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Sandra, Bret, and Lindsay: Buzz Week in Review
April 30, 2010, 7:17 pmby Mike Krumboltz Busy week in show business. A Hollywood A-lister filed for divorce and showed off her newly adopted baby boy. Elsewhere, an '80s rocker suffered a brain hemorrhage, but looks to be on the mend. And, finally, one of the most infamous starlets in Tinsel Town could be heading for a stint in the big house (her lawyer says otherwise)....
Prom Prep Stirs the Web
April 30, 2010, 7:00 pmby Claudine Zap The theme has been picked. The invites have gone out. All that's left for prom-goers to decide: Everything. The dress, the hair, maybe even a date. But before potential prom kings and queens hit the dance floor, they've flocked to the Web for Prom 101 assistance. Here, a Buzz roundup of prom trends. Dance, dance revolution While...
Facebook Removes Your Profile Rights and Choices
April 30, 2010, 5:06 pmFacebook has removed your right to present your user profile the way you want it. Without your permission, they simply went ahead and turned every profile into a series of links intended to build a Facebook Wiki.1. Your profile has been edited by FB.2. They remove info they feel is not "popular".3. They link your content to pages being created...
L.A. Stumbles In Deployment Of Google Apps
April 30, 2010, 5:01 pmThe deployment of Google Apps in Los Angeles - the same deployment that's supposed to save L.A. $5.5 million over the next five years and inspire many other cities to follow its example - isn't going according to plan. Although it appears that neither side is entirely to blame, several problems have cropped up. A group of city employees has been...
iPad Apps Near 5,000 Mark
April 30, 2010, 4:38 pmThe number of applications in the Apple App Store for iPad has climbed to 4,870 since the launch of the device on April 3, according to the latest report from app store analytics firm Distimo. Nine days after the release of the iPad, the Apple App Store for the device had 3,670 applications, with 2,654 applications that were only compatible with...
Workplace Disasters, Deft Celebs, Master Moves: April 2010 Buzz
April 30, 2010, 4:09 pmby Vera H-C Chan Jobs became the focus in April. Workplace disasters here and abroad brought attention to occupational hazards, with one threatening the livelihood of Gulf states. Meanwhile, the White House tackled Wall Street's work habits, although senators had a tough time starting the conversation. And some celebrity personalities tried to get...
Bing and Summer Travel: Opportunities for Microsoft adCenter Advertisers
April 30, 2010, 4:09 pmHere we are at the end of April already, can you believe it? With May starting tomorrow, I wanted to get in one more reminder that for many folks out there, spring = travel plans, which translates to opportunity for travel-related advertisers running.
Are Likes and Retweets the New Links?
April 30, 2010, 3:35 pmSearch has been evolving for years, and it looks as though its really starting to enter a new era entirely. While search and social media may be two different animals, it is becoming more clear that they're directly related, and will continue to be more mixed into one another. We're already seeing search engines attempt to place some kind of...
Google Gains Ground in Germany & US on Copyright & Trademark
April 30, 2010, 3:32 pm
Google saw two legal victories this week in copyright and trademark issues.
In the first case, a German artist uploaded large images of her paintings to her website. When Google Image Search displayed thumbnails of those images, she sued for copyright infringement. The German Supreme Court ruled against the artist. As Google says...
Barnes & Noble Members Now Get Free Shipping Online
April 30, 2010, 2:33 pmBarnes & Noble has introduced "Unlimited Free Express Shipping" to all of its members for orders placed online and ship-to-home orders placed in store. All Barnes & Noble Members orders will be automatically upgraded to Free Express Shipping and will arrive in three business days or less, with no minimum purchase required and no limits. "Extending...
Survey Says'Demand for Electronic P2P Payments is Growing Rapidly
April 30, 2010, 2:33 pmHi, All. This is Dan Schatt, GM of PayPal's Financial Innovations team, here. We wanted to call out a recent survey conducted by Fidelity National Information Services (FIS) which revealed that demand for electronic person-to-person (P2P) payments and transfers is growing rapidly - so much so that 70 percent of respondents would use P2P payment...
Google Maps No Phone Zones for Oprah
April 30, 2010, 2:15 pmGoogle announced today that has provided mapping (via the Google Maps API) for a couple of highway safety initiatives around the use of cell phones in vehicles. The first such initiative is Oprah's " No Phone Zone ", which lets users make a pledge under three different options: no texting, no texting plus handsfree calling only, and no phone use...
Rielle does "Oprah," Dominique Dawes Lands a Medal, Dorothy Height Is Eulogized: What's the Buzz
April 30, 2010, 1:36 pmby Claudine Zap Our top picks from the day's hottest searches. Rielle Hunter (Searches increased by +2,081%). Oprah Winfrey grilled the mistess of John Edwards. Dominique Dawes (+1,489%). The Olympic gymnast finally scores a bronze medal â" 10 years later . Puerto Rico statehood (495%). The House approved a bill that puts Puerto Rico on the...
Using Social Media to Drum up Buzz for Social Products
April 30, 2010, 1:33 pm
Microsoft is premiering two social-network-enabled phones designed to appeal to younger users (aged 14-34) who already live on social networks. And they know just where to reach them—even before the product launch, Microsoft has set up Pages on Facebook for the Kin One and Kin Two.
Naturally, appealing to your audience where...
Ohio AG Files Against Google in Anti-Trust Suit
April 30, 2010, 12:35 pm
Question: is it anti-competitive to regulate your own search advertising program? Answer: yes, according to myTriggers.com or the Ohio Attorney General. When Google sued for $335,000 in backpayments on AdSense clicks, erstwhile Google advertiser/competitor myTriggers.com filed a countersuit alleging Google had dinged their quality...
And we're off to the races
April 30, 2010, 12:33 pmIts time to dust off your best hat and find that recipe for Mint Juleps . Thats right, this weekend marks the 136 th running of the Kentucky Derby. Before the horses take to the track as My Old Kentucky Home plays we want to make sure you are ready for the festivities. If you are looking for the Kentucky Derby details Bing provides an instant...
Smartphones Driving Mobile Recovery
April 30, 2010, 11:48 amThe global mobile phone market grew 21.7 percent in the first quarter of 2010, a strong rebound over the first quarter of 2009, according to the latest report from IDC. Vendors shipped 294.9 million units in the first quarter of 2010 compared to 242.4 million units a year earlier. Smartphones and a recovering traditional mobile phone category...
Google's TV Software May Debut At I/O
April 30, 2010, 11:25 amRather than just announce some partnerships, or even parade a few unfinished prototypes across a stage, Google may share some rather important information regarding its TV software with developers at Google I/O. Enough info for developers to start making apps, perhaps. Jessica E. Vascellaro and Don Clark reported this morning, "Google Inc. is...
Get Mobile with Free Windows Phone Developer Kits
April 30, 2010, 11:20 amMaybe Im drinking too much (of my own koolaid that is). But I strongly believe that Windows Phone 7 is going to make an impressive splash in the mobile market. Having seen several demos , Im just convinced we are on the right path. If Im right, and youre a marketer that is using mobile applications to support your business, get your developers...
UK Election 2010: For Want of a Nail, the Shoe was Lost
April 30, 2010, 11:04 amWith less than a week to go, some commentators on the UK Election 2010 are asking, "This was meant to be the internet election. So what happened?"Click to read the rest of this post...
Turn Your WordPress Blog into a Lead Generation Machine
April 30, 2010, 11:03 amThere is nothing more valuable to a small business than turning your WordPress site into a lead generation machine, with a CRM enabled plugin.
Google Improves Image Search for Android and iPhone
April 30, 2010, 10:55 am
Admittedly I am a little slow on the uptake on this one but would be remiss if I didn’t mention that Google has updated its image search for mobile (Android 2.1 and iPhone 3.0+ only so all you BB users start your collective moan of being shut out again).
Now searching images is like everything else on these platforms. Google’s...
Opera Acquires Email Service Provider FastMail
April 30, 2010, 10:02 amOpera announced today it has acquired web-based email provider FastMail.fm. Opera's offered its own email client since 2000, and now it will use FastMail to expand its own messaging product across various devices from mobile to TVs and gaming consoles.
"The newest generation of Web users will discover the Web through a mobile device,"...
Principal Calls for Social Networking Ban. Should Marketers Be Concerned?
April 30, 2010, 9:12 am
We have talked here about how criminals have used Facebook and other social networking venues to get themselves caught by the proper authorities. That kind of “stupid human trick” doesn’t really affect marketers much. What can affect certain groups of marketers are calls to action like the one taken by a NJ middle school...
Google Expands Tag Advertising for Local Businesses
April 30, 2010, 9:04 amLast week Google changed the Local Business Center to Google Places, and along with that change came some new features for local businesses. We looked at those here.
Among those changes was the addition of Google's tag advertising. For $25 a month, businesses (in certain cities) can use Tags to highlight their listings on Google.com and Google...
Google Gets Favorable Ruling In Rosetta Stone Case
April 30, 2010, 9:00 amA lawsuit filed by language software firm Rosetta Stone against Google for copyright infringement has been dismissed by a federal judge.
In its lawsuit, filed in July 2009, Rosetta Stone alleged that Google allowed third parties including individuals involved in software piracy to purchase the right to use Rosetta Stone trademarks or other terms...
Carol Bartz's Compensation Package Tops $47.2 Million
April 30, 2010, 8:55 amYahoo CEO Carol Bartz may have a tough job, but this morning, it's a rare person who's arguing that she isn't well paid for it. A regulatory filing has revealed that Bartz received $47.2 million in compensation for 2009.
A number of different figures contributed to that final sum. As you can see below, Bartz collected around $1...
SES San Francisco 2010: Register Today and Save $600
April 30, 2010, 8:35 amI know that August is months away, but if you register for SES San Francisco 2010 today, then you could save up to $600.Click to read the rest of this post...
Apple iPad Wi-Fi+3G Makes its Debut Today
April 30, 2010, 8:17 amIf you've been waiting for it, you probably already had your calendar marked, but today the iPad with Wi-Fi +3G is here. In case anyone forgot, Apple sent emails out today reminding everybody.
Apple will actually not begin selling the new iPads at its stores until 5pm, and is closing down the stores from 4pm to 5pm in preparation for the...
Facebook Becoming Too Big For Anyone To Question
April 30, 2010, 7:57 amI’ve seen a lot of angst over the past week about Facebook’s moves to open up your data to other applications.
To really understand how huge these changes are I had to get away from Silicon Valley and come and hang out with the geeks in Kinneret, Israel where famous VC Yossi Vardi is throwing an exclusive camp for geeks and...
Yahoo Chief Exec Gets Boatloads of Comp
April 30, 2010, 7:32 am
We have a rather silly running joke here at Marketing Pilgrim which goes back to Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz’s statement last year that the one thing that Microsoft will need to supply to Yahoo was “boatloads of money”. Well, after an SEC filing it looks like that much of that money was needed to give Ms. Bartz her $42.7 M comp...
Rosetta Stone Vs Google, Sponsored Listings, Case Dismissed
April 30, 2010, 4:43 am"In the suit filed in 2009, Rosetta claimed Google profits by allowing rivals that pirate its technology to buy the top "sponsored link" ad on search results pages."
Why 80 per cent of the links your have built will disappear in 6 months?
April 30, 2010, 2:39 amHowever scary this may read, it’s true, and contrary to the feelings that the title of this post may have created, this is actually a blessing in disguise for those who have been involved with “value driven” SEO strategies. Let me explain
Google Places Now Allows Custom Links to be Displayed in Profiles
April 29, 2010, 5:15 pmby Dave Cosper Google has begun to allow custom links to be added to a business's profile in Google Places . Up until now, only a single website link was permitted. Google's initial stance was this single link provided should be the best online representation of that company. This new feature, however, allows a business to leverage things like...
The State of Puerto Rico: Bill Causes Buzz
April 29, 2010, 5:04 pmby Claudine Zap Think of Puerto Rico , and visions of a tropical island may come to mind. But what about the 51st state? The House of Representative is considering a bill that would allow the island a path to U.S. statehood. This has caused Web searches on " puerto rico vote " to roar 2,600% in just one day. Related lookups on " puerto rico...
SEMPO New Board of Directors Brings Worldwide Focus
April 29, 2010, 4:30 pmThe Board of Directors of the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO) today announced the election of a new slate of officers. Jeffrey Pruitt was Re-elected Chairman and Chris Boggs was elected President. Click to read the rest of this post.
Arizona Boycott Gets Social
April 29, 2010, 4:24 pmby Vera H-C Chan Even before Gov. Jan Brewer signed Arizona Senate Bill 1070 , which gives police officers free reign to stop, question, and detain people over their legal status, many â" including the state's own Democratic congressman â" called for a boycott to stop its passage. Now, organizers have gone online to amplify their message....
Nightmares and Vengeance: Movie Critic Roundup
April 29, 2010, 4:07 pmby Mike Krumboltz He's one of the original slashers. Freddy Krueger, the clawed killer who haunts the dreams of teenagers, is back for a " Nightmare on Elm Street " remake starring Oscar nominee Jackie Earle Haley . Also opening in wide release: " Furry Vengeance ," a family comedy starring Brendan Fraser as a hapless land developer who does...
YouTube Viewers Watched Average of 96 Videos per Viewer in March
April 29, 2010, 3:07 pmcomScore Video Metrix today reported that more than 180 million U.S. Internet users watched 31.2 billion videos online in March 2010. This means 84.8 percent of the total U.S. Internet audience viewed an average of 173 videos per viewer during the month. As Butch Cassidy often asked, "Who are those guys?"Click to read the rest of this post...
Study Finds Twitter Matches Facebook In Awareness
April 29, 2010, 2:40 pmTwitter isn't some strange new thing anymore, according to a fresh report. In fact, if you reference "Twitter" in front of someone, the odds of you getting a strange look may only be a tiny bit larger than if you say "Facebook." Unfortunately for Twitter, the odds of someone having a Twitter account versus a Facebook account remain not at all...
We're Here to Help: What Topics Would You Like to See Covered on the adCenter Blog?
April 29, 2010, 2:23 pmAfter seeing some of the feedback we've been getting on our Facebook page , I've been inspired to pose the same question here: what would you like to see us do more of, less of or differently on the adCenter blog? What information is most helpful.
Watchdog Group Calls For Stronger Online Child Privacy Law
April 29, 2010, 2:14 pmThe Senate Commerce Committee held a hearing today about issues surrounding the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and if it should be updated to address online data collection practices, social networks, and the mobile web.
"It is clear that the single biggest change impacting the privacy of children since the adoption of COPPA...
Link Building with Content: 29 Queries for Content-Based Link Builders
April 29, 2010, 1:55 pmby Garrett French
Content-based link building is all about RELATIONSHIPS. In particular, blogger and media relationships. Whether you're writing guest posts for publication on leading industry sites or conducting massive group interviews and surveys you need to know ALL the bloggers and other media creators in your industry.Here's how to...
Glenn Beck Losing Viewers
April 29, 2010, 1:50 pmby Mike Krumboltz According to Media Matters , Glenn Beck's audience for his TV program has shrunk by a third since January. Media Matters speculates that Democratic congressman Eric Massa 's bizarre and rambling appearance on the Beck show in March is the reason. A look at Yahoo's Search data seems to back up that theory. Since Massa showed up on...
ConversionConference.com - May 4-5, San Jose
April 29, 2010, 1:37 pmConversion Conference is just around the corner. I am proud to be chairing the first conference devoted exclusively to online conversion. It will be held on May 4-5, 2010 at the luxurious Fairmont Hotel in San Jose.
Join over 40 thought-provoking speakers including keynotes Bryan Eisenberg, Jakob Nielsen, and me for a dynamic two-day event....
Yahoo CEO: "Google Is Going To Have A Problem"
April 29, 2010, 1:32 pmIt's no secret that Google has, on a very steady basis, dominated its competition and managed to return big profits. And Carol Bartz may be in no position to question the company's methods. But Yahoo's CEO nonetheless chose to point out a potential weakness today, and she may be on the right track. Bartz told Jonathan Fildes , "Google is going...
No Blogger Fines Yet, But FTC Has Its Eyes Out
April 29, 2010, 1:17 pm
The FTC created quite a stir last year when they announced their new blogging guidelines to crack down on bloggers who receive products free in exchange for mentions or reviews. The FTC reassured bloggers that the rumored $11,000 fines wouldn’t affect them, and that these guidelines were intended to target advertisers and...
Google Making More Changes to the SERPs
April 29, 2010, 12:52 pmGoogle has a couple new elements going on in its results pages. The first one is the addition of brand links for some queries. For example, if you search for "watches" you might get links for Citizen, Nixon, Rolex, Omega, and Fossil. Or if you search for "footballs" you might get links for Wilson, Nike, Rawlings, Spalding, and Dallas Cowboys. In...
More relevant traffic estimates now in the updated Keyword Tool
April 29, 2010, 12:35 pmIn late September, we launched a beta version of the updated Keyword Tool . This tool is a new, streamlined way for you to identify additional keywords and add them to your account. Previously, we offered two distinct tools to expand your keyword list. The Keyword Tool generated keywords based on the content of the URL, words or phrases you...
Layar Launches World's First Augmented Reality Content Store
April 29, 2010, 12:24 pmLayar has introduced a new revenue opportunity for Augmented Reality (AR) developers to target the 1.6M mobiles that have downloaded their augmented reality browser. Click to read the rest of this post.
Bringing Living Stories to Wordpress
April 29, 2010, 12:18 pmPosted by Eric Zhang, Software Engineer For the last few months we've been talking with publishers about ways to make it easier for them to use Living Stories, our experimental format for displaying news coverage, on their own websites. Today we're releasing a Living Stories plugin and theme for Wordpress. Now anyone who publishes through...
An Old Rival Returns
April 29, 2010, 12:13 pmby Mike Krumboltz Long before she was the scourge of liberals across the country, Sarah Palin was just another contestant in the Miss Alaska beauty pageant. Despite rocking the sash with typical Palin confidence, the future vice presidential candidate was denied the tiara. Maryline Blackburn took home the title in 1984. Flash forward 26 years and...
Hulu Users Watched 1 Billion Videos In March
April 29, 2010, 12:12 pmMore than 180 million U.S. Internet users watched online video in March, according to the latest research from comScore. YouTube delivered video to more than 135 million viewers during the month, reaching 3out of every 4 online video viewers at an average of 96 videos per viewer. Internet users watched a total of 31.2 billion videos in March ,...
Google Improves Picasa Sharing Options
April 29, 2010, 12:10 pmGoogle's photo-sharing site got a fair degree more social this afternoon. Now, users should find the process of sharing their pictures to be simpler, although Google's choice of products to feature is perhaps a little on the odd side.
Easy-share buttons for Blogger, Google Buzz, and Twitter have been introduced, and as Ping Chen, a software...
Navigating Google Webmaster Tools Authorization
April 29, 2010, 12:00 pmThings they are a changin’ in Seattle, and we aren’t just talking about our new offices. The Google Webmaster Central team has been hard at work developing new features and making things easier for webmasters everywhere.
One of the largest complaints I personally have had about Google Webmaster Tools has been addressed finally,...
Yahoo: Actually, Search Is Still Popular (We’re Just Confused)
April 29, 2010, 11:59 am
Yahoo seems to be a little confused about its prospects these days. Now that their search deal with Microsoft is approved, they’re suddenly not that interested in search, because people aren’t interested in search. (Odd how that one’s not generating the same interest as a couple years ago when Ask.com...
Search Engine Optimization Tip: Adding Content to your Web Site
April 29, 2010, 11:46 amby Bill Hartzer
You would think that when planning a new web site or a totally
new version of your web site that you can sit down, make a list of web
pages, create the content, and forget about it. That is simply not the
case. If you take a look at the current search results for most popular
search phrases, you will see that the best web...
Introducing Google Places
April 29, 2010, 11:44 amToday the Local Business Center is becoming Google Places. Why? Millions of people use Google every day to find places in the real world, and we want to better connect Place Pages â" the way that businesses are being found today â" with the tool that enables business owners to manage their presence on Google. We launched Place Pages last...
comScore Releases March 2010 U.S. Online Video Rankings
April 29, 2010, 11:27 amcomScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released March 2010 data from the comScore Video Metrix service showing that more than 180 million U.S. Internet users watched online video during the month. YouTube delivered video to more than 135 million viewers during the month, reaching 3 out of every 4 online video...
Conduit: Google's Labpixies Acquisition Validates App Marketing Opportunities
April 29, 2010, 11:04 amApps are big business. From big brands to small ones, businesses are finding creative and interesting ways to harness apps to get customers engaged, to market their products, to drive traffic, and to drive sales. This week, Google acquired app developer Labpixies . App platform provider Conduit (full disclosure: they do advertise with us), who is...
SEO With Google Webmaster Tools - Part 2: Site Configuration
April 29, 2010, 10:46 amby Stoney deGeyter
In Part 1 of this series I introduced Google webmaster tools and walked you through adding websites. Now that you have your site(s) in the system, you'll need to configure your site so you get the most out of the data provided through the Webmaster Tools interface.
Site Configuration
Site configuration allows you to...
Julia Roberts Is Most Beautiful, Arizona Is Boycotted, David Letterman Starts Record Label: What's the Buzz
April 29, 2010, 10:41 amby Claudine Zap Our top picks from the day's hottest searches. Arizona boycott (Searches increased by +2,473%). The state is bracing for an onslaught of hotel cancelations and business boycotts in response to its anti-immigration law . Alexander McQueen (+1,105%).The 40-year-old fashion designer's death has been ruled a suicide . David Letterman...
Apple’s Cracked the App $ Code: Charge Developers for iAds
April 29, 2010, 10:28 am
Apparently Apple just isn’t making enough money off the iPhone. In addition to making at least a little on each unit sold, Apple also gets a cut on the apps and other media sold for the device.
But they want more. The Wall Street Journal reports on a rumor that the new iAd network will come with a hefty price...
Apple’s Cracked the App $ Code: Charge Big Bucks for iAds
April 29, 2010, 10:28 am
Apparently Apple just isn’t making enough money off the iPhone. In addition to making at least a little on each unit sold, Apple also gets a cut on the apps and other media sold for the device.
But they want more. The Wall Street Journal reports on a rumor that the new iAd network will come with a hefty price...
Half Of People On Social Networks Use Their Real Name
April 29, 2010, 10:02 amJust over half (51%) of the people on social networks use their real name, according to a new survey by Opinion Research and sponsored by Chubb Insurance. The survey found eighteen percent always use a nickname, while 31 percent said they sometimes use their real name and sometimes use a nickname to identify themselves on social networking sites....
Is your sales copy hurting your conversions?
April 29, 2010, 9:39 amThe last week has been a most interesting experience. My 30-day goal is to buy a new car. This is a big deal to me because (1) I keep my cars forever (like, 20 years,) and (2) I find car salespeople a tad on the challenging side. Imagine my thrill when I realized that I can go through my insurance company, pre-negotiate a deal and be linked to...
For Mother's Day, PayPal is offering great deals that say "Thanks, Mom"
April 29, 2010, 9:27 amHi all, it's Stacy General, online personal shopper for PayPal. The buzz around Mother's Day has begun and of course everyone's first thought is "how do I thank the mom in my life?" For your Mom (or Grandma, Aunt, Wife, Niece or Daughter! ), PayPal is offering great deals from top merchants such as eBags.com , Beauty.com and ProFlowers , with...
Be Prepared This Mother's Day
April 29, 2010, 9:16 amAttention! Mothers day this year is on Sunday, May 9. Since its usually one of those holidays that sneaks up on you before you get a chance to run to the store to pick up a card or nice flowers (for me anyway), consider this your reminder! With less than two weeks to go, you can now be prepared. Now what to get? We can help there too. Bing has...
Thought Leadership on Social Media Strategy
April 29, 2010, 8:25 amThis week, we posted thoughts from a variety of marketing and web professionals on social media strategy before tactics . It's an ongoing debate, but the consensus among the marketing and PR crowd is clear: strategy before tactics is the logical approach for businesses to take when engaging in social media. Sarah Evans provides a clever analogy:...
Apple, the Missing iPhone and the Blogger – Jon Stewart’s Take
April 29, 2010, 8:17 am
While bloggers and many others are watching this whole missing iPhone prototype drama unfold, let’s let Jon Stewart and his one-of-a-kind approach to “news” sort this out for us. As a note, Jon doesn’t have all the facts just right apparently but if you can’t laugh at iPhoneGate what can you laugh at? As always, a...
Popular eBay Competitor Bonanzle Gets Funding to Improve Service
April 29, 2010, 8:08 amWe've run several stories on e-commerce site Bonanzle in the past. If you're unfamiliar with it, it's a site where many disgruntled eBay users turned for an alternative place to sell their goods. Last year, it reached a million listings in 6 months and was voted the best eBay alternative according to Examiner.com. Growth continued from there, with...
Yahoo and Search and Unanswered Questions
April 29, 2010, 7:52 am
The fate of Yahoo search as we know it is still in limbo for sure. As the world waits with bated breath for the final look of the Microhoo search engine and the boatloads of opportunities it is supposedly going to afford the world at large, there are still many more questions than answers around the future of Yahoo search. Yahoo...
Question the Rules to Create a More Remarkable Business (and Life)
April 29, 2010, 7:39 amEvery once in awhile, someone asks me why I have pink hair. (You ever notice that no one asks why anyone has blonde hair, or red hair? But pink, it seems, requires a good reason.) There are a lot of ways I could answer that question, but the simplest is probably that I don't really buy into the standard set of rules about what "success" or...
LinkedIn Gets Major Upgrade in Usefulness
April 29, 2010, 7:34 amLinkedIn has introduced a new "Follow Company" feature as a way to (you guessed it) follow companies on LinkedIn. Now LinkedIn users can simply follow organizations to see their latest happenings, and this has a tremendous amount of potential for networking and job opportunities of interest. With LinkedIn being the professional network that it is,...
New Google Adsense Layout
April 29, 2010, 7:19 amNew Google AdSense layout options being tested.
Amazon Kindle To Add Support For Facebook And Twitter
April 29, 2010, 7:16 amAmazon has introduced a 2.5 software update for its Kindle, which features support for Facebook and Twitter. The new Facebook and Twitter support will allow Kindle users to share book passages with their friends on the social networks. Amazon said it is rolling out the new software update to a limited group of Kindle users and plans a full release...
Addressing The Problem Of Bullying On Facebook
April 29, 2010, 7:16 amYesterday, Tony Orsini, my son's middle school principal sent a blunt letter to all parents telling us that we should ban social networks for our middle school children. I was unsure whether it was acceptable for me to print the latter when I got it, but our New York CBS TV station had a headline today, " NJ Principal Asks Parents To Ban Social...
Local Search Recipe: Making KML Files and GEO Sitemaps Are a Piece of Cake.
April 29, 2010, 7:10 amLast month I shared one of my favorite recipes on tracking local search data with Google Analytics for wordpress. This month I figured that one of the most uncovered and "uncooked" areas in local search marketing is KML data and the use of Geo Sitemaps. So, I decided to put together a guide to help anyone who is struggling to understand how...
A Cool Wordpress Plugin to Integrate Facebook "Like" Functionality
April 29, 2010, 7:10 amIf you liked Facebook's popular "Like" functionality and want to engage your Facebook fan page users or just random Facebookers, you will love the plugin we are sharing today. You may have noticed that since last week we have been giving our readers the ability to "like" our posts on Facebook. So here I am sharing the plugin that enables everyone...
Why Facebook Marketing Slaps Twitter Marketing In the Face
April 29, 2010, 7:10 amAnd beats its pants off. [Sorry we were just brainstorming linkbait titles about John Daly's pants.] I was asked to speak about "Capitalizing on the Twitter Revolution" at Pubcon. So I talked about Facebook. Why? I said: "Twitter revolution? Didn't that happen in 2008?" The following chart shows Twitter really taking off in 2009, but' But Twitter...
Facebook Social Plugins on 50,000 Sites Already
April 29, 2010, 7:06 am
Facebook has its good and bad days. If we are talking about Facebook and privacy then it’s probably a bad day. In this case, we are talking about the rapid adoption of Facebook’s set of social plugins, in particular their “Like” button. According to Facebook they have hit the “50,000 sites served” mark with these new...
Google Improves Mobile Image Search
April 29, 2010, 6:53 amGoogle has launched a new version of Image Search for Android 2.1 devices and iPhone 3.0+. This version provides a slicker user interface that fits in with how users of these devices would browse native images. Here's a demo: Thumbnails are square, as to maximize the amount of images that can be shown on the screen at once. Users can swipe to see...
Baidu Reports Good Q1 Results, High Hopes For Q2
April 29, 2010, 6:53 amAssuming they haven't already done so, it wouldn't be surprising if Baidu's execs decide to send some thank you notes and fruit baskets to their counterparts at Google. Baidu released its first-quarter earnings report late yesterday, and - due in large part to Google's recent moves - the last few months went well, and the future looks even...
Foursquare, The Next Social Up-And-Comer
April 29, 2010, 6:43 amIt’s funny how early adoption works and how you start to see recurring patterns. When I started using Twitter there were numerous people who questioned what it was, why it was useful, and mocked it. A couple of years later, Twitter is still on a tear.
I’m seeing the same thing with Foursquare today. Early adopters are using...
More New Products and Services from SES New York 2010
April 29, 2010, 6:10 amLast week, I mentioned that one of the big reasons marketers go to trade shows is to see new products and services. Well, Jamie O'Donnell of SEO-PR visited the expo hall at SES New York 2010 and here are some more exhibitors that he saw.Click to read the rest of this post...
Scouting Keywords That Will Become Your All-Star Players
April 29, 2010, 5:34 amby Mike Fleming What's the best keyword research tool out there? Google's? WordTracker? Keyword Discovery? Actually, none of them. The best keyword research tool is a broad match keyword in a PPC account . Huh? Doesn't everyone say that broad match is extremely dangerous and you should only approach them with the utmost respect and...
Competitive Intelligence in SEO & Social Media
April 29, 2010, 5:23 amUnderstanding thy competition is a golden rule in any kind of business, ranging from online marketing to politics to running the local mom & pop corner grocery store. Joanna Lor d has put together a pretty good wrap up of competitive intel tracking and signals over at SEOmoz this morning : Competitive Intelligence: Purpose & Process , with an...
Broadband Infrastructure in Italy Report â" April 2010
April 29, 2010, 1:39 amThe observatory for high speed broadband internet access ha released a summary report describing regional models to eliminate the so called digital divide. The results of the study were presented on April 14 th and the executive summary released to the general public with statistics updated to December 2009: The number of high speed DLS...
Steve Jobs: Thoughts On Flash
April 29, 2010, 1:39 am"The avalanche of media outlets offering their content for Apple's mobile devices demonstrates that Flash is no longer necessary to watch video or consume any kind of web content."
Google Just Killed Your Online Business
April 28, 2010, 11:29 pmGoogle has been making lots of changes in the SERPs, and this new Addon will bring down the sales of a lot of businesses. Google's new Brand update
Message your subscribers with bulletins
April 28, 2010, 11:23 pmBulletins are a great way to communicate with your subscribers on YouTube. Just go to your channel, type an update, paste a video link, and click "Post Bulletin." Your bulletin will show up on your subscribers' homepage, in their Recent Activity feed. Think of the possibilities: Want to tell your subscribers about a new musician you just...
Put Some Wind in your SEO Sails
April 28, 2010, 10:21 pmThe days of taking a cookie cutter approach to your SEO optimization are over. You need to be aggressive with everything you do now online so it is important to go above and beyond the typical cookie cutter approach when it comes to marketing your website online. You have to really test SEO efforts and try new things to see what might work better...
Competitive Intelligence: Purpose & Process
April 28, 2010, 9:36 pmPosted by JoannaLord When it comes to marketing your brand online there is just so much to do. We spend our days researching, creating, implementing, and then measuring the success of our efforts. There are dozens of channels to participate in, and obviously thousands of ways to go about marketing your brand, but however you slice itonline...
Oregon K-12 Schools All in for Google Apps Education Edition
April 28, 2010, 9:14 pmGoogle generated serious attention when it landed the city of Los Angeles as a paying customer for Google Apps for 34,000 municipal employees. Many people may not know the company also targets schools and universities with its collaboration suite in the cloud. Some 3,000 schools, from Arizona State University out west to east coast Ivy Leaguers...
AdSense Cached Page Issues Still Ongoing
April 28, 2010, 7:20 pm"...Google acknowledged there was a problem, it was escalated, and we never heard about it again."
The Top-Searches NBA Jerseys
April 28, 2010, 6:14 pmby Mike Krumboltz Kobe Bryant had another spectacular season. And his fans noticed. Kobe's jersey (#24 for the Lakers) was the league's number-one seller . But when it comes to which NBA star's jersey draws the most lookups online, Kobe's only third best. The champion of jersey searches is none other than LeBron James . In fact, it ain't even...
How to optimize image content (From the Forums)
April 28, 2010, 5:28 pmToday's forum thread of note is a discussion around what can be done to optimize image content for SEO. Several members of the Bing Webmaster Center forum community have chimed in with helpful advice. What do you do on your site to optimize images? What have you found to be most important when adding images to a website? Join in the conversation!...
100 Years Old and Not Going Anywhere
April 28, 2010, 5:00 pmby Claudine Zap She may use a walker, but don't underestimate the staying power of one Agnes Albinger . Like many Americans she faces the nightmare of foreclosure . But at 100 years of age and having spent 60 years on her farm, she certainly won't leave now, debt be damned. And you kind of have to believe her. The woman many call Aunt Aggie,...
UK Election 2010: YouTube Facebook Digital Debate Results
April 28, 2010, 4:44 pmAs expected, the results of the YouTube Facebook Digital Debate were posted today. The response was amazing -- over 5000 questions submitted and more than 180,000 votes on the questions.Click to read the rest of this post...
Tecmo Bowl Returns
April 28, 2010, 4:21 pmby Mike Krumboltz Down! Ready? Hut hut hut hut hut hut... If you recognize the above gibberish from the classic Nintendo game " Super Tecmo Bowl ," then you're likely over the moon about the release of Tecmo Bowl Throwback , an updated version, for Xbox 360. The game is available to download now for $10, but old timers beware - official NFL...
Reminder: Don't miss our adCenter API Developers Sneak Preview webcast for v7 planning Thursday, 1 p.m. Pacific time
April 28, 2010, 2:44 pmThese sessions provide an excellent opportunity for developers and business customers to learn about the API changes and to ask questions of the product team. If you have requests or questions that you would like to see covered in one of these sessions, please post in the comments below or in the adCenter API Forum . If you have not used Live...
Next Week: Two Incredible Conferences In One
April 28, 2010, 2:32 pmHey marketers and data heads: heads up! Next week is a good week to tell your boss you're taking "enrichment time off." We totally support using this excuse to take afternoons off and go to baseball games, or using it to let your boss know you won't be at work on a Friday, when you're actually planning to hit the slopes early for a long ski...
PayPal Gives iPhone/iPad Developers In-App Payment Option
April 28, 2010, 2:24 pmSome news from PayPal that slipped fairly under the radar this week is that the company opened its Mobile Payments Library to developers. A representative for PayPal tells WebProNews it will give developers an "easy way to get payments from within their apps."
The library is an element of PayPal's PayPal X Payments Platform, announced...
Oregon Goes Google (Apps)
April 28, 2010, 2:21 pmGoogle scored a big win today, and by all accounts, the state of Oregon made out well, too. This is because the Oregon school system will begin using Google Apps for Education, saving it a boatload of cash while allowing Google to increase its market share.
In fact, Oregon is the first state to agree to make Google Apps available to all of...
US Still Main Source Of Spam
April 28, 2010, 2:11 pmThe United States continues to be the main source of spam, relaying more than 13 percent of global spam, according to a new report from Sophos.
China has had a significant drop in the amount of spam originating from that country, falling out of the top twelve and coming in at 15th place for relaying just 1.9 percent of the world's spam.
The top...
More Leadership News from Advertiser and Publisher Solutions (APS)
April 28, 2010, 2:09 pmHere are the contents of an email from Rik van der Kooi, CVP of Advertiser and Publisher Solutions (APS). It is with great pleasure that I can announce today that we have hired David Pann as General Manager for the Search Network. In this role, David will be responsible for Network strategy formulation, product planning, product management and...
HP Buys Palm for $1.2 Billion
April 28, 2010, 1:41 pmHewlett-Packard just announced its intent to buy Palm for $1.2 Billion at $5.70 per share. The transaction has already been approved by the HP and Palm boards of directors. The move was made to give HP a better shot at winning some smartphone marketshare - an industry quickly growing. "Palm's innovative operating system provides an ideal platform...
comScore Reports Record First Quarter 2010 Results
April 28, 2010, 1:36 pmcomScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today announced record financial results for the first quarter of fiscal 2010.
OMG! 'Glee' Auditions Online
April 28, 2010, 1:30 pmby Mike Krumboltz Love it or loathe it, " Glee " is the one TV show that everyone is talking about. But the mania doesn't stop at the office water cooler â" would-be Gleeks are singing about their favorite show in hopes of winning a chance to join the cast. Allow us to explain. "Glee," a musical-comedy show about a high school glee club, is...
Hitwise: Facebook is Top Search Term Across Three Major Search Engines
April 28, 2010, 1:29 pmExperian Hitwise today announced that "Facebook" was the top organic search term in the U.S. during the four weeks ending March 27, 2010. Overall, Facebook related terms accounted for eight out of 30 search terms across the three top 10 lists.Click to read the rest of this post...
Microsoft Previews New Windows Live Messenger Beta
April 28, 2010, 1:18 pmSteve Ballmer just previewed the new Windows Live Messenger beta during his "Five Dimensions of Cloud Computing" speech to students at the Universidade de Sao Paulo in Brazil. Windows Live Messenger has over 320 million active consumers every month who send 10 billion messages to one another every day, a Microsoft representative tells WebProNews.
The Myth of the Social Media Expert
April 28, 2010, 1:07 pmAs social media marketing has risen to prominence, it seems like a day doesn’t go by where I don’t come across a blog post or an article telling me how I need to use social media. Everyone thinks he or she is a social media expert. Honestly, I’m pretty sick of it.
Hitwise: Facebook is Top Search Term Across Three Major Search Enginesâ
April 28, 2010, 12:38 pmExperian Hitwise today announced that "Facebook" was the top organic search term in the U.S. during the four weeks ending March 27, 2010. Overall, Facebook related terms accounted for eight out of 30 search terms across the three top 10 lists. Click to read the rest of this post.
Google Staying out of FCC Broadband Fight (But They’re on the FCC’s Side)
April 28, 2010, 12:30 pm
Earlier this month, the FCC lost a major battle when the US Court of Appeals decided they didn’t have the authority to regulate broadband. While the FCC can continue to appeal that decision, they’re also striving to get the definition of their authority expanded to explicitly include broadband.
And Google has no...
She who entangles men
April 28, 2010, 12:21 pmYou may remember the problems that we've been having with our persistent cache, memcacheDB . Our initial response was to add a bunch more RAM to the system, which would probably only last us a few weeks, until we could put a better solution in place. Fortunately with EC2 we were able to spin up five new machines with gobs of RAM to fill that...
Facebook Ranked as The Top Search Term In March
April 28, 2010, 11:57 amFacebook ranked as the top search term in March across all three major search engines, according to a new report from Hitwise. Overall, Facebook related terms accounted for eight searches across the three top 10 lists. Yahoo related terms accounted for six spots while MySpace terms accounted for four searches across the search engines. Other...
SEM Intermediate Series: Improving Your Conversion Rate in Microsoft adCenter
April 28, 2010, 11:30 amThis is the 6 th post in the SEM Intermediate Series , a collection of posts intended for search engine marketing professionals looking for guidance in monitoring and adjusting the key performance indicators (KPIs) that determine the success of a PPC campaign. This series is a continuation of the SEM Beginner Series . For most marketers,...
Update to Google Maps in Canada
April 28, 2010, 11:30 amThe data that powers API features like the map tiles, geocoding, and driving directions has been updated in Canada! The new base map in Canada will have expanded features such as more detailed water bodies, university campuses, zipcode coverage, and a shorter feedback cycle for Maps updates â" all leading to better, more accurate maps for...
Hewlett-Packard to Buy Palm for $1.2 Billion
April 28, 2010, 11:23 am"Hewlett-Packard said Wednesday that it would acquire Palm, the struggling cellphone maker, for $1.2 billion in cash, including the assumption of debt."
Yahoo Whips Up Clever Food Finder
April 28, 2010, 11:21 amIt must be rare for a person to crave a certain restaurant ("ooh, those straight-backed chairs would hit the spot right now"); instead, most hankerings relate to food. Yahoo seems to have introduced a very helpful feature, then, as it's started allowing users to search for exact menu items instead of eateries.
A Yahoo...
Apple Buys 2 Companies For Edge in Competition with Google
April 28, 2010, 11:21 amApple and Google are becoming increasingly competitive, and it would seem that they're even competing for who can acquire the most companies in the shortest amount of time. Apple has now acquired Siri and Intrinsity.
Siri is a voice command-based personal assistant app that lets you tell it what you want to do, and it will do most of the work for...
SJP's New Museum Job, Molly Ringwald's New Book, Porsche's Problems: What's the Buzz
April 28, 2010, 11:18 amby Claudine Zap Our top picks from the day's hottest searches. Molly Ringwald (Searches increased by +29,857%). The "Pretty in Pink" star has a book out to help us through our awkward middle-aged years. Porsche Panamera (+1,318%).Toyota isn't the only company facing recall woes: The high-end, Euro-car maker has alerted customers to its faulty...
You'll Never Guess Who Is Similar to Matt Cutts?
April 28, 2010, 10:45 amYesterday, The Official Google Blog talked about "Discovering pages 'similar to" ones that you like." Today, Search Engine Watch invites you to start playing a new game.Click to read the rest of this post...
Time Sensitive Elements in Universal SERPs
April 28, 2010, 10:42 amTin Foil Terry Van Horne continues his series on universal search. This time it's on temproal elements, news and PR approaches to universal search strategy. Admittedly, my head is swimming over the last while with all this stuff... an area not really covered enough out there. Kudos to T for the post.
Facebook’s Universal “Like” Showing Up in Searches
April 28, 2010, 10:32 am
Since Facebook has added the “Like” button to the whole Internet (and now the real world), the social feature is seeping into other sites, especially third-party search results. OneRiot, which indexes the real time web, has already started indexing Likes.
The strategy is a marked shift for Facebook, notes VentureBeat....
Content Licensing: Why Al Jazeera Chose To Release Some Of Its News Video Content Under A Creative Commons License
April 28, 2010, 10:19 amDuring my stay at the International Journalism Festival, which took place in Perugia, Italy, last week, I ran into Donatella Della Ratta of Creative Commons who I had not seen in ages. She was very kind and shared with me a story, which I found immediately interesting and worth some extra coverage. Creative Commons had made a partnership with Al...
Helping Researchers Uncover the Secrets of Search
April 28, 2010, 9:52 amBing has been partnering with Microsoft Research for the past year on a private beta called Microsoft Web N-gram Services, where research using large data sets surrounding natural computing experiences, such as in linguistics, as well as in queries using spoken words, was being supported. Today, during the World Wide Web Conference, it was...
FTC Launches Site To Teach Kids About Advertising
April 28, 2010, 9:46 amThe Federal Trade Commission has launched a new advertising literacy campaign aimed at helping older children understand the ads they say and become smarter consumers. "Today's kids see advertising everywhere - in movies and TV shows, outdoors, on phones, in games," said David C. Vladeck, Director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection. ...
Facebook Finding More Ways to Compete with Google
April 28, 2010, 9:46 amApparently Facebook is not content with only taking over the web, but wants to get some penetration into the physical world as well. Taking a cue from another dominant company, Google, Facebook is now giving brick and mortar businesses decals to put in their windows. Is Facebook a worthy competior to Google? Tell us what you think . Increasing...
Get the Dish That You Wish
April 28, 2010, 9:46 amI had a yen for tuna sashimi after watching Iron Chef the other night, but I didn't know where to go to satisfy my craving. Starting today, we are introducing a new feature that makes it easier to search for specific menu items for the times when you know what you want to eat but don't know where to go. By extracting structured content â" in...
Google Place Pages Get a Boost for iPhone, Android Phones
April 28, 2010, 9:41 amGoogle has optimized its popular Place Pages , which surfaces details about landmark locations and local businesses when users search Google Maps, for Apple iPhone and Google Android smartphones. I covered Place Pages quite a bit last week, coinciding with the rebranding of Google Local Business Center, which small businesses may use to shape...
Facebook Enters Stickers-For-Businesses Game
April 28, 2010, 9:29 amThe storefront windows of tech-savvy businesses may be getting rather crowded before long. Perhaps following the example set by "People love us on Yelp" stickers and "We're a favorite place on Google" decals, Facebook's begun to send out promotional stickers of its own. The Museum of Making Music recently received one such sticker, which you can...
Does Android Infringe on Microsoft’s Patents?
April 28, 2010, 8:36 am
Late yesterday, Microsoft publicly stated that Google’s mobile operating system, Android, infringes on Microsoft copyrights in everything from the UI to the OS itself. But they’re okay with that—as long as they get paid.
CNET reports on Microsoft’s accusations.:
In a statement to CNET, Microsoft deputy...
Ask Jeeves Co-founder Takes Leadership Role at Interesting News Site
April 28, 2010, 8:26 amAsk Jeeves co-founder David Warthen has joined citizen journalism-meets-mainstream journalism site Allvoices as Chief Technology Officer. He will be responsible for the technical direction of the company. Warthen previously served as CTO for several other companies including social Q&A site AnswerBag , which was second in its space only to Yahoo...
Weekly Search & Social News: 04/28/2010
April 28, 2010, 8:20 amWelcome to another edition of ' 7 Days of Search and Social ' - it was one of those weeks devoid of 'ah-ha' moments nor any real drama-du-jour. Sheesh' c'mon people, pick it up out there would ya? That being said, as always, there were plenty of interesting and entertaining posts. Actually a few good ones on local SEO, which is a new personal fav....
4 Ways To Find Superb Blogs That Nobody's Talking About
April 28, 2010, 7:35 amA few of the mainstream search blogs still offer up some morsels of meaty metrics, but many bloggers have turned from meat to "designer milk." I can't say I blame them, but I'm not going to keep looking to them for the best data, testing, link-building advice, etc. The state of the search marketing blogosphere looks something like this: Most SEO...
Build Links Locally: Strategies to Improve Local SEO
April 28, 2010, 7:35 amOptimization for local listings is an important way to attract business for many companies and organizations that are jumping online these days. There are plenty of blog posts outlining how to optimize your listings in the local search engines and with your chamber of commerce, but where can you turn to further build your local presence? That...
UK Election 2010: YouTube Facebook Digital Debate
April 28, 2010, 7:26 amLater today, Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg will participate in the YouTube Facebook Digital Debate, adding a new social media dimension the UK election in 2010.Click to read the rest of this post...
The iPad Debut Of UrbanSpoon
April 28, 2010, 7:24 amAccording to Techcrunch , app store veteran, UrbanSpoon, has officially launched their iPad app. I agree with them in that the iPad app will not be useful for quick dinner solutions (like it is when firing up the app on an iPhone), however the iPad app will be useful for longer, more thoughtful decisions.
Keyword Research Basics For SEO
April 28, 2010, 7:24 amI've said it before and I'll say it again there is no more important step in the SEO process than keyword research. One could make a compelling argument for link building or for architecture or for copywriting but at the end of the day ranking highly for keywords that either don't convert or which you close up shop waiting to rank for isn't...
The Definitive Guide to Web Spam for SEOs
April 28, 2010, 7:21 amSNIP - Are you a web spammer? No, seriously, I mean it. If there is one area that a lot of search peeps and marketers aren't always clear on, it's penalties and filters from search engines. As such, I thought it would be a good idea to look at the many faces of web spam, from the search engineer perspective.
3 Creative Ideas to Use Google for Link Building Search
April 28, 2010, 7:18 amMost of us will agree that Google search is insanely useful. However most people don't know how to use it to its full potential. This post aims at revealing Google search least-used tricks which will be a great help for searching link building opportunities . How to Use Google to Search for Guest Posting Opportunities While we all know how to...
To Dot-CA or not to Dot-CA?
April 28, 2010, 7:17 amMany Canadian businesses are faced with a conundrum: do they set up their website on a .ca domain or on a .com domain. There are pros and cons for each, and some of those are related to SEO, to the rankings that the website can achieve in the search engines.
The first question a business should answer is whether a website is targeting just a...
Hulu's UK Expansion Plans Fall Apart
April 28, 2010, 7:01 amThe only country mentioned by name in Hulu's terms of service document is the United States, and it doesn't look like that's going to change anytime soon. Hulu is said to have abandoned plans to offer content to individuals in the UK. Hulu's negotiations with UK broadcasters like ITV and Channel 4 have failed, according to Emma Barnett . It...
Google: Facebook Similar to Gmail, Bing Similar to Dogpile
April 28, 2010, 7:01 amGoogle has launched a new feature in its search results, which displays results that are deemed "similar" to the query. If you search for eBay, for example, you may get results for Craigslist, uBid, Buy.com, and ebayanuncios.es. Basically, if someone searches for a brand, there is a good chance Google will inject links to the competition on that...
Brands Get New High-Speed Moderation Tool For Facebook Walls
April 28, 2010, 7:01 amSocial network marketing company LiveWorld, has introduced a high-speed moderation tool for brands' Facebook Walls and WebProNews spoke to Peter Friedman, Chairman and CEO of LiveWorld about the new tool. Friedman said the moderation tool was created in direct response to requests from its Fortune 500 brand clients. "We provide both advanced power...
Creative Content Recycling: Are You Wasting Your Garbage?
April 28, 2010, 6:54 amYou see it done all the time, and it's just so wasteful. People take a bunch of perfectly good trash, and they just toss it in the garbage can. Unbelievable. The thing is, any time you create something, you're going to end up with a lot of odds and ends, scraps that end up on the metaphorical cutting room floor. What if you could sell your product...
Google Starts Displaying Pages Similar to Search Results
April 28, 2010, 6:54 amGoogle has just launched a new search feature that aims to help you easily find new websites that are similar to the ones you are familiar with and are related to the subject that interest you, particularly for your current search session. The new feature called "Pages similar " makes the Google search feature "similar" more prominent and...
An Open Letter to Facebook
April 28, 2010, 6:48 amI started this letter before f8, so for the record, it's not about anything new. However, it even holds more water as a result. While Facebook is introducing new developments, they are losing sight of the old issues that are mostly "broken" or that have not yet been addressed. As such, this letter serves the purpose of reminding Facebook that they...
Google Place Pages Optimized for Mobile
April 28, 2010, 6:37 am
While Facebook is handing out stickers to the “Like” page businesses of the world, Google is continuing its move toward mobile integration of all things Google on the local level. The latest development is the introduction of optimized Place pages for the Android and iPhone/iPod Touch crowd.
As a result, I think the mobile...
PR Professionals Can Use Search to Bolster their Objectives
April 28, 2010, 6:05 amOne of the hot sessions at SES New York 2010 was entitled, "Search, PR and the Social Butterfly." If you missed it, you can retweet this: You can take social media to the boardroom!Click to read the rest of this post...
Discover v2009: Error handling in BulkMutateJobService.
April 28, 2010, 5:34 amIn our previous blog post , we discussed how v2009 error handling works in synchronous APIs. In this blog post, we cover asynchronous error handling in BulkMutateJobService . If you are new to BulkMutateJobService, check out our introductory blog post and code.google.com article . Due to its asynchronous nature, error handling in...
Should You UnGoogle Your Online Marketing?
April 28, 2010, 4:55 amSeveral years ago (2007) I was asked to give a presentation at Jill Whalen's High Rankings Seminar in Minneapolis . This was pretty cool because I had been reading Jill's newsletter for years beforehand. The topic I spoke on was "UnGoogle Your Search Marketing," where I discussed how to employ blogs, social media and optimized press releases as...
Google Search Offers Way to Easily Find Similar Pages in Results
April 28, 2010, 4:54 am
Google continues to change the face of the SERP’s (search engine results page) by taking more real estate on the first page with information that expands on the traditional “blue text link” results. Yesterday, they took a feature that has been around for a while but, as they put it in the Official Google Blog, “hasn’t...
Europe's Monuments and Buildings Come To Europeana
April 28, 2010, 4:32 amSoon, you can explore Europe's most impressive castles and cathedrals without leaving home. This will be made possible through Europeana - a search engine that gives you access to the cultural collections of Europe. The recently launched CARARE project will provide access to to 2 million images, maps, plans and even 3D models of Europe's most...
Local Businesses Get Facebook Decals for Promotion
April 28, 2010, 4:23 am
In an attempt to become even more ubiquitous, Facebook has started to send out decals to local businesses to put in storefront windows encouraging patrons to go the establishment’s Facebook “Like” page to do just that; like them. Here’s a picture
The above decal was sent to Mashable by an employee of The Museum of Making...
AOL Sells ICQ To DST For $187.5 Million
April 28, 2010, 1:59 am"Russian investment group Digital Sky Technologies says it has reached an agreement with AOL to buy its instant messaging service ICQ for $187.5 million."
Google Expands "Similar" Results
April 28, 2010, 1:42 am"Starting this week, for queries where similar sites are likely to be helpful, we'll display a list of "Pages similar" at the bottom of the results page."
30 SEO Problems & the Tools to Solve Them
April 28, 2010, 1:34 amGood post from Rand at SEOmoz. "Some of these are obvious and well known, others are obscure and brand new. All of them solve problems - and that's why tools should exist in the first place."
Microsoft Signs Patent Agreement With HTC Over Mobile Phones
April 28, 2010, 12:55 am"HTC and Microsoft have a long history of technical and commercial collaboration, and today's agreement is an example of how industry leaders can reach commercial arrangements that address intellectual property."
30 SEO Problems & the Tools to Solve Them (Part 2 of 2)
April 28, 2010, 12:51 amPosted by randfish Last November, I authored a popular post on SEOmoz detailing 15 SEO Problems and the Tools to Solve Them . It focused on a number of free tools and SEOmoz PRO tools. Today, I'm finishing up that project with a stab at another set of thorny issues that continually confound SEOs and how some new (and old) tools can come to the...
A Flood of Incorrect Readings in Google Webmaster Tools
April 27, 2010, 10:50 pmMembers are reporting many problems in various Google Webmaster Tools reports. Some are at first quite alarming, seeming to show most or all pages no longer included in the index!
The Internet Broken Down Into Numbers
April 27, 2010, 10:07 pmMany of us wake up every morning and sit down in front of our computers and not really realize what is going on behind the scenes of the industry and how much this mammoth communication tool has actually grown since its birth not too long ago. The internet has really only just begun and I can see these numbers in this video really increasing...
Ontolo Link Building Toolset Launches; Pilgrim’s Save $100 a Month!
April 27, 2010, 10:00 pm
Remember the super-smart link building guys behind Ontolo?
Well, they’re continuing to blaze a trail, this time launching the Ontolo Link Building Toolset which promises to do the heavy-lifting for your link building efforts. Not only that, but they’re offering an exclusive, limited-time, offer for Marketing Pilgrim...
Google CEO, Eric Schmidt: A Quirky IPO
April 27, 2010, 8:35 pm"Eric Schmidt talks in detail about Google's IPO"
7 Ways to Measure the Link Opportunities in Your Keyword Space
April 27, 2010, 5:04 pmKnowing the quantity and quality of a given type of link opportunity in your keyword space will help you choose the right direction for your link building campaign. Here is a process for quickly querying your space to identify where the best opportunities are.
