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Google Toolbar Spying on Whitehouse.gov (and others)?
Google Reader No Longer Just for RSS Feeds Attend any of my presentations on the topic of competitive intelligence and youll hear me recommend various tools for keeping tabs on changes your competitors...
Google's Brin & Page Tap Into Their $2.75b Emergency Fund What do you do when the economy is in the tank and youre only making $1 a year in salary? Well, if youre Googles Sergey Brin or Larry Page, you dump 15% of...
Google Underperformed At The Hands Of Secret Society Of Whispers When youre Google, having a great quarter is not good enough. Apparently, theres a secret society of Wall Street Analysts that quietly hold Google to a higher standard, says MarketWatch: However, several analysts maintained their bullish long-term
You Say Potato, Google Says Starchy Tuberous Crop My mind went numb, digesting Googles lengthy explanation on how it's improved its understanding of synonyms. I'll spare you the minutes-and brain cells-with my summary of the announcement: Google knows when two words are semantically connected-such as "pictures" and "photos." It now plans to bold those synonyms in its search results...
Hoo Gives a Hoot About AOL's Owl? Do you like peep shows? How about a sly peek at what could be part of AOLs broader strategy to flood the web with contributor-generated content and monetize it?
Yahoo's Employees Home for the Holidays Would the last person to leave Yahoo, please turn off all the lights? You may think Im mocking the gradual decline of the tech company, but Im not. Not this time.
Amazon Sued Over Defamatory Google AdWords Ads Heres a fun Christmas game for you to play. How many different types of lawsuits can you think of that include Google AdWords? Put your (party) creative hats on and see what you can come up with.
Why Being a Google Guru is a Dead End How many of you read that title and thought that your SEO career was about to come tumbling down? Yeah, Im mean like that! Anyway, while I have you hear...
Size Does Matter! Google Says Small & Narrow is Best! It seems that Google likes to roll out new tools to help webmasters without really saying why. So, when Google launches a new tool that helps you determine if your web page is...
Ow! Ow! Google Brain Freeze! You know that sensation. It usually accompanies the consumption of too much of a good thing, such as ice cream, milkshakes, orGoogle updates?!?
Google's New URL Shortener Goo.gl: Is it Goo.d or Evi.l? Have you noticed how most bloggers are at their meanest best early in the day? Come 4:20pm, they simply dont have the same energy levels. Youve not noticed? Well Google has!
Google Ditches Answers.com, Raising Questions About the Dictionary's Future One of my favorite uses of Google is as a dictionary. Seriously! I dont need it so much as spell-checker"it fulfills that role too"but if I want to look up the definition of a word, or make sure Im using it in context, I turn to Google. Well actually, I turned to Answers.com"which used to supply the definitions if I clicked on the top right link in...
Bing.com Demonstrates How to Blow $100 Million Step 1: Spend ~$100 million on an advertising campaign. Step 2: Let your site go down: Really? Not anything? Sad. UPDATE: Around 30 minutes later, the big shark is back:
Google Removes "Distractions" from Homepage
Google REALLY Wants You to Speed Up Your Web Site When Googles Matt Cutts makes this statement on Twitter: This is important. Google provides webmaster tool to see how fast your site is You can pretty much take to the bank...
Yahoo Partners with Facebook Plans to Focus on Selling Big Pens? At the rate Yahoo is dumping its own technology and partnering with others, the only thing left that will be Yahoo built will be these bloody big pens...
Google Offers Newspapers the First 5 Clicks Free... ...to Keep AdSense Scrapers Alive. Lets take this announcement from Google: "weve decided to allow publishers to limit the number of accesses under the First Click Free policy...
Google Annouces Top Rising Search Terms Google, youre late! I mean, cmon, you let both Bing and Yahoo release their top search query lists before you. Is this a sign of things to come, Google?
Bing's Trending Search Terms List Reveals Weakness?
Do You Use Google Product Search? As I mentioned yesterday, I love Bing's shopping engine. In no small part because I can earn some serious cashback.
AdSense Supastar, That is What You Are
Google Gains More Ground In Mobile As Yahoo Falters It seems that its not just search that we see such disparity between Yahoo and Google"theres a huge chasm between them in the mobile space too!
Is Google Antisocial? I know that Google likes to cover its butt by placing new tools in Google Labs, then keeping the beta tag for years, but its new Social Search feature has gone AWOL.
Rupert Murdoch Believes Google Steals His Content Ive decided that I really dont need as many of you coming to Marketing Pilgrim each day. In fact, Ive decided to start charging for the content that we publish.
Google Wave Replaces Twitter As A Conference Staple I still have no clue how to use Google Wave. Not that Im stupid, Im just not motivated to invest the tremendous effort needed to learn the new interface"especially when not all...
Add Your Own News Topics to Google News Google News just added a neat new feature that can help you keep track of news thats of interest to you, alongside the rest of the days regular news item.
The New MSN.com: Less Links, More Social I tried really hard to figure out how to fluff-up this announcement. After all, Microsoft went to the trouble to pre-brief me, but I just cant say it any better than I can show it.
Barry Diller Ready to Stick a Fork in Ask.com? Barry Diller is getting close to waving his white flag in the search wars. During IACs quarterly earnings conference call, the top dog made it quite clear that Ask.com may be on the chopping block:
Carl Icahn Resigns Yahoo! Board Position The single biggest PITA for Yahoo has decided to leave his board position. If youre not aware of just how disruptive the self-labeled "activist investor" Carl Icahn has been, a quick review of our archives should bring you up to speed.
Google Plays Second Fiddle to Bing
Google Indexing Real Time Web So Soon?
Experiments with Google Chrome
Google PageRank AdWords Ad Still Running?
Google's Q3 Doing Well If Google is any litmus test for the state of the US economy, the worst recession in 70+ years is now firmly behind us. The search giant reported a...
Google PageRank Being Killed We are one step closer to never having to discuss Googles PageRank again. According to SER, the PageRank metric has been removed from...
Your Site Has Malware or Bad Code? Nothing will scare a web site marketer more than either of these two situations: 1. Google flagging your site: "This site may harm your computer"...
Yahoo Settles Lawsuit If theres one solid truth about class action lawsuits, its this: only the attorneys win. That truth has held out over and over again, especially when it comes to any kind of class action against a search engine. Adding to the list, Yahoo has settled a 2006 lawsuit that claimed it allowed advertisers ads to be displayed on a whole host of undesirable web sites: "...Yahoo! breached its..."
Bing's Market Share Gains Are Evaporating Its time for Microsoft to put the champagne back on ice: Bings market share gains are starting to evaporate.
Google Violating Yahoo's Patent? The next time you suspect Google has manually adjusted your search results, you can do more than simply complain at WebmasterWorld, you can snitch to Yahoo. The #2 search engine was just awarded a patent for its "Method and apparatus for search ranking using human input and automated ranking."
Google Forum Posts to Search Results Give it another couple of years and no one will remember the phrase "ten blue links""especially if Google has its way. The Google search results page...
Google Mobile Synching Features Google knows that more and more of our searching is carried out away from our main computers, and it doesnt want to risk you using some other mobile...
Should Google Be Messing With Internet Explorer? Whether you saw Google's attempts to insert Chrome into Internet Explorer as genius or evil, both sides just upped the ante. First Google. OK, technically Google didn't...
Google's Book Deal Runs Out? Almost a year after Google announced an agreement with the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers (AAP) to display the...
AdWords Trademark Infringement Googles not unafraid of the legal action it faces from France, but theres an ongoing saga over trademark infringement"and Google should be concerned.
Will New Marketing for Yahoo Be Successful? Whos responsible for the recent turmoil at Yahoo? Whos responsible for Yahoo signing a deal with Bing? Whos responsible for its stagnant search share? Its You! Its all you, baby! OK, perhaps that wont be the entire message in Yahoos new global marketing campaign, but the "Its You" part will be in there. According to the WSJ, Yahoo is launching a new mega-million...
Court Bans Jurors From Searching Google There's now a place in the US, where using Google can land you in jail: a San Diego courtroom. According to the Union Tribune, a case going before a California jury will be the first to enforce a rule preventing jurors from using Google (or the web in general) to conduct research on the case, or from updating their social networking status.
"Google" In Your Domain Name - Bad News That great idea you had that involved launching a new SEO company using PwnGoogleRankings.com? Yeah, you probably should have saved the...
Search Giant Gets Bigger
Google Internet Stats As a blogger who enjoys nothing better than nomming on delicious industry statistics, Google just served up a feast"and didnt tell anyone.
Patented Google Search One of the secrets to Googles massive success is not the immense size of its search index, but the sparse design of its homepage. A design...
Wolfram API Deal with Bing? I given Wolfram|Alpha a hard time, but I think the service might be on the brink of finding its calling in life. After the highly speculated"but widely...
Evil Employees? Heres something that Google might want to nip in the bud, before it becomes true via urban legend. Over at the Google Webmaster Help forum we get an unsubstantiated claim that an ex-Google employee has turned evil: Around May I discovered another competitors site recent appearance that looked very similar to mine, in fact even the sentences on my homepage...
Yahoo Testing Bing's Search Interface Its not really a secret that Yahoo has given up on search. If handing the keys to the car over to Microsoft didnt give it away, then the next step would be to run TV ads saying Weve! Given! Up! on Search!"yeah, complete with those annoying exclamation marks, Yahoo! likes! to! use! So, Yahoo really isnt fooling anyone with the announced testing of a new search engine interface.
