super Bowl Commercials For Search Visibility and Visitor Engagement
February 7, 2011, 7:15 amEvery year, advertisers pay millions to air commercials during the Super Bowl. (The price this year is around three million dollars for a thirty second slot.) Advertisers are looking not only for conversions but also heightened awareness and engagement. The more you engage with a brand and have a positive association with it, the more likely...
Retailers Don't Seem to Be Getting The Most Out of Their Online Videos
February 7, 2011, 6:30 amSundaySky released an interesting report looking at online video use in e-commerce during the 4th quarter. Despite online video being one of the major web trends of the last couple years, it is clear that a lot of work remains for retailers to capitalize on the medium's potential.
Adoption isn't as high as you might think, and among the...
AOL Buys Huffington Post for $315 Million
February 7, 2011, 3:32 amAOL bought the Huffington Post over the weekend for $315 million dollars, All Things D reported.
The site will become part of a new group at AOL called The Huffington Post Media Group and Arianna Huffington will become the editor in chief of the group which will also include other AOL properties Engadget, Moviefone, MapQuest and TechCrunch, All...
Website Designer Made Top Superbowl Ad For $500
February 7, 2011, 3:02 amThe most popular Superbowl ad - the Dorito door-crushing dog - was created by a part-time website designer for about $500, USA Today reported.
Given the Twitter comments about some poor Superbowl ads from major ad agencies, one wonders if this consumer created ad method will be used more often.Click to read the rest of this post...
Egypt PM: Missing Google Exec. To Be Released Today
February 7, 2011, 1:48 amWael Ghonim, Google Middle East and North Africa Marketing Director, who has been missing since January 27th, is expected to be released today, following a statement by Egyptian Prime Minister.
"Egypt's state-run Nile TV reported on Sunday that Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq had called the network to announce that Mr. Ghonim would be released on...
Big Changes Promised Shortly at Google
February 7, 2011, 12:30 amWe've been working on this issue for a long time, and made some progress. These efforts started long before the recent spat of news articles. I've personally been working on it for over a year. The central issue is that it's very difficult to make changes that sacrifice "on-topic-ness" for "good-ness" that don't make the results in general worse....
21 Real Blog Metrics Your Company Needs to Track
February 6, 2011, 1:22 pmBlogs no longer get the same buzz as their newer social media cousins, Facebook and Twitter. That said, blogs are at the heart of social media, especially if you’re involved in content marketing. Chris Brogan refers to blogs as your social media outpost because blogs supply the content that drives social media conversations. In 2011,...
The Rising Importance of Flexible Web Layouts
February 6, 2011, 1:20 pmJust a few years ago, creating a fixed-width design and the coding to stick to that width was practical, as long as it could accommodate a wide range of users. However, just a few years ago, having the Internet on a cell phone was a luxury, netbooks were rare, and the convenient tablet device, such as an iPad, didn't even exist. Now, a ...
Why Most People Quit Blogging: The Princess Syndrome
February 6, 2011, 11:06 amJudy Dunn provides some information and inspiration to keep you blogging after the first 2-3 months when many new bloggers get frustrated and call it quits.
Longer AdWords Headlines: Google Blurring The Lines of Paid, Organic Results?
February 6, 2011, 11:01 amAdWords top placement ads will get longer headlines, a move Google says will increase click-through rates (CTRs) for advertisers. But has this change, combined with two other recent changes (the lowercasing of URL display names and renaming Sponsored Links to Ads ) begun to blur the lines between paid and organic too much? Click to read the rest...
Super Bowl Commercials 2011: Volkswagen Still Favored to Win
February 6, 2011, 10:15 amIn the past 24 hours, several more advertisers have uploaded their Super Bowl commercials to YouTube. In addition, Chevrolet, Volkswagen, Audi, and HomeAway are using Google AdWords campaigns to promote their Super Bowl ads. Click to read the rest of this post.
Survey Finds 70% Of Car Buyers Search Web For Info, Few Use Social Media
February 6, 2011, 9:23 amA recent survey by Polk and Autotrader.com found that car buyers spend between 18-19 hours searching for information before making a decision, Tech Journal South reported. Over 70% use the web for research, though only 3% said they used information from social media for their buying decision, the Automotive Buyer Influence Study found. "For all...
Czech Actor, Playwright Jan Werich Gets Google Doodle
February 6, 2011, 9:08 amGoogle has added a Doodle honoring one of the most popular Czech actors and playwrights Jan Werich. Beyond his acting in many classic Czech movies, Werich was loved by his country for staying when so many others left. Click to read the rest of this post.
The real reason behind the Google Bing controversy
February 6, 2011, 8:32 amBing is caught copying Google search results. Or maybe it isn't? One of the really interesting developments in the search engine space last year, was the rise of Bing (NSDQ:MSFT) as a worthy competitor to Google (NSDQ:GOOG). This is important, as search engine innovation is dependent on there being some kind of well funded and capable alternative...
Pandia Search Engine News Wrap-up February 6
February 6, 2011, 8:32 amThis week's main search engine news headlines from all over the Web. This should have been the week for discussing the way social media and the Web has caused a revolution in Egypt. It wasn't. Instead the press has focused on Google's complaints about Bing copying their search results. We have written a separate post about the Bing/Google quarrel.
Pandia Search Engine Marketing News Wrap-up February 6
February 6, 2011, 8:32 amPandia adds a weekly search engine marketing news column. We know that there are two major groups of Pandia readers. There are librarians and researchers that want to learn about how to find information on the Internet, and there are those that are more interested in search engine optimization and search engine marketing. We have therefore decided...
It's the IDEA that Determines Domain Values. Your Job is to Extract that Value.
February 6, 2011, 8:26 amA strong argument for the proposition that domain value is in the eye of the beholder.
Search Engine Super Bowl Jinx?
February 6, 2011, 7:56 amHas leading the way in search engine query volume replaced the dreaded Sports Illustrated jinx as the thing sports fans should fear? If the trend Google noticed continues, perhaps theres something new for superstitious sports fans to consider. Super Bowl XLV is, of course, later this afternoon, just in case youve just crawled out of your...
Stephen Arnold interviews the Pandia team
February 6, 2011, 6:43 amIf you are interested to learn more about the team behind the Pandia Search Central, you could take a look at Stephen Arnold's interview with us over at Search Wizards' speak. We are discussing the search engine industry and the future of search. There is also a short snippet over at Beyond Search. Beyond Search and Pandia are currently...
Twitter Grows in Asia, Prefers South Korea Over China
February 6, 2011, 3:58 amTwitter has mad a strong progress in the recent years. It has been a useful tool both for fun and, of course, business. Respectable companies are tweeting, telling their followers about company news, promotions etc. It is only a matter of time for world’s most popular the micro-blogging platform to reach 200M registered users – the current...
This is Literally the Best Eric Schmidt Video
February 5, 2011, 12:45 pmA fun video making the rounds this week features Google's outgoing CEO Eric Schmidt and his emphasis on using the word "literally" in speeches. Via Whirled , here is tribute/roast in celebration of Schmidt's 10 years at Google: "Eric Schmidt, Chief Emphatic Officer": Click to read the rest of this post.
AddAccount is for Internal Use Only
February 5, 2011, 12:30 pmHello Resellers Just want to let you know that we removed the AddAccount operation from the MSDN documentation. The AddAccount operation is meant for internal use only. Calling AddAccount is not supported. Instead of calling AddAccount to add multiple accounts to a customer, you should call the SignupCustomer operation for each account that you...
Search Week in Review for Feb. 5, 2011
February 5, 2011, 11:28 amHere's a recap of this week's columns and news stories for the week of Jan. 30 to Feb. 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.
2011 Super Bowl Predictions: 'Volkswagen Commercial: The Force' Beats 'Audi - Goodnight Commercial'
February 5, 2011, 10:57 amTomorrow, many people will be watching Super Bowl XLV to see if the Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Green Bay Packers. But Nielsen Sports media research says close to 50 percent of viewers will actually watch the commercials more than they watch the game. Click to read the rest of this post.
Get Up to Speed on Location-Based Service Adoption
February 5, 2011, 7:42 amMany are claiming this year as the year of "social mobile". Even Facebook's CTO announced that one of the primary objectives for Facebook this year is mobile, a statement that is backed with increased emphasis on its geolocation tool Facebook Places. This said, social media marketers should get up to speed on the adoption of geolocation tools,...
Cup of Joe: The Sky May Be Falling, But At Least Everyone Is Laughing!
February 5, 2011, 7:31 amWhen you own your own business things are bound to go wrong, every now and then. When your business is on the internet, sometimes these mishaps can be a public event. Wouldn’t it be smart to try and at least pull off these types of blunders with a smile that leaves everyone laughing instead of yelling?
Here are three short examples of how...
Google Updates and SERP Changes - February 2011
February 4, 2011, 9:10 pm"WebmasterWorld's monthly SERP monitoring and update thread for February 2011."
Software downloads for Iran
February 4, 2011, 7:28 pmDuring the protests that erupted in Iran following the disputed Presidential election in June 2009, the central government in Tehran deported all foreign journalists, shut down traditional media outlets, closed off print journalism and disrupted cell phone lines. The government also infiltrated networks, posing as activists and using false...
Puppy Bowl: A Game for the Dogs
February 4, 2011, 6:42 pmby Claudine Zap Sunday is game day: The competition. The fierce loyalty. The barking. Wait, what? That's right. It may be Super Bowl Sunday for some, but for fans of puppies (and who isn't?) it's Puppy Bowl VII . These pups will easily out-cute the football teams. Unlike the human version, this bowl has a bunch of chicks for cheerleaders....
Verizon's iPhone Plan: Now Unlimited-ish
February 4, 2011, 5:14 pmYesterday, Verizon had their most successful first day opening in their history when they opened the virtual doors to iPhone pre-sales. But while they were taking in money with one hand, they were changing the rules with the other. That "unlimited monthly data plan," they've been advertising is about to become . . . well. . . limited-ish. As...
Partners, please join us for the first virtual meetup
February 4, 2011, 5:14 pmJanuary is a generally a cold month, so rather than getting out your winter coat and travelling to a partner meetup, we thought we'd kick off 2011 with live event on the YouTube channel . This meetup will be product-focused and near and dear to many of your wallets: we'll cover how to make money on YouTube, advertising options, and some new...
New to Pay-Per-Click Advertising? Check Out These 3 Videos from the Microsoft Advertising adCenter User Assistance Team
February 4, 2011, 5:14 pmLast week I met with a friend and her business partner to walk them through the basics of setting up their first PPC advertising campaign on adCenter. After the meeting, I followed up with them in an email that contained links to adCenter Help and our adExcellence tutorials , but I couldnt help wondering if my own explanations had been effective,...
Google Celebrates 1 Million Digitized CIC Books
February 4, 2011, 4:54 pmIt seems like all's been quiet on the Google Books front for a while. There's been little talk of new partners, lawsuits, or just about anything. But that doesn't mean nothing's been happening, as today, Google signaled that it's scanned (and returned) one million books from the Committee on Institutional Cooperation. A quick note in case you're...
Verizon’s iPhone Plan: Now Unlimited-ish
February 4, 2011, 4:48 pmYesterday, Verizon had their most successful first day opening in their history when they opened the virtual doors to iPhone pre-sales. But while they were taking in money with one hand, they were changing the rules with the other. That “unlimited monthly data plan,” they’ve been advertising is about to become . . . well. . ....
Online Retail Spending Tops Record $40 Billion
February 4, 2011, 4:07 pmU.S. online retail spending reached a record $43.4 billion in the fourth quarter of 2010, an increase of 11 percent over a year ago, according to a new report from comScore.
This growth rate is the fifth consecutive quarter of positive year-over-year growth and second quarter of double-digit growth rates in the past year.
“Retail...
Searches for Super Bowl Recipes
February 4, 2011, 4:03 pmNo matter what teams are playing, every Super Bowl party needs to have good snacks to eat while watching the game. Last week as football (and ad) fans got their planning underway, search clicks on a portfolio of search terms for Super Bowl recipes increased 239%, as compared to the previous week. The ratio of paid clicks also increased along with...
The Super Bowl Goes Social
February 4, 2011, 3:42 pmMore cars, more stars (Bieber!), and how brands plan to win the ad game in 2011 Wanna know the advertising meme for Super Bowl XLV? Then turn the TV off and send out a status alert. Some of the most creative projects agencies are strategizing for brand clients this year are taking place off network. Mercedes, Audi, Bud Lite, Kia, Coke and others...
Facebook Schedules HQ Announcement For Feb. 8th
February 4, 2011, 3:17 pmIf you happen to live in California and know any Facebook employees, consider saving cardboard boxes and bubble wrap for them. The company's poised to make a big announcement about establishing a new headquarters, scheduling a media event for Tuesday, February 8th. Caroline McCarthy reported this afternoon, "Facebook has sent out an invitation...
Facebook Readies Content Removal Mechanism Based on Eating Disorder Flags
February 4, 2011, 3:01 pmWe recently came across an interesting comment on a blog post at AllFacebook.com. The post was about a study indicating that Facebook can increase the risk of eating disorders, and the comment was from Dee Christoff, Vice President of the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA), who said that NEDA and Facebook are working together to "make...
Using Paid Search Keywords Correctly to Build Your Online Business
February 4, 2011, 2:46 pmby Mike Fleming In my last post, I shared using a fishing metaphor to talk about stepping your PPC game up to the point where you know how to use it to build your online business for the long haul. So, let's start looking at some of the "tricks of the trade" to do just that. Trick #1 - Use Keywords Correctly A great misnomer among PPC advertisers...
What are the core UX considerations when targeting the 50+ demographic?
February 4, 2011, 2:43 pmA great questions that refers specifically to web applications. There are currently 3 quality answers that are each unique and helpful.
