November 6, 2009

5 Google Updates for 11/6/09: News, Maps, Books, Music and Mobile

It's the end of another eventful week in search blogging, and once again there are several Google updates just piled up waiting to be written about. So, we're saving everyone some time and just compiling them into one post. Check them out:

Google News has a new sitemaps interface. You have six months to adopt the new sitemap.

Google Books now has a magazine search page.

Via Google Search's new music search, you can now access exclusive songs hosted by MySpace and Lala for artists such as Lady Gaga and Arctic Monkeys.

Google Maps has released imagery of Berlin from 1945 to 1953.

The Google Mobile App is now available at Best Buy (still free, which is the ultimate "best buy").

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 3:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 28, 2009

Hot Rumor: Google is Launching a New Music Service

According to a blog post by Heather Dougherty, Director of Research at Experian Hitwise, Google is expected to launch their music service today. So, she took a closer look at the tons of data that Hitwise collects to see can be seen.

Here are some highlights:

-- Out of the top 1,000 search terms that took place on Google last week, 6 percent were music-related (which includes bands, music services and content). -- Last week, Google sent 1.48 percent of their total visits to the Music category and of those visits, 95 percent of the downstream traffic to Music websites were returning visitors (that had visited Google in the past 30 days). -- Google was the top referral website to the Music category accounting for nearly 30 percent of the total traffic to the category last week, 5x more than 2nd ranked Yahoo! Search and 6.3x more than MySpace. -- Last week, 15 percent of the clicks from the search term portfolio of Music that includes the names of over 900 band and artist names resulted in a visit to a Google property, especially YouTube, among the Top 10 websites to receive traffic. -- Last month, 71% of all searches took place on Google.

Speaking of music, VEVO, a music and video entertainment hub being launched by YouTube and Universal Music Group later this year, just landed AT&T as an advertiser. Oh, and VEVO just got an undisclosed investment from Abu Dhabi Media Company, which is backed by the people from the United Arab Emirates.

Is there a connection? Is YouTube an independent subsidiary of Google? You betcha.

I spoke with Bill Tancer, General Manager of Hitwise, and author of the best-selling book "Click: What Millions of People are Doing Online and Why it Matters" at SES Chicago 2008. He was about to spot search engine user behavior patterns and the shopping patterns of the affluent long before they were common knowledge.

Bill Tancer on Search Patterns at SES Chicago 2008

So, when the folks over at Hitwise tell me how music plays on Google, I listen. I listen very closely. They hear things before the rest of us.

Posted by Greg Jarboe at 6:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

October 23, 2009

7 Google Updates: Custom Search, AdWords API, Maps, Search Appliance and More

Google had another busy week pushing out updates. That's really no surprise considering Apple released product refreshes and Microsoft released Windows 7. Google hasn't let any major update from any competitor go by without their own news and this week was no different.

We've already covered Google getting a deal with Twitter (similar to Bing's deal with Twitter) as well as a new social search experiment set up in Google Labs.

Here are 7 updates that are slightly minor but you'll still want to know about:

Custom Search is now available for mobile search experiences on smartphone and higher-end devices. Google will even host your mobile-optimized custom search pages for you, or you can host it on your mobile site.

AdWords API has a new version that includes asynchronous calls, keyword and placement ideas, and a location extensions preview.

Google Maps for Mobile has introduced layers for Blackberry users.

Google Search Appliance, an enterprise search server, released an update that includes a Self-Learning Scorer.

Google Friend Connect has a new Wordpress plugin.

Webmaster Central has new instructions for verifying a Blogger blog in Webmaster Tools.

Google Reader added Popular Items and Personalized Ranking features.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 12:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

October 22, 2009

FCC Votes to Pursue Genachowski's Proposed Net Neutrality Rules

This morning, the Federal Communications Commission voted to consider Chariman Julius Genachowski's proposed net neutrality rules. This means the two rules will be opened for public comment before finalized through an FCC vote.

Genachowski publicly announced his new rules at a speech last month at the Brookings Institution. They are:

• Preventing Internet access providers from discriminating against particular Internet content or applications, while allowing for reasonable network management.
• Ensuring that Internet access providers are transparent about the network management practices they implement.

Google has long been a proponent of Net Neutrality. Reacting on the Official Google Public Policy blog, Google's Washington Telecom and Media Counsel, Richard Whitt, wrote:

There's been a lot of noise out there, but let's review what's at stake: The Internet was built and has thrived as an open platform, where individuals and entrepreneurs -- not network owners -- can connect and interact, choose marketplace winners and losers, and create new services and content on a level playing field. No one seems to disagree with that fundamental proposition. This new proceeding is aimed at opening a national dialogue on how best to protect that unique environment. For our part, we fully support the adoption of "rules of the road" to ensure that the broadband on-ramps to the Net remain open and robust.