Create your AdSense account within your hosting control panel
April 27, 2010, 4:30 pmWebsite owners who use Plesk, a commercial web hosting automation program, to manage their hosting and website services can now easily configure AdSense. As announced on the Google Blog, Parallels Plesk Panel now offers out-of-box integration with Google Services for Websites . If you use Plesk Panel to manage your website, you can now create a...
The Royals: Princess Roundup
April 27, 2010, 4:08 pmby Claudine Zap The Princess of Sweden ends her engagement amid rumors of a philandering fiancé. Meanwhile, rumors of a happier sort have started a royal wedding watch. Plus, Princess Beatrice sets a royal running record. That's right, it's the princess report. So put on your monocle and read up on the Buzz royal roundup. Princess of Sweden calls...
Don’t Penalize Yourself: Mobile Sites Are Not Duplicate Content
April 27, 2010, 3:56 pmFrom Bryson Meunier at SEL: "Knowing that search engines index and return mobile content for relevant queries, and that they have blended mobile ranking algorithms to rank mobile content for mobile queries and desktop content for desktop queries, it’s clear to me that they don’t treat mobile sites like traditional desktop duplicate content....
Nicorette Launches Facebook Contest Promoting Mini Lozenge
April 27, 2010, 2:49 pmNicorette has launched a Facebook contest promoting its new mini lozenge. The contest called "mini Moments" ask smokers to share their most important reason for wanting to quit smoking. The mini Moments Facebook page is designed to help connect smokers who want to quit, allowing them to offer each other support during the quitting process. Smokers...
MySpace's VP Of Corporate Communications To Leave
April 27, 2010, 2:49 pmToday is not likely to be remembered fondly by members of MySpace's PR department. One of the most visible people on MySpace's payroll announced this afternoon that she is leaving, and to complicate the situation, Dani Dudeck is actually the company's vice president of corporate communications. Dudeck's departure may be rough on MySpace's image...
Jellyfish Survival Story
April 27, 2010, 2:32 pmby Mike Krumboltz In December, a ten-year-old Australian girl named Rachel Shardlow was attacked by one of the most venomous creatures in the world, the deadly box jellyfish. And, Rachel wasn't just stung. According to CNN , the box jellyfish completely enveloped her until she lost consciousness. Normally, when a person meets a box jellyfish, the...
Microsoft Advertising Makes HISTORY
April 27, 2010, 2:15 pmWhats Your Story? On Sunday night, HISTORY premiered its new epic series, AMERICA THE STORY OF US , to a record-breaking 5.7 million viewers and drawing a household rating of 4.0 making it HISTORYs highest rated and most-watched special mini series premiere of all time. With an introduction by President Obama, the first show on April 25...
Facebook: Where Fraud Isn’t Frauduldent and Privacy Isn’t Private
April 27, 2010, 1:45 pm
Facebook has been making their own rules since they came on the scene. Although they’ve taken more and more heat for their almost-constant privacy changes, it seems like we find a new low every few months. Meanwhile, even the courts are beginning to side with Facebook on advertising issues.
Facebook gained a partial victory...
Facebook: Where Fraud Isn’t Fraudulent and Privacy Isn’t Private
April 27, 2010, 1:45 pm
Facebook has been making their own rules since they came on the scene. Although they’ve taken more and more heat for their almost-constant privacy changes, it seems like we find a new low every few months. Meanwhile, even the courts are beginning to side with Facebook on advertising issues.
Facebook gained a partial victory...
Yellow Pages iPhone App Gets Voice Search
April 27, 2010, 1:24 pmVoice search is one of the more convenient features of phones these days (at least when it works). AT&T Interactive has launched the latest version of its Yellow Pages app YPMobile, and it comes with voice search, which should make the app a great deal more useful. "As mobile consumers increasingly rely on their mobile device to find and...
The Peanuts Gang: Worth More Than Peanuts
April 27, 2010, 1:18 pmby Mike Krumboltz You're a valuable man, Charlie Brown. Newspaper publisher and TV station owner E.W. Scripps Co. is selling the licensing rights for the "Peanuts" gang to Iconix Brand Group, which owns Joe Boxer, Candies, and Danskin, for $175 million. The news of the upcoming sale sparked a slew of searches on Chuck, Snoopy, Lucy, and the gang....
Idol Talk: Feel the Heat Map
April 27, 2010, 1:01 pmby Vera H-C Chan Welcome to your top 10 of " American Idol ." Not the contestants. The Fox reality show is now down to six, which means it's time to pay attention to the top states which have been the most invested in Season 9's singing competition. Cue the map: Top "Idol"-Seeking States, past 7 days As in seasons before, Hawaii remains...
New Social Networking Site Aims To Streamline Communications
April 27, 2010, 11:58 amA new social networking site has launched called RecreateMyNight.com and WebProNews spoke to Tejpaul Bhatia, President of the site about its offerings. Bhatia said the idea for the site started last year when his team noticed that discovering and sharing media from special events was difficult due to the high fragmentation of photo sharing, video...
7 Ways to Use Keywords for Link Building Campaign Design
April 27, 2010, 11:55 amKeywords a natural place to begin discussing – and designing – a link building campaign... this article looks at seven ways that keywords can and should impact your next link building campaign.
PayPal to Open Mobile Payments Library to Developers
April 27, 2010, 11:36 amHi all â" it's Eric Duprat here, PayPal's GM of Mobile, with some exciting news. Today, we're announcing that our Mobile Payments Library is now in open beta and available to developers everywhere the Apple App Store is available . As you may have read in a previous post , the Mobile Payments Library is a quick and easy way to add checkout...
Search Marketing Is Not About You
April 27, 2010, 11:19 amby Mike Moran So, what else is there to talk about? In the past, I've hammered home over and over again the need to connect with your customers with information that actually helps them. So, instead of just explaining why your product is better than your competitor's, why not help them solve the problem that they have in the first place? Give them...
If the iPhone/Gizmodo Incident Had Happened to Google
April 27, 2010, 11:08 amBrad Stone at the New York Times Bits Blog has an interesting article up in which he talks to Andy Rubin, vice president of engineering at Google and co-founder of Android. While the article is mainly about Android, there's a part toward the end that is humorous when Stone jokes with him that his press relations colleague wanted to confess that he...
Hugh Hefner Saves the Day, Women Cause Earthquake, Maybe, and Gizmodo iPhone Flap: What's the Buzz
April 27, 2010, 11:07 amby Claudine Zap Our top picks from the day's hottest searches. Hugh Hefner (Searches increased by +3,844%). Thanks to a huge donation from the Hef, the Hollywood sign is saved . Taiwan earthquake (+3,429%). A protest of a Muslim cleric who blamed women for earthquakes occurred during the Taiwan temblor. Coincidence ? Alicia Silverstone (814%)....
Google Acquires LabPixies to Tick off Apple
April 27, 2010, 10:52 am
Google has announced its latest acquisition, an Israeli company that builds iGoogle and Android gadgets. The Israeli financial news site TheMarker speculates the deal’s value at $25M. While LabPixies does seem like a natural fit for Google, some speculate this is just the latest volley in the building Apple v. Google...
Using Social Media to Optimize Your Search Advertising Campaigns on Microsoft adCenter
April 27, 2010, 10:44 amThere are great tools available to help search marketers expand upon their existing campaigns and come up with actionable insights to make their campaigns more efficient. Tools like Microsoft Advertising Intelligence & Microsoft adCenter Labs do a fantastic job at precisely this. You can do new keyword research, pull demographic information, &...
Link Building Campaign Prep: 6 Steps BEFORE You Start Link Prospecting
April 27, 2010, 10:02 amThis article outlines a pre-campaign process for link builders so that they know exactly what type of link prospects they're looking for, and exactly where to go to find them.
SEO With Google Webmaster Tools - Part 1: Setting Up a Site
April 27, 2010, 10:02 amby Stoney deGeyter
Many people are afraid of Google's seemingly "big brother" approach to the web. Google appears to keep digging their hands further and further into our lives, collecting data and using in ways that some may not trust as being completely benevolent. While I have some concerns about Google's approach to collecting data from...
Iams Sponsors Free Online Dog College Program
April 27, 2010, 9:53 amDog Fancy magazine and DogChannel.com are offering dog owners a chance to earn a free online degree by enrolling in Dog College. The program sponsored by Iams Healthy Naturals runs from April 15-July 15. The three-month program consists of nine courses that give pet owners better insights into caring for their dogs. The Dog College curriculum...
OPA Finds They’re the Best
April 27, 2010, 9:19 am
The Online Publishers Association regularly looks at online advertising effectiveness—and probably not too surprisingly, their members once again see the best rates of ad effectiveness in several measures.
The study examines ads place on OPA member sites (content sites including major news sites, etc.), Dynamic Logic’s...
Samsung "Considering Google TVs"
April 27, 2010, 8:57 amEarlier this year, DisplaySearch put Samsung's share of the global television market at 17.2 percent, and while that may not sound impressive, DisplaySearch also asserted that no company has ever reached the 20.0 percent mark. It's rather significant, then, that Samsung has Android TVs on the mind.
A Samsung executive who apparently...
Facebook "Likes" Mean More to Businesses Than Just Traffic
April 27, 2010, 8:50 amIt's been nearly a week since Facebook rocked the world with its Open Graph announcements , and many of us are still wrapping our heads around all of the implications they have. I don't think there's any dispute that it's a huge move, and that it's important to pay attention to from a business perspective, but just what it means for businesses is...
'Facebook Fairytales': Heaven Sent
April 27, 2010, 8:49 amThe following is the second in a series of excerpts we're publishing from the new book "Facebook Fairytales: Modern-Day Miracles to Inspire the Human Spirit." This chapter tells the story of how one family used Facebook to cope with the loss of their daughter. On September 23, 1992, Talbot and Michelle Elkins welcomed their second daughter,...
What Facebook "Likes" Mean for Search & Reputation
April 27, 2010, 8:29 amIt's been nearly a week since Facebook rocked the world with its Open Graph announcements, and many of us are still wrapping our heads around all of the implications they have. I don't think there's any dispute that it's a huge move, and that it's important to pay attention to from a business perspective, but just what it means for businesses is...
Goldman Sachs Takes Google Off "Conviction Buy" List
April 27, 2010, 8:27 amSorry, Google fans, but from a financial perspective, the search giant seems to have lost some of its luster. Goldman Sachs hasn't come close to suggesting that anyone sell their stock - and is in fact still recommending that people buy more - but at the same time, the firm has removed Google from its "Conviction Buy" list. You can blame the...
10 Commandments of Affiliate Marketing (infographic)
April 27, 2010, 8:22 amThere are a lot of factors that make an affiliate marketer successful. We have provided some commandments for affiliate marketing that will your keep your online business in line for success.
Upcoming SEO and Social Media Events
April 27, 2010, 7:53 amHow to find communities and events in your area With the recent explosion of SEO and social media, there is no shortage of educational offerings to be found on- and offline. We'd like to share some of the spectacular upcoming events around the globe in May, and also show you how you can find more local events and communities for Search and Social...
How To Motivate Employees to Contribute Content
April 27, 2010, 7:41 amSometimes it can be like pulling teeth to try and get others in your organization to contribute to your content development strategy. Of course the excuse is inevitable "I have no time" or "I am still working on it", amongst probably hundreds of other reasons why employees can't help. But its funny how when you add an incentive with it, everyone...
Do Negative Headlines Work?
April 27, 2010, 7:41 amIf you've dipped a toe or two into copywriting, one of the first things you'll learn about is the power of negativity. Words like "Don't" or "Stop" or "No" are powerful motivators when used correctly. But at the same time, they can be overkill when a message that's designed to provoke actually leaves your readers feeling cold. If you read a...
Nestle, Palm Oil and Social Media, Oh My!
April 27, 2010, 7:41 amBy now it's no secret Nestle is having some issues with their social media, one of the most talked about is their Fan Page fiasco. Greenpeace began the process with a report on Sinar Mas (whom Nestle used) harvesting palm oil , which is having a direct impact on the rainforest and orangutan populations . In March of this year, Greenpeace released...
Four steps to great keywords (without keyword tools)
April 27, 2010, 7:36 amMost people use a keyword suggestion tool when they try to find new keywords for their campaigns. While keyword suggestion tools are good, they should not be the first step in your keyword research activities. This article helps you to find great keywords without using keyword tools.
Grooving to the Music on your iPhone courtesy of NuTsie and Bing
April 27, 2010, 7:30 amLast Thursday, NuTsie launched a new iPhone app called Top 100s by Year by Bing and within days it was the #1 download in the App Store. If you havent tried it, the app allows you to sort by year from 1948 to 2009 and hear the top songs from those years. Want to know the top songs from the year you were born or relive your high school favorites?...
The Copyblogger Guide to Zombie-Free Product Launches
April 27, 2010, 7:19 amThese days, a lot of online product launches are like zombie attacks. One day, everything is fine. The next day, there's a legion of crazy people banging on your virtual doors and windows, wanting to feed on you. Who the hell are these zombies and how did they get my address? Time to break out the shotgun, or in this case, the Delete All button....
Advanced SEO Requires Good Analytics Information
April 27, 2010, 7:19 amGood quality analytics (such as Google Analytics or another paid analytics software packages) provides good and very useful information. If you pay attention to it you could very quickly increase the overall efficiency of your website. You just have to look at the numbers and list to what they tell you. The proof is in the pudding as they say and...
PayPal Lands Alibaba Deal
April 27, 2010, 7:01 amEarlier this week, Alibaba.com launched a new business-to-business platform, and now, it looks like eBay and PayPal will get a boost from it, too. It's been decided that AliExpress will offer PayPal as a payment option. This may turn out to be a significant moment for both sides. Alibaba is a successful ecommerce platform based in Asia, with...
Opera Claims it Has the Fastest Browser for Mac
April 27, 2010, 7:01 amOpera has released its new browser for Mac, and the company claims it is ten times faster, based on speed comparisons between Opera 10.52 and Opera 10.10. "To all Mac users who value fast browsing, please meet Opera," CEO Lars Boilesen says. "Opera is a consistent performer on even the most congested networks, giving people the fastest browsing...
More Americans Going Online For Government Information
April 27, 2010, 7:01 amMore Americans are turning to government agencies websites for information, according to new research from Pew Internet & American Life Project. Some 40 percent of Internet users have gone online for raw data about government spending and activities.
How to Keep an Eye on Your Competitors with SEJ Tools
April 27, 2010, 6:56 amI shared once a tip on how to track (and compare) competitors' rankings with SEJ Tools . Today I am looking further at the feature that allows to watch your competitors grow to timely learn what they are doing. There's one nifty feature inside SEJ Tools called Competitor Manager . It allows to easily compare your site with your competitors and...
Windows Live Wave 4 Coming Soon
April 27, 2010, 6:56 amLast week, Chris Jones posted on the Inside Windows Live Blog that there are some thrilling updates coming soon. Focusing on Messenger , Hotmail , and Windows Live Essentials , the new releases promise to have compelling features for consumers and advertisers alike. On multi-screen and security, Chris was keen to re-iterate: Weve designed...
A New Updated SEO Analysis Tool by SEO Workers
April 27, 2010, 6:49 amSEO Workers have recently had some really exciting news to share: besides spotting a new awesome look, they have updated their really useful SEO Analysis Tool.
Dear Mr. Zuckerberg, From 4 US Senators
April 27, 2010, 6:43 am
This just came across my view as posted on Politico.com. It’s a letter that is supposedly being sent by four Democratic US Senators to Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s founder and CEO. I will let you read it and comment on it if you feel led. Considering the source it certainly is interesting.
April 27, 2010
Dear Mr....
A New Updated SEO Analysis Tool by SEO Workers
April 27, 2010, 6:38 amSEO Workers have recently had some really exciting news to share: besides spotting a new awesome look, they have updated their really useful SEO Analysis Tool . I have shared the tool in plenty of my overviews and tutorials including posts on page keyword prominence research and on-site SEO evaluation in action . This is why I am so excited by the...
Link Builders' Toolkit Now Available (over at StayOnSearch)
April 27, 2010, 6:38 amI wanted to let all of the Search Engine Journal readers know about a new product that I am offering on my blog called the Link Builders Toolkit . Personally I have always wanted a link building resource I could reference to find high-quality and relevant places to acquire backlinks. So over the years, I have been putting together an excel...
Going to SES Toronto 2010 to Keep Up-To-Date with Industry Trends and See New Products and Services
April 27, 2010, 6:30 amI grew up in Buffalo, New York, and Detroit, Michigan. So, I learned at an early age about the similarities and differences between these cities in the United States and their next-door neighbors in Ontario, Canada. That one of the reasons why I'm already planning to go to SES Toronto 2010.Click to read the rest of this post...
iPhone Blogger Intrigue Results In Search Warrant
April 27, 2010, 6:24 am
In case you haven’t heard there are a few stories flying around about just how shielded bloggers are with regard to sources and protection afforded other journalists under the law. Yesterday we talked about one instance in New Jersey. Today we move cross country to the home of all things tech and watch as Gawker Media’s...
Google Acquires Widget Developer Labpixies
April 27, 2010, 6:21 amGoogle has acquired widget developer Labpixies , which developed some of the first gadgets for Google's personalized homepage iGoogle. It also develops apps for Android and iPhone. "Over the years, we worked closely together on a variety of projects, including the launch of a number of global OpenSocial based gadgets. Recently, we decided that we...
Conversion Conference West 2010 and SES San Francisco Preview with Tim Ash
April 27, 2010, 6:02 amOkay, so the first time I interviewed the CEO of SiteTuners.com for a video entitled, "Optimizing Landing Pages -- Tim Ash's Tips and... Footwork," I made him salsa dance. So, at SES New York 2010, I cut the author of the bestselling book, Landing Page Optimization, a little slack.Click to read the rest of this post...
Google Acquires iGoogle Gadget Maker, LabPixies
April 27, 2010, 5:53 amHere we go, Google's latest acquisition has just been announced - the startup LabPixies. In case you're not aware, LabPixies , which is based in Tel Aviv happens to be one of the first developer which created an iGoogle gadget. According to the LabPixies' announcement, the acquisition will help them scale to more users and will open up more...
Newspaper Circulation Contines to Nosedive
April 27, 2010, 5:50 am
The headline alone is nothing that will surprise people, especially those in the online marketing industry. In fact, watching the decline and fall of the newspaper industry is some kind of guilty pleasure that everyone seems to relish. Since there are jobs and things at stake maybe that’s not such a good position to take but it...
Focus On Your Social Media Strategy First
April 27, 2010, 5:30 amIt’s a debate that’s more common than you might think. Strategy or Tactics first when it comes to social media? Many companies approach their participation on the social web tentatively, picking a popular tool like Twitter, Facebook or for the more adventuresome, a blog. The exercise of setting up and populating a profile, friending others and...
Why Google Shelved the Nexus One on Verizon
April 27, 2010, 5:08 amIf you're a true Google watcher, by now you've seen the news that Google nixed its agreement to put its Nexus One smartphone on Verizon Wireless' network of 90 million-plus users. This clearly deals a blow to Google's hopes for expanding the device, which it sells solely through its Webstore . So now the only major question to be entertained is:...
Google Street View Raises More Privacy Concerns
April 27, 2010, 5:00 am
Google’s Street View has always been a lightning rod of sorts for privacy advocates. After all, if you find yourself looking out your window one day and a Google-mobile or trike or whatever they use these days to get information, shows up and starts taking pictures of your street and your home it can be a little creepy. It kind...
The Hands That Search
April 27, 2010, 3:15 amThese hands are from an uncredited photo at viral marketing site Startup Signs : Can you make the sign? [Via khallow at slashdot .] [By Roger Browne | Origin: The Hands That Search | Comments ] [Advertisement] Want to make money with your website? AllPosters.
Should Gmail Alert You to Misspelled Names?
April 27, 2010, 3:15 amWould this make a good Gmail feature? When you address a recipient but you misspell the name, Gmail would alert you to it. Implementation-wise this could perhaps mean that if the first line contains a word that is close to the recipient's name but a couple of letters off, it counts as misspelling. First and also last names could be handled like...
Web Open Font Format (WOFF) Support From Mozilla, Opera and Microsoft
April 27, 2010, 3:15 am"The WOFF font format was designed to provide lightweight, easy-to-implement compression of the font data, suitable for use in conjunction with the @font-face CSS declaration."
Foursquare and Wall Street journal Team Up
April 27, 2010, 3:09 am"The Wall Street Journal wants to help you explore New York..."
Ten Nations Band Together To Raise Concerns Over Google Privacy Issues
April 27, 2010, 1:45 amOfficials from Germany, Canada, France and seven other countries are raising privacy concerns about Google's mapping service and the company's fumbled foray into social networking...the officials said the online search leader "too often" forgets people's privacy rights as it rolls out new technologies.
Police Sieze Computers Over Next Generation iPhone Prototype
April 26, 2010, 11:58 pm"Police in California have seized computers belonging to the editor of a gadget blog which was involved in the purchase of an iPhone prototype."
Healthline Raises $14 Million to Grow Medical Search Engine
April 26, 2010, 11:11 pmA few weeks ago, I got a chance to speak to Dean Stephens, President & COO of Healthline, about their semantic search engine. Today, Healthline announced that it has raised another $14 million in a third round of financing led by Investor Growth Capital (IGC) and including strategic financing from a joint venture between GE Capital's Media,...
Consistency Is Key for Web Marketing Success
April 26, 2010, 10:10 pmNot very often does someone put out one viral marketing campaign that propels them into instant web success. It takes consistency and hard work along with a dedicated schedule of events that are continuously hitting the pages of the internet. Repetition in front of your audience is what it takes to get people to notice you and what you are doing...
Geocitisize a Site
April 26, 2010, 7:44 pmThe Geocities-izer will make any web page look "like it was made by a 13 year-old in 1996". [Via Reddit .
Google Engineers Offering Free Course in Black PR
April 26, 2010, 5:34 pmHas a competitor launched a new feature that concerns you? If so, how do you react? Google, well known for their public relations expertise, does not like the idea of Facebook creating an (eventual) distributed ad network based on demographics data. In spite of Google personalizing search by default (without asking), Google opting you into...
Hotrod for Teacher: Stolen Ride Returned Tricked Out
April 26, 2010, 5:12 pmby Claudine Zap Usually, when your car has been stolen, you can kiss it goodbye. Most likely, your ride has been taken apart, piece by piece â" and sold for parts. At least, that's what Brooklyn resident Amanda Pogany figured three years ago after she learned her 1996 Honda Accord had been snatched. The cops told her to forget about it. So...
TOPSEOs Deceptive Practices – An Interview with Jeev Trika
April 26, 2010, 4:59 pmThe man behind TOPSEOs weighs in on the recent controversy over his "pay to play" awards and ranking system, fraudulent and misleading contact form submissions process and propensity to plagiarize content from well-known search marketing professionals in order to feign legitimacy. Alan Bleiweiss certainly went above & beyond the call of duty...
Is the Internet (& Media) an Addiction?
April 26, 2010, 4:06 pm
The University of Maryland’s International Center for Media and the Public Agenda conducted a study of college students, depriving them of the Internet, cell phones, and even TV, newspapers and radio for twenty-four hours. Based on the students’ own comments about how much they missed it and were addicted to the...
Google Affirms the Vital Role of Marketing and Advertising Agencies
April 26, 2010, 3:30 pmIt's great news that Google has taken the time to think through the pivotal role of agencies in helping advertisers advertise on the Google AdWords platform, and to release a new AdWords Certification program. As the head of a search marketing agency , I value the fact Google is explicitly affirming their philosophical support for the agency world...
Alibaba.com's AliExpress platform now accepts PayPal
April 26, 2010, 3:18 pmIt's Farhad Irani, VP of PayPal APAC. I'm delighted to let you know that PayPal and the Alibaba Group announced today that PayPal is now available on AliExpress.com . Alibaba is one of the most successful e-commerce platforms in Asia with 47 million registered users and AliExpress is Alibaba's business-to-business platform that allows small...
Papa John's Asks Facebook Users To Create New Specialty Pizza
April 26, 2010, 2:56 pmPapa John's has launched a social media campaign on its Facebook page, called "Papa's Specialty Pizza Challenge," asking customers to create and name its next specialty pizza. Whatever the name and combination of ingredients, Papa John's is offering the contest winner a "slice" of the sales in return for the winning recipe. Users who enter Papa's...
Google Earth Sandwiched Into Google Maps
April 26, 2010, 2:56 pmReady or not, another integration of Google's products has occurred. Now, when Google Maps users go looking for a terrain view, they won't find it; instead, a new option that essentially functions as a link to Google Earth is at the ready. People who don't already have Google Earth installed will in fact be unable to proceed until they download a...
More People Believe Online Reviews
April 26, 2010, 2:42 pm
The forthcoming 2010 Social Shopping Study by PowerReviews shows a marked increase in consumer trust in and reliance on online product reviews. However, their trust isn’t blind—online consumers are also becoming more skeptical of those reviews, willing to take them with a grain of salt.
The majority of online consumers...
Papa John’s Asks Facebook Users To Create New Specialty Pizza
April 26, 2010, 2:20 pmPapa John's has launched a social media campaign on its Facebook page, called "Papa's Specialty Pizza Challenge," asking customers to create and name its next specialty pizza.
Whatever the name and combination of ingredients, Papa John's is offering the contest winner a "slice" of the sales in return for the winning...
Reminder: adCenter API Developers Sneak Preview webcast for v7 planning Thursday, 1 p.m. Pacific time
April 26, 2010, 1:59 pmThese sessions provide an excellent opportunity for developers and business customers to learn about the API changes and to ask questions of the product team. If you have requests or questions that you would like to see covered in one of these sessions, please post in the comments below or in the adCenter API Forum . If you have not used Live...
YouTube Direct 2.0 Unveiled
April 26, 2010, 1:31 pmDon't be surprised if more YouTube-sourced content starts to appear on news sites and in televised news programs. A fresh version of a tool that encourages that sort of thing has been rolled out, and it looks like YouTube Direct has received some significant upgrades. Now, YouTube Direct partners like ABC News, Gannett, the Huffington Post, NPR,...
Guest Blogging: Sometimes It’s Best To Just Say No
April 26, 2010, 1:27 pmSome rules and guidelines to stick to when someone offers your blog a guest post.
Lists Of The Most Important Internet Personalities
April 26, 2010, 12:46 pmInternet Evolution has come up with their first-ever list of the top 100 most innovative and influential people in the Web 2.0 world. In the social networking category, Mark Zuckerberg, the Founder of Facebook , beat out Kevin Rose, the Founder of Digg . In the search category, the heads of Google , Microsoft , and Yahoo! were named, but...
Dictionary.com Illustrates How Search is Becoming More Diversified
April 26, 2010, 12:46 pmAsk's Dictionary.com has reached the 10 million download milestone for its mobile apps in just over a year. Dictionary.com gets about 50 million unique visitors a month between its site and its mobile apps. The company's new iPad app already has over 100,000 downloads to date. I spoke with Dictionary.com President Shravan Goli who expressed a...
The Definitive How-To Guide For Conversion Rate Optimization
April 26, 2010, 12:06 pmPosted by stephen 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. Let's start by asking one of the most important questions in conversion rate optimization (CRO): A good...
Macroglossa's Visual Search Engine fails to meet basic expectations
April 26, 2010, 11:26 amMacroglossa, an Italian search engine based on image comparison, is launching the alpha version of its "Engine Comparer Technology", theoretically pushing the limits of search by working solely on visual recognition. But, right now, it's only theoretically. Click to read the rest of this post...
"Clash of the Titans" Rules Overseas, Abby Sunderland Ends Her Quest, Advice on Aliens: What's the Buzz
April 26, 2010, 11:09 amby Claudine Zap Our top picks from the day's hottest searches. Abby Sunderland (Searches increased by +2,923%). The 16-year-old will dock her sailboat in South Africa for repairs, ending her quest to be the youngest person to sail around the globe . Weekend box office (+533%). In foreign markets, "Clash of the Titans" dominates, but that popular...
Yahoo is Broken?
April 26, 2010, 11:09 amOver at Yahoo they seem to be running into some technical difficulties. Regardless of the search phrase uses, organic results are not appearing and the error message "We had temporary problems searching for web pages. Search again for or type a new query above. Regardless of the search phrase I tried, I continued to recieve this error....
Google Announces New Approach to Working with Ad Agencies
April 26, 2010, 10:51 amPenry Price, Google's Vice President of Global Agency Development today announced changes in the search engine's relationship with advertising agencies on the Official Google Blog. No, Google isn't offering "cashback."Click to read the rest of this post...
Do You "Like" How Facebook Phrases Your Likes?
April 26, 2010, 10:07 amNow that most of the web is scrambling to get like buttons and/or recommend buttons on their sites, there is going to be more "liking" and "recommending" on Facebook than ever before. While users may like or recommend a piece of content, that does not necessarily mean they like or recommend what that piece of content is about....
SEO Benchmarks and KPI; measuring success
April 26, 2010, 9:56 amSNIP - Recently we learned that most SEOs still consider that rankings are a performance indicator, just less of a value than in the past. Or at least according to a recent poll we held. This all begged the question, what ARE the metrics of measuring SEO success? - Hopefully this post holds some answers...
How to Build the Initial List of Your Top Competitors
April 26, 2010, 9:56 amThe first step of your competitor research: know who (you are going) to compete with. This post will try to help.
Rhapsody Updates iPhone Offering Offline Playback
April 26, 2010, 9:56 amRhapsody has introduced a new version of its iPhone app that allows users to store subscription music in the phones memory and stream it when they don't have an Internet connection. Rhapsody says it is the first U.S. service to allow people to download subscription music to the iPhone. By downloading playlists directly to the device, users can...
UK Online Video Viewing Up 37 Percent During Past Year
April 26, 2010, 9:36 amIf Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano doesn't ground my flight, I'll be flying to London to speak about "Video Optimisation" at the International Search Summit on May 13. It's a hot topic in the UK, as the latest comScore data shows.Click to read the rest of this post...
Google Adwords Overhaul!
April 26, 2010, 9:32 amIf any of you were looking at Google Adwords the past few days, you may have noticed a few interesting things. Google has decided to add some new features into the mix. Because relationships with advertising agencies are changing, they find it only fair that they shift and change with it. in regards to the GAP Program: The GAP (Google Adwords...
Big Money in Facebook Marketing
April 26, 2010, 9:15 amWildfire Interactive has received $4.04MM in Series A funding lead by Summit Partners. Additional investors include Jeff Clavier, Aydin Senkut and Gary Vaynerchuk. CEO Victoria Ransom tells WebProNews, "To our knowledge, we are the first fbFund company to raise a multi-million dollar round." fbFund is a $10M seed fund and joint venture partially...
Google Changing Its Agency Interface
April 26, 2010, 9:13 am
Google is changing the way it will interact with agencies using AdWords. They’re discontinuing the Google Advertising Professionals program in favor of the Google AdWords Certification program, and eliminating fees for some agencies using the API, based on client spend.
Agencies that have at least one certified employee may...
Dell To Match Android With Advanced Tablet, Netbook
April 26, 2010, 9:06 amCourtesy of Dell, it looks like Android will be paired with a couple of somewhat large and advanced devices in the near future. A leaked Dell roadmap indicates that both a netbook tablet and a true netbook will launch later this year.
Dell appears to be going with a sort of ancient Greece theme in terms of giving these devices codenames,...
UK Online Video Viewing Up 37 Percent During Past Yearâ
April 26, 2010, 9:04 amIf Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano doesn't ground my flight, I'll be flying to London to speak about "Video Optimisation" at the International Search Summit on May 13. It's a hot topic in the UK, as the latest comScore data shows. Click to read the rest of this post.
comScore Releases 2010 U.S. Online Auto Insurance Report
April 26, 2010, 8:47 amcomScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released its 2010 U.S. Online Auto Insurance report, based on behavioral data from comScore's 1 million person U.S. panel and a survey of more than 2,000 U.S. Internet users to understand attitudes and intentions with regard to conducting auto insurance transactions...
Experts Weigh in: Definitive Guide to Social Media Strategy Before Tactics
April 26, 2010, 8:36 amIt’s a debate that’s more common than you might think. Strategy or Tactics first when it comes to social media?
The Secret to Effective Linkbaiting
April 26, 2010, 8:34 amLyndon Antcliff (Lyndoman) shares some linkbaiting wisdom. Highlights include "the implementation is the hard part", "Write headlines like the Sun [~ NY Post], think like the Economist [~WSJ]", and "Understand the power of 'lego kittens on cr@ck'".
Amazon Hopes to Drive 3D Sales Via Consumer Education
April 26, 2010, 8:13 amAmazon has taken the initiative to educate consumers about 3D technology for the home, so it can sell more products that fall into that category. Still, for the home 3D technology space at large, this may prove to be a helpful act, as Amazon obviously plays a huge role in retail. "While 3D is on the minds of a lot of customers, many are confused...
The Problem with Performing SEO in a Vacuum
April 26, 2010, 8:04 amAn excellent SEO strategy piece by Hugo Guzman which sums up why I hate people referring to "SEO best practice" - try and apply SEO changes without taking context, branding guidelines and ROI it could lead to problems. Includes some great examples.
Social Media Time Saving Tip
April 26, 2010, 7:44 amWhat I am going to share with you is not new, but I am surprised at how many people do not use this time saving source. Ping.fm is a resource that I want everyone to know about. If you aren't using it then you need to rethink the reason why. If you are using this wonderful tool then maybe I can share with you some more helpful tips to help in your...
Landing Page Makeover Clinic #25: LeTrip.org
April 26, 2010, 7:27 amThis is another addition to our ongoing series of tutorials and case studies on landing pages that work. Jill Mitchell wants to increase awareness and sales of her one-of-a-kind French vintage objects that she sells on Etsy and Ebay. She also wants more visiblity and sales for her buying tours of Provence. She doesn't actively market her site,...
5 Types of Link Building
April 26, 2010, 7:27 amThere are many reasons to build links to your website, and sometimes, it is hard to determine if one link is better than another, or if it is worth anything at all. For example, a dofollow link is better than a nofollow for some purposes, but not for others. And a redirected link may hold no value for SEO, but may still prove valuable. Here are...
Create Music Playlists, Compilations And Embeddable Music Mixtapes - Guide To Best Online Services
April 26, 2010, 7:13 amDo you want to create music playlists that you can embed on your web site or blog? There are quite a number of services that allow you to combine your favorite tracks into compilations and embeddable music mixtapes, without spending a dime. Did you think you were out of luck because Spotify was not yet available in your country? Then check out all...
Senator Contests Facebook's New Approach To Privacy
April 26, 2010, 7:10 amPrivacy experts and random users are no longer the only ones complaining about how Facebook's latest moves have affected privacy. Senator Charles Schumer made an objection of his own yesterday, and in fact asked the Federal Trade Commission to provide guidelines concerning the use of private info. The good news for Facebook is that Schumer hasn't...
New Civil War Exhibit Promoted On Twitter And Facebook
April 26, 2010, 7:05 amThe National Archives has launched a social media scavenger hunt to promote its new exhibit "Discovering the Civil War."
The social media campaign is launching on the National Archives main Facebook page at 12:00 p.m. EDT today.
The scavenger hunt will take place across the National Archives' social media sites, including over a...
Track Any Page Changes in Google Chrome
April 26, 2010, 6:42 amWe are pretty good at tracking page changes at FireFox already. I did a detailed overview of all the addons that track any page for changes and notify you in various ways.
Google Places Wants To Help You?
April 26, 2010, 6:20 am
Last week Google announced the name change from Google Maps to Google Places along with some changes to the local listing service that is so important to local search. At the end of the week Google also announced something that they are not real well known for: support. Here’s how the Google LatLong blog puts it:
With a new name...
What is the future of search engine optimization (SEO) for Internet marketers?
April 26, 2010, 5:43 amSEO has played a big role in the strategies of internet marketers and business owners. So what does the future of search engine optimization have in store for us? It is nearly impossible to predict what the next phase is on the internet or what the future of the World Wide Web has in store for internet marketers. Here is a look at recent changes...
Yahoo and Samsung Announce New Global Partnership
April 26, 2010, 5:27 amYahoo announced a global partnership with Samsung today, which will see Yahoo services coming pre-installed on a variety of mobile devices from the manufacturer. The two companies have partnered since 2007, but that relationship is now being greatly expanded.
"By making our most popular Yahoo! services available on Samsung mobile devices...
NJ Court Says Determines Whether Woman Is A Journalist or Not
April 26, 2010, 5:27 am
The online world is interesting for all of us when it comes to defining who we are. While it’s easy to call yourself a blogger what does that actually mean from a legal standpoint? How is a blogger truly defined when it comes to the legal side of the coin?
A case in New Jersey has brought attention to the rights and protections...
Google Gives Qualified Agencies Preferred AdWords API Pricing
April 26, 2010, 5:02 amToday Google announced new preferred AdWords API pricing . Qualified AdWords Certified Partners who manage client AdWords accounts get free use of the API based on managed client spend. "The Google AdWords API allows developers to build applications that interact directly with the AdWords platform," explains Penry Price, Vice President, Global...
Google Scraps GAP, Launches AdWords Certification Program
April 26, 2010, 5:02 amGoogle is retiring the Google Advertising Professionals (GAP) program, and replacing it with the new Google AdWords Certification program . "We've had a lot of great feedback from agencies and today were announcing changes designed to offer them better training and more rigorous certification in AdWords proficiency, and to lower costs for those...
Social Media Strategy Before Tactics
April 26, 2010, 4:50 amIt's a debate that's more common than you might think. Strategy or Tactics first when it comes to social media? Many companies approach their participation on the social web tentatively, picking a popular tool like Twitter, Facebook or for the more adventuresome, a blog. The exercise of setting up and populating a profile, friending others and...
Browser Type Impacting AdSense Income
April 26, 2010, 4:11 am"...I just happened to stumble across a startling statistic..."
Social Media Supremacy: 10 Experts Reveal Their Strategies
April 26, 2010, 4:10 amTogether, these people have been involved in social media as long as anyone else and discovered tactics to help you get the most out of the services. Not only that, but they’ve helped shape the way that marketers utilise these services and they teach how to do it in an honest, ethical manner.
Google Advertising Professional Program Replaced
April 26, 2010, 4:08 am"today we're announcing changes designed to offer them better training and more rigorous certification in AdWords proficiency, and to lower costs for those who help advertisers get the most out of AdWords. We're also making it easier for advertisers to find certified agency partners to work with them on digital advertising."
US Senator Wants FTC to Look Into Facebook Privacy Practices
April 26, 2010, 4:02 am
Last week we brought to your attention the fact that Facebook was starting to spend some time in Washington, DC talking to folks in the intelligence community as well as the FTC. Well, now after US Senator Charles “Chuck” Schumer’s action we can understand why Facebook would like to develop some friendships in high...
Augmented Reality SEO - Dixon Jones - Guest Blogger
April 26, 2010, 3:24 amIf you think that SEO has gotten complex over the last 12 months, this is going to blow your mind. 20 years or so ago, shortly after leaving University in London, I found myself as part of a Microsoft focus group. At the time I wrote mystery games and the Microsoft researcher was responsible for developing "Blue Sky Thinking" for Microsoft on how...
U.K. Online Video Viewing Up 37 Percent During Past Year
April 26, 2010, 3:18 amcomScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released data from the comScore Video Metrix service indicating that 5.5 billion videos were viewed online in the U.K. in February 2010, up 37 percent versus the previous year.
Augmented Reality SEO
April 26, 2010, 3:14 amGuest post from Dixon Jones on the adCenter Blog on what the future holds for SEO.Will the black hats have us all jumping off a cliff, or will we all be tucked up in cafes, happily drinking tea?!
Go Mobile! Series: iPad Device Targeting Now Available
April 26, 2010, 3:07 amAs we announced earlier this month, we've included the iPad in our list of mobile devices with full internet browsers, making it easy for you to run your campaigns on it. Now that we've finished our rigorous iPad testing , we feel confident adding the iPad to the list of mobile devices that you can target specifically . To do this, simply edit the...
Google Says There Are Over 1 Million AdSense Publishers
April 26, 2010, 1:07 am"So, the next time you wonder if you have much competition, now you know."
UK Election 2010: What's So Bad About a Hung Parliament?
April 26, 2010, 12:29 amThe top term in this week's UK election 2010 seems to be "hung Parliament." I'll translate this British phrase for Americans in a minute, but first let's look at the numbers.Click to read the rest of this post...
Google Ad Innovations
April 26, 2010, 12:13 am
Google Ad Innovations was launched at the end of March as a lab for ad products it is considering. It’s designed to help AdWords account holders experiment with ad technologies and get their feedback about the new products. They may or may not be released for real in the future, depending on how they test out among AdWords users.
Search...
Client Based Keyword Research: How to Grow Plants Up a Wall
April 25, 2010, 10:54 pmPosted by RobOusbey There are a variety of tools and techniques recommended for SEO keyword research, from the free to the expensive, from the well-known to those that are almost kept a secret. However, there's one source of keyword ideas which is often overlooked: the customers (and potential customers) served on a daily basis. Let's get...
Things Not Do With Your SEO Program
April 25, 2010, 10:14 pmYour SEO program does truly require a patient person that understands not only the value, but understands that it is an effort that builds and grows over time. If your company is in an industry that is very competitive and already saturated you might have to wait a little while before you start to get noticed as an authority figure. In my opinion...
Google Places to Let Business Owners Post Sales Alerts
April 25, 2010, 9:29 pmGoogle April 20 retooled its Local Business Center as Google Places to better emphasize the connection of businesses to Place Pages. Place Pages are Web pages that pop up on Google Maps and Google.com when users search for local businesses and click the "more info" button. Through Google Places , businesses can add and edit information about their...
We're Headed to LA for Digital Hollywood 2010!
April 25, 2010, 11:15 amIt only seems like yesterday I was in Las Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show where we blogged from the Digital Hollywood conference there. If you missed all the action youre in luck, because four short months later, were going to do it all again in Los Angeles from the 3rd 6th May. This time we have around fifteen, yes FIFTEEN, Microsoft...
Deciphering Shady Social Media Stats
April 25, 2010, 7:41 amIt must be that past life in PR where we all learn that statistics can say just about anything we want them to if we twist them enough (my disgust of that attitude makes me hypersensitive to them now).
Google Delves Deeper Into Transliteration
April 25, 2010, 7:23 amAs Google's made certain content and services available for free, some newspaper editors and book publishers have come to loathe the search giant, and it wouldn't be surprising if translators join that group, too. Late last week, Google took several steps to make switching between languages easier on regular people. The most mainstream and...
The Google site: operator seems broken - is this intentional?
April 25, 2010, 7:21 amWebmasters who depend on the site: operator to understand how deeply Google is indexing their site are concerned that they now have some kind of penalty, or at least a technical problem with their website or server.
Testing Apple iPad Tablet in New Rutgers Mini-MBA Digital Marketing Program
April 25, 2010, 7:00 amThis is a test. Each student enrolling in a new Mini-MBA: Digital Marketing Executive Certificate Program this summer at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, will receive an Apple iPad tablet. This is only a test.Click to read the rest of this post...
Pandia Search Engine News Wrap-up April 23
April 25, 2010, 6:15 amHere are some of the search and search engine relevant articles we have found on the Web this week: Hulu to Begin Charging for Programming Hulu, the online television site, is going to start requiring payment for some of its programming (ReadWriteWeb Apr 22 2010) YouTube Video Rental Store Now Open YouTube has quietly begun offering a variety of...
Keep yourself up to date at the Search Marketing Expo, London
April 25, 2010, 3:26 amBarak Berkowitz, Managing Director of Wolfram|Alpha will be providing the keynote address at the SMX Advanced, London, May 17 and 18. SMX Advanced is the only search marketing conference designed exclusively for experienced internet marketers. This means that you should have at least some knowledge of search engines, search engine optimization and...
Why should I use a real time search engine?
April 25, 2010, 3:04 amThe newest type of search engine on the web today comes in the form of real time search engines. Many internet users wonder why they should use this new method of searching. It turns out that these types of search engines can offer many benefits for certain types of searches. By guest writer Evan Britton. What is real time search? Any internet...
I Understand that You Don't Get Twitter and I Can Help You!
April 25, 2010, 2:52 amWelcome back to our weekly Twitter column. While perusing an article about the state of Twitter by celebated social media pundit Brian Solis of PR 2.0 I was intrigued by a screen shot from Google Suggest where the second most popular collocation of " I don't get '" is Twitter . I checked that and it's true. Google suggests that as the 2nd most...
Prominent Google Engineers Flee Facebook
April 24, 2010, 7:38 pmMatt Cutts and Other Engineers Deactivate their Accounts
How To Write Your Social Media Plan In 8 Steps
April 24, 2010, 6:48 pmHere are some ideas on the main topics you need to cover in creating an impressive, yet realistic social media plan that garners executive buy-in and a clearer path to success.
How to Add the Facebook Like Button to a Webpage
April 24, 2010, 11:06 amA clear and concise look at how to add the Facebook 'Like' button to a webpage
You Don't Know Jack About Branding
April 24, 2010, 9:57 amKenny Hyder reminds us, "As online professionals turn for help with branding needs and education, they are forgetting one thing: crap in, crap out. Looking to your favorite social media site as a study in branding is like trying to develop an ear for music by hanging out in a high school parking lot."
Johnny's Copyblogger Wrap-Up: Week of April 19, 2010
April 24, 2010, 7:51 amIf you read Copyblogger and dream of striking out on your own, you need to know that independent business isn't always good. Bad things do happen. For instance, I'm writing this in a bookstore cafe. Two tables down from me, there's a guy with his headphones on belting out "You're So Vain" by Carly Simon. (You're an old person in the blogosphere if...
TV Station Websites Generating More Revenue
April 24, 2010, 5:39 amMore TV station websites are turning a profit in 2010 and many sites are increasing their content while dropping site features that may not be working well, according to a new survey from the Radio Television Digital News Association and Hofstra University. The survey found TV station websites have continued to see an increase in profitability, up...
Cup of Joe: Steve Jobs Is a Marketing Guru
April 24, 2010, 5:15 am
Let me start off with a little disclaimer: I don’t like Apple products. I used nothing but Apple products for most of the 1990s but since then I’ve grown to dislike the vast majority of the things they produce and the business decisions they choose to make.
However, I think Steve Jobs is a marketing genius. If you...
Imagery for Qinghai, China earthquake
April 23, 2010, 7:11 pm(Cross-posted from the Google LatLong Blog ) On Tuesday, April 13, a powerful 6.9 earthquake shook the province of Qinghai, China, resulting in widespread destruction and the loss of more than 1,700 lives. Working closely with GeoEye , we've been able to acquire some high resolution post-earthquake imagery, which vividly illustrates the magnitude...
An Octopus, a Shark, and a Shy Jellyfish: Buzz Week in Review
April 23, 2010, 6:15 pmby Mike Krumboltz Never turn your back on a curious sea creature. Off the coast of New Zealand, a cheeky octopus stole a photographer's underwater camera and refused to give it back. Out in Hawaii, a shark bit a surfer's board in half, before giving the shocked man a ride on its back. And in the Gulf of Mexico, cameras caught very rare footage of...
Warning: Curves Ahead. Buzz Over Bra Ad
April 23, 2010, 5:40 pmby Claudine Zap Call it bra-gate. In a new lingerie ad , the model is gorgeous and scantily clad. Sure, we've seen this before. Except in the past, the company was Victoria's Secret . And the models were wafer thin. The ad that Fox and ABC both say can't be shown during their prime "family hour" is for Lane Bryant . And the modelâ"one very...
The Worst 5 Old Blogging Rules Killing Your Readership Today
April 23, 2010, 5:39 pmLisa Barone: "No matter what you want to do, someone will force a rule book on you. It doesn’t matter that there are no rules, the experts will beat you with what they say you must do, you can’t do and what you can only do with permission. Trouble is, sometimes “expert” just means “old” and the advice they’re giving you is so...
Strength in numbers for group buying deals
April 23, 2010, 3:25 pmSocial commerce and group buying has become increasingly popular these days, on Tuesday, The New York Times reported that Groupon received an investment of $135 million dollars from Digital Sky Technologies . Additionally, last month, another group buying website, LivingSocial , received an investment of $25 million dollars. With investors eager...
Google Distances Maps Navigation From iPhone
April 23, 2010, 2:56 pmEarlier today, reports indicated that Google Maps Navigation (an Internet-connected GPS nav system) would become available on the iPhone, and while some people viewed this a nice peace offering, others thought Google was damaging its mobile business. Only it turns out even more cynicism was appropriate, as no such move is guaranteed to occur....
Reprise Round Up: Facebook's Universal Cookie, Google and Foursquare Continue to Target Businesses and Facebook Ads Bring Bought and Earned Media Together
April 23, 2010, 2:51 pmAs announced last week , every Friday we'll be posting a recap of the week's most interesting search and social media headlines and their implications for our agency and our clients. Here are the highlights from today's discussion: Facebook's Open Graph Personalizes the Web This week at their F8 Developer Conference,
Ad Age Scoop: 'Reckitt Benckiser Breaks Record With $40 Million Video Buy'
April 23, 2010, 2:39 pmMichael Learmonth of Advertising Age has just reported that "Reckitt Benckiser is pouring nearly $40 million into web video in 2010, thought to be the biggest single buy for the medium." Okay, I wish that I'd gotten this scoop, but I've got to tip my hat to Ad Age.Click to read the rest of this post...
Introducing Clusto
April 23, 2010, 1:54 pmWhen you start building a website, there is very little to keep track of. You get a server, install some software, write some code, and release.
Yahoo to add Twitter & Facebook Updates to Search Results
April 23, 2010, 1:20 pmChief executives from Yahoo announced to FT blogger Joseph Menn , this afternoon, that they were going to jump into 'Social Search' this year. Click to read the rest of this post.
The Meta Tag Is Back With a Vengeance
April 23, 2010, 1:20 pmFollowing annoucements made at the Facebook F8 conference, Techcrunch reports that Google Developers are leaving Facebook due to substantial concerns over privacy. Click to read the rest of this post.
In the News: Behind the Scenes at Bing with Sean Suchter
April 23, 2010, 1:09 pmWhile poking around through various news sources this morning, I ran across this article from yesterday on SFGate.com . Its fairly short, but interesting nonetheless as it gives a quick glimpse into the startup feel Bing has to those whore.
Riverdale's First Openly Gay Student Arrives
April 23, 2010, 12:57 pmby Mike Krumboltz Archie, Betty, Veronica, and Jughead have been going to Riverdale High School for a loooooong time (Archie Comics was founded in 1939). But throughout the gang's illustrious academic career, they have never had a classmate who was openly gay. Until now. In a move that is generating a lot of buzz on the Web, the publishers of...
North Carolina Offers Tax Amnesty For Online Retailers
April 23, 2010, 12:28 pmThe North Carolina Department of Revenue said today it is working with online retailers who operate affiliate programs in the state to resolve issues of tax liability. The state said it will waive all back sales taxes and penalties for online retailers that sign an agreement by August 31 to start collecting sales tax. An initiative called the...
"Project Runway" Has a Winner, Jillian Michaels Has Baby Plans, James Cameron Talks Sequel: What's the Buzz
April 23, 2010, 12:00 pmby Claudine Zap Our top picks from the day's hottest searches. Jillian Michaels (Searches increased by +1,189%). The fitness trainer for "Biggest Loser" wants kids without the fuss and muss â" OK, weight gain â" of pregnancy . Joe Biden (+397%). The veep headed to "The View" and talked f-bomb flub . But did not drop it again. We don't think....
Twitter Acquires SMS Specialist Cloudhopper
April 23, 2010, 11:43 amLife is good - and rather Twitter-centric - for Joe Lauer and Kristin Kanaar. Not only did they get to see Twitter hero Conan O'Brien perform last night, but today, Twitter announced that it's acquired their messaging infrastructure company, Cloudhopper. The Twitter-Cloudhopper relationship apparently goes back quite a ways. Kevin Thau,...
Sign up to be Empowered (or at least learn more about it)
April 23, 2010, 11:09 amby Josh Bernoff I'm at Forrester's Marketing Forum 2010 in Los Angeles. We unexpected got several chances to put Empowered content in front of important audiences. Marketing leaders at a lunch meeting were intrigued by the HERO idea - we're on the right track. And when a keynote spot opened up, Augie Ray and I polished up our Peer Influence...
Earth Day on Yahoo! Search
April 23, 2010, 10:40 amWe are celebrating Earth Day's 40 th birthday this week, but searchers on Yahoo! are looking for ways to be green every day of the year. This year, especially, people are taking matters into their own hands and looking for information on DIY green practices, from reusing everyday items to finding organic household goods. People are asking...
Newspaper Websites See Record Traffic
April 23, 2010, 9:58 amU.S. newspaper companies drove record traffic to their websites in the first quarter of 2010, attracting 74.4 million unique visitors per month on average or 37 percent of all Internet users, according to a new report from Nielsen Online released by the Newspaper Association of America. The new record follows the solid audience newspapers...
Google Denies Maps Navigation on Apple's IPhone is a Certainty
April 23, 2010, 9:58 amGoogle Maps Navigation, the free turn-by-turn GPS app, isn't a shoe-in to appear on Apple's iPhone despite recent blog reports. According to MacUser : The navigation system is available as a free update to Google Maps on Android phones, but won't stop there. Google confirmed at a London press conference that it plans to bring free satnav to other...
Yahoo Pushes Forward With Social Plans
April 23, 2010, 9:18 amFollowing Twitter and Facebook's conferences, it looks like Yahoo will keep the "significant social announcements" ball rolling in the weeks and months ahead. Execs have shared some rough details and vague timeframes with regards to address book-, Facebook-, and Twitter-related integrations. Let's address the issues in chronological order. After...
"Remove Participant" Option Comes To Google Wave
April 23, 2010, 8:32 amWhat is by Google's own admission a "glaringly obvious" missing feature has been added to Google Wave. Now, it's possible for participants to be removed (or remove themselves) from waves, potentially saving people all sorts of time or embarrassment. Add someone to a wave by accident? Find out a friend can't attend the event you're trying to...
California Man Indicted For Cyber Extortion
April 23, 2010, 8:32 amA California man has been indicted for cyber extortion after demanding New York Life Insurance pay him $200,000 if they didn't refund his insurance premiums. According to the Department of Justice , Anthony Digati, 52, allegedly threatened in emails and on a website he created to make false public statements and send millions of spam emails in an...
Tweet In Local Language To Ensure Worldwide Twitter Success
April 23, 2010, 8:21 amTwitter, like Facebook before it, has become a global phenomenon. The company recently said on its blog that over 60% of Twitter users are based outside the United States and it now provides its interface in French, German, Italian, Spanish and Japanese - with more languages likely to follow.
Google Bringing GPS Navigation to iPhone…This Just In: No It’s Not
April 23, 2010, 7:41 am
You’ve got to love how quickly rumors can start, spread, and become fact, all before you can say “Google world domination.”
Case in point? MacUser published on Thursday what appeared to be a scoop:
The navigation system is available as a free update to Google Maps on Android phones, but won’t stop there. Google...
UK Election 2010: Incisive Media Coverage on Both Sides of the Pond
April 23, 2010, 7:41 amSearch Engine Watch isn't the only Incisive Media website and blog paying close attention to the UK General Election. Over on the other side of the pond, you'll find stories in Computeractive, the Parlimentary Connections Blog, IFAonline, BusinessGreen.com, and more.Click to read the rest of this post...
How to Get Free When You're Feeling Stuck and Scared
April 23, 2010, 7:41 amSpring has finally sprung here in the northeast, but I'm not sure any of us quite believe it. It could still be a snowy 10 degrees tomorrow. Twenty years in New England has taught me that. Which is why I haven't really done anything about the fact that my new studio did not come with screens for the windows. I'm still opening them, mind you. And...