Behold: The Water-Powered Jetpack
February 4, 2011, 2:41 pmby Mike Krumboltz A jetpack for the masses is finally here and not a moment too soon. Canadian inventor Raymond Li has come up with a new kind of jetpack that is water-powered and will allow the flyer to hover 30 feet in the air and zoom at speeds up to 22 miles per hour. The contraption should be available this summer for around $136,000. Called...
Google's "Hiybbprqag" Gets the Spotlight
February 4, 2011, 2:35 pmThere's plenty left to say about the mudslinging battle that happened between Google and Bing recently " and it's even possible that the companies will continue to duke it out in upcoming statements. However, the press seems to be siding primarily with Google, who's compilation of evidence against Bing strongly indicates that Bing really was...
Google Blogger Gets an Android App
February 4, 2011, 2:35 pmGoogle services cover more properties than someone who's been cheating at monopoly (no pun-based accusation intended), but some of these services are far more venerated than others. Blogger is among these. Having helped establish user-friendly access to the blogosphere, Blogger remains one of the two most popular blogging services (the other is...
DuckDuckGo Follows Content Farm Banning With Promoting wikiHow Content
February 4, 2011, 2:06 pmToday, DuckDuckGo has started "hard wiring" wikiHow as the first result on its search engine results pages for how-to queries.
wikiHow founder Jack Herrick (who also founded eHow before selling to Demand Media) tells WebProNews, "As you know, there is tons of buzz on the web about what Google's next step will be with...
Kenneth Cole's Tweet Gets Its Just Desserts
February 4, 2011, 1:59 pmKenneth Cole was trying to be cute, not insensitive; at least, according to Kenneth Cole. Nevertheless, his ill-advised marketing Tweet referencing Egypt, trying to bring humor to a decidedly-unfunny situation was given the treatment it so deserved. By now, the news of Coles daft Tweet has been covered hither and yon, but in case you missed it,...
Google Adds the "Web Clipboard" Extension
February 4, 2011, 1:54 pmWhile competitors must label themselves as niche solutions (for example, Bing is your source for travel, sports, and entertainment), Google is trying to cover every possible element of internet technology. As a pioneer in many of the fields they've claimed, they certainly earned the right. One of the areas that saw greater attention in the last...
Google Chrome 9 Is Unleashed
February 4, 2011, 1:54 pmGoogle makes such frequent updates to Google Chrome that hardly anyone hears about them anymore. As such, when Google decides to make a splash with a new version, it usually means something important. The most recent update to Chrome received media attention for at least three reasons: Google has reached the 9.0 release versions, several key...
Google Gets Swarmed with Job Applications
February 4, 2011, 1:54 pmWhen talking about Google applications, we're usually talking about the Apple/Android battle and the struggle for a dominant number of applications. After all, not only is it one of the more active areas for development in both companies, but Google has stated that they will be focusing on developing even more internal applications " and that they...
Kenneth Cole’s Tweet Gets Its Just Desserts
February 4, 2011, 1:50 pmKenneth Cole was trying to be cute, not insensitive; at least, according to Kenneth Cole. Nevertheless, his ill-advised marketing Tweet referencing Egypt, trying to bring humor to a decidedly-unfunny situation was given the treatment it so deserved.
By now, the news of Cole’s daft Tweet has been covered hither and yon, but in case you...
The Man Who Isn't There
February 4, 2011, 1:49 pmby Mike Krumboltz Liu Bolin likes to blend in. Literally. But the Chinese artist does more than just wear camouflage pants and stand next to a bush. With the help of some assistants, Bolin literally paints himself, head to toe, and then stands, unassumingly, in grocery stores, next to piles of coal, on staircases, you name it. And, unless you look...
Testing the Fair Use Balance
February 4, 2011, 1:42 pmRemember Righthaven? That's the company with the business model of suing bloggrers over copyright that ignited one of the more recent fair use controversy debates. A report last month from Fortune about the company asked questions like: "Could clicking a Like button lead to a lawsuit?" and "Are the days of posting stories to...
Ad of the Week: Pepsi Max "Cooking with Snoop"
February 4, 2011, 1:34 pmJust in time for the Super Bowl, Snoop Dogg teaches us the basics of the 7-Layer Dip If there's one must-have munchy for a Super Bowl viewing party it's got to be chips, and really, what are chips without dip? In this two-minute online ad for Pepsi Max, the latest "Cooking with Snoop" segment has rapper/actor Snoop Dogg showing his "basic program"...
Experian Acquires Technlightenment
February 4, 2011, 1:18 pmBusinesses use social networking platforms to accomplish many things. Marketing, sales and brand-building are some of the frequent uses that are found. Social marketing and networking have become another popular branch of connecting too that businesses have found. The new acquisition of Techlightenment by Experian may be a catalyst for change in...
The Food Network Learns About The Power of User-Generated Content
February 4, 2011, 1:08 pmA silly recipe suggestion has been stricken from the pages of FoodNetwork.com, thanks to a bunch of sarcastic, derision-filled responses. Hopefully, Food Network's instructional experience about just how powerful user-generated content is has come to an end and theyll try a little harder next time. The issue has to do with the Food Network...
Leighton Meester's New Movie, Oysters in Danger, UFO Sighting: What's the Buzz
February 4, 2011, 1:03 pmby Claudine Zap Our top picks from the day's hottest searches. Oysters (Searches increased by 4,232%). A survey of the mollusks says that thanks to disease and over-harvesting, the bi-valves are going extinct . Julia Roberts (+3,826%). There are two competing "Snow White" movies in the works. The Disney version is in talks with the Oscar winner...
Bing.com/siteowner being shut down - April 4th, 2011
February 4, 2011, 12:53 pmGang, we've got a quick note here to alert users to an item we'll be shutting down in 60 days. As of April 4th, 2011 we will discontinue support for the bing.com/siteowner functionality. If you continue to leverage the feature after this date (April 4th, 2011), users who attempt to query in the search box will be redirected to a 404 page. This...
Bing Trends: Top search trends for The Grammy's
February 4, 2011, 12:32 pmOn February 13 th , Lady Antebellum, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry and Arcade Fire will battle it out to see who will take home the Grammy for Album of the Year. Will it come down to a lady or will the California girl extinguish the Fire? Its anyones guess, but if people searching Bing determined the outcome the statue would go to Katy Perry. Once...
Best Five Things in Social Media
February 4, 2011, 12:07 pmThis week: Kenneth Cole's whale of a fail, the first Super Bowl hashtag, The Daily, Twitter founder nowhere to be found, and Gladwell sends Twitterverse into tizzy 1. Best Twitter Fail: Kenneth Cole First Anderson Cooper is attacked by a pro-Mubarak mob in Egypt. Then footwear impresario Kenneth Cole takes a beating on Twitter for an insensitive...
2010 Editor & Community Achievements
February 4, 2011, 12:02 pmInternational Growth & Expansion Expansion of World/Ukrainian During 2010, the number of listed sites in the World/Ukrainian branch increased by approximately 50% and Editor School was offered for the first time in this branch. Additionally, two editors attained high-level permissions in this area: one was granted access to the top level and the...
Facebook Turns Seven
February 4, 2011, 11:22 amThe social network that made a 20-something a billionaire, grew to be a mainstay of many people's everyday lives, and became the subject of an award-winning film has now achieved something else. Today, Facebook turned seven years old.
Indeed, the official version of events (as described by a Facebook "Info" page) indicates that...
8 Signs It's Time To Turn A Side Project Into A Startup
February 4, 2011, 11:21 amThe word startup seems to be used too loosely in this day and age. Some people think something built in a weekend or over the course of time on the side is a full fledged startup, when it is often just a side project. Building things is great, more people should do it and do it often. The problem is, most people either take the leap at the...
New features now available in the new AdSense interface
February 4, 2011, 11:20 amSince our post announcing the open beta of the new AdSense interface, we've been working on a few additional features, listening closely to your feedback about how we can continue to improve.
Google Offers Virtual Tour Of Super Bowl Site
February 4, 2011, 11:19 amGoogle is allowing football fans to take a virtual tour of Cowboys Stadium, in Arlington, Texas, ahead of Super Bowl XLV.
The Google Lat Long Blog offers more details. “Unfortunately, not all of us can have the luxury of being at Cowboys Stadium – site of Super Bowl XLV – for the game, so we thought we’d...
Anonymous Joins the Middle Eastern Fray
February 4, 2011, 11:10 amWhile the Egyptian Revolution is not being televised - not as long as President Murbarak is in power, anyway - it is certainly receiving extensive coverage on the Internet, with Twitter and Facebook being the primary resources. Now, thanks to some Denial of Service attacks aimed at Murbarak supporters, the Anonymous group has offered their support...
comScore Reports Record-Breaking $43.4 Billion in Q4 2010 U.S. Retail E-Commerce Spending, Up 11 Percent vs. Year Ago
February 4, 2011, 11:00 amcomScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released its Q4 2010 U.S. retail e-commerce sales estimates, which showed that online retail spending reached a record $43.4 billion for the quarter, up 11 percent versus year ago. This growth rate represented the fifth consecutive quarter of positive year-over-year...
Google Instant Achieves Opt-Out Rate Of 2%
February 4, 2011, 10:19 amThe concerns that Google Instant might make incorrect guesses, act as a flashy distraction, or focus too much on quantity versus quality (in relation to results) have apparently been dismissed. A Google employee shared an impressive fact yesterday: the opt-out rate is under three percent. Austin Carr wrote after an interview, "According to Ben...
Blogger Gets Android App for Posting On the Go
February 4, 2011, 10:19 amGoogle's Blogger has released a new Android app that allows bloggers to update on the go. With the app, users can switch between different accounts and blogs (for which they have author rights) and post accordingly. You can compose posts, attach photos, assign labels, and save them as a drafts or go ahead and publish them. "Saving as draft is...
5 Steps to Captivating Readers with Your Secret Message
February 4, 2011, 9:58 amEvery time you publish a blog post or send a message to your email marketing list, your readers learn from you. But they may be learning something entirely different from what you think. Your headline might say "10 Tips for Amazing Azaleas" or "How to Change a Tire in 7 Minutes." And your readers will get some information on that topic from your...
Are You Preaching to the Converted?
February 4, 2011, 9:48 amby Stoney deGeyter There is an odd phenomenon that I have noticed in the world of websites. There is a small, yet vocal, group of people that love crap! Time and time again, when I advise a client to improve their website or logo, I hear, "we get complimented on it all the time." That? It brings up images of Charles De Mar from the movie Better...
Hotmail Gets Email Aliases
February 4, 2011, 9:48 amMicrosoft has launched a new feature for Hotmail, providing Hotmail users with aliases so they don't have to give their primary email address to every site that asks for one, and still don't have to go create a whole new account. Users can create and manage multiple email aliases from a single account. "The email address a person uses is a big...
The State of the Yellow Pages Print Industry
February 4, 2011, 9:17 amI have been pretty harsh on the Yellow Pages in the past. Most of my trouble comes from the fact that the medium just isn't as effective across all verticals as it once was. That's not to say that it's not effective at all, because that is untrue. In some areas, it can work well-like plumbing, HVAC and other emergency situations. Of course, by the...
Chairmen Of Congressional Privacy Caucus Contact Zuckerberg (Again)
February 4, 2011, 9:17 amFacebook's short-lived (but soon-to-be-re-enabled) experiment with sharing users' addresses and phone numbers with third parties did not impress certain politicians. Indeed, Representatives Barton and Markey, Co-Chairmen of the Congressional Privacy Caucus, were bothered enough to write to Mark Zuckerberg. In fairness to Facebook, the company...
Some Super Bowl Commercials to Watch For
February 4, 2011, 9:15 amThe NFL’s granddaddy of them all takes place this Sunday when the Green Bay Packers and the Pittsburgh Steelers meet in Super Bowl XLV, and it promises to be one of the most-watched sporting events ever. Keeping with tradition, the commercials that will be shown during the game are receiving a fair amount of hype as well.
In fact, some...
Verizon iPhone 4 Sales Sets Record
February 4, 2011, 9:02 amVerizon said today it has stopped pre-order online orders for the iPhone 4 to its existing customers after the most successful first day of sales in the history of the company.
“This was an exciting day," said Dan Mead, president and chief executive officer for Verizon Wireless.
"In just our first two hours, we had already...
Hiybbprqagate: Google, Bing, and the Burning Building
February 4, 2011, 8:41 am"You wake up in the morning, your paint's peeling, your curtains are gone, and the water is boiling. Which problem do you deal with first? None of them! The building's on fire!" Cheating. Copying. Stealing. These three words have been repeated ad nauseum over the past few days,
Google vs. Bing Battle Continues, Users Should Benefit In the End
February 4, 2011, 8:41 amThe Google vs. Bing search wars continues to rage on, and there's no reason to assume it will go away anytime soon. More and more takes on the subject are coming out, and the storyline is getting more dramatic with each addition. For example, Kara Swisher at AllThingsD thinks Google's position here stems from co-founder Larry Page's migration to...
Small Business Social Media Tips Interview with Marketing Expert Lee Odden
February 4, 2011, 8:31 amFollowing on from our interviews in Asia with Barry Cupples from Omnicom , Pushkar Sane from the Starcom Mediavest Group and Bill Hunt from Back Azimuth , we end the series with a chat I had with online PR and social media expert Lee Odden - @leeodden - from TopRankMarketing.com . In the 4 minutes we had at SES Hong Kong, Lee helps small...
QuickFox Notes: Google Suggest + Notepad
February 4, 2011, 7:49 amI have stated many times how much I adore Google Suggest (while being not a fan of Google Instant , but that's another story). And because I love Google Suggest so much, I liked this fun FireFox addon I am going to share today. QuickFox Notes is an awesome FireFox addon that lets you take quick notes (yeah, you may have guessed from the name)...