Formerly Anonymous Blogger Suing Google Im blown away by the hypocrisy of Rosemary Port"the blogger uncovered as the author of Skanks in NYC. Whats your reaction to this statement by Port:
Google Book Deal Ruined? First a quick history lesson. Google launches Google Print. The Authors Guild sues Google. Google reaches an agreement with the Authors Guild. The US Government takes a look, then takes another look. Got all that? OK, so now a "coalition" has been formed to make sure that the DoJs antitrust investigation gets all the "facts" that it needs. Youll never guess whos behind the coalition?
Google Adds Hawaiian Language to Search Engines Sometimes I cheat on you. Im sorry. You see, I dont always live and breathe search, social, and reputation. Im also passionate about Hawaii and...
Google Ordered to Out ID of Anonymous Blogger As an online reputation management consultant, I often find myself on both sides of the fence. Sure, I help a lot of companies and individuals with their reputation needs, but I also study and comment on the effectiveness of the different methods and tactics open to a brands detractors. A new court ruling provides the perfect platform for discussing both sides of the fence.
Google Knows All Google knows what youre going to be searching for in 12 months from now! OK, maybe not all the things youll Google"it cant predict the next celebrity...
Google Loses Nothing to Yahoo If we all based trends on one months data, from a single research company, we would have been out of the longest recession in 80 years already.
Did Bing Give Google Permission? We all know that Google is often caught testing tweaks to its search interface, but has it stepped up its efforts on the back of Bings apparent success?
Google Knol Goodbye
DDoS Attacks From Ordinary People? Twitter, Facebook and many other social networking sites fell victim to a DDoS attack last week. Google was included in the attack, but managed to stay afloat.
Bing Everywhere
Google Video Compression
Google Analytics and WebTrends 9 When Google decided to enter the web analytics space, fear spread throughout the industry at the thought of a challenger that offered...
Yahoo May Dump Microsoft Deal If It Falls Short Did you know that if the revenue per search, under a Microsoft/Yahoo partnership, fails to match Googles estimated revenue, Yahoo can kill the deal? Did you know that Microsoft must hire 550 Yahoo employees, whether they need them or not? Did you know that the entire deal is in jeopardy if not completed by July 29 of 2010? Did you know OK, enough already!
Google Sued by French Mapping Company
How Barry Diller Loves Microsoft
Microsoft, Yahoo & The Rolling Stones You cant always get what you want. You cant always get what you want. But if you try sometimes well you just might find, You get what you need
Is Google Influencing Bing's Search Listing? Despite the millions of dollars Microsoft is spending in an attempt to get us to use Bing, its apparently still well aware of the hand that feeds it.
AdWords and Ad Planner Updates
Google Blog Search Innovation? Google has updated the homepage to Google Blog Search, but it seems more like a knee jerk reaction to other web sites, than true innovation.
Bing and Twitter to Integrate? All of us that have called for more real-time search results or better Twitter integration, should have done a better job of spelling out our needs. Apparently Bing misread the memo. In a move that appears to have more bark than bite, Bing has announced the integration of Twitter with its search results. Before you leap for joy, the announcement is a non-starter. What we get is a few thousand...
Google Toolbar Language Translation ' Did you understand that? Well, if you had installed the new Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer, you would...
Google Chief Technology Officer Reassigned What do you do if you no longer need your Chief Technology Officer, but dont want your rivals to get their grubby mitts on him either? Well, if youre Google you quietly move him out of that role, give him some other projects to work on, and hope that no one notices. Unfortunately, All Things Digital noticed: "-YouTube co-founder Steve- Chen left his spot as chief technology officer..."
Google is Shrinking?
Google's All-In-One Lawsuit Googles not unused to being sued. Trademark infringements, AdWords, or simply being kicked out its natural search engine, Google has seen it all.
China Eliminates Access to Google Porn It appears that Google and China are playing a game of brinkmanship"and Googles losing. After continued threats from China...
Google Sucking Life Out Of The Newspaper Industry Dow Jones' Les Hinton has been bitten by a vampire. He claims that Google is the digital vampire that is sucking the blood out of the newspaper industry.
Three Yahoo Employees to Microsoft
Google Wants it Fast Google would like you to know that you are slowing down its plans to organize the worlds information. In fact, your lame web site is slowing down the internet.
Cuil Hype Halts Proving that hype will only get you so far"without substance"Cuil is going from Google killer to Google beggar. According to IBD, the start-up is turning to the search engine that it vowed to topple"asking Google to provide ads on Cuils pages. That is what we are going to do, said Tom Costello, Cuils chief executive. We are negotiating with the obvious people, Google...
Ex-CEO of Ask Talks About Chances With Google Im going to say what most people will think when they read the news that former Ask.com CEO Jim Safka is back in the saddle again.
Google and Hidden Porn Hows a modern search engine supposed to grow market share if it cant rely on serving up internet pornography? Well, Googles going to have to...
Did Ask Lose the Search Race? I hate to say this, but does anyone still care about Ask.com? I say this as someone that once loved Ask.com, but"having watched it change...
Google Real-Time Search? OK, this is definitely nothing more than a rumor, but Google could be close to launching a real-time microblogging search engine.
Do You Have a Hunch on the New Discovery Engine? Last week, we gave you a heads-up that Hunch would be launching today. Well, ourahemhunch was correct; Hunch.com is now live.
Yahoo's CFO Talking to Microsoft? Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz has found herself a CFO that she believes has "expertise -in- simplifying complex organizations and managing growth."
The Good and Bad of Bing Poor Bing.com. It seems that for every good news I read, I read something equally pessimistic. Its gotten to the point where I think of Bing as the Grand Old Duke of York (bear with me if youre not English-born): The grand old Duke of York, He had ten thousand men; He marched them up to the top of the hill, And he marched them down again. And when they were up...
Google Quicksilver Alternative
Flickr Founder Thinks Bing Will Help Start-Up What do smart companies do when they know they cant compete with the #1 company in market? They create a new market! After years of making claims...
Bing Could Pay Off for Advertisers Its been almost two weeks since Microsoft thankfully retired the Windows Live Search brand and instead started asking us if we Bing. Well, aside from the initial reports that Bing is seeing an increase in market share, there could be an even more important benefit of the new design. Bing might just make more money per search query than Google. As you may have noticed...
Google Squared While Bings busy launching its new decision engine and Wolfram Alpha tries to wow us with its computational prowess, Google has publicly launched Google Squared. Previewed back in May, Google Squared is an experimental search tool that collects facts from the web and presents them in an organized collection, similar to a spreadsheet. And to that, I say whoop-dee-doo.
Google's AdWords Editor Scores
Google AdWords Interface To Self-Destruct What happens at Google, once it shuts down the stuff that simply wasnt working? Apparently, they use that free time to spruce up existing product offerings.
Bing.com, First Big Challenge for Google Whether it ends up being akin to Custers last stand or not, Microsoft has just announced Bing, as it desperately tries to find a way to take market share away from Google. Whether you love the new name or not"personally, I think its a huge improvement on Windows Live Search"you owe it to yourself to go and try Microsofts revamped search offering when it launches on June 3.
Google Embeddable Web Elements The only really exciting thing you missed by not attending Googles I/O 2009 developer event was the chance to get a free Android phone...
Microsoft Needs to Spend Millions to Make Us Doubt Google Are you sure youre using the best search engine available? What if I told you that you, your friends, and your family spend almost half their time looking at search results that arent relevant? What if I could show you a brand new search engine that has better results than the one you are currently using? Would you want to try it? Those questions are exactly the ones Id ask consumers...
Google Suggests You Click on More Ads Google has announced a number of changes to its Google Suggest technology. The search engine starts its post with the most user beneficial additions, but lets start ours with...
Why Are the Search Engines Fixing Something That's Not Broken? You've heard if the expression "If its not broken, dont fix it," right? Apparently the search engines havent. The "ten blue links" that have served the search engines well for over a decade could be going the way of the dodo and I cant help wonder just how much of this is driven by the desire for innovation rather than the actual need for it.
Google to Departing Employees: I'm Afraid I Can't Let You Do That Dave Im intrigued by the WSJ revelation that Google is using an algorithm to try and determine which employees are most likely to resign from the company. "The Internet search giant recently began crunching data from employee reviews and promotion and pay histories in a mathematical formula Google says can identify which of its 20,000 employees are most likely to quit."
Tricycles Bring Google's Street View to Narrow Streets
New Microsoft adCenter Features to Make You Drool Raise your hand if youre a Microsoft adCenter user? 1...2...3...4...OK, four of you. Well, you four are going to be excited about a whole host of new features and upgrades...
Paid Search Traffic Declines 26%; Who Really Knows Why? Hitwise reports paid search traffic is down 26% over the past 4 weeks (compared to 2008). Surprisingly, the company makes a sweeping statement about the reason for this decline:
Class Action Status is the Holy Grail of Google Trademark Lawsuits Ive honestly lost track of the number of trademark lawsuits brought against Google, but how about we add one more to the pile? Firepond is stepping up to the plate, but whats interesting about its approach is not its claim that AdWords allows competitors to bid on its trademarks"although that is in there"but that the company is seeking class-action status.