Microsoft Sees “Strong Growth” in an Extra $300M Loss for Bing???
April 23, 2010, 7:23 am
Back when I was a VP at a publicly-traded search marketing firm, I learned one thing: I would never make a good CFO.
It’s not that I can’t use a calculator, I just get soooo bored looking at cash flow statements, P&Ls, etc. We’d have our auditor in for meetings and I’d do my best to be busy...
Majority Of Facebook Users Don't Friend Their Boss
April 23, 2010, 7:12 amA majority of Facebook users say they connect to the social networking site from work, but 73 percent have not "friended" their boss, according to a new report from F-Secure. More than half (58%) of Facebook users said they visit the site at least occasionally at work and 77 percent report they actively use the privacy settings on the site. "We're...
Nexus One May Launch In UK Next Week
April 23, 2010, 7:12 amMore than 15 weeks after the Nexus One launched in the US, it looks like our friends in the UK may finally get an opportunity to buy the Android smartphone. Late yesterday, a "coming soon" page set up by Vodafone briefly changed to describe the release window as April. Credit goes to EuroDroid 's Gary Cutlack for catching the change, and assuming...
The Alternative P2P Wireless Internet Network: The Netsukuku Idea
April 23, 2010, 7:10 amWould it be possible, using p2p and wireless technologies, to gain independence from internet providers and make free and open net connectivity a reality? Andrea Lo Pumo, a young Italian mathematician has developed Netsukuku, a vision for an alternative wireless network that may represent a disruptive change for the Internet as we know it....
A New Feature-Rich SEO FireFox Addon: SEO Doctor
April 23, 2010, 7:06 amIt looks like Vladimir Prelovac has become our SEJ featured developer. I have already shared his plugin for smart blog interlinking and mentioned another Wordpress plugin by him called "Insights" . Today I am sharing his FireFox addon that has been developed for about a year. SEO Doctor is a newly launched FireFox addon that has tons of useful SEO...
Majority Of Facebook Users Don’t Friend Their Boss
April 23, 2010, 6:44 amA majority of Facebook users say they connect to the social networking site from work, but 73 percent have not "friended" their boss, according to a new report from F-Secure.
More than half (58%) of Facebook users said they visit the site at least occasionally at work and 77 percent report they actively use the privacy settings on the...
Mobile Couponing Set to Explode?
April 23, 2010, 5:28 am
Well, since we are in the official year of mobile (it is really the actual year of mobile right?) it only makes sense to start to truly predict just how much will now be spent in the future of mobile. One of the most obvious uses of mobile marketing is for couponing. Being able to provide a coupon at the literal point of purchase...
Twitter Acquires SMS Company, Cloudhopper
April 23, 2010, 5:12 am"a messaging infrastructure company that enables Twitter to connect directly to mobile carrier networks in countries all over the planet."
Facebook Goes to Washington to Deepen Intelligence Ties
April 23, 2010, 4:33 am
You know that you are a major force in business when you go from a fun, social networking company to huge valuations and finally to Washington. Google has shown that they understand the importance of being in the US capital and working the lobbying angle. When there’s enough talk about antitrust and monopoly you need to do that....
We've Added a Facebook Like Button to SEJ
April 23, 2010, 2:46 amThis week Facebook rolled out some new tools and cupdates to their Open Graph that lets publishers utilize the new Facebook Like option and other Facebook sharing tools on websites, articles and specific web documents. Selena put together a nice wrap up of the announcements here on SEJ. I'm happy to announce that we are now testing the Facebook...
notifier test 2
April 23, 2010, 2:40 amtesting post notification, the post content would be here but i don't have any.
Advanced Blog & WordPress SEO: 30 Points Most Bloggers Overlook
April 23, 2010, 1:09 amOverlook Park by dougtone . There are so many WordPress SEO tutorials out there we don't need another one. Some of them are very good, I don't doubt that. They cover most of the blog & WordPress SEO basics like proper URLs e.g. We have also numerous best WordPress SEO plugins lists out there. Blog SEO is mainly NOT about basics and plugins. You...
Whiteboard Friday - Oh $#!%, I Got a Penalty
April 22, 2010, 11:32 pmPosted by great scott! Anyone who's been in internet marketing long knows the feeling: you go to check your rankings one day and something's different. Your pulse quickens, a cold sweat spreads across your brow, your eyes widen...they're gone. Your precious rankings are gone! Where did they go? What happened? Penalties. They can bring the...
SEO Guarantees Should Not Exist
April 22, 2010, 10:08 pmFor many years I have been hearing lots of SEO companies that offer guarantees on search engine placement. I have argued this approach until I have been blue in the face and I think it is important to revisit this issue. Too many customers look for this guarantee and many are usually quite disappointed with the outcome when things fail to come...
On Google Street View Car Logging Wifi Networks
April 22, 2010, 9:45 pmThe Register writes : Google's roving Street View spycam may blur your face, but it's got your number. The Street View service is under fire in Germany for scanning private WLAN networks, and recording users' unique Mac (Media Access Control) addresses, as the car trundles along. Germany's Federal Commissioner for Data Protection Peter Schaar says...
2010 MarketingProfs B2B Forum Boston
April 22, 2010, 9:06 pmJoin myself, Nick Stamoulis and meet some of the Brick Marketing team at our booth at this year's Marketing Profs B2B forum May 4-5 at the Seaport World Trade Center Boston. Save $300 by entering the code BRICK at checkout! The MarketingProfs B2B Forum will be a great one-stop shop for the skills you need to drive B2B sales in 2010! You'll get...
Microsoft Reports Record Third-Quarter Revenue
April 22, 2010, 8:26 pm"Microsoft Corp. today announced record third-quarter revenue of $14.50 billion for the quarter ended Mar. 31, 2010, a 6% increase from the same period of the prior year."
My Week Converting to IPv6
April 22, 2010, 8:00 pm"In this post I will start with some backgrounds of IPv6. The next post will cover my attempts to convert the first computers and network devices to IPv6."
Announcing the Worldwide Ning Appathon Competition
April 22, 2010, 7:58 pmLet the games begin! At last night's Ning Appathon kickoff event at the Ning offices in Palo Alto, Ning started a week-long worldwide app development competition for the recently launched Ning Apps platform. WHAT: The Ning Appathon is a week-long OpenSocial development competition with prizes for both original and ported applications. Judges...
Are You Sure You Know What Guest Blogging Is About? (Quiz)
April 22, 2010, 5:32 pmGuest blogging is a hot topic now. And plenty of people start doing that. But that’s what makes me feel worried about the concept.
The thing is that once a tactic gets popular enough, it gets so abused that acquires some negative connotation. That’s exactly what happened with “SEO” which now sounds as spam for most Internet users. That...
'The Back-up Plan' and 'The Losers': Critics Roundup
April 22, 2010, 5:16 pmby Mike Krumboltz Ruthless assassins, or a very pregnant woman? Neither should be messed with, and both are featured in movies opening at theaters this weekend. Romantic comedy " The Back-up Plan " stars Jennifer Lopez as a woman who gets artificially inseminated, and meets her dream fella soon after. " The Losers " is an action flick about a...
Newly Discovered Borneo Beings Beget Buzz
April 22, 2010, 4:53 pmby Vera H-C Chan Who says the age of exploration is dead? A lot of species share territory on Borneo , the world's third largest island, and the conservation group WWF just found 123 more . Researchers, as part of an agreement with the three countries that oversee Borneo (Indonesia, Brunei Darussalam, and Malaysia), have been poking around the...
Surfing With A Shark: Surfer's Close Call
April 22, 2010, 4:53 pmby Claudine Zap Usually, when we hear about a shark attack , things end badly. But this shark encounter was more about two species having a moment, then both going their separate ways. No harm done. (Except for the surfboard. More on that later.) Here's what happened. One Jim Rawlinson of Hanalei Bay, Hawaii , was catching some waves earlier in...
2010 NFL Draft Online : Live Video & Twitter
April 22, 2010, 4:30 pmThe 2010 NFL Draft will mark the first time the drafting of college players by NFL teams will be held in Prime Time, and not during the weekend, as the NFL has expanded the event to 3 days, in a similar fashion as they did with the 2009 Probowl, holding it the weekend before the Super Bowl. This year, the 75th NFL Draft will start tonight at 7:30...
Take the SEOmoz 2010 SEO Industry Survey
April 22, 2010, 4:22 pm
Do you have 10 minutes to spare? Would you like to help the SEO industry understand exactly where we’re at in 2010? Oh, and would you like to win an iPad and other cool prizes?
You would, huh? Then read on Pilgrim!
SEOmoz is once again taking on the task of surveying the SEO industry and they need your help. All you need do...
The 5-W's and 1-H of SEO content marketing planning
April 22, 2010, 3:51 pmPlanning a SEO copywriting campaign doesn't have to be rocket science. In the frenzied initial stages of SEO content marketing, it's easy to get so wrapped up in the big picture that you forget the important foundational details. It's great when the powers-that-be get excited about all the new traffic their content marketing strategy will drive -...
Oil Rig Explosion and Aftermath
April 22, 2010, 3:39 pmby Mike Krumboltz Tuesday's "catastrophic" explosion at the Deepwater Horizon offshore oil rig , off the coast of Louisiana, has left 11 workers missing and a 5-square-mile slick of crude oil in the Gulf of Mexico. When the explosion hit, there were 126 people aboard â" 115 have been accounted for. The Coast Guard is continuing a search of the...
Amazon First Quarter Earnings Up 68%
April 22, 2010, 2:31 pmAmazon.com reported today that its net income for the first quarter increased 68 percent to $299 million, or 66 cents per share, compared with net income of $177 million, or 41 cents per share in the first quarter of 2009. Analysts expected earnings of 61 cents a share on revenue of $6.87 billion, according to a consensus forecasts from Thomson...
Microsoft Matches, Tops Forecasts w/Earnings Report
April 22, 2010, 2:31 pmMicrosoft released its earnings report this afternoon, and for better or worse, seemed to follow a pattern established by Google, Yahoo, and eBay. Which is to say: Microsoft beat analysts' estimates, but is getting roughed up in after-hours trading. Analysts thought Microsoft would report $14.4 billion in revenue and earnings per share of $0.42. ...
Bing Sponsors Explorer to Tweet From North Pole for Earth Day
April 22, 2010, 1:27 pmToday, explorer Eric Larsen ( @ELexplore ) is due to reach the North Pole and will send the first ever tweet from there. Larsen has chronicled his triumphs and obstacles along the way, via Twitter, and his own blog, Save the Poles . Click to read the rest of this post.
Yahoo's Head Of Advertising Platforms To Leave Company
April 22, 2010, 1:04 pmAlthough it's hard to imagine that any company keeps all its employees forever, it looks like Yahoo continues to be worse than average in terms of retaining important people. This afternoon, a report revealed that Bill Wise, who is in charge of Yahoo's Advertising Platforms business, will leave the same as so many before him.
Wise started...
13 Ways to Position Yourself as a Trusted Resource
April 22, 2010, 12:59 pmTrust. It’s something you’re always trying to gain … especially in this new online marketplace where customers have a hard time trusting anybody.With that in mind, you should constantly work to position yourself as someone who can be trusted … someone who others look up to because he knows what he’s talking about. The good news is...
Take the 2010 SEO Industry Survey; Your Peers Need You!
April 22, 2010, 12:35 pmPosted by randfish I'm very excited to announce that we have just put the finishing touches on our second, biennial SEO Industry Survey! We ran our first industry survey in 2008, and learned and shared a lot about the SEO community. This survey follows up on a lot of questions we asked last time, but includes a greater focus on other areas of...
Google Continues Buzz Rollout With Maps Tie-In
April 22, 2010, 12:07 pmReady or not, Google Maps fans, here Google Buzz comes. Following all other sorts of product integrations, Google's now made it possible to combine its Google Buzz layer of data with the desktop version of Google Maps. This really does make for a significant trend. In just the past month or so, we've discussed a Buzz widget for Android, the...
Earth Day: Search for Answers to Earth's Biggest Puzzles
April 22, 2010, 12:00 pmEvery year, Yahoo! gets into the spirit of Earth Day and educates our community about all things green. This year, our focus is on giving you fun new reasons to search on Yahoo! for green information. Yahoo! Search is featuring a bunch of green trivia questions like "What's the difference between brown eggs and white eggs?" or "Which city has the...
Pandora Bringing Music Stream To Facebook
April 22, 2010, 11:49 amPandora and Facebook will be deeply integrated according to an announcement at the F8 Developer Conference today. using Facebooks new Open Graph protocol, Pandora will stream music directly onto the social networker from bands that fans have "liked using Facebook buttons placed on other web sites. Users can also see what kind of music their...
Search & Social Awards : Vote Now!
April 22, 2010, 11:31 amThe voting for the 2010 Search & Social Awards is now open! Search & Social is holding this contest to introduce the search marketing & social media community to multiple blogs in various different genres and online marketing disciplines. The final tally will be taken on May 1st and then winners will be announced on May 3rd, during an awards...
Will Google's AdSense be in Trouble Because of Facebook?
April 22, 2010, 11:25 amFacebook is infiltrating sites all over the web . These sites are happy to add Facebook's social plug-ins. What if Facebook launched an AdSense-like product - a product that lets publishers stick relevant ads from Facebook on their sites for a cut of the money? They would be HIGHLY, HIGHLY targeted because the more sites that use plugins like...
David Hasselhoff's New Job, Annie Lennox's Shirt, Sheep Pig: What's the Buzz
April 22, 2010, 11:09 amby Claudine Zap Our top picks from the day's hottest searches. Annie Lennox (Searches increased by +3,225%). The rock icon wore an "HIV Positive" shirt to show solidarity with millions of people with the disease. Sheep pig (+2,512%). Forget about lipstick: This one is covered in a fuzzy fur coat . David Hasselhoff (1,636%). The Hoff will reprise...
4 Ways to Act Like a Social Media Jerk…& How to Avoid Them!
April 22, 2010, 11:00 am
By Sheila Beal
If your brand, business or company seeks to harness the benefits of social media, you need to be aware of some pitfalls to avoid.
While social media can do wonders to help raise awareness and improve the sales of a business, if it’s not done well, it can also come back to haunt you. I’ve gone from being a raving...
Yahoo Search Results to Include More Sponsors
April 22, 2010, 10:46 amYahoo has launched a pilot program called "More Sponsors" in which it will add links at the bottom of Yahoo search results for more PPC adds. When a user clicks on one of the links it will bring up a page with nothing but sponsored search ads. The feature is supported by Yahoo's Search Assist features (the search engine's suggestions feature)....
Earth Day Every Day
April 22, 2010, 10:12 amby Vera H-C Chan Earth Day hits the big 4-0. After the throes of the first Earth Day, the United States created the Environmental Protection Agency and passed the Clean Water Act. Now the world is grappling with concepts like climate change and global warming, and the planet's inhabitants may be more preoccupied with trying economic times. Has...
Search by Voice Available Now in Google Maps 4.1 for WinMo and Symbian
April 22, 2010, 9:49 amGoogle just announced that its cool search by voice feature in Google Maps 4.1 is now available for Windows Mobile and Symbian S60 phones. This is the same voice activated search feature that BlackBerry and Android phone users have been enjoying for quite some time now. So, if you have any Symbian S60 or Windows Mobile phone, you can now search...
Has the UK General Election Just Experienced its First Real 'Twitter Moment'?
April 22, 2010, 9:34 amHas the UK general election just experienced its first real "Twitter moment"? Well, colleagues on both sides of the pond have noticed that #nickcleggsfault is a trending topic on Twitter today.Click to read the rest of this post...
Google Maps Search Suggest Available in More Languages
April 22, 2010, 9:25 amRecently Google put up an experimental search suggest feature for Google Maps to make it faster and more accurate to find places, businesses and points of interest as you type your search. But this was only available for Google Maps in Germany, China, Hong Kong and most recently Taiwan. But now, Google has just made this search suggest feature...
Social Networks Said To Account For 60% Of Mobile Web Usage
April 22, 2010, 9:20 amThere's good news for social networks - and perhaps MySpace in particular - this week courtesy of Ground Truth. The mobile measurement firm has determined that almost 60 percent of the time people spend online using a cell phone is dedicated to social networks, and that MySpace is ahead of Facebook in many respects. Let's start with the basics. ...
Checklist for Changing Your URL Structure
April 22, 2010, 9:19 amFrom the page: In SEO there are a lot of little things we can tweak to help a site rank better. This includes improving a site’s URL structure by making it more SEO friendly. The problem is, if you do this incorrectly your rankings could drop significantly and it could take a long time to make a full recovery.
Facebook And StumbleUpon Drive The Most Social Traffic To Websites
April 22, 2010, 9:14 amTwitter generates nearly 10 percent of social media global hits to websites, according to new research from StatCounter.
The report found that Facebook is still the main source of traffic to global websites with almost half (48%) of social media hits followed by StumbleUpon with 25 percent.
The data for March is based on 13 billion page views...
Search Engine Friendly CMS launches in German, Russian, and Italian
April 22, 2010, 8:52 amSEOTOASTER is an Free and Open Source Search Engine Friendly Content Management System , with an 'edit as you browse' approach and simple interface. SEOTOASTER enables open souce PHP developers to enhance the software at will with smarties, widgets, plugins, and even improve the core of the application while delivering to the entrepreneur,...
Has the UK General Election Just Experienced its First Real 'Twitter Moment'?â
April 22, 2010, 8:40 amHas the UK general election just experienced its first real "Twitter moment"? Well, colleagues on both sides of the pond have noticed that #nickcleggsfault is a trending topic on Twitter today. Click to read the rest of this post.
Google Adds to Google Maps Suggest Feature
April 22, 2010, 8:40 amGoogle recently launched Suggest for Google Maps in several countries, and has now expanded the availability of the feature to ten more domains. The feature has also gotten some improvements. The suggestions in Google Maps now include more information like the address of the business or the district that a place is in. "This extra information...
Local Business Marketing â" The Known Future
April 22, 2010, 8:00 amThe Internet has turned into a great local business marketing tool in the past couple of years. While local businesses have not yet adopted these tools into their marketing strategies, the technologies are moving forward with or without them. The convergence of Search, Social Media and Mobile Marketing is bringing business information with...
Top Local Business Listing Questions Answered â" Interview with Will Scott
April 22, 2010, 7:38 amI have had many opportunities to chat all things local with my good friend Will Scott, and just the other day we were at it again. We were talking about some of the most common questions we are always asked by small business owners in regards to local marketing online. I wanted to take the time and put them down on paper for everyone. I felt...
Online Business Disaster: Where to Go When the Volcano Blows
April 22, 2010, 7:32 am"I don't know where I'm a-gonna go when the volcano blow." ~Jimmy Buffett Ever feel like you're trapped in a pseudo-reggae song written by a white guy from Mobile, Alabama? Some days it's a sick kid, or spouse, or dog. Some days it's a key vendor who disappears on you, or a merchant account that freezes a bunch of your funds, or a web host that...
Mobile SEO Future Planning
April 22, 2010, 7:20 am2010 is the next year that has been talked about year after year as far as mobile online use truly taking off. The iPhone was indeed revolutionary and provided the true smartphone leap forward, that has been followed and in many ways being surpassed by Android , with more and more mainstream users browsing online via mobile devices. How does this...
Consumer Watchdog Barks “Break Up Google!”
April 22, 2010, 7:16 am
The online space is split up into two pretty distinct groups and the sizes of these two groups are far from equal.
On the one side are the people who use Google every day and for many reasons. Many times these people can get upset because their reliance on Google can cause a major hiccup (go see what Chris Brogan has to say today...
Commerce Department Examining Internet Privacy
April 22, 2010, 7:15 amU.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke has introduced an initiative aimed at gathering public input and reviewing the connection between privacy policy and innovation in the Internet economy. Locke also announced the formation of an Internet Policy Task Force to identify public policy and operational issues impacting the private sector's ability to...
Why Facebook's News is Great News for Your Site's Traffic
April 22, 2010, 7:15 amFacebook gave the web a lot to chew on with the announcements it made at its F8 developer conference this week. Essentially, it comes down to Facebook consuming/connecting more of the web. For more about the announcements, read this . Now it's time to think about what it all means for businesses, and fortunately, it probably means good things....
How To Track Email Conversions in GA
April 22, 2010, 7:00 amTracking Goals in Google Analytics is vital to tracking conversions and having a grasp on your performance over time. However, it’s important to remember that Goals can apply to so much more than simply a sale or page view. A client of ours measures a conversion as simply an email being sent to one of their specialists, whose email...
The Three Best Digg Extensions for Google Chrome
April 22, 2010, 6:58 amGoogle Chrome is getting more SEO- and social-media-friendly browser day by day. Today I am sharing three Google Chrome extension for active Digg users : 1. Digg for Chrome Digg for Chrome is the official Digg extension for Chrome that works similar to the Diggbar allowing you to: See the Digg count for the current page; Quickly access the story...
Heading for an SEO Interview? A few Ideas to Help You Along'
April 22, 2010, 6:57 amOver at Mediaedge:cia (recently rebranded as MEC), we've been in the great situation of recruiting a number of SEO's over the last few months to join the MEC SEO team. This has meant that I've been in the lucky situation to meet and interview so many great SEO's from around the UK. On the back of all these interviews, I thought...
Link Building Pet Peeves That Drive Me Bananas
April 22, 2010, 6:56 amA true an entertaining rant on the pains of link building, from ESL link requests to internal link spam it hits on many of the major annoyances in linkbuilding.
Hulu Fee Test Rumored To Begin Next Month
April 22, 2010, 6:52 amSorry, online TV fans, but heavy Hulu users might at last be asked to fork over some money. A new rumor has indicated that Hulu will begin testing a subscription service next month, and that the monthly fee attached to this service will be a not-inconsiderable $9.95. Dawn C. Chmielewski and Meg James spoke to "people with knowledge of the plans,"...
Hulu Plus: Content at a Cost?
April 22, 2010, 5:52 am
Hulu is second only to YouTube in number of US video streams run on a monthly basis. It has generated more than $100 million in advertising revenue in its short 2-year existence. Walt Disney Co., NBC Universal and News Corp also own it. Maybe having News Corp as part of the ownership team is pushing them toward what many may feel...
Don’t Stop Believin’…in TV Ads
April 22, 2010, 5:36 am
Just a small town TV ad, living in a lonely world
She took the DVR skip button goin’ nowhere
Just a CNN, born & raised on advertising revenue
He took the DVR skip button goin’ nowhere
Apparently TV networks haven’t stopped believing in commercials and CNN in particular is trying its best to ensure they...
Google Places (Local Business) – Will it ever be fixed?
April 22, 2010, 5:22 amLisa Myers highlights the countless problems that exist with Google Loca-... sorry, Google Places, and explains why these problems need to be fixed.
Google News Publishers: Your Sitemap Requires Updating Before May 4
April 22, 2010, 5:21 am"This transition period will end on May 4, when we'll discontinue supporting all old-style Google News Sitemaps."
Seeing New Products and Services in the Expo Hall at SES New York 2010
April 22, 2010, 5:15 amOne of the big reasons marketers go to trade shows is to see new products. Well, Jamie O'Donnell of SEO-PR visited the expo hall at SES New York 2010. Here's some of what he saw.Click to read the rest of this post...
How I Started Blogging. What's Your Story?
April 22, 2010, 4:57 amWhile today's online media are abuzz with the latest and greatest social media tactics and tools, for many of us that have been around a little while, it was blogging that started our social media careers. It's funny to think that in 2002 a type of site called "blog" came up on my radar as a possible marketing tool. At the time, many blogs were...
Cutting Edge Internet Marketing Class from April 21, 2010
April 22, 2010, 3:53 amby Sage Lewis
I've just finished a class where we have gone over the latest trends and happenings in the world of Internet Marketing. We look at the most important changes in Internet marketing over the last week and what they mean to you.
This is an in-depth 43 minute interactive class.
Be sure and visit our small...
The Science of Ranking Correlations: How Does PageRank Perform?
April 22, 2010, 1:37 amPosted by randfish I've been an SEO for a long while - nearly 8 years. In all that time, I still haven't been able to wean myself off the intoxicating drug dealt out by the Google toolbar - that "little green fairy dust" called PageRank. Intellectually, I know it's flawed in a multitude of ways, but so many people in our field (and in the broader...
Businesses Should Know About These New Local Features from Google
April 22, 2010, 1:31 amFacebook made some of the biggest news of the week with the anouncements from its developer conference, as far as online business goes, but Google had some significant news about local search that may have taken a backseat, but should not be ignored.
The Google Local Business Center is now called Google Places, as the company aims to rebrand the...
AdSense Accounts From UK Earning More Than Europe?
April 22, 2010, 1:23 am"I created a new adsense account with a UK address (payee name exactly the same as before), put the new adsense script in and made NO other changes to the website. ...The website now earns about 40% more than before the move..."
Most v13 services turned off today
April 22, 2010, 12:23 amPer our announcement six months ago, and our reminders over the last 100 days , today we're sunsetting the following v13 services: CampaignService AdGroupService CriterionService AdService InfoService KeywordToolService SiteSuggestionService If you're still using any of these services, you'll start to see your calls fail with error code 213....
Happy Earth Day From the North Pole
April 22, 2010, 12:17 amWhat better way to celebrate Earth Day then to congratulate Explorer Eric Larsen and his teammates Antony Jinman and Darcy St-Laurent on their arrival to the North Pole today. What an amazing accomplishment! We thank them for making the trek to help bring awareness to climate change and for taking Bing along for the ride! Awhile back we mentioned...
McAfee Update Shutting Down Corporate XP Machines Worldwide
April 21, 2010, 11:37 pm"Computers in companies, hospitals and schools around the world got stuck repeatedly rebooting themselves Wednesday after an antivirus program identified a normal Windows file as a virus."
Google's Agnilux Play is About the Google Tablet After All
April 21, 2010, 11:31 pmYesterday, I published this brief piece about Google's acquisition of a startup called Agnilux. Little is known about the stealth company, whose founders created the A4 chip Apple uses in its iPad, before leaving for smaller pastures. These founders, according to the New York Times , joined Apple by way of PA Semi and left unhappy. The Times and...
Facebook Unveils Plan For Global Domination
April 21, 2010, 10:58 pm"One of the points Mr Zuckerberg was making was that the web has become a lot less anonymous and Facebook is definitely positioning itself as wanting to be the owner of that information," said Maya Baratz of the Huffington Post.
New Websites Should Focus On The Tail
April 21, 2010, 10:07 pmThe online space grows more competitive each and every day and the importance of finding niches and certain areas to be visible in is becoming even more evident and important. If you are targeting a space that clearly has a great deal of competition it will be very important to go after the long tail keywords as well as the broad to be able to...
Will Users Like the New Facebook Like Button?
April 21, 2010, 6:40 pm
Facebook has announced that it is giving people a chance to tell their friends even more about what they like. With the introduction of a “Like” button that will appear on partner sites, Facebook users can easily share content that they find “valuable” with their Facebook friends. So we are now left to wonder if the new...
It's Valentine's Day!
April 21, 2010, 6:16 pmToday is February 14th, a day that millions of people have either been eagerly awaiting or much, much less eagerly expecting for months. Love it or hate it, it's Valentine's Day, a day for couples in countries around the world to break out the romance and show each other just how much they really care. Flowers will be exchanged, candlelit dinners...
Google Buzz Layer Now on Google Maps for Desktop
April 21, 2010, 5:31 pmAs if having the Google Buzz layer on Google Maps for Mobile is not enough, Google has just made it also available on your computer. This means that you can practically use all the features of Google Buzz for mobile that includes posting live updates of your whereabouts and your views about a particular place, in the comforts of your home or...
First Motorcycle Up for Auction
April 21, 2010, 5:08 pmby Claudine Zap Here's a story about a great granddaddy who had the granddaddy of all motorcycles gathering dust in his basement. Until now. Thanks to an eccentric collector in Staten Island with an impressive storage space, one of the very few of the very first motorcycles is up for auction. In fact, this German motorcycle is so old, it was the...
Turn off the TV and Look Up
April 21, 2010, 4:29 pmby Mike Krumboltz In the pre-dawn hours of April 22 (1:00 - 3:00 am), be sure to look up. If you do, you'll likely be treated to a spectacular celestial show in the form of the Lyrids meteor shower. Why bother to wake up at an ungodly hour to gaze at the sky? Several reasons. First, the Lyrids shower was, according to Meteor Showers Online ,...
Citizen of the World Reunites with Kenyan Classmates
April 21, 2010, 3:09 pmThe following is part of our "Your Stories" series on different ways Facebook is used across the world. If you have a story you'd like to share with us, please submit it here . Many children find starting at a new school intimidating and foreign, but few experience this phenomenon to the degree of Mili Thakar. In 1994, during her transition from...
Announcing the Inaugural Facebook Fellows
April 21, 2010, 3:09 pmEarlier this year, we launched the Facebook Fellowship Program to support Ph.D. students in the 2010-2011 school year who can help solve some of the biggest challenges facing the social web and Internet technology. We received many hundreds of applications from students at U.S. universities, and we were amazed with their talent and range of...
eBay Reports Positive Q1 Financial Data
April 21, 2010, 2:57 pmeBay has released its first-quarter earnings report, and there's good news for the company's fans: it beat most analysts' estimates. The bad news for fans (and especially shareholders) is that eBay's stock has nonetheless fallen 8.14 percent in after-hours trading, possibly due to a weak forecast. In fairness to eBay, Google and Yahoo suffered...
Google To Show Bazaarvoice Reviews In Search Results
April 21, 2010, 2:35 pmSocial commerce applications provider Bazaarvoice has partnered with Google to share product reviews in Google searches and advertisements. Retailers and manufacturers using Bazaarvoice can use their product review content to drive more traffic from Google as well as provide brand exposure to shoppers. Consumers will be able to access opinions...
Get Thee to a Fighting Nunnery
April 21, 2010, 2:17 pmby Vera H-C Chan Kung fu nuns. Enough said. Okay, maybe a little more. The Nepalese nuns, who hail from high up on the mountain of Druk Amitabha in Kathmandu, are getting trained in the lethal Chinese fighting arts. (Check out the BBC video here .) The nuns started practice back in 2008, thanks to their spiritual leader, His Holiness the...
Surprise! Facebook Rolls out News Features at F8 Event!
April 21, 2010, 2:17 pmIn San Francisco today, a great even called "F8â³ took place. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerburg announced a few new key features that will help improve our social experience internally to Facebook as well as externally to the web. You know, I always joke about how Facebook is going to take over the world. Little did I know that my prediction may be...
Winner of the Search & Social Spring Summit Grand Prize
April 21, 2010, 2:17 pmWith the conference being a little over a week away, we are stoked about the 80 degree weather that we foresee for the 2010 Search & Social Spring Summit . While listening to Todd Malicoat from Market Motive speak, you might even get a chance to see Loren Baker jumping for joy as he sees dolphins swimming by our conference hall. On April 15,...
Linkbait: The Most Linked to Articles (Linkbait Examples)
April 21, 2010, 1:55 pmI applaud Gareth for creating the list. The post discovers which posts/articles on some of most poswerful and successful blogs attracted the most raw links - read and learn!
SEM Intermediate Series: Testing Ad Copy to Determine the Highest Performers
April 21, 2010, 1:54 pmThis is the 5 th post in the SEM Intermediate Series , a collection of posts intended for search engine marketing professionals looking for guidance in monitoring and adjusting the key performance indicators (KPIs) that determine the success of a PPC.
Scribd Utilizes Facebook's Open Graph for Documents
April 21, 2010, 1:54 pmFacebook and Scribd have partnered to launch a new product called Readcast, a new "sharing toolkit" which will turn Scribd from a site where users can read documents, to a place where over 10 million users can share what they are reading via Facebook and Scribd in bookclub-like fashion. WebProNews spoke with Scribd CEO Trip Adler about the...
The Only 5 Free Social Media Monitoring Tools You’ll Need
April 21, 2010, 1:38 pm
During PubCon South’s Online Reputation Monitoring & Management panel, I was asked to talk about a topic near and dear to my heart: social media monitoring!
I resisted the urge to basically tell everyone to head to Trackur for their free account–after all, I had 15 minutes to pad out–and instead shared the...
New Ways to Personalize Your Online Experience
April 21, 2010, 1:19 pmToday, we're meeting with developers and entrepreneurs from around the world for our f8 conference to talk about new ways for people to connect with friends online and share what's important to them. Earlier we announced the next version of Facebook Platform that puts people at the center of the web. As part of that,
Google Maps Navigation Introduced In UK, Ireland
April 21, 2010, 1:10 pmPeople who - deep breath - live in the UK or Ireland, don't like to get lost, can tolerate beta software, and own a new-ish Android phone are in luck. An unfinished version of Google Maps Navigation has been made available in the UK and Ireland for Android devices 1.6 and higher.
Google's idea here is to simplify the task of driving...
Bing to Appear on Women's Basketball Jerseys
April 21, 2010, 1:08 pmMicrosoft announced today that it has signed a multiyear marquee partnership with the Seattle Storm and the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). A representative for Bing tells WebProNews that the following will represent the following opportunities for Bing: - Bing will be able to share its brand with a devoted and passionate fan base....
Google Integrates Social Shopping Platforms, Bazaarvoice First In The Mix
April 21, 2010, 1:08 pmNow retailers and manufacturers can automatically feed full-text product reviews to Google.com and Google Product Search , via Bazaarvoice's Social Commerce platform . Click to read the rest of this post.
Quick Tips for Avoiding Twitter Burnout
April 21, 2010, 12:40 pmTwitter never stops. All day long, people are Tweeting their hearts out. Keeping up with it all while making sure you’re maintaining the interest of your followers can be overwhelming. If you let it get to you, you’ll get burnt out quickly.
Thankfully, there are some things you can do to avoid Twitter burnout. Start by following these...
Yahoo Earnings Up On Search Deal Hopes
April 21, 2010, 12:38 pm
Yahoo’s earnings are looking up already from the MicroHoo deal. Microsoft and Yahoo have managed to remind investors by “finalizing” the deal every quarter since its announcement. This time, however, it was the DoJ that gave them that boost when it finally approved the deal in February.
Along with the beginning...
Consumer Watchdog Suggests DOJ Break Up Google
April 21, 2010, 12:27 pmDepending on how you look at it, Google's either in a whole lot of trouble, or it's gotten a lucky break. The consumer advocacy group Consumer Watchdog went after the search giant again today, calling for the Department of Justice to take action, but arguably went too far by suggesting that the company be broken up. At the beginning of a letter...
Facebook and Pandora Get Integrated
April 21, 2010, 12:27 pmWatching Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's keynote at F8 today, Pandora was used as one of the prime examples of the social network's freshly announced "Open Graph", or as I like to call it - Facebook's overtaking of the web. When Facebook users use Pandora, they can "like" bands or songs, and that will be fully integrated to their Facebook...
Watchdog Suggests DOJ Break Up Google
April 21, 2010, 12:10 pmDepending on how you look at it, Google's either in a whole lot of trouble, or it's gotten a lucky break. The consumer advocacy group Consumer Watchdog went after the search giant again today, calling for the Department of Justice to take action, but arguably went too far by suggesting that the company be broken up.
At the beginning of a...
Jessica Bowman, Mike Gray & Greg Boser Added to Search & Social Summit Lineup
April 21, 2010, 12:10 pmSearch & Social has secured three new premier speakers to be covering SEO tactics and in-house SEO strategies at the Search & Social Spring Summit 2010 in Tampa, FL on May 3rd and 4th. Search & Social Spring Summit is one of the most cost effective conferences in the search & social media marketing space with a ticket cost of only $525 for the two...
Microsoft Launches Docs App for Facebook
April 21, 2010, 12:05 pmDuring his keynote today, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced a new Facebook app from Microsoft called Docs, which lets Microsoft Office documents be shared with Facebook friends. The app was created by Microsoft's Fuse Labs. "It's been quite a sprint for the FUSE team to deliver this beta from concept to its initial implementation in less...
Facebook's Plans to Take Over the Web
April 21, 2010, 11:47 amSo, earlier in the week, we talked about how absorbed the web is going to get by Facebook . Based on Facebook's announcements at F8 today , that is most certainly the goal of the company, and given the tremendous adoption of Facebook by users in general, and by important partners with content, get ready to get more absorbed. There were three major...
Bing Takes Seattle by Storm
April 21, 2010, 11:18 amThe Bing team has an enormous amount of pride and respect for the community were a part of in the Pacific Northwest. We think that this is a special place and are were thankful for the people and companies who make living and working here what it is. This is why were very pleased to join the Seattle Storm today in announcing a multi-year marquee...
Son of Michael Douglas Sentenced, Jennifer Aniston Poses, Volcano Adds Flash to Ash: What's the Buzz
April 21, 2010, 11:07 amby Claudine Zap Our top picks from the day's hottest searches. Michael Douglas (Searches increased by +1,213%). The actor's son, Cameron, got a five-year prison sentence on a drug charge, despite his dad's plea . Jane Fonda (+1,137%). The fitness icon is after all of us to join her on World Fitness Day . Get those legwarmers ready. Jennifer...
China Cyber Attack Targeted Google’s Password System
April 21, 2010, 10:51 am
Although hardly a week has passed that we haven’t heard about the Chinese hacking attack on Google since Google announced the accusations in January, but still, we know very little about the attack itself. Aside from the fact that the attack targeted Chinese human rights activists’ Gmail accounts, and that dozens of...
Idol Talk: All Over the Map
April 21, 2010, 10:44 amby Vera H-C Chan Wondering who's supporting the " American Idol " contestants? Let's go to the Geo Search-Heat maps from the past 7 days, including performance night look-ups. (Red means some intense online interest, while blue reflects a "meh" level of interest.) 1. Crystal Bowersox . Big backing from home state Ohio, followed by Arkansas, Utah,...
PayPal and Bill Me Later Support Financial Literacy
April 21, 2010, 10:03 amHi all, Becky Relic here from PayPal's government relations team. In April 2009, PayPal and Bill Me Later purchased software licenses from EverFi , a Web-based platform that teaches and certifies students in the core concepts of financial literacy, for use by students in San Jose, Calif. and Baltimore County, Md. Over the past year, the Baltimore...
How Much Google Traffic Comes From Mobile Devices – A Quick Study
April 21, 2010, 9:47 amAwesome study of analyzing mobile traffic in Google Analytics. Excellent resource that a small business owner making the transition from yellow pages advertising could use to put mobile search in perspective
Pentagon Plan: A Flying Car
April 21, 2010, 9:46 amby Claudine Zap Look â" it's a bird, it's a plane, it's a' flying car ? Straight from the future, the military is developing an auto that can go airborne. As in drive, take off, and land. But before you think all your commuting problems are solved, keep in mind this car's not for the general public. What Discover Magazine dubbed the "mad...
Google Eyeing Travel Software Maker?
April 21, 2010, 9:36 am
One of the latest rumors that is swirling around Google and its continued efforts to expand into just about everything, is suggesting that the search giant is eyeing ITA Software. The company that is based in Cambridge, MA could be asking in the $1 billion range. Not bad for a company that most have never heard of. Of course, when...
The Bee is all the Buzz at Bing
April 21, 2010, 9:23 amThe Bee is all the Buzz at Bing With more than 200,000 votes cast in the final round of our student Earth Day Photo Contest , were pleased to announce that the winning photo was taken by Alan Bosse, a student studying web design at Gulf Coast Community College in Panama City, FL. His photo of a bee gathering the nectar of a passion fruit blossom...
Find out "Why Cloud-Based Security and Archiving Make Sense"
April 21, 2010, 9:23 amJoin the Google Postini team on March 23, 2010 at 10:00 a.m. PDT for a live webinar addressing "Why Cloud-Based Security and Archiving Make Sense." This interactive session will explore the growing requirements for email security and email archiving and the benefits and cost savings available when companies bring these services to the cloud. Learn...
Yahoo Enters Partnership To Help Users Find Apps
April 21, 2010, 9:17 amThe market for apps seems to grow bigger every month, and one way for a company to get its name out there is to develop some apps of its own. A different - and much easier - way is to just partner with a business that points people towards apps, and this is the approach Yahoo took today, partnering with Appolicious. Appolicious, which was only...
Website Design: Ten Areas Where You Can Learn From User Behaviour
April 21, 2010, 8:56 amEffective and usable web navigation and design are some of the key crucial components of your website communication success. Build clear, easy-to-navigate web pages and people will be happy, click a lot and come back for more. In this report, you will learn about ten typical online user behaviors that can immediately help you understand how and...
New Anonymous Social Network Set For Launch
April 21, 2010, 8:54 amWebProNews spoke to Eddie Krassenstein, CEO of Anonymous You, a new social networking site launching on Tuesday April 27th. The site AY.com allows users to create profiles similar to other sites such as Facebook, but differs in that users leaving comments on a profile page are completely anonymous. Krassenstein said he came up with the concept of...
LinkedIn Has New Ways to Drive Targeted Traffic to Your Site
April 21, 2010, 8:36 amWhen you think about traffic-driving social networks, LinkedIn may not be the first thing that comes to your mind, and truth be told, there's a good chance it will not drive the kind of traffic Twitter or Facebook will for your site. However, some sites have found it to be a quite valuable traffic tool, and the company seems to want to further...
notifier test
April 21, 2010, 8:08 amthis post will also disappear in a few moments.
Copywriting 3.0: How to Bounce the Fat Kid off the See-Saw
April 21, 2010, 8:02 amToday's copywriter is more than a mere "wordsmith." If that's how you think of yourself, you'll be stuck in Junior Copywriter ad agency purgatory for eternity. Think back to recess in third grade, when you kept getting stuck on the see-saw with the fat kid at the other end. All the cool kids were playing kickball. And there you were, waiting for...
test post
April 21, 2010, 7:45 amthis exists only to check that andy is notified, it will disappear in a moment.
Optimizing Your AdWords Campaigns
April 21, 2010, 7:38 amPay per click advertising is a form of marketing with major benefits. It differs from other methods of marketing in its ability to allow advertisers and marketers to measure and analyze the results of their techniques, to refine and optimize them to increase ROI beyond almost anything possible in the offline marketing world. Google AdWords is...
Google Reveals Some Government Requests Data
April 21, 2010, 7:33 amGoogle is starting to do a very good job at making their government involvements, like legal requests to have information removed, more transparent. A new site titled " Government requests " shows a world map along with information for many countries in regards to how many government requests were received. Clicking on a particular number breaks...
Report: Google Discussing $1B Travel Acquisition
April 21, 2010, 7:10 amEven as news of Google's acquisition of Agnilux is still making its way around the Web, another Google acquisition may be in the works, and this one would be pretty huge, according to a new report. Google's supposedly in talks to buy travel software specialist ITA Software for $1 billion. A little background information: ITA Software has supplied...
Watch: Facebook F8 Keynote Live
April 21, 2010, 7:10 amFacebook doesn't only want attendees of its F8 conference to see the keynote from CEO/Founder Mark Zuckerberg and Bret Taylor, Director of Product. They want anyone who wants to see it to be able to. That's why the've provided a widget we can embed, so we've done just that. Come here at 1pm eastern/10am Pacific to watch what Facebook has to say. A...
Visa Buys CyberSource For $2 Billion
April 21, 2010, 7:10 amVisa said today it has agreed to buy online payment processing firm CyberSource in an effort to strengthen its ecommerce business. Visa said it will pay $26 a share or about $2 billion for CyberSource. The deal is expected to close in Visas fiscal fourth quarter. The transaction will dilute Visas earning for that quarter by about 4 or 5 cents a...
2 Great Wordpress Plugins to Find Your Blog Most Powerful Pages
April 21, 2010, 6:52 amLearning which of your published content did particularly well based on some parameters is a great way to become a more successful blogger. This way you can see which of your posts are well received in social media, which of them get linked more and which of them spur a more active discussion.
Does Google Have a "Secret" Weapon in Apple Battle with Agnilux?
April 21, 2010, 6:46 amGoogle continues down its path of acquisitions, as it has now scooped up the mysterious tech startup Agnilux. It's mysterious because there is very little information about it on the web, and even publications like the New York Times have had a hard time uncovering much information about it. It has been revealed, however, that Agnilux was founded...
Facebook: What, Why, Who, How?
April 21, 2010, 6:34 amI've noticed more and more Facebook Fan Pages popping up and it's great. Fan Pages are a great way to connect with people, build your credibility and ultimately generate leads and grow your business. The problem is most people are making one BIG mistake when it comes to their pages. More on that in a minute. First let me give you an overview...
Yahoo Q1 Revenues $1,597Million
April 21, 2010, 6:30 am"'We had a good quarter, delivering income from operations higher than our outlook," said Yahoo! Chief Executive Officer Carol Bartz. 'Thanks to our efforts, our search share has stabilized, and we grew display advertising by 20% year over year.'"
News Search Optimization and Real Time SEO: No More Yesterday's News
April 21, 2010, 6:27 amLast week, I reported that six out of 10 news executives think the Internet is changing the fundamental values of journalism. Well, news search engines and social media are also changing industry best practices in newsrooms, too.Click to read the rest of this post...
11% Original Content + 89% Duplicate Content = Google Buzz
April 21, 2010, 6:26 am
“Andy, when are you going to add Google Buzz monitoring to Trackur?”
I think Google Buzz was barely a couple of days old, when I was first asked that question.
My response?
I wanted to wait and see how (if) people used Google Buzz, before deciding to jump on the bandwagon that other tools were so quickly willing to...
Microsoft Office and Facebook Partner On Docs
April 21, 2010, 6:23 am"Microsoft and Facebook launched a site called Docs.com"
Broadcast yourself with YouTube business cards from MOO
April 21, 2010, 6:22 amWe want all video creators and curators put their YouTube channel URL on their business card. In fact, we'd like to think your YouTube channel deserves a place right next to your email address and cell phone number as necessities in this modern world. To help make this dream a reality, we're offering you a pack of snazzy YouTube business cards...
Google Acquires Agnilux a “______” Company
April 21, 2010, 6:08 am
Today’s post title is going to be a joint effort.
I need your help to fill in the blank, because, quite frankly, no one appears to know what it was Agnilux did, before it was snapped up by Google.
The best we can tell is that it was started by former Apple and Cisco employees, it might have had something to do with servers,...
Adobe Ditches Development Of Flash For iPhone
April 21, 2010, 5:59 am"Adobe Systems has gone from touting its technology for building Flash applications that run on the iPhone to canceling future development of that technology."
Apple Q2 Revenue Up $13.5 Billion
April 21, 2010, 5:46 am"Gross margin was 41.7 percent, up from 39.9 percent in the year-ago quarter."
Google is Skynet. Search Suggest Opinions
April 21, 2010, 4:57 amTo know what the world is searching for must be amazing. Search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing are in that position but they're not exactly sharing those insights. Well, except if you do a little guess work and leverage their keyword research or keyword suggest tools. For example, the suggest-as-you-type features that all the major search...
Antitrust Group Wants to Break Up Google
April 21, 2010, 2:55 amThis could possible be the worst anti-trust action hauled against Google to date. The Santa Monica Group which recently received a grant to investigate Google's privacy practice is about to ask the Justice Department to impose an antitrust lawsuit against Google, The San Francisco Chronicle reports. The Group is even calling for the possible...
Video Search â" Essential For International Online Success?
April 21, 2010, 2:49 amIn January 2010, YouTube was the second most used search engine in the United States - a single statistic that demonstrates just how popular the medium has become. Video is used by a wide range of people for numerous different reasons and it offers huge opportunities for marketers to reach their target audience. However, as with any form of search...
Google Acquires Startup Agnilux
April 21, 2010, 2:32 amHot on the heels of the buzz created by Gizmodo's "discovery" of the iPhone 4G prototype is the report that Google just acquired the startup - Agnilux. Agnilux happens to be composed of former chip developers who left P.A. Semis when it was acquired by Apple. Other than that information, nothing else is known about Agnilux. The startup remains...
Google Increases Government Lobbying by 57%, with $1.4 M in Q1
April 21, 2010, 2:32 amIn Q1 2010, Google spent $1.4 million in lobbying money with the federal government bodies, which was an increase of 57% over $880,000 from Q1 2009. With the company having interests far beyond search, I'm expecting this lobbying spend to climb even more over the course of the year, as Google is getting more involved in FCC rulings, government...
What is Paid Content, and How Does it Affect SEO?
April 20, 2010, 10:32 pmIn order to understand the rise of paid content, it’s necessary to understand the meaning of the nofollow tag and how it is used (and some would say abused) by large sites like Twitter.
The nofollow tag is used to tell some search engines (*cough*Google*cough*) that a hyperlink should not influence the link target’s search engine...
Video Tips to Use by Gideon Shalwick
April 20, 2010, 10:20 pmGideon Shalwick goes over the importance of introducing some sort of online video marketing into the picture for any business looking to brand themselves in the online space. Years ago creating an online video was extremely difficult and expensive and scared many businesses away. The internet has come a long way since those days and has really...
Categorized Keyword Research: Step 2 of the 8-Step SEO Research Strategy
April 20, 2010, 10:14 pmPosted by laura This post was originally in YOUmoz , and was promoted to the main blog because it provides great value and interest to our community. The author's views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of SEOmoz, Inc. Step 2 isnt groundbreaking stuff, but its approached in a slightly different manner in order to use and...
Watchdog Wants Google's Head as Google's Lobbying Spend Jumps 57%
April 20, 2010, 9:30 pmThere was a time a couple years ago when we pundits tracked Google's lobbying spend by year. No longer, because that spend is growing at a fat clip. Consumer groups and privacy watchdogs suspicious of Google Creep - its growing size and extension on the Web - are looking at Google's moves in Washington, D.C. with the flinty enthusiasm of fire and...
Give Your New WordPress Articles a PuSH
April 20, 2010, 4:52 pmIf you have a blog or a website with a RSS (real simple syndication) feed and you haven't heard of the new PuSH protocol then I have a treat for you. A little while back, Google announced a new open source protocol quirkily called PubSubHubbub , or PuSH for short. In Google's own words PuSH is "a simple, open, server-to-server web-hook-based...
Idol Talk: Answering Search Questions
April 20, 2010, 4:23 pmby Vera H-C Chan Ryan Seacrest 's recent behavior has been alternately characterized as "bizarre," "strange," "mean," and just plain "weird." But Mr. Seacrest isn't the only facet of the reality show to inspire online inquiries. Some questions, posed to Yahoo! Search in the past week, about the Fox series and its main players... Show details:...
Check Out YouTube Show & Tell
April 20, 2010, 3:45 pmBack in March, I featured some of the video marketing case studies that David Meerman Scott and I thought were worth sharing. Today, the Art Directors Club (ADC) topped that by launching YouTube Show & Tell.Click to read the rest of this post...
80% of Google Buzz Powered by Bots & Feeds
April 20, 2010, 3:19 pmGoogle Buzz may be a centralized microblogging system, but for the most part, its not run by humans .. instead; robots. What better way for Google to gain access to real time Twitter data (if Microsoft ever buys Twitter and blocks Google access) than have Google users run auto tweeted material through Buzz? PostRank has an interesting study on the...
Yahoo Buys Me.me Domain for its Twitter Style Yahoo Meme
April 20, 2010, 3:19 pmYahoo has purchased the domain Me.me, for its Yahoo Meme microblogging service - the Yahoo version of Twitter. With its earnings up in Q1 2010 over Q1 2009, and things looking good for Yahoo with improved ad spending, it will be interesting to see other moves the company makes over the next few months. From paidContent : Yahoo ' calls the purchase...
Twitter Valuation Infographic
April 20, 2010, 2:57 pmI love infographics, for obvious reasons. One, they are easy to scan, read and understand. Two, from a marketing and publishing perspective, infographics are easy to pass around, retweet and can go viral. Here is one I saw today on Darren Rowse's Twitip on the History of Twitter's Valuation . This is hot hot stuff :) Check out the SEO Tools guide...
Teen Texting Sees Sharp Increase
April 20, 2010, 2:35 pmCell-phone texting has become the preferred form of basic communication between teens and their friends, according to a new report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project. Daily text messaging among teens has increased in the past 18 months from 38 percent of teens texting friends daily in 2008, to 54 percent of teens texting daily in 2009....
Yahoo Reports Impressive First-Quarter Profits
April 20, 2010, 2:35 pmYahoo's first-quarter earnings report is out, and it looks like the company got off to a decent start this year. Most of Yahoo's key financial stats either measured up to or exceeded analysts' estimates, and the company's stock hasn't plummeted in after-hours trading. To be clear: Yahoo reported $1.13 billion in revenue, while analysts thought it...
Local Business Center is Becoming Google Places
April 20, 2010, 2:25 pmToday, the Official Google Blog announced that the Local Business Center is becoming Google Places. Why? According to John Hanke, Google's VP Google Maps, Earth and Local, "Millions of people use Google every day to find places in the real world, and we want to better connect Place Pages -- the way that businesses are being found today -- with...
Quadruplets Pick One School
April 20, 2010, 2:12 pmby Mike Krumboltz The incoming freshman class at Hartwick College in Oneonta, New York, will have several hundred people. And four members of the class of 2014 are going to look a heckuva lot alike. The Mele quadruplets, who hail from Long Island, have decided to spend four years together at the same school. News that the foursome had decided to...
Apple Posts Best Non-Holiday Quarter Ever
April 20, 2010, 2:12 pmApple has posted its financial results for Q2 (ending March 27). These include revenue of $13.50 billion and net quarterly profit of $3.07 billion (or $3.33 per diluted share). As a comparison, for the same quarter last year, the company posted $9.08 billion and net quarterly profit of $1.62 billion, (or $1.79 per diluted share). "We're thrilled...
Yahoo Buys Me.me Domain Name For Social Brand
April 20, 2010, 1:54 pmYahoo's acquired a new domain name, and while we don't expect that Facebook and Twitter are quaking in fear, there's reason to believe it'll play a significant role in Yahoo's "social" future. The Me.me domain name will, naturally enough, tie in to Yahoo's microblogging site, Meme. Meme has been described as a Twitter clone with random references...
The True "Value" Of Facebook Fans
April 20, 2010, 1:54 pmAccording to a recent study released by Vitrue last week, Facebook Fans are valued at $3.60 each in earned media for brands. Not everyone was happy with the study and a few even poked holes in the formula and assumptions made. I also wrote about it here if youre interested. Despite the formula flaws, I do think its a good start to something many...
SearchIgnite Unveils 4.0
April 20, 2010, 12:57 pmSearchIgnite '4.0' is released today, which is a newer and enhanced version of the company's search marketing and digital media attribution platform. This latest version includes a number of major enhancements such as in-line editing, ROI forecasting and bulk change management. Click to read the rest of this post...
Offerpal Launches New Display Ad Network for Social Networks
April 20, 2010, 12:51 pmThe big question businesses have about social media these days is, "how can I measure ROI?" With straight advertising in social networks, that becomes pretty clear, and Offerpal has launched a new display ad network for social media. If you're unfamiliar with Offerpal, it's a platform that lets advertise and developers monetize social media apps....
Google’s Foreign Relations: Blocked in 25 Countries; 10 More Complain About Buzz Privacy
April 20, 2010, 12:08 pm
As usual, Google is taking flak from both sides lately. They reported yesterday that of the 100 countries they offer products and services in, 25 countries block or filter one or more services. Search, Blogger, YouTube and even Google Docs are blocked in some countries, sometimes based on political or social filtering.
Meanwhile,...
iPad Theft Turns Gruesome for Denver Man
April 20, 2010, 11:47 amIn Denver, a man bought an iPad for a friend at the Apple Store in Cherry Creek Mall, but soon after had it stolen by thieves, who ripped the flesh off his finger while taking it. The victim, Bill Jordan, told local media he had the cords of the bag tied around his hand, and when one of the thieves yanked it, he couldn't let go, and it literally...