The Washington Post Launches SocialCode
February 4, 2011, 7:44 amOne of the country's oldest and most prolific leading sources on world and national news, politics, science, entertainment and travel recently took a significant step in the social media industry. The Washington Post launched a new agency, SocialCode, that is designed to help clients improve their marketing and advertising Facebook campaigns. The...
Goodmail Comes to an End
February 4, 2011, 7:24 amGoodmail Systems will shut down this month, according to Direct Marketing News, who reports that CEO Daniel Dreymann says the main reason is an acquisition attempt by an undisclosed Fortune 500 company was taken off the table. "We were on track to be acquired," Dreymann told the publication . "We got a terms sheet, and they left us at the altar...
5 Tips on Better Facebook Marketing for B2B Companies
February 4, 2011, 7:24 amFacebook has been a great tool for reaching consumers directly for many B2C brands. But can companies focused in the B2B industry use Facebook to enhance a reputation and grow new business? Absolutely. Quite a few B2B companies are successfully using Facebook to build important relationships with prospects and customers. If your B2B company is...
Social Media - Why an SEO background is better than PR!
February 4, 2011, 7:08 amI'm debating on a Who Owns the Social Space event at a social media week in London next week - so I thought it would be a good idea to outline why I think an SEO background is better!
Social Media Monitoring Gaining Ground But Has Plenty of Room for Growth
February 4, 2011, 6:48 amAs I prepare this morning to make a presentation on social media monitoring to a group of non-profit executives at the VOLUNTEER Hampton Roads , Hampton Roads Institute for Nonprofit Leadership Conference in Norfolk, VA, eMarketer is sharing an InformationWeek Analytics report about, you guessed it, social media monitoring. The report shows that...
New Link Building Seminars: you know just can’t get enough
February 4, 2011, 6:13 amHi everyone! We’re really excited to bring you two new link building conferences, one in London and one in New Orleans.
When we put on our ProSEO conferences, we asked you which sessions you liked the best, the ones you felt gave you the most value. And you’ve consistently said that you valued the link building sessions the most. So...
Zuckerberg Gets Letter From Congress About Data Privacy Concerns
February 4, 2011, 6:01 amIf you are a company that depends on your users' information to make a good portion of your revenue like Facebook does for advertising you likely don't want letters from politicians about your tactics. It's like getting a letter from the Principal in school. You know you did something wrong but you are hoping it doesn't go on your permanent...
Introducing SolaMaps –Social Network for Renewable Energy Enthusiasts
February 4, 2011, 4:42 am When “the internet” was introduced, its main purpose – and the idea behind it – was to allow educational and research institutions to share data. That was back in the 1980s. Of course, since then internet has passed several phases. Globalization and technology have joined forces to make the WWW a must-have feature for almost...
Android Army is Mighty, But iPhone is Going Nowhere
February 4, 2011, 4:31 amThere is a delicious piece of FUD being circulated that I can't ignore from Eric Raymond in his blog last week. Seizing on an Associated Press article in which AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson company will start "very aggressively" marketing smart phones based on Google Android operating system, Raymond claims the "iPhone brand is in worse shape than I...
Wassup #SESLondon? 1 Cowboy CEO, 1 Ship Parrrty, 10 Solo Sessions & 50 Jaamit Tributes
February 4, 2011, 4:21 amWith only three weeks to go until SES London, you might be asking yourself what you can expect to get out of the conference and what is going to make it different this year when compared to every other year? Well, as Alan Sugar (the UK equivalent of Donald Trump, and also host of The Apprentice) often says, 'let me tell you'. But be warned,
Creating Your Own Backlinks Helps Ranking In Google
February 4, 2011, 2:45 amLast week, a competitor that is normally on page 3 to 4 on Google has started to rank number one or 2 for a highly competitive term.{br]When i was evaluating their backlinks, 85% of the 20 links they have are all from blog / low content sites they own. When I say low content I mean one post on a blog with a unique url over 6 months ago. The other...
International SEO: Where to Host and How to Target - Whiteboard Friday
February 4, 2011, 1:42 amPosted by Aaron Wheeler International SEO is big business, and big business equals big websites. It can be really confusing when you have to cater to a target audience that is the entire world: you know that people from different countries and cultures are going to be looking for different things. We've had a lot of PRO members' Q&A questions...
Twitter Tips to Boost Your Tweets
February 4, 2011, 12:04 amLike everything online, Twitter is always evolving into something much more robust and usable by businesses and individuals. As time moves on, so do the ways that others approach this communication giant with the efforts they use to reach out to their immediate communities. Every website online that eventually gains some important traction will...
Google Plans To Audit Adwords Resellers, Agencies
February 3, 2011, 9:56 pmIf you act as a Google reseller or manage customers' Adwords accounts, Google will be starting audits and checking if you are sending out - at a minimum - monthly reports with spend, click and impression information, the Adwords blog reported . The audits will begin April 1st. "Today we want to inform you that we've updated AdWords policies with a...
Adwords Region And City Drilldown Added To 17 More Countries
February 3, 2011, 8:59 pmBeing able to select specific cities to run your Adwords advertising has always been handy, but in many countries this has not been possible. Bur now there are "17 additional countries to help you reach more customers in local markets with your AdWords campaigns,: the Adwords blog reported.
As Google notes: "Location targeting helps you tailor...
Tune into 6 Nations rugby with Ustream and PayPal
February 3, 2011, 8:39 pmToday, Europe's popular 6 Nations Rugby Tournament kicks off with the hotly contested match between Wales and England, and I'm here with some great news for people in the US, Canada, Bermuda and the Caribbean who want to tune in. This year, for the first time, you can use your PayPal account to purchase the matches on Ustream in just a few clicks...
Google Adds Location Markers To Adwords, Blue Marks The Spot
February 3, 2011, 8:39 pmGoogle launched blue location markers in to Adwords ads and tie them to the same colored marker on the adjoining map to make your listing stand out amongst the other businesses. Google has been playing with what they call "location extensions" since 2009 in various forms. "Today, we're introducing a way for your location extension-enabled ads to...
Infographic of the Week
February 3, 2011, 8:13 pmWhy moms go online Last summer, Yahoo! Insights released an in-depth study on how marketers can connect with wo men online based on their needs . Our team of researchers recently took a closer look at why women with children go online. They found that the Internet provides moms with an outlet for escape and entertainment, as well as a tool to...
Nearly 50% of People Surveyed Watch Online Videos Daily
February 3, 2011, 7:14 pmWe know online video is hot, but just how hot? According to a new survey commissioned by video ad company YuMe, 49% of people are watching videos daily for an average total of seven hours per week per person.
Seven hours is a lot when you realize that 70% of what people are watching are short form videos under five minutes long. For long form, TV...
Update Your Information to Receive Optimization Advice and Special Offers from Our Communications Team
February 3, 2011, 7:11 pmWhile we add quite a bit of information to our Facebook page and Twitter streams, @adCenter and @MSAdvertising , theres another way you can stay up-to-date with free monthly newsletters, account optimization advice and special offers that the rock stars who make up our Communications team put together every month. If you havent updated your...
Yahoo! and the Bowl that is Super
February 3, 2011, 6:56 pmYahoo!'s Mitch Spolan talks online gridiron ad tactics "As the Super Bowl approaches, so do the time-honored ads that will accompany it," writes Chris Crum on WebProNews. "Advertisers aren't just turning to the game itself to capitalize, however. Many are turning to the Web to get some mileage out of the event." They certainly are.
Are Super Bowl Ads Worth the Super-High Price?
February 3, 2011, 5:44 pmby Claudine Zap Is a Super Bowl ad on TV worth the money? Yes, says a story on CNN . And here's why. Usually, commercial programming breaks are just that - the time you use to run to the kitchen for a snack. Not so for the Super Bowl. The football championship game - held this Sunday - is actually better known for its quirky ads created just for...
Bing National Tailgating Champion Announced!
February 3, 2011, 5:34 pmEarlier today, 6 teams faced off to settle the question of which city has the best tailgaters in the nation. In the shadow of Sundays big game, the Bing National Tailgating Championship showcased the best tailgating teams from across the country as they competed across four categories including team spirit, sports trivia, parking lot agility and...
How Dr. Phil Ruined My Diet Search Chart
February 3, 2011, 5:14 pmDr. Phil, how could you? There are a few search term charts that I hold sacred, " prom dresses " and " diets " are my top two, in fact, I devoted a whole chapter of Click to "diet" searches and our New Year's resolutions. So this year as I prepared to report for a sixth straight year that January 1st was the peak for visits to online dieting...
Reviewing The Daily
February 3, 2011, 4:43 pmThe Daily (the new iPad news publication from News Corp.)has been out for a day now, and after having the chance to mess around with it, it's hard for me to know just what to make of it, and frankly I'm having a hard time seeing this as a revolution in digital content (or print content or paid content). I should preface this by disclosing that I...
Google Tallies 75,000 Job Applications In Single Week
February 3, 2011, 4:43 pmNine days ago, Google announced with some fanfare that it intended to hire at least 6,000 new employees this year. Now, it turns out the response was immediate and almost overwhelming, as a representative's said over 75,000 people submitted applications last week. Google of course has a lot of things working in its favor, from a market cap of...
Triangle AMA Hosts Andy Beal on February 17th
February 3, 2011, 4:16 pmIf you're in the Triangle area of North Carolina, come and hear me talk about practical-and easy to implement-reputation management tactics at the next meeting of the Triangle American Marketing Association . The event is on February 17th at 11:30am and here's a teaser of what you can expect. See you there!
Campbell's Says iAds are Mmm Mmm Good
February 3, 2011, 4:16 pmIt's kind of ironic that an old fashioned brand like Campbell's is coming out as the spokesperson for the effectiveness of iAds. When the product took off in the early 1900â²s, I'm sure they never imagined that one day people would be using hand-held wireless devices to find the best recipe that includes Golden Mushroom soup. But that's...
Campbell’s Says iAds are Mmm Mmm Good
February 3, 2011, 3:56 pmIt’s kind of ironic that an old fashioned brand like Campbell’s is coming out as the spokesperson for the effectiveness of iAds. When the product took off in the early 1900′s, I’m sure they never imagined that one day people would be using hand-held wireless devices to find the best recipe that includes Golden Mushroom...
My thoughts on this week's debate
February 3, 2011, 3:50 pmEarlier this week I was on a search panel with Harry Shum of Bing and Rich Skrenta of Blekko (and moderated by Vivek Wadhwa) and the video now live. It's forty minutes long, but it covers a lot of ground: One big point of discussion is whether Bing copies Google's search results. I'm going to try to address this earnestly; if snarky is what you...
Get Creative with Mobile
February 3, 2011, 3:34 pmYahoo!'s Alex Linde helps show the way This is undoubtedly the year when mobile marketing will take center stage. Android and iPhone alone are hooking up some 450,000 customers a day to the mobile Web. But advertisers and agencies are still confused when confronted with developing hook-worthy creative on the small screen. Never mind. Help is on...
Google Adds More Features To Stable Chrome Build
February 3, 2011, 3:19 pmPeople who have put off giving Chrome a try now have several more reasons to set aside their usual browser for at least an hour or two. Today, three significant updates - Chrome Instant, the Chrome Web Store, and WebGL - all graduated from the beta channel to the stable build. Chrome Instant will be the most helpful feature for ordinary users. A...
LinkedIn Launches "Skills" Product in Beta
February 3, 2011, 3:19 pmLinkedIn announced a new product today called LinkedIn Skills, which is designed to show areas of expertise, and who has the skills in these areas. So, for example, you can search for iPhone and find out who on LinkedIn is skilled in this area. You will find John Geleynse, Director, Technology Evangelism at Apple, other Apple execs, Evan Dollm...
75,000 People Really Want to Work at Google
February 3, 2011, 2:53 pmJust a little over a week after Google announced plans to hire more than 6,000 and make 2011 the largest hiring year in company history, the company has received more than 75,000 job applications worldwide. This is the highest number of applications the company has ever received in one period of time, topping a previous high set in May 2007 by 15...
Save $100 on Search Marketing Expo: Early Bird Discount Expires Saturday, 2/5
February 3, 2011, 2:12 pmSearch marketing is a huge topic " and includes dozens of ways you can grow your business and get more (and better) traffic to your site. And Search Marketing Expo is a conference that offers more than 60 cutting-edge sessions (as well as invaluable networking opportunities) to help you do exactly that. At SMX, you'll learn how to: Optimize your...
AOL Partners With Domino's For Free Super Bowl Pizza
February 3, 2011, 2:07 pmAOL said today it is partnering with Domino's on a free pizza giveaway with a chance to win free pizza for a year with a $600 Domino's gift card. The Domino's Free Pizza Giveaway begins today and 29 people will have the chance to win free pizza for a year with a $600 gift card. To enter the giveaway, people can visit the AOL homepage and click on...
New Social Network for Solar Power Users
February 3, 2011, 2:07 pmThere are many local and community-based groups that tout the wonders of recycling and the lifestyles that promote using less manufactured materials and more natural substances. For green enthusiasts, there is a new social networking site recently released that will connect users from all around the world. SolaMaps is an Australian-based social...
Anything but Weird Science
February 3, 2011, 2:07 pmSay hello to the new Yahoo! AdLabs, home of the advertising data miners Earlier today, Yahoo! announced the creation of Yahoo! AdLabs and I'm really excited to be leading this vital new team. I'm pleased to be able to use the Yahoo! Advertising Blog to introduce myself, describe AdLab's mission, and tell you a little bit about our plans for 2011....
Blekko, Can I Please Have My Spam Back?