What Google's Brin Said That Will Anger Wolfram Alpha ZDNets Larry Digman suspects Googles Sergey Brin is looking over his shoulder at the start-up Wolfram Alpha. Picking through Brins annual Founders Letter Digman found this aside:
Google Trends Gamed Poor Google. It seems just about anything it puts together becomes fair game to hackers and manipulators. While the search engine spends its day keeping...
Google Was a Dream Larry Page gave an emotional and inspiring commencement speech at the University of Michigan. During his speech, he shared how he envisioned Google:
Site Links on Ask.com
Google Deciding Your News Interests According to Hollywood reporter Sharon Waxman, Google could soon decide which news you should be reading on a daily basis. Waxman cornered Google CEO Eric Schmidt and grilled him asked him over cocktails to share his vision for Google News. Heres what he reportedly said: "In about six months, the company will roll out a system that will bring high-quality news content...
Making Plans to Increase SEO Spending
New Google Analytics Interface If youre a fan of Google Analytics data, but dont like the interface, youll be pleased to learn theres a new API which will allow developers...
Google: Q1 Down, Share Price Climb Despite a 3% drop in revenue from the previous quarter, Wall Street seems content with the numbers Google just posted for Q1, handing...
Improvements on Google Voice Recognition Ive not had a lot of luck with voice recognition technology. My Acura MDX tempts me to use the built-in voice commands, but my request for...
Google's Top Secret Servers
AdSense Video Ads Closed, Recession Up until this point, our talk of Google being a one-trick pony was muted by the fact that the services shut down were not core to either AdWords or AdSense.
Google Ventures Launches If youre a start-up thats making moves despite the recession, Google wants to hear from you. Specifically, Google Ventures"the newly...
Yahoo CEO Appoints CMO Yahoo has announced the official appointment of Elisa Steele as Chief Marketing Officer, raising the question: Is Yahoo looking to run another companys playbook? Yahoo hadnt seen fit to fill the CMO role since Cammie Dunaway left the company in 2007, and now not only has CEO Carol Bartz appointed one, but shes appointed someone cut from the same cloth.
DMCA Takedown Notices Abused New Zealand could soon have its own version of the DMCA, something Google is trying to block. In its filing to Kiwi regulators, Google...
Brittin Will Take Over Britain Days after Tim Armstrong left head of sales position to become AOLs new CEO, Google is doing the executive shuffle. Leaving his 3 year role as Vice President for the UK, Ireland and Benelux, Dennis Woodside will take over Armstrongs role"though he wont get the same "Senior VP and President" title. Woodside will report to Omid Kordestani who gushes about Woodside in an internal memo:
Microsoft's Kumo Gets a Homepage
Tim Armstrong or Google Struggling? Theres no doubt that Tim Armstrong did a lot of great things while serving as Googles top ad sales executive, but his departure to become...
Google Will Acquire Twitter?
Twitter & Google and "Nofollow" While were busy discussing whether Twitter can become the next big search engine, or if Google can figure out how to tap into the fresh micro-content being churned out every second, were missing one crucial element thats preventing both sides from achieving their goal. The nofollow link tag. (To clarify, I mean the rel=nofollow attribute, which is not the same as the...
Google CEO Gives Executives Bonuses Google CEO Eric Schmidt used Tuesdays appearance at the Morgan Stanley Technology Conference in San Francisco to bluntly...
Microsoft Leak: Live Search Rebranding as Kumo UPDATE: Is this a re-brand of Live Search to Kumo or is Kumo just being used as a staging site? It seems that if Microsoft just wanted to test a new interface, it could do that without using the Kumo brand. Still, weve put in a request for an official response from Microsoft and will let you know what we hear back. UPDATE 2: Weve received an official response from Microsoft:
8-Word Search Queries If a picture is worth a thousand words, we might want to start scanning-in images of what were trying to find on the search engines.
Google Stock Downgraded
Couple Lose Lawsuit with Google Street View It seems the Boring couple who sued Google for $25,000"claiming Street Views invaded their privacy"will have to return to a life of obscurity.
Google Radio Automation Well, Mr. Reed called it! Back in July of last year, he wrote a post about the future of radio not being via the airwaves, but instead the internet.
Google Nearly the Only One With Search Growth Google Grabs Almost All Search Growth. A picture is worth a thousand words, right? Then I present to you the growth charts for US search trends for 2008:
Yahoo Changing Advertisers' Accounts Without Permission? Im not normally one to keep stirring the pot--I usually say my peace and be done with it--but someone over at Yahoo is smoking crack. After I, and many other bloggers, outed a new Yahoo policy that allows the company to make changes to an advertisers account...
Yahoo's Q4 Numbers: Good News & Bad News As the headline suggest, Yahoos fourth quarter earnings report was a mixed bag of news for investors.
Print Ads Closed by Google For the past couple of years, Google has worked hard to try and convince the world that its not a one-trick pony. Today, it admits that its enormous...
Yahoo CEO Making Tough Decisions
Google Announces Job Cuts It seems Google is starting to realize that any attempt to keep secrets is pretty futile in todays era of transparency. The latest proof of this wake-up call...
Mozilla's Relationship with Google Gets "Complicated" When the company that supplies 88% of your revenue, launches a competing product, labeling the situation as "complicated" is a bit of an understatement, wouldnt you say?
Your Rankings and SearchWiki Over at WebProNews I answer Chris Crums questions on the topic of Googles SearchWiki. We chat about the impact on reputation management...
Yahoo Data Retention 3 months - And Google? Its not often that Yahoo makes a move bold enough to put pressure on Google. Today it does just that, with news that it will reduce its data retention policy from 13 months to just 3. At a time when Google is pushing ahead with actively using personalized data to improve search results, Yahoo is banking on our fears that search engines know too much about us already.
Tons of Layoffs at Yahoo Yahoo has followed through with the previously expected layoffs. If Twitter conversations werent enough, Jerry Yang has blogged about the layoffs.
Yahoo Search Marketing Taking Your Money? Al Scillitani is pretty annoyed with Yahoo Search Marketing"and with good reason. It appears as part of a new program, Yahoo has gone in to his Search Marketing account, messed around with his settings and added new campaigns"all without his permission! In fact, according to an email received (see below) Yahoo account holders have to explicitly opt-out of this new program.
Google Tasks Not Enough Ever since I made the migration from Microsoft Office to Google Apps, Ive been whining for a Task/To-do List application from Google. It always puzzled me...
Quintura Site Search When Yahoo announced its BOSS Custom search engine, I was pretty excited to see how it might improve on the limited (reverse chronological only)...
Is Google's Search Growth Slowing? Another sign that Google is very much concerned about the current economic conditions. Both the Raleigh News & Observer and the Triangle Business Journal...
Dr. Qi Lu of Yahoo! Now at Microsoft A couple of weeks ago, we reported on rumors that Yahoos Dr. Qi Lu had left the company to join Microsoft. Whether or not he left Yahoo with a Microsoft ...
Google Is Playing Monopoly In July I suggested that, despite Googles attempts to prove a Yahoo deal would not create a monopoly, the idea of a monopoly would likely scuttle the deal.
Google Lively - No Longer Alive It took two years to develop Lively"the 3D world from Google and less than 5 months for Google to announce it is shutting it down. "Despite all the virtual high fives and creative rooms everyone has enjoyed in the last four and a half months, weve decided to shut Lively down at the end of the year. It has been a tough decision, but we want to ensure that we prioritize our resources and focus more on our core search, ads and apps business.
Search-based Keyword Tool for Google Do you lie awake at night worrying about the keywords youre NOT targeting in your Google AdWords campaign? Yeah, me neither. But, if you ever wake up...
Google and On-Demand Indexing How would you like to simply click a button and have Google immediately re-index your web site? If youre hoping thats what Google has just launched...
Breaking: Google Terminates Ad Deal with Yahoo
Google's HR Managers Denial is Just a River in Egypt When is a hiring freeze not a hiring freeze? When Google is the company thats decided to hold off from hiring any new employees, yet wont admit it.
Barack Obama Wins - So does CNN & Google Congratulations to president-elect Barack Obama"the runaway winner of the 2008 presidential elections. Congratulations to John McCain"who fought...
Google, Yahoo, Microsoft Agree on Free Speech Principles This is one of those posts where you get to tell me what opinion Marketing Pilgrim should take. The WSJ is reporting that Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft...
Yahoo Gains Search Share; Google & Microsoft Suck Some good news for Yahoo! Its share of US searches in September reached 20.2%"up from 19.6% in August. Bad news for Google. Its share dropped a...
Google Cutting Corners with Android's Security? Theres a reason why Apples computers and iPhone are pretty much invulnerable to outside attacks"Apple controls everything from the...
Yahoo Profiles Evolve into a Social Network The email said"cody simms (Cody) wants to connect to you on Yahoo! Once connected, you will be able to view cody simms (Cody)s profile and...
Google Display Ad Builder; More Cheesy Ads Either the analysts are wrong about the declining trends for display ads, or Google knows something they dont know. Today, Google launches its...
Live Search Cashback is Effective! As you know, Im quick on the trigger when it comes to giving Microsofts search incentive programs a hard time. Well, I try to be fair and balanced.
Microsoft's SearchPerks Scheme When Microsoft has a search related announcement, I typically hear from someone on the PR team. However, with the launch of Microsofts SearchPerks"which...