TurboTax Lesson on Monetizing “Free”
April 20, 2010, 11:30 am
Tax day has come and gone and whether you filed months ago or scrambled to the post office seconds before closing on April 15th, for you the tax season is over. So too is the season over for software maker Intuit and their famous tax software TurboTax. By all accounts it’s been a good year.
The Wall Street Journal is...
Hot Christina Hendricks, iPhone Drama, Chelsea Clinton Injury: What's the Buzz
April 20, 2010, 11:18 amby Claudine Zap Our top picks from the day's hottest searches. Christina Hendricks (Searches increased by +8,844%). Who's the hottest of them all? Christina Hendricks, that's who . iPhone (+3,982%). Apple called. It wants its next-gen iPhone back. Velociraptor (2,821%). A fossilized dino was found frozen in time gnawing on an even larger dinosaur...
WordStream Launches Advanced SEO Toolset
April 20, 2010, 10:56 amNew software suite offers typical keyword analysis and keyword suggestion capabilities of other SEO tools, but is now layering in high-level keyword analytics, keyword grouping and blogging platform plugins, that enables authors to research keywords as they blog.Click to read the rest of this post...
An Easy (and Powerful) Long-Tail Approach to On-Page SEO
April 20, 2010, 10:18 amAnnouncing WordStream for SEO, with a slick new feature, the WordStream SEO for Firefox Plug-in, which gives you seamless access to your own keyword research data as you author or edit Web content in your CMS or blog.
Google Gaia Hack Shows Cloud Isn't Safe After All
April 20, 2010, 10:15 amGoogle's single sign-on system, formerly called Gaia, was the access point for the Chinese cyber attack that exposed the Gmail accounts of human rights activists. This password system controls access to Google Apps for millions of users. A user clicked on a link sent to his instant messaging client and was connected to a "poisoned" Web site,...
8 Tips for Real-Time Video Blogging
April 20, 2010, 9:57 amWebProNews has been producing online videos for years now, but we recently started doing the real-time live video thing, so this subject hits close to home for us. We quickly learned that the difference between live and produced videos is quite great. While at SXSW last month, we spoke with Wayne Sutton who spoke on a panel about real-time video...
Legal Online Gambling Would Create 32,000 New Jobs
April 20, 2010, 9:57 amThe Safe and Secure Internet Gambling Initiative told WebProNews today it applauds a new study that projects regulating all forms of Internet gambling in the United States would create up to 32,000 jobs over five years. The study, by market intelligence firm H2 , found regulating all forms of online gambling would generate up to a total gross...
Sandbox Environment to be upgraded April 20 and 21
April 20, 2010, 9:57 amThe adCenter Sandbox Environment will be unavailable during this upgrade. The adCenter API Version 6 Production environment will operate as normal, and ads will continue to serve. This upgrade and corresponding downtime only applies to the Sandbox. Thank you for your patience. Jeff Dillon,
Good News for Microsoft adCenter Advertisers: Bing Share of Search Spending Up 10% Over Previous Quarter
April 20, 2010, 9:51 amFollowing up on last week's post from Search Engine Land about a new report from Efficient Frontier, WebVisible's quarterly report also has good news about Bing that's particularly relevant to adCenter advertisers. You can read the specifics on.
80% of Online Influence Comes from 16% of Users (But Facebook’s the Big Winner)
April 20, 2010, 9:27 am
Social media is expanding the power of word of mouth marketing. But as always, WOM is hard to measure. Forrester is attempting to rectify that with their latest measure, Peer Influence Analysis.
In keeping with traditional WOMM thought, Forrester says that Mass Influencers, who make up just 16 percent of all online Americans, are...
Google Blasted Over Lobbying Expenditure
April 20, 2010, 9:16 amGoogle's paying a whole lot of money to talk to politicians, and the consumer advocacy group known as Consumer Watchdog isn't at all happy about it. Consumer Watchdog condemned Google this morning for spending $1.38 million in the first quarter of this year. That expenditure works out to a 57 percent increase over what Google spent during the...
Twitter Names First CTO, Hires New VP Of Engineering
April 20, 2010, 8:34 amTwitter's workforce grew in terms of both size and impressiveness this week. The company has named its first CTO (promoting a current employee), and also hired someone away from Palm to act as its vice president of engineering. Let's start with the top-level move. Greg Pass is actually Twitter's old vice president of engineering - he held the...
Weekly Search & Social News: 04/20/2010
April 20, 2010, 8:34 amWelcome to another edition of ' 7 Days of Search and Social ' - It was another interesting week out on the trails with some good posts, some humour, a whack of social and of course, lots of patents (that best part of my week). Starting things off is the new data Google was giving away via Webmaster Tools. I've talked to more than a few people that...
comScore Canada and PMB Announce Partnership to Link Print Readership, Internet Behaviour and Product Usage Data
April 20, 2010, 8:28 amcomScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) and PMB Print Measurement Bureau today announced a joint product offering that links Canadians' online media habits with print readership and other media consumption as well as product and brand usage and extensive demographic information â" all in a single database. The service, available this summer exclusively...
Google Renames its Local Business Center to Google Places
April 20, 2010, 8:11 amTo connect its Local Business Center with the millions of people who use Google every day to find places, Google is renaming the Local Business Center to Google Places . Google recently introduced Place Pages to help people make more informed decisions about where to go - from restaurants and hotels to dry cleaners and bike shops. Google Place...
Getting More Facebook Fans and Monetizing Them
April 20, 2010, 8:04 amIt seems like Facebook is controlling more and more of users' online time, and that doesn't appear to be on pace to change anytime soon. Facebook is already on the path to controlling more content, online retail, and online identification, and who knows what all announcements we'll see come out of the company's F8 developer conference this week?...
The 8 Habits of Highly Effective Bloggers
April 20, 2010, 7:53 amDo you want to be a successful blogger? I do. I might be getting a bit obsessed with it, actually. Post ideas pop into my head unexpectedly. I keep a long running list of ideas for improving my blog. I also study how the most successful bloggers got where they are, and I pore over every word that they write. If you want to be a great blogger, you...
SEO Is A Team Sport â" Part 1
April 20, 2010, 7:53 amOver the years I've had the curse blessing to participate on several ginormous substantial nightmare web projects that have involved several control freaks participants. Inevitably in this chaotic maelstrom process, the role of the SEO guru specialist has called for my God given slowly evolved talent at underhanded manipulation diplomacy and...
WordStream Does it Again: New Awesome Keyword Utility for SEOs (paid)
April 20, 2010, 7:53 amOur great friends over at WordStream have another important update we want to share at SEJ. Today they are launching WordStream Keyword Management for SEO which is a keyword research tool targeted to SEOs (as you may know, they previously specialized in PPC keyword research and are now extending their service to SEO needs). It offers the same...
What's A Facebook Fan Worth? Definitely Not $3.60!
April 20, 2010, 7:53 amLast week, Mashable published an article about the value of a Facebook fan. This article has been shared thousands of times and reposted all over the marketingverse, and I'm terrified by the implications of how may people have read it (more on that later). Using a CPM model, Vitrue calculated that a Facebook fan is worth $3.60. Here's the...
Five Advanced Keyword Research Tools
April 20, 2010, 7:47 amA guest post on the trail from one of the WordStream gang! Some good tools but I'd be interested in knowing what other peeps use (in the comments of the post or here). I have to say I am pretty big on cross-referencing with Google tools (PPC, Insights, Trends)... U?
How to Generate More Leads
April 20, 2010, 7:39 amHow you can be a more effective lead generator when you’re at these places. The post lists a few tips for helping you get more qualified leads.
The effect of latent semantic indexing (LSI) on your website rankings
April 20, 2010, 7:36 amLatent semantic indexing (LSI) is a technique that is used by all major search engines nowadays. Does your website take this into account? How does it influence the position of your web pages in Google's search results?
Who Doesn't Need SEO
April 20, 2010, 7:07 amAaron Wall of SEOBook was recently interviewed on Small Business Trends Radio about SEO. During the interview, Aaron was asked which companies should and shouldn't invest in SEO. His answer, and the question itself, brought up some legitimate questions that I hadn't yet seen addressed in the SEO space. Does every company really need SEO? Does...
LeapFish Giving Away Cash For Social Media Presence
April 20, 2010, 7:06 amYes, you read that headline right. It does sound kind of “backwards” to me, as well. But, anyhow, Leapfish, a search engine that I have written about before, is turning to social media to give away up to $100,000 cash. Leapfish is calling this the “$100,000 Cash Dash Viral Bonanza“.
Leapfish is giving away...
Amazon Sues North Carolina To Protect Customer Data
April 20, 2010, 7:05 amAmazon.com has filed a lawsuit in federal court against the North Carolina Department of Revenue, seeking to block the state's demand for the "name and address of virtually every North Carolina resident who has purchased anything from Amazon since 2003, along with records of what each customer purchased and how much they paid."
Amazon...
How You Can Benefit from Real Time Search
April 20, 2010, 6:50 amThis is a guest post by Evan Britton, founder of Sency . It was recently reported that there are over 50 million updates posted to Twitter every day. In addition to Twitter, there are a slew of other social networks which enable users to post status updates, links, and information daily. All of this data that is posted is changing everyday â"...
International Data Protection Authorities Protest Buzz
April 20, 2010, 6:50 amIt looks like Google isn't going to be able to put Buzz's initial privacy problems behind it anytime soon. Late yesterday, representatives from Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, and the UK all signed a letter expressing concerns about the service and Google's privacy practices in general.
Create Searchable Link Building Records with SEJ Tools' Website Directory
April 20, 2010, 6:50 amI have previously shared the guide on how SEJ tools ' Link Manager helps you organize link building campaign . Today's post details how all your current and pursued links are managed through Website Directory . The Website Directory contains all of the websites that have ever been added to a link record across all your account profiles.
Why Social Media Is Like Getting Stoned
April 20, 2010, 6:28 amThis is a guest post by Todd Mintz . Opinions expressed in the article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Techipedia/Tamar Weinberg. "Come on, Sandy, baby, loosen up. You're too tight." John Riggins speaking to Sandra Day O'Connor Getting stoned hasn't always been about the 420 . In biblical times, it was something to be feared...
Facebook Has Over 40% of Social Media Traffic
April 20, 2010, 6:14 am
It looks like the flow of Internet marketing news is shifting towards Facebook. It is, of course, the eve of the f8 conference in San Francisco where developers and other folks gather to discuss Facebook and the future of the social media world.
So what would a gathering be without a little data (with pictures!) to make you either...
Introducing Peer Influence Analysis: 500 billion peer impressions per year
April 20, 2010, 5:53 amWhen we published Groundswell , we included a statistical tool called the Social Technographics Profile . This has been one of the most popular elements of the book, since it puts a survey-based framework on people's intuition about social technologies. Empowered , much more than Groundswell , focuses on the power of individuals and word of mouth....
Search Engine Optimization vs. Customer Connection
April 20, 2010, 5:48 amby Mike Moran
Image by Litandmore via Flickr
Last week in this space, I posed the musical question, "Are You Optimizing for Search Engines or for Customers?" Then, on Friday, I continued this theme in my talk at Search Insider Summit by focusing on the choice between search engine optimization vs. customer connection. One reporter summed it...
Tippr Patently Going After Groupon
April 20, 2010, 5:42 am
One day you’re up, the next day you’re down.
Just yesterday, we were gushing over the rapid rise of online coupon provider Groupon. Frank pointed out that Groupon had managed to achieve a $1 billion valuation, despite the many copycats in the marketplace.
Well, one of those copycats is not prepared to go quietly into...
SEO Lessons Learned by Reading Mark Twain's Life on the Mississippi
April 20, 2010, 5:29 amTomorrow marks the 100th anniversary of the death of Samuel Langhorne Clemens, who is better known by his pen name, Mark Twain. What does this have to do with search engine optimization? Well, as the American author and humorist once noted, "A person who won't read has no advantage over one who can't read."
Click to read the rest of this...
Find Your Most Useful Content with Help of Copy Heat Map
April 20, 2010, 5:24 amWhat determines the usefulness of some of your content (as compared to the rest of your articles you write)? The number of people who found it valuable enough to link to it? The number of people who found it great enough to Tweet it or vote on social media? The number of people who re-blogged it?
Find info and connect locally with Tweetzi Local
April 20, 2010, 5:24 amThere are a lot of innovations in local search these days. More and more online information is published with some kind of location identifier. Twitter is a service with huge amounts of local information available, but due to the large volume of information, it is not easy to get at. Tweetzi Local is a Twitter search service that launched last...
Facebook Ads Work Great…Says Facebook
April 20, 2010, 5:16 am
Buying ads on Facebook works!
According to Facebook.
OK, so the social network asked Nielsen to conduct the study, but I can’t help be somewhat skeptical of the results.
Me? Skeptical? Who knew?
The study looked at the brand recall of 800k Facebook users and ads from 14 different brands across a range of categories. The...
Reader Poll: Help Make Online Marketing Blog Even Better!
April 20, 2010, 5:07 amThanks to readers like you, TopRank's Online Marketing Blog has experienced a long and rich blogging life over the past 6+ years with 2,300+ posts, hundreds of thousands of unsolicited links from powerful industry web sites and content that has helped thousands of readers become smarter online marketers.
Google Shares Privacy Comments Submitted to FTC
April 20, 2010, 4:54 amGoogle is sharing its FTC Roundtable Comments document it submitted last week in response to the FTC's recent "Exploring Privacy" roundtable series. This series was designed for the discussion of ways to protect consumer privacy, and included leaders from government, advocacy, academia, and industry. "Fair warning, it can be a bit of a dense...
Google Local Business Becomes Google Places
April 20, 2010, 3:27 am"Today the Local Business Center is becoming Google Places."
Facebook Adds Wiki-Style Community Pages (Beta)
April 20, 2010, 2:30 am"Community Pages are still in beta, but our long-term goal is to make them the best collection of shared knowledge on a topic."
Report: Google's Password System Hit By Hack In December
April 20, 2010, 1:30 am"But the theft leaves open the possibility, however faint, that the intruders may find weaknesses that Google might not even be aware of, independent computer experts said."
Amazon Files Lawsuit Blocking North Carolina's Request For Data
April 20, 2010, 1:14 am"The company said the disclosure of such information will invade privacy of its customers."
Who Are The Top 10 SEOs in the World?
April 20, 2010, 12:44 amA lot of people who are well known as SEOs spend too much time on self promotion and not enough time on business development. BTW I would classify myself as being in that camp, though I have been slowly migrating since meeting my wife ;) So much of SEO stuff is sorta ego in place of performance IMHO. And the problem when you hire top SEOs is that...
Google Local Business Center Now Google Places
April 19, 2010, 11:40 pm
In what is largely just a name change with a few new twists, Google has changed its Local Business Center to Google Places. It makes sense considering that an actual business listing in the Local Business Center was called a place page then why not clean things up a little, right?
Search Engine Land Reports
Google has decided to...
Google’s New Search Design
April 19, 2010, 10:52 pm
Most of us have noticed the new and improved Google search results pages by now. The biggest thing (in my opinion) is the new left hand column you get when you click the new “Show Options” link at the top of the results page. Whereas before if you wanted to search from a certain time frame, or make other refinements to the search, you...
PayPal Welcomes New VP of China, Hong Kong and Taiwan
April 19, 2010, 10:22 pmIt's Farhad Irani, VP of Asia Pacific. It gives me great pleasure to welcome to the company, Chris Yao, our new vice president for China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. As you know, I feel very passionately about both the outstanding performance as well as the potential of our greater China region - and to me, Chris represents these opportunities. By way...
Location & Mobile Search Marketing Will Evolve
April 19, 2010, 10:11 pmAre you are still applying the same exact SEO tactics that you did a few years back? Have you evolved into what is happening now in the search marketing space? If you haven't you could be shooting yourself in the foot with your online marketing approach. This is a very fast moving industry that requires a great deal of constant education.
Link Profiling with Open Site Explorer
April 19, 2010, 7:17 pmPosted by Dr. Pete We all know that links are good for SEO and good links are even better, but what does a good link profile really look like? Its easy for even an average website to have hundreds of back-links, and sorting through them to get a sense of the overall quality is often more art than science. Its also easy to get caught up in the...
Reputation Management - Tips for Using Testimonials
April 19, 2010, 4:54 pmby Stone Reuning
Your prospects want to know what other customers think of
their experience with you before buying, booking or signing up. And they'll go
wherever they need to go to find out. Hence the growth of online review sites
like Yelp.com. If you sell in the B2B space, you may be faced with providing
references, another form of...
Icelandic for Volcano
April 19, 2010, 4:05 pmby Claudine Zap Volcanic chaos! Flight cancelations have airlines and passengers in an uproar. Vacations are ruined. Trips are delayed. But maybe the biggest issue is this: The heck do you say the name of that thing? Yahoo! has seen an eruption of searches on " eyjafjallajokull volcano pronunciation ." So here's a quick primer. The glacier's name...
First screenshots of the Facebook 'Like' button
April 19, 2010, 3:13 pmFacebook 'Like' button has gone live! Click to read the rest of this post.
Financial Services in 2010: Brokerage - Trends and Seasonality
April 19, 2010, 3:02 pmThe economic downturn in 2009 had minimal effects on the brokerage vertical due to consumers being highly engaged with their stocks, retirement and savings portfolios. The crash of the stock markets shifted the search trends away from generic stock terms and resulted in a growth of online investing terms, as more consumers were looking to enter...
AOL Launches Self-Serve Ad Platform
April 19, 2010, 2:56 pmAOL has launched a beta version of Advertising.com Ad Desk, a new self-serve display ad platform targeted at medium- sized advertisers. AOL's Ad Desk will allow advertisers to have more control of their online ad campaigns. Ad Desk will allow advertisers to access demographic information and audience size across AOL's various properties....
Google Announces Science Fair Awards
April 19, 2010, 2:56 pmA science fair that's been around since 1950 is about to become an even bigger deal thanks to Google. The company's announced that it will give out three Google Special Awards at the International Science and Engineering Fair (which has been sponsored by Intel since 1997). The winners will receive $10,000 each, along with the opportunity to...
Rise of the Marketing Technologist
April 19, 2010, 2:25 pmMarketing must control its technological destiny. Slide show and essay advocating for a marketing CTO and a growing technology culture within the marketing department.
Powered By Drupal
April 19, 2010, 2:10 pmIf you're a regular visitor to our blogs, you know that we use different processes to rapidly create and deploy code to our servers. These processes establish safeguards for our systems, and allow us to push new production code at a rapid rate. But when it comes to quickly sharing with our site visitors what we're up to, even these agile processes...
Revenge of the Octopus
April 19, 2010, 1:42 pmby Mike Krumboltz A few days ago, an ornery octopus stole a diver's video camera off the coast of New Zealand. What followed was a harrowing and hilarious adventure that resulted in some incredibly awesome video. We first spotted the story at Very Short List . The video, which you can watch below, begins innocently enough. Local diver Victor...
Google Products Blocked in 25 Countries and Censorship Continues
April 19, 2010, 1:25 pmThe Official Google Blog has been restating the policy of Google at handling government interference in its products noting that Google products from search and Blogger to YouTube and Google Docs have been blocked in 25 of the 100 countries where Google offers its services. The post explains that there are differences between how content is...
Android Advocacy Group Woos Developers
April 19, 2010, 1:11 pmGoogle may be stepping up its efforts to have developers pay attention to Android. The search giant - or rather, a division of it known as the "Android Advocacy Group" - has supposedly gone on the offensive, emailing a developer and offering him (or her) a free device.
Of course, we've seen Google hand out Android phones before;...
Facebook Launches Community Pages, "More Connected" Profiles
April 19, 2010, 1:02 pmThe pre-F8 Facebook news continues to roll in. The company announced via blog post today that it is adding a couple of new features for users: Community pages and "more connected" profiles. Community Pages, Facebook says, are "owned collectively by the community".
"Just like official Pages for businesses, organizations...
Media Usage Down, Except Mobile (And Not-So-Mobile)
April 19, 2010, 12:18 pm
Decreased media usage during the recession, plus lower spending, put a hurting on advertising prices in 2009, according to the Yankee Group (via). Their study shows that Americans spent only 11:50 with media each day last year. Yeah, that’s 11 hours and 50 minutes—or nearly half the day and the majority of our waking...
Conan O'Brien's TV Battle, Country Music Awards, Patriot's Day: What's the Buzz
April 19, 2010, 11:59 amby Claudine Zap Our top picks from the day's hottest searches. Conan O'Brien (Searches increased by +2,008%). George Lopez, who changed his timeslot to make room for the late-night comedian on TBS, was reportedly told he'd be fired if he didn't . Country Music Awards (+1,776%). Carrie Underwood took home Entertainer of the Year award. Again ....
How Business Questions About Social Media Have Changed in a Year
April 19, 2010, 11:24 amLast year we looked at a study about the state of social media marketing , looking at common questions businesses had about it. A lot has happened in the social media world in a year's time, and many businesses have gotten into the swing of things since then. However, Michael Stelzner, author of the study and founder of SocialMediaExaminer.com...
Critics Rejecting "Romantically Challenged"
April 19, 2010, 10:22 amby Vera H-C Chan Alyssa Milano has gone from " Charmed " to " Romantically Challenged ," but there's no love lost with critics. In fact, there's not much love at all for her new ABC sitcom debuting April 19. Aside from a few guest spots here (" My Name is Earl ") and TV movies there (" Wisegal "), the TV actress hasn't had a regular primetime gig...
How are Nonprofits Using Social Media?
April 19, 2010, 10:04 amHow are nonprofit organizations using social media today? Let’s explore that by taking a look at some examples.
6 Ways to Optimize Your Site for the iPad
April 19, 2010, 9:56 amWith the iPad’s Safari browser, the Web generally looks and works like one would expect on any traditional laptop or desktop computer. However, there are important differences in the browsing experience and these differences could thwart your web visitors, stopping them in their tracks. As a site owner, you must compensate for these ...
Google Apps and the cloud: Faster access to innovation
April 19, 2010, 9:25 amEditor's Note: This post is the first in a three-part series on the benefits of Google Apps' cloud-computing architecture . "Cloud computing" has become a trendy buzzword, and some traditional technology vendors are even using the term though their solutions are still rooted in legacy architectures. In this three-part series, I'll share how...
Digital Textbook Sales To Reach $1 Billion
April 19, 2010, 9:17 amMore than 18 percent of new textbook revenue in the higher education and career education markets will come from digital textbooks by 2014, according to a new study by Xplana.
By 2014, annual revenues form digital textbooks will surpass $1 billion. The shift in sales will cause the publishing industry to revamp the traditional textbook production...
Are You Wrong About What it Takes to Get Conversions?
April 19, 2010, 9:13 amSeeWhy has released an eBook with an interesting premise for online retailers. It looks at how the top 10 converting e-commerce sites drive their website conversions. The main takeaway, a representative for SeeWhy tells WebProNews is that "the top 10 converting e-commerce sites, on average, convert roughly 10 times as many visitors into customers...
Yahoo Names Next Chief Product Officer
April 19, 2010, 9:13 amWell, that didn't take long. Less than two weeks after Yahoo announced that chief technology officer and chief product officer Ari Balogh would be leaving the company, a semi-replacement's been named: Blake Irving, a former Microsoft exec. This development doesn't come as a big surprise; when news of Balogh's decision to quit first broke, the...
Mind Your Neck and Stop Knocking Promoted Tweets
April 19, 2010, 8:56 amSo Twitter's got a big - whoo-pished! - backlash after announcing they will be launching promoted tweets. I'm seeing twitter users saying that it will turn Twitter into a male enhancement and teeth whitening spam box; it wont work and threatening to leave the platform; and quote unquote 'experts' claim it is not much of an innovative idea. Here's...
Facebook Taking Over the Internetz
April 19, 2010, 8:50 am
Facebook is the most popular social network in the world, but that’s not quite enough for them. Finally ready to venture outside their walled garden, Facebook may be unveiling a decentralized version of their site that allows Facebook users to interact on on other sites around the web. But does this mean Facebook’s...
comScore Media Metrix Ranks Top-Growing Properties and Site Categories for March 2010
April 19, 2010, 8:05 amcomScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released its monthly analysis of U.S. Web activity at the top-growing properties and site categories for March 2010 based on data from the comScore Media Metrix service. Automaker discounts and incentives compelled millions of Americans to visit auto manufacturer sites...
Social Media Marketers Can Learn Lessons from Paul Revere's Ride
April 19, 2010, 8:02 amToday is a civic holiday in Massachusetts: Patriots' Day. It commemorates the anniversary of the Battles of Lexington and Concord, the first battles of the American Revolutionary War. It also offers social media marketers some important lessons that are still relevant today.Click to read the rest of this post...
social
April 19, 2010, 7:59 am: Related articles: Social Networking catching up with Traditional Internet Portals Yahoo wins social site Bebo UK .
4 Things an Ethical Internet Marketer Can Learn from Spammers
April 19, 2010, 7:53 amFirst things first: We hate spam. And we hate spammers. Maybe even more than you do. So this article isn't about endorsing spam in any way, or suggesting that you do anything unethical. But as much as we hate spam and wish it didn't exist, we can't deny one fact. Spammers make a killing online. Just to give you an idea, last year a Russian...
6 Ways to Optimize Your Site for the iPad
April 19, 2010, 7:53 amThe iPad is no Apple Newton. It truly is a revolutionary device. The whimsical blog of "Fake Steve Jobs" calls the iPad a " life-changing, mind-altering product". Although that may be an overstatement, the iPad is certainly important " to the computing industry, to computer users, and to online marketers. The launch of the iPad marks a significant...
Creating a Social Media Analytics Action Plan â" Part 1: Defining KPIs
April 19, 2010, 7:53 amLast week I spoke at PubCon South on the Analytics Strategy panel on the topic of social media. This is something I'm very passionate about and during my preparation for the presentation I uncovered some scary statistics. According to a survey conducted by BazaarVoice in 2009,
Groupon Appears in Valuation Rarified Air: $1 Billion
April 19, 2010, 7:50 am
Wow. A site / concept that is barely 1 ½ years old that hits the $1 billion valuation mark? I had to see if I stepped into some worm hole that took me back in time to the late 1990’s. Apparently I have not and neither has Groupon who, by landing $135 million in an additional funding through Digital Sky Technology and Battery...
Website Accessibility: How To Make Your Website Highly Accessible And Standards-Compliant
April 19, 2010, 7:20 amDoes website accessibility and web standards really matter for an online web publisher? Is there really an advantage in spending serious time and resources to make your website standards-compliant? Unfortunately there is a lot of misinformation on website accessibility, and it looks like no-one has a solid answer on this. This is why I have asked...
Microsoft's Ad/Publisher Group To Get New Head
April 19, 2010, 7:08 amIn less than one month, a change in leadership will occur within Microsoft's Advertiser and Publisher Solutions group. Scott Howe, the corporate vice president currently in charge of it, is set to leave on May 14th, with Rik van der Kooi replacing him. Howe came to Microsoft as a result of the aQuantive acquisition that was announced on May 18th,...
Seagate Adds Netflix And YouTube Access
April 19, 2010, 7:08 amStorage solutions firm Seagate said today that it will allow users of its FreeAgent Theater+ HD media player to access content from Netflix, YouTube, vTuner and Mediafly. The new content offerings are available to existing FreeAgent Theater+ HD media player owners through a free, firmware update that can be downloaded from Seagate, and will be...
How Absorbed by Facebook is the Web Going to Get?
April 19, 2010, 7:08 amFacebook's developer conference F8 doesn't begin until Wednesday, but there is already plenty of news about the company's plans coming out, and those plans reportedly involve Facebook consuming even more of your web experience. Are you comfortable with Facebook dominating more of your online experience? Tell us what you think .
Soovle: Have Fun with Your Keywords
April 19, 2010, 7:07 amSoovle is a customizable engine that unites the suggestion services from all the major providers in one place: Google, Bing, Amazon, Answers.com, Yahoo, Wikipedia, Youtube. I found the tool to be a major help for search and content creation inspiration. Various ways to play with it: Type a search term and press enter (or click "Soovle"). Look...
Google Chrome Removing “Http://” & Al Gore from Web’s History
April 19, 2010, 6:57 am
Apparently Google has had enough of Al Gore.
That’s the only logical explanation for its apparent decision to reinvent the web starting with the removal of http:// from web addresses.
…Google recently made a change in the developer version that ruffled some feathers: the URL field will no longer show the...
Once You Start, Can You Stop?
April 19, 2010, 6:27 amWarning: Link building is addictive. It's like working out. Once you get going and you see results, you want to keep on. You want to do more and more but what happens if you slow down or stop your efforts? With exercise, you'll gain weight again, most likely. With links, it's not as straightforward. Will stopping, or slowing down, raise a red...
Google Announces More Search Improvements
April 19, 2010, 5:55 am
Google is at it again. They are making the world a better place by helping everyone do everything at a faster pace and now helping us with difficult spelling issues that names can create. The latest improvements in Google search are designed to help search happen with fewer keystrokes. Among them is the further localization of...
That Was a Wicked Googly!
April 19, 2010, 5:31 amYouTube has started streaming the Indian Premier League cricket season. And according to Amit Agrawal, Strategic Partner Development Manager, "With only five of 60 matches left in the tournament, we've been blown away by the response. We've seen views come in from countries around the globe, and the IPL channel on YouTube now has over 40 million...
McAfee Lends Security to 99% of Rich Media Ads in U.S.
April 19, 2010, 5:25 amMcAfee and Adgregate have partnered on what they're calling the industry's first secure advertising. WebProNews spoke with Brent Remai, VP of Consumer Marketing at McAfee about what this means for advertising. "The ad world is a $30B pie, and everybody wants their piece, including malicious advertisers, whose "malvertising" has become...
Key Questions to Optimize Your Content Marketing Strategy
April 19, 2010, 4:53 amI've been thinking about how entering the content marketing space is not for the faint of heart. It can be a signifcant undertaking both in terms of resources and a change in an organization's approach to marketing and sales. Obviously, content marketing is better for some companies and industries than others. Outside help also makes a difference....
Microsoft's Mojo Returning?
April 19, 2010, 2:58 amTime for the final part of our series of interviews with Ashley Highfield. In the 1st Ashley â" MD of Microsoft UK's Consumer & Online division â" talked about the new Bing ads that have been seen on TV in the UK. The 2nd snippet had Ashley give us some insight into the newly launched MSN Video Player and what it means for advertisers. In...
Is Microsoft's Mojo Returning?
April 19, 2010, 2:35 amTime for the last in our series of interviews with Ashley Highfield. In the first, Ashley - MD of Microsoft's Consumer & Online division in the UK - talked about the new Bing TV ads that have been launched in the UK. The second part concentrated on the idea behind the new MSN Video Player experience, and what the format held in store for...
Leadership debate winners: Lib Dems, Sky News, ITV and Twitter
April 19, 2010, 2:00 amDespite the best efforts of an Icelandic volcano to ground all Northern European flights and take (obscure?) the limelight, last week's leaders' debate grabbed a lot of media attention. The consensus view is that Nick Clegg came out on top, and UK searches for the Liberal Democrat leader increased 7-fold last week, clearly overtaking both David...
Its 'Website' Not 'Web Site'
April 19, 2010, 1:47 am"This was formally announced at the American Copy Editors Society conference Friday afternoon."
British Elections 2010: It's a Three Horse Race
April 19, 2010, 1:09 amThe general election 2010: poll of polls in guardian.co.uk yesterday showed the Conservatives with 34 percent (down more than 5 points from the previous Sunday), Labour with over 28 percent (down less than 3 points from the previous Sunday), and the Liberal Democrats with 27 percent (up more than 8 points from the previous Sunday). In other...
Updates to Google Webmaster Tools
April 19, 2010, 12:25 am
Have you opened up Google Webmaster Tools recently? If not, you should, because you’ll find a bunch of new features. Your webmaster tools dashboard shows top search queries, links to your site, crawl errors, sitemaps, and more, as you can see in the screen shot. From the dash, you can get more information on any of these. The next screen...
Monetizing Facebook Fans Through Discounts
April 19, 2010, 12:23 amWe've written several times recently about Facebook's role in e-commerce . WebProNews spoke with Christian Taylor CEO of Payvment , which has been offering a Facebook storefront application to retailers since the beginning of November, and is now giving them a way to get people more interested in buying from them. It's simple really - if a...
Futuristic Ways of Creating Automated Link Building Tools
April 18, 2010, 11:35 pmPosted by willcritchlow Rand recently asked you all for feedback about improving the blog. The two areas that you asked us to write about more were linkbuilding and tools . In a shameless populist move, I thought I'd write a post about tools for automating (bits of) linkbuilding . Recently, I keep coming across ways that we are actually living in...
New WebmasterWorld Site Search Engine - Alpha Build!
April 18, 2010, 11:26 pmWe have launched a new advanced site search engine. It searches every nook and cranny of WebmasterWorld. Most searches under one second.
Great Twitter Video by Chris Brogan
April 18, 2010, 10:17 pmI saw a recent video on Chris Brogan's YouTube profile about a business owner or manager he interviewed about how Twitter has been the driving force to the overall growth and success of a certain bar/restaurant. Business owners all across the U.S are leveraging the power and growth of Twitter to their advantage in many different creative ways.
Battelle, O'Reilly Call Out Apple to Join Web 2.0 Summit
April 18, 2010, 9:31 pmWeb 2.0 Summit Co-founders John Battelle and Tim O'Reilly invited the incredibly controlling and increasingly private Apple to join Internet watchers at their next show in San Francisco this November . In an open letter posted to Battelle's Search Blog April 17, the Web pundits/publishers characterized Apple as a company that has become more...
Above Google's Webmaster Guidelines and Elsewhere: "Make your website Google Chrome-friendly"
April 18, 2010, 8:24 pmGoogle at the top of their webmaster guidelines page - which instructs people on what to do to be found, indexed and ranked by Google search - added a blue box reading: Turns out this box (worded in a way that gives preferential treatment to Google's own software) is now stamped across a whole lot of Google's webmaster help pages - the particular...
Experiences Sending 14,000 Emails
April 18, 2010, 8:24 pmThe Goal: Some of the websites I create or co-create have a lot of one-time visitors - people who may like the project, but due to the type of the site don't find much of a reason to visit it daily. Take WhatHappenedInMyBirthYear.com, or TurnMyNameIntoaFace.com, for instance, sites which you probably use once, then maybe tell your friends, but...
Google Officially Enables iPad AdWords Targetting
April 18, 2010, 6:24 pmAs announced a few weeks ago, Google has now included the iPad as one of the devices that you can target specifically with your AdWords ad campaigns as Google has added it to the list of mobile devices that supports ad campaign targetting. The process is pretty simple. Just edit the "Devices" section in your AdWord Campaign Settings and Select...
Hot Topics: Volcano in Iceland, Ash Cloud Over Europe, and Air Traffic
April 18, 2010, 11:35 amAccording to Google Trends, three of the latest Hot Topics are volcano in Iceland, ash cloud over Europe, and air traffic.Click to read the rest of this post...
Pandia Search Engine News Wrap-up April 18
April 18, 2010, 6:30 amHere are some of the recent search engine related news articles and blog posts Pandia has found interesting. 8 Crazy-Cool Search Engines You Should Know There's a new breed of search engines out there, and they're letting users search and find some utterly crazy stuff. (SE Land April 16 2010) Google Twitter Follow Finder,
New features from Google and Bing
April 18, 2010, 6:07 amGoogle and Bing have presented a large number of innovations and services this last couple of weeks. Here is an overview. Google lets you search the Twitter archive This week we saw reports making Twitter the number two search engine in the US, behind Google, but ahead of Yahoo! We are not so sure about that. Twitter counts automated searchs as...
Facebook And YouTube Get The Most Business Internet Traffic
April 18, 2010, 6:02 amMore business Internet traffic goes to Facebook than to any other website, according to a new report by managed security firm Network Box. Network Box looked at 13 billion URLs used by businesses in the first quarter of 2010 and found that 6.8 percent of all business Internet traffic goes to Facebook, a one percent increase over the last quarter...
Find high quality video content online
April 18, 2010, 4:43 amThere is a lot of great video content on the web, but it can be hard to find. TVBookmark is a directory, an aggregator and a search engine all in one, where you can explore a variety of web TV content or search specific themes or stories. How does it work? The sources are picked editorially " mostly from publisher and TV station website, but also...
Defining Your Target Audience for SEO
April 17, 2010, 4:32 pmWho are these people, and what do they want? [ Editor's Note : Avid SEO junkie and regular contributor to the Yahoo! Search Marketing blog Laura Lippay has written a remarkable-and remarkably detailed- post for the SEOMoz blog on how you can create a thorough audience targeting strategy for SEO. It is the first of eight parts. Laura has...
NSFW: Facebook, YouTube Are the Most Visited Sites at Work
April 17, 2010, 1:31 pmIf you visit Facebook or YouTube during official hours while in the your offices, well - welcome to the club. I do that too. And guess what? It looks like everyone else are doing the same thing as study shows that both Facebook and YouTube are getting heaps of traffic from business sites. SC Magazine UK is reporting that according to the study...
The Event for Digital Advertising
April 17, 2010, 10:53 amYahoo! at ad:tech San Francisco, April 19 to 21 Monday kicks off what is arguably the year's biggest event for digital advertising on the West Coast" ad:tech . We'll be there, naturally, working the room and connecting with you. What: ad:tech San Francisco When : April 19 to 21 Where : Moscone Center North Why : Because in this fast-paced...
Google Adds Rich Snippets for Recipes
April 17, 2010, 10:05 amHow did I miss this announcement? I know, I'll blame the eruption of Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull volcano and the closure of British air space.Click to read the rest of this post...
Johnny's Copyblogger Wrap-Up: Week of April 12, 2010
April 17, 2010, 7:34 amI blogcrastinated (see Tuesday's post below) on writing this for a long time because I've been busy perfecting the my Rock Band drumming. Nobody warns you about the time-suck danger that Wii holds for the self-employed. I only got down to it and wrote these summaries for you when, somewhere between some kick-butt drumming for The Donnas and Bikini...
Buy Your Way to the Top of Twitter Search Results and Other Issues
April 17, 2010, 7:06 amRetweeted Starbucks ad aka promoted tweet. No sign of it being an ad. Welcome back to the weekly Twitter column. Last week we have witnessed a lot of news about and from Twitter. The most important one seems to be the appearance of Twitter ads aka promoted tweets . From now on you can buy your way to the top of Twitter search results. I've written...
Cup of Joe: Exclusive Interview With MySpace’s Mona Nomura
April 17, 2010, 5:04 am
A few months ago I started following Mona on Twitter. The best way to describe Mona is quite simply, fun. She has a ton of fun with social media and always seems to be “on”. Because of which, it wasn’t a huge surprise that MySpace signed her this week as their newest full time social media marketer. Prior to her...
ChaCha Takes On Steve Jobs Mobile Search Comments
April 17, 2010, 5:00 amApple CEO has made comments recently implying that people aren't searching much with their phones. When Jobs announced iAds, Apple's new mobile advertising platform, for example, he said something along the lines of "people aren't searching on their phones." WebProNews received an email on behalf of ChaCha who apparently doesn't take too...
Site Speed Officially Used in Search Engine Rankings, Says Google
April 17, 2010, 3:48 am
You’ve probably heard that site speed is now one of the more than 200 factors that Google is using to rank search engine results. The reactions range from, “Everybody panic!” to “This will make it easier for the big sites to stomp the smaller ones,” to “Well it’s about time.” I actually don’t...
Populating City State Fields Based On User Zip Code Entry
April 16, 2010, 8:01 pm"How to make the city and state fields pre-populate based on the zip code a user enters."
Sarah Palin's Secret, Oprah Winfrey's Bio, and Jim Carrey's Twitter Obsession: Buzz Week in Review
April 16, 2010, 6:16 pmby Claudine Zap This week, two of the country's most visible women came under an unwelcome glare of publicity when some dirty little secrets got out in the open. Oprah Winfrey had to bear not being in control of her brand when a new and very unauthorized biography by Kitty Kelley came out. And Sarah Palin thought her diva-like demands outlined in...
Does Marketing Make You Cynical?
April 16, 2010, 4:35 pmA common practice in the marketing space is for people to diminish what you do, state that it is below them, help rebrand your stuff in a negative light, and then at some point in the future basically clone the idea (maybe with a few new features, maybe not) and then push their clone job aggressively as though it is revolutionary.
Does Marking Make You Cynical?
April 16, 2010, 3:54 pmA common practice in the marketing space is for people to diminish what you do, state that it is below them, help rebrand your stuff in a negative light, and then at some point in the future basically clone the idea (maybe with a few new features, maybe not) and then push their clone job aggressively as though it is revolutionary.
Google Loses Chinese Exec To Baidu
April 16, 2010, 2:52 pmIt's almost a waste of space to state that Google is a good employer; the fact is widely known, and people all over the world apply there on a regular basis. However, in a move that may speak to how the search giant is faring in China, an important research executive has gone to work for Baidu after quitting Google within the past couple weeks....
Chloe Moretz: The Breakout Star of 'Kick-Ass'
April 16, 2010, 2:46 pmby Mike Krumboltz Rated-R movies come out all the time. But they rarely feature a pre-teen female assassin named Hit-Girl who swears like a sailor and kills without remorse. Clearly " Kick-Ass " ain't your average movie. And star Chloe Moretz ain't your average actor. The young Ms. Moretz isn't the main star of "Kick-Ass," but she's the one...
Reprise Round Up: Twitter Searches, Promoted Tweets and Social Media Targeting
April 16, 2010, 2:46 pmEach Friday morning in our New York office, our team gets together for an in-depth discussion about the week's most interesting search and social media headlines and their implications for our agency and our clients. The conversations are a great way to make sure we all stay current on this rapidly changing industry of ours. We also realized that...
Which Markets Are the Biggest Users of Apple Products?
April 16, 2010, 1:49 pmOkay, so I'm a PC guy, not a Mac guy. But I've just seen a study from Experian Simmons that answers the question: Which markets are the biggest users of Apple products?Click to read the rest of this post...
Open Source at Digg
April 16, 2010, 1:37 pmDigg has always been a user of open source. We were built on a LAMP stack and as we've developed new pieces of infrastructure we usually turned to open source components first for solutions.
Will an Icelandic Eruption Provoke the 'Angry Sister'?
April 16, 2010, 1:32 pmby Vera H-C Chan If you think Eyjafjallajokull put a damper on things, get a load of neighbor Katla . The eruption of Iceland's volcano Eyjafjallajokull has managed to boot 800 people from their homes , grounded 60% of European flights , messed up the soccer season , and caused broadcast anchors to tremble in fear about pronouncing its name. Turns...
More Localized Google Suggest and Improved Spell Correction for Names
April 16, 2010, 1:20 pmToday, Google announced three enhancements to help you input your searches more quickly and easily. As Commander Leonard "Bones" McCoy would say, "I know engineers, they LOVE to change things."Click to read the rest of this post...
Google Wants to be Your Twitter App
April 16, 2010, 1:19 pm
It’s no secret that third-party apps and clients are popular for Twitter users. And it looks like they’re in for some major competition from Google. No the search giant isn’t building its own Twitter client—it’s just bringing you all the functionality you’d expect from one.
Last October, Google...
Food Fight? Say Cheese
April 16, 2010, 1:09 pmby Vera H-C Chan Students these days may have a technological edge, but don't mess with the lunch lady. She has control of the grub. New Jersey high school students digested this hard lesson after plotting a cell phone-fueled food fight. Instead of getting extra credit for imaginative use of technology, irked cafeteria workers served up vengeance...
Mobile Ad Report Shows Big Gains for Android, RIM, PSP
April 16, 2010, 12:46 pmMobile advertising firm Millennial Media has put out a report mobile devices and their impact on advertising. "For the past year Millennial Media has released a monthly SMART report (Scorecard for Mobile Advertising Reach and Targeting), which discusses trends in the mobile ad space. Beginning this month, theyve decided to release an additional...
The iPad: A Cat's Perspective
April 16, 2010, 12:35 pmby Mike Krumboltz The recently released iPad is, in the words of Apple cofounder and CEO Steve Jobs , a "magical and revolutionary product." That may be true from the human perspective, but how does the feline species feel about the touch-screen device? One cat owner aimed to find out. He placed his iPad in front his cat, Iggy, to see just how...
The Role of Sharing in Social Well-Being
April 16, 2010, 12:06 pmIn his 2000 book, "Bowling Alone," Robert Putnam argues that Americans have grown increasingly disconnected from their friends and family, and that technologyâ"particularly televisionâ"is to blame. Since then, social psychologists have engaged in heated arguments about the role of technology in our everyday lives. "Bowling Alone" was...
Rachel Weisz's New Role, Heathrow and the Volcano, Ladybugs' Spots: What's the Buzz
April 16, 2010, 11:44 amby Claudine Zap Our top picks from the day's hottest searches. Rachel Weisz (Searches increased by +4,414%). The English Oscar-winning actress will take on the iconic role of First Lady Jackie Kennedy . Heathrow Airport (+3,648%). The thick cloud of ash caused by the volcano in Iceland threatens to disrupt weekend flights . Chloe Moretz (3,423%)....
Leadership News from Advertiser and Publisher Solutions (APS)
April 16, 2010, 11:27 amHere are the contents of an email from Qi Lu, President, Online Services Division, Microsoft, regarding a leadership change here. To All: I have important news to share regarding the Advertiser & Publisher Solutions Business Group. Nearly three years after joining the company through the aQuantive acquisition, Scott Howe has decided to leave...
New Report: Both Click and Spend Share are on the Rise for Bing (Travel Spend Share Up 160% Since 2009)
April 16, 2010, 11:21 amWhile poking around Search Engine Land this morning, I ran across a post that went up a few days ago and thought it might be of interest to Microsoft adCenter advertisers: According to a new report issued by Efficient Frontier, Bings click share.
The New Multilingual Search is Live! Your Feedback Please?
April 16, 2010, 11:09 amIt's already been a few years since Multilingual-Search.com emerged from a Blogger account to become the serious news source it has become - thanks in large part to the regular contributions from people such as Sante Achille, Motoko Hunt, Kristjan Mar Hauksson and Nick Wilsdon. Well now we're on version 4 - the very latest version with a number of...
Google Suggest Becomes More Local and Better with Spelling
April 16, 2010, 10:35 amGoogle has just rolled out two nifty features of its Google Suggest service - a more localized search suggest that boils down to metro areas and an auto-correction of spellings for name search. These two new features aimed to give you a faster search experience when typing your search keywords as well as lessen the amount of time you devote...
10 Travel SEO Strategies
April 16, 2010, 10:24 amWhen it comes to travel SEO competition is often fierce. Huge authority travel sites, luxury hotels and millions of apartments all fight for attention. Both SEOptimise in the UK and myself in Germany have been working with many SEO clients from the travel sector. Kevin Gibbons has already provided a must read resource on travel SEO back in 2008 ....
Multilingual SEO â" Link Building, Duplicate Content and Geo-Selection
April 16, 2010, 9:55 amInternational link Building, duplicate content in multiple languages and geo-selection are just some of the topics discussed by WebCertain's Andy Atkins-Krüger, when he spoke to SearchEngineWatch at SES London in February. Andy's key points from the interview are summarised below - or you can watch the video in full. Link Building - Local links...
NYT vs. FTC: Is the Times Not Disclosing iPad Advertising?
April 16, 2010, 9:51 am
The FTC’s blogging guidelines have drawn a lot of attention—but little if any action by the consumer protection agency. But several bloggers think they’ve found a great opportunity for the commission to step in—or a great opportunity to ridicule the FTC’s guidelines—with Apple’s iPad and...
It's Not About the Algorithm Anymore
April 16, 2010, 9:50 amIn its drive to redefine sponsored search, is Google leaving organic results behind? With a near simultaneous release of the latest search share numbers by Hitwise and comScore and Apple's announcement of the new iAd mobile advertising platform , the industry is eating up the idea of Google's decline and Apple's meteoric rise to the advertising...
U.K. Leads Europe In Mobile Mapping Usage
April 16, 2010, 9:25 amThe use of mobile mapping and direction services in Europe in the past year has jumped 68 percent, according to a new analysis from comScore.
In February, more than 21 million mobile users in the EU5 countries (U.K., France, Germany, Spain and Italy) used their mobile handsets for navigation.
The highest growth among EU5 countries was in the UK,...
Are You Blogging Within Your Fair Use Rights?
April 16, 2010, 9:07 amWith all of the struggles and controversies surrounding the news industry these days, there is a lot of confusion out there about what falls under fair use and what doesn't. The more savvy bloggers who have been in the game for a while usually have a better grasp on the concept, but there are still plenty of others who aren't so well versed. After...
Search & Social-Largest Sponsor of Foursquare Day Tampa!
April 16, 2010, 8:52 amTampa, The epicenter of foursquare day (#4sqday), will be erupting with foursquare fun-ness! Search & Social has decided to sponsor this event today (April 16th) by donating a free ticket to be raffled off for our Spring Summit ! We donated the largest prize there. You can obtain raffle tickets by either checking in at the event or doing the...
Why You Need to Stop Ignoring Image Alt Attributes
April 16, 2010, 8:52 amThis is a guest post by AJ Wilcox of OrangeSoda , an internet marketing and search marketing company that specializes in local search and SEO for small business. As you are coding your site, you most often get the necessary stuff in, and then sweep back for all the leftovers. Quite often, developers forget to add the alt="" attribute to images...
Google, Yahoo Countersue Xerox Over Patent Claims
April 16, 2010, 8:50 amTwo months ago, Xerox sued Google and Yahoo for patent infringement, and the two defendants haven't responded by pulling out their checkbooks. They've instead taken the interesting (though not unexpected) step of making counterclaims.
Apparently Google and Yahoo are willing to accept either of a couple explanations for why they're not...
Startups Shouldn't Necessarily Count on the Twitter Strategy
April 16, 2010, 8:07 amEarly in the week, Twitter revealed its new " Promoted Tweets " feature, or ad platform (though the company doesn't like calling it this), and essentially its long awaited business model. The jury is still out on how successful a business model this will be, but it's already created a huge amount of buzz, and Twitter has grown enormously up until...
Brokerages Support Google In Wake Of Financial Report
April 16, 2010, 8:06 amAlthough shareholders didn't respond too well to Google's first quarter earnings report - Google's stock dipped afterward, and is now down 5.80 percent - analysts generally liked what they saw. A roundup determined that four brokerages raised their price targets, while just two cut them.
Alphabetically, Bank of America Merrill Lynch comes...
Buying Yelp Reviews Is BAD for Business
April 16, 2010, 7:57 amFeeling desperate to improve your status on Yelp? Considering bribing customers to write reviews on Yelp or paying someone to do it? Think again after you read these cautions.
New Data From Google Can Help You Optimize Your Site for Conversions
April 16, 2010, 7:44 amGoogle has just started sharing more detailed data for each individual search query in the Top search queries feature in Webmaster Tools. Google used to just report the average position at which your site's pages appeared in the search results for a particular query. Now users can click on a given search query to see a breakdown of the...
Google Insights for Search Tracks Interest In David Cameron, Gordon Brown, Nick Clegg
April 16, 2010, 7:26 amJeffrey D. Oldham, Software Engineer at Google, posted "Brits search for a leader" last night -- about three hours after Dan Hoffman, Director of Real Estate and Workplace Services for NorCal, and Chief Goat Herder at Google, posted "The goats are baaack!"Click to read the rest of this post...
Ning Free Rides Coming to an End
April 16, 2010, 7:13 am
In a move that went somewhat under the radar a month ago, Ning’s co-founder and CEO Gina Bianchini was replaced by COO Jason Rosenthal. This signaled the end of the of a few things: at the time, Bianchini’s long time influence on the platform. Then yesterday, the end of Ning’s free offering and the end of many jobs at...
Google Introduces iPad Targeting
April 16, 2010, 7:04 amAdWords users who feel an urge to target iPad owners can now do so without reaching out to people carrying Android devices and iPhones, as well. Google's added an option to its "networks and devices" screen that'll allow advertisers to adopt a narrow focus. A post on the Inside AdWords blog announced late yesterday, "[W]e feel confident adding...
Walmart And ASPCA Launch Facebook Campaign For Animals
April 16, 2010, 7:04 amWalmart has teamed up with the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) for a Facebook campaign aimed at saving and improving the lives of animals. The campaign encourages Facebook users to visit www.facebook.com/lendapaw to support the ASPCA. Facebook users can click on the "Create a 'Lend A Paw' post button, and...
Easier Annotate, Recap and Re-Blog Pages with Yooper (FireFox)
April 16, 2010, 6:47 amIf you are an active blogger, you must be reading and processing plenty of information daily. You save some of this information by copying-pasting to whichever notes you are managing or by bookmarking the page or saving the link. You go by most of the information to forget about it forever. With such flood of the information you should have plenty...
comScore Announces Date for First Quarter 2010 Financial Results
April 16, 2010, 6:25 amcomScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today announced it will report its first quarter 2010 financial results after U.S. financial markets close on Wednesday, April 28, 2010. In conjunction with this announcement, management will host a conference call and webcast on Wednesday, April 28, 2010 at 5:00 p.m. (ET) to...
Google Cloud Print in the Works for Printing from Chrome OS
April 16, 2010, 6:24 amIf computing is going to the cloud, does that include printing? It does in Google's plan. The company has introduced preliminary designs for a project called Google Cloud Print, a service that would allow any desktop, web, or mobile app on any device to print to any printer that the user sets up. "Rather than rely on the local operating system (or...
Google Q1 Financials Strong; Schmidt Absence Creates Questions
April 16, 2010, 6:21 am
Google reported it’s results from Q1 of 2010 yesterday and the news was good for Google. Many feel that what is good for Google is good for the rest of us. Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t but at least Google is showing some of the signs of upward movement that we grew accustomed to (and were really spoiled by) in the days before...
Three Lively Blogging Debates to Explore in 2010
April 16, 2010, 6:13 amSometimes it seems like we're running out of juicy debates in the blogosphere. We used to have endless back and forth conversations about a few pet topics. Long posts versus short. How-to posts versus introspection. Professionalism versus authenticity. Ginger versus Mary Ann . We never had a debate about bullet points , mind you. Everyone knows...
Dear Google, You’ve Goat to be Kidding Me?
April 16, 2010, 5:58 am
Google’s bringing back the goats.
Yes, lawn-care companies around the country are officially panicking that Google has taken what appeared to be an isolated incident–a publicity stunt–and turned it into a tradition:
More than 200 goats from California Grazing have once again arrived at our Mountain View...
Google Gmail Such a Drag…and Drop
April 16, 2010, 5:46 am
You know how it goes.
You’re sending and email and you want to attach a file.
If you’re in Gmail, that would normally involve clicking “Attach a file” and selecting the files you wish to add to your message.
What a drag!
Actually, that’s not a drag, man. This is!
See that? That’s a screenshot...
Really really really easy SEO
April 16, 2010, 5:26 amThis starts of as another post from Mark Nunney about how to use Google Analytics and keyword niches for easy SEO results. Good stuff but then he sneaks in the launch of Strategizer - a brand new keyword research tool he's built with Wordtracker. I've seen this tool in action and I renamed it SEO 2.0.
Top 5 Search Terms at Online Marketing Blog â" Including Pirates
April 16, 2010, 5:09 amHere on Online Marketing Blog , we post a tremendous amount of insight on organic and paid search related topics each month. But how about the site search tool on our own blog? Who's searching for what, and why? And what are they finding? Mining the site search report from Google Analytics can be very useful since it's an indication of what our...