February 3, 2011, 1:35 pmAt the end of the day, I have no respect for a search engine that censors my results based notions of quality, rather than relevancy. It ceases to be comprehensive, it smacks of elitist righteousness and – most of all – decisions about the validity of content are being made on my behalf by people I don’t know.
Year Of Rabbit Proving Big Real Time Search Ad Play
February 3, 2011, 1:21 pmAmid the warm wishes for the Chinese New Year, there are a lot of advertising plugs. Seems Google may need to add spam filters if their real time search results are not to become inundated with irrelevant information. I watched the tweets and Facebook posts scroll by for about 15 minutes and saw a large number of ads mixed in with the New Year...
Winter Weather, Brought to You by La Niña
February 3, 2011, 1:00 pmby Claudine Zap That snow blanketing half the country? That mega-monster-superstorm, Cyclone Yasi , which just hit Queensland, Australia? All can be blamed on a little girl . That's right: The weather condition known as La Niña - Spanish for "the girl" - has struck again. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration defines La Niña as...
Some Insight on Affiliate Review Sites
February 3, 2011, 12:54 pmRae Hoffman-Dolan (@sugarrae) addresses how to handle negative reviews on affiliate sites with this post - but the information and advice applies to any site where product reviews are solicited. From the post: "... at a conference that someone asked me recently how someone should deal with negative reviews left by site visitors on affiliate...
Microsoft's Bing uses Google search results"and denies it
February 3, 2011, 12:40 pmBy now, you may have read Danny Sullivan's recent post: " Google: Bing is Cheating, Copying Our Search Results " and heard Microsoft's response, " We do not copy Google's results. " However you define copying, the bottom line is, these Bing results came directly from Google. I'd like to give you some background and details of our experiments that...
Yahoo! Network Tops in Customer Service
February 3, 2011, 12:14 pmAmong advertisers, Yahoo! ranks #1, says Advertiser Perceptions Among digital brands, Yahoo! ranks #1 in customer service, according to the research and insights firm Advertiser Perceptions . As part of its Advertiser Intelligence Report for Autumn 2010"a survey of thousands of leading advertisers across the U.S."Advertiser Perceptions found that...
The Evolution of the Social Media Manager: Social Monetization Manager?
February 3, 2011, 11:43 amHonestly, I'm not sure what to make of this. However, the idea definitely got me to thinking and the fact that a giant media conglumorate is already going this route makes it worth sharing and discussing. From the article: "The next evolution of the social media manager position may very well focus on a puzzle piece that is largely missing in the...
Online Awards for Social Media Hosted by MTV
February 3, 2011, 11:38 amThe Music Television network (MTV), was originally started in 1981 as a channel that would play music videos with featured hosts known as VJs (video jockeys). The American-based company began a video awards show soon after it started that became quite popular. Music artists were chosen based on their popularity, song choice, music style and .
Welcome to Our New Digital Insights Series!
February 3, 2011, 11:33 amThis is my very first blog post as the new Director of Global Insights and Analytics for Microsoft Advertising. And, speaking of firsts, I am thrilled to be a part of the first in a series of insights-driven webcasts. I use the word 'insights' very deliberately - I hate the word research. This may be a slightly lofty example, but chefs don't...
Answers.com Sells For $127 Million
February 3, 2011, 11:23 amOver the next few days, onlookers shouldn't be surprised if the mix of questions on Answers.com begins to favor inquiries of the "what kind of ____ should I buy?" variety. Fans may have some extra money coming to them, as Answers.com announced this morning that it's being acquired for $127 million.
AFCV Holdings, which is...
Yahoo And Zillow Partner On Real Estate
February 3, 2011, 11:23 amYahoo said today that all of its real estate listings will now be powered by Zillow.
Zillow will also sell local advertising on both sites, and the 4 million listings on Zillow will appear on Yahoo Real Estate.
Real estate agents will be able to advertise locally on Yahoo Real Estate, and home buyers will have more access to listings on the...
Internet As We Know It Runs Out Of Room
February 3, 2011, 11:07 amThe pool for IPv4 addresses has been depleted. That means the protocol for the Internet as we know it has been used up, and the Internet must move toward IPv6, the next-generation protocol, which has much more room for growth. "IPv4 has approximately four billion IP addresses (the sequence of numbers assigned to each Internet-connected device),"...
Yahoo Debuts AdLabs for Fostering Innovation in Digital Ads
February 3, 2011, 10:52 amYahoo has launched AdLabs, a group aimed at providing "scientific leadership" to the online advertising industry and accelerating innovation in digital ad products through Yahoo labs . "The AdLabs team will mine Yahoo!'s vast data repository of campaigns and associated metrics to inform both thought leadership and product innovation," a...
How a Small Business Can Be BIG Online with Content Marketing
February 3, 2011, 10:42 amFor small businesses, looking "big" online isn't so much about appearing as a large company when they're not. Its about being a big resource for prospects and customers. As the popularity of content marketing and brands as publishers heats up with large companies, many small businesses still have the advantage of being nimble and adaptive to new...
Google Tempts Hackers With $20,000 Prize
February 3, 2011, 10:31 amAny hackers who think they know a thing or two about Chrome should strongly consider booking a flight to Vancouver, British Columbia. At the Pwn2Own competition in early March, the first person who can exploit the browser will get $20,000 (and a Cr-48 notebook, if it matters) from Google itself. Aaron Portnoy, Manager of the Security Research...
Convert ' or Die
February 3, 2011, 10:21 am"First prize is a Cadillac Eldorado. Second prize is a set of steak knives. Third prize is you're fired ." ~ Blake, Glengarry Glen Ross Sometimes you're on a sweet little vacation in Italy and you need to convert miles into kilometers. Sometimes you're smashing your thumb with a hammer doing some light roofing and you need to switch inches to...
Chinese New Year 2011: Google's Year of the Rabbit Doodle
February 3, 2011, 10:21 amToday is the Chinese New Year. In celebration, Google China has posted a new Doodle to usher in the Year of the Rabbit. Click to read the rest of this post.
Email Drives More Traffic To Retailer Websites Than Social Media
February 3, 2011, 10:16 amTraditional marketing provides a better return on investment (ROI) for retailers than social media, according to a new report from ForeSee Results. The report found that social media interactions are a main influence for only 5 percent of visitors to retail websites. The research found that more traditional marketing tactics like promotional...
Yahoo! Fantasy Football Scores
February 3, 2011, 10:16 amMobile advertisers beat the spread this season My father started his own fantasy league in the newsroom of The Sacramento Bee back in 1978 after seeing an article about it in Sports Illustrated . In those days, playing fantasy football meant taking down detailed stats on reams of graph paper and racking up a huge bill from Ma Bell trading players...
International Search In San Jose: Last Chance for Early Bird Booking
February 3, 2011, 10:11 amThe early bird rates for the International Search Summit @ SMX West will expire on Saturday February 5th - so register now to join us in San Jose. The Summit will follow SMX West on March 11th , with a full day of sessions focusing on the issues and challenges of running search and social campaigns across multiple countries and languages.
Google: Only 2% Opt-Out of Instant
February 3, 2011, 9:50 amOnly about 2 percent of users have opted out of using Google Instant , according to Ben Gomes, Instant lead engineer. Launched in September, Google Instant tries to predict what you're looking for and shows you results as you type. Granted, a low opt-out rate doesn't mean everyone loves Instant. It could just mean people haven't bothered or tried...
Highlights of the Atlas Product Update Webinar
February 3, 2011, 9:50 amThanks to everyone who joined us last Thursday, January 27 th , for our Atlas Product Update Webinar . The webinar was jam-packed with progress reports on our latest Atlas offerings. The key takeaway from the meeting is: our digital advertising industry is changing, and Atlas is responding with leading-edge solutions . Some of the hottest trends...
Bing Accuses Google of Click Fraud
February 3, 2011, 9:14 amWithout a doubt, the biggest storyline in search this week has been Google accusing Bing of cheating and stealing its results, Bing semi-denying this, and the back and forth that's gone on between the two dominant search engines. Who's right: Bing or Google? Tell us what you think . The whole thing came to light when Danny Sullivan posted an...
Stewart, Colbert Return To Hulu
February 3, 2011, 9:14 amEleven months ago, The Daily Show and The Colbert Report were pulled from Hulu. Fans complained in response. Now the shows are back thanks to a wider deal between Hulu and Viacom, and Hulu's CEO, Jason Kilar, has also revealed some interesting stats and opinions regarding the site's performance and the future of television. Let's start with a...
Online Spend From US Agency Clients Still Has Significant Hurdles To Overcome
February 3, 2011, 9:13 amThe Internet side of the marketing world has always felt that ad agencies as a whole, and in particular the largest, have been behind the curve for a long time. The gap has closed considerably in recent years but those who claim digital marketing superiority still thumb their noses at the larger agencies that have built their business on...
Create for a Cause 2010 Winner
February 3, 2011, 9:09 amFind your "doggie" double and save a life Create for a Cause is Yahoo!'s annual contest in which agencies compete to create an ad to promote their favorite charities. Developed in concert with the Ad Council , Create for a Cause lets agencies showcase their creativity while serving a higher calling. For Create for a Cause 2010, our second annual...
U.S. Seizes Sports Websites Ahead Of The Super Bowl
February 3, 2011, 9:07 amU.S. prosecutors have seized 10 websites that illegally streamed live sporting broadcasts and pay-per-view content over the Internet.
The websites, which were seized Tuesday, as part of an ongoing investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), include atdhe.net, channelsurfing.net,...
Microsoft's Mehdi Plays Pot Meet Kettle with Google
February 3, 2011, 8:43 amSo if you've been following the Google-Microsoft Copygate fiasco , you know that Yusuf Mehdi, senior vice president of Microsoft's Online Services Division, shot back at Google for accusing it of copying its search results. Mehdi plainly stated : We do not copy results from any of our competitors. Period. Full stop. We have some of the best minds...
Study Shows Social Media Impact Lags Search and Email
February 3, 2011, 8:27 amAmidst all the hubbub about social media being the cures to all business ills there are some numbers that paint the medium as less of a silver bullet and more like one with a lot of potential and a lot of room to grow. ForeSee Results has conducted a survey of 10,000 online shoppers. The report is titled " Social Media Marketing: Do Retail Results...
Stephen Colbert to Bing: You Got Served!
February 3, 2011, 8:27 amDespite Bing being a major sponsor of The Colbert Report , Stephen Colbert couldn't resist having a little dig at Microsoft's expense. Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog Video Archive The best line? "For the first time ever, someone's search history has been busted for something other than porn." LMAO!
From the Writer's Perspective
February 3, 2011, 8:27 amMy first foray into social media and search was via writing copy. I worked for a design firm and often wrote and tweaked website copy for clients to make it appealing to both humans and web crawlers. Later, when I moved more into SEO, part of my job became guest blogging. This changed the game, as I had to generate leads for writing opportunities...
Free SEOBook Wordpress Theme
February 3, 2011, 8:22 amSince switching over our site design some folks have asked us what we were doing with the old design. I spoke with Chris Pearson (of Thesis fame) who made our old site design and he said it was cool if I turned it into a free Wordpress theme. And given the number of folks liked our old site design enough to use it without permission , we decided...
MySpace To Users: We Miss You
February 3, 2011, 8:22 amEarlier this week MySpace sent an email, which offers a hint of how desperately they're fighing for survival. The letter came on top of an earnings report from parent News Corp that showed recent MySpace layoffs cost $107 million in severance and restructing. News Corp. also took a $168 million writedown, based mostly o the MySpace's falling...
Facebook to Relocate Its Headquarters
February 3, 2011, 8:07 amMoving may not seem like a big deal for many corporations, but for one like Facebook, relocating its corporate headquarters speaks volumes. With over 1,400 employees in its current Palo Alto corporate offices (and over 2,000 employees worldwide), finding a new home gets the attention of many. Sun Microsystems previously owned the 57-acre Silicon...
New PageRank Formula May Change Your SEO Priorities
February 3, 2011, 7:46 amcc licensed flickr photo shared by toprankonlinemarketing The vast majority of website owners seem to be obsessed with PageRank. It was one of the heaviest ranking factors in the original Google algorithm, and the fame persists. I must admit that I also find it hard to ignore the single most visible feedback figure presented by Google. Google has...
Bing Gets Served on The Colbert Report [Video]
February 3, 2011, 7:41 amGoogle's accusations that Bing copied Google's search results has gotten mainstream media attention from the BBC to the Wall Street Journal. Last night, the search wars received the Colbert bump. Bing is one of Stephen Colbert's most promoted sponsors on "The Colbert Report," (Colbert and Bing donated $150,000 to help clean up the gulf after the...
SEM Report for Forex Niche: Competitors Best Techniques Revealed
February 3, 2011, 7:26 amEvery serious online business during its development reaches the line when it becomes essential to clearly realize the market's structure, see and feel your competitors, have a gust of the dynamics of demands of your potential customers. In the current report I would like to concentrate on such an interesting moment as market research,
A Natural Link Profile and Nofollow as a Ranking Factor or Signal
February 3, 2011, 7:16 amSEOptimise link profile on Blekko. Every site owner engaged in SEO has to strive for a natural link profile . Just as you want to have natural-sounding copy on your page without keyword stuffing and other antique spam techniques, so you want to have a link profile that does not look like one powered solely by artificial SEO. A site having only...
How is Google feeling about sentiment analysis?
February 3, 2011, 7:06 amby Mike Moran
You've probably heard of sentiment analysis, a technique that allows computers to determine whether a comment is positive or negative about a subject. You can probably imagine a few uses for this kind of technology, such as culling social media for mentions of your brand, but you might be surprised about how much effort Google...
Save 20% on SES New York!
February 3, 2011, 7:05 amThe 2011 conference season is starting to heat-up!
PubCon South at Austin is just around the corner, then the mega SES New York kicks off on March 21st. SES continues to offer a great mix of search and social sessions and really is a great event for any east-coast marketers–newbie and seasoned-pros alike.