Microsoft's Live Search Starts Powerset Features Ill admit, I expected it would take Microsoft a lot longer to start integrating Powersets search technology with Live Search"but the company is announcing...
Newspaper Group Objects to Google/Yahoo Deal
Google Adds Bling During Fashion Week Darlin you look absolutely divine in that new iGoogle theme! You must tell me the name of your designer? As Fashion Week hits high gear, Google...
Isn't Google Asking Users for Input on Its Privacy Policy? This is a praise, critique, praise sandwich post. Props to Google for announcing better steps in anonymizing Google Suggest data. In addition, a slap...
Google to Solve Search 'Problem' by 2010? Happy Birthday to You; Happy Birthday to You; Happy Birthday Dear Google; Happy You get the point. Google just celebrated its tenth birthday and the...
Google Chrome Now Live
Recycling Google Chrome News If youve tried"and hated"Google Chrome, youd better disconnect from the internet-tubes for the next day or two"the news is just buzzing with Googles entry into the browser space.
Microsoft Throwing Ice Cream Cones at Google? Theres a classic comedy skit from Eddie Izzard about England getting taken by surprise by the Germans in World War II. He suggests that Germany had a head start on building weapons, and England? Its a very niche style of humor.
Google Listens to Apps Customers, Improvements Coming! As a paying Google Apps customer, the lack of communication during recent outages left a bad taste in my mouth. Im pleased to report that I just received an email from Google with details of many improvements coming our way. These are much needed and welcomed.
Google Can't Keep Up With Feedburner AdSense
Nip/Tuck for Yahoo Site Explorer I only ever use Yahoo Site Explorer when I want to check out a web sites backlinks. If youre not aware, YSE will show backlinks in pretty much the order of authority (unlike Google).
AdWords Quality Score 'Improvements' Sometimes I wish I didnt have such a cynical eye. That way, when I saw news"such as Googles Quality Score improvements"I could simply enjoy the updates in my naivety. This is what Google announced: A more accurate Quality Score Most importantly...
GraphOn Sues Google for Patent Infringement Its a new week, its a new Google law suit. This time, its GraphOn hoping to get a little publicity by suing Google for patent infringement. Software maker GraphOn has filed suit against search giant Google, alleging that Googles Base, AdWords, Blogger, Sites, and YouTube services violate GraphOns patents
Google AdSense for Feeds: a Pain in the Rear End If youve been waiting for the much talked about Google AdSense for Feeds, I have good news and bad news. Which do you want first? OK, the good news. If you log into your Google...
Google Demonstrates Divide Over Freedom of Speech Generally, the US is one of the most litigious countries in the world"like you needed me to tell you that. However, when it comes to defamation, its often a tough argument to win...
Google CEO Never worries about Microsoft
The Knows Know With Google Reader It appears Google does listen, it just takes them a few months to respond. Almost 9 months after it introduced feed sharing features to Google Reader, the team have announced new features to allow you to control said features.
Google Can & Will Shut Off Your Account Without Warning If youre an avid Google user, you may wish to read this post sitting down. Chris Brogan documents the sorry tale of Nick Sabers complete and utter denial by Google. After returning...
Dossier Uses Google Technology to Invade Privacy According to Computerworld, the National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC) is turning the tables on Google"demonstrating how you can easily use Google services to invade the privacy of...
Icahn Skipping Yahoo Annual Meeting On the surface, it appears newly appointed Yahoo board member Carl Icahn, is staying away from the companys annual shareholder meeting for the good of the company.
Why Is Icahn Skipping Yahoo Annual Meeting? On the surface, it appears newly appointed Yahoo board member Carl Icahn, is staying away from the companys annual shareholder meeting for the good of the company.
Microsoft's New Live Search "Hotspots"
Microsoft's Ballmer Google Gauntlet Missing Key Element As a follow-on to Microsofts reorganization, BoomTown has published CEO Steve Ballmers internal memo to employees. It does a pretty good job of rallying the troops, but I was most...
We Asked 100 People About Yahoo's Q2 Following last weeks lackluster financial performance from both Google and Microsoft, yesterday was Yahoos turn to step up to the mic. The numbers: Net income of $131 million...
Icahn to Join Yahoo Board as Part of New Settlement Heres an interesting twist in the Yahoo/Microsoft/Icahn love triangle"Carl Icahn and Yahoo have just kissed and made-up. Under a newly announced settlement, Carl Icahn and two...
Google's Russian Monopoly Begins with "Begun"
Google & Microsoft's Quarterly Earnings Upset Both Google (GOOG) and Microsoft (MSFT) reported quarterly earnings yesterday evening: it was not a pretty picture for either company. First up, Google. * Net income of $1.25 billion * Revenue of $5.37 billion * Q2 earnings of $4.63 with Wall Street expecting $4.74 The Analysts said:
Get a Guaranteed #1 Ranking on Google! "Psst! Kid, wanna be number one on Google? Guaranteed?" While many companies have heard similar snake oil pitches, it might soon become possible to ensure your web site is #1...
Lawyer Sues Google Over $136.11
Don't Blinkx, You May Miss New Video Search API Im shocked that video search engine Blinkx has not been acquired by a larger company. It seems like Blinkx is continually in the news, is constantly innovating, had a UK IPO in 2007...
Yahoo Now the BOSS of 6,602,224,175 Volunteers Forget the 20,000+ employees that help Google grow its market share every day. Yahoo just signed on 6,602,224,175 volunteers to help it grow its share of the search space! 6,602,224,175? A pretty impressive number, huh? Thats the current estimated population of the world, and Yahoo has just made...
Breaking: Microsoft Acquires Powerset Breaking news from Microsoft Were excited to announce that weve reached an agreement to acquire Powerset, a San Francisco-based search and natural language company.
Too Late, Google Android; Late Too!
Google to Charge $15 for First Search Query Checked If the above headline were true, Google would have found itself at the bottom of the annual Harris Interactive Reputation Quotient poll, along with all of the major airlines.
How Do You Save Yahoo When the Crew Abandons Ship? "Most who dont get the decision see Yahoo as an abbreviation on the NASDAQ ticker. People who have poured their blood sweat and tears into building that brand don't." Terry Howard.
Look at What Yahoo Could Have Won Growing up in England, I always enjoyed watching the darts game show Bullseye. Host Jim Bowen took great delight in showing losing contestants the prize they just missed out on.
Google to DOJ: Why You Should Approve Yahoo Deal Google is wasting no time trying to convince the Department of Justice that it should approve its deal with Yahoo. Here are reasons, just posted to the Google blog (emphasis is Googles)
Is Google Sick of Flash Web Sites? New Feature "Skip Intro" Theres long been a debate about the value of Flash, when it comes to search engine optimization. I have no problem using a small amount of Flash in any web site, its those pointless...
Building Google Takes Many Rocket Scientists With the ubiquity of new "Google killers" youd think that building a search engine wasnt exactly rocket science. Well, actually, it is. So Google has signed a 40-year lease for a 1.2mil...
Google Partnership an Act of Desperation Do desperate times really call for desperate measures? It does, if youre a company facing a hostile acquisition by Microsoft! Just one day before Microsoft made its bid for Yahoo, executives...
Google Site Search Now Includes Custom Indexing It appears Googles Custom Search Business Edition is undergoing a metamorphosis. Just announced, the hosted site search solution will be renamed Google Site Search. In addition...
Google "Right to Share Video" Argument? Is it just me, or does Googles attempt to defend YouTube from Viacoms copyright allegations sound like something the NRA would say? According to Reuters
Google's Radically Transparent About Its Search Algorithm Over at the Official Google Blog, search quality tzar Udi Manber peels back the curtain covering Googles coveted search engine technology, and provides us a peek of whats been...
AdSense Open to Anyone but "Yahoo" or "Microsoft" It appears Googles not taking any chances when it comes to a possible Microsoft/Yahoo deal. The combination of the two rivals would certainly add some pressure to Googles dominance...
Ask.com Grows Audience by 11% Overnight!
Google Falling Apart at the Seams; Doesn't Appear to Care Fortune magazine has one of the most comprehensive "Googles starting to fall apart" articles, Ive seen in a long time. Sure, its easy to suggest that Google has become too big...
Google Annual Shareholder Meeting - CliffsNotes Version
Five Reasons I'm Not Going Gaga Over Powerset Theres a buzz in the blogosphere over the launch of Powerset, a natural language processing search engine that uses Wikipedia for its index. Either Ive not had enough coffee this...
Third Search Engine Marketing Scholarship Contest Starts Today The best things in life are three! No, thats not a typo. Were excited to announced the return of the annual Search Engine Marketing Scholarship Contest"this being contest number three! If youre not familiar with the annual contest, heres the elevator pitch: We want to help find the brightest minds...
Google Officially Removes Link Building from "SEO"? The guys at the eCommerce & Entrepreneurship Blog would like to point out that Google is trying to redefine search engine optimization (SEO) so that we all focus on the "on page" ...
Reader Adds Features; Wants Your Del.icio.us/Twitter Habits If I were one of the stressed out digerati"constantly overwhelmed by the demands of social media"I could probably list out a dozen existing tools that Google Readers new sharing options...
Who Are the Winners & Losers in the Yahoo/Microsoft Battle? With this weekends news that Microsoft has withdrawn its offer to purchase Yahoo, the news media is having a field day analyzing the "if," "ands", and "buts." Instead of regurgitating the...