Google and Yahoo File Counterclaim Against Xerox Over Search Patent
April 16, 2010, 5:00 am"In filings in Delaware federal court on Thursday, the defendants sought declarations that they did not infringe the two patents at issue, or variantly that the patents are invalid and thus cannot be enforced by Xerox."
Google Adds Gmail Drag-and-Drop, Calendar Insert Tools
April 16, 2010, 4:24 amGoogle's Gmail team added two nice features to the Webmail application April 15: Drag-and-drop attachments and calendar invites. Users can now drag-and-drop photos, documents, spreadsheets and other files from their computer to Gmail. You have to access Gmail Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox 3.6 to enjoy all of this AJAX-ey goodness. I...
Google SEO Report Card, SMX West, plus new features
April 16, 2010, 4:07 am(I'm traveling, but lots of good stuff from the recent SMX West search conference is now live " plus some new stuff " so I wanted to talk about it.) At the SMX West search conference I did an Ignite talk about Google's SEO audit that it did on itself. This was part of a global week of Ignite talks. An Ignite talk has 20 slides that auto-advance...
Have you Found Your Blog Writing Style Yet?
April 16, 2010, 2:35 amWhen you first launch a blog for either yourself or your business it might take you some time to figure out what type of writing style you want to approach your blog with. Some companies know right from blog launch and some take a little time to figure out exactly what type of approach they would like to take. There is no right or wrong approach...
NASA Under the Microscope
April 16, 2010, 2:35 amby Mike Krumboltz Plans for a trip back to the moon were put on the back burner when President Obama announced a different strategy for NASA. Not even some of America's most famous astronauts can agree if it's a good idea. What Obama is proposing... In a major space policy speech made in front of NASA workers, the president announced that missions...
Blast the Budget: Video Game to Feel U.S. Pain
April 16, 2010, 2:35 amby Claudine Zap You're sitting at a desk with a red pen. Your mission: Cut the budget. You take the pen and slash! Medicare is erased. But wait, now elderly citizens are up in arms. So you double back. Instead, you cut funding to NASA . But now the astronauts are mad. OK, how about the Bush tax cuts ? Poof! Oh, boy. This means the Tea Partiers...
'Kick-Ass,' 'Death at a Funeral,' 'The Joneses': Critic Roundup
April 16, 2010, 2:35 amby Mike Krumboltz When a movie has a title like " Kick-Ass ," you should expect a little controversy. And that's what folks are getting from the action film, based on an ultraviolent graphic novel about crime-busting (actually, make that "crime-disemboweling") kids. Also opening this weekend, the Hollywood remake of " Death at a Funeral " with...
Mobile Mapping and Direction Services Post Strong Increases Across Europe
April 16, 2010, 2:29 amcomScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released data from the comScore MobiLens survey, reporting a 68 percent increase in the use of mobile mapping and direction services across Europe in the last year. In February, more than 21 million mobile users age 13 or older in the EU5 countries (U.K., France,...
Google Follow Finder for Twitter
April 16, 2010, 2:24 amA Google Labs experiment called Follow Finder analyzes following and follower lists on Twitter "to find people you might want to follow." Entering mattcutts , for instance, finds randfish, laughingsquid, aaronwall and dannysullivan. [Thanks WebSonic.nl !] [By Philipp Lenssen | Origin: Google Follow Finder for Twitter | Comments ] [Advertisement]...
BrowseBar tweaks
April 16, 2010, 2:23 amWe've got our fingers in a number of pies right now, so the update we've just rolled out is mostly limited to some minor UI fixes while we start work on larger projects. The majority of these minor changes you probably won't notice, however the changes to the BrowserBar you probably will. We've added a simple 'SAVE' button and supplied a drop down...
How to Master Social Media Marketing
April 16, 2010, 2:18 amWhen I talk with "normal" businesspeople (you know, the kind who have actual physical addresses, not just IP ones), they always ask me the same thing. "I can see the appeal of that Twitter stuff for my teenage daughter " but how is it supposed to help my business?" Of course, you know the answer to this question. You're a social media power user....
SEO with Feeds & XML
April 16, 2010, 2:18 amMuch of the search engine optimization advice found online and at conferences centers around keywords and links. A lot of the spotlight on internet marketing has focused on content and social media. There's no question that we've been a strong proponent of these tactics, sharing many, many posts on them. Content and link based SEO relies on the...
The Avatar Award Competition: In NYC with James Cameron, Richard Greene and Bing
April 16, 2010, 2:18 amThe human ability to clearly articulate our ideas with conviction, fortitude and authenticity is something that should be developed and nurtured in our young people. Indeed one of Bings core missions is to provide a level of clarity on the web and help people find what they asked but also help them discover things that might be related and helpful...
Bing Achieves Higher ROI than Mobile Competitors for JK Harris
April 16, 2010, 2:18 amToday is April 15 th , 2010 so, if you're in the US, have you filed your taxes? If your answer is yes, you might consider yourself done for the year. If your answer is "taxes, do we still have to pay those?" than you might need help from a company like JK Harris, a tax representation firm that has been helping taxpayers resolve their IRS back tax...
Football Hero - Microsoft and Pepsi Kick off a Summer of Soccer
April 16, 2010, 2:18 amIt's not long to go now, before teams from all over the world converge on South Africa for what's expected to be a hugely exciting & competitive few weeks. While a lucky few will be able to travel to those sunny climes, millions more will be glued to their TV sets, PCs and mobile devices, craning for the latest results, and making their thirst for...
Rendering custom data in the Custom Search element
April 16, 2010, 2:18 amLast year we introduced Rich Snippets in Custom Search , allowing you to define your own custom attributes that we'll index and return with your custom search results. A few months later we showed you how to render some of these rich snippets in your Custom Search element . Sure, this was a powerful way to let your visitors see thumbnails or...
Google Follow Finder Leverages @anywhere for Tweeps
April 16, 2010, 2:18 amGoogle April 14 followed up its tweet archive at Twitter's first Chirp conference with Google Follow Finder, a Twitter user locator based on Twitter's new @anywhere API. This Google Labs tool lets users enter their Twitter user name or that of another Twitter user in a search box and receive suggestions of people to follow. Unlike other Google...
Brick Marketing SEO Android App Released
April 16, 2010, 2:12 amI am very excited to announce the launch of the Brick Marketing SEO Andriod App ! This new App will contain the daily SEO tips from my blog the Search Engine Optimization Journal! We launched the new Brick Marketing Andriod App as another way for Andriod users to stay connected and read my blog and learn more about SEO! Andriod Users, please...
Internal Linking is Part of Your Link Building
April 16, 2010, 2:12 amIf you are new to SEO or even a seasoned professional and you have never really dabbled with internal link building it is probably time for you start thinking about interlinking your pages and your posts to help with your long term SEO efforts. Interlinking is just as important for rankings as building external links so it is ideal that you start...
SEO Industry Trust is Very Complicated
April 16, 2010, 2:12 amThe truth about SEO and who to trust in the industry is very complicated. That is why so many people are so confused when they are ready to pull the trigger and decide where and how they need assistance. Every company has a different approach and no two pricing models are alike. How do you know where to turn to? The reality is that things have...
So Now You Care About Your Website Load Times
April 16, 2010, 2:12 amGoogle announced recently that site loading time now plays a part in their search ranking algorithm. It has also been openly said that over 200 elements are taken into consideration when determining a sites search engine ranking. In addition Google notes that site load time is going to be a very small portion of this algorithm. With all...
Net Virus Publishes Browsing History and Demands Payment For Removal
April 16, 2010, 12:45 am"A new type of malware infects PCs using file-share sites and publishes the user's net history on a public website before demanding a fee for its removal."
XP Machines Left Unpatched If System Rootkit Is Compromised
April 16, 2010, 12:16 am"Some of the latest security updates for Windows XP will not be installed on machines infected with a rootkit virus."
Nings Bubble Bursts: No More Free Networks
April 16, 2010, 12:01 am"It has just announced that it is killing off its free product,"
Google First Quarter Profits Beat Expectations
April 15, 2010, 7:25 pmInternet giant Google has reported a 37% rise in first-quarter net profit, beating analysts' expectation.
Solid Earnings Report Fails To Save Google's Stock
April 15, 2010, 2:24 pmGoogle's announced its financial results for the first quarter of 2010, and as usual, the search giant hit most of the targets analysts had established for it. Investors have not taken the news well, however, sending Google's stock down 4.51 so far percent in after-hours trading.
Let's start with the good news. Google reported net...
E-Reader Owners Avid Fans Of Magazines
April 15, 2010, 2:18 pmOwners of e-readers are avid fans of magazines when compared to U.S. adults who do not own such devices, according to a new report from Mediamark Research & Intelligence (MRI).
The majority (91%) of e-reader owners read magazines, while 84 percent of total U.S. adults are magazine readers. In addition, e-reader owners read an average of 13...
Viacom Cheers Release Of More YouTube Documents
April 15, 2010, 1:01 pmToday, another nine exhibits from the Viacom-YouTube were released, and while Google will no doubt get around to spinning the documents its own way, Viacom has already had a go. The entertainment company highlighted four rather incriminating quotes this afternoon.
Here's what may be the most damning one, attributed to a senior Google...
Multichannel Retailers Still Ignoring Mobile
April 15, 2010, 12:21 pm
I know, we’re all ready and geared up for the year that will finally be the year of the mobile. (This time, it’s for real! Maybe.) But apparently more and more consumers on the mobile Internet isn’t quite persuasive enough for retailers already pursuing multiple channels, according to research from Multichannel...
Google Introduces Driving Directions In 111 Countries
April 15, 2010, 12:10 pmPeople who are planning trips abroad may be able to move "I'm lost" a few places down the list of foreign phrases they'll want to learn. Google's taken a major step towards making that scenario less likely by introducing driving directions in 111 new countries.
The list of countries is, as you might expect, rather long:
Algeria,...
NASA Invites Twitter Users To Next Shuttle Launch
April 15, 2010, 11:56 amDuring the next space shuttle mission, NASA will host two Tweetups to give people an up close look at the space program.
For the second time, NASA Twitter followers are invited to a view a shuttle launch in person at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA is hosting the Tweetup May 13-14. Shuttle Atlantis is scheduled to launch at...
Twitter's @anywhere: It's Alive!
April 15, 2010, 11:31 amI've gotten into the habit of visiting the Twitter Blog lately. And today I read a post by Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter, that is entited, "It's Alive!" He's means @anywhere is now live. But I kept thinking of that memorable quote from the Mel Brooks' movie "Young Frankenstein."Click to read the rest of this post...
Google Excites Site Owners with New Conversion Numbers
April 15, 2010, 10:44 amGoogle has just started sharing more detailed data for each individual search query in the Top search queries feature in Webmaster Tools. Google used to just report the average position at which your site's pages appeared in the search results for a particular query. Now users can click on a given search query to see a breakdown of the...
It Doesn’t Matter Who’s Ignoring You - It's Whos Paying Attention
April 15, 2010, 10:31 amYou need to know EXACTLY what type of audience to leverage if you want your site or blog to be successful. This article provides a rock solid action plan to get you more traffic and turn them into LOYAL readers for life!
Women Becoming More Engaged With Social Media
April 15, 2010, 9:37 amNearly three-quarters (73%) of online women are now active social media users, engaging weekly or more often with popular social media platforms, according to a new study from BlogHer and iVillage.
The study found women rely heavily on both blogs and message boards when seeking advice and recommendations (Blogs: 21% of the total U.S. online...
More Transparency = More Ad Growth?
April 15, 2010, 9:36 am
Hm…. If you saw a totally hypothetical article titled “Study Finds ‘Transparency’ Impedes Display Ad Growth,” would you assume that article was about transparency . . . I don’t know, actually impeding ad growth? Maybe I’m crazy, but I think that a study that finds the lack of transparency...
Web Directory Lists: Promoting Websites or Provoking Spammers?
April 15, 2010, 9:32 amYou’ve probably seen more than a few Web directory lists floating around the Web. There are free Web directory lists, paid Web directory lists, and even regional ones. Maybe you’ve used one of these lists yourself — you found a list of Web directories on a forum or blog and you used it as a guide. You submitted your site to some or all of...
Google Webmaster Tools Now Showing Clickthrough Data
April 15, 2010, 9:30 amGoogle has taken some additional steps to make Webmaster Central even more awesome, now showing clickthrough data! I very helpful tool conveniently placed on the dashboard.
Is It Too Clever By Half to Let YouTubers Add Comments to Your Videos?
April 15, 2010, 8:49 amBack in January, I posted a story entitled, "Scott Brown beat Martha Coakley on YouTube, too." One of the lessons that campaign taught us was the importance of letting YouTubers add comments to your videosClick to read the rest of this post...
Google Services for Websites Goes to Plesk Panel
April 15, 2010, 8:36 amGoogle has announced that it's expanded its Services for Websites program in which hosting companies integrate Google services into their platforms, to include Parallels, a provider of control panel software for hosting companies. Parallels will integrate Google Services for Websites into the new version of its Plesk Panel, a platform Google says...
Google Follow Finder Lets You Find Some Sweet Tweeps
April 15, 2010, 8:08 amWow, is the Chirp Conference cranking out a high volume of news. On top of Promoted Tweets and Google Replay, there was also Google Follow Finder.Click to read the rest of this post...
MySpace Launches Global Events And Calendar Platform
April 15, 2010, 7:09 amMySpace has introduced a global events and calendar offering users new tools to create, find, share and manage events across the site and multiple social networks.
MySpace Events organizes a catalogue of pop culture events and recommends concerts, sports, nightlife and the arts, allowing users to purchase tickets to events.
"Our users...
CNN Reportedly Sues Man Who Gives Himself iReporter Credential
April 15, 2010, 7:05 amCNN is reportedly suing a man who claims to be one of its iReporters. If you're unfamiliar with iReport, it's CNN's citizen journalism site. This is a destination where regular people can submit news stories, and if CNN deems them worthy, they may pick them up for mainstream coverage. One such person has been going around giving himself titles...
How to Promote and Manage LinkedIn Group
April 15, 2010, 7:00 amA great guide to use for anyone looking to market and manage their Linkedin Group.
Google Connects Blogger, Buzz Services
April 15, 2010, 6:50 amGoogle Buzz, which still seems to be struggling to catch on with any sort of mainstream audience (or even a sizable niche one), has been given another opportunity to connect with people. Blogger users will now be able to promote their posts with the new-ish product.
Chang Kim, a Blogger product manager, explained on Blogger Buzz late...
Marketers Should Consider Extended Online Life of Campaigns
April 15, 2010, 6:45 am
While everyone is looking at the Chirp Conference to see what Twitter will do next there is more going on in the world of Internet marketing. In fact, an article in the New York Times addresses an interesting opportunity that the online space provides marketers that has not been as available in the past: extending the life of...
MySpace Introduces Ticketing & Event Service
April 15, 2010, 6:44 am
How does MySpace plan to stop the outward flow of traffic to Facebook and Twitter. Apparently, by connecting with them and an ongoing series of launches rather than a single splashy makeover. And today's announcement might have actually given artists and music marketers a reason to keep their MySpace profiles more up to date.Late on...
Twitter Accounts Cross the 105 Million Mark
April 15, 2010, 5:08 am
The quest to decipher just how many actual users there are of Twitter continues. Yesterday at the Chirp conference being held for Twitter developers, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone told the group that the number of registered users (let’s call them accounts) is 105 million. That is considerably more the 65 million that comScore...
Google Updates Q1 2010 Spam and Virus Trend Data
April 15, 2010, 5:02 am"Although spam and virus levels did fall below Q4'09 highs, reports from Google's global analytics show that spam levels held relatively steady over the course of Q1'10."
New Google Webmaster Tools Keyphrase Data is 70% Useless
April 15, 2010, 2:48 amI love data. I really do. So you’d think that the latest announcement from Google about the new organic traffic impression, ranking and CTR data would be right up my street!
Unfortunately, as with so many of the other data points in Google Webmaster Tools the data they give you is shoddy, innacurate and largely a waste of your time to...
Customer Service Is The New Social Media Marketing King
April 15, 2010, 2:30 amIt's time for any online business to look at customer service as one of the very key, strategically critical components, if not the key differentiator of any effective online marketing strategy.
Photo credit: Clipart
Why will customer service become so incredibly important for your future online business strategy? How can online customer...
Twitter Numbers and Stats Revealed: 19 Billion Searches Per Month
April 14, 2010, 11:50 pm"Twitter reveals some huge numbers on users and search."
Facebook Announces First Batch Of Fellows
April 14, 2010, 2:26 pmThe Facebook Fellowship Program has born fruit. After making an initial announcement about it three months ago, Facebook will now pay five Ph.D. students' tuition and fees, send them to conferences, and provide each of them with a $30,000 stipend.
The winners are Vinayak Borkar, Parmit Chilana, Leslie John, Mladen Kolar, and Yaron...
Google Wants to Help You Expand Your Twitter Network
April 14, 2010, 2:22 pmGoogle has launched a new Labs project called Google Follow Finder. It's designed to help you expand your Twitter network.
To use Google Follow Finder, you can enter your Twitter account name and see a list of people Google thinks you might be interested in following (our own Twellow has a helpful suggestion feature too). Google's tool will also...
Online Advertising Reached $26 Billion In ‘09
April 14, 2010, 2:22 pmThe economic meltdown hit the U.S. advertising market harder than expected, with overall revenue falling from $77 billion in 2008 to $67 billion in 2009, according to a new report from the Yankee Group.
The report "2009 Advertising Forecast Update: Less TV, More Internet," found the majority of the decline was due to TV advertising,...
Eric Schmidt Hints at Google Tablet during LA Party
April 14, 2010, 2:13 pm
According to an article in the New York Times, Google CEO Eric Schmidt recently hinted to friends at an LA party that Google is working on their own tablet running the Android operating system.
With the relatively slow adoption rate of the Google phone Nexus One, one has to wonder why Google would want to venture into producing...
Digg Dialogg with President Bill Clinton
April 14, 2010, 2:00 pmWith Earth Day fast approaching, Digg today announced its latest Digg Dialogg guest: President Bill Clinton.Click to read the rest of this post...
Should Your Hyperlocal Blog Muckrake?
April 14, 2010, 1:45 pmby Miriam Ellis
Muckraking isn't the prettiest word in the English language, but the work of its best-known proponents has led to some of America's most important political, social and legal reforms. Gritty individuals like Ida Tarbell, Ray Stannard Baker and Upton Sinclair put their reputations, even their lives, on the line to shed light on...
Twitter Donates Entire Archive of Public Tweets to Library of Congress
April 14, 2010, 1:27 pmSo, what does Twitter think of Google Replay? Over on the Twitter Blog, Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter, says, "The future seems bright for innovation on the Twitter platform and so it seems, does the past!"Click to read the rest of this post...
Google Webmaster Tools Now Shows ALL Keywords - with CTR and Position
April 14, 2010, 1:26 pmGoogle Webmaster Tools now displays all the keywords (previously it used to display only top 100 queries), with impressions and click-throughs. Impressive.
100,000 Ways to Make Twitter More Useful
April 14, 2010, 12:56 pmUpdate: Twitter announced today at its Chirp Developer Conference that it has 100,000 registered apps.
Original Article: Since its inception, one of the biggest knocks against Twitter has been that it's been hard to figure out what to use it for. As time has gone by, this has become much more clear to a great many people, but you...
Google Rolls Out Twitter Replay Feature
April 14, 2010, 12:54 pmSince Google introduced real-time search last December, the search engine has added content from MySpace, Facebook and Buzz to live updates on popular sites like Twitter and FriendFeed, as well as headlines from news and blog posts published just seconds before. Today, the Official Google Blog introduced a new feature to help you search and...
Would Google Archive the Web Like It's Doing Twitter?
April 14, 2010, 12:46 pmGoogle has launched a very interesting new search option, with its Twitter archive. What this does is let users search for a topic, and look at all available tweets about that topic in chronological order. If you want to see tweets about President Obama for example, you can do so by going to any year, month, or day and seeing what was said about...
Liberal Democrats Use Serious and Funny Videos in UK General Election
April 14, 2010, 12:12 pmThis morning, Mark Pack explained why and how the Liberal Democrats are using humor in the UK general election. The LibDems are using serious as well as funny videos in their campaign.Click to read the rest of this post...
Library Of Congress To Archive Every Public Tweet
April 14, 2010, 11:36 amThe Library of Congress said today it will digitally archive every public tweet since Twitter's launch in March 2006.
On the Library of Congress blog Matt Raymond writes, "That's a LOT of tweets, by the way: Twitter processes more than 50 million tweets every day with the total numbering in the billions."
The Library of Congress...
How Much Are Facebook Fans Worth? $3.60
April 14, 2010, 11:22 am
It’s notoriously difficult to measure the value of social media—but apparently not impossible. Social media specialist Vitrue looked at its clients’ data for Facebook to determine exactly how much a Facebook fan is worth, as AdWeek reports, and they came up with a number: $3.60.
Vitrue’s clients boast a...
Twitter Has Over 100 Million Users
April 14, 2010, 10:31 amUpdate: Well Daines was right in that Twitter has surpassed 100 million users. At the company's developer conference today, Twitter announced that it has 105,779,710 registered users, as well as that it gets about 300,000 new users a day, receives 180 million unique visitors a month, and 75% of traffic comes from outside of the Twitter website....
SEM Intermediate Series: How Campaign Budget Settings Impacts Ad Volume & Display
April 14, 2010, 10:12 amOften times, the Microsoft Advertising service teams receive feedback from advertisers that Bing converts well, however, they wish they could increase click volume to further increase success. While keyword expansions are a great way to achieve this, Microsoft adCenter offers three campaign budget options that affect how often your ad is...
Gawker: Comment Caste System = More Comments
April 14, 2010, 9:57 am
Last summer, Gawker announced a new comment system for all their sites. The change meant that comments wouldn’t be displayed solely based on ratings or timing—instead, they would be ranked according to the popularity/usefulness/awesomeness of the commenter. Particularly popular/useful/awesome commenters would even get...
Blogging for Bucks: 8 Tips to Earn Pay for Your Say
April 14, 2010, 9:54 amUnless you've been living up under a rock lately, you've heard of the Internet phenomenon known as blogging. What many people don't know is that blogging is no longer just a recreational pursuit for folks to vent their repressed feelings, showcase their creative work, or promote a personal agenda. It's been elevated to an art form and an avenue...
More love for our multilingual Toolbar users
April 14, 2010, 9:43 am(Cross-posted from the Google Translate Blog ) Last July we enabled automatic page translations in Google Toolbar and we've been thrilled by the positive response. Today, we're taking another step to make automatic translation easier. Now, if Google Toolbar's default language is set to one of our supported languages , you can use our new Word...
10 FireFox Addons to Help Affiliate Marketers
April 14, 2010, 9:31 amIf you are into affiliate marketer and using FireFox, you'll definitely find those addons helpful!
Online Yellow Pages Driving Purchases
April 14, 2010, 9:25 amThe majority of consumers who use print and online Yellow Pages sites for local business information are "ready to buy" according to a new study released by the Yellow Pages Association and conducted by marketing research firm Burke.
Approximately 8 out of 10 Internet Yellow Pages searchers were from people who said they were ready to...
Digg Dialogg: Earth Day Edition with President Bill Clinton
April 14, 2010, 9:14 amHey everyone â" We're excited and honored to announce that our next Digg Dialogg guest will be President Bill Clinton. We'll be talking with him during a special Earth Day Dialogg, where President Clinton will be answering your questions on the environment, Earth Day, and climate change. You have from now through tomorrow,
Collecta Offers Up Real-Time Stream API
April 14, 2010, 9:09 amReal-time search provider Collecta has released a new API program. "Starting today, developers can plug into Collecta's network for free," a representative for the company tells WebProNews. "In light of the recent Tweetie acquisition, we believe that taking advantage of Collecta's Twitter-compatible, 15+M source real-time network...
Multilingual SEO - Link Building, Duplicate Content and Geo-Selection
April 14, 2010, 9:09 amInternational link Building, duplicate content in multiple languages and geo-selection are just some of the topics discussed by WebCertain's Andy Atkins-Krüger, when he spoke to SearchEngineWatch at SES London in February. Andy's key points from the interview are summarised below - or you can watch the video in full. Link Building - Local links...
Google Improves its Twitter 'Updates' Search Feature
April 14, 2010, 8:51 amShort update! Google is a monster when it comes to searching. One thing that attributes to their all encompassing search features is that they are insistant on working with real-time search results and updates. It was announced recently that along with the ability to search updates for Twitter results, you'll now also be able to search back in...
Google Now Lets You Replay Popular Tweets
April 14, 2010, 8:51 amWant to go back in time and read those famous tweets that were indexed by Google? Well, actually Google did not just index those tweets, it has in fact archived them and are now giving you the chance to read those tweets again via Google search. So, starting today, you can now zoom in to any point in time and replay what people have posted on...
Smartphone Adoption Shifting Dynamics of U.S. Mobile Gaming Market
April 14, 2010, 8:39 amcomScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released the results of a study on mobile gaming highlighting the potential for growth in the mobile gaming market despite a 13-percent decline in the number of U.S. mobile gamers during the past year. This overall decline was driven by a 35 percent decline in mobile...
Google Creates What Twitter Search Should Be
April 14, 2010, 8:05 amGoogle has launched a new search option that allows users to look at an archive of tweets on any given topic in a timeline format. Users can essentially "replay" the public Twitter conversation in th order in which it each piece occurred.
To utilize the feature, users can go to "show options" on a search results page, and...
Google Search Offers Twitter ‘Replay’
April 14, 2010, 8:02 am
Google is truly acting like the search engine it is by offering a new opportunity for searching archived tweets to see what was being said at a set time in the past. One of the shortcomings of Twitter search has been the relatively short shelf life of a tweet to be searched. Twitter is not a search engine and doesn’t have the...
Universal Search for Digital Asset Managers
April 14, 2010, 8:02 amTerry van Horne analyses the universal search query space and explains when you should and shouldn't use alternative content such as video and images to dominate the SERPs.
New AdWords Features Explained
April 14, 2010, 7:48 amHere is a look at some of my new favorite features in Google AdWords. I'll review IP Exclusion, Traffic Estimator Beta, and Search Funnels. IP Exclusion We all hate it when a client, boss, or executive calls asking why the ads are not showing. How much more annoying is it when you find you account executives or other company staff clicking on your...
Bing's New Twitter Results Won't Include Promoted Tweets
April 14, 2010, 7:45 amUpdate: A representative for Bing tells WebPronews the "Twitter monetization news will not result in sponsored results appearing in Bing results."
Original Article: Microsoft announced today that Bing now pulls in tweets from Twitter in real-time, in a way that somewhat resembles Google's real-time search feature.
Twitter...
Maile Ohye of Google will be Kenote Speaker at SES Toronto 2010
April 14, 2010, 7:40 amMaile Ohye, a Senior Developer Programs Engineer at Google, will be one of the keynote speakers at SES Toronto 2010.Click to read the rest of this post...
Replay it: Google search across the Twitter archive
April 14, 2010, 7:37 amSince we first introduced real-time search last December, we've added content from MySpace , Facebook and Buzz , expanded to 40 languages and added a top links feature to help you find the most relevant content shared on updates services like Twitter. Today, we're introducing a new feature to help you search and explore the public archive of...
The Bing Student Earth Day Photo Contest Finalists
April 14, 2010, 7:37 amWere happy to announce the 12 finalists in our student Earth Day Photo Contest. Voting is officially open! We were really impressed with the almost 17,000 photos that were submitted across the four age groups. Narrowing it down to the top 3 from each age group was quite a challenge, but we think youll like what you see. You can view and vote on...
More Relevant Results: Google or Bing?
April 14, 2010, 7:29 amRemember when Bing launched its recipe results? Now Google has launched a similar feature with recipe rich snippets. "For example, if you were searching for an easy to make thai mango salad, you can now see user ratings, preparation time, and a picture of the dish directly in search result snippets," explains Google. It may not be...
Google Sides With Yahoo In Email Privacy Dispute
April 14, 2010, 7:23 amQuite often, a Yahoo loss works out to be a Google win, and it would come as no surprise to see the second company make the first fight its own legal battles. But Google - along with several other organizations - is attempting to help Yahoo, now, as the Department of Justice is pressing for access to certain Yahoo Mail messages. Late last year,...
Coke Launches Facebook Campaign Focused On Earth Month
April 14, 2010, 7:23 amCoca-Cola has launched a new Facebook campaign to raise awareness of Earth Month and help support Ocean Conservancy, the oldest and largest marine conservation organization in the U.S. Through a new Facebook application, users will be able to choose from one of four underwater settings and place a photo of themselves into the setting of their...
Wordpress Plugins to Interlink Your Blog Content Efficiently
April 14, 2010, 7:23 amA couple of weeks ago I shared a handy Wordpress plugin that helps to smartly interlink your blog content (best to naturally link to your categories and tags). The post was very well-received, so today I am following up with the overview of all Wordpress plugins that help to (automatically) interlink your blog posts, pages and categories .
Leaving for the Festival of Media 2010 in Valencia
April 14, 2010, 7:12 amThe Microsoft Advertising team are packing their carry-ons and heading over to Valencia for the Festival of Media at the weekend. The event in Spain next week, sets out to showcase the very best in creative media thinking, and is an exploration of emerging media opportunities. Comprising of a 2-day conference and some competitive awards (were up...
Sharing and Mobile Provide Greatest Challenges for Google Engineers
April 14, 2010, 6:57 am
Everything about the Internet is about sharing. Not necessarily sharing in the singing “Kumbaya” around the campfire sense although some social media wants this result. It’s more about simple information sharing. Knowledge transfer. Schedule updates. Not the sexy stuff but actually the basic and most critical...
5 Dumb Design Mistakes That Crush Copy (And How to Fix Them)
April 14, 2010, 6:54 amContent is king, but if the king looks like a toad, no one will know he's royalty. On the one hand, your blog theme might be drop-dead gorgeous. But if your writing isn't compelling, readers won't stick around to read it. Even worse, your writing might be fantastic . . . but if your design doesn't stop web surfers long enough to read the first few...
Content and Usability
April 14, 2010, 6:43 amIt's not always an obvious connection, but the content on your website affects its usability. How? The easiest way to think about it is by putting yourself directly in the user's seat. Think about it. You go to a website that provides search engine optimization services. Although you might decide to hire the person or company behind the...
Is Social Media Becoming Boring?
April 14, 2010, 6:26 amFor most, social media is new and fun. For others, though, social media is old and is falling out of favor. I'm seeing it happen of users who were happy about social media when it became hyped but are now realizing that they're not yet ready to hold onto social media any longer. It's boring, too challenging, and uninteresting. Catering to...
Creating Urgency in Your Sales Copy
April 14, 2010, 5:16 amHumans are apathetic creatures by nature. We don't bother to take action unless we're threatened. Back when we were wearing pelts and living in caves, a "threat" was a life or death situation â" but our evolutionary roots are still there today. Except instead of saving our young children from a saber-tooth tiger, we're fending off sales...
Google Buzz Button Comes For Publishers
April 14, 2010, 5:04 amUsed to be we clicked buttons to share to del.icio.us and Digg. Then we shared with Facebook and retweeted with special Twitter buttons such as TweetMeme, which is still my favorite. Google April 13 added a Google Buzz button, proving that it has gotten serious about letting publishers share Buzz users' links to interesting news items and blog...
Social Media Higher Learning; Part II
April 14, 2010, 5:02 amPatents, Papers and Lectures - is the second part of my journey into the geekier side of social media. This time there are patents from FaceBook, Twitter research and a ton of great video lectures for those wanting to get past the every-day of social media studies - Enjoy
iPad Launch To International Markets Delayed Due To Strong US Demand
April 14, 2010, 4:10 am"Faced with this surprisingly strong US demand, we have made the difficult decision to postpone the international launch of iPad by one month, until the end of May."
Google Adds Twitter Archive Search
April 14, 2010, 3:59 am"Starting today, you can zoom to any point in time and 'replay' what people were saying publicly about a topic on Twitter."
Max Kalehoff on Social Media Advertising, Blogging & the Future of Paid Search
April 14, 2010, 3:43 amOne of the most insightful voices in the online marketing industry when it comes to advertising is Max Kalehoff of Clickable . I was introduced to Max at a Search Insider Summit conference several years ago with very high regard by David Berkowitz , another intelligent voice in the industry, so I knew immediately he was someone to pay attention...
Cooking Up Great SEO: An Analogy in Photos
April 14, 2010, 12:58 amPosted by randfish I've long opined to friends and co-workers that two of my personal passions, cooking & SEO, are deeply related in some mystical, cosmic way. Cooking is familiar to everyone. There's a process for each recipe, a uniqueness to each dish and both an art and a science to coaxing perfection out of raw ingredients to make them better...
Where Is The Future Of Search Going?
April 13, 2010, 10:14 pmAll the search engines have been scrambling around quite a bit over the last year to position themselves as the number one source, everything from Microsoft's very expensive push with Bing to Google just scrambling around clawing to make the next big thing. But where is all this scrambling really heading?
Optimize Your Page Load Time - 6 Tools
April 13, 2010, 9:53 pmby Manoj Jasra
The Google Webmaster blog has officially stated that page load time is now a factor in Google's ranking algorithm. Even though they state that page load time only affects less than 1% of queries, this is still 1% of 100+ billion searches a month. Below are a few tools to help you test your site's page load time more...
Google's Chief Java Architect Criticizes Direction Java Has Been Taking
April 13, 2010, 8:26 pmPC World reports that Google's Joshua Bloch at a conference said the Java platform has "appeared rudderless for the last few years". A malaise has fallen over the community "and the end is not in sight," with "Technical and licensing disputes over the last few years" having been highly detrimental. "They've sapped the energy of the community and...
Google to Open Source VP8 Video Codec?
April 13, 2010, 8:26 pmRyan Lawler at NewTeeVee.com gives a background on the politics and fights behind video codecs . He says "Google will soon make its VP8 video codec open source, we've learned from multiple sources ... Google has controlled the VP8 codec ever since it finalized the acquisition of video codec maker On2 Technologies in February. ... The move comes as...
Paid Links: Are They Really So Risky?
April 13, 2010, 7:26 pm"I'm seriously starting to question how big the risk is. More to the point, I'm starting to think that the risk is minimal."
Start Planning for adCenter API v7 upgrade: Sneak Preview Webcast April 29th
April 13, 2010, 5:29 pmThe adCenter API v7 upgrade is coming later this spring and we want to make sure you have the information that you need to plan ahead and update your API code to take advantage of some valuable updates. The release date is not official yet and well announce it here on the blog as soon as it is set. Meanwhile, we can give you an idea of some...
Click Web Analytics Interview
April 13, 2010, 5:17 pmThe field of web analytics is filled with free options, self hosted options, open-source products, expensive options, and affordable paid solutions. If you are looking for an affordable, feature-rich, and easy to use web analytics package you may want to check out Clicky . Clicky is real time as well, which is a feature even some of the more...
Importance of being SEO earnest
April 13, 2010, 4:30 pmby Garry Przyklenk
Be sure and visit our small business news site.
Celebrity Snark Fest: It's On
April 13, 2010, 3:57 pmby Claudine Zap A quick-draw Twitter finger. Speaking out on behalf of that underdog, James Cameron . Oprah Winfrey 's secret past. Celebrity snipe is breaking out all over. Here, your Buzz roundup of the latest star-studded spats. Put a sock in it, Jim Carrey Does Carrey need a Twitter intervention? The guy first decides to announce the end of...
Chace Crawford Is Out of 'Footloose'
April 13, 2010, 3:00 pmby Mike Krumboltz When one thinks of cheesy-in-a-good-way '80s teen movies, " Footloose " usually comes to mind. The 1984 film, which starred a young Kevin Bacon as the new kid in a small town where dancing has been banned, is being remade for the new generation of moviegoers. There's just one problem â" the lead actor is out. Chace Crawford...
eBay Rolls Out Icons To Address Ad/Privacy Issues
April 13, 2010, 2:54 pmPeople who get spooked when online advertisements seem relevant - along with people who prefer it when ads actually relate to their interests - may appreciate a new step eBay's taking. The auction company will attach icons to a number of ads, and these icons will allow individuals to express their wishes. You can see the icon to the right, and...
Google Brings Google Mobile App to Your iPad
April 13, 2010, 2:54 pmIt pains me to cover anything iPad-related news right now as I'm having a rough experience with our local FedEx Broke which has been "detaining" my iPad for a couple of days now. But in the spirit of reporting, I have to forget about this issue and cover this Google-iPad related news. So, here we go, Google just announced that its Google...
Use Search to Improve Display Campaigns
April 13, 2010, 2:49 pmDiscover your audience with Yahoo's Ad Delivery Report and enhanced reporting You may already know that Yahoo!'s Ad Delivery Report i s a great way for you to track and impr0ve the effectiveness of your search campaigns. But did you know that the data can also be used to help your display campaigns perform better? For more, click on over to the...
Tagged.com Hit With $650,000 Fine
April 13, 2010, 2:35 pmSan Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris has announced, social network Tagged, has agreed to pay a fine of $650,000 for sending millions of deceptive emails in a 2009 campaign to boost its membership. "Whether you're doing business on Main Street or in cyber space, you can't deceive the customer," said District Attorney Harris. According to...
Google Releases Official Buzz Share Buttons
April 13, 2010, 2:34 pmGoogle's next order of battle for Google Buzz - Share Buttons. If you've felt envious of sites such as TechCrunch and Mashable which were quick enough to come up with their customized Google Buzz Share Buttons, Google will now let you do the same without having to hack through some codes and all. And it's also the official Google Buzz Share Button.
Linkscape Update, New Stats and an API Dashboard
April 13, 2010, 2:27 pmPosted by Nick Gerner The good news is, we have an index update for you! And it's a couple of days sooner than previously announced. The bad news is, things were, as you might have noticed, a little rocky this morning. We had more traffic to the API than ever before, and, through the magic of being a scrappy startup, we all jumped into action. ...
Journalism Dosn't Need Saving, Maybe Delivery Just Needs Tweaking
April 13, 2010, 1:26 pmThe state of the news industry continues to be brought up on a frequent basis. Is journalism dying? Should publications put up paywalls? Should they block search engines and news aggregators. These are all questions that continue to be brought up repeatedly.
This week, Google CEO Eric Schmidt addressed the American Society of News Editors. This...
The British Are Back: A Revolutionary War Shipwreck Re-emerges
April 13, 2010, 1:24 pmby Vera H-C Chan Shiver me timbers, the warship HMS Somerset III is back. The last time the British man-of-war sailed the seas was during the Revolutionary War . The ship showed up off the Massachusetts coast to rescue British soldiers after the battles at Lexington and Concord and provide support during the Battle of Bunker Hill . A tangle with...
Don't know where to start with CRO? Look for the bright spots
April 13, 2010, 1:12 pmConversion rate optimization promises huge potential for your website, but often the project seems so large that you don’t know where to start. Your site has 5 different conversion types, 8 different forms, IT never does anything on time, your graphic designer doesn’t listen to your suggestions because it “cramps his/her creativity,”...
Google Takes Second Crack At Mobile App For iPad
April 13, 2010, 1:09 pmThe day before the iPad went on sale, Google showed its support for the device by announcing five different ways in which it would accommodate iPad users. Now, the search giant's sort of unveiled a sixth: what it's calling an iPad-friendly version of the Google Mobile App.
As you might expect, this doesn't represent a significant departure...
Yahoo Lets Developers Drink from the Update Firehose
April 13, 2010, 12:37 pm
Yahoo is adding a whole new layer to real time. Yesterday, they announced the Updates Firehose for developers, “a web service for accessing and searching the full, real-time index of Yahoo! Updates.” And that includes all Yahoo properties—from Flickr to Delicious to comments on news stories. All public...
TOPSEO's - An Independent Authority?
April 13, 2010, 12:16 pmMy original intent for this whole test was to see how TOPSEO’s would go about contacting TKG. Would they send the company an email through our sales email address? Would they try to call us? Would I get a response to my personal email address? I was a little surprised with what happened next... I received an email from a local web marketing...
UK Labour Party Unveils "The Road Ahead" and Animated Manifesto Films
April 13, 2010, 12:06 pmIn the past two days, the UK Labour Party has uploaded several videos to its YouTube channel that are a departure from what we've seen to date. One is "The Road Ahead," which is featured on the homepage of its website. The other is the Labour Party's 2010 animated manifesto films.Click to read the rest of this post...
Facebook Redesigns Its Safety Center
April 13, 2010, 12:04 pmFacebook said today it has introduced a new redesigned Safety Center with new resources aimed at informing parents, educators, teens and members of law enforcement about tools for staying safe on the popular social network. The new Safety Center now has four times the number of pages focused on safety topics than was previously available. Facebook...
Display advertising: towards creativity without limits
April 13, 2010, 11:58 amThis is the second post in our series on the future of display advertising. Today, Neal Mohan looks at how new technology can power creativity in the years ahead - Ed. Imagine you own a popular coffee chain in Denver that you want to promote. On Monday afternoon, it's warm and 80 degrees in the city. You run a display ad campaign online that...
Google CEO Bashes Bloggers in D.C., Admits Enemies at Atmosphere
April 13, 2010, 11:46 amGoogle CEO Eric Schmidt has been a busy man on the meet and greet circuit, first chatting up old line media at in Washington, D.C. before crossing the country to appear at Google's Atmosphere 2010 cloud computing event for CIOs in Mountain View, Calif. Schmidt addressed the American Society of News Editors April 11 in D.C., telling them: There is...
Google Does Some Overdue Buzz Branding with New Buttons
April 13, 2010, 11:24 amGoogle has introduced some new Buzz buttons for content providers to use. There are buttons to allow users to share content through Buzz without leaving the site they're on, and buttons that easily allow a reader to follow a publication on Buzz. So far, sites have had to make their own buttons, which have been tied to Google Reader, but now anyone...
Confessions of a Black Hat SEO: There is a limit to what I will do!
April 13, 2010, 11:17 amI have wanted to write this article for a while. Now I got around to it. I hope it makes sense to you all and I really hope other (ex or current) Black Hats will unite in setting a clear line between Black Hat stuff (bending the rules in creative ways) and outright criminal activities, hacking and destruction.
Conan's Plan, "Ferris Bueller" Car, Kitty Kelley's Book: What's the Buzz
April 13, 2010, 11:12 amby Claudine Zap Our top picks from the day's hottest searches. Conan O'Brien (Searches increased by +1,692%). The talk show host who left "The Tonight Show" will now be on basic cable. Said the comedian, "The plan is working perfectly." "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" (+1,256%). The replica Ferrari that appeared in the 80's flick is up for auction....
Google And Hulu Top Video Properties In February
April 13, 2010, 9:58 amU.S. Internet users watched 28.1 billion videos in February, with Google sites leading the way as the top video property wit 11.9 billion videos, accounting for 42.5 percent of all videos viewed online, according to the latest report from comScore. YouTube accounted for more than 99 percent of all videos viewed at the property. Hulu ranked second...
Twitter Unveils Promoted Tweets
April 13, 2010, 9:55 amBiz Stone, Co-founder of Twitter, today unveiled "a simple service we're calling Promoted Tweets." Promoted Tweets are ordinary Tweets that businesses and organizations want to highlight to a wider group of users.Click to read the rest of this post...
Interview With Anita Campbell in ~ 1 Hour :)
April 13, 2010, 9:35 amHi Everyone Anita Campbell will be interviewing me on her Small Business Radio program in ~ 1 hour & 15 minutes, at 1:30 PM Eastern.
More Than 174 Million U.S. Internet Users Watched 28.1 Billion Videos Online in February
April 13, 2010, 9:33 amcomScore Video Metrix today announced that more than 174 million U.S. Internet users watched 28.1 billion videos online in February 2010.Click to read the rest of this post...
Google “Paranoid” About Security (So You Can Trust Them!)
April 13, 2010, 9:20 am
I don’t know if you heard about this, but apparently late last year there was this small, no-big-deal cyber attack. You probably missed it when Google reported it in January, and started talking about leaving China for the next two months. And it was almost a non-story when they finally did shutter Google.cn. But now that...
Intel Makes Android-Atom Pairing Possible
April 13, 2010, 9:17 amSmartphones based on Intel's Atom processor - which is the company's smallest and least power-hungry chip - will now be able to run Android. An Intel official announced the step forward this morning, and hinted that some new devices will be developed as a result of this move, too. Here's the good news for Google: Dan Nystedt and Owen Fletcher...
Twitter's Monetization Model: On the Mark, or Off-Target?
April 13, 2010, 9:00 amAs Twitter moves to pilot its first experiments in monetization , it might be interesting to speculate on its prospects for success. To help, I'll go through some of the elements of success and failure that have been proven in the last twelve years or so of online advertising experimentation. Without all of these elements being in place,...
Bing Just Now Starting Real-Time Search (Twitter) Integration
April 13, 2010, 8:36 amMicrosoft announced today that Bing now pulls in tweets from Twitter in real-time, in a way that somewhat resembles Google's real-time search feature. Twitter and Bing integration is not exactly new. Last summer, Bing began including tweets from certain people in some searches, though it was anything but real-time. Later in the fall, Bing...
Twitter Promoted Tweets - Advertising With or Without Them
April 13, 2010, 8:00 amTwitter has finally unveiled its business model in the form of "Promoted Tweets". The company refers to this as a "non-traditional" and "easy" strategy that "makes a ton of sense for Twitter." Promoted Tweets are described as ordinary tweets that businesses and organizations want to highlight to a ...
Fionn Downhill of Elixir Interactive on Selling Search to the C-Suite at SES NY 2010
April 13, 2010, 7:47 amOne of the popular sessions at SES New York 2010 was entitled, "Selling Search to the C-Suite." It was moderated by Anne F. Kennedy, a member of the SES Advisory Board, the Founder & MP of Beyond Ink, and the FP & CMO of Joblr.net. Following the session, Kennedy interviewed one of the speakers, Fionn Downhill, the CEO and President of Elixir...
comScore Releases February 2010 U.S. Online Video Rankings
April 13, 2010, 7:45 amcomScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released February 2010 data from the comScore Video Metrix service showing that more than 174 million U.S. Internet users watched online video during the month. Video viewers at Hulu watched a record amount of video per person during the month at 2.4 hours per viewer.
Get the Latest on Twitter with Bing Social Search
April 13, 2010, 7:39 amHave you ever searched for information on something that is happening right now , only to find out that theres nothing matching what youre looking for? News on an earthquake that just happened or information on a hot new product announcement may not show up until hours after the event actually occurred. One of the cool features that we have...
It's official: Google uses page speed as a ranking factor
April 13, 2010, 7:36 amGoogle has confirmed that they use page speed as a ranking factor. Will your website drop in Google's search results? What can you do you keep your website listed?
Weekly Search & Social News: 04/13/2010
April 13, 2010, 7:33 amWelcome to another edition of ' 7 Days of Search and Social ' - I hope it finds you well. It was a somewhat quite week on the blog goodiness last week, but there were a TON of patents from the big three'which makes this geek all giddy. The main story, for what it's worth, was Google announcing the load speed signal. On a personal level, being a...
5 Warning Signs You Might be a Blogcrastinator
April 13, 2010, 7:22 amblogcrastination (blOg- kras - tuh -ney-sh uh n) " the deferment of writing a blog post to a later time; often a mechanism for coping with anxiety. If you've been a blogger for long, you know how ugly blogcrastination can be. It disrupts your goals, stifles your spirit, and makes you second guess your decisions. It can take you from writing a post...
Facebook App On GetJar Surpasses 50 Million Downloads
April 13, 2010, 7:10 amThe world's second largest app store behind Apple iTunes, GetJar, said today that more than 50 million people have downloaded the Facebook mobile app in the past six months. With GetJar's App Download Page (ADP) and Mobile Site Shortcut (MSS) users are able to download the app, which gives them a shortcut to access Facebook's mobile website from...
Google's Schmidt Endorses "Mobile First" Approach
April 13, 2010, 7:10 amGoogle's CEO is no doubt interested in search and advertising. He's recently talked about journalism and copyright law, too, along with a number of other topics. But mobile is the subject Eric Schmidt claimed to most interested in last night, and he's getting Google to focus on it, as well. Somewhat ironically, Schmidt stressed the importance of...
When (Not) To Use Target="_Blank" Link Attribute
April 13, 2010, 7:10 amMore and more sites are using target="_blank" for links to make sure they will open the link in a new window and keep the visitor on the site. I confess, I am using them myself because I assume the visitors are using FireFox browser that opens those links in a new window. But is it really a wise thing to do?
Twitter adds ads. Don't panic - clutter is not about to follow.
April 13, 2010, 6:53 amby Josh Bernoff The New York Times and Advertising Age report that Twitter will be adding advertising tweets to searches. First, to all the Twitter lovers out there: this is the first sign of the apocalypse. Of all the places Twitter could includes ads, this is the least obtrusive and the most relevant. People will not desert Twitter for this....
Track Your Page Change with SEJ Tools "Event Manager"
April 13, 2010, 6:47 amOne of the cool features inside SEJ tools is Event manager that lets you track your site changes and the subsequent effect more efficiently. The Event Manager is available by hovering your mouse over the Dashboard tab and clicking on Event Manager . To create a new event, click "Add event" and provide the following information: Your event title;...
How Texting and Driving Could Destroy Your Business [With Legal Analysis]
April 13, 2010, 6:47 amDid the title of my post get your attention? Believe me, I wish texting and driving couldn't destroy your business, but it unfortunately has the potential to. In this month's post, I'm taking a break from writing about technical SEO, Paid Search, Social Media Marketing, etc. to talk about something that can make even your worst search-related...
Paid Search Grows 11%; Bing Up 21.6%!
April 13, 2010, 6:32 am
Not since Rocky came back to beat Ivan Drago in Rocky IV have we seen a comeback akin to the one being made by paid search.
According to SearchIgnite, U.S. paid search spend increased a whopping 11% in Q1 of 2010 from Q1 of 2009–”whopping” by recessionary standards! In addition, we can actually celebrate a flat...
Why I Agree With Google’s CEO About the Value of Newspaper Editors
April 13, 2010, 6:02 am
“Google’s Schmidt to Bloggers: Drop Dead!”
Well shoot!
What am I supposed to say about Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s comments, now that RWW had already taken the “bloggers can drop dead” angle? How am I supposed to keep Pilgrims entertained, if the sensational has already be discussed?
How about I...
MerchantCircle, Demand Media Provide New Local Search Opportunities
April 13, 2010, 6:00 amMerchantCircle, a social network for local businesses, which boasts over a million businesses, announced an expanded partnership with Demand Media. I spoke with Darren Waddell, VP of marketing for MerchantCircle and Sean Pate, the company's Director of PR about this and some other news.
MerchantCircle has had a pre-existing partnership with...
Gaining Marketing Insights From Reality Television
April 13, 2010, 5:30 amI used to dream of a good marketing TV show. Not one that makes the world of marketing into a scripted drama, like Mad Men. Or one that pretends to be about business but actually ends up being about relationships and emotional conflict like The Apprentice quickly became. The Shark Tank on ABC comes close, as up-and-coming entrepreneurs try to sell...
Twitter Ads Finally Set To Make Public Debut
April 13, 2010, 4:56 am
It has been a long awaited and long talked about prospect but it looks like Twitter is finally letting us all know at least one way that they plan to make money. To literally no one’s surprise it will be through ads that Twitter calls “Promoted Tweets”.
The New York Times reports
Twitter will unveil on Tuesday a...
Comment Management Tools You Should Know
April 13, 2010, 4:52 amWhat is Comment Management? Virtually all blog software offers commenting functionality, so why would you need a 3rd party comment management service? Many of the comments and "reactions" to content posted on a blog never make it to the blog itself - the source of the conversation. Comment Management tools provide all the expected features and...
Are You Optimizing for Search Engines or for Customers?
April 13, 2010, 4:49 amby Mike Moran
Image by Danard Vincente via Flickr
The very name "Search Engine Optimization" would seem to answer the question of who marketers are optimizing their site for. All the great advice you get about getting your pages indexed and finding which keywords are used in the search engines and optimizing your content to be found by the...
Educating Older Adults on Broadband's Benefits
April 13, 2010, 4:06 amDebra Berlyn has nearly 20 years of consumer advocacy experience and is a leader on online safety issues. We've asked her to share her thoughts about helping older individuals embrace Facebook and other Internet services. Today, she is launching Project GOAL (the Project to Get Older Adults onLine). Mississippi Winn has a Facebook profile with 55...
Cuil Relaunches as An Automated Encylopedia: Cpedia
April 13, 2010, 12:09 am"Find 384,165,027 automated articles"
Twitter Launches "Promoted Tweets"
April 12, 2010, 11:59 pm"You will start to see Tweets promoted by our partner advertisers called out at the top of some Twitter.com search results pages."
Suddenly Twitter Has a Business Model, Tweet Ads
April 12, 2010, 10:47 pmTwitter is about to unveil something that it hopes will finally answer the grandstanding question of whether Twitter can actually make money, and if yes - how? The new Twitter business model will rely on " promoted tweets ," which will put ads on Twitter's search results and user feeds on Twitter.com as well as third-party Twitter clients later....
Social SEO Assistance for The New Decade
April 12, 2010, 10:24 pmOkay, maybe these social SEO tips won't apply a year from now, but I had to come up with a catchy title for this post Businesses large and small still struggle to find the connection on how to properly pull together SEO efforts and social media so they work well together to help grow a business online.
Improving Site Speed – Talk About The Business Benefit
April 12, 2010, 10:14 pmFor many months now, webmasters have been responding to signals from Google that page speed would soon become a ranking factor. Very recently, Google confirmed that for a limited set of queries, Google.com (US) results are influenced by page load times (around 1% of queries). Although you shouldn’t panic about this announcement, it may be wise...
8 Secrets of Success Within SEO
April 12, 2010, 9:56 pmPosted by chenry How does a person become successfully in the world of SEO? I wish I could tell you all the secrets but if I knew them, I would be sitting on a beach in Tahiti, sipping mai tais, instead of writing this post. About a year ago I ran across a video of Richard St. John giving a quick 3 minute presentation at TED about the 8 secrets of...
Google Takes “Mobile First” Attitude Toward Product Development
April 12, 2010, 9:35 pm
We have been reporting over the past few months about Google’s aggressive push into the mobile space. It’s not like it’s a secret. Sometimes it’s so “in your face” that you wonder if the whole search engine thing is just keeping Google busy until they take over the mobile world that the future is shaping up to...
Is Escrow A Necessity, Or Is Your Word and a "Hand Shake Deal" Enough?
April 12, 2010, 7:39 pm"I've sent money all around the world, never relying on escrow, because I firmly believe that there are MANY people who value their reputation far more than they value a few thousand or tens of thousands of dollars."
Eric Schmidt discusses innovation with news editors
April 12, 2010, 7:10 pmPosted by Chris Gaither, Senior Manager, Global Communications & Public Affairs This week, hundreds of newsroom leaders from across the country are gathered in Washington DC for the American Society of News Editors' annual conference. The theme of this year's event is "ideas," and Eric Schmidt shared many of his as the opening speaker. He spoke...
Making content creation easy with the Google AJAX APIs - Guest post
April 12, 2010, 5:56 pmWe started nextstop.com with the idea that we could make it significantly easier and more fun to discover new and interesting things to do anywhere in the world, based on recommendations from people who know a place well. Whether it was a neat museum, a hidden local restaurant, or a great place to go shopping we wanted to make it super easy and...
The Search for Tax Extensions
April 12, 2010, 5:33 pmby Claudine Zap Tax day is just around the corner. Procrastinators (you know who you are) are heading to the Web for help putting off the inevitable. Not surprisingly, " tax extension " has become a very popular term in the last week, taxing the Search box with a 3,300% increase. Other deadline-induced lookups include " file for a tax extension ,"...