In case you were on the fence about...
Mobile Marketing Session at SES New York and Mini MBA Program at Rutgers
February 3, 2011, 6:50 amAccording to a new survey from the Association of National Advertisers and the Mobile Marketing Association, 88 percent of marketers at large retailers and consumer brand manufacturers say they will use mobile marketing this year. What's more, 75 percent of those already marketing to mobile consumers plan to increase their spending by an average...
5 SEO copywriting tips for B2B companies
February 3, 2011, 6:34 amI love working with B2B companies. Many times, they have scads of unique content opportunities - they just need someone to point them out and send them in the right direction. If you work for a B2B company and you've been wondering, "Why are people bouncing out of our site so fast" or "Why don't we position for X keyterm," read on. You may benefit...
Why PPC Is The Key To A Successful SEO Strategy
February 3, 2011, 6:19 amOne thing I love about search is the ability to collect data and turn that data into sales. However, when you have a new site, you don't have any on site data to analyze. When we don't have existing data to analyze we need to create data and we can do this quickly with a paid search campaign. Why would you want to create data? You want to create...
Answers.com Acquired for $127 Million in Cash
February 3, 2011, 5:15 amtoday announced that it has entered into a definitive merger agreement to be acquired by AFCV Holdings, LLC, a portfolio company of growth equity investor Summit Partners, for a total cash consideration of approximately $127 million."This is a great outcome for our shareholders," said Bob Rosenschein, Founder, Chairman and CEO. "After an exciting...
Content Farms Vs...
February 3, 2011, 3:14 amIs the following an SEO strategy? Research keywords Select keywords that have existing traffic Write pages based on those keywords Publish pages Get those pages ranked against those keywords How is this different to what a Content Farm does? So, if Content Farm pages are undesirable, so too is SEO content? Low Quality Content? Perhaps people take...
World IPv6 Day: Bing taking decisions to the next generation of the Internet
February 3, 2011, 2:17 amEarlier today, IANA , the international body responsible for distributing Internet addresses, completed its final allocation of IPv4 addresses . IPv4 has been the primary communication protocol for the Internet for more than 20 years, so this final allocation marks the end of an era, to the extent the brief history of the Internet can be...
State of the Community
February 3, 2011, 1:26 amPosted by jennita Every now and then it's important to take a good look at your community, see where you stand, remember where you've been and take a look at where you're going. Today I wanted to take the time to do just that. Over the next month-ish we have a number of changes and additions happening to the SEOmoz Community that I wanted to let...
Things Marketing Software Can't Do!
February 3, 2011, 12:09 amDon't get me wrong, using automation and software programs at times is a must because after all there are only so many hours in the day to get everything done, but there are times when software programs and automation tools are just not cool to use. Social media and search engine optimization is the process of marketing, communication, and...
Blog Posts To Read for February 3, 2011
February 2, 2011, 11:23 pmBelow 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! Spam 3.0, The Evolution of Search and the Future of SEO Google users have complained recently about the declining quality of their...
Do Glass Ceilings Exist in AdSense?
February 2, 2011, 8:57 pmAlways reading about the so-called "glass ceiling" where AdSense won't earn any more than that magical amount where earnings are capped.br]Are you sure the glass ceiling isn't your imagination and creativity instead?I almost fell into the glass ceiling mindset trap once, years ago, when I couldn't seem to get the site over the $100/day ceiling,...
Google's Groundhog Day: Is The Search Giant Scared Of Its Own Shadow?
February 2, 2011, 7:47 pmGoogle's Bing-sting to "prove" that they were copying search results is noteworthy for how elaborate the operation was to catch the hand in the cookie jar. What does Google have to fear from Bing? Here are some reasons that Google might be feeling vulnerable right now. Click to read the rest of this post.
Will 'The Dude' Abide - Again?
February 2, 2011, 7:06 pmby Claudine Zap Will "The Dude" be back? Fans of " The Big Lebowski " have been very keen on a rumor going around that the 1998 cult film starring Jeff Bridges is set for a sequel . Well, sorry, dudes, but it doesn't seem to be the case. The official word from the Coen Brothers' rep, as confirmed by CNN : There's no plan for a "Big Lebowski 2."...
Location extensions: putting your business on the map
February 2, 2011, 6:45 pmWhen location extensions launched in AdWords in 2009, they allowed you to dynamically attach relevant business addresses to your ads. We've since experimented with different ways to integrate this information with a map. Today, we're introducing a way for your location extension-enabled ads to show directly on the map. We'll be integrating...
Forecaster Says eBook Over Apps
February 2, 2011, 6:20 pmWhile one forecaster says the sale of paid apps will likely triple in 2011, the Yankee Group says ebooks will be coming on strong and likely beat apps for their growth potential. As reported by MediaPost, Yankee predicts that ebooks sales will jump up 83%, going from a $313 million dollar business in 2009 to a $2.7 billion dollar business by 2012....
Digital Media Trends: The Future Guide To The Best Predictions For 2011
February 2, 2011, 6:00 pmWhat are the key new media, communication and social technology trends that are going to affect you the most during 2011?
Photo credit: Ruben Sarkisyan
In the coming weeks, me and the MasterNewMedia editorial team, will devote a large amount of resources and time to identify, collect, and organize the most interesting, relevant and insightful...
Google, Bing and Facebook: The Tale Of Clickstreams
February 2, 2011, 5:49 pmWith the hullabaloo over Bing copying Google search results that occurred yesterday, I started to think what may have motivated the announcement and its timing. Obviously, maximum impact was one, but beyond that why would Google take it to the court of public opinion before using other methods. Google obviously keeps an eye on its competitors and...
The Daily Launches - Is Monetizing Digital Content the Future of Media?
February 2, 2011, 5:34 pmAt an event in New York today , Rupert Murdoch and Apple's Eddy Cue unveiled the much anticipated Daily - the world's first digital-only newspaper. While this announcement opens some doors for magazines and newspapers that have been struggling with the right way to monetize their content online, it still limits them to a subscription-only model...
Quirky Queries: Zorilla, Trenta and Jennifer Lopez on Yahoo! Search
February 2, 2011, 5:28 pmFor many people, a New Year represents a fresh start - lofty New Year's resolutions, commitment to kick bad habits, personal improvement through newfound interests and hobbies, and thus, all new topics to search online. Here's a summary of some of the most quirky and off-the-wall Yahoo! Search queries from the past month. It comes with no surprise...
comScore Publishes White Paper on the Impact of Cookie Deletion on Website Audience Measurement in Australia
February 2, 2011, 4:47 pmcomScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released its white paper, The Impact of Cookie Deletion on Site-Server and Ad-Server Metrics in Australia: An Empirical comScore Study. The study addresses the key sources of discrepancy between server-based and panel-based data and reveals that cookie deletion can lead...
Rumor: Path Turns Down $100M Offer From Google
February 2, 2011, 4:32 pmGoogle may be losing some of its charm. Two months after Groupon supposedly turned down an acquisition offer worth $6 billion, rumors indicate that a small company called Path has declined an offer worth an initial $100 million. If you haven't heard of Path, you're not alone. "The Personal Network," as former Facebook employee and Path CEO Dave...
Google Has Check-ins Using Latitude
February 2, 2011, 4:12 pmIn a move that seemed inevitable, Google Latitude announced the ability to check-in to places . Latitude is a 2-year-old service that has allowed people to share their location with others. However, until now, that location was simply a pinpoint (with photo) within Google Maps. Though they boast a Latitude user base of 10 million people, Google is...
A New Theory for "Mona Lisa"
February 2, 2011, 4:01 pmby Mike Krumboltz For centuries, people have been speculating about who modeled for Leonardo Da Vinci's "Mona Lisa." Was it Lisa Gherardini , the wife of a Florentine merchant? Was it Isabella of Aragon ? Was it the artist himself , as some experts believe? Or was it, as new research suggests, none of the above? An Italian art historian, Silvano...
Internal Linking: The Benefits Of Great Information Architecture For SEO
February 2, 2011, 3:59 pmTony Adam writes, "Every time I write a requirements document for SEO, I make sure to address Usability and Information Architecture. I like to think that Google will reward sites that do have good Information Architecture because it is mostly always search engine friendly designs that support crawlability and indexing."
Detailed traffic stats feature now available
February 2, 2011, 3:41 pmYou asked for more detailed data. We heard you. :) As part of our ongoing effort to bring more usable data forward for publishers, this week we made additional reporting improvements for your sites traffic. Located under the Traffic tab, page traffic gives detailed information for your top performing pages in Bing. This includes impression,...
Cracks In Google's HotPot And The Ethics Of Beta Local
February 2, 2011, 3:36 pmby Miriam Ellis Do you take pride in your work in Search? I bet you do. If you design websites, I bet you make sure everything is absolutely perfect, all links and forms working, all imagery balanced and aligned, calls to action in place, everything just right before you launch a new website. If you write copy, I bet every piece you publish is...
I Am Spartacus! Starz Conquers Mobile Barcodes
February 2, 2011, 3:36 pmAT&T's Mobile Barcode Service is out to conquer the world with the help of Starz and their new series "Spartacus: Gods of the Arena." The cable network has signed on to do a test campaign between now and June that will include AT&T barcodes on everything from print ads to bus posters. Scanning the code with a compatible phone will unlock hidden...
Android Market Website Debuts
February 2, 2011, 3:18 pmUsing an app on a smartphone can be both easy and fun. Browsing through dozens or hundreds of them, on the other hand, might result in an unscheduled trip to the optometrist. So this afternoon, Google introduced the Android Market website in the midst of some other Android announcements.
The Android Market website is exactly what its...
Super Bowl Advertising On the Web
February 2, 2011, 3:11 pmAs the Super Bowl approaches, so do the time-honored ads that will accompany it. Advertisers aren't just turning to the game itself to capitalize, however. Many are turning to the web to get some mileage out of the event. The History Channel, for example, has turned to Yahoo, and will be running ads for a new Larry the Cable Guy show on Yahoo...
Setting the record straight
February 2, 2011, 2:29 pmI was unable to attend the Farsight conference yesterday but watched events unfold online and wanted to take a moment to share some thoughts and make sure everyone is clear about a few things. It was interesting to watch the level of protest and feigned outrage from Google. One wonders what brought them to a place where they would level these...
2011â²s New Spam Tool - Bing?
February 2, 2011, 2:24 pmIt was interesting watching Bing and Google squabble like fashionistas over the last purse on sale yesterday. Each claiming to have the high ground. And, as always the usual interest and excitement over a bit of drama slowly gave way to the 'so what's' as the day went on, and so what would be right, as much of a distraction as it was, it really...
When Will We See Google Music?
February 2, 2011, 2:19 pmDepending on who you ask, Google Music is either weeks or months away from launching. A report from Businessweek suggests that the launch may come as soon as next month. Whereas CNET says we're months, rather than weeks, away. So, what's the hold up here? Business Insider has a new theory. An anonymous source of theirs, who has "extensive...
Visit Museums Of The World From Home With Google's Art Project
February 2, 2011, 2:13 pmGoogle has launched Art Project, an online walk through the world's greatest museums, using the technology they employ for "Street View", the company announced today . If you look below the search box today you should find a strip of pictures that link to the website they have set up to give people access to some of the world's greatest art. As...
Adam Sandler's Movie, Phil's Prediction, Super Bowl Snacks: What's the Buzz
February 2, 2011, 2:08 pmby Claudine Zap Our top picks from the day's hottest searches. Punxsutawney Phil (Searches increased by +8,111%). Reason to believe a 125-year-old groundhog: When he predicts an early spring . Please be right. Oscar De La Renta (+6,191%). The fashion designer can't stop trash-talking Michelle Obama for the dress she wore to the state dinner for...
Will the Next Wave of Content Farms Eliminate Humans?
February 2, 2011, 2:03 pmIf you're a regular WebProNews reader, I probably don't have to tell you that content farms have been in the news a lot lately - mainly Demand Media . While that company uses technology and algorithms to come up with its story assignments, it does utilize a large team of humans to craft the content before it goes out to the masses. Another...
Profits Up, Revenue Down At AOL
February 2, 2011, 1:58 pmCEO Tim Armstrong announced that AOL's profits for 2010 were up, despite an overall drop in revenue, MarketWatch reported . "I am very proud of what we accomplished in 2010 as we began the year with a significant restructuring of AOL and ended the year with a significantly improved balance sheet, a number of exciting new products and a new culture...
Firefox to Add a Tracking Feature Deterrent
February 2, 2011, 1:48 pmPrivacy is a big concern for citizens and the U.S. Government, so much to the point that President Obama and his administration culled an online "privacy bill of rights" that focused on discouraging and deterring data-gathering activities from various online web companies. The Federal Trade Commission also got involved some time ago, asking online...
Domaining – Practical uses for domain strategies
February 2, 2011, 1:47 pmHow are you using domains to your benefit? Don't let that stockpile of domains just sit there, make them work for you! Practical tips on how to use domain strategies.
Seven Insights about Internet TV
February 2, 2011, 1:32 pmNew Yahoo! Study Reveals TV's Future is Online Right this very moment, consumers are watching TV content online. They are also watching online content on their TVs. The convergence of TV and Internet is here, and this creates a clear opportunity for advertisers. To help make sense of this new landscape for brands and agencies, our Yahoo! recently...
Don't Let Duplicate Pages and Bad URLs Destroy Your SEO: Kill It Dead! (Part 3 of 3)
February 2, 2011, 1:22 pmby Stoney deGeyter This series is pulled from a presentation given at SMX East. Part I of this series covered the problems duplicate content creates . Part II covered some of the causes of duplicate content . This post covers some of the solutions that will help you fix your duplicate content problems. Quick Recap: Part I: Duplicate Content Causes...