Rumor: Google to Offer "Recommended" Sponsored Links UPDATE: It looks like its the work of a third party app. See Annes comment. Now heres something strange spotted by the eagle-eyed Anne Hennegar. Is Google really getting ready...
Who's Bluffing? Microsoft or Yahoo?
Google Discovers Holy Grail of Image Search, But Will it Scale? Google has a lofty ambition when it comes to image search. The worlds largest search engine hopes to do for image search what it did for regular text search"make it a whole lot more reliable. How it plans to do this is outlined in a new research paper written by two Google scientists. According to the NYT:
You Will Embrace Mobile Advertising! Resistance is Futile Google must have a lot more confidence in the growth of mobile marketing than I do because it has just launched some new mobile image ads. According to the Google Mobile Blog
Sneak Peak: Test Visual Search Engine Viewzi
This is Broken: Google Site Links Theres no doubt that Googles site links help users find the most important links within a given web site. Sometimes though, those links are a little out of whack. How many of you search for...
Kapow! Microsoft Live Search News Wants a Piece of Google It appears Microsofts Live brand might actually have launched a service I may use"I know, right, who would have thunk it? CNET is reporting the quiet launch of Live Search News and...
Google's 2008 First Quarter Results - Hit or Miss? Mark your calendars for this Thursday. Thats when Google will reveal its Q1 numbers for 2008. This is normally a big day for investors anyway, but this time the stakes are higher than normal.
Google & Salesforce.com Lovefest Why doesnt Google just go ahead an make an honest woman out of Salesforce.com? After announcing a pretty significant commitment to each other last June, the two are back with another announcement. According to the announcement, Google and Salesforce.com
Does Microsoft Need Yahoo Before Its Windows Shatter? I almost titled this post "The Young & the Profitless Episode 2: Brads Trust Fund Drying Up" but realized you would have needed some background on what the heck I was talking about.
Dear Yahoo, Offer IndexTools for Free, K Thx Bye Googles acquisition of Urchin"and subsequent decision to offer Google Analytics for free"certainly changed the web analytics landscape. Measurement of traffic and ROI an important...
Google Site Links Broken? Anne Hennegar has noticed somethings not quite right about the Google Site Links for the San Jose Mercury News"one of the links points to an advertiser. Im sure Frys is delighted...
Google Admits to Gambling $4.6 Billion?
Microsoft ~ No Plans to Raise Yahoo Bid
Google Site Search Controversy a "Storm Teacup" I really dont know what to say about the New York Times A New Tool From Google Alarms Sites article. Has news been that slow this weekend? So, youll recall that Googles testing...
Gmail Captchas Hacked? Not L1kELy! Some spammers are claiming to have cracked Gmails captchas"the mix of letters and numbers that only humans are supposed to recognize. If true, email spammers could create thousands of Gmail accounts and use them to send those annoying Viagra and enlargement offers. Not so fast, says Google!
EU Approves Google's DoubleClick Purchase UPDATE: Google CEO Eric Schmidt has now confirmed the acquisition. His statement reads, in part: An immediate task well undertake over the next few weeks is matching and aligning DoubleClick employees with our organizational plan for the business. This will involve determining the right staffing levels...
Cable Companies Build a Canoe to Battle Google's Battleship Google TV Ads hasnt exactly gotten off to a flying start and things could look even more bleak with news the countrys six largest cable companies are joining forces to provide a competing service. According to the NYT executives from Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cablevision, Cox Communications...
If Yahoo & AOL Merge, Will They Turn to Google for Search? Theres lots of speculation and rumor today that Yahoo and AOL are in desperate merger talks (again). Yahoo is hoping to find some alternative suitor to the aggressive Microsoft, and AOL could certainly use the efficiencies that would come from a merger. To give the talks enough time, Yahoo has delayed a pending board nomination deadline.
Google Wifi Balloons? April Fools?
Video Publishers Get Access to AdSense Video Google will today announce the beta launch of AdSense for Video"allowing video publishers to run graphical and text ads alongside their video content. ClickZ has the details:
Worried About Google Health's Privacy? Following-up a story we first discussed in October, Google has announced the first patients to start testing Google Health. The pilot project to be announced Thursday will involve 1,500 to 10,000 patients at the Cleveland Clinic who volunteered to an electronic transfer of their personal health records...
Google.org + India = Master Plan Remember when we told you about Googles plans to pledge profits and stock to its philanthropic arm Google.org? Remember when we told you that Eric Schmidt saw huge opportunity in India? Remember when Google told us that Google.org was really a screen so that it could find talented workers in growing countries?
Yahoo's Shareholder Letter: Don't Sell or Hold-out? According to ClickZ, Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang has sent a letter to all stockholders reminding them of the many great accomplishments and future potential of the company. You can read...
Yahoo Loses New Product Chief as Part of Layoffs As we reported earlier, Yahoo today started laying off many of the 1,000 employees it plans to let go. Ive started hearing from those that have been given pink slips, but the most intriguing...
Yahoo and Apple Merger? Im not a financial analyst"so forgive my ignorance here"but why isnt anyone talking about a merger between Apple and Yahoo? I know that were all fixated on how Microsofts ...
Google's Profit Growth Declines to 17% After managing a 46% profit increase in Q3, Google could only manage a meager 17% growth in Q4 2007 (compared to Q4 2006). Wall Street rewarded Google with a 7%...
Polar Rose Has Big Plans! Polar Rose is not content to have its face recognition technology confined to a Firefox plugin. The company has announced its plans to make its service more publicly available.
Yahoo Adopts OpenID's Single Sign-in Platform I must admit, Im not a big user of the OpenID platform. In case youre not familiar, OpenID allows you to have a single login name that you can use across different...
Ask.com In Google's Grill With AskEraser Im not sure what is more impressive. Ask.coms official launch of its privacy protection called AskEraser, or all of the press coverage the company is getting from the announcement. Ill get to the details of AskEraser in a moment, but take a look at your RSS feeds, favorite online news source, or even your newspaper, and youll see mention of Ask.coms efforts to protect user privacy. What a piece of PR genius by Ask!
Ten Ways to Avoid a Google Rep Management Nightmare Google is no longer just a search engine. With your potential customers, future employers, and members of the media turning to Google...
Google Phone News: This Not Just in from the WSJ My feeds were buzzing this morning over a Wall Street Journal article discussing the infamous Google GPhone. At last"I thought"if the WSJ is talking about it...
Exclusive: Google Gears Now on Calendar I just saw an interesting pop-up message while opening-up Google Calendar. It said the application wanted to use Google Gears, did I approve? Google Gears is Googles offline reading application.
DIY Google Video Interview Transcript Search Engine Land points to a video of a recent Q&A with Googles Page and Brin. As part of Googles annual closed-doors partner conference, journalist James Fallows...
A-List Google Reader Back-Slapping Over the weekend, Google started displaying Google Reader subscriber numbers for blog RSS feeds. The number shows how many Google Reader...
Microsoft Offers Preview of Live Search Maps Improvements Im somewhat puzzled as to why Microsoft is happy to show us previews of changes to Live Search Maps, but theyre still weeks away from launching them.
Yahoo Launches New Search Interface Just last week Microsoft launched their new search interface, now Yahoo joins in with their rollout of Search Assist and a new results format.
Google Announcing New APIs? Michael Arrington seems pretty confident in his sources and is suggesting Google will open up on November 5th.
Go, Go, Google Gadget Ads! Google has just announced the limited launch of Google Gadget Ads, a new interactive ad format that will run on their content network. Unlike Google AdWords existing array of text, video and graphical ads, Google Gadget Ads are designed to be interactive, can be built using HTML or Flash, and support both cost-per-click (CPC) and cost-per-impression (CPM) pricing models (more specs here).
Rumor Mill: Did Google Scrap Rumored GDrive? Google Blogoscoped helps us start off the week with some juicy speculation that Google may have scrapped plans to launch an online storage service.
Google Decides GrandCentral Number Isn't For Life After Google acquired GrandCentral, I decided to sign up for the service. It seemed like a smart move"a service that offers a central phone number and now owned by Google.
Google Has No Plans to Develop "Old Marratech" Its been four months since Google acquired web video conferencing technology Marratech.
Thought the US Ask.com Ads Were Strange! Weve covered Ask.coms strange US television commercials, but they cant compete with the utter weirdness of their UK cousins.
Google Offers Cheap Online File Storage With a Catch If youre a power user of Googles Gmail or Picasa Web Albums, Google wants to help you with your storage limit woes.
AdWords Go Wrong - Sexy Ads on Sexual Harassment Site For the most part Googles AdSense algorithm is pretty good at matching AdWords ads to relevant content.
The Google Loophole: They´ve Used it Before, Now They´re Using it for the GPhone Weve found the Google Loophole for their denials theyre building a Google branded mobile phone. Whats the Google Loophole?
More on Google's Wireless Spectrum Bid Bluff So, is Google really interested in winning the bid for the FCCs upcoming 700mhz wireless spectrum auction, or is it just a big bluff?
Google Investors Betting on Impossible Growth Here's a wake-up call for every investor that was disappointed in Google's recent financial numbers - you're expecting the impossible out of the company!