Americans Conducted 15.4 Billion Core Searches in March 2010
April 12, 2010, 4:53 pmAccording to comScore qSearch, Americans conducted 15.4 billion "core searches" in March 2010, with Google accounting for 65.1 percent search market share.Click to read the rest of this post...
'Facebook Fairytales': Desperately Seeking Sister
April 12, 2010, 4:08 pmThe following is the first in a series of excerpts we're publishing from the new book "Facebook Fairytales: Modern-Day Miracles to Inspire the Human Spirit." This chapter tells the story of sisters reuniting through Facebook after decades apart. It was 1961, in the small town of Dunkirk, New York, on the shores of Lake Erie, when Linda and Buddy...
After a Presidential Tragedy, Questions for Poland
April 12, 2010, 3:39 pmby Vera H-C Chan Poland's loss seems incomprehensible. On Saturday, a plane carrying the country's top leaders and historic figures, including President Lech Kaczynski , crashed in Smolensk, Russia , en route to the Katyn massacre 's 70th anniversary memorial service. All 96 onboard perished, most high-ranking officials and "icons" of Polish...
Google Rolls Out New Docs Features
April 12, 2010, 3:22 pmGoogle is gradually rolling out some enhancements of its online collaboration tool - Google Docs - specifically docs, spreadsheets and a new stand-alone drawings tool. Google has rebuild the Docs infrastructure to give the online tools more flexibility, improved performance and better platform for them to develop new features in the future. The...
Google CEO Hopes That Apple's iAd Will Help Google with AdMob Deal
April 12, 2010, 2:47 pmWell it looks like this is the first time that Google was glad that a would-be rival launched its product. According to Reuters , Google CEO Eric Schmidt is hoping that Apple's mobile ad platform, iAd which was announced last would boosts Google's argument into convincing government regulators to approve its acquisition of AdMob. U.S.
Ouch! Google CEO Eric Schmidt Insults Bloggers
April 12, 2010, 2:47 pmSpeaking at a newspaper conference, Google CEO Eric Schmidt might have spilled something which he should have kept to himself. Or should we give him the benefit of the doubt and just think that he did not mean what he said and was just trying to please the newspaper crowd? Well according to reports , Mr. Schmidt made a rather insulting statement...
Paid Internet Search Inventor Applies the Same Model to Twitter
April 12, 2010, 2:25 pmFrom the Idealab, the same guys who invented the paid internet search model comes a new startup called Tweetup . TweetUp hopes to make Twitter more relevant for everyone and finally put a stop to the notion that Twitter is all about noise. It's the fastest and easiest way to find the best tweets and tweeters as well as a reliable way of finding...
Google, Microsoft, Amazon Protest Data Center Standard
April 12, 2010, 2:21 pmSome of the world's top tech companies are concerned that their ability to build cost-effective and energy-efficient data centers may be compromised. Representatives from Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and several other outfits have signed a letter protesting a standard established by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and...
Google Looks at New Frontiers in Display Advertising Measurement
April 12, 2010, 2:13 pmAri Paparo, Google Director of Product Management, today looked at how better data will help marketers plan and measure their display campaigns in the future. His post appeared on the Official Google Blog . Click to read the rest of this post.
Google Made its First UK Acquisition, Plink Mobile Visual Search
April 12, 2010, 2:07 pmFor the longest time that Google has been into acquisition of startups, interestingly this is the first time that it acquires a UK-based startup. Google just bought mobile visual search startup - Plink . The acquisition is of course part of Google's aim of acquiring at least one company monthly. Plink, a mobile visual search engine was founded by...
Meet Gal Gadot
April 12, 2010, 2:07 pmby Mike Krumboltz " Date Night " stars Steve Carrel and Tina Fey , two well-known titans of comedy. But following the flick's opening weekend, another actor emerged as a star in the Search box. Gal Gadot , who plays the sexy companion to Mark Wahlberg , saw her searches more than double over the weekend. All that despite having just a handful of...
comScore Releases March 2010 U.S. Search Engine Rankings
April 12, 2010, 1:41 pmcomScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released its monthly comScore qSearch analysis of the U.S. search marketplace. In March 2010, Americans conducted 15.4 billion core searches, with Google Sites accounting for 65.1 percent search market share.
Google Improves Matching for AdSense Link Units
April 12, 2010, 1:21 pmGoogle has rewritten its link unit matching system for AdSense. Link units in AdSense ads display a list of topics that are relevant to the content of the publisher's page. When a user clicks a topic, Google shows a page of related ads. AdSense publishers can earn from valid user clicks on the ads on this resulting page. "Many publishers have...
Amy Mickelson's Ring: Big Rock, Big Searches
April 12, 2010, 1:16 pmby Mike Krumboltz Phil Mickelson won the Masters on Sunday , and punctuated the victory with an emotional embrace of his wife, Amy . As folks around the world watched the moment unfold , the only vocal sentiment more likely than "Aww, isn't that sweet" was "Holy cow, look at the size of that rock!" Indeed, Mrs. Mickelson is the owner of a truly...
Opera Mini has been approved for iPhone and iPod touch
April 12, 2010, 12:38 pmOpera today announced its popular mobile browser, Opera Mini has been approved for iPhone and iPod touch on the App Store.
Spring Fever in the UK: The Home and Garden Spring Surge in Search
April 12, 2010, 12:35 pmLike the return of the leaves on the trees, birds building nests, and daffodils appearing, Brits will light their (BBQ) fires, buy garden furniture and set themselves to carry out do-it-yourself (DIY) chores in spring. With two May Bank holidays around the corner and the trend set by a strong Easter bank holiday performance, now is the time to...
Google Docs Getting A Little More Wave-Like
April 12, 2010, 12:00 pmGoogle has announced a number of significant changes to Google Docs. In fact, they're so significant, Google is referring to them as the "next generation of Google Docs." Included, are some Google Wave-like characteristics.
Twitter + Video = Magic! (And Engagement!)
April 12, 2010, 11:46 am
New research from Brightcove and TubeMogul’s joint video analytics venture suggests that Twitter may be a magic bullet for online video consumption. While Twitter’s 140-characters aren’t exactly designed to cure adult ADD, Twitter’s referral traffic to video sites shows that those visitors actually watch...
Discovering What Web 2.0 Really Means
April 12, 2010, 11:37 amMany people who use the internet daily run into the term web 2.0 and many of those people dont know what it means. This is actually very understandable considering that for most people the internet does not seem any different than when they were first exposed to it. In order to truly understand web 2.0, it is necessary to understand the difference...
Tina Fey's Movie, Dixie Carter's Death, "Treme" Airs: What's the Buzz
April 12, 2010, 11:26 amby Claudine Zap Our top picks from the day's hottest searches. "The Diary of Anne Frank" (Searches increased by +832%). A new BBC production portrays the person behind the martyred writer . Actress Dixie Carter (+681%). The "Designing Woman" star died from cancer complications. Tina Fey and Sarah Palin video (576%). The "Saturday Night Live" alum...
Fifty Percent Of The US Population Have A Social Media Profile(s)
April 12, 2010, 11:15 amA new study released today shows that consumer use of social networking web sites is not a youth phenomenon. Apparently now at least half of those living in the United States have social media profiles. While nearly eight in ten teens (78 percent) and 18 to 24s (77 percent) have personal profile pages, almost two-thirds of 25 to 34s (65 percent)...
Yep: Google’s Hoping iAd Will Get GoogleMob Approved
April 12, 2010, 10:18 am
Apple finally officially made the leap into advertising on apps on its iPhone and iPad last week with the announcement of iAd. Of course, we’ve all been expecting that since they acquired Quattro Wireless—but it looked like no one was as excited as soon-to-be-full-on-rival Google.
As rumored, Google’s CEO Eric...
301 Redirect Test: How Much Link Juice are YOU Losing?
April 12, 2010, 9:49 amSome proof that Yahoo & Bing do not pass link juice via 301 redirects. Also validates that Google passes some link juice via the same redirects.
News Executives Think Internet is Changing Fundamental Values of Journalism
April 12, 2010, 9:47 amAccording to a new survey by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism in association with the American Society of News Editors (ASNE) and the Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA), six out of 10 news executives think the Internet is changing the fundamental values of journalism. And their biggest concern is...
Google Acquires UK Startup Plink
April 12, 2010, 9:21 amAccording to Jemima Kiss of Guardian.co.uk, "Google has made its first ever UK acquisition, buying mobile visual search startup Plink for an undisclosed sum."Click to read the rest of this post...
Google Working on New News Content/Ad Models?
April 12, 2010, 9:16 amGoogle CEO Eric Schmidt gave a pep talk to the news industry Sunday Night in Washington, addressing the American Society of News Editors. Schmidt's talk comes after Rupert Murdoch recently re-ignited the "we're going to block Google" flame.
Is the web good for the news industry? Tell us what you think.
"The web can...
4 Common Myths About Twitter
April 12, 2010, 8:18 amWith so much talk about Twitter, there’s a lot of misinformation floating around about this social networking tool.
I Screen, You Screen: Multi-Screen Use is Booming and Marketers Are Taking Note
April 12, 2010, 8:04 amWe are a nation of multi-taskers. Nowhere is that more evident than in our love affair with screens-big little and in-between. According to Nielsen's latest three screen report , we are viewing and engaging with content across our mobile, TV and PC screens like never before. Advertisers are fully engaged in this multi-screen mania, with...
Google Faces Tax Protest Again In The UK
April 12, 2010, 8:04 amOn at least two previous occasions, UK politicians have argued that Google's accounting is a little too creative when it comes to taxes, and this weekend, the search giant was called out again. Lord David Puttnam even used the word "outrageous" to describe Google's habits. This whole affair began about one year ago, when an accountant hired by...
Beginner's Guide to Link Metrics
April 12, 2010, 7:46 amIn the beginning, search engines were crap. I don't mean to knock the pioneers, but they simply relied too heavily on what webmasters said their websites were about. That's why porn sites ranked for searches like, "the whitehouse." People are shameless - if they can scam their way into money, you'd better believe they'll do it. Follow the...
Multilingual SEO: Things to Remember
April 12, 2010, 7:46 amGoogle has recently done a series on the usability of multilingual websites and it got me thinking about multilingual SEO. How do you, in fact, optimize the same website for keywords in multiple languages? But let's start with the core basics. In simple terms, a multilingual website is a website that has content in more than one language. And...
Twitter Acquires Tweetie For iPhone Move
April 12, 2010, 7:23 amTwitter's made another acquisition, and although this was a small move in some respects - just one man's responsible for Tweetie - it's had some significant effects, with an app called Twitter for iPhone coming into being and members of the developer community getting rather upset. Let's start at the beginning. Late Friday, Evan Williams...
Demand Media's Strategy of Penetrating Major Media Outlets
April 12, 2010, 7:23 amLate last week, reports surfaced of Demand Media and USA Today reaching a deal in which Demand would contribute content to USA Today's website. This is interesting because it's an example of the controversial Demand Media penetrating mainstream news media. I spoke with Demand about the partnership and the prospect of similar partnerships in the...
When Promoting Link Bait, Twitter is King!
April 12, 2010, 7:22 amA few weeks back we were promoting a link bait article on digg. Before long, the submission hit the front page but in a matter of minutes was then buried. In the meantime, however, it was quickly picking up steam on Twitter. Within a few hours, the article got picked up by a major online news source, retweeted, and it exploded from there....
Research Shows Social Media and TV Importance By Age
April 12, 2010, 7:00 am
While it’s not a surprise that social media is growing it can often be a bit stunning to hear some ‘actual’ numbers to back up the assertions and assumptions that the industry itself can be prone to making. The latest data that tells us about who is involved in social media comes from Arbitron and Edison Research via...
3 Ways to Use Multiple Search Engines Simultaneously
April 12, 2010, 7:00 amHow much do you search? As you read this blog, you are likely to search quite a lot. This post is aimed to enhance your search productivity by showing you how to search multiple search engines with one click of a mouse! 1. Web Search Pro Web Search Pro is the FireFox addon I reviewed last week. It integrates into your FireFox search box and thus...
The Mercenary's Guide to Building Your Internet Marketing Empire
April 12, 2010, 6:48 amI don't kill people for money (I do that for free). I'm not wanted in 17 countries. And I don't ride on a steel horse. But by many standards, I'm somewhat of a mercenary. It started a few years ago, when I cut my teeth online by playing around in the internet marketing game. Before I'd heard of Brian Clark, Chris Brogan, Darren Rowse, or Sonia...
Why Spamming Social Media Won’t Get You Very Far
April 12, 2010, 6:45 amThat “spammer” label can be a hard thing to shake. The thing is, you might earn the title completely unintentionally. What you consider innocent might be viewed very differently by the people you’re trying to reach through your social media marketing efforts.
Facebook's Growth is Not as Viral as Expected by Dr. Phil Zeman
April 12, 2010, 6:30 amWhen a graph showing an increase of unique Facebook visitors (March '08 to December '08) crossed my desktop at StepForth , one nagging question immediately entered my mind: Why doesn't the number of Facebook visits have exponential growth? By definition, isn't social media supposed to facilitate 'Exponential' " 'Viral' marketing, and shouldn't the...
Search Terms Reflect Spring is in the Air
April 12, 2010, 6:24 amWith Spring weather warming up, people are heading to Yahoo! Search to get ideas for outdoor activities. From " chicken coops " to " lawn care tips ," search data indicates that there is a high interest in home repairs and getting in touch with nature. Here are some spring fever searches on Yahoo! this week: Searchers are asking, " When do...
Google to Bolster Google Goggles with Plink Acquisition
April 12, 2010, 6:19 amGoogle has acquired the UK-based visual search engine company Plink, which makes PlinkArt , a mobile app that lets users take a picture with their phone and identify paintings and artworks. Google is adding Plink to work on its Google Goggles project. Google introduced Goggles as a Google Labs project back in December. It was cool from the get go,...
Google’s Schmidt Offers Advice to Newspaper Industry
April 12, 2010, 6:09 am
Google and the newspaper industry truly have a love / hate relationship. Google loves the hard news generated by traditional media outlets but hates that the newspaper industry paints them as freeloaders. The newspapers love the traffic that Google sends to them but hates that they are doing it for free. This tug of war has been...
Google Pops Across the Pond to Purchase Plink
April 12, 2010, 6:02 am
I suspect Google’s decision to buy Plink, was not motivated by the start-ups amazing ability to analyze mobile pictures of artwork and recognize them.
I’m confident that Google’s not going to launch Google Art Critic anytime soon.
However, it’s entirely possible that Google has acquired Plink simply to...
Social Media Higher Learning; Part 1
April 12, 2010, 5:53 amGoogle, Yahoo & Microsoft patents. Last year after I did the 'SEO Higher Learning' post, I started collecting patents and papers relating to social. Over the next two days we will be posting them. This one is part one, dealing with patents from the big 3 on social...tomorrow, we get into networks, lectures and more. Enjoy me labour of love (of...
DoubleDutch: Foursquare for the Enterprise
April 12, 2010, 5:50 amThe buzz on geolocation marketing is hot. Recently Lawrence Coburn released the beta version of DoubleDutch, a platform for creating your own geolocation check-in app, ala Foursquare. I connected with Lawrence to ask more questions about DoubleDutch and to get tips for marketers that want to incorporate geolocation and review services into their...
New Google TV Ad Features Marketing Pilgrim & Trackur!
April 12, 2010, 5:46 am
I’m excited to share with you the latest Google TV ad–featuring both Marketing Pilgrim and Trackur!
How cool is that?
OK, so you won’t be seeing this ad run during the Super Bowl any time soon, and yes, you too can create your own Google TV ad, but it’s still pretty cool.
Apple to Shed Google for Bing on iPhone, Redux
April 12, 2010, 5:44 amOne of my favorite angles in the blooming Apple Vs. Google war is the rumor/theory that Apple could jettison Google as the default search engine on its iPhone. That rumor, which started in earnest back in January when BusinessWeek cited sources saying Apple was mulling moving to Bing on iPhone, has new life in the wake of some great screenshots...
Microsoft Launches KIN, A Social Networking Phone
April 12, 2010, 5:30 am"Microsoft's KIN, a social media and networking phone."
Google Using Site Speed in Web Search Ranking
April 12, 2010, 5:10 amThe Official Google Blog has made it official: "We're including a new signal in our search ranking algorithms: site speed."Click to read the rest of this post...
Google Adds Site Speed To Web Search Ranking Algorithm
April 12, 2010, 2:59 am"Like us, our users place a lot of value in speed, that's why we've decided to take site speed into account in our search rankings."
White-Label Video Publishing: Guide To The Best Private Label Video Services
April 12, 2010, 2:30 amPrivate label video publishing services allow professional web publishers to move beyond zero-cost video sharing sites like YouTube and onto video distribution services which guarantee faster transcoding, HD video quality, the option to schedule both VOD and scheduled programming, CDN-based distribution, ad management and integration as well as...
Brand bidding & Ad-Hijacking insights – Part 2
April 12, 2010, 2:05 amEvert Veldhuijzen wrote about the definition of brand bidding and ad-hijacking, on how to prevent it and what „evil“ affiliates do to book trademarks that are „protected“ by Google’s complaint form in his first post, in his second post he talks about the methods these affiliates use to hide their strategies and how you can monitor your...
UK Election 2010: Sitting on the Fence for a Fortnight
April 12, 2010, 1:09 amThe UK Election officially kicked off last week. And according to Renard Sexton's post in the Guardian, "A surprisingly large number of voters are still undecided." And it may be a fortnight before the fence-sitters, who have their mug on one side of the fence and their wump on the other, start shifting one why or another.Click to read the rest...
Twitter Acquires Tweetie For The iPhone
April 12, 2010, 12:54 am"...we've entered into an agreement with Atebits (aka Loren Brichter) to acquire Tweetie, a leading iPhone Twitter client."
Audiweb Publishes Online Statistics February 2010
April 12, 2010, 12:18 amAudiweb, the Italian organisation providing data on the use of the Internet and on-line audiences, has published statistics related to the month of February 2010: There were 22,9 million active users in Italy during the month of February 2010 On an average day 11,8 million users were active for 1 hour and 41 minutes Each user viewed 182 pages...
Google Acquires Mobile Visual Search Firm, Plink
April 11, 2010, 11:55 pm"Google has made its first ever UK acquisition, buying mobile visual search startup Plink for an undisclosed sum."
Negotiating Partnerships For Scale-able Linkbuilding
April 11, 2010, 10:51 pmPosted by Tom_C I'm no business guru. I've never run or owned a business. But from what I've overheard from smart people who do run businesses, developing a Unique Selling Proposition (USP) is crucial to succeeding. It's the essence of being remarkable which is what Seth Godin talks about a lot . It's one of the first questions that I ask clients...
Yahoo and Bing Holding Hands, Now What?
April 11, 2010, 10:12 pmYahoo and Bing have been hoping and praying that everything with their recent partnership would go through as smoothly as possible with no hang ups. Recently everything was approved for these two giants to be allowed to put their heads together and change things for the future of both businesses. With Bing really increasing in market share and...
Unprecedented Internet Censorship Bill Passes UK House of Commons
April 11, 2010, 3:15 pm"A draconian Internet censorship bill that has been long looming on the horizon finally passed the House of Commons in the UK yesterday, legislating for government powers to restrict and filter any website that is deemed to be undesirable for public consumption." - GlobalResearch.ca
Consumers Turn To Social Media For Health Support
April 11, 2010, 5:46 amAmong Internet users looking for health information, product/health websites are as important as health care provider interaction, according to a new study from Epsilon. Forty percent of online consumers use social media for health information (reading or posting content).
Grabbing Your Traffic by the Long Tail and Other Reasons to Take a Deeper Look at Your Analytics
April 11, 2010, 12:28 amPosted by gillian We all know that theres gold in the long tail. We know that there are huge numbers of searches, many of them completely unique, in the long tail. Avinash Kaushik affirmed recently at SMX Toronto , that the long tail provides an average of seven times the data of short tail metrics. Excuse me? Seven times? We are definitely not...
Paid Content: the New Paid Link
April 10, 2010, 8:27 amPaid Links Are Spam Buying links is considered spammy by Google because it is a ranking short cut which subverts search relevancy algorithms . And so Google considers it a black hat SEO practice. Links are somewhat hard to scale because (outside of those who create a network of spam ) it is time intensive to find the right sites, negotiate a...
Johnny's Copyblogger Wrap-Up: Week of April 5, 2010
April 10, 2010, 7:17 amIf you're like me, you may have missed a lot of this week's Copyblogger content because you ate so much Easter chocolate last weekend that you: passed out in the center aisle at Wal-Mart were declared dead by Mort, the acting manager were incorrectly tagged at the morgue due to budget cuts were shipped off to a medical school as an indigent...
Watch the Masters 2010 Online Video : CBS, iTunes & More
April 10, 2010, 6:43 amThe return of Tiger Woods to the world of professional golf after his post-Thanksgiving hiatus has positioned the 2010 Masters Tournament as the most watched event in the history of gold, with already 5 million people tuning in to coverage on Thursday according to ESPN. And although Tiger has already returned under this controlled environment to...
Newspaper Blogs Break Story of Twitter's Acquisition of Tweetie
April 10, 2010, 6:11 amLate last night, several blogs were the first to report that Twitter had acquired Atebits, the maker of Tweetie. Okay, so many of the blogs that broke the story are affiliated with newspaper sites. But they're still blogs. Click to read the rest of this post...
Bing, Yahoo Nibble At Google
April 10, 2010, 6:04 amMarch was an interesting month for the search market, according to new statistics from comScore. Not so interesting that Google isn't still on top by a huge margin, of course, but interesting insofar as the search giant lost a bit of market share, even as Bing and Yahoo improved their standing. Let's start with Google's story. In February,...
Cup of Joe: Marketing Is For People With No Friends
April 10, 2010, 5:00 am
It struck me the other day that I worry about other people’s marketing efforts way more than my own! In fact, I don’t worry about my marketing efforts at all. Because I don’t do marketing for myself. That’s right I don’t do any marketing for my business. A few of my SEO colleagues like to tease me...
Google Local, Yahoo! Local, Bing Local: Optimizing for Local Search
April 10, 2010, 4:30 am
Local search engine listings may be little more than an afterthought to some webmasters, but they are a source of business that you shouldn’t ignore. Optimizing your site for local searches and making sure you’re listed in the local versions of the major search engines is a smart move, and doing so is fairly quick and easy. The three...
Site Speed Influencing Google Ranking
April 9, 2010, 9:22 pmGoogle announced that a website's speed is now one of the many signal's used to determine that site's ranking in Google results. Google in their blog post suggests a couple of tools with which you can test your site speed - which they define as "how quickly a website responds to web requests" - including the Webmaster Tools Labs Site Performance...
Japan's Nikkei Newspaper Goes Pay To View and Even Restricts Links
April 9, 2010, 6:39 pm"We may seek damages for any violations of these rules."
Brett Favre, Josie Duggar, and Babies Galore: Buzz Week in Review
April 9, 2010, 6:20 pmby Mike Krumboltz OMG! You gotta see the baby! Several high-profile babies made waves in the Search box this week. One of the NFL's biggest (and oldest) stars became an honest-to-goodness grandfather. A family with 19 (!) children finally got to bring home their latest from the hospital after a four-month stay. And a hipper-than-thou...
The Buzz Around Barbie
April 9, 2010, 5:24 pmby Claudine Zap For most people, Barbie doesn't exactly represent reality, with her out-of-this-world measurements and perfectly coiffed 'do. But the doll does have the eye of professional women, who want Barbie to truly represent. Meet Episcopalian priest Barbie . The DIY doll comes, as her creator points out, "ready to marry your Bratz dolls."...
Google incorporating site speed in search rankings
April 9, 2010, 4:50 pm(I'm in the middle of traveling, but I know that a lot of people will be interested in the news that Google is incorporating site speed as one of the over 200 signals that we use in determining search rankings . I wanted to jot down some quick thoughts.) The main thing I want to get across is: don't panic. We mentioned site speed as early as last...
Is Dr. Twitter In?
April 9, 2010, 4:02 pm
40% of online consumers turn to social media in managing their health, according to a new survey by Epsilon. 80% of those engaging with social media in their health care are “the highly engaged patient[s] who [take] an active role in health management.”
However, most people using social media for healthcare...
Google: Site Speed Live as a Ranking Factor
April 9, 2010, 2:43 pm
Last December, Google publicly announced a new ranking factor: site speed. Today, Google announces that site speed has joined the 200+ other ranking factors in their algorithm.
However, not all sites will be affected. In the blog post, Amit Singhal, Google Fellow, and Matt Cutts, Principal Engineer, Google Search Quality Team...
Elizabeth Taylor Engagement Rumors Swirl
April 9, 2010, 2:33 pmby Mike Krumboltz Elizabeth Taylor is a film legend, the kind that Hollywood doesn't make anymore. But as much as she is loved for her iconic performances in everything from " Giant " to " Cleopatra " to " National Velvet ," Dame Elizabeth may be more well-known for her many marriages. Now, rumors are swirling that Ms. Taylor, 78, is engaged to...
Google Officially Counts Site Speed for Web Search Ranking
April 9, 2010, 2:33 pmGoogle has just officially announced that website speed is now a new signal when it considers web search ranking. Although not too much weight is given to site speed, still Google encourages website owners to consider implementing site speed booster to make their websites rank higher on Google search. This however applies only to Google.com. And...
Migrating from Yahoo Search Marketing API to adCenter API
April 9, 2010, 2:25 pmAs you probably know, Microsoft and Yahoo have a search and advertising deal in place. Microsoft has now released a guide for migrating from the Yahoo Search Marketing API to its own adCenter API.
The guide is intended to explain how to develop ad campaigns and request reports in adCenter.
"More specifically, the guide maps Search...
Globalizing Local News From Mainstream to Citizen Journalists
April 9, 2010, 1:52 pmAllvoices is an online news destination that features a mix of aggregated professional news content and citizen-contributed reports, both from numerous channels. It's been steadily growing in popularity. After a couple years of existence, the company tells WebProNews it's getting over 4 million uniques and contributors from over 130 countries. I...
Best of Digg: March Comments
April 9, 2010, 1:41 pmDriven by the headline-devouring healthcare debate, political rhetoric was big on Digg in March. And while there were more than a few Washington-focused zingers among the more serious, impassioned remarks on the site, we're keeping this month's look back at Digg users' lol-worthy commenting outside the Beltway. Author: T.J.
Migrating from Yahoo! Search Marketing API to adCenter API
April 9, 2010, 1:40 pmHello Attached is a guide for those Yahoo! Search Marketing API users who are interested in using the Microsoft adCenter API. This guide instructs you how to develop ad campaigns and request reports in adCenter. More specifically, the guide maps Search Marketing operations to adCenter operations. For those Search Marketing operations that adCenter...
Google Makes Site Speed A Ranking Factor
April 9, 2010, 1:35 pmWebsite owners and bloggers, take heed: you don't need to stop whatever you're doing and eliminate all tools, videos, and pictures from your properties. But as soon as it's convenient, you may want to (re)check how quickly things load, because Google announced this afternoon that it's begun to factor site speed into its search rankings. We hope...
The Buzz on Fred's Shoes
April 9, 2010, 1:01 pmby Mike Krumboltz Tiger, Tiger, Tiger! All anybody at the Masters can talk about is Tiger Woods and his comeback. Actually, scratch that. There is one other thing people at Augusta are yapping about. There are a surprising number of Web searches for Fred Couples and his unconventional shoes. Over the past 24 hours, online lookups for " fred...
Google Incorporates Site Speed into Algorithm.
April 9, 2010, 12:38 pmWell it's official. Google is now incorporating site load speed into its ranking algorithm according to a Webmaster Central Blog post earlier this morning. There has been chatter about this addition being in the works for some time, and if you ask me, its one that will significantly help to improve the overall quality of search results and end...
Is Google Buzz A Flop?
April 9, 2010, 12:15 pmEarlier this year Google added a new product to the already overflowing social-space. Its name was Buzz and it instantly found itself in the same category (mainly for the built-in Gmail userbase) alongside both Twitter and Facebook. Based on all the hype surrounding Buzz, it seemed we were getting ready for the fight of social-space...
Official Twitter App for Blackberry Launched
April 9, 2010, 11:29 amTwitter just announced that RIM has launched its official BlackBerry Twitter app. The two companies have worked closely together to create it. Here's what it looks like: Features include: - Real-time BlackBerry push of Twitter direct messages - Camera and photo gallery integration - Browser integration for Tweeting links - Customizable interface...
It’s Official: Google Now Counts Site Speed As A Ranking Factor
April 9, 2010, 11:18 amSite speed or page speed -- either way, it's now officially part of Google's ranking system. And has been in place for a couple weeks on English-language searches on Google.com.
Thank You to John Allen of Marketing On the Web for Helping Improve Microsoft adCenter
April 9, 2010, 11:06 amJohn Allen is a search marketing professional from Huntsville, Alabama whose continued persistence, feedback to the product team, and expertise that he shares in the community has helped Microsoft adCenter improve one of its most important product offerings.
Tiger Woods Ad, iPhone Upgrade, NCAA Frozen Four Face Off: What's the Buzz
April 9, 2010, 10:49 amby Claudine Zap Our top picks from the day's hottest searches. NCAA Frozen Four (Searches increased by +1,875%). Boston College and Wisconsin will face off for the college hockey championship . Tiger Woods Nike commercial (+4,943%). The controversial ad is now spawning parodies . Sex Pistols (595%). Malcolm McLaren, the man behind the punk rock...
MasterCard Launches Online MarketPlace
April 9, 2010, 10:03 amMasterCard Worldwide said today is has entered into a three- year exclusive alliance with ecommerce aggregator Next Jump to launch the MasterCard MarketPlace. MasterCard MarketPlace offers access to hundred of merchant -funded discounts and special deals each day from a network of thousands of merchants across the U.S.
Arctic Foray for Foursquare
April 9, 2010, 9:57 amby Claudine Zap If you hit your favorite café, nose around a new neighborhood, or visit an out-of-the-way place, and nobody knows, does it matter? Well, it should. That's the thinking behind Foursquare , a social networking site, game, and user-review site rolled into one. And it's behind a race to the North Pole that has pit a 15-year-old Eton...
Google Suggest For Mobile Gets Universal Answers
April 9, 2010, 9:40 amMore so than when a nice, big keyboard is at hand, every moment and character counts when someone is trying to search using a smartphone. It's rather significant, then, that universal search features have been introduced to Google Suggest for mobile. Universal search features met Google Suggest on the desktop in December, and although not...
Universal Search Feature Added to Google Suggest for Mobile
April 9, 2010, 9:22 amGoogle just announced a new simple, and yet very useful feature of its mobile search service. The new feature is actually a spinoff of the universal search features in Google Suggest that helps you fill up your search query with Google's keyword suggestions. With universal search feature added to Google Suggest for mobile , you can now get answers...
30 Twitter Search Alternatives & Tools
April 9, 2010, 9:11 amTwitter search results for SEO. Very relevant, aren't they? Last week the new Twitter search " ranking popular tweets on top " went live. It's a huge disappointment. It only shows two or three seemingly popular tweets on top of the latest tweets not ordered in any manner, just like hitherto. Also the "popular tweets" seem to stem from some form of...
Google Suggest for Mobile Search Gets Universal Treatment
April 9, 2010, 8:32 am
It looks like Google has been busy making changes to the products they are most known for as of late. This is a nice diversion from the other news they make by continuing their move to be all things to all people.
One area that Google should dominate by default is mobile search. Of course, if you sit back and rest on your laurels...
Does Apple's iAd Have the Right Stuff for Mobile Advertising?
April 9, 2010, 8:24 amThis week, among other things, Apple unleashed its new mobile advertising platform called iAd. This is based on the company's acquisition of the mobile ad platform Quattro earlier this year.
iAd is seen as a direct competitor to AdMob, which Google is still in the process of trying to acquire (the announcement was made in November), and Steve...
YouTube Readies "Thank You" For Traffic Contributors
April 9, 2010, 8:19 amSites that send enough traffic to YouTube will soon start getting something in return. A new "as seen on" feature will effectively thank significant sources of YouTube viewers, giving them credit - and a link - at the bottom of videos' pages. For now, the feature's experimental. Also, YouTube's only using it connection with popular videos, and a...
Rip Van Winkle: Waking Up to Discover Social Media 101
April 9, 2010, 7:52 amIf Rip Van Winkle had walked into the Hilton New York to attend SES New York 2010, he might not have realized right away that a revolution had taken place since he'd attended Search Engine Strategies NYC 2004. That's how you get into trouble.Click to read the rest of this post...
Now Take a Sneak Peek At Your Gmail
April 9, 2010, 7:40 am
Many of our readers use Google’s Gmail service during the course of the day and anything that can make it more efficient is always welcome. We like to report on these updates because as marketers efficiency can mean the difference between getting work done and feeling good or being behind and feeling not so good.
When we saw...
Six Reasons Marketers Love Blogs
April 9, 2010, 7:37 amby Jennifer Laycock
The last year or so has seen a mad rush of marketers heading into the world of social media to set up Twitter accounts, gather Facebook fans, produce YouTube content and drive people to offer reviews on sites like Yelp and FourSquare. Unfortunately, that mad rush has also caused a lot of companies to neglect or even...
Younger Women Value Online Communities More Than Men
April 9, 2010, 7:34 amIn a significant reversal over the past three years, many more young women than men indicate they feel as strongly about their online communities as their real world ones, according to researchers at the University of Southern California. The researchers found 67 percent of women under 40 said they feel as strongly about their Internet communities...
Yahoo's CTO Gives Eight-Week Notice
April 9, 2010, 7:11 amBelieve it or not, another very important Yahoo exec has decided to leave the company. Ari Balogh, who serves as Yahoo's chief technology officer and executive vice president of products, has announced that June 3rd will be his last day. Obviously, this represents a blow to Yahoo in many ways. Balogh is just one of 11 people Yahoo considers to...
Possible Twitter Redesign Already Impressing
April 9, 2010, 6:54 amIt appears that Twitter may have a significant redesign in the works. It has been discovered that Twitter's Creative Director, Doug Bowman has posted a partial screenshot . Bowman's exact comment on the screenshot is, "Working on what may end up a significant redesign. Not final yet. What we can show without giving away the farm." Comments on this...
Better Search with Web Search Pro (FireFox)
April 9, 2010, 6:31 amWeb Search Pro is an awesome tool I wish I had discovered earlier. It's a FireFox addon that adds quite a few features around your FireFox search box . 1. Group search engines (for Multi-Search) This is my favorite feature! The tool allows to group your installed search engines by topic or the purpose (for example, social media search, reference...
Could You Be Burning Your Most Important Writing Client?
April 9, 2010, 6:26 amIf you are a writer , congratulations! You have magic to be envied. You possess the rare skill of being able to make something from nothing. You can change thinking, create emotions, paint pictures in your readers's minds. You can manufacture money from thin air. Just by moving your fingers across the keyboard. Through the alchemy of writing, you...
Did Google’s Eric Schmidt Quit Apple’s Board Over AdMob Squabble?
April 9, 2010, 6:12 am
OK, bear with me hear, but I’m going to put some pieces together to explain why Google and Apple went from being great friends, to arch-rivals.
At the time, this looked like a coincidence:
August 3rd, 2009 – Eric Schmidt resigns his position on Apple’s board of directors, citing "conflicts of interest"...
March US Search Share Shows Continuing Growth For Bing
April 9, 2010, 5:45 am"Microsoft's new Internet search engine Bing increased its share of the US search market in March while market leader Google slipped a bit,..."
Ninjas Are Slowly Killing Off All Social Media Gurus
April 9, 2010, 5:29 am
If you’re one of the many people that hates, just hates, the phrase social media guru, I have good news for you.
They’re slowly being killed off by an elite group of ninjas!
According to LinkedIn, the use of the word “guru” in professional titles is on the decline.
However, in its place is a disturbing...
5 Ways to Leverage Real Time Search in Your Online Marketing Mix
April 9, 2010, 5:28 amSince late 2009 when Google introduced real time search, the concept has gained a lot of attention. Today, real time search is at the top of the priority lists for all the major search engines â" Google, Bing and Yahoo!. As part of the new technology, Google is combines live updates from sites like Twitter and FriendFeed with the latest news...
Online Content Monetization: Critical Viewpoints From George Siemens And Gerd Leonhard
April 9, 2010, 2:32 amHow are publishers going to monetize online content in the future? With the launch of the iPad, Rupert Murdoch still picking on Google and positive signs of recovery from the economic recession, the discussion on online content is hotter than ever.
Photo credit: David Meerman Scott
With some revenues back in their wallets, publishers are...
Apple Blocks iPhone Developers Using Other Dev Tools
April 9, 2010, 2:27 am"Adobe which was planning on releasing a Flash to app feature in Flash CS5 is suspected of being the prime target of Apple's evermore closed system."
Apple iAd Allows iPhone Developers To Share Ad Revenue
April 9, 2010, 2:07 am"...a mobile advertising platform called iAd that will be used to place adverts in applications made by third parties."
PPC Configuration and Options
April 9, 2010, 12:31 am
Paying for irrelevant clicks in your pay per click (PPC) ad campaign is frustrating, but is there anything you can do to minimize the chances of this happening? Yes, in fact. Three of the biggies are the use of negative keywords, exact match, phrase match, and broad match.
Negative Keywords
Negative keywords have a major impact on your...
Whiteboard Friday - Link Building with Nudges
April 8, 2010, 10:35 pmPosted by great scott! Is it better to practically force your users to make the desired conversion action, or is it better to give them a choice? How about a choice between two desired conversion actions? How about giving them choice, but making the more preferred one easier as well as anchoring it in social proof that makes it still more...
Put Some Personality Into Your SEO
April 8, 2010, 10:19 pmSearch engine optimization is all about creating targeted streams of inbound traffic coming to your website on a daily basis. A dull SEO campaign really doesn't help anybody. The user who might bump into that piece of marketing won't find it useful and the search engines just get cluttered with more material that just gets in the way of things.
Google Enterprise to Host Cloud Computing Event for CIOs
April 8, 2010, 9:22 pmGoogle is taking another big step in its enterprise growth by convening a one-day cloud computing summit April 12. Google's Atmosphere 2010 event is intended for CIOs, the decision makers that must choose whether to leave the legacy comforts of on-premise software installed on corporate servers to procure applications hosted by vendors such as...
Google Outs Nested Labels, Email Preview in Gmail Labs
April 8, 2010, 8:54 pmHere's something worth checking out on Gmail Labs - nested labels and email sneak preview . The nested labels feature allow you to organize your labels hierarchically. While the email sneak preview feature lets you sneak into the contents of email items in your inbox. What's good about nested lables is that you can add as many layers as you want...
When and why was my site flagged for malware? Learn in near real-time!
April 8, 2010, 6:50 pmWebmaster Level: All We've been hearing this question for many years from webmasters. That's why we built features such as the Safe Browsing API , the malware review form , and our Malware details Labs feature . As of today, once we notice your site is infected, we'll do our best to send an e-mail to the address you have associated with your...
Microsoft Gives Bing Shopping a New Look
April 8, 2010, 6:50 pmMicrosoft has just updated Bing Shopping , putting in some enhancements to product categories and navigation. Specifically, Bing Shopping now has a list of product categories on the left side of the homepage. This will enable you to drill down to specific items under the specific product categories. It will also help get started searching for...
Where now for Bebo users in NZ?
April 8, 2010, 5:37 pmI used to keep in touch with a lot of in family in NZ through Bebo, but over the last few months or so, have noticed Facebook being used more frequently instead. So when I read about AOL's decision to either sell or shut down Bebo , coupled with some of our own stats on declining visits to Bebo, I was not surprised. Bebo attracted 2.16% of visits...
Does Facebook Face Challenges Ahead?
April 8, 2010, 5:13 pmWhen a graph showing a increase of unique Facebook visitors (March '08 to December '08) crossed my desktop, one nagging question immediately entered my mind: Why doesn't the number of Facebook visits have exponential growth? By definition, isn't social media supposed to facilitate 'Exponential' AKA 'Viral' marketing and shouldn't Facebook itself...
A New Look for Bing shopping
April 8, 2010, 4:11 pmThis week we unveiled a few updates to Bing shopping to help you do research and find what youre looking for more quickly. Youll notice that weve created a list of product categories on the left side of the homepage to help you start your search. Just click a category to drill down to other parts of our catalogue to find the products you are...
Date Night: The Critics Roundup
April 8, 2010, 4:06 pmby Mike Krumboltz In the mood to see a new movie this weekend? We hope you like Tina Fey and Steve Carell , because their movie " Date Night " is this weekend's only big release. The action-comedy-romance boasts two of prime-time TV's brightest stars, but is it worth your hard earned $10? Or should fans of the comedians be advised to watch Fey's...
Annoying Your Customers? Avoid These Brand Turn-Offs
April 8, 2010, 3:35 pm
Branding is a sometimes-elusive concept in marketing. We all know we want to build consumers’ like, trust and respect for our brands, but there isn’t a set way to do that. It’s hard to quantify progress in branding (unless you’ve got the moolah to spend on large, brand-specific surveys). But a new Harris...
Forrester Research Reports on "The Best and Worst of Paid Search in 2009"
April 8, 2010, 3:25 pmDo you know the biggest search marketing challenge facing the search industry? Forrester Research thinks it does.Click to read the rest of this post...
Twitter's Global Growth by the Official Numbers
April 8, 2010, 3:19 pmThe Twitter blog is running a post today announcing some numbers related to Twitter's overall growth not only in the U.S. but internationally as well. According to the post, more than 60% of Twitter users are from outside the U.S. This is definitely a huge leap from Twitter's early days were users were primarily employees and their friends. Now,...
Apple Challenges Google's Mobile Ad Platform with iAd
April 8, 2010, 3:19 pmApple is officially entering the mobile ads arena, and perhaps taking revenge at Google for snatching its plan of acquiring AdMob. Apple's battleplan? the iAd mobile ad platform . Apple's iAd is a pretty straightforward mobile ad platform utilizing of course Apple's main products - iPhone, iPod Touch and the iPad. These three devices are host to...
In App Ads On iPad? The Future of Mobile Engagement is Synesthetic
April 8, 2010, 3:13 pmToday, Steve Jobs announced iAds, Apple's mobile ad network Teaming up with ClickZ, we had a play around with the news apps, to start inspecting the marketing opportunities. Click to read the rest of this post...
Conductor Study Reveals Leading Internet Brands' Natural Search Visibility is Poor
April 8, 2010, 2:44 pmConductor released a research report today on the search visibility and optimization effectiveness of the Internet Retailer 500 (IR 500). The report, entitled "Natural Search Trends of the Internet Retailer 500, evaluates the natural search visibility of the IR 500's more than 88,000 most expensive paid keywords, on which they spend $1.2 million...
YouTube Invites Questions About Partner Program
April 8, 2010, 2:24 pmThe YouTube Partner Program has the potential to be about the best thing in a person's life, allowing an individual to earn thousands of dollars in return for creating short video clips. Yet lots of folks are still confused about how to become a partner - and why many applications are denied - so YouTube's giving everyone the chance to get...
Believe it or Not, Self-Promotion Can Hurt You
April 8, 2010, 2:22 pmThe interesting thing about online self-promotion is that it can be vital to your success, but can also make you look horrible, tarnish your reputation, and alienate people. There are good ways to promote yourself, and there are bad ways. Some of the bad ways are often looked upon as spam - things like blog comment spam, forum spam, or of course...
Nearly Half Of Americans Use Social Media
April 8, 2010, 2:17 pmThe percentage of Americans age 12 and older who have a profile on one or more social networking sites has reached almost half (48%) of the population in 2010, double the amount from two years ago (24% in 2008), according to a new survey from Arbitron and Edison Research. The study found the use of social networking sites is not just for the...
Questions About Kyrgyzstan
April 8, 2010, 1:43 pmby Mike Krumboltz The bloody political uprising in Kyrgyzstan has inspired tremendous interest on the Web. The country's government has collapsed and the opposing party has announced their own transitional government, to be led by former foreign minister Roza Otunbayeva. Below, four leading questions about the continuing chaos. Where is...
Ex-Ask CEO Joins LinkedIn's Board Of Directors
April 8, 2010, 1:32 pmAt least in terms of percentages, LinkedIn's board of directors expanded by quite a bit today. Indeed, it grew 25 percent thanks to the addition of Skip Battle, who served as the CEO of Ask.com between early 2001 and the middle of 2005. Battle's resume is an interesting one, even leaving aside that stint at Ask. He spent almost 30 years in...
Setting and Measuring Goals for Business Blogging
April 8, 2010, 1:02 pmAs companies that realize the value of online marketing understand the need to publish engaging content, one of the most common considerations is a company blog. Blog software is fundamentally one of the easiest content management software systems to install and use. Of course the software isn't magic. The content and ability to reach and engage...
Bing Search is Now Delivering Results for the Microsoft Community Site
April 8, 2010, 12:46 pmWhen I first started working with the folks here on the Community team back in 2007, the adCenter blog was housed on Windows Live Spaces. Saint Patrick's Day of 2008 saw the switch over to the site we all know and love today, and in 2009, further.
YouTube team to respond to your questions about...partnerships
April 8, 2010, 12:40 pmWe're launching a new video series on the YouTube channel that brings you closer to the people and processes behind YouTube. It's part of a larger effort to lift the veil , so you can ensure your voice is heard by the staff here and come to know the friendly faces that are as devoted to YouTube as you are. This is how it works: each month, we'll...
Link Building for Image Rich Websites
April 8, 2010, 12:34 pmImages (awesome ones that is) can some of the best link magnets on the web. But the problem is people tend to just steal them without linking to the source. In this post Wiep shares some tactics and tools you can use to ensure you get maximum link love, or at least attribution, from sites that embed, scrape and steal your beautiful image-based...
Twitter Shows Why Google Desperately Needs a Real-Time Ranking Algorithm
April 8, 2010, 12:28 pmApple have today launched iAds, I'm not really sure what it is either, but what is obvious is that Twitter really has become the best source for finding a wealth of information on breaking news stories. Yes, it's not always the most reliable source , but if you're looking for information on a trending topic such as iAds then the chances are...
FTC Complaint Targets Google, Microsoft, Yahoo
April 8, 2010, 12:28 pmThe Center for Digital Democracy, the federation of state Public Interest Research Groups (PIRGs), and the World Privacy Forum may have just created some problems for Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, and other companies that deal in online ads. Together, they submitted a complaint about the companies to the Federal Trade Commission today. The first part...
Yahoo: Dominate Search Results Like Matt Cutts
April 8, 2010, 11:47 amYahoo is posting a series of "how-to" articles for social media on the company's advertising blog. Interestingly enough, the subject of the latest edition is "How to Dominate Search Results Through Social Media Sites," and the example Yahoo's Laura Lippay points to as how to do it is Matt Cutts, who of course works for Yahoo's chief rival, Google....
The Benefits of Yahoo! Search Retargeting
April 8, 2010, 11:41 amMediaPost article shows the value of Yahoo! My Display Ads and using search to inform display Riffing on our case study on Value City Furniture (" Getting Your Offline Online "), MediaPost's Laurie Sullivan writes: "Advertisers have finally begun to consider search retargeting as a way to increase accuracy when targeting ads. They're still not...
Google Earth Helps Discover Our Hominid Ancestor in South Africa
April 8, 2010, 11:36 amAccording to the Official Google Blog, Google Earth played a role in the discovery of a new hominid fossil in the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site in South Africa. "The discovery is one of the most significant palaeoanthropological discoveries in recent times, revealing at least two partial hominid skeletons in remarkable condition, dating...
Social Media Interview with Marty Collins @SeattleGirl
April 8, 2010, 11:35 amA few weeks ago, at OMMA Global in San Francisco , Marty Collins spoke on the panel Social Media Marketing Doesnt Have to be a Gamble . Having interviewed her back in September at AdWeek , I was keen to catch up and find out how things were post the Windows 7 launch, and glean some more insight into social media best practice for our readers. For...
Feedback on the SEOmoz Blog: What Can We Do For You?
April 8, 2010, 11:23 amPosted by randfish I'm feeling a bit guilty. Over the past 10 weeks, I've been on the road almost constantly, and possibly neglecting the blog a bit more than usual. To atone, I'm hoping to gather some feedback from you - our readers and members - about what you'd like to see more/less of in the weeks and months to come. While we've certainly been...
And the winners for the 2010 Search & Social Spring Summit are'
April 8, 2010, 11:06 amWe are all excited that the 2010 Search & Social Spring Summit is less than a month away! With 52 tickets left, we are quickly approaching our capacity limit. With topics such as Doing Business on Twitter & Facebook and Outsourcing Secrets: Cut Costs & Spend More Time on the Beach, you really don't want to miss it. We have 5 free tickets (valued...
Apple’s iAds Bring Advertising to iPhone Applications
April 8, 2010, 11:04 am
As heavily rumored, Apple’s Steve Jobs just announced an advertising platform for iPhone applications.
Dubbed “iAd” the new ads are designed to integrate with iPhone/iPad apps, meaning the user is exposed to the ads within the app–they’re not taken to some web page to view the content.
Apple plans to...
Royal Wedding Rumors, Winona Ryder's Come-Back, Jimmy Fallon's Dance: What's the Buzz
April 8, 2010, 10:55 amby Claudine Zap Our top picks from the day's hottest searches. Winona Ryder (Searches increased by +3,435%). The once popular actress will return to the scene with a starring role in a comedy opposite Vince Vaughn and Kevin James. Kate Middleton and Prince William (+455%). The Daily Beast's editor Tina Brown is speculating that the two will...
Retargeting Picking Up—And So Are Privacy Concerns
April 8, 2010, 10:53 am
Last month, Google announced a new “remarketing” feature, allowing advertisers to later target people who’d visited their sites or YouTube channels. Retargeting like this is a popular marketing topic: an Advertise.com/SEMPO survey (via) found that slightly under 70% of marketers had never used it, but 46.3% of...
jQuery, YUI updates
April 8, 2010, 10:27 amWe have updated versions of jQuery and YUI on our CDN. jQuery is now at version 1.3.2 which will be what version 1 and 1.3 aliases point to. YUI's new version, 2.7.0, includes a new stylesheet utility to do dynamic CSS without looping through DOM nodes as well as some enhancements to existing functionality such as charts, DOM collection, and tree...
Weighing The Benefits Of Facebook Toolbar
April 8, 2010, 10:21 amHere is a quick productivity tip if you find yourself logging in and out of Facebook did you know that there is a tool bar for Windows Explorer and Firefox for Facebook? The Facebook Toolbar allows you to log into Facebook direct from your browser. You can quickly navigate to friend requests, new messages, event invitations, group invitations,...
Wall Street Journal Launches Pro Edition For Consumers
April 8, 2010, 10:04 amDow Jones & Company said today it has launched The Wall Street Journal Professional Edition for consumers. The Wall Street Journal Professional Edition is available to consumers for $49 per month. Current WSJ.com subscribers can access the offering for a discounted rate. In October 2009, Dow Jones launched the professional edition, aimed at...
Image Functionality to XML Sitemaps
April 8, 2010, 9:52 amYesterday Google announced in the Webmaster Central blog the added expansion for images within XML Sitemaps. By expanding your XML Sitemap to include images in the new format, this will allow Google to easily learn which images you consider important. With image related queries being performed at Google every day, this extra step may help you to...
12 Stellar SEO Tools
April 8, 2010, 9:47 amAnalyze your site to get the best results When you're ready to get a good look at how your site is stacked up for SEO success, there is no shortage of SEO tools that you can use to analyze your site inside and out. The tools listed below are some of the best of the plethora of great SEO analysis tools available today. See your site like search...
Chinese Block On Google's Mobile Services Lifted
April 8, 2010, 9:24 amIt's seemed possible for a while now that the Chinese government would attempt to cripple Google's operations in the country. Or that, in response to Google's stand against censorship, authorities would at least hold a grudge for years to come. But Google seems to have won a small reprieve, as mobile accessibility issues have been resolved....
Increasing Conversions Doesn't Come From Slowing Things Down
April 8, 2010, 9:24 amI probably don't have to tell you that time is valuable, but is this something you are considering when it comes to your customers' time? If you run an e-commerce business, you have to consider that consumers want to spend as little time on your site as possible. That's not to say that they don't want to buy from you. They just want to be able to...
And You Thought Google Was Big Brother?
April 8, 2010, 8:45 am
A lot of concern circulates about just how much information a company like Google has on individuals and virtually everything else. While it makes me queasy at times as well, I don’t get the same Orwellian feeling about Google as I do about the government and the data they collect. That’s why the White House’s new...
Bing Mobile: How to Launch Mobile Search Campaigns using Microsoft adCenter Desktop
April 8, 2010, 8:26 amMobile Advertising has steadily come into its own with the advent and growth of mobile broadband networks (3G/4G) and mainstream hardware that is able to offer us desktop-like browser capabilities (Safari on the iPhone). The third piece of the pie, growth of mobile content, has lagged behind the predictions of many industry pundits - resulting in...
Law Suits Around Google Book Scanning, Gmail Buzz
April 8, 2010, 8:20 amTwo law suits or future law suits are currently up for Google. In one, as Business Week writes, Google "was sued over claims its Buzz social- networking service violated the privacy rights of users of the company's Gmail service ... The case, which seeks class action, or group, status was filed by Barry Feldman of New York, who claims Google...
Checking the Google Page Count of a Comment to Identify Spam
April 8, 2010, 8:20 amGeorge R. in the forum had an interesting idea to catch spam: check how many results a phrase search for whatever the commenter posted are found in Google. If something yields a lot of hits in Google's index, then it's likely to be pasted in many places, thus - so the idea at least - spam. (For instance, a lot of spam is phrased in the unspecific...
Google The Oceans By Default With Google Earth
April 8, 2010, 8:03 amGoogle has made Ocean in Google Earth part of the default set of annotations for all Google Earth users to see, a little pre-Earth Day welcoming party. Launched in February 2009, Ocean in Google Earth pairs 3D maps of the world's oceans with videos, photos and narrative from heavy-hitting scientists and media sources.
Google Testing Skype Challenger?
April 8, 2010, 7:42 am
Google Voice has become a fan favorite for its ability to handle voicemail and have it follow you wherever you need it to. Very handy. You can receive and manage voicemails through Google voice from various numbers and have separate messages for certain callers etc etc etc. The one thing it has not provided, however, is an...
Rip Van Winkle: "Things Change Fast in Today's World"
April 8, 2010, 7:35 amAntti Aapakari, the CEO at Luxus in Finland, made this comment on one of my Rip Van Winkle posts, "Excellent post! You're so right. Things change fast in today's world and you've got to keep up or get left behind."Click to read the rest of this post...
Beauty is Rare - Elusive so it Can be Easily Sold
April 8, 2010, 7:35 amA couple years ago my wife and I had our big wedding in the Philippines (we even had the mayor of Manila show up). She was so beautiful that day. And lucky for me she is just as beautiful when she wakes up each day. :D But she can be hard on herself and if she gains a single pound she worries. Truth is I am the chubby one who needs to drop weight....
Add Images to Your Sitemaps Extension
April 8, 2010, 7:17 amWe all know how important site images our when trying to optimize our websites for search engine indexing, right? When highlighting important website content on our site, we use sitemaps. But sitemaps often preclude images we used on our site - leaving search engine not to notice or find them. This is particularly true for images that are only...
Factoring Time into SEO
April 8, 2010, 7:17 amWe all know that it takes time for your rankings in the SERPs to change. Although they do fluctuate frequently, long-term improvements in your SERPs rankings take time to produce. Some time needs to pass before the Search Engines are confident you deserve increased rankings. Things that can happen during the days, weeks or months before you see...