Google's Honeycomb: Not Just for Tablets
February 2, 2011, 12:56 pmGoogle has made some stalwart efforts when it comes to breaking into the tablet scene. Here, of course, we mean "stalwart" as in the sort of efforts that the French Resistance made against Germany during World War II; yes, they did a little bit , and the efforts are certainly worth admiring, but it's not nearly enough. However, Google's upcoming...
Google Hiring Direct App Developers
February 2, 2011, 12:56 pmThe application war remains one of the central areas of concern when considering Google's market position in the mobile device world " and mobile devices (including smartphones and tablets) will, according to several industry analysts, play a prominent role for all involved companies in the upcoming years. There's little doubt that Apple is still...
Google Latitude Joins the "Check-In" Race
February 2, 2011, 12:56 pmGoogle Latitude was one of the first location-based services to launch, but rather than "leading the race" as Google so often does, the service simply fell into the heap of runners-up to the popular 4Square. While 4Square was released after Latitude, the service quickly gained more press and popularity due to their lineup of features. Among those...
How To Implement a Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) Process
February 2, 2011, 12:53 pmConversion rate optimization (CRO) is a popular phrase – just look at the number people mention it on twitter in the last 24 hours (although some are for Croatia). But what exactly does it mean? Is it another buzz phrase that will take 5 years to evolve into anything? (CRM anyone?) Or is it a real phenomenon that will become a key online...
Search Alliance Shows Encouraging Signs
February 2, 2011, 12:46 pmNew study indicates combined Yahoo!/Bing partnership is increasing its share of U.S. paid impressions and clicks One of the stated goals of the Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance, which began last year in the U.S. and Canada markets and is continuing in 2011 in other markets, was to create a stronger alternative to Google AdWords in the paid...
Google Hiring 6000+ in 2011, While Yahoo Trims Further
February 2, 2011, 12:35 pmEmerging from the end of the recession, many companies are still in a phase of recouping losses, finding their footing, and holding on tight to their remaining assets. However, some companies have continued to thrive and grow despite the economic climate, and are using the improvements in the market to push for greater heights. One of those...
Microsoft IE Brags About Market Share Loss
February 2, 2011, 12:35 pmIt's hard to say that things are looking "grim" for a browser that still holds more than half the overall market share in the U.S., but Microsoft Internet Explorer tempts me into using the phrase. After all, their total decline has reached a full 12% as competitors Google Chrome (the up-and-coming desktop browser) and Apple Safari (the top tablet...
Google's Lobbying Efforts Increased Dramatically in 2010
February 2, 2011, 12:35 pmSending lobbyists to represent your issues to the U.S. Government has long been seen as a part of the status quo, but it's never been very kindly looked upon. Increasing lobbyist spending is usually an indicator that the company is pushing for something morally, or at least politically, gray. As such, more than a few eyelids are raised as Google,...
10 reasons you're not an 'advanced' SEO
February 2, 2011, 12:32 pmA very effective rant by Ian Lurie that suggests the bar for "Advanced SEO' has been placed lower than it should...
Bing Yahoo "Bingahoo" Alliance Shows a Payoff
February 2, 2011, 12:10 pmA white flag of surrender was seen over Yahoo's once titanic fortress last year as they announced that their advertising would be handled by competitor Microsoft. Shortly thereafter, Yahoo handed the reigns over completely, letting Bing handle their search engine algorithm so Yahoo could focus on other projects . The move was marked with...
Globally, Google Takes the "Top Smartphone OS" Position
February 2, 2011, 12:10 pmHere in the U.S., the iPhone's availability on only one carrier allowed Android to move into the number one position for smartphones " with figures expected to change once Verizon releases their version of the iPhone. However, there's a massive market of non-U.S. mobile users, where RIM and Nokia have long been the leaders. After a long struggle...
Blekko Comes to Mobile
February 2, 2011, 12:10 pmThere's been plenty of warring in the world of search, and one of the more important territories can be found in mobile devices. Bing has gained an advantage in this territory simply due to their well-designed app, Google has secured its territory with various default features on mobile, and Yahoo has taken a hit because of its existence in "no...
DOTW: Google vs. Bing 2011 Copygate: Who won?
February 2, 2011, 12:05 pmGoogle accuses Bing of copying its search results. Bing calls Google's sting operation a "spy-novelesque stunt." Google fires back by calling Bing's search results a "cheap imitation" and a "recycled" version of Google's search results. Now that the dust is settling a day later, our "Discussion of the Week" asks a simple question: Who won ......
UK Valentine's Day Trends: Think Outside the Candy Box
February 2, 2011, 11:50 amI hate Valentines Day. This is not because I am single. It isnt. Really. It also isnt because I am bitter, surly and ill-tempered, although it helps. I may have an extreme aversion to Valentines Day akin to Liverpool hating Man U, but as a search marketer, I cannot afford to ignore it and neither can you. Along with the usual flowers, lingerie and...
Microsoft Releases H.264 Extension For Chrome
February 2, 2011, 11:29 amAbout three weeks ago, Google announced that Chrome would no longer support the H.264 video codec. Now, following some unpleasantness over allegedly copied search results, Microsoft's struck back by introducing an H.264 extension for Chrome. To be fair, there's room for interpretation regarding how aggressive this move is (or isn't). Microsoft's...
Recipe Search Engine Goes Social With Facebook
February 2, 2011, 11:29 amFoodily, a search engine for comparing recipes, said today it wants to make cooking more social via an integration with Facebook. Recipes liked on Foodily will appear in a users' Facebook feed, and recipes that others like will appear in a Foodily recipe search. Foodily also now lets people create a Facebook event invitation that includes a...
Tibco Launches Tibbr, Social Media for IT Professionals
February 2, 2011, 11:19 amThere are numerous social media platforms available on the Internet that cater to specific groups and interests. For internal, corporate structures, there is a new social media application that has been recently developed, catering specifically to IT professionals and technological gurus. Tibbr is the new social media platform for workplace...
Google Reportedly Recycles Amazon Algorithm for YouTube
February 2, 2011, 11:13 amGoogle blasted Bing in an official Google blog post for tapping into its search results. We covered that here . In that post , Google's Amit Singhal said, "At Google we strongly believe in innovation and are proud of our search quality. We've invested thousands of person-years into developing our search algorithms because we want our users to get...
The Daily e-Paper For The iPad
February 2, 2011, 11:13 amRupert Murdochs News Corp has launched The Daily, a e-paper-based daily newspaper exclusively for the iPad, and the early results are about what youd expect: rich, iPad-friendly content delivered with a subscription-based model. In regards to The Daily, feelings of meh come from the product itself. While the newscycle is all over the launch, has...
The Daily: An e-Paper For The iPad
February 2, 2011, 11:05 amRupert Murdoch’s News Corp has launched The Daily, a e-paper-based daily newspaper exclusively for the iPad, and the early results are about what you’d expect: rich, iPad-friendly content delivered with a subscription-based model.
In regards to The Daily, feelings of “meh” come from the product itself. While the...
Bing's Thoughts on Search Quality
February 2, 2011, 11:02 amBing's indirect response to Google's claims that Bing is copying Google SERPs.
Motorola Xoom Ad Dings iPad
February 2, 2011, 10:43 amMotorola is throwing Apple's own iconic marketing muscle back into its mighty face as it prepares to launch its iPad-challenging Xoom tablet computer. Notably, the company that has pinned its hopes to Android is airing an ad during the Super Bowl Feb. 6 designed to denigrate the iPad and pump up the Xoom, which sports a 10.1-inch screen powered by...
Location-Based Marketing With More Power Than Facebook
February 2, 2011, 10:22 amThere is a lot of hype around location-based services and the marketing opportunities that come with them, but check-in apps aren't the only way to reach consumers on a location basis. Familiar with digital out-of-home advertising? It's not exactly new and trendy, but there is a growing number of opportunities in this space as well. Rob Gorrie is...
Google Shopper For iPhone Released
February 2, 2011, 10:22 amiPhone owners now have another option when it comes to apps that can help them save money. Almost exactly a year after it became available to Android users, a version of Google Shopper for the iPhone has launched. Obviously, Google's a little late to this game on the iOS platform, and the new version of Google Shopper doesn't offer any fresh,...
Goodwill Launches Job Training Campaign On eBay
February 2, 2011, 10:22 amThe Goodwill said today it is launching a fundraising campaign on eBay to help people find and keep jobs. In partnership with eBay Giving Works, eBay's charity fundraising program, from February 7 to 13, Goodwill will be a featured nonprofit on eBay, offering people the opportunity to buy, sell or donate to support Goodwill's job training...
Different Approaches to Internet Explorer
February 2, 2011, 9:51 amAs the news of Google Chromes increase in browser market share hit the tubes, some outlets took this as an opportunity to blast Microsofts ubiquitous browser, Internet Explorer. While its still pretty en vogue to hate all things Microsoft; although, it feels that should be passe by now, perhaps some of the IE hate was a little forced? Take the...
How to Utilize Location-Based Services
February 2, 2011, 9:34 amIn the world of online social media, location-based services may be the next best thing. Since this technology is still relatively new, it could head off in several possible directions. However, many pioneer location-based services such as Foursquare and Gowalla are proving what's possible with this technology and how it can be utilized by both .
The Straight Dope on Facebook, Twitter, and SEO
February 2, 2011, 9:29 amEver wonder if all those links that result from people retweeting and sharing content on Twitter give you a boost with SEO? For a long time no one was sure, because the dreaded nofollow was in use on big social sites to keep those links from being counted as a "vote" for search engine purposes. No matter what, social networking links are still...
Google Adds Hotpot Recommendations to Regular Search Results
February 2, 2011, 9:13 amGoogle announced that it is now adding results from Hotpot right in regular Google.com search results (with the local Google Places results it's already putting there). If you're not familiar with Hotpot, launched late last year, this video pretty much sums it up: The move was inevitable, and it's available in 38 languages now, and it certainly...
And Now, The Social Media Weather
February 2, 2011, 8:58 amThe brutal winter weather system thats been assaulting the United States for the past couple of days has given birth to a nifty moniker. Calling the event Snowmageddon, the inclement weather has taken hold of the lower 48, and as most technologically-savvy Americans are wont to do, theyve taken to the social media highway to share pictures, tales...
Verizon Taking Pre-Orders For iPhone 4
February 2, 2011, 8:58 amApple said today it will be taking pre-orders for its iPhone 4 on Verizon beginning at 3 a.m. EST on February 3. Verizon said it has set aside a limited quantity of iPhone smartphones for existing customers and orders will be shipped to arrive on February 10. We appreciate our many customers who told us that iPhone 4 should be on the nation's...
AOL Beats Q4 Estimates
February 2, 2011, 8:58 amEarlier this morning, AOL reported its fourth quarter earnings results, and for shareholders, there's both good news and bad news. The good: the company beat most analysts' expectations. The bad: a column documenting year-over-year changes is still almost full of double-digit negative numbers. Indeed, total revenue decreased 26 percent compared...
The Art of Big Corporate SEO
February 2, 2011, 8:45 amTony Verre put together a solid and expansive piece on what to expect (and how to succeed) when implementing SEO at a large corporation.
Social Signals in SEO? Who Cares
February 2, 2011, 8:27 amWhen smart people interview search engineers and hear a cryptic explanation about a potentially new ranking signal - or review a Google patent application - it's interesting news to SEO practitioners like me. I freely admit that I pay attention to these stories and read them carefully. However, when it comes to all the recent emphasis on social...
Google Calls Bing's Search Results Incomplete and Stale
February 2, 2011, 8:24 amBing was called out for copying Google search results in a revealing piece by Danny Sullivan, which chronicled a "sting operation" by Google to bust Bing doing so.
Not long after the article came out, Google's Matt Cutts and Bing's Harry Shum discussed the matter in front of an audience at a search event. While the two didn't start...
Google vs Bing
February 2, 2011, 8:17 amQuite Similar Results A few months back I was running Advanced Web Ranking and noticed that Google and Bing were really starting to come in line on some keywords. Major Differences Of course there are still differences between Bing and Google. Google has far more usage data built up over the years & a huge market share advantage over Bing in...
AdWords + AdSense and Click Arbitrage
February 2, 2011, 8:01 amWhen I first read this AdWords and AdSense post from the Inside AdWords blog, I was dumbfounded. They are against click arbitrage and have been fighting it outwardly since 2006. So why after 5 years are they seemingly advocating it? Simple, they aren't. This is one of those instances where Google seems to go against their own advice and risks...
Confirmation: The Google Algorithm Change Was Not for Content Farms
February 2, 2011, 7:56 amWhen Google's Matt Cutts recently posted on his personal blog about an algorithm update, many people took that to mean that this was geared at cracking down on content farms, as the phrase "content farms" had made an appearance in another post on the Google blog before that. I wrote a post called " Is This Google Algorithm Change About Content...
The Sole Currency at Facebook: Credit Only
February 2, 2011, 7:40 amFacebook recently decided to streamline its method of financial transactions with gaming developers and currency on the site. The social network has decided to go the route of "credit only" for users who want to play online games. The change stands to create even more profit for the company since it currently charges users a .
How To Make Your Email Campaigns Mobile Friendly
February 2, 2011, 7:19 amGiven the stunning conclusion of a recent A.C. Nielsen study that "if all time spent on the mobile web was condensed into a single hour, U.S. internet users would have spent 25 minutes in June 2010 checking email" it is obvious that far from being "dead" as many of its Web 3.0 detractors like to claim, email is experiencing a renaissance within...
Salespeople: the free SEO tool every agency has
February 2, 2011, 5:39 amI have been working as a full time SEO Exec for just about a year now and a few things have become apparent in that time, most notably that SEOs love tools and are always on the lookout for that elusive competitive advantage to give them a ranking edge. So it strikes me as odd that every agency already has access to a free tool that will (amongst...