Ask Erases History SEL has a great overview of Ask.com's pending launch of AskEraser, which will allow users to delete their search history at any time. From the press release: With AskEraser, people can ensure that their search history will not be retained by Ask.com...
UK CEO Warns... "Never Allowing Your Programmers To Try Any Kind Of SEO At All". I 'm not sure which is worse...
15 of 18 Presidential Candidates Have Negative Search Listings With 16 months until the 2008 Presidential election, we thought it would be interesting to conduct a study of the search engine reputation of current candidates.
Ruling Could Force Search Engines to Hand Over Data A court ruling against TorrentSpy could create a dangerous precedent that would require other search engines and ISPs to create and store user data.
Google Upgrades Docs, Adds Folders Google's made some upgrades to Google Docs and Spreadsheets today, including the addition of folders.
Win a Free Pass to Next Week's Searchnomics Conference On June 27th WebGuild will bring together some expert search marketers for their Searchnomics conference at the Santa Clara Convention Center.
Google Asks Dell to Build Search Appliance Hardware Maybe we can believe Google when they say they're not interested in getting into the hardware business (such as cell phones).
Google Starts In-Stream Video AdSense Testing ClickZ is reporting on Google's limited test of in-stream video ads using AdSense. According to Google, participating sites within the network will test using each publisher's Flash player...
New Technorati Really is the Google of Social Media If you're a fan of Technorati, you're in for a treat this morning. David Sifry has announced a treasure-chest of updates, including a fresh new look and an integrated approach to displaying search results.
Google Adds "Hot Trends" Google has announced an upgrade to its Google Trends tool, adding a "Hot Trends" tracker for daily buzz. Similar to services such as Technorati's "top searches" and Yahoo's subscription-only Buzz Index (which also added new features today), Google's Hot Trends is designed to show what search phrases are the most popular on any given day.
Google Introduces Major Interface & Algorithm Update Google has just sent us details of a series of updates to their interface and algorithm, as they move towards what they call a "universal search model".
Ask.com to Spend $100m to Buy Market Share Can Ask.com buy additional market share for the sum of $100 million? That's what it hopes to do, with a marketing blitz this summer that will see the search engine try...
Google Helps Connect Advertisers w/ Video Ad Creators If you've not yet figured out how your company can create video ads for distribution on Google AdWords, you're not alone and Google wants to help.
Meet Me in Seattle for Sullivan's SMX Danny Sullivan's eagerly anticipated inaugural Search Marketing Expo conference takes place in less than a month.
Flickr Taking Over Yahoo Photos Michael Arrington has news that Yahoo will today announce the closure of Yahoo Photos, favoring Flickr, which they acquired in 2005.
Yahoo Allows Content Filtering for SEO Are there parts of your site that you wish you didnt have because they dilute your chances of getting a number 1 ranking on the search engines?
What is Google Hell? Ok, I have to admit that I didnt realize we had labeled Googles supplemental results as Google Hell
Google Loses Personalized Homepage Preferences Nathan Weinberg is reporting that hundreds of Google users have found their Personalized Homepages settings in a flux.
Google Facing Privacy Complaint According to CNET, three public interest groups will file a joint complaint with the Federal Trade Commission asking for an examination of the privacy threat posed by Googles acquisition of DoubleClick.
Yahoo Sued for Informing Chinese Government Yahoo is being sued by the wife of a Chinese dissident over the companys release of information to the Chinese government.
Google Builds Its Own Random Search If indeed Google did lose out on buying StumbleUpon to eBay, theyre moving quickly to prove they can simply build it themselves.
PayPal Buttons to Appear on Yahoo Sponsored Search Having watched Google Checkout add lots of little blue shopping cart symbols to AdWords listings, PayPal obviously decided that was a great idea, and tapped Yahoo to help them out.
Google Says Trust Us... Google CEO, Eric Schmidt, is working hard to convince traditional broadcasters that they are not a threat, but merely there to help grow their business.
Google Wants You to Disclose Paid Links UPDATE: Google now wants you to use the report spam form to snitch on any site that you feel might be selling links!
Ask.com Working on a New Algorithm SEL has word of a new algorithm in development at Ask.com; blending the best of Teoma and Direct Hit (remember them? they had the algo that looked at the number of clicks a listing received).
Blog Usability, Gmail Spammers and More While Ive not abandoned the link blog (youll find lots of great links there), here are some news items that need a little explanation.
Google Offers Free 411 Service We already suspected Google might enter the 411 arena, when they were granted a voice recognition patent last year. With Microsofts recent acquisition of Tellme, it seemed even more likely that Google would one day launch a mobile voice search service.
AdWords Display Changes Many eagle-eyed readers have spotted Googles testing of a new background color for AdWords shown above the main results, over the past few days.
Yahoo's Alpha With Customized Search Results I received an interesting email from our Yahoo friends in Australia. It appears that, as a result of a Hack Day project...
SEM Scholarship Reminder Hows your entry to our SEM Scholarship contest coming along? This Friday is the deadline for entries.
A Bunch of Google News In case you can't get enough Google news, here are few more news items for your consideration.
Yahoo Mobile News Trifecta Yahoo's had a busy start to the day, announcing three new mobile initiatives.
Second Search Engine Marketing Scholarship Contest Launches It's back! After the phenomenal success of last year's contest, the Marketing Pilgrim SEM Scholarship Contest is back and this time it's bigger, better and badder than before!
Yahoo Hopes to Gain #1 Mobile Search Spot With Expansion Despite many believing mobile marketing to be a "non starter", the search engines continue to invest heavily in mobile search. With $11.4 billion expected to be spent on mobile search advertising by 2011, Yahoo is at the top of the list of companies staking their future on the tiny web browser.
Google to Offer Skins for Personalized Users If I'm reading correctly, Google will today launch six landscape "skins" for the Google Personalized Homepage.
Do Google's Job Ads Reveal New Products? Forbes believes the easiest way to discover Google new product initiatives is to browse among the many job listings the company advertises.
Will Google Become the Next Microsoft? It would be easy for me to jump on the bandwagon, that's going to gain momentum today, from Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's recent comments on Google.
Google Updates Privacy Practice And More Some quick news items for you to wrap-up your day... Google's updated their privacy practices. They're somewhat vague, but "in the coming months" they'll make your search data anonymous "...
Lenovo Dumping Google for Microsoft's Windows Live Search Microsoft's Windows Live toolbar just received a new lease of life with news that computer manufacturer Lenovo will pre-install it on all new desktops and notebooks.
Google's Lasnik Wishes "NoFollow Didn't Exist" I had a chance to chat with Matt Cutts' right-hand man, Adam Lasnik (yep, that aspirin guy), about Google's stance on paid links, before he took the stage for Australia's Search Summit today.
Judge Confirms Search Engines Can Reject Ads You'd think this would be obvious, but it took a recent law suit and a judge's ruling to confirm...
Yahoo Slams Google's Usability I guess Yahoo felt they needed to be in the news this week - no matter what the reason. It's the only explanation I can think of for Yahoo's Jeff Bonforte, senior director of real time communications, attacking Google's usability efforts.
Google's PageRank Developed "Completely Randomly" Google's Larry Page finally helps marketers realize that it's pretty futile to try and figure out the components of PageRank, when the inventor didn't exactly have a plan when he created it.
Google's Search Results Defined Anna Nicole Smith's Reputation? This is sad to read. It appears Anna Nicole Smith paid a lot of attention to the search results associated with her name.
Yahoo SearchLight Awards Next Week Yahoo asked us nicely - so we're obliging - if we'd let all search marketers know about the upcoming Searchlight Award Show.
Not All Google Domain Names for New Services It appears Garett Rogers has gotten a little too excited about some recent domain name activity at Google.
Google Plans AdWords Algorithm Change; Expects Complaints I just got off the phone with Google's Nick Fox, Senior Business Product Manager for Ad Quality, and got the scoop on the upcoming changes to the AdWords Quality Score.
Google's Indian VC Investments Google has already gone on record that India is going to be a country to watch over the next few years.
Why do Leaks Happen to Yahoo and Not Google? OK, so TechCrunch has acquired a copy of an email sent out to all Yahoo employees, by CFO Susan Decker.
Video Search and Copyright Media Post suggests that smaller companies are providing better solutions for searching video content on the web.
Mobile Search Not Too Hot A recent UK survey of mobile phone users suggests that there may be no where near the amount of people using their cell phones for search, as believed.
ChannelAdvisor Launches Search Solution If you're involved in anyway with eBay (or other auction sites), you're likely very familiar with ChannelAdvisor. They're arguably the leaders in helping ecommerce companies sell their products via shopping channels and auction sites.
ABCSearch Screens Affiliate Traffic ABCSearch is getting some nice praise from their clients, for screening out poorly converting ad channels, including this from Six Sigma Inc.
Microsoft Flustered By Loss Of Market Share CNET reports Microsoft is not happy with their recent loss of search engine market share. The following is an excerpt from the CNET report.
Google Image Search Layout Changes If you hate "echo-chamber" posts, cover your eyes now. Search Engine Land points to a Philipp Lenssen post on a design change for Google Images.
Copernic Founder Takes Over as Mamma.com CEO Congratulations to Martin Bouchard, founder of Copernic, as he takes over the role of Chief Executive Officer for meta-search engine Mamma.com.
Yahoo Fights Dirty The power struggle between Yahoo and Google for your desktop just took an evil turn, with evidence that suggests Yahoo is trying to switch Google users without their explicit permission.