How to Always Have Reference Info by Hand When Blogging
April 8, 2010, 7:17 amHaving some useful reference information by hand when writing a post or doing research online is an awesome way to both get more productive and also to create a thorough, deeper-researched copies. Therefore you may find the following two tips useful as well as easy to implement in your daily routine. 1. Access reference information while you write...
Attempted Click Fraud Rate Surges In Q1
April 8, 2010, 7:17 amIn the first quarter of 2010 the average attempted click fraud rate increased from 25.7 percent in Q4 2009 to 29. 2 percent in Q1 2010, representing a 34 percent year-over-year increase from Q1 2009, according to a new report from Anchor Intelligence. Anchor Intelligence told WebProNews the record attempted click fraud rate can be attributed to...
Six Questions to Ask for Powerful Testimonials
April 8, 2010, 7:12 amThis is the second and final installment of The Secret Life of Testimonials . Most of us ask for testimonials. And if we follow up and pester our customers enough, we get testimonials. There's only one problem. Our testimonials have no power. Testimonials are stories. And stories have power and grace, flow and rhythm. Look around you and you'll...
Google Voice Edges Closer To Skype Territory
April 8, 2010, 6:55 amThe company that dominates the online search and advertising sector - and dabbles in photo-sharing, solar energy, and all other sorts of stuff - may soon improve its audio communication offering in a major way. Google has reportedly taken a significant step towards making Google Voice more of a Skype competitor. Michael Arrington wrote late...
7 Truths About Social Media Marketing
April 8, 2010, 6:26 amEven though social media isn't new to many of us, the world is waking up to this new shiny toy. Thanks to books like The New Community Rules , written by yours truly, Engage , Social Media 101 , and others, social media marketing is, for the time being, going to still be on people's minds as they discover this bright sunny marketing opportunity....
39% Trust Their Login Credentials to Google; Twitter Not So Much
April 8, 2010, 6:20 am
You’ve probably noticed a trend over the past couple of years of sites allowing you to login using your an existing credentials from Google, Facebook, Twitter, etc.
According to a survey of 170,000 web sites, JanRain says that Google is–surprise, surprise–the login of choice for many web users:
While it may look...
Discover v2009: validateOnly header
April 8, 2010, 6:15 amWhile making AdWords API calls, a common task that you have to perform as a developer is to ensure that the SOAP requests you make to the server are valid. This includes validation in terms of parameters required for an API call, as well as ensuring that your ads and criteria are in accordance with Adwords policies. AdWords API v200909 introduces...
iPhone 4.0 revealed
April 8, 2010, 5:37 am"Multitasking: It's here, finally. It's handled with a simple task switcher: double click your home button, and you get a list of running apps. Select, switch, done.
SalesForce Launches ChatterExchange, Centers "Entire Strategy" Around Chatter
April 8, 2010, 5:11 amBack in November, Salesforce announced its Chatter product, which it referred to as Facebook for the Enterprise . It launched in private beta in February, and now Chatter is set to become integral to the very core of what Salesforce has to offer. I spoke with Kraig Swensrud, senior vice president, product marketing at Salesforce.com ahead of the...
Google Adds Image Control For Sitemaps
April 8, 2010, 4:52 am"Now you can use a Sitemaps extension to provide Google with exactly this information."
Yahoo Searches Gain 3% of Market Share
April 8, 2010, 1:06 amHitwise has just released the summary of all U.S. searches conducted for four weeks ending March 27. While we were not surprised that both Google and Bing's market shares went down, what's quite surprising is the fact that both Yahoo and Ask.com gained a significant percentage of all the searches. Google search accounted for 69.97%, down from...
Why Won't Google Penalize/Ban the Site I Spam Reported?
April 8, 2010, 1:00 amPosted by randfish One of the most common complaints I've heard from webmasters and SEOs in the past 18 months has been around Google's inaction on spam reports. While the web spam team has been aggressive about asking webmasters to contribute via their spam report form (though they prefer the version in Webmaster Tools as this helps verify the...
Photographers Sue Google Over Book Search Pictures
April 8, 2010, 12:10 am"This is a civil action that arises under the laws of the United States and is designed to redress the most widespread, well-publicized, and uncompensated infringement of exclusive rights in images in the history of book and periodical publishing,"
Pay Per Click Management, Conversion Tracking in Google AdWords
April 7, 2010, 11:53 pmJust to get everyone on the same page, let’s review the concepts behind Google AdWords, specifically the concept of “pay per click,” or PPC. PPC is an advertising model. If you’re an advertiser, you pay the site hosting your ad only when somebody clicks the ad. To buy search engine ads, advertisers bid on relevant keyword...
Can New Websites Rank Well?
April 7, 2010, 10:16 pmThe search engines grow more and more littered with new websites, web pages and more blog posts and articles than we know what to do with. How is a new aspiring website ever supposed to be able to break into the search results for any type of keyword phrase? Even third string keywords with much less search volume are becoming very tough to be...
Apple to Announce New Mobile Ads, And Google’s the Happiest of All
April 7, 2010, 10:12 pm
Apple is hosting an iPhone developer event Thursday, where they’ll most likely talk about adapting to the iPad—and a new mobile advertising platform. While I’m sure the developers and Apple are pretty excited at the prospect of more money, it’s Google that might be cheering the loudest.
Once upon a time,...
Add more Bing to your Windows 7 desktop
April 7, 2010, 9:48 pmOur first Bing's Best Windows 7 theme pack was so popular that we've decided to do another! From the jagged peaks of the Andes, to the Vermillion Cliffs in Arizona, to Spain's Basque region, this set takes you around the world using some of our favorite Bing homepage images from the past several months. There are 21 wallpapers in all' here's a...
Google to Launch New Voice Desktop App
April 7, 2010, 8:10 pmWhen Google acquires Gizmo5 , a VoIP service that provides P2P VoIP calls and calls with normal landlines and mobile phones, it wasn't clear as to how Google will possibly use Gizmo5's technology. Although, Gizmo5 could very well provide Google Voice an endpoint for calls, Google didn't do much to make this happen, until now. According to...
The Buzz on "Birdemic"
April 7, 2010, 6:24 pmby Claudine Zap The acting is wooden. The effects are laughably bad. " Birdemic: Shock and Terror " surely earns its Z-movie rating of worse film ever . But the schlocky, low-budget flick â" and its lower production values â" have defied its DVD destiny and become a cult hit. But that's not all. It's been picked up by a major distributor....
Search Ads Top Record High of $6.3 Billion Ad Spending in Q4 '09
April 7, 2010, 6:23 pmThe Interactive Advertising Bureau and Price Waterhouse Coppers's IAB Internet Advertising Revenue Report for 2009 is showing some quite interesting findings regarding the comparison of online ad spends and search spending. Search Ads topped the spending over the past year, comparing Q4 2008 & Q4 2009. According to the report search advertising...
Google Gets a Lawsuit from Photographers
April 7, 2010, 5:43 pmHere's another twist on Google's long struggle on the Google Book Search Settlement issue. The American Society of Media Photograpehrs (ASMP) and other photographic artists groups and concerned individuals have filed a class action copyright infringement lawsuit against Google. Their case? - Google's alleged copyright infringement on the photos...
Google Adds Buzz to Maps for Mobile App for BlackBerry
April 7, 2010, 5:43 pmFor a long time now, I've been trying to use Google Buzz on my Nexus One Maps App but to no avail. For some reason I can't get it to work. So, I was quite surprised how easy it was to activate Google Buzz on the Maps for Mobile 4.0 app for my BlackBerry Bold 9700. This came after Google updated its Maps for Mobile App for Blackberry devices to...
Photographers Sue Google For Copyright Infringement
April 7, 2010, 4:01 pmGoogle's protracted struggles with copyright holders continue, as the American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP) and other photographic artists groups and individuals banded together to file a class action copyright infringement suit against Google. ASMP, the Graphic Artists Guild, the Picture Archive Council of America, the North American...
iPad Smash
April 7, 2010, 3:56 pmby Mike Krumboltz This is a few days old, but it's weird enough to warrant a post. A young man buys an iPad on release day, and then, for no discernable reason, smashes it like his name was Steve Ballmer. We're as baffled as you are.
Eyewitness Photos from Rio
April 7, 2010, 3:04 pmby Mike Krumboltz The flooding in Rio de Janeiro has claimed dozens of lives, left much of the city under water, and raised fears of more mudslides. Through it all, eyewitnesses who happened to be there when the flooding began have uploaded pictures of the destruction, in an effort to keep the rest of the world informed. Web searches on " rio...
Google Code Jam 2010 Registration Opens
April 7, 2010, 2:58 pmAnother year, another Google-sponsored competition meant to identify the world's best programmers. People can now sign up to participate in Google Code Jam 2010, which will offer winners more than $10,000 in prize money. Here's a brief overview of the most important dates for anyone who's ready to dive in: registration began this afternoon. A...
Your top tech tips for SEO (From the Forums)
April 7, 2010, 2:24 pmWe have another interesting conversation thread to highlight today as our latest From the Forums column selection. One of our helpful users in the Bing community posted his list of the top "45 points for SEO." This post has generated a good many forum reader replies - most positive, a few critical, and many contributing their own additional points...
Aircell Offers Monthly Inflight Internet Subscription
April 7, 2010, 2:22 pmAircell, a company that provides wireless inflight Internet access to a number of major airlines in the U.S., has introduced a new monthly subscription plan for its Gogo service.
The Gogo Monthly Subscription is aimed at frequent fliers and is available for $34.95 each month. Aircell says the service automatically renews each...
Hitwise: Ask Share of Searches Increases for Fourth Straight Month
April 7, 2010, 1:50 pmExperian Hitwise announced today that Google accounted for 69.97 percent of all U.S. searches conducted in the four weeks ending March 27, 2010. Yahoo! Search, Bing and Ask received 15.04 percent, 9.62 percent and 3.44 percent, respectively. The remaining 69 search engines in the Hitwise Search Engine Analysis Tool accounted for 1.93 percent of...
Why I Won't Invest in Avid Life Media
April 7, 2010, 1:33 pmJason Calacanis, the notorious web entrepreneur of Weblogs, Inc., and Mahalo fame, recently raised a flap by telling everyone to boycott comScore and indeed, to sell or short-sell its stock. I'm glad I came to my senses and decided not to get caught up in that catfight, though I sometimes have questions about the accuracy of comScore's numbers...
Google Maps Gets More Useful on BlackBerry
April 7, 2010, 1:33 pmGoogle introduced a new version of Google Maps for BlackBerry devices today. There are quite a few significant features that come along with it. Search by Voice, one of the most convenient features of searching from mobile devices in general, is included with this version. "Simply press and hold the green 'call' button, speak your search, and see...
Google Declares Another UGC Mapping Success
April 7, 2010, 1:33 pmThanks to the hard work of any number of individuals (along with Google's willingness to trust them), certain areas of Google Maps will now be a lot more detailed. An impressive 17 countries and territories have been deemed set to graduate from Google Map Maker to Google Maps. Although you may not hear about it often, Google Map Maker serves an...
Google Code Jam 2010 registration now open
April 7, 2010, 1:20 pmLet's say that you have x different stocks, and the plots of their prices over time. You want to print them in newspaper, printing multiple plots on the same chart to save space. But here's the catch: no two plots on the same chart can overlap, lest the readers be confused. Look at the plots and figure out the smallest number of charts required....
Are Content Mills the Future of Online Publishing? What Comes Next?
April 7, 2010, 1:08 pmAaron's discussed content mills in his interview with Tedster yesterday. What is a content mill? A content mill is a site that publishes cheap content. The content is either user-contributed, paid, or a mix of the two. The term content mill is obviously pejorative, the implication being that the content is only published to pump content into...
Encore: More YouTube Videos Curated by Ad Age
April 7, 2010, 12:59 pmEarlier today, I shared three of the 20 videos that Ad Age is "curating" on YouTube's homepage. But now that I've watched the entire playlist, there are three more that you should see.Click to read the rest of this post...
Understanding Competitiveness in Search Engine Rankings [Keyword Research Tools]
April 7, 2010, 12:54 pmExcellent write up on using SEOmoz's new Keyword Difficulty Tool to analyze the competitiveness of SERPs. The new version of the tool gathers data from the Google Adwords API and Linkscape to help get a more detailed understanding of the SEO challenge involved with targeting a specific keyword ranking.
Digg Updates iPhone App
April 7, 2010, 12:47 pmUpdate: Digg announced several changes to the recently released iPhone app today. These include:
Closing the app on a Digg story page doesn't result in a crash when reopening the app
A range of stability improvements allows the app to be used for longer periods without crashing
We've added an "open in Safari" option for...
Update to Digg's iPhone app
April 7, 2010, 12:23 pmWe've gotten a lot of great feedback on the Digg iPhone app, nothing more important than the fact that it needed to be a lot more stable and crash less often.
Online Ad Revenue Hits Record $6.3 Billion In Q4
April 7, 2010, 11:48 amThough U.S. Internet advertising revenues, at $22.7 billion for 2009, showed a 3.4 percent decline from 2008, there are signs of a recovery in the industry, according to the latest report from the Internet Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers. The fourth quarter of 2009 hit a record quarterly high of $6.3 billion, a 2.6 percent increase...
Idol Talk: Didgeridoo or Not To Do?
April 7, 2010, 11:37 amby Vera H-C Chan Oh no they didn't. Oh yes, they did, did, didgeridoo. The Top 9's theme on " American Idol " was the Lennon - McCartney songbook, but the reality show looked more like a world music concert with some unusual pipes. Judges' fave Crystal Bowersox took to her guitar to sing " Come Together ," but got musical accompaniment by a gent...
Elton John's Show, Carol Burnett's Book, Brett Favre's Grandkid: What's the Buzz
April 7, 2010, 11:20 amby Claudine Zap Our top picks from the day's hottest searches. Chichen Itza (Searches increased by +1,902%). Elton John chose the ancient site for a concert, despite complaints from local Mayan leaders. Carol Burnett (+946%). The whacky comedian known for her trademark Tarzan yell has a new book . Buzz Aldrin (567%). The moon walker did not have...
Searching for Growth
April 7, 2010, 11:09 amChallenged by ROI requirements but bolstered by social media marketing, the search engine marketing industry is predicted to grow by $2 billion in 2010 Search engine marketing in North America already is valued at $14.6 billion, but a new report from the non-profit Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization ( SEMPO ) estimates the...
Rip Van Winkle: Paid Inclusion & Trusted Feeds at Search Engine Strategies NYC 2004
April 7, 2010, 10:24 amIf Rip Van Winkle woke up last month and re-read the agenda for Search Engine Strategies NYC 2004, he might not notice that a revolution had taken place. For example, there were sessions entitled "Introduction to Search Engine Marketing" and "Link Building Basics" six years ago, which were still being held at SES New York 2010.Click to read the...
"Trusted Companies" to Bring Greater Usefulness to Yahoo Mail
April 7, 2010, 10:21 amYahoo has announced that the Yahoo Mail API now allows Read and Read+Write access to full message contents for any type of user. What this means is that developers can create more useful ways to use Yahoo Mail. "Say a company builds a tool that sends users a text message alert whenever their boss e-mails them," says Risher . "With the new tools...
Organic and Sponsored Links on Search Engines: Which Are More Likely to Convert?
April 7, 2010, 9:59 amPart of my job is to look through various data from comScore and Nielsen on a regular basis, and over the last few months, I've noticed some interesting points about the value of organic and paid search links for consumer interaction. What the figures show fairly consistently is that when we look at all website visits that originate from a search...
Microsoft adCenter API Top 10 viewed Topics for March 2010
April 7, 2010, 9:53 amHello, Here are the most viewed adCenter API topics on MSDN for March 2010. Microsoft adCenter API United States Microsoft adCenter API Programming Reference Microsoft adCenter Campaign Management API Reference Alabama (United States) What's New in the SDK for the Microsoft adCenter API Campaign Management Service Operations Getting Started with...
FCC vs. Comcast on Net Neutrality: FCC Loses
April 7, 2010, 9:38 am
After the NCAA championship Monday, one of the sportscasters noted, “Duke won this game [OH YES THEY DID!]; Butler didn’t lose it.” [Also true—awesome game.]
After years of a case dragging through the courts (not unusual, but still), I think we can say something similar about the FCC’s challenge to...
Hitwise Documents Bebo's Decline
April 7, 2010, 9:19 amAnyone who's shocked that AOL is giving up on Bebo will probably feel a lot more understanding after viewing new stats from Hitwise. Indeed, the real question a graph seems to raise is not whether AOL's right to back away, but whether any potential buyers will surface. View the carnage for yourself below. As you can see, Bebo's had rather few...
Kentucky Sues Full Tilt Poker To Recover Gamblers' Losses Online
April 7, 2010, 9:00 amThe Common Wealth of Kentucky is once again going after the online gambling industry and has filed a lawsuit in Franklin Circuit Court against a number of online gambling operations seeking to recover losses incurred by Kentuckians who placed wagers via websites. WebProNews spoke to the Poker Players Alliance about Kentucky's latest move. "We are...
Kentucky Sues Full Tilt Poker To Recover Gamblers’ Losses Online
April 7, 2010, 8:31 amThe Common Wealth of Kentucky is once again going after the online gambling industry and has filed a lawsuit in Franklin Circuit Court against a number of online gambling operations seeking to recover losses incurred by Kentuckians who placed wagers via websites.
WebProNews spoke to the Poker Players Alliance about Kentucky's latest move....
Ad Age Curates YouTube Homepage
April 7, 2010, 8:25 amIf you go to the YouTube homepage today, you'll see that Ad Age is "curating" the best YouTube ads. The 20 videos spotlighted on the YouTube homepage are all selling something, but they're also entertaining.Click to read the rest of this post...
Quality is KEY! Simple Changes You Can Make for Editorial Success with Microsoft adCenter
April 7, 2010, 8:24 amAs a policy analyst for the Network Quality team, I often receive questions about how keyword and ad quality can impact a customers campaign. In fact, quality is a regular topic for us. To help, here are some tips regarding commonly asked questions about quality. Keep in mind, quality is more than the sum of the keyword, ad and landing page. Due...
Getting into the Baseball Spirit with Bing
April 7, 2010, 8:18 amNothing really beats a crisp spring day at one of the great ballparks around the country. With baseball season kicking off this week, Im sure there will be a lot of people planning trips to the park or marking calendars for upcoming games to watch from home. Either way, Bing can help you prepare for the season. Whether youre checking the latest...
iPad Impresses More as a Symbol Than a Device
April 7, 2010, 8:13 amRight now, it's looking like the iPad's strength is more about what it represents to the industry, more than the device itself. It's about what mainstream computing may be turning into. Is the iPad the future of computing? Share your thoughts . This generation iPad isn't the be-all, end-all computing device. It's full of shortcomings, which have...
Six Reasons SEOs Love Blogs
April 7, 2010, 8:07 amby Jennifer Laycock
With so much social media focus on sites like Twitter, FourSquare and Facebook these days, it's easy for companies to neglect one of the single most powerful social media tools available: their blog. In fact, for companies who are looking to increase their search engine optimization efforts, a well-crafted blog can make a...
Online Video Viewers: The Young, the Hip, and the (Slightly) Well Off
April 7, 2010, 7:43 amAccording to new research from GigaOM Pro, online video viewers tend to be young, rich early adopters. Written by TDG analyst Michael Greeson, the report surveyed a cross-section of 2,000 consumers to determine who's watching online video and how.Click to read the rest of this post...
PayPal Mobile iPhone App: One Million Downloads and Counting
April 7, 2010, 7:32 amHi all â" Osama Bedier here, PayPal's vice president of platform and emerging technology. I'm thrilled to announce that PayPal Mobile for iPhone , hit one million downloads over the weekend! This milestone was achieved less than three weeks after our new version launched in Apple's App Store. We at PayPal are so excited to see iPhone users...
PayPal iPhone App Hits One Million Downloads
April 7, 2010, 7:32 ameBay's PayPal said today its PayPal Mobile iPhone app has been downloaded one million times in less than three weeks. With the new PayPal Mobile iPhone app, users can split restaurant checks, collect money for events, set reminders for recurring payments, donate to causes and manage their PayPal accounts. For International transactions, PayPal...
A Holistic Approach to PPC
April 7, 2010, 7:32 amPaid search is hot. Well, it's been hot for a while â" at least the past 5 years. And it continues to grow: according to eMarketer, search spending will reach $11,422 million this year. But with all this growth and attention on the click, most conversations on PPC start and end there â" from bids, to ads, to keywords and more â" without...
Do SEO Fast Before You Do It Best
April 7, 2010, 7:11 amby Stoney deGeyter
I generally implement my optimization campaigns in two phases. The first phase is a quick run through to get as many of the site pages "search engine friendly" as possible. The second is a much more thorough process that provides a complete optimization for each page.
Quick process can often be done in a matter of hours...
Murdoch (Again) Threatens To Stand Against Google
April 7, 2010, 7:10 amIt's been about five months since Rupert Murdoch first claimed that he would block search engines from News Corp. content, and even if not a lot's happened as a result, Murdoch hasn't let the matter slide. He issued another warning yesterday while at the National Press Club. "We are going to stop people like Google or Microsoft or whoever from...
10,000 Ways to Make Twitter More Useful
April 7, 2010, 7:10 amSince its inception, one of the biggest knocks against Twitter has been that it's been hard to figure out what to use it for. As time has gone by, this has become much more clear to a great many people, but you can rest assured, there are still plenty out there who have a hard time justifying its use. Others, particularly in the business world...
Put Your Content Copies Under Control
April 7, 2010, 6:57 amWe are all being copied. The moment any new article gets published, it is being republished on some crappy blog (more often than not, without any credit). There’s not much we can do about that.
This post is about those content stealing that is done through direct copy-pasting from the page. This is just one way to steal your content but it is...
Put Your Content Copies Under Control
April 7, 2010, 6:52 amWe are all being copied. The moment any new article gets published, it is being republished on some crappy blog (more often than not, without any credit). There's not much we can do about that. This post is about those content stealing that is done through direct copy-pasting from the page. This is just one way to steal your content but it is used...
How I'm Going To Pay For Obama's Health Insurance Reform
April 7, 2010, 6:52 amI'm a huge fan of the Obama's health insurance reform bill. It's not that often that such a significant societal opportunity occurs that allows me to take decisive action to better my family's welfare both presently and for many years into the future. Do you think I'm getting political on you?
Digg “Unbanning” All Previously Banned Web Sites
April 7, 2010, 6:51 am
Well, well. Apparently Kevin Rose is not messing around, now that he’s taken over the reigns of Digg.
No sooner had the door hit Jay Adelson on the way out, Rose has decided to reverse two very unpopular decisions.
The first–actually the second on his list, but I think you’ll find it more interesting–is the...
Picture This! Photographers File Class Action Lawsuit Against Google
April 7, 2010, 6:33 am
Poor Google. It takes two steps forward, one step back when trying to make progress with its book settlement.
FT.com reports a new group of content creators are not happy with the proposed deal: photographers.
They’ve filed a new class action lawsuit, because they were, apparently, left out of the one filed by the authors...
11 Smart Tips for Brilliant Writing
April 7, 2010, 6:23 amDo you sound smarter when you use big words? According to a study published in Applied Cognitive Psychology , the answer is no. In fact, complex writing makes you sound small-minded. Just consider the title of the study: Consequences of erudite vernacular utilized irrespective of necessity: problems with using long words needlessly. Wouldn't it be...
The Telegraph Integrates SEO into Editorial Process, Boosting Online Readership
April 7, 2010, 5:56 amLast Friday, I interviewed one of the speakers at the session entitled, "Real Time SEO: No More Yesterday's News," at SES London 2010. Today, let's hear from another speaker who talked about specific aspects of SEO for large media companies.Click to read the rest of this post...
Hitwise Says Facebook Most Popular U.S. Site
April 7, 2010, 5:46 amby Sage Lewis
Hitwise says Facebook Most Popular U.S. Site. Did you think this day would come? That a social media site would over take the mighty Google in traffic? Hitwise says that day has finally come.
Be sure and visit our small business news site.
Is FTC Circling its lawyers on the Google-AdMob Deal?
April 7, 2010, 5:28 amAccording to a story by Thomas Catan and Jessica E. Vascellaro of The Wall Street Journal, "The Federal Trade Commission appears to be laying the groundwork for an antitrust challenge to Google Inc.'s proposed purchase of mobile-advertising company AdMob."Click to read the rest of this post...
Nestle - Not Feeling the Social Media Love
April 7, 2010, 5:27 amby Sage Lewis
Marketing Pilgrim reported on a sticky social media situation that Nestle is currently facing. They are getting bashed pretty good by some very outspoken people in the social media space. What do you think? Should Nestle keep pushing the issue in the social media space? Or should they tuck their tail and run?
...
Murdoch: Paywalls and iPad Are Good, Google Not So Much
April 7, 2010, 5:10 am
We have heard this song sung by News Corps Rupert Murdoch on many occasions. If consistency counts for anything he certainly gets point for staying on message. Murdoch has again opened up his war of words around paywalls for online newspaper content and calling Google on copyright infringement. This time, though, Mr. Murdoch was...
Losing Time on Social Media
April 7, 2010, 4:52 amSocial media is everyone's shiny object in the digital marketing world. Personally, professionally and otherwise, millions of people worldwide are switching from other information and entertainment channels (or multitasking) for social destinations online and on the mobile web. I know there are a good number of early adopters that read Online...
The decline of Bebo
April 7, 2010, 3:52 amFollowing the announcement that AOL is to sell or shut down Bebo , now is as good a time as any to highlight how well the social network is performing in the UK. The table below lists the 10 most visited social networking sites in the UK last week, with Facebook picking up over half of the traffic. Bebo still ranks fourth in the category (and 31st...
Project-Based Learning: How Students Learn Teamwork, Critical Thinking And Communication Skills
April 7, 2010, 2:48 amWhat is project-based learning? PBL is a new learning approach which places greater emphasis on targeting the learning of complex experiences, geared to a specific goal or objective, in place of the traditional academic approach strongly focusing on rote memorization of multiple information items alienated from their practical, real-world uses....
AOL May Sell or Close Bebo
April 7, 2010, 2:26 am"AOL is committed to working quickly to determine if there are any interested parties for Bebo."
Vodafone To Add Opera Mini Browser To Emerging Market Handsets
April 6, 2010, 11:51 pm"With this product, we can transform even basic handsets into very capable Internet browsing devices, enabling millions of people to enjoy the social and economic aspects of the Internet that many already take for granted,"
Digg Makes Changes To DiggBar, And UnBans Domains
April 6, 2010, 11:17 pm"Rose criticized the DiggBar's user experience as "inconsistent" and "wonky," and called the feature "bad for the Internet."
Your Employees Could Generate Visitors Too!
April 6, 2010, 10:04 pmSome companies don't realize that they could be sitting on an SEO golden egg if they have employees. It doesn't matter if there are two or twenty employees there are ways you could leverage those people and their personal names on any company website. Assuming you get permission to be able to use their name on the website an employee directory is...
Yahoo Locates Foursquare for Purchase?
April 6, 2010, 9:21 pm
When the news is slow it’s always a relief to find a good juicy rumor to pass along to the readers of Marketing Pilgrim. Heck, if it wasn’t for rumors about Internet companies and other Internet related things there would be precious little to talk about on any day.
So what’s the latest? We hear from the folks at The...
The Differences Between SEO for Yahoo!, Bing, and Google
April 6, 2010, 8:52 pm
The fundamentals of SEO apply regardless of which search engine you want to rank in, but each of the major ones has some finer points, so let’s get right to them.
Yahoo!
You may have heard that participating in Google AdWords would penalize your site in other search engines, but Yahoo! insists that this is not the case. They really have...
Android is Now the Fastest Growing Mobile Apps Market
April 6, 2010, 8:39 pmAlthough its current catalog of mobile apps is way too far behind the number of apps in the iTunes Apps Store, still Google's Android Marketplace is steadily growing. In fact, it may now be considered as the fastest growing mobile apps stores . Recent data from the AndroidLib.com shows that around 9,331 new mobile apps were added to the Android...
AOL to Sell or Shut Down Bebo Social Network
April 6, 2010, 8:16 pmAOL's social networking site Bebo may soon be joining the dead pool or if AOL is lucky enough it may be joining another company. According to a memo by AOL Ventures EVP Jon Brod, AOL admits that social networking is a very competitive space on the web which AOL found difficult to compete with its own social networking site - Bebo.
Google Updates and SERP Changes - April 2010
April 6, 2010, 7:48 pm"WebmasterWorld Members discuss the latest developments in Google's SERPs."
Yahoo Wants to Buy Foursquare for $100 Million
April 6, 2010, 7:14 pmAmong the location-based social networking startups that are making waves right now, I've always believed that Foursquare has the biggest potential to make it big, if it is not that big right now. Foursquare has every good things going for them - increasing usage, new mobile features here and there, and of course prospective buyers including...
Social Networking Habits Vary Considerably Across Asia-Pacific Markets
April 6, 2010, 6:18 pmcomScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released its latest report on social networking activity in the Asia-Pacific region (excluding China) based on data from its World Metrix service. The study found that 50.8 percent of the total online population in the Asia-Pacific region visited a social networking site...
The Heck Is That?
April 6, 2010, 4:50 pmby Claudine Zap Hunters in an ancient Chinese forest discovered, captured, and caged a creature they are calling the " oriental Yeti ." The beast, which can't be classified as bear or cat or hairless dog, has been sent off to Beijing for DNA testing . You can see a picture of the ugly, hairless creature here . Be warned. It ain't pretty. The Times...
Google Integrates Buzz to Gmail for Mobile
April 6, 2010, 3:19 pmAs if the noise created by Google Buzz on Gmail for desktop is not enough, Google has just integrated Google Buzz to Gmail for Mobile. So, the next time you access your Gmail account on your iPhone or Android devices using your phone's browser to access gmail.com, you'd noticed that when you check the "menu" , Buzz is now added as an option....
URL removals explained, part II: Removing sensitive text from a page
April 6, 2010, 3:19 pmWebmaster level: All Change can happenâ"sometimes, as we saw in our previous post on URL removals , you may completely block or remove a page from your site. Other times you might only change parts of a page, or remove certain pieces of text. Depending on how frequently a page is being crawled, it can take some time before these changes get...
Why Google is So Tough on The Competition
April 6, 2010, 3:02 pmThere is something to be said for taking what is normally complex enterprise software and breaking it down to be something so simple as to be created in a few minutes on an average laptop and accessed via a massive parallel computing system. That's exactly what happened when I caught up with Nitin Mangtani, senior product manager for enterprise...
MSN Launches Online Magazine For Women
April 6, 2010, 3:01 pmMicrosoft's MSN has launched Glo, an online magazine aimed at women. The new site is a joint partnership with BermanBraun and Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S., which publishes Elle magazine and Woman's Day. Glo has the feel of a magazine and has navigation similar to MSN's celebrity focused site Wonderwall , which BermanBraun also helped to develop....
Google Buzz Makes It To Gmail For Mobile
April 6, 2010, 3:01 pmEarlier today, we reported that Google Buzz is, in a sense, getting serious - it's supposed to be integrated with Google Apps in the near-ish future for the sake of enterprise and government users. But it's getting sort of casual, too, landing in Gmail for mobile this afternoon. No app downloading or menu digging is required in order to make this...
Yelp Increasing Transparency and Eliminating Favorite Review
April 6, 2010, 2:36 pmYesterday, Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman announced two important product changes that make it even more clear that Yelp treats review content equally for all businesses, with no connection between advertising and reviews. The announcement was made on the Yelp Official Blog.Click to read the rest of this post...
Increasing Web Browser Productivity
April 6, 2010, 2:34 pmAlthough Chrome is relatively new it has become one of the easiest web browsers to interface with. Kawsar Ali shares some of the top extensions for Google Chrome and for anyone using Chrome these are a worthwhile download. These extensions, "can help you increase your productivity and enable you to perform your jobs easier and faster." I am...
Developer Shares Story of Being Threatened by Facebook for Crawling
April 6, 2010, 2:23 pmPete Warden, a former software engineer at Apple, who is now working on his own start-up, posted an interesting story about how Facebook threatened to sue him for crawling the social network. I reached out to both Warden and Facebook for more details, but so far have only received response from Facebook, who calls the incident...
AOL Plans to Sell or Close Bebo, its Social Network
April 6, 2010, 2:19 pmAccording to a variety of sources, AOL plans to sell or close Bebo, the social network that it acquired two years ago for $850 million.Click to read the rest of this post...
Digg Kills iFrame and Unbans Domains
April 6, 2010, 2:04 pmDigg doesn't issue a lot of press releases but it does keep an active blog that provides updates on the site. That's where Kevin Rose announced late list night that The Digg iFrame Toolbar is Dead / Unbanning Domains.Click to read the rest of this post...
Want to Buy Facebook Shares? Too Bad
April 6, 2010, 1:44 pm
Facebook is a hot property, in case you haven’t noticed. Rumors of an IPO have run rampant for three years, but still there’s no news on that front. Meanwhile, Facebook is trying to clamp down on secondary sales of its privately-held stock—especially by employees, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Last week,...
Mobile Gmail Now Offers Buzz Integration
April 6, 2010, 1:40 pm
Google is moving forward with all things Buzz even as they try to finally put the privacy issues to rest. Today in the Google Mobile blog it is reported that Buzz is now integrated into your mobile Gmail inbox just like it is on your desktop. You even get the little Buzz icon! Here’s a picture.
Google’s version
With the...
The 8-Step SEO Strategy, Step 1: Define Your Target Audience and Their Needs
April 6, 2010, 1:37 pmPosted by laura This post was originally in YOUmoz , and was promoted to the main blog because it provides great value and interest to our community. The author's views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of SEOmoz, Inc. Until recently I headed up technical marketing for Yahoo Media, where our competition was in verticals...
AOL Prepared To Unload Bebo
April 6, 2010, 1:13 pmLess than a week ago, the former president of Bebo joined Facebook, and now, AOL's admitted that the social network it bought for $850 million has been beaten by Mark Zuckerberg's leviathan. AOL intends to either sell or shut down Bebo in the near future.
Jon Brod, Executive Vice President of AOL Ventures, wrote in an internal memo obtained...
Scrabble Babble: Buzz over rumors of a rule change
April 6, 2010, 12:57 pmby Vera H-C Chan Certain things are inviolable. Like, blondes have more fun, dead fish float, and Scrabble does not allow proper nouns. Well, watch for unhappy blondes and sinking fish corpses: Come July, Scrabble is allowing the Brits to use proper nouns on its board gamesâ"words like like Mattel (which owns Scrabble) and Barbie (which Mattel...
60 days left to migrate to v200909
April 6, 2010, 12:51 pmLast month we reminded you that on April 22 most v13 services will be turned off. In 60 days, the following v13 services will no longer be accessible: CampaignService AdGroupService CriterionService AdService InfoService KeywordToolService SiteSuggestionService These three v13 services will continue to be accessible until the same functionality is...
West Virginia Mine Disaster Spurs Web Searches
April 6, 2010, 12:39 pmby Claudine Zap The explosion at Massey Energy Company's Upper Big Branch mine in Montcoal, West Virgina - which killed at least 25 - is the worst mine disaster in the past two decades. The tragedy caused searches to surge and questions to emerge on the Web. Updates abound on Twitter. User kariannalysis is a local news producer who is tweeting as...
Chrome's Market Share Tops 6 Percent In March
April 6, 2010, 12:39 pmMarch was yet another good month for Google's browser in terms of market share. According to Net Applications, Chrome converted more than a few additional people, shrinking the gaps between it and the field's two leaders, Internet Explorer and Firefox. Net Applications put Chrome's March market share at 6.13 percent, up 0.52 percent from its...
Digg To Shut Down Its Toolbar, Unban Domains
April 6, 2010, 12:30 pmSEOs (and probably a lot of others, too) are celebrating with today’s news that Digg will shutter its toolbar and unban all previously banned domains. Digg’s new CEO, Kevin Rose, says the changes will happen with the upcoming relaunch of Digg.com.
FCC Loses Net Neutrality Battle Against Comcast
April 6, 2010, 12:16 pmNews broke today that the U.S Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled against the FCC in a net neutrality case vs Comcast. The FCC had previously ordered Comcast to cease treating web traffic for different customers differently (which they had apparently done to slow down connections for users heavily engaged in bittorrent use). The...
Just When You Thought it was Safe to Ignore Click Fraud
April 6, 2010, 12:15 pmThis just in, or as they say in the UK, Stop Press: Jack Marshall of ClickZ reports that former deputy Prime Minister and member of the U.K. Labour Party, John Prescott, is encouraging supporters to click on Google pay-per-click ads sponsored by the Conservative Party, in order to diminish the campaign budget of Labour's major political...
Hear SEOptimise Speak at SMX Advanced London 2010
April 6, 2010, 12:11 pmThe full agenda for SMX London is now almost complete, this was a great conference last year and is expected to be a must-attend event again this year - especially as this is now an advanced conference. If you're attending, make sure you checkout the following panels: Day 1) Search Ad Quality, Under The Microscope - Richard Fergie , PPC Manager at...
Google Buzz’s Privacy Reset—Is It Enough?
April 6, 2010, 11:59 am
As Mashable predicted, Google Buzz issued a “privacy reset” to all users yesterday. As Mashable mentioned, Google Buzz has worked hard to make its privacy settings more legal user-friendly—but many of their changes were implemented after early adopters opted in. Present users didn’t have to go through the...
Rip Van Winkle: Use Tiger Woods as Wake Up Call for Going to SES New York Next Year
April 6, 2010, 11:14 amIn Washington Irving's story story, Rip Van Winkle falls asleep before the American Revolutionary War and wakes up 20 years after it. He gets into trouble when he proclaims himself a loyal subject of King George III, not knowing that a revolution has taken place.Click to read the rest of this post...
YellowPages.com Rebranded as YP.com
April 6, 2010, 11:13 amIn local search news, AT&T Interactive has rebranding its popular YellowPages.com to YP.com. AT&T's Jamie Carracher tells WebProNews, "YP.com will replace YellowPages.com as its flagship web property and brand." This was actually revealed last summer , but is now being implemented. About the change, Carracher says: - Predictive text search...
Digg Dropping DiggBar, Unbanning Domains
April 6, 2010, 11:10 amJust yesterday, news of Digg CEO Jay Adelson stepping down came out of nowhere, and Founder Kevin Rose was announced to be stepping in. It didn't take long for some changes to start being made.
Today Digg announced that the Digg iFrame Toolbar is dead. "Framing content with an iFrame is bad for the Internet," said Rose. "It causes...
Prominent UK Politician Encourages Google Click Fraud
April 6, 2010, 10:59 am
From what I remember of former deputy Prime Minister John Prescott–it’s been 10 years since I left England–he was a bulldog of a politician, who always liked to pick a fight.
It appears he’s still up to his old tricks and inadvertently learned a new one as well: click fraud!
In what he may have considered...
Think CIAO for B2B SEO copywriting
April 6, 2010, 10:33 amWhenever I chat with in-house and freelance SEO copywriters, I'm typically asked "the B2B question." It goes something like this: "I think I understand how to write optimized Web copy for B2C sites. But what about B2B SEO copywriting? Isn't it different?" It's true that B2B SEO copywriting often has a slightly different tone and feel than it's...
Microsoft Content Ads: Creating Successful Content Campaigns for 2010, Part II (US Only)
April 6, 2010, 10:21 amHey everyone. I wanted to follow-up on my Creating Successful Content Campaigns post from earlier this year with a few additional tips on how to make even more use out of adCenter's new Content Ads features released in 2009. Now that your content campaigns have been up and running for a few weeks/months, this is a great time to make some...
Digg: The Digg iFrame Toolbar is Dead / Unbanning Domains
April 6, 2010, 10:16 amHi all, Here are a couple updates regarding the DiggBar (iFrame toolbar) and banned sites. Note: These changes will not take place until the launch of Digg v4, sign up for the beta here.
UK Digital Agencies Search Bing for Bling
April 6, 2010, 9:53 amIf theres one thing we love to write about on this blog, its an innovative campaign. In the UK, the team that talks to media agencies about PPC, Microsoft adCenter and their benefits, have come up with a tongue-in-cheek way of educating the entire media planning community about all the new features on Bing.com. British media agency staff are...
McClatchy Taps WebVisible For Online Marketing
April 6, 2010, 9:47 amNewspaper company McClatchy said today it is rolling out WebVisible's online marketing platform to all 29 of its U.S. markets in an effort to boost advertising revenue. WebVisible says its platform will give McClatchy's local advertisers a better way to get found in newspaper listings, newspaper websites, search engines, or via mobile phones or...
Is Trust In Social Media Dying?
April 6, 2010, 9:28 amUsers have migrated from trusting traditional media for reviews, ratings, and recommendations to trusting what their peers have to say in social media. The new age of digital and social media is upon us, and apparently, already dying in some areas. New data shows consumers are rebelling against all the “noise.”
Chadwick Martin Bailey Study On Social Media and Buying
April 6, 2010, 9:24 amby Sage Lewis
Check out this interesting study by Chadwick Martin Bailey: Consumers Engaged Via Social Media Are More Likely To Buy, Recommend "The study of over 1500 consumers by market research firm Chadwick Martin Bailey and iModerate Research Technologies found that 60% of Facebook fans and 79% of Twitter followers are more likely to...
Business.com and PM Digital Car Giveaway at SES New York 2010
April 6, 2010, 9:23 amWe have a winner! Tom Lebaron, Disney Parks & Resorts, was the lucky winner of a new Honda FIT, sponsored by Business.com and PM Digital at SES New York 2010.Click to read the rest of this post...
Confirm Your Google Buzz Settings
April 6, 2010, 9:09 amThe Official Gmail Blog has officially warned users to "Confirm your Buzz settings."Click to read the rest of this post...
Google Buzz/Apps Integration Approaching
April 6, 2010, 9:06 amGoogle Buzz should get another shot at life in a few months' time. A new report's indicated that the service, which has so far been a flop with normal users, will finally be integrated with Google Apps and given a chance to operate in more formal environments. Kim Hart wrote earlier this morning, "Government agencies that have adopted Google's...
Quantify Value of Micro-Conversions to Avoid Bad Decisions
April 6, 2010, 9:06 amAs online marketing and search engine marketing in particular have evolved over the years, more and more metrics and data sources have become available to marketers. This is a great thing for analyzing campaigns and strategies, learning from them and improving upon them. However, all of this data can get extremely overwhelming, which is why it's...
With Lawsuits Looming, Yelp Separates Reviews From Advertising
April 6, 2010, 8:37 amOne suspects that, as long as Yelp offers a way for business owners to manipulate reviews in exchange for advertising, they’ll continue to run the risk of lawsuits — no matter if the lawsuits are justified or just the result of misunderstanding.
How to Optimize a Single Web Page For Over 15 Keywords and Get Ranked On All of Them
April 6, 2010, 8:24 amby Stoney deGeyter
They say it can't be done.
I'm told it's impossible.
Ridiculous!
Scandalous!
In SEO school* we are taught that you can't optimize a single web page for more than two or maybe three keywords at a time. Many say you can't truly be effective optimizing for more than one. It just doesn't work!
But what if there was a...
Landing Page Optimization Deep Dive: Interview with Tim Ash
April 6, 2010, 8:14 amTim Ash is a marketing machine. He writes a blog, contributes to Search Engine Watch, hosts a weekly show on WebmasterRadio.fm, is author of the book "Landing Page Optimization", speaks at numerous conferences and is the chair of the upcoming Conversion Conference in May. Oh, and he also runs SiteTuners , a successful landing page optimization...
UK General Election "Least Well-Kept Secret of Recent Years"
April 6, 2010, 8:13 amAccording to BBC News, Prime Minister Gordon Brown has confirmed that the UK general election will be held on May 6, 2010. Brown said it was the "least well-kept secret of recent years".Click to read the rest of this post...
Local Search Marketing using Foursquare
April 6, 2010, 8:07 amChuck Reynolds is always on the bleeding edge when it comes to using location based social sites, and even better in educating business how to use. In this post he explores FourSquare and does a great job of showing why business need to start caring.
Google Ups Limit On Picasa Albums
April 6, 2010, 8:03 amTo some people, 1,000 photo albums sounds like a lot; a handful each for pets, cars, significant others, and vacations would about cover it. But serious photographers take lots of pictures, and for the sake of not stifling them, Google's raised the per-Picasa-account limit on albums to a whopping 10,000. Think Picasa's engineers have too much...
Wake Up Suzy â" Wake Up! â" Managing SEO Client Expectations
April 6, 2010, 7:39 amI've touched on the topic of client expectations before, yet I can't emphasize enough how important this subject is. So I'm devoting an entire article to it. If you think you've read all there is to read about this subject, move along. Nothing here to see. However if you pause long enough and honestly ask yourself whether your initial...
Should you buy links? Google's Matt Cutts made a new announcement.
April 6, 2010, 7:36 amGoogle's Matt Cutts recently made a new announcement about paid links. Buying links is a very hot and controversial topic among webmasters. Should you buy links to increase the position of your website on Google? Do paid links help your rankings? Are there any risks?
Yelp Makes Changes Users Won’t Notice
April 6, 2010, 7:28 am
Yelp has been under some fire recently because of its review system and charges of strong-arm sales tactics. These are not the kind of headlines that any company wants to make. As a result, a post in the Yelp blog by CEO Jeremy Stoppleman outlines some changes that have been made by yelp to address some of the controversy.
What...
Wake Up Suzy – Wake Up! – Managing SEO Client Expectations
April 6, 2010, 7:27 amA post by Alan Bleiweiss for SEO consultants, in-house SEOs, and agencies for managing client expectations
Cambridge and Boston SEO Meetup Recap
April 6, 2010, 7:21 amThanks to everyone who made it out last night to the Boston and Cambridge SEO Meetup! I wanted to share some video clips and the powerpoint presentation that I reviewed during last nights Cambridge and Boston SEO Meetup. The topic that I covered was some top local SEO tips for companies looking to target a local audience.
Did You Think Making Money Blogging Would Be Easy?
April 6, 2010, 7:21 amEver since blogging became popular, people have been trying to make a living at it. A few have been successful, but many eventually give up, or if they actually do continue to blog, they aren't making money. In a session I attended about blogging at SXSW last month, one of the panelists asked the question, "how many of you have a blog?" Nearly...
Is Your Site Under Google Penalty?
April 6, 2010, 7:21 amOne of the most important aspects of taking care of a site's search 'appropriateness' is knowing what can get you penalized by Google (or any other search engine for that matter). Knowing how to assess the situation correctly so that you can tell if you have just been served a penalty can help you significantly to get the site back at the top...
5 Things Depeche Mode Can Teach You About Effective Online Marketing
April 6, 2010, 6:58 amI was walking the streets of downtown Austin between SXSW parties last month and someone asked me when I was going to do another pop-music-analogy post on Copyblogger. "What do you want to see?" I asked. "I bet you can't do one using Depeche Mode songs, " he challenged. "I bet I can," I countered. "Look at that guy in a dress playing the oboe!" he...
Yelp To Display Filtered Reviews
April 6, 2010, 6:58 amLocal business review site Yelp said today it is taking steps to increase transparency about how user reviews are presented to consumers. The move comes amid at least three lawsuits alleging that Yelp manipulates reviews based on whether a company advertises with the site. Beginning today, anyone who wants to see which reviews have been identified...
Some Tactical Tips for Tracking the Long Tail
April 6, 2010, 6:58 amMost of us in the search industry are pretty much aware by now that simply tracking individual keyword rankings to determine performance is all but a dead SEO practice. This scene is played out for a variety of reasons, due largely in part to personalized search and Google serving search results based on a searcher's physical location. With that...
Facebook Clarifies Stance On Third-Party Partnerships
April 6, 2010, 6:41 amLate last month, Facebook proposed some changes to its privacy policy, and in response, the social network received around 4,000 comments and a disapproving letter from a German official. So late last night, a Facebook representative took some time to discuss the suggestions. On the Facebook Blog , Barry Schnitt, a director on Facebook's...
How SEJ Tools Optimize Content Creation Process
April 6, 2010, 6:17 amOne of the main advantages of using SEJ tools is exactly being able to accomplish lots of inter-connected tasks from within one handy dashboard. This post will show you how the most important process in the website development - content creation - gets optimized and advanced through SEJ Toolset. Step 1: Analyze Keywords The first thing we will...
Marketers and Search Engine Optimizers Loved SES New York 2010
April 6, 2010, 6:17 amHow do I know that marketers and search engine optimizers loved SES New York 2010? We handed them a microphone at the event and asked them what they thought.Click to read the rest of this post...
10 SEO Tools Every Blogger Must Use
April 6, 2010, 5:57 amA list of SEO tools that every blogger should be using on a regular basis.
Linchpindex: The missing index for Seth Godin's "Linchpin"
April 6, 2010, 5:49 amI like making indexes. I've done several books, including Groundswell. In the language of Social Technographics , I'm a Collector. So when I noticed that Seth Godin's Linchpin , a book I admire , had no index, I saw it as an opportunity. The results are at the end of this post. In the terms Seth uses in Linchpin, this is a gift. Partly because I...
The value of keyword rankings - State of Search
April 6, 2010, 5:44 amIt seems it is rather cool to proclaim the death of keyword rankings and position reporting of late. Barry Adams looks at changes in search, including universal and personalised search and why, although position may not be as absolute as it once was - ranking still matters.
Can Kevin Rose Get Digg Out of the Hole Dug By Departing CEO?
April 6, 2010, 5:35 am
Does anyone really care about Digg anymore?
It seems like I’ve asked that question before and now it appears that Digg’s original founder is asking himself that same question. I’m guessing he didn’t like the answer, because CEO Jay Adelson is out the door and Kevin Rose will once again assume the reigns of...
Yelp Makes Changes To Address Criticism
April 6, 2010, 5:07 am"I hope that these changes will debunk some of the myths and conspiracy theories out there about Yelp and its advertising and whether those are linked,"
Making Use of Converted Visitors for Social Media
April 6, 2010, 4:04 amSocial media marketing channels have helped turn "Thank You" pages into opportunities for secondary levels of conversion where you can encourage users to become Facebook fan, follow on Twitter, connect via LinkedIn, review or Rate on social local sites, social bookmark or vote on published content, etcWikipediaWictionaryChambers (UK)Google...
Court Rules Against F.C.C. in 'Net Neutrality' Case
April 6, 2010, 3:53 am"Tuesday's ruling by the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia is a big victory for the Comcast Corporation,"
Leveraging Mechanical Turk, oDesk, ELance & Craigslist for SEO
April 6, 2010, 1:35 amPosted by randfish Web services that connect job seekers with paid employment have become powerful tools in the arsenals of those that know how to leverage them. Unfortunately, the services themselves and the concepts of how to apply them have often been overshadowed by fear, uncertainty and lack of knowledge about how to apply. No more. In this...
DIY SEO Software Reviews
April 6, 2010, 1:06 amIs DIY SEO any good? Does it work? When I got to look at DIY SEO my first thought was: good structure & layout, lets see what is under the hood. But then after opening up the hood I found a car with no engine. On a score of usability I would give the site a 9 or a 10, but in terms of utility it would be lucky to score as high as a 2 or a 3.
AdSense: Canadian Publishers Electronic Funds Transfer Woes
April 5, 2010, 10:34 pm"WebmasterWorld Members from Canada are still seeing problems over the EFT failure."
Video Marketing Tips from Expert Lou Bortone
April 5, 2010, 10:13 pmLou Bortone is an online video marketing specialist who hit the nail on the head with this video he recently made. I wanted to let everyone know about this really cool and helpful video. When you watch it some things might sound like he is stating the obvious but you would be shocked as to how many people do not apply these simple steps when...
New Google Jazz Interface Being Seen By More Webmasters
April 5, 2010, 9:48 pm"Once into the SERPS it has a left hand side bar as standard and the toggle for local or web results is now a text toggle with the choice coloured differently."
Interview of Tedster from WebmasterWorld
April 5, 2010, 8:13 pmIf you have been in the SEO field for any serious length of time you have probably come across (and benefited from) some of Tedster's work - either directly, or indirectly from others who have repackaged his contributions as their own. He is perhaps a bit modest, but there are few people in the industry as universally well respected as he is. I...
21 Steps to Fail Miserably in Social Media
April 5, 2010, 7:46 pmYou'd be suprised how many of these happen regularly...
Eight Little Gripes With Google Maps
April 5, 2010, 7:16 pmby Miriam Ellis
Is there a table, a shelf, a corner of your house that starts out bare and clean, but over time, you begin setting this and that on it without much thought?
Some mail, old newspapers, a rain hat, a screwdriver, a bracelet, a dog toy...Suddenly you look at this area one day and say,"Hey, that's a whole lot
of junk. That's a...
Dead Man's Noir: A Late Swedish Author's Phenomenal Buzz
April 5, 2010, 6:42 pmby Vera H-C Chan You submit three manuscripts to a publishing house. Within a matter of months, the first book in your trilogy becomes an insane international bestseller and makes you the second-best selling author across the globe in 2008 . Movie deals are made, not only in your home country of Norway, but also in Hollywood, where a top-notch...
comScore Reports February 2010 U.S. Mobile Subscriber Market Share
April 5, 2010, 6:02 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 period between November 2009 and February 2010. The report ranked the leading mobile original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and smartphone...
Optimizing Your Business Listing for Local Search Supremacy
April 5, 2010, 6:00 pmby Dave Cosper
If I was to take a crack at Google's local search algorithm and reduce it to a Layman's equation, it would perhaps look something like this:
Ranking = Location + Information + Corroboration + Input + XUnderstanding these variables is a critical part of successfully marketing your business online. SMB's have just two...
PayPal helps Twestival raise more than $450,000 for Concern Worldwide
April 5, 2010, 5:57 pmHi all, I'm Judy Chang from PayPal's non-profit team. As of today, Twestival Global has raised more than $450,000 for Concern Worldwide , a non-profit dedicated to helping children receive an education in some of the world's poorest countries. As you may already know, the 2 nd annual Twestival Global took place on March 25 at restaurants, bars,...
Update from Jay
April 5, 2010, 5:57 pmHey all, Got some news. After five years, forty million users, and an amazing ride, I've decided to step down as CEO of Digg. With the new Digg getting ready to launch, Digg Ads doing well, our sales force growing, our hiring ramping, and the company maturing well beyond its startup phase, I feel that now is the right time.
Collaborative mapping for major disasters
April 5, 2010, 5:51 pmEditor's Note: Today's guest author is A.J. Clark, President of Thermopylae Sciences and Technology, which helps developers build new applications with the Google Earth browser plug-in on Google Earth Enterprise through the iSpatial framework. A.J. works on the visualization, analysis, and dissemination of disaster/post-conflict data with a focus...
Jessica Alba's Plan, Earthquake Aftermath, iPad Video: What's the Buzz
April 5, 2010, 5:51 pmby Claudine Zap Our top picks from the day's hottest searches. California earthquake (Searches increased by +31,550%). A 7.2 magnitude temblor in Mexico was felt as far as L.A., Phoenix and Las Vegas. Rod Blagojevich (+1,025%).The ex-governor lost his newest job on "Celebrity Apprentice." Donovan McNabb trade (807%). The quarterback for the...
Dead Man's Noir: A Late Norwegian Author's Phenomenal Buzz
April 5, 2010, 5:51 pmby Vera H-C Chan You submit three manuscripts to a publishing house. Within a matter of months, the first book in your trilogy becomes an insane international bestseller and makes you the second-best selling author across the globe in 2008 . Movie deals are made, not only in your home country of Norway, but also in Hollywood, where a top-notch...