Is Google Chrome as Good as They Say It Is?
February 2, 2011, 4:35 amHave you ever heard about KidRocket, Konqueror or Amaya? I bet you didn’t. What about Safari and Opera? Sounds more familiar, right? And Google Chrome? Is there anybody who did NOT hear about Google’s web browser? Probably not.
Launched slightly over two(!) years ago – compare that to 14-yeard old Internet Explorer and 7-year old Mozilla...
SEO content marketing roundup, week ending February 2nd
February 2, 2011, 3:33 amSpam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, and spam . Sound like your search results? Monty Python's famous skit is most applicable to this week's latest and greatest web writing news: SEO, search, and content marketers alike chirped up Google's algorithmic change aimed at "killing" the'spam'churned out by content farming giants - and it seems there's...
Now Check In With Google Latitude
February 2, 2011, 3:16 amGoogle produces so many services and offerings that many just keep running in the background even without widespread adoption. One of those services is Latitude which is about two years old, has 10 million users and has generated little buzz.
It looks like Google may be trying to change that as it has introduced a check in feature for Latitude...
What Are the Best UK Online Marketing Blogs?
February 2, 2011, 3:06 amA while back I created a list of SEO blogs and continued to review and add a handful of blogs every week for about 2 years. I use "SEO" somewhat loosely, since most search marketers are adept at a variety of online marketing tactics including social, PPC, email and content. With a trip to London coming up soon and plenty of great online marketing...
The Best Way to Tell Google a Page No Longer Exists
February 2, 2011, 1:10 amWhat do you think it's the best way to tell googlebot that a page does not exist anymore.Simply delete it and let it 404 until googlebot gets bored and stops trying, or return a 410 code everytime it tries to download it?
Google Holds Its Breath and Bing Stamps Its Feet and the World Yawns
February 2, 2011, 12:24 amWow, this is ridiculous. Whether it was planned or timed by Google to say Bing copied Google's search results or even if Bing is actually copying Google search results has become almost irrelevant. Here's what Andy Beal thinks about the whole thing. So this is what happens when multi-billion companies have issues with each other? Puh-leeze.
Corporate SEO - Link Building by Letter
February 2, 2011, 12:19 amPosted by David Burgess 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. There are countless ways of contacting people in search for a link, and in a time when social...
5 Reasons Video Marketing is Important
February 2, 2011, 12:08 amVideo marketing is not really a new hot topic but it is a topic of importance to help you grow your business. Online video marketing has now been around for a number of years and it is an area that is still continuing to grow as time moves on. Technologies that allow businesses to apply videos to their business model are also growing, making it...
Building Your Own Scraper for Link Analysis
February 1, 2011, 11:39 pmAs an SEO there are a lot of questions I’d like to answer that don’t have simple solutions. Many of these are associated with profiling a list of URLs based off the information located in page content. Using available tools, I came up with the idea of using Google Custom Search Engine (GCSE), but this wasn’t a full solution. I...
Old Fashioned Message Boards Still Get the Job Done
February 1, 2011, 10:48 pm71% of the Inc. 500 companies surveyed said they are using Facebook for marketing, up 61% from last year. It’s the biggest bite of social media pie but according to the same survey that bite is loaded with empty calories. (That’ll teach me to write when I’m hungry.)
The survey was conducted by the University of Massachusetts...
Targeting Digital Dads
February 1, 2011, 8:15 pmYahoo!'s Edwin Wong explains an emerging segment often ignored It's not your father's household. Men no longer pace hospital hallways puffing cigars while waiting for the stork to deliver junior. They don't come home after a long day at the office to bury themselves in the sports page while mom makes pot roast in the kitchen, " Leave it to Beaver...
Bing Copying Google: And I Care Why?
February 1, 2011, 8:14 pmOkay so Google set a trap to verify Bing was copying some of their results. They then presented the story to Danny Sullivan to get it out to the search industry and other news sources this morning just before ThinkBig's Farsight 2011: Beyond the Search Box, an event sponsored by Bing. Representatives from both Google and Bing met on a panel during...
Cyclone Yasi Rocks the Web
February 1, 2011, 7:24 pmby Claudine Zap The impending cyclone Yasi bearing down on the coast of northeast Australia sounds like something straight out of a disaster movie. But it is all too real . The potentially deadly storm is being labeled the "most severe storm ever" to hit northern Queensland . The storm has been upgraded to a maximum-strength category 5 , and is...
Microsoft's Media Network and Mobile Advertising Network Awarded with Highest Rated Media Awards for Advertiser Satisfaction in U.S.
February 1, 2011, 6:58 pmWe are honored to learn that today both our Microsoft Media Network and Mobile Advertising Network have been awarded with the Advertiser Perceptions Highest Rated Media Brand for Ad Network Advertiser Satisfaction as well as Advertiser Perceptions Highest Rated Media Brand for Mobile Advertiser Satisfaction in the U.S. The awards were based on the...
'Kennedys' Saga Stirs the Web
February 1, 2011, 5:41 pmby Claudine Zap An eight-part miniseries about the lives and loves of the Kennedys is back , and buzzing on the Web. The Hollywood Reporter announced that the scripted TV drama, " Kennedys " - starring big-screen actors Greg Kinnear and Katie Holmes as the president and Jackie O. - has been picked up by ReelzChannel after the History Channel...
Super Bowl snacking with GrubHub and PayPal
February 1, 2011, 5:05 pmAs pretty much everyone in the US knows, it's Super Bowl Sunday this weekend. As I was born in the UK, I have to admit that I've never fully understood the rules of American football. One thing that has always impressed me, though, has been the amazing array of snack food at every Super Bowl party I've ever attended " from 96-oz buckets of chicken...
Search Alliance Whitepaper from Marin Software: Why the Search Alliance is Paying Off for Paid Search
February 1, 2011, 4:44 pmIn 2009, the announcement of the Search Alliance betweem Microsoft and Yahoo! brought excitement to the paid search market. By combining the power of Yahoo! and Bing in search advertising, brands could ultimately benefit greater from a more efficient marketplace. While the Search Alliance roll out is still underway globally, North American...
Google Latitude Adds Check-in Options
February 1, 2011, 4:44 pmFacebook, Foursquare, and Gowalla (along with several other companies) now have a little more competition when it comes to location-based check-in services. Starting this afternoon, Google Latitude users can also let their friends know when they've arrived at a certain place. Google's rationale for this upgrade is that check-ins add context. ...
Digital Dads: I'm Not a Subsegment
February 1, 2011, 4:27 pmFree webinar reveals how men are playing a bigger role in the home and in purchase decisions What: Digital Dads webinar When: Thursday, February 3, 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time What you will learn: During this free and informative one-hour web seminar, you can: Gain additional understanding about the role dads play in the household and the key...
Facebook Clicks Fade as CPC Rises
February 1, 2011, 4:16 pm1,500 Advertising Campaigns 11,200 Individual Ads 2.2 Million Clicks 0 Happy Marketers "Facebook Advertising Performance Benchmarks & Insights" is the latest whitepaper from Webtrends and it brings some sobering news. In short, Facebook ads aren't turning out to be the gift to marketing we'd hoped and maybe Eric Schmidt was right, Google has...
The iPad Apps That Diplomats Will Use
February 1, 2011, 4:12 pmEarlier, we ran a story about the Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce at the University of Kentucky (UK) here in Lexington, launching an initiative to put iPads in the hands of students and faculty, with support for an 18-month trial from Apple. The idea is that future diplomats be well versed in current technology.
We...
What is wrong with Blekko and Bing
February 1, 2011, 3:49 pmI am really getting tired of Google presenting information and blog posts from 2007. The authority Google gives to these old blog posts and news items causes their results for particular topics to just STINK.
So I jump search engines to BING or for today trying Blekko. Both these engines tend to do a better job weeding out some old content from...
Random Video Chat Comes to Facebook, Courtesy of Rounds
February 1, 2011, 3:37 pmLast summer, Rounds (formerly 6rounds.com) launched an interactive video chat platform for Facebook. "We created Rounds to give online social networking and social gaming more of a real-time, fun, and collaborative feeling," CEO Dany Fishel told WebProNews. "Rounds bridges the gap between real life and the online world by helping people feel close...
I Worked on the AOL Content Farm & It Changed My Life
February 1, 2011, 3:36 pmA fascinating "insider" look at life inside one of the leading "content mill" producers out there.I can tell you from personal experience and feedback from colleagues that AOL isn't the only company taking this approach to SEO (and monetization). This actually going on in various niches as well (not just the mainstream usual suspects like Demand...
Japanese SEO market grew 18.6% in 2010
February 1, 2011, 3:32 pmAun Consulting announced that Japanese SEO industry grew to 194 billion yen market in 2010, which was a 18.6% growth from 2009. According to the report, SEO outsourcing category grew 22%, SEO In-house category grew 19% and SEO Tool industry grew 6%. Aun predicts that the SEO industry in Japan will grow to 220 billion yen market in 2011. No related...
Grow up Google!
February 1, 2011, 3:31 pmWho is really copying who and who is most ethical? Is clickstream data valid and ethical at all? And why did Google chose to break the news now? Is it just another Google hoax?
"Guide To Going Google" Debuts
February 1, 2011, 3:21 pmWhen making a big decision, many people like to do some research on their own before meeting with a salesperson. And sellers might prefer this arrangement, too, since it saves them from having to answer the same basic questions over and over. So Google's probably made a wise move by releasing a "Guide to Going Google" for schools and...
Introducing two new ValueTrack parameters
February 1, 2011, 3:10 pmWe just announced two new ValueTrack parameters on the Inside AdWords blog. ValueTrack is a feature that helps you pass dynamic AdWords ad click information in your Destination URL. The new {matchtype} parameter provides you with the matchtype of the keyword for search ads ("b" for broad, "p" for phrase, and "e" for exact). The new {network}...
Google, Bing, and Blekko Talk Content Farms and Search Quality
February 1, 2011, 2:45 pmMatt Cutts from Google, Harry Shum from Bing, and Rich Skrenta from Blekko spoke on a panel today at the Farsight Summit. Much of the conversation was around the Bing/Google results copying ordeal , but part of the conversation was about search quality in general, and the impact content farms are having on it. Blekko announced this morning that...
Summary of the #FutureSearch Talk with Google, Bing & Blekko
February 1, 2011, 2:45 pmPosted by Tom_C Wow. Today has been interesting - I woke up to the news that Bing copies Google search results and I've ended my day watching a live cast debate between Google, Bing and Blekko over on BigThink . This post wraps up some of my thoughts and insights from the news and the discussion because I think there were lots of very interesting...
Online Health Searches Popular Among Internet Users
February 1, 2011, 2:08 pmThe majority (80%) of U.S. Internet users look for health information, making it the third most popular online activity, following email and using a search engine, according to a new report by the Pew Internet Project. The most likely groups to look online for health information include: caregivers, women, whites, younger adults, and adults with...
Bing Responds to Claims It Cheats Off Of Google
February 1, 2011, 1:52 pmAs previously reported , Danny Sullivan revealed a "sting operation" set up by Google , which appears to show that Bing has been copying some of their search results. Bing has now responded with more than the canned statement it previously gave to reporters. "We use over 1,000 different signals and features in our ranking algorithm. A small piece...
Twitter Pros and Cons
February 1, 2011, 1:18 pmIs Twitter better than Facebook? It may sound like a crazy question. The fact is Twitter can be much better for marketing strategies, while Facebook is a more personal platform. In a recent PC World article by Barbara E. Hernandez, it's noted that Twitter allows for "more return on investment, less time for more exposure, a quick-hit approach to...
How Many Links Should An Infographic Get?
February 1, 2011, 12:43 pm2010 was declared by some as the year of the infographic. And when everyone jumped on the bandwagon, infographics quickly became the 2010 version of a top 10 list.
So Why The Explosion In Infographics?
With content still reigning as king (or at least queen) in the link-building world, and attention spans getting shorter and shorter, data...
Thoughts on search quality
February 1, 2011, 12:42 pmThis morning, I will be on a panel at the Farsight Summit with some of the industrys thought leaders to talk about search quality as we look into the future of search. Farsight is about looking 10 years into the future to explore the big industry challenges and opportunities ahead of us as we work to deliver the next generation of search.
Content Scraping: Prevention, Repercussions, and…Benefits?
February 1, 2011, 12:20 pmThe duplication of already-published content is running rampant online. Automatic scrapers will take unique published web content and copy it to publish on another website. This is to hopefully get the content indexed by the search engines so traffic will begin to flow to their website, eventually clicking on ads and other links published...
LinkedIn Unveils InMaps
February 1, 2011, 12:16 pmGeotagging has for a while been a process that users frequently access to pinpoint their locations and to find the geographical position of those in their social networks and online communities. It attaches geographical data to photographs, websites and even video. Geotagging became even more popular when companies like Foursquare arose, making...
Critical Mass and Your Social Media Strategy Part I
February 1, 2011, 12:06 pmA friend of mine, whose fairly young blog has been quite popular, had one thing to say about building an online network: In no way does the 1980s adage, if you build it, they will come philosophy work. Really? Even when a dozen Tweeps follow you before you send a single Tweet? When it seems everyone from rescue dogs to Smurfette have thousands...
Bing Trends: Top football search trends
February 1, 2011, 12:06 pmWhich player would you most like to watch the big game with? Who was the best looking player on the field this season? What are the odds that youll be eating Buffalo wings on Sunday? Which citys team was searched most often? Ahead of Sundays game, we delved into the search data and conducted a survey to find out. Whats more, we created an...
eBay Attracts Employees From Bing, Facebook
February 1, 2011, 11:44 ameBay lost an important employee last week (the VP of product development at PayPal jumped to Google) but things are now looking up on the personnel front. The company's managed to poach one staff member each from Bing and Facebook, and both men have rather impressive resumes. Let's discuss them in alphabetical order. Dennis DeCoste hails from...