Cast Your Vote in the 2006 Search Blogs Awards Voting is open for Search Engine Journals Search Blog Awards. The nominations are full of my favorite blogs and voting is going to be tough.
Google & Baidu Considering Video Options for China Reuters reports both Google and Baidu.com are considering their options for expanding existing searchable online video services in China.
Search Engine Land Completes Pre-Alpha Phase After much teasing, Search Engine Land finally delivers the goods and launches with a new look. Danny Sullivan takes the time to explain the reason behind the name.
The Benefits of Combining Search with Display Ads A new Yahoo study, in conjunction with comScore Networks, has discovered that when combined, search and display advertising deliver profoundly better results than when used independently.
SoloSEO.com Offers SEO Project Management Tools Im excited to bring you news of the launch of SoloSEO, a brand new project management solution for search engine optimization. Ive been working with founder...
Google's Secret CPM Ad Network Darren Rowse points to a post by John Chow that reveals details of an ad network that Google uses for Fortune 1000 companies.
Play the SEO "Guess Who" Game David Wallace wants to test your skills in identifying SEM stars, when presented with just a snippet of their photo. The first one is easy, but they get more difficult
Search Engine College Launches "Certification Pathways" Kalena Jordan's Search Engine College has launched Certification Pathways, a series of courses that come with a certificate of accomplishment.
Free Business Advice for Search Marketing Firms Back in September, I posted the Top 10 Mistakes Search Marketing Firms Make. Since then, business coaching for SEM firms has become a large part of my consulting services.
Google Offers Sitemaps Tool for News Sites Google has launched a new version of its Sitemaps for news sites that are looking to have better control of what content of theirs is indexed.
Boldly Searching Where No Man Has Searched Before A joint study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project and Exploratorium reveals 87% of Americans online have used the internet to find information on a scientific topic or concept...
Practical Feedback for Scholarship Entrants Robin Nobles, one of our SEM Scholarship judges, provided some feedback on the articles submitted. She provides some interesting suggestions for article writing.
SEM Scholarship Winner Announced The judges have deliberated, the votes have been cast and we have the final winner of Marketing Pilgrim's Search Marketing Scholarship contest.
Search Marketing Scholarship Contest The last four weeks of Marketing Pilgrims Search Engine Marketing Scholarship Contest has been lots of fun, and it was a great success.
Lycos Asks for Help with Powering Search A couple of days back, Lycos and Ask.com announced a new partnership, through which Ask would power many Lycos search results.
Free Payment Processing from Google Checkout eBay Strategies Scot Wingo has news that Google plans to offer free payment processing at Google Checkout, until the end of the year. This tells me one of two things is happening...
Add Floating Live Search Results to Your Website Microsoft just made it easier for your visitors to search your web site and find what they are looking for. The Live Search Box displays the search results using a floating DIV tag.
Get Paid to Search with Zotspot I'm not sure how I feel about zotspot's new search engine plan to share paid search advertising revenue with those that use the search engine.
Does Google Penalty Equate to Defamation? The Kinderstart.com case has taken an interesting twist, as the judge decides whether receiving a 0/10 PageRank penalty from Google equate to the legal...
Yahoo Adds Bookmarking Features To New Toolbar Release Yahoo's launched a new version of their toolbar today and adding some cool new bookmarking options. Chris Sherman has the full details.
Get SEM Tips from Yahoo's Search Marketing Blog It's finally here; Yahoo has indeed launched the Yahoo Search Marketing Blog, which will provide visitors with current news, information, and advice in the field of SEM.
Customizable Search Results From Google Remember all those times search marketers have warned that obsessing over a #1 ranking would some day be obsolete, as everyone would have their own personalized Google results?
New Set of Adwords Tools The Adwords team sends word of new updates and tools. New features include a 'Last thirty days' date range for reports and Graphs for weekly and hourly reports.
Adsense Expansion Leads Google's Growth ClickZ takes a look at the contribution that Google's contextual advertisement network, AdSense, is making to the growth of Google's revenues.
Citysearch Launches Text-Based Mobile Search Greg Sterling reports on his blog, SearchEngineWatch, that Citysearch has launched a text-based mobile local search service...
Yahoo's Panama Interface Launches As you read this, Yahoo is announcing the launch of their long-awaited Panama interface for search marketing, replacing the system that has been in place...
SEM Scholarship Week 1 Winner Announced Week 1 of our SEM Scholarship contest has concluded and we have our first finalist. Congratulations to Nick Urbani who wins the first round with, "The SEO Article You Shouldn't Read".
Which SEO Brain Do You Use? Robin Nobles has launched a new blog that helps those SEOs who are "right-brain" challenged, find their creative side. The new site is called ...
Google Launches Docs & Spreadsheets TechCrunch has details of Google's rollout of Docs & Spreedsheets - the offspring of Google Spreadsheets and Writely. This is not a deep product integration, but it is...
New Prizes Added to SEM Scholarship Contest I'm delighted to announce Search Engine College has offered to donate a valuable prize to our SEM Scholarship contest.
Could Google Face YouTube Lawsuits? There's going to be a lot of Google/YouTube coverage floating around this week, so I don't plan on re-hashing every take on the deal. However, I will post any story that looks at the acquisition...
Google Code Search Indexing Proprietary Code? CNET reports Google has launched a new web site, Google Code Search, which will allow programmers to search billions of lines of code. The service, conceived by the Google Labs...
Google Groups Gets Much Needed Facelift If you thought the interface at Google groups was something that only a mother could love, your were not alone - Google agreed with you.
Yahoo Sponsored Search Now on Cell Phones Yahoo has just announced the beta launch of sponsored search results on the company's Mobile Web service in the USA and UK.
Why Google is Safe from Trademark Infringement on AdWords Just finished reading Eric Sinrod's analysis of why a judge decided in favor of Google in a law suit filed by Rescuecom. Here's Sinrod's take on why the judge allowed Google...
Google Developing Political BS Detector? Google's Eric Schmidt hints at a new product offering from Google - a politician bull-sh*t detector. Politicians have yet to appreciate the impact of the online world...
Google's Eric Schmidt Talks Strategy Time.com has an interesting interview with Google CEO Eric Schmidt. Schmidt explains the company's strategy behind it's recent partnership deals.
Amazon Strips A9 of Search Features I'm a little puzzled as to why Amazon has decided to remove some key features from its A9 search engine. When it first launch, they made a bid deal of their personalized search...
$5,000 Search Marketing Scholarship Contest I'm delighted to announce the Marketing Pilgrim Search Engine Marketing Scholarship contest. We're asking you to submit an article on search engine optimization...
Overwhelmed by Search? Ask a Librarian CNET explains why search engines will never likely replace the expertise and personal touch you get from consulting a librarian. While the Web is good for offering quick
SEO Community Announcements Two announcements that you should consider... 1. Eric Ward has just launched a new newsletter. THE WARD REPORT will be published monthly and include a "Trend Watch"...
Google's Belgian Battle: Mountain or Molehill? Business Week takes a look at what's at stake in the battle between Google and Belgian publishers.
Froogle is Dead, Long Live Froogle! Greg points to an article at Marketwatch which has created quite a stir with comments suggesting Google plans to downplay Froogle from here on out.
Google Explains the Ridiculousness of Belgian Ruling Google's taken the opportunity to explain their side of the recent Belgian court ruling. Here's precisely why the court case is somewhat ridiculous...
Signs You Need to Switch SEO Providers Now that I'm working as a consultant, I find myself in many situations where I'm helping clients who are frustrated with the SEO firm they are working with.
Google Listens to Users, Adds Spreadsheets Features Fuzzy "Wuzzy" Khosrowshahi stops by the official Google blog to let us know about some new features in Google Spreadsheets. It appears he's been keeping...
Moviegoers Research First on Google Google has just released a joint study with MarketCast that looks at the role of the internet in helping moviegoers decide where to spend their $10-15.
Google Fights Belgian Ruling - Round 3 While Google has complied with part of a recent Belgian court ruling - removing news stories from Belgian publishers - it's fighting the requirement...
Google Changes URL Queries Matt Cutts is nice enough to let webmasters and SEOs know that Google has changed the way it handles searches for a domain name. Previously we treated the query...
Google Sticks-it to Belgian Courts - Round 2 We reported Sunday that Belgian courts had ordered Google to remove all news stories by Belgian publishers. Google, just fired back.
The Rise and Dominance of Baidu CNET's lengthy profile of China's most popular search engine, Baidu.com, is an interesting read for anyone needing to get up to speed on the company.
Yahoo Plans TV & Radio Blitz - FREE COFFEE! Yahoo is planning a new media blitz - complete with a new television and radio campaign. Ok, that's the boring stuff. Here's what you really need to know...
Link Bait Addiction and .edu Link Myths I don't recall if I've ever actually met Eric Ward, but I've been reading his stuff for years. So, shame on me for only just subscribing to his RSS feed - might have something...
Google Market Share Slide Just a Blip We suspected Google's recent market share slide was nothing more than an anomoly. Now Bill Tancer confirms that Google regained its market lead and then some.
Google Adds Time Machine to Google Earth CNET reports Google has added the "timescale" feature to the basic version of Google Earth. If, like me, you thought it would allow you to go back in time...