Sweet Opening Day for Red Sox
April 5, 2010, 5:51 pmby Claudine Zap Barack Obama wasn't the only celebrity to grace an infield on opening day . Singer-songwriter Neil Diamond also wowed a crowd at Fenway Park . Here's the story, and the video: The Red Sox , who have been doing a fine job of shaking off the " Curse of the Bambino ," have die-hard fans to boot. According to Entertainment Weekly ,...
Google Buzz Gets Confirmation Page, Tweaks Comment Collapsing
April 5, 2010, 5:45 pmUpdated: Earlier today I detailed Google's rendering of its confirmation page for existing users of the Google Buzz social service. I also alluded to a nifty change that should cut down on the confusion and clutter in Buzz, where threads present as mountains of data piled atop valleys of data. Google actually calls the posts that receive many...
Vietnam Rejects Google's Malware Claims
April 5, 2010, 2:26 pmVietnam shares a border with China, and it's possible that Vietnamese authorities are starting to share the Chinese government's low opinion of Google, too. Today, a spokesperson dismissed Google's claim that Vietnamese computer users were infected by politically motivated malware.
As you may remember, Google said last week that...
eBay's New Google Gadget for "Social Shopping"
April 5, 2010, 2:23 pmeBay has introduced a new Google Friend Connect gadget called eBay Social Shopping, which lets publishers add "social shopping" to their sites. It lets users browse eBay right from the gadget on the site "almost" as if they were on eBay itself.
We wondered how eBay sellers might be able to use this to their own advantage, and...
Stanford Launches Site Focused On App Privacy
April 5, 2010, 2:15 pmThe Stanford Center has launched a new website, WhatApp.org, where users and experts can review online and mobile apps for privacy and security.
M. Ryan Calo, a residential fellow at Stanford Law School's Center for Internet and Society, has helped design WhatApp.org with the goal of reducing the risk of computer hacking, identity theft, spam...
Reputation Management Isn't Just About Playing Defense
April 5, 2010, 1:54 pmPushing your brand's message through social media as proven to be an effective strategy for plenty of businesses. That said, it has also proven to be a way for disgruntled customers to voice their disdain for brands and products, and spread that disdain virally throughout their social circles. Businesses are often quick to step in and defend their...
Use Site Search to Boost your Online Marketing
April 5, 2010, 1:25 pmby Stone Reuning
Today's
websites are more complex than ever before. Many contain a wealth of
information visitors can use to answer their questions and learn what they need
to know before contacting a company or making a purchase online.
But
with all the information and features packed into many of today's websites, it
can also be more...
Android's Market Share Jumps Again
April 5, 2010, 1:11 pmAndroid is still on a roll, according to new statistics from comScore, and if anything, the mobile operating system is picking up speed. comScore puts Android's February market share at an impressive 9.0 percent.
As the below table shows, that means Android's made a lot of progress since November, when its market share was 3.8...
Google Buzz Privacy Reset Tomorrow
April 5, 2010, 12:08 pm
Google Buzz lived up to its name in its first week. After not fully testing the product, Google launched Buzz and forced all Gmail users into it without a way to opt out. Then we realized they were automatically sharing the list of people we chatted with and emailed most frequently. Finally, Google backed off many of these...
Farmers Using Social Media To Be Ag Advocates
April 5, 2010, 11:57 amA group of agriculture advocates who launched AgChat on Twitter last year have now launched their own website the AgChat Foundation.
Farmers are leading a grassroots effort to develop the AgChat Foundation. The organization is designed to connect agriculture communities outside of Twitter.
The foundation's goal is to involve all areas of...
Digg CEO Steps Down, Founder Steps in
April 5, 2010, 11:49 amDigg CEO Jay Adelson has announced he is stepping down from the position to pursue some entrepreneurial concepts of his own. He's served for five years, and will be replaced in the interim, by Digg Founder Kevin Rose.
"With the new Digg getting ready to launch, Digg Ads doing well, our sales force growing, our hiring ramping, and the...
The Ten Steps To Arranging and Writing a Killer Guest Post
April 5, 2010, 11:36 amGuest posting takes much time and effort and is only effective when taken seriously. So the aim of this post is to actually describe this serious approach to guest blogging step by step – to make sure the tactic works for you.
Google Offers Fixed Response to Certain Searches
April 5, 2010, 11:05 am
Google is starting to make some changes in search results that are designed to “cut to the chase” when a situation could be time sensitive. In a way, it is Google admitting that sometimes you need to dig quite a bit to find what you are looking for on the search engine. In some cases though it’s likely that a person may not...
British Elections to be Fought on YouTube, Facebook, Blogs, and Twitter
April 5, 2010, 10:43 amOkay, so it's doesn't have the same ring as Winston Churchill's "we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender." But the British elections -- which are expected to be held on May 6 -- will be fought on YouTube, Facebook,...
Google Adds Localization to New UI Tests
April 5, 2010, 10:36 am
Back in November, Google started testing a new user interface with the search option automatically displayed in the right column (first tested a year ago, added to the SERP in May, but off by default). Users are spotting that layout test again, with some new features including localization.
As Barry Schwartz reports, Sara...
Demand Media Aims to Sort Out eHow Content Confusion
April 5, 2010, 10:33 ameHow, Demand Media's most heavily trafficked property, just announced a big change to how it provides content. I had a conversation with eHow General Manager Gregory Boudewijn and Stewart Marlborough, the general manager of Demand Studios (the content arm of Demand Media) about what this means for readers, as well as content contributors.
Up...
A Mystery Hero in Water Rescue
April 5, 2010, 10:24 amby Vera H-C Chan A slip, a scary splash, then a scream. It took just seconds for a two-year-old girl to fall 20 feet into New York's East River waters. Many reacted quickly to rescue 2-year-old Bridgette Sheriden , but two men reacted even faster: Bridgette's father David Anderson and a still unknown French tourist who, after helping in the...
Spring Fever, Bing Travel and You: Now's the Time to Optimize Your Microsoft adCenter Travel Campaigns
April 5, 2010, 10:17 amThis morning when I logged in to Facebook, I was greeted with no less than five status updates related to spring-like weather and another six from friends talking about vacation plans. Now that April has officially arrived, it seems spring fever is in.
8 Search Related iPad Apps
April 5, 2010, 9:31 amAside from Twitter and Social Networking apps, another interesting set of apps available right now on the iPad App Store are search-related. I scoured through the App Store to get the most significant of these search-related iPad apps - and found 8 of them. Here are 8 search-related apps that you might want to check out. Zillow Real Estate...
eBay Launches Fashion Microsite
April 5, 2010, 9:25 ameBay said today it is launching a new microsite eBay Fashion that will sell clothing, shoes and accessories.
eBay Fashion offers a more visual shopping experience that highlights the selection of new, vintage, branded and designer merchandise available on eBay.
Users can click on a "Fashion Tab" in the top navigation on the eBay...
Google Writes President Over Consumer Energy Info
April 5, 2010, 9:05 amGoogle - along with 46 other organizations - is pressing harder than ever for progress in terms of informing consumers about their energy consumption. Google - and those 46 other entities - wrote a letter to the president today, asking for his help in the matter.
The list of groups includes some impressive names, including AT&T, Best...
Sponsored Posts â" Measure The Risk Carefully
April 5, 2010, 8:34 amSponsored posts have been a hot topic in the blogosphere and among marketers the last few years. What exactly is a sponsored post? The simple answer is: a company pays a blogger cash to blog about their product or service. This is different than an advertorial since the blogger is paid cash to write the content as opposed to the sponsor...
Advertisers Interested in iPad for Now
April 5, 2010, 8:32 am
Well, have you been able to gather yourself after the iPad finally launched this weekend? There was significant buzz around this event that appears to started out with 300,000 units sold (200,000 of those were pre-orders). Lines formed at all the Apple stores in the US but I found it rather funny that in an interview segment...
Google Responds To "Suicide" Queries
April 5, 2010, 8:23 amThe search giant that does everything from take pictures of city streets to research solar power may manage to save some human lives, too. Google's started to provide people who search for certain suicide-related terms with the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline's phone number. Queries for terms and phrases like "suicide," "how to commit...
Citysearch Launches Cityseries iPad App
April 5, 2010, 8:05 amThere's no shortage of iPad app announcements flying out of the press rooms. You can include Citysearch in the mix. The company has introduced an iPad App called Cityseries. "The cityseries app will offer users the great Citysearch editorial content theyve come to know and love, with an innovative digital magazine format built specifically for the...
Cold Calling For Links: Advice from Door to Door Sales
April 5, 2010, 8:05 amAbout 8 years ago, I was offered a job in door to door sales. I thought it would probably be the scariest, hardest job I could ever do. So I took it. I figured if I could spend a summer selling coupon cards to strangers on their doorsteps then I could probably do anything. I was right. I learned that selling anything door to door pretty much...
Social Media May Get Much More Convenient for Businesses
April 5, 2010, 7:42 amAs we reported last week , some significant news was announced regarding the open web, and the direction social networking is headed in. Cliqset and Status.net announced that for the first time ever, the users of two independent, public web entities are able to communicate with each other, without being on the same service as the person they are...
Peter Morville Named Keynote Speaker for SES Toronto 2010
April 5, 2010, 7:24 amSearch Engine Strategies (SES) announced this morning that Peter Morville will be one of the keynote speakers for SES Toronto 2010, which will be held on June 9-11 at the Hyatt Regency Toronto.Click to read the rest of this post...
German Official Objects To Facebook Privacy Changes
April 5, 2010, 7:19 amGermany's Federal Minister of Consumer Protection is not at all happy with Facebook. Indeed, in a new open letter to Mark Zuckerberg, Ilse Aigner condemned proposed changes to Facebook's privacy policy, and threatened to quit the social network if her concerns aren't addressed. Specifically, Aigner is bothered by the idea of Facebook providing...
iPad Sales Top 300,000 First Day
April 5, 2010, 7:19 amApple said today it sold over 300,000 iPads in the U.S. as of midnight Saturday, April 3, the first day of availability. Apple said sales included deliveries of pre-ordered iPads to customers, deliveries to its channel partners and sales at Apple Retail Stores. The company also said iPad users downloaded over one million apps from Apple's App...
Google to Ask Buzz Users to Reconfirm Privacy Settings
April 5, 2010, 7:19 amAnytime now, when you click on the Buzz tab on your Gmail account Google will ask you to confirm or change your privacy settings. The announcement is yet to be posted by Google but both Mashable and BBC News have spilled the beans out that Google will be admitting that they "didn't get everything right." Hence, it has been carrying some...
Does Your Company Twitter? 10 Tips To Become A Great Business "Twit"
April 5, 2010, 7:19 amWhat do you think of when I mention Twitter? Do you think about teenagers posting what color socks their wearing to school today? Or do you think about the sales/conversions your company makes by utilizing these accounts? Social media is a fantastic way to increase your brand exposure. By creating a successful Twitter account you...
Landing Page Makeover Clinic #24: NannySoft.com
April 5, 2010, 6:45 amThis is another addition to our ongoing series of tutorials and case studies on landing pages that work. David Gilbert wants to help parents monitor their school-aged children's activities online. He's done his homework and knows his demographic stats cold. He also has a good handle on the main reasons why parents buy these kinds of products....
Caroline Rodehau, New York Girl Style, Discusses Fashion 2.0 at SES New York 2010
April 5, 2010, 6:45 amLast week, we heard from Sarah Rock of Stylelist and Lauren Sherman of Fashionista, who spoke at the Spotlight on Fashion: Blogging for Style at SES New York 2010. This week, lets hear from Caroline Rodehau of New York Girl Style.Click to read the rest of this post...
3 Ways to Generate a Tag Cloud off Google SERPs
April 5, 2010, 6:38 amLooking at the words that accompany your main search term in SERPs is a great help in keyword research: this way you are able to analyze your keyword neighboring terms and words that appear in the same context. Before playing with any of the below listed tools, set Google to show 100 results per page (for the tools to have more data to analyze): 1.
When to Take a Social Media Break
April 5, 2010, 6:38 amTwitter became my priority. It became my obsession. I should've been shutting down and enjoying a moment in life, a moment I can never get back. Instead, my mind was focused on how to condense the moment into 140 characters and share it. Looking back, I lost memories and failed to get the most out of many experiences because I was too busy...
Rip Van Winkle: Search Engine Strategies NYC 2004 vs. SES New York 2010
April 5, 2010, 6:30 amAfter returning from SES New York 2010, my wife asked to clean out the bags of stuff that I've piled in the garage from other shows. Over the weekend, I discovered my conference handbook for Search Engine Strategies NYC 2004.Click to read the rest of this post...
2010 Google Toolbar PageRank Update : PageRank Bunny
April 5, 2010, 5:54 amDid the Google PageRank Bunny visit your site over this past weekend to drop off a basket of juicy Google [Toolbar] PageRank goodness? Or did he raid your fridge and hop away with some of your site's PageRank? Over the weekend the first Google 'Toolbar' PageRank update of 2010 occurred which left some site owners quite happy, some a bit bewildered...
Pandia search engine news wrap-up April 5
April 5, 2010, 5:42 amHere are some of the top headlines and some of our favorite bookmarks this week. Twitter Quietly Rolls Out 'Most Popular Tweets' The display shows the tweet, when it was posted, and how many times it's been retweeted â" suggesting that that's a key element of how popular tweets are determined. Blog Commenting Faux Pas, Red Flags, and Best...
Google Acquires a Video Company You’ve Never Heard Of!
April 5, 2010, 5:38 am
While you were either a) drooling over your new iPad, or b) wishing those that had a new iPad would shut-up already, Google went out and bought a company you’ve never heard of.
What’s pretty cool about Episodic’s announcement of their acquisition is that they admit you’ve probably never heard of them....
Social Media Strategies offers discount and free ticket draw to Pandia readers
April 5, 2010, 3:54 amSocial Media Strategies is a conference on social business, social marketing, advertising and optimization. The conference provides strategic knowledge, insights and examples on planning, implementing and managing your social media efforts. Social Media Strategies features workshops on how to market your business on Facebook and on marketing on...
Web Hosting Type: Shared, Virtual, Dedicated, Co-Located - How To Choose The Right Hosting Solution
April 5, 2010, 1:52 amIf you are starting a new web site it's easy to drown in the sea of alternatives offered by web hosting providers. Is it better to go for a dedicated or a shared web server? Should you choose Windows- or Linux-based hosting? Which price range is the right one for you and what are the features you can't live without?
Photo credit: TNNhost
For a...
Android App MarketPlace Limited to Smart Phones
April 4, 2010, 11:17 pm"We ask our partners to build compatible devices, and we provide handset manufacturers with a Compatibility Test Suite"
Google To Issue Privacy Reset For Buzz
April 4, 2010, 10:53 pm"The search giant will ask all its users to confirm or change their privacy settings, starting on 5 April."
Why SEO Requires Careful Attention
April 4, 2010, 10:10 pmIf people would realize that search engine optimization is not just a one-time approach that consists of air dropping a palette full of keywords onto your website and flying away, more businesses would be able to see the value in conducting online marketing to grow their business. Think about how much the search engines have evolved from when they...
CRO and SEO: SEM Civil War
April 4, 2010, 10:04 pmPosted by Kate Morris civil war n. A state of hostility or conflict between elements within an organization. Alright, so search marketing isn't really an "organization" but there is a certain hostility within its ranks. It's the war of the acronyms and funding. For years there have been articles, studies, and conference panels surrounding the...
Using Video on your Website
April 4, 2010, 8:56 pm
If you’re not using video on your website, you should be. Any business can use video on their website to improve their branding and profits. In fact, small businesses have been quick to adopt video on their websites. The number of small businesses using video on their websites at the end of 2009 was four times as great as only one year...
Google Acquires Episodic Online Video Platform for Broadcasting Live and On-Demand Content
April 4, 2010, 4:18 pmOn Friday, Episodic announced that has been acquired by Google. According to Noam Lovinsky and Matias Cudich, Co-Founders of Episodic, "The Episodic team will join Google and continue its work to bring a great video experience to the Web, mobile phones and IPTV devices."Click to read the rest of this post...
Facebook Sues Data Scraper
April 4, 2010, 10:15 am"Warden gathered that data from public profiles using "crawling" software similar to what's commonly available on the Web..."
Apple May Build a Search Engine to Shield iPhone Data From Google
April 4, 2010, 9:46 am"Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster said there is a 70 percent chance Apple will roll out a mobile search engine tailored for its iPhone within the next five years. As the search provider for the iPhone, Google sees what iPhone users are searching for, which can help it tailor software and services for its own mobile smartphones."
Growing Your Business: 5 Tips From the Founder of Foursquare
April 4, 2010, 8:46 amWhen someone like Dennis Crowley speaks then you have to listen. Some really unique tips on business growth here.
More Journalists Using Facebook And Twitter
April 4, 2010, 5:47 amMore than a third (37%) of traditional journalists now contribute to Twitter and 39 percent produce content for a blog as part of their expanded duties, according to a new PRWeek/PR Newswire Media Survey. "Across the board you can see a change in journalists' behavior," said Sarah Skerik, VP of distribution services at PR Newswire . "Journalists...
New Google Design & Not Entirely Unlike Jeremiah Owyang
April 3, 2010, 9:57 amNo this is not linkbait using Jeremiah's name. Read on to find out what this "not entirely unlike" business from Google is all about and what it has to do with him. A while back I wrote about the new design Google is testing (which I like a lot) that adds a third column to search results along the left side. It's come and gone a few times since...
MySpace Lines Up Special Content For iPad Users
April 3, 2010, 9:18 amAnyone who's sneered at the idea of using the iPad as video-watching device, citing the laptops, desktop monitors, and TVs that offer larger viewing areas, might have to reconsider their stance on the grounds of "something's better than nothing." MySpace intends to let iPad users see at least the occasional movie trailer before everybody else....
Johnny's Copyblogger Wrap-Up: Week of March 29, 2010
April 3, 2010, 7:59 amSo this is the second week of the weekly wrap-up, and Brian seems to suspect that I might need encouragement to keep going or something. I tell him I don't need encouragement as long as the pay is good, and that's when he tells me for the last time he's NOT paying me, and then throws rocks at me until I drop his wallet and scamper back into the...
PRWeek/PR Newswire Media Survey Finds Digital Divide Between Journalists and Bloggers
April 3, 2010, 6:20 amOn April 1, 2010, PRWeek and PR Newswire issued a press release ... that was no joke. It highlighted the key findings of the "2010 PRWeek/PR Newswire Media Survey."Click to read the rest of this post...
Spammers Sending Malicious 3D Easter Emails
April 3, 2010, 5:46 amEaster is coming up, and of course that means spammers are taking advantage. They do this with most holidays. And like they do with other holidays, they are using the holiday to disguise malicious emails. Symantec shared some examples with us. "MessageLabs Intelligence has intercepted Easter 'e-card' spam emails offering a '2010 Easter 3D...
Cup of Joe: Are You Profitable or Pragmatic?
April 3, 2010, 5:04 am
I do a lot of different things in the Internet marketing industry. But I think what I do the most, and quite possibly the best, is product development. I write code, I manage designers, and I promote products. All of these things have to do with product development. Over the years I’ve come to believe that every product...
Google Buzz Comments Are Collapsible Now
April 3, 2010, 3:36 amFinally, Google has addressed one of the Buzz kills we mentioned a long time ago - making buzz posts with tons of comments collapsible. According to Google when there are enough comments on Buzz posts,
Google Adds the iPad as a Mobile Device Option in Adwords
April 3, 2010, 3:19 amGoogle has just announced that the iPad is now part of the mobile device options in AdWords. This means that AdWords advertiser can easily extend the reach of their current ad campaigns to the iPad . If you want your ad campaigns to appear on the iPad and other tablets as well, you simply have to select "all mobile devices" in your campaign...
Local Business Directories Yelp, Yahoo! Local, and Bing Local
April 2, 2010, 9:02 pm
Local internet business directories can help your business out locally. While you may consider your business to be web-wide, there’s nothing wrong with getting the support of the local population, particularly if your business has a bricks and mortar presence too. Even if you do all your work over the web (such as translating documents or...
Google Acquires Online Video Hosting Platform Episodic
April 2, 2010, 8:49 pm"Episodics publishing suite lets users manage and measure video content, and use the platforms monetization services which enable ad insertion and credit card transactions for both live and on-demand video streaming."
Ricky, Anna, and Jesse: Buzz Week in Review
April 2, 2010, 6:24 pmby Mike Krumboltz The private lives of celebrities are responsible for approximately 97.8% of all Web searches. OK, so maybe that's a slight exaggeration, but you get the point. People love this stuff. This past week, there was a lot to love. Several celebs discussed their romantic lives and, not surprisingly, the Web searches were epic. Here's a...
Pants Off the Ground: Campaign to "Stop the Sag"
April 2, 2010, 5:50 pmby Claudine Zap Beware, beltless jeans: Your days may be numbered. New York state Senator Eric Adams is taking a stand against the sagging trousers of Brooklyn's youth. The politician's tools of choice: an earnest but far from hip YouTube video . Billboards paid for with his own campaign funds. And a message he hopes will become a catch phrase...
Digg Releases Mobile App for Android
April 2, 2010, 5:04 pmWhen Digg announced its Digg for iPhone app a couple of weeks ago, for awhile I thought nobody would noticed it as I'm beginning to think that Digg is losing its popularity. But I was wrong. Digg for iPhone app managed to get several thousands of downloads. In short it was a pretty successful stint. And so to follow it up, Digg has also released...
Yahoo Brings its Entertainment Portal to the iPad
April 2, 2010, 4:41 pmAside from Google Yahoo is also making its presence felt in the iPad party. For Yahoo's part it's by way of making its entertainment portal iPad-ready. Yahoo Entertaiment for iPad offers an iPad-friendly user interface for exploring entertainment content, television listings, videos, news and more.
Financial Services in 2010: Mortgage and Loans Seasonality
April 2, 2010, 3:16 pmThe mortgage and loans vertical had an down year in 2009 due to the busting of the housing bubble in late 2008 that significantly dropped traffic due to decreasing home values. Delinquent loans continued to increase in 2009 due to unemployment and a poor economy causing home price to continue falling and making banks more restrictive on issuing...
Explaining the Easter Bunny
April 2, 2010, 2:47 pmby Mike Krumboltz In Christianity, Easter marks the day that Jesus Christ was resurrected from the dead. So why then do so many equate the holiday with a giant rabbit that, somehow, lays multicolored eggs? What exactly is the origin of the Easter Bunny? Folks are clearly curious. Web searches on " easter bunny origin " and " who created the easter...
Buzz Multiplex: Top 10 Fair-Weather Movies of 2010
April 2, 2010, 2:30 pmby Vera H-C Chan Fair weather usually means blockbuster machismo-overdrive in the multiplex. In 2010, though, something's different in the air conditioning. This time, the ladies are in on the actionâ"as well as tales about forbidden romances and female friendships. Two out of 3 of the season's most anticipated movies online have been buoyed up...
Facebook Acquires Photo Service Divvyshot
April 2, 2010, 2:30 pmFacebook has acquired Divvyshot , a photo sharing service. Staff will join Facebook's engineering team. Divvyshot founder Sam Odio tells WebProNews, "We're thrilled to be joining the Facebook team and look forward to kicking ass there." Divvyshot describes itself as an "effortless way to see and share photos important to you, your friends, and...
Google is also iPad-Ready
April 2, 2010, 2:07 pmA few more hours before the iPad starts arriving on those who pre-ordered it for the last two weeks or so, and with the excitement building up, Google has also joined the iPad frenzy. The Google Mobile Blog is reporting that they have done some preparations to optimize Google's mobile offering for the iPad's large touchscreen, portability, and...
Why the Time for Mobile is Now
April 2, 2010, 1:56 pmI was at a party the other night to celebrate the first anniversary of Nokia's " Ideas Project ." The "Ideas Project" is an effort to bring together a diverse group of smart folks to share their thoughts on the evolution of media. The site has a bunch of interesting videos in which the likes of Esther Dyson , Robert Scoble , Loic Le Meur , Jerry...
Google Acquires Online Video Platform â" Episodic
April 2, 2010, 1:44 pmGoogle just acquired a new startup, this time specializing on online video platform for broadcasting both live and on-demand content to the web or any web enabled device. The startup called Episodic officially announced the acquisition . Episodic is a video publishing platform consist of six functional areas - video content management, content...
Google Prepares For iPad With Five Services/Apps
April 2, 2010, 1:27 pmThe iPad's become almost inescapable - really, it's hard to imagine that anyone with a TV or Internet connection hasn't heard of the device by now - and to those people who actually buy one, Google would like to be similarly omnipresent. The search giant discussed five iPad-specific tweaks and apps this afternoon. Let's start by talking about...
Digg Launches Android App, Announces Hiring
April 2, 2010, 1:10 pmLast week Digg launched its iPhone app, along with an iPad contest. Now, Digg has launched its Android App.
"The Digg Android app has been designed for an ideal mobile Digg browsing experience on an Android phone," says Digg's Brian Wong. "You can browse and digg stories and comments, and the app supports landscape mode for...
Digg App for the Android is now available!
April 2, 2010, 12:47 pmFollowing fast on the heels of the Digg iPhone app announcement last week, we are pleased to announce the availability of the official Digg Android app.
Prepaid mobile searches on the rise
April 2, 2010, 12:41 pmWith unemployment rates remaining high and consumers looking to cut costs, prepaid and pay as you go mobile plans have increased in popularity to avoid another monthly expense. A recent study released by the New Millennium Research Council (NMRC) , the prepaid segment of the overall wireless market in the U.S. grew 54% during Q409, compared with...
Jennifer Hudson's New Job, Anna Paquin's Confession, Arizona's Lottery Winners: What's the Buzz
April 2, 2010, 12:02 pmby Claudine Zap Our top picks from the day's hottest searches. Anna Paquin (Searches increased by +6,794%). The "True Blood" star says in a gay-rights video that she is bisexual . Jennifer Hudson (+2,524%). The new mom with the smaller figure is now the new spokesperson for Weight Watchers. Ham (381%). If your Easter Sunday will include a ham,...
A Look at e-Commerce Now and the Bright Future Ahead
April 2, 2010, 11:44 amHi all, Bill Zielke here, senior director on the Merchant Services team. Last month, Forrester Research and Javelin Strategy and Research issued reports on the state and future of e-commerce. Javelin found that, despite the economic downturn, domestic e-commerce grew at a staggering pace - nearly 11 percent from 2008 to 2009. Both reports also...
Love Thy Neighbor on Facebook
April 2, 2010, 11:38 amMeeting the new neighbors no longer requires a Welcome Wagon. Neighbors instead are turning to Facebook to build a greater sense of community online to complement the traditional block parties and neighborly door knocking. Current residents find that they can more quickly share are information, news and events with one another, while former...
Google Acquires Video Monetization Platform Episodic
April 2, 2010, 11:28 amUpdate: Google gave us the following statement:
"We were impressed by the Episodic team, the vision they have for Internet video, and the progress they have made in bringing a great video experience to the web. Online video should be engaging, entertaining, informative, and effective. Both Episodic and Google place value on creating a great...
Top 5 iPhone Apps for Search & Internet Marketers
April 2, 2010, 11:15 amSearch and Internet marketing can, at times, be a 24 hour job. It doesn't necessarily HAVE to be, but if you want good results and want to keep up with new information often times it is. Sometimes we just want it to be regardless; it's something we enjoy. Even when we leave our computers we're still tempted to take a peek at things or be able to...
YouTube Videos: New York Yankees vs. Boston Red Sox
April 2, 2010, 11:03 amThe major league baseball season gets underway Sunday night. Instead of looking at the New York Yankees vs. Boston Red Sox starting lineups, I thought I'd take a look at the YouTube videos that have been recently uploaded about one of the oldest, most famous and fiercest rivalries in American professional sports.Click to read the rest of this...
Ex-Googler Falls Prey to Wonderful Privacy Flaw of Google Buzz
April 2, 2010, 10:12 amThis is a fun story. Andrew McLaughlin, formerly Google's top lobbyist and currently the Deputy CTO in the White House, where he advises President Barack Obama on Internet policy, apparently was aghast to find his contacts exposed by Google Buzz . Buzz is the social Web services that leverages Gmail users' contacts. By default, Buzz was built to...
The New York Times Rolls Out iPad App
April 2, 2010, 9:48 amThe New York Times has introduced its free app for the iPad called "The Editors' Choice app." The Editors' Choice app offers two pages of content from the top eight to ten articles in news, business, technology, opinion and feature sections from The Times along with videos and slideshows. The New York Times says the ad-supported app is optimized...
Facebook Names Manager Of Custom Data Center
April 2, 2010, 9:25 amFacebook moves fast. On January 21st, the company broke ground on a custom data center in Prineville, Oregon. Now, it's named the facility's manager, and proven with a handful of photos that construction is coming along quite nicely. Let's start with the personnel announcement . Ken Patchett has worked for Compaq, Microsoft, and most recently,...
Search for More Search Marketing Opportunities
April 2, 2010, 9:25 amSince Bing launched last year, it has placed a great deal of emphasis on giving answers beyond just the "ten blue links." In reality, the major search engines each offer much more than these ten blue links (the standard of the old days of search). Google, Yahoo, and Bing each offer a variety of ways for users to obtain the information they're...
"Real Time SEO: No More Yesterday's News" at SES London 2010
April 2, 2010, 9:10 amAt SES London 2010, I moderated a session entitled, "Real Time SEO: No More Yesterday's News." It focused on specific aspects of SEO for large media companies.Click to read the rest of this post...
If Google Indexing Goes Real-Time, What Will it Mean for Ranking?
April 2, 2010, 7:54 amLast year, we saw the emergence of the technology PubSubHubbub , which provides real-time notifications to subscribers of content when there is new content or updates being made. There has recently been talk about Google developing a system that would use this technology it its indexing process. Do you want your content indexed instantly? Share...
Yahoo Entertainment For The iPad Debuts
April 2, 2010, 7:54 amIf the iPad lives up to the hype (as you may know, Apple's actually termed the device "a magical and revolutionary product"), it'll provide companies an important way of connecting with millions of consumers. And Yahoo may be one of those companies, since it launched Yahoo Entertainment for the iPad this morning. The app looks both attractive and...
Track Keywords with Topikality
April 2, 2010, 7:36 amTopikality is an email alert service (something like Google Alerts but with some essential differences. So it can be used as an additional email alert service not an alternative one) Best to use for: Keyword research for your main/base keyword (to see which contexts it is used in); Post and content ideas (to see what people write about in this...
Whiteboard Friday - SEO-Friendly Real Time Content
April 2, 2010, 7:30 amPosted by great scott! Real-time search is all the rage right now, but how can you turn your real-time content into SEO-Friendly material for your sites? All of those tweets, chats, feebs (that's short for facebook status updates-let's make it happen, people), etc. add up to a lot of content...unique content that belongs to you. For instance, if...
Hitwise Dubs Facebook "Most Searched On Brand In U.S."
April 2, 2010, 7:13 amIt looks like Mark Zuckerberg is going to have to make more room in his trophy case. Hitwise has devised a new metric termed "breadth volume," and Facebook is beating brands like Google, Yahoo, and Craigslist is this respect by quite a lot. First, here's an explanation of exactly what we're talking about: Hitwise's Bill Tancer wrote,
Disney Offers Host Of Apps For iPad
April 2, 2010, 7:12 amDisney has announced it will offer applications from all of its businesses on Apple's new iPad, including an ABC Player app.
The new ABC Player app will allow iPad users to watch free, ad-supported episodes of 20 ABC programs via a Wi-Fi connection. iPad users will also be able to buy downloads of episodes through the iTunes store.
Disney...
3 FireFox Addons For Quicker Access to Google Definitions
April 2, 2010, 6:50 amAlthough not widely used, DEFINE: Google search operator is very helpful especially for the quick access to the list of reference sources and definitions. For those who use this operator on a regular basis or just plan to give it a try, today's FireFox Friday post is about making DEFINE operator easier to access in FireFox: Define: Define FireFox...
3 Tools to Help You Share Microcontent Online
April 2, 2010, 6:21 amOver the last few years, the concept of microblogging has gone from zero to hero. Just a few short years ago, the terms "microblogging" and "microcontent" were known only to early adopters. These days, the only thing "micro" about microblogging and status updates is character count. Consider a few recent statistics: There are nearly 40,000...
10 Tricks For Getting Inspired to Write
April 2, 2010, 6:15 amThere comes a time in every blogger's life when the thought of writing another blog post makes you want to . . . well . . . gag. You know you should write, you know your readers are expecting to hear from you. But sitting down to crank out another post is like throwing your bucket down the creative well and coming up with nothing but mud. The well...
Lauren Sherman of Fashionista Speaks on Fashion and Blogging at SES New York 2010
April 2, 2010, 6:06 amOn Wednesday, we looked at Sarah Ivey Rock, Search Marketing Manager at AOL Living, who was one of the conference speakers at the session "Spotlight on Fashion: Blogging for Style" at SES New York 2010. Today, let's look at another one of the speakers: Lauren Sherman, the Editor of Fashionista.Click to read the rest of this post...
Pagination Issues With Google Indexing
April 2, 2010, 4:13 am"You have some content on Page 1. Next week you add more content, and the content that was on Page 1 is now on Page 2. Until Google comes along and re-indexes Page 1, and finds and indexes Page 2, all your visitors arriving at Page 1 after clicking in SERPs won't find the content they were expecting. It's no longer on that page number."
It’s Friday, but Sunday’s Coming
April 2, 2010, 3:26 am
Here at Marketing Pilgrim we’re dedicated to bringing you the “good word” on internet marketing.
Today, we take a break to simply bring you the Good Word.
Happy Easter!
More People Seeing New Google SERPs
April 2, 2010, 3:02 amUpdate 3: More people are reportedly seeing the new design today, assuming this isn't April Fools material.
Update 2: One of my co-workers is seeing the new SERPs:
Update: Danny Sullivan reports that "slight variations" of this design are "live in the wild," and "still being shown to a randomly selected...
Managing Business Opportunity Overload
April 2, 2010, 2:40 amDo Something...Now! In a land of opportunity there is typically lots of distraction, oddly enough those distractions are usually other opportunities. How many times have you: Stared at a domain you wanted to buy, but didn't pull the trigger Stared at a domain you bought, but left it parked for another year Negotiated down to what you wanted to pay...
Where Does the Bing "More On This Page" Info Come From?
April 2, 2010, 2:36 am"Looking at the hover feature on Bing that shows additional information found on that page, I am wondering where some of that data comes from. For my webiste they are listing a phone number for a different company. This phone number is nowhere in the code of the page."
Writing Books And Their Long Term Value To The Author
April 2, 2010, 1:15 am"WebmasterWorld Members share insight into writing books and their long term value, especially their long term authority value." (subscription required)
Link Exchanges Stronger than Ever
April 2, 2010, 12:04 am
If you’ve read this blog for any length of time, you might be scratching your head and saying, “What?”
We’ve come down hard on link exchanges for the purpose of building your Google PageRank or search engine standing, and there’s good reason for it. It started out as a way to cheat to get to the top. You give some...
Analytics Should Be Your Best Friend
April 1, 2010, 10:23 pmFor a newcomer, stepping into the area of search engine marketing can be quite overwhelming especially if they haven't really ventured into the online marketing space before. It is bad enough for those individuals to try and learn how to do many of the items themselves but to analyze the raw data and dissect it in order to understand how it is...
The Importance of Page Titles
April 1, 2010, 7:14 pmWebmasterWorld Members discuss the value and best use of page titles."
Google Analytics - a return to the "hits" metric
April 1, 2010, 6:47 pm"Forget that business about absolute unique visitors, goal completion rate, or even bounce rate. If you want to achieve success, you need to focus on hits." - Google Analytics Blog, 1 April, 2010
It's Easter Season: Gather Your Peeps
April 1, 2010, 6:02 pmby Claudine Zap If the world ended tomorrow, Peeps would probably survive. It's a scientific fact that the marshmallow candy, shaped like bright-colored chicks, is indestructible. Which is a good thing in post-apocalyptic scenarios, since they also make a reliable food source, artwork muse, and baking ingredient. The fun Easter candy with the...
Searching Locally: Recap from O'Reilly Where 2.0
April 1, 2010, 4:42 pmWe mentioned yesterday that Yahoo!'s Tom Wailes took part in a panel discussion called "The Big Picture from the Big Players" at the O'Reilly Where 2.0 conference. The panelists talked about many interesting opportunities in local search, including user participation, social search, and mobile search in the local space.
Department Stores fastest growing retail sector online in NZ
April 1, 2010, 4:14 pmVisits to Shopping and Classifieds â" Department Stores websites grew by 55.6% year on year in February 2010 compared to all categories by New Zealand Internet users. Department Stores websites have attracted strong interest from shoppers since December 2009, when visits reached an all-time high. NZ Visits to Department Stores Websites, Feb 09...
Google Chrome Sounds, 3D Street View, ReaderAdvantage Cap April Fools' Goofs
April 1, 2010, 3:16 pmEarlier today, eWEEK published this slideshow of Google's April Fools' Day gags. Most are, as they say, corny or trite. My personal favorite is the Google Translate for Animals. This video , where a farmer walks around catching his livestock's noises on a smartphone, is great. Of course, Google would roll out more gags after we ran this piece....
Most important tasks for SEO? (From the Forums)
April 1, 2010, 3:16 pmToday's highlighted conversation in the From the Forums column has a user ask, "What are the most important tasks for SEO?". The conversation started back a while ago, but the quantity and quality of ideas generated are interesting to peruse. I want to specifically point out the recent post to this conversation by Brett Yount , our forums...
Clash of the Titans: Review Roundup
April 1, 2010, 2:59 pmby Mike Krumboltz At theaters this weekend, Miley Cyrus takes another step toward world domination with "The Last Song." It is pointless to resist, but those who insist on trying can check out " Clash of the Titans ," starring Sam Worthington instead. Miley's movie opened on Wednesday to mostly negative reviews . Did "Clash" do any better? Clash...
ConnectU Founders Claim Facebook Fight Not Over
April 1, 2010, 2:53 pmAfter a false start or two, it appeared that an argument about the founding of Facebook was resolved in 2008, with an out-of-court settlement ending the quarrel between Facebook and ConnectU founders Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss. The Winklevoss twins have now claimed that's not the case, though, implying that more lawsuits might be on the way.
F.T.C. Is Said to Have Looked Into Amazon-Google Ties
April 1, 2010, 2:50 pmNY Times: "John Doerrs recent departure from the board of Amazon.com was prompted by a federal inquiry into the close ties between Amazon and Google, said people with direct knowledge of the matter."
Happy Easter from StepForth
April 1, 2010, 2:42 pmIn order to spend time with our families, StepForth will be closed tomorrow (Friday, April 02) for the Easter Holiday. We hope everyone has a great long weekend, and may the Easter Bunny be good to all of you We will be back to our normal hours again on Monday April 05. Happy Easter from StepForth is a post from: StepForth Web Marketing Inc.
The Yelp BBQ And The Crummy Chiropractic Scheme
April 1, 2010, 2:36 pmby Miriam Ellis If you zoom in and out of the local sphere, here's a summary of what I've found to be the most interesting Local developments, of late. We've got a marketer inciting riotous and foolhardy behavior in chiropractors, Yelp continuing to be turned on a slow spit over a growing fire, and two very interesting series of articles running...
DOJ Supports AP Digital News Registry
April 1, 2010, 2:30 pmThe Department of Justice said today it supports a proposal by the Associated Press (AP) to develop and operate a voluntary news registry to manage the licensing and online distribution of news content created by the AP, its members and partners. The department said the registry is not likely to reduce competition among news content owners and...
Changing Creative: "The Match Game"
April 1, 2010, 2:24 pmI've posted a few creative comments in the past few months, and here is link to another on television creative. I think Michael Kassan has it right that we have to keep "context" in mind when matching our creative to the medium. Be it size or length of spot or in the case in the post, actually making it part of the program, creative has to...
Does Twitter Have Over 100 Million Users?
April 1, 2010, 2:07 pmEach month, we look at Twitter's growth based on total tweets and new user registrations. This data is supplied by Matthew Daines, the lead developer for our own Twitter app Twellow . In March, the total tweets sent increased 29.8% over February , the largest month-over-month increase since July of last year. User registrations rose 19.3% over...
Half of Bloggers Consider Themselves Journalists
April 1, 2010, 1:31 pm
PRWeek has published the results of its latest study on the media and journalists—and bloggers are increasingly including themselves among their ranks. Just last year, only a third of bloggers considered themselves journalists; now 52% do. However, only 20% receive most of their income from blogging (but that’s up from...
eBay Wins Tiffany Case (Again)
April 1, 2010, 1:26 pmWe're not taking sides here, but April Fools' Day seems like an appropriate time for some lawyers representing Tiffany to find out that they've wasted over a year and a half of their professional lives. This afternoon, a court affirmed a previous ruling that favored eBay in a trademark infringement lawsuit. The eBay-Tiffany dispute started way...
Four Questions on the Census
April 1, 2010, 1:09 pmby Mike Krumboltz This is not an April Fools' Day joke. Census forms are due today for almost all citizens of the United States. The due date, well publicized on commercials and print advertisements, has led many to wonder of the consequences of not filling out their form. Web searches on "what happens if I don't fill out my census" are on the...
Goober Thinks It Has the Better iPhone VoIP/IM Apps
April 1, 2010, 1:03 pmGoober announced the availability of a new VoIP app and an IM app for the iPhone and iPod Touch this week. The company shared a few details with WebProNews about what makes its apps stand out from the competition. "Goober, besides Skype, is the only company offering versatile and flexible flatrates," a Goober representative tells WebProNews. "The...
Yahoo Arranges Transfer Of 200 Employees To Microsoft
April 1, 2010, 12:46 pmAlthough it's unlikely that anyone's printing up new business cards just yet, it looks like Microsoft and Yahoo have decided how to deal with the post-partnership personnel situation in at least one country. According to a Yahoo exec, about 200 of Yahoo's engineers in India will switch companies. Shouvick Mukherjee, who lays claim to the title...
10 Pet Peeves in Blog Design and Usability
April 1, 2010, 11:31 amIf they want to keep me as a reader, there are some mistakes they simply can’t make.
Yahoo Enhances Search for Sports and News
April 1, 2010, 11:19 amYahoo is rolling out some new search enhancements for Yahoo Sports and Yahoo News on this April Fools Day, and Yahoo's Tricia Stream tells WebProNews it's "no joke." She says it's evidence of the company's "continued innovation in search and the benefits of weaving compelling search experiences throughout the Yahoo! network." "Our new layout and...
Madonna's Wish, Vanity Fair's Bombshell, Code Pink's Controversy: What's the Buzz
April 1, 2010, 10:55 amby Claudine Zap Our top picks from the day's hottest searches. Madonna and Lourdes (Searches increased by +2,249%). The style icon famous for wearing underwear as outerwear just wishes her daughter would dress more conservatively. And no, the irony is not lost on her . Vanity Fair (+987%). A new story in the May issue claims that sports greats...
Concerns Over Guam Create a Stir on the Web
April 1, 2010, 10:55 amby Mike Krumboltz On April 1, anything suspiciously bizarre or interesting is to be taken with a shaker full of salt. Still, a recent comment from Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA) has many wondering if he's misguided on gravity and geography or just a very gifted deadpan comedian. At a March 25 meeting of the Armed Services Committee , of which Rep....
From Generic to Specific: A Brief Overview of Opportunities Within the Car Buying Cycle on Bing
April 1, 2010, 10:49 amA car buyer, as any buyer, is rational. Before buying a car, he will consider the price, the product, the service, compare it to alternative offers, and eventually check if everyone else agrees in the household. In microeconomics, this process is called maximising its utility and Bing will massively help the consumer in making the optimal decision.
Wikipedia Catalogues a Dozen More Google Hoaxes on April Fools Day
April 1, 2010, 10:26 amImage by SESConferenceSeries via FlickrI won't list them all, but here are a couple that impressed me for their creativity:
Upload and store anything in the cloud with Google Docs: Starting today, you can upload and store anything in Google Docs. Anything!
"For example, do you ever wish you could CTRL+F your house keys or your TV remote? Store...
Brand New Look for Yahoo! Sports Search and News Search
April 1, 2010, 10:20 amWe are unveiling a new look for Yahoo! Sports Search and News Search today, featuring a new layout, handy new filtering tools, related search suggestions and rich results that help you find what you're looking for quickly and seamlessly. New Look for Sports Search Results Page We've packed some great features in the brand new left column on Yahoo!...
Insights Tweeted from #SESNY
April 1, 2010, 10:11 amIf you were not at #SESNY 2010 or #SESLondon 2010 then you may have missed some of the expert insights flying around the conferences and also some handy tactics and data nuggets for use in your search marketing campaigns.
So, we've created a Twitter tool that allows you to track the conversation and meet the people leading those conversations....
YouTube Video Page Goes Live for All
April 1, 2010, 10:08 am
YouTube has been working on its layout for a long time. They launched the Feather experiment in December and a similar new page layout in January. Just last week, they finally did something to make the comments somewhat more useful, in a limited, no-opt-out test.
Apparently that went well, because now they’re rolling out...
Beckham's Undies Trade?
April 1, 2010, 9:58 amby Vera H-C Chan Soccer superstar David Beckham isn't just missing out on playing the World Cup. He may be giving up his side gig as an underwear model to a " real man more deserving of the job ." His possible replacement: pudgy actor Jonah Hill ? The LA Galaxy midfielder seems happy about this possible job swap. The idea apparently came about...
Online Content Curation: The Key To Building Visibility, Authority And Value
April 1, 2010, 9:50 amAs you are increasingly submerged by an endless flood of information, online content curators may provide a new, valuable service to anyone looking for quality information online: a personalized, qualified selection of the best and most relevant content and resources on a very specific topic or theme. Curated in real-time. When I first wrote about...
Winners of the #seofilms competition on Facebook.com/sewatch
April 1, 2010, 9:26 amIf you have missed it, we have been running a photoshop competition on the Search Engine Watch fan page (Facebook.com/sewatch). The competition concept was to remix movie posters into #seofilms, namely films with a search engine marketing theme.
The idea came from a Twitter trending topic at #SESLondon kickstarted by a handful of funny men (and...
Touch Screen Mobile Phones Lead To Higher Satisfaction
April 1, 2010, 9:20 amOverall satisfaction among smartphone and traditional handset owners whose phones feature touch screens is significantly higher than owners that don't have touch screens, according to a new report from J.D. Power and Associates.
Among smartphone owners that have a touch screen, satisfaction averages 771 on a 1,000-point scale, nearly 40 points...
Growing our TV presence â" A&E Television Networks signs deal with Microsoft's Admira
April 1, 2010, 9:19 amToday we announced a deal in the US with A&E . This is a huge step in our work to bring digital measurement and targeting to the television. If you haven't seen the Admira product from Microsoft Advertising, check it out - I think you'll be amazed at what you can do on your TV buys. I'm not saying you'll move your whole broadcast budget...
Would You Trade Google Buzz for a Paperweight?
April 1, 2010, 9:19 amFollowing Chitika Research's post on Google's (Lack of) Buzz, some blogs have been wondering if Buzz is on its way out.Click to read the rest of this post...
YouTube Gets More Social
April 1, 2010, 9:15 amWhen you go to YouTube today, you will notice that Google's video service has changed. Click to read the rest of this post...
Now Compare Your Search Ads to Facebook Ads Performance
April 1, 2010, 9:12 am
One of the many nagging questions that many online marketers face is trying to show just how well search ads do as compared to social media ads. Well, beginning on April 12, Clickable is giving advertisers the ability to compare their search ads’ performance against that of ads on Facebook. If this works as advertised this could...
Microsites Drive Brand Engagement, Purchase Intent
April 1, 2010, 9:10 amMicrosites are commonly used by brands in online marketing. Dynamic Logic, a firm that evaluates the effectiveness of branded microsites, says that 7.8% of people become aware of a campaign's message who otherwise would not have, when there is a microsite involved. WebProNews spoke with Michelle Eule, Managing Director for Dynamic Logic's research...
How Do You Un-Clutter Your Twitter Stream?
April 1, 2010, 8:53 amLet's face it, the more people you follow, the more challenging it gets to notice all important updates on Twitter. To me, following fewer people is not an option because I think this is anti-social. I follow back every single Twitter profile that seems valid and is related to one of the topics I love (like search, social media, blogging, etc)....
FTC Promoting Online Child Safety
April 1, 2010, 8:29 amThe Federal Trade Commission reported to Congress it is getting the word out about Internet safety for children by heavily promoting a new free booklet, "Net Cetera: Chatting with Kids About Being Online," to schools, law enforcement agencies and PTAs across the U.S. " Net Cetera " explains to parents and their children how to deal with issues...
Star Results for Google Mobile
April 1, 2010, 8:25 am
At the beginning of March Google introduced the ability to star results in their SERP’s (search engine result pages), which would bring those results to the top of the same search performed at another time. Now this same functionality is being rolled out to mobile search.
As with anything that Google does on the mobile front...
Viewers Indicate Higher Tolerance for Advertising Messaging while Watching Online TV Episodes
April 1, 2010, 8:13 amcomScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released the results of a study of the attitudes and behavior of cross-platform TV content viewers, which was originally presented by Tania Yuki at the ARF Re:think conference on March 23, 2010. The study, based on a survey of more than 1,800 U.S. Internet users who...
Justin Bieber Buys Funny or Die
April 1, 2010, 8:07 amIf youre in the dark to exactly who Justin Bieber is, well youre about to get very familiar with him as hes purchased FunnyorDie.com and transformed it into Bieber or Die . In the words of Mr. Bieber himself, Ive taken over Funny or Die. Its mine I bought it. Anything thats not Bieber, Dies.
Social Media Changes Event Planning
April 1, 2010, 8:07 amIt used to be you spent five minutes registering for an event, and then showed up on the big day, went to a few workshops, drank two free Coronas, and went home. Social media changes all of that, enabling events and their planners to have long-term, nuanced, shifting interactions with attendees. I gave a speech last week in suburban Cincinnati to...
5 Tools to Upload and Share Your (SEO) Documents
April 1, 2010, 7:49 amWe exchange plenty of documents daily: we send reports to our clients, exchange ideas and information with our colleagues and team members. Email is the major method to exchange information. However most of us also use various tools that allow to upload documents for easier viewing and / or collaboration. This post looks at 5 of those tools.
SEO 101 - Part 16: Everything You Need to Know About Building Links
April 1, 2010, 7:41 amby Stoney deGeyter
The following series is pulled from a presentation I gave to a group of beauty bloggers hosted by L'Oreal in New York. Most of the presentation is geared toward how to make a blog more search engine and user-friendly, however I will expand many of the concepts here to include tips and strategies for sites selling products...
Google Has All Kinds of April Fools Day Fun
April 1, 2010, 7:26 amApril Fools Day is upon us, and that means of course that you'll be fed lies all day long. It's an interesting day, particularly in the tech, news, and tech news industries, where even companies get in on the fun. Google is no stranger to April Fools tom foolery, and they've got a number of silly announcements up today. Tell us what your favorite...
Microsoft Bing Local Listing Center Backlog? What Is It About The Claiming Process?
April 1, 2010, 7:26 amAs of today, Saturday, March 6, 2010 Microsoft Bing's Local Listing Center is no longer accepting new local business listing claiming and updating until their backlog and issues have been resolved. When visiting the URL https://ssl.bing.com/listings/ListingCenter.aspx the following notice has been mosted: "Local Listing Center Backlog: We have...
Why Third Tribe is Shutting Down
April 1, 2010, 7:13 amBefore I talk about our reasons for shutting down Inside the Third Tribe (our community of next-generation internet marketers), I want to stress that it had nothing to do with our members. In fact, they've been amazing. More than 2,000 smart, motivated entrepreneurs, hungry for knowledge and passionately applying the education we provide. And it's...
Nearly Half Of Americans Say Newspapers Will Disappear
April 1, 2010, 7:05 amNearly half (49%) of Americans agree with the statement "In the future, there will be no more newspapers because everyone will be getting their news over the Internet," according to a new survey from Arbitron and Edison Research. This is a significant increase compared with results from just three years ago when only 27 percent agreed with the...
Hulu Cops To Two Straight Quarters Of Profitability
April 1, 2010, 7:05 amNever mind the ever-present threat of a pay wall, or the fact that Comedy Central's reclaimed The Daily Show and The Colbert Report; Hulu seems to be doing quite well for itself. The company's released some figures that suggest it's in solid shape, financially. In 2009, Hulu apparently took in over $100 million in revenue, which is rather...
30+ More Google Analytics Tools, Apps, Hacks, Tweaks and Other Resources
April 1, 2010, 7:00 amA year ago we've published a list of 30+ Google Analytics tools and resources . It was one of our most successful posts ever. The list has been even nominated for a SEMMY award . I'm not sure I can top that but I can provide a new list of 30+ more Google Analytics tools, apps, tweaks and other resources . Google Analytics is still one of the most...
How to Use Social Media for Personal Branding
April 1, 2010, 6:53 amThis is a guest post by Dan Schawbe l. Follow him on Twitter . Most people online are building "a brand," but sometimes people forget whose brand they are building and if they are making the right strategic moves. For instance, if your Twitter handle reads "@fastcar," then you aren't building your own personal brand. When people retweet you, they...
Google Officially Changes Name to Topeka, TEXTp Saves YouTube Bandwidth
April 1, 2010, 6:49 amOkay, so my usually reliable sources weren't so reliable. No one tipped me off that Google would officially change its name to Topeka or that YouTube would go to text-only mode, or TEXTp, on April 1, 2010. You know, April Fools Day.Click to read the rest of this post...
How to Create Amazing Backlinks
April 1, 2010, 5:50 amA great guide on how to identify potential link partners, how to go about contacting them, and developing great link bait for websites/blogs to link to.
BIGLIST Update: These SEO Blogs Are No April Fools
April 1, 2010, 4:47 amOn this fine April Fool's day BIGLIST foregos the tricks and brings you yet another collection of better than average SEO & SEM blog reviews. Over the past 2 years we've reviewed over 1,000 SEO blogs and we offer you 5 more to add to your RSS reader and get search engine smart. Think Traffic - This blog by internet entreprenuer Corbett Barr...
Google Changes Name to Topeka : April Fools
April 1, 2010, 4:35 amWoke up this morning to the rather strange announcement from Google that the company has now changed its name to Topeka. In honor of Topeka, Kansas ' the town that had changed its name to Google. Confused? So are we. :/ From the Official Google Blog : Early last month the mayor of Topeka, Kansas stunned the world by announcing that his city was...
A Brief History of SEO
April 1, 2010, 4:18 amSEO Methodologies : A brief history of our industry. (todays flashback)
eBay Introduces eBay Classifieds In US
April 1, 2010, 3:32 am"...free classifieds site for reaching your local market; even better, now we've got a new look, a new name, and a very familiar and trusted brand."
Google's April Fools Joke - Best One Yet
April 1, 2010, 2:35 amGoogle has had a long history of pulling April Fools jokes. Today, they renamed themselves Topeka Kansas (Topeka renamed themselves Google a month ago in an attempt to woo Google into making Topeka the highspeed broadband test market)
Introducing Kate Morris – The “Yank” is Here
April 1, 2010, 2:27 amIts been less than two months since we announced that we were to open Distilled Consulting, our American wing.
Our new office is now open, and Rob has moved to Seattle where he’s been busy with some great clients and with recruiting and expert SEO team. We’re proud to announce our first new member: Kate Morris has joined the...
10 Years of Messenger''..in Swedish
April 1, 2010, 1:41 amOur team is constantly, and quite rightly, being reminded that there are other advertising markets in the world outside the US & UK. In January, I wrote about our advertising sites in Europe and how to get the most from the information they contain. Well yesterday, our Swedish marketing manager pinged me asking how we could showcase a video they...