The Yellow Pages Launches Opt-Out Website
February 1, 2011, 11:44 amThe Yellow Pages Association has introduced a new website that allows people to opt out of receiving phone directories. The new website, Yellowpagesoptout.com, allows people to select which phone directories they receive, or stop deliveries entirely. "Our industry is taking a giant leap forward today by launching a clearinghouse site for...
Groundhog Day Moves the Web
February 1, 2011, 11:44 amby Claudine Zap Will this winter ever end? That's the question for a groundhog to decide. Groundhog Day is almost upon us, and searches on Yahoo! have forecasted a storm of lookups on the day, the history, and how accurate that critter really is. Here, your Buzz Log explainer. How did Groundhog Day start? The tradition of a hibernating animal...
University of Kentucky School Trains Future Diplomats with iPads
February 1, 2011, 11:28 amThe Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce at the University of Kentucky (UK) here in Lexington, has taken up an initiative to provide students with iPads for the duration of their degree cycle. The school's website says , "This initiative will be 'soup to nuts,' encompassing student recruitment, admissions, seminars, graduation,...
Weekly Search & Social News: 02/01/2011
February 1, 2011, 10:56 amHello and welcom back to ' 7 Days of Search and Social '. Obviously the (big?) news last week was Google's supposed 'thin content' algorithm changes. But fear not, we won't hang on that too long because there was a ton of great stuff across the board. It's some heavy lifting this week folks, so start warming up. And away'.
AdWords Policy updates and auditing plans for third parties
February 1, 2011, 10:50 amAccountability is a core principle of AdWords. In order to improve advertisers' experience, we're making changes to AdWords policies so that advertisers working with third-party partners understand how AdWords is performing for them and know what to expect from third parties. We believe that focusing on what's best for the advertiser is ultimately...
Search Gets Center Stage With Google Claiming Bing Copies Results
February 1, 2011, 10:49 amWe live in a world where coincidences ‘appear’ to happen. Of course, there are coincidences in life that are just pure chance (depending on your worldview, of course) but in the business world that doesn’t happen much. Today may be a real good case in point.
Danny Sullivan has completed an extensive investigative look at a claim by...
Google Says Bing is Stealing Their Results
February 1, 2011, 10:24 amWe all know that Bing is now powering Yahoo's search results, but a very interesting finding from Danny Sullivan indicates that Google may be powering Bing's search results, at least to some extent. No, this is not in any partnership kind of way like Bing's relationship with Yahoo. Google has apparently busted Bing copying their search results....
Google Launches Art Project Featuring Street View
February 1, 2011, 10:24 amGoogle has partnered with some of the world's most well known art museums to bring the works of more than 400 artists online. The Google Art Project allows users to take a virtual tour inside 17 art museums and view more than 1,000 works via Street View. Some of the museums include, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and MoMA in New York, The State...
Net Applications: Chrome's Market Share Jumps To 10.7 Percent
February 1, 2011, 10:24 amWhether or not any of us realized it at the time, the first month of 2011 was an exciting one when it came to Microsoft, Google, and the ongoing browser wars. New stats from Net Applications indicate that some big changes took place, with Chrome gaining ground and Internet Explorer taking a hit. Chrome's success story is the more straightforward...
Google Android's Painful Text Bug
February 1, 2011, 10:24 amThere's never been a system released that doesn't have some sort of bug; that's the very reason that extensive beta testing happens, and even that will miss some items. The issues only arise when the bugs go beyond minor inconveniences. Sadly for Android, a recent text messaging error is more than just "aggravating" " it .
Blekko Removes Content Farms From Search Results
February 1, 2011, 10:13 amIn an effort to combat web spam, Blekko will block from its search results 20 of the worst-offending SERP clogging content farms, including Demand Media's eHow and Answerbag, TechCrunch reports. This list of barred sites are as follows:
Click to read the rest of this post...
Hints of How Google May Rank Social Networks?
February 1, 2011, 10:05 amRegardless of if it's for their own network, external ones or both, it is always interesting to see how the Google geeks percieve the social sphere. PLenty to consider in this one.
Case Study: Delivering Actionable Analytics through Atlas+
February 1, 2011, 9:56 amDelivering actionable analytics for marketers is at the heart of everything Atlas does. However, its important to recognize that theres more to marketing analytics than just a bunch of marketing data. Its important to make that data (1) understandable, (2) actionable, and (3) manageable. This is why were excited about our Atlas+ solutions that...
5 Social Sites You May Not Have Heard About (Yet)
February 1, 2011, 9:35 amGreg Finn highlights his five favorite social up-and-comers and shows how you can use them to benefit your causes and social marketing campaigns.
YouTube Homepage Layout Protest Shows Less Civility Than Egyptian Protests
February 1, 2011, 9:20 amOn Jan. 20, 2011, YouTube changed its homepage layout . On Jan. 28, Liz of the YouTube Team said in the Help Forum , "We've been listening over the past week, and it's clear that some of you don't like the new homepage." Click to read the rest of this post.
Baidu Reports Big Jump In Revenue, Profits
February 1, 2011, 8:58 amChinese search company Baidu shows no signs of slowing down when it comes to making money. Late yesterday, the company released its fourth quarter earnings report, and analysts' expectations were surpassed in pretty much every respect. To sort of cut to the chase: Baidu's stock is up 6.69 percent in early morning trading, which shows the degree...
Gogo Offering Free Inflight Facebook Access
February 1, 2011, 8:58 amGogo Inflight Internet said today it would offer free access to Facebook for the month of February for passengers on seven major airlines. In partnership with Ford, Gogo is offering free Facebook access on American Airlines, Alaska Airlines, AirTran Airways, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, US Airways and Virgin America. " Facebook continues...
Web Conferencing Solutions - Where is the Performance?
February 1, 2011, 8:58 amHow do web conferencing providers differentiate themselves from the pack and demonstrate their superiority in value and benefits to potential customers? The primary answer (as known by any commercial software product marketing manager) is to add features. More features! I need to be able to put out a press release talking about new capabilities! I...
How to Capture Your Reader's Attention
February 1, 2011, 8:53 am"OH MY GOD! Your hair is on fire!" Well, that's probably not true. I only said it to get your attention. Getting attention is the most important part of online marketing. No matter how brilliant your ideas are, you can't even offer them to your prospect unless you've made her look in your direction first. You have to get your prospect's attention...
Official: Google launches a new anti-spam algorithm against content farms
February 1, 2011, 8:36 amEarlier this month, Google announced that they would release several new anti-spam algorithms this year. The first algorithm update has just been released and it deals with content farms. How does this affect your website and what do you have to change on your web pages?
Email Marketers See Shift to Mobile But Are They Responding?
February 1, 2011, 8:18 amThere is no denying that the move to mobile in every aspect of life is gaining momentum. That’s the easy part. That’s the part that makes headlines. Where it gets tough is when marketers have to adjust their way of doing business that they may have become comfortable in and, in many cases, put on cruise control. One of the most abrupt changes...
What's New in SEO for February 1, 2011
February 1, 2011, 8:16 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: Help wanted: Google hiring in 2011 Think it would be cool to work for Google? Well, now might be your chance. 2010 was a big year for the search engine and they have more big...
3 Things I Wish I Knew When I Started
February 1, 2011, 8:16 amWhen my SEO career begun and things began to develop, I begin to think I knew what I was talking about. I thought I knew this and I thought I knew that. My ego, somewhat ridiculously, began to expand, and I thought I knew more than I did. This state of knowing is referred to in the Dreyfus Model of Skill Acquisition , which is known as being an...
Bing Adds Advanced TV Show Listing Feature
February 1, 2011, 8:06 amThe Internet is full of every kind of content you could ask for " and even some that you don't have the imagination to have requested. As the different forms of information, from informational to interactive, from academic to purely comedic, the different search engines must fight to retain their piece of the internet pie. .
A Link Building Blueprint: The Foundation
February 1, 2011, 8:04 amThis article takes a look at what happened last week with Google’s algorithm tweak, how it may affect your linking and why now more than ever it’s a good idea to use a wide variety of link building tactics.
Google: Bing Is Cheating, Copying Our Search Results
February 1, 2011, 8:00 amFrom Danny Sullivan at Search Engine Land: "Google has run a sting operation that it says proves Bing has been watching what people search for on Google, the sites they select from Google’s results, then uses that information to improve Bing’s own search listings. Bing doesn’t deny this."
Quora as Small Business Tool
February 1, 2011, 7:55 amI confess: I'm already addicted. While Quora is still suffering the occasional freeze and the frequent hiccup, I just can't seem to stay away. But I am, after all, a geek. Here's hoping you are faring better. I certainly hope you've passed the annoying "how to ask a question" test: Granted, the jury is still out on whether or not the new...
Shopping Basket Best Practice from ASOS
February 1, 2011, 7:26 am14 best practices for moving shoppers through the checkout process leading higher conversion rates and better usability within the shopping cart from the ecommerce fashion/clothing store ASOS.
What If Content From One Company Dominated Google's Search Results?
February 1, 2011, 7:25 amDemand Media continues to capture a great deal of attention after launching an IPO, and Google talking about algorithm changes. If you've been reading WebProNews lately, we've discussed it quite a bit, and our readers have had plenty to say as well. You can browse recent coverage (and comments) here.
The question still remains: will Google...
Startup America: Google, Facebook Among Companies to Lead White House Entrepreneurship Initiative
February 1, 2011, 7:22 amLess than a week after announcing a commitment to entrepreneurship during the State of the Union address, the Obama administration announced Startup America, a national campaign to help create jobs and industries of the future. Yesterday morning, President Obama stood with several economic advisors and a number of America's top business leaders...
Yammer CEO Slams Salesforce's New Chatter.com
February 1, 2011, 7:13 amIt would appear that Yammer is not thrilled with Salesforce's latest foray into social media-based productivity. Yesterday, Salesforce announced the launch of chatter.com , a free way for any business with its own email address to create a private social network for their company. David Sacks, CEO of Yammer (and former COO of PayPal) had some...
Escaping TopRank Winter for San Diego, London, Barcelona & Austin
February 1, 2011, 7:07 amBeautiful sunrise Lake Minnetonka. But COLD! One of the greatest things about a good old fashioned, cold and snowy Winter in Minnesota is leaving for a few weeks to warmer weather. Add to that the opportunity to spend time meeting smart online marketers from around the world and it's an even better season. The next 30 days will be a whirlwind with...
Are you charging enough for your time?
February 1, 2011, 6:41 amLast week, I wrote a blog post called, "Content mills are (almost) dead. Now what?" At the end of the post, I included this blurb: "As a call to action to my fellow copywriting peeps, and I say this with the utmost love and compassion: If you are a writer working for $5 per 1,000 word article, stop it. You're worth more. You really are. And I bet...
Rank Tracker and SEO SpyGlass Integrate Google Analytics (More Data to Play with!)
February 1, 2011, 6:40 amSo, we've been thinking about integration of our tools with Google Analytics for quite a time and now the integration process has started, with Rank Tracker and SEO SpyGlass as pioneers. We've added ability to see real traffic numbers coming from Google Analytics - right inside out tools. What's new in Rank Tracker: (See SEJ review of Rank Tracker...
Blekko Bans eHow and Other Content Farms
February 1, 2011, 5:11 amAccording to a Techcrunch story just published the war against content farms has reached Blekko. WebProNews is seeking to confirm the facts. To learn more about Blekko view the embedded video interviews our WebProNews team conducted with Blekko founder Rich Skrenta below. Techcrunch reports that Blekko is now (or about to) block the top 20 sites...
Google Sting Exposes "Copying" by Bing
February 1, 2011, 3:37 amGoogle manually changed search results and saw their changes echoed in Bing results. This led Google to assert that Bing was "copying" and "cheating."But, if Bing is simply monitoring user behavior with its toolbar, does watching what people search for and what they prefer to click on constitute cheating or smart business?
Is SEO Immoral?
February 1, 2011, 3:18 amPosted by randfish Inquiring Quorites want to know : Is SEO immoral? We search for relevance via the search engine. By learning and manipulating the system to accomplish its goal, SEO makes it more likely that you will come upon a target that is irrelevant. Thereby, wasting the user's time and resources. It could be considered advertising in the...
Google Gathering Egyptian Protest Videos At CitizenTube
February 1, 2011, 2:53 amYouTube has been flooded with videos from the Egyptian protests and is now collecting them at CitizenTube - Google's news and politics channel, the YouTube blog reported. "We understand how closely the world is following these events, and want to help people access and share this information quickly and easily on YouTube." The site has done this...
Google Creates Work Around For Blocked Egyptian Tweeters
February 1, 2011, 2:22 amAs protests continue and the Egyptian government blocks access to the internet , Google created a workaround over the weekend so people can access Twitter via phone calls and leave updates, the company's official blog announced . "Like many people we've been glued to the news unfolding in Egypt and thinking of what we could do to help people on...
Canada To Get Metered Internet
February 1, 2011, 12:54 amMetered Internet usage (also called "Usage-Based Billing") is coming to Canada, and it's going to cost Internet users.While an advance guard of Canadians are expressing creative outrage at the prospect of having to pay inflated prices for Internet use charged by the gigabyte, the consequences probably haven't set in for most consumers.Now,...
How to NOT Increase Visitors to Your Blog
February 1, 2011, 12:13 amGrowing a blog is like growing a plant. It takes time and patience but once it's grown it's all maintenance from there. There are lots of blogs out there so you need to make sure that you are taking a good quality approach to building up your following. There are however some very important areas to not venture into if you truly want to build a...