Sex Outsearched By Business Topics? A new study suggests that sex is no longer the most searched topic on the web - being outsearched by business related queries. In their mid-90s heyday, sex-related topics...
Microsoft Launches Windows Live Search CNET reports on Microsoft's launch of Windows Live Search, which offers an improved user interface and more search features.
Ask.com Announces R&D Center in Germany Ask.com is expanding it's European footprint with news that they creating a research and development center in Hamburg, Germany. "The expansion of...
Can Lycos Find New Model for Success? You know a search engine is in trouble when Danny Sullivan declares "I frankly stopped caring about it two years ago". That's the not-so-kind tag given to former search giant, Lycos.
SEOMoz Generates More Traffic Than SEW? There's an interesting referral battle going on in MarketingPilgrim.com's analytics. Both Rand and Barry linked to my...
Free Reputation Management Guide for Students Tom Drugan of Naymz.com, has put together a free guide aimed at rebellious college students (and other young'ns) that are now just realizing...
The Digg of Search Marketing News After getting tired of keeping track of the hundreds of blogs discussing the search engine marketing space, Jonathan Nelson decided there must be a better way of tracking the hottest news.
Hanging on Every Google Word It seems that just about everything that comes out of the mouth of a Google exec, ends up as speculative story on the company's next move. Either Google's cringing every time...
Google News Archive Offers a Look Back in Time Google's just launched a News Archive which allows users to explore historical archives. According to Google... Users can search for events...
Google to Offer SEO Training? It appears Google is planning a seminar called, "Optimizing Your Websites for Google Search", according to Lee Odden. Cuttlet, Adam Lasnik, will be the presenter and the cost is just $30...
More Retail Traffic from MySpace than MSN Search Perhaps Danny Sullivan should look at a new conference titled, MySpace Strategies, as news comes that the social networking site created more retail traffic than MSN Search!
SEMs Should Embrace New Distribution Deals Kevin Newcomb analyzes Google's recent distribution deals and, with the help of the marketers he spoke to, concludes marketers are not wowed by the deals.
Not All Search Engines Respect NoIndex Meta Tags If you think those embarrassing photos of you at the office Christmas party - that you uploaded to that page on your site that you're sure no one knows about - are safe...
Google CEO Joins Apple Board If Google and Apple announced a partnership, that would be huge news. Just one step from that is the announcement that Google's CEO, Eric Schmidt, has joined Apple's board of directors.
Book Review: SEO: An Hour A Day I'm always being asked to review the latest book on marketing. With a hectic schedule, it can be tough to get any time to read any of them, but I just made time to read...
What Happened to Yahoo Blog Search? Lots of speculation this morning surrounding Yahoo's mysterious removal of blog search from Yahoo News. Google's Matt Cutts offers his thoughts and Greg Jarboe...
Flickr Photos Now Showing in Yahoo Results The Yahoo Search blog would like you all to know that you can now find Flickr photos via Yahoo Search. Try searching for funny photos and you'll find hilarious...
Ask.com Hires Former PayPal CTO Ask.com has just announced the appointment of Chuck Geiger as Executive Vice President of Technology and Engineering. According to the press release...
Three Depart AOL Over Search Data Leak I'm glad to see AOL considers the accidental release of user's search data to be unacceptable. The company has fired the researcher responsible and his supervisor, according to CNET.
Free Google Wi-Fi? You Get What You Pay For! I've seen more than one story suggesting some people are criticizing Google's free Wi-fi service in Mountain View, because it doesn't offer live tech support.
If You Can't Google, Yahoo Instead! While Google is busy using its vast legal army to prevent people from "googling", Yahoo sends out an open invite for anyone that wants to "yahoo" instead.
Search Competitors Gaining on Google Big news! Google is dead, long live Google! Well, some people are salivating at news from ComScore that suggests Google lost 1% of market share in July.
Google Accepting New Writely Accounts Since Google acquired word processing collaborator, Writely, invites have been very limited. TechCrunch sends word that you can now sign up for a Writely account.
Your Favorite Search Blog? Rand Fishkin has done it again! He's created yet another link-tractor-beam, designed to get us search bloggers linking to him. This time, Rand has listed out his...
Google Launching New Blogger Features Google has announced they are rolling out new features for Blogger. Some of the cool new tools include: Permissions, Labels, and Extra Feeds...
Matt Cutts Warns About SEO Friendship Claims Matt Cutts wants readers to be aware of some SEO firms claiming to be his best friend. He's always cautious when an SEO asks to have his photo taken with him.
SES: Google CEO Asked About Click Fraud On Wednesday, Search Engine Strategies attendees were treated to a keynote chat between Danny Sullivan and Google CEO, Eric Schmidt.
Google CEO Eric Schmidt at SES San Jose Danny Sullivan sat down with Google CEO, Eric Schmidt and discussed many Google topics. Here's what I found to be most interesting. Schmidt doesn't worry...
Google Fighting Verb Usage SEW reports on Google's attoney's attempts to stop media using "google" as a verb. According to the (hand addressed) letter sent to the Washington Post Google has come...
Google Webmaster Central Takes Place of Sitemaps SEW reports that Google has re-named Google Sitemaps to Google Webmaster Central and added some cool new tools in the process. Including...
SEO - One of the Four Hottest Jobs Staffing firm, Robert Half International, has published a list of what they feel are the "four jobs on the cutting edge". One of those jobs, happens to be "Search Engine Optimizer".
Enquisite Offers Free Search Metrics Reports Richard Zwicky has been offering to let me test his new search metrics tool for a couple of months now, unfortunately for me, I've been too busy to take him up on his offer.
Google AdWords Now on XM Satellite Radio Google and XM Satellite Radio have announced a new partnership that will see Google advertisers being able to place ads on XM's non-music channels.
USA Today Profiles Search Expert Danny Sullivan If you're still not sure who Danny Sullivan is - you're either new to the industry or living in a pretend world of your own - USA Today has a good profile...
Matt Cutts Video Answers Can't wait to see Matt Cutts at next week's SES show? Matt provides a fix in the form of three videos of himself answering various SEO questions.
Two and a Half New Features for Google Talk Techblog reports Google has added three new features to Google Talk, its instant messenger product. A new file transfer option is now available, as is voicemail.
Google Click Fraud Settlement Confirmed MarketWatch brings word that an Arkansas state judge had give the final approval for the $90 million click fraud settlement. By approving the settlement Thursday, Miller County Judge Joe Griffin effectively ends Google's participation...
Yahoo Adds Database Guru to Social Search Team Reuters reports Yahoo has hired a top database expert to head-up a team studying social search. Yahoo hired Raghu Ramakrishnan, 45, as vice president and...
Google Calms Down Click Fraud Hype Google's figured out a way to calm down the hype surrounding click fraud - let Adwords advertisers see for themselves which clicks Google has detected as invalid.
Ask.com's TV Ads Go From Primate to Genius USA Today looks at how Ask.com has increased its share of the search engine industry by rolling out clever TV ads. It's an interesting plan to go straight from...
Display Ads and Search a Winning Formula? Kevin Newcomb (happy birthday Kevin!) has details of a new study from Atlas Institute that suggests running display ads (must be a fancy name for "banner ads")...
Google's Norvig Challenges Berners-Lee While it can be fun to watch a heavyweight boxing fight, sometimes it can be even more enjoyable to watch two intellectual heavyweights go at it.
Revealing Search Engine Algorithms Our thanks to Enid Burns for taking the time to talk to Mike Marshall and I about the new SEMLogic study we released in her ClickZ article.
Google CEO Eric Schmidt Answers Tough Questions You have to give Google CEO, Eric Schmidt, credit for taking some tough questions at a recent conference and being open with his answers - even if a little sarcastic.
SEMLogic Study: Most Important SEO Factors We've just announced details of the first public SEMLogic study which took the keyword "laptop" and analyzed the Top 100 results in Google, Yahoo and MSN.
Social Search Gaining Traction CNN looks at the smaller sibling of the search engine industry - social search. Can humans compile more relevant search results than Google's mighty algorithm?
Google Plans Michigan Facility According to the AP, Google has announced it will hire 1,000 employees in the Ann Arbor area, over the next five years. ...the Detroit Free Press and The Detroit News said...
New Enterprise Search Solutions from IBM According to Elinor Mills, IBM has launched two new entry-level versions of its search and content integration software. The first, IBM WebSphere...
Searchers Pre-Map Search Engine Results I've told Gord Hotchkiss he "rocks" on previous occasions - which he once told me helped him win some "cool" points with his kids. Well, his new article ...
eBay Decides to Ban Google Checkout We reported on speculation that eBay may decide that Google Checkout is too much of a threat and use its "Safe Payments Policy" to prevent eBay sellers from using the PayPal rival.
Google Ready to Battle Broadband Providers If broadband providers such as AT&T and Verizon get their way and are able to charge more to carry unaffiliated content or guarantee connection speeds, ...
Dear Google, You're Giving Me A Headache My head hurts. Almost everytime I log into an adwords account something has changed. I knew when I decided to enter the search marketing field over 5 years ago ...
Google Copying Amazon's Master Plan I order a lot of stuff via Amazon.com, why? They already have my credit card info and I can shop many merchants all from a single shopping cart.
Google Yawns in the Face of French Trademark Ruling CNET reports Google has been ordered to pay damages in a French trademark law suit. The Paris |