But not everyone sees the need to fix what's not broken. Per a Washington Post editorial:

Mr. Genachowski claims to have seen "breaks and cracks" in the Internet that threaten to change the "fundamental architecture of openness." He and other proponents of federal involvement cite a handful of cases they say prove that, left to their own devices, ISPs such as Comcast Corp. and AT&T will choke the free flow of information and technology. One example alluded to by the chairman: Comcast's blocking an application by BitTorrent that would allow peer-to-peer video sharing. Yet that conflict was ultimately resolved by the two companies -- without FCC intervention -- after Comcast's alleged bad behavior was exposed by a blogger.

The Post also pointed out that net neutrality amounts to controlling networks that private companies have built:

Aptly dubbed an "immodest proposal" by the Free State Foundation's Randolph J. May, the FCC would prohibit ISPs from "discriminating against" different applications. Mr. Genachowski explains it this way: ISPs "cannot block or degrade lawful traffic over their networks, or pick winners by favoring some content or applications over others in the connection to subscribers' homes." In short, ISPs, which have poured billions of dollars into building infrastructure, would have little control -- if any -- over the kinds of information and technology flowing through their pipes.

The Post ended their editorial by questioning how much the ISPs will innovate if they are burdened with additional regulation.

Incidentally, Google has what should be an obvious stake in net neutrality regulation. The use of their search engine and various other products depends on internet users being able to access their services on the networks they're using.

Of course, plans for tiered Internet pricing are not very popular, rejected by consumers. And, like the Post pointed out, companies often reverse course whenever they're tempted to go in that direction because the public outcry isn't worth it.

It's a hot debate and if you play nice, you can have it in the comments below.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 2:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

October 21, 2009

More Rumors: Google, Facebook to Launch Online Music Initiatives

The rumor mill just keeps flying this hump day. First, TechCrunch is dishing on a new initiative by Google to make music easier to search and sample. The deal will involve services such as MySpace, iLike and LaLa, and is rumored to be announced next Wednesday at the Capitol Records building in Hollywood.

Meanwhile, Brad Stone at the New York Times has the scoop on a new music micropayments service slated to be launched by Facebook. Currently, you can spend 10 cents to send cute little goodies in the form of images to your Facebook friends. Soon, you'll be able to send songs that your friends can listen to online. Greeting cards and videos will also be getting the micropayments treatment.

Neither of these stories is officially confirmed. "No comment" is the phrase of the day!

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 2:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 20, 2009

Is Google the Black Hole of Protected Tweets? No, Not So Much

The L.A. Times printed a sensational expose on how Google had a deal with Twitter to index and make publicly searchable protected tweets. Twitter allows users to keep their tweets private, seen just by their followers. But the Times asserted that Google had special access and that the Tweets were viewable to the public via search.

TechCrunch quickly picked up on the probability that the Tweets were searchable were likely public ones that were published before users went private with their Twitter feeds.

Then, the LA Times published an update with official comment from Twitter saying they do not have a deal with Google for access to private Tweets.

So, that happened.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 5:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

October 19, 2009

Google to Provide Free Wifi on Virgin America Flights This Holiday Season

Airlines have increasingly been introducing Wifi to their flights so that passengers can browse the internet while traipsing the planet. If you're flying Virgin American during the holidays, that Wifi connection will be free courtesy of Google.

From November 10, 2009 to January 15, 2010, you'll be able to surf free while you fly. Use your laptop, wifi-enabled gaming device or smartphone to browse to your heart's delight.

Virgin America is a new venture, serving just 10 airports:

• San Francisco, CA (SFO)
• Boston, MA (BOS)
• Fort Lauderdale, FL (FLL)
• Las Vegas, NV (LAS)
• Los Angeles, CA (LAX)
• New York, NY (JFK)
• Orange County, CA (SNA)
• San Diego, CA (SAN)
• Seattle, WA (SEA)
• Washington Dulles (IAD)

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 12:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

October 15, 2009

Google Reports Great Third Quarter, 'Worse Behind Us' CEO States

Google had its third quarter financial report today and beat estimates of analysts with a 7% year over year growth with net income increase of 27% over same period last year, CNN Money reported.

Eric Schmidt, Google's chief executive, on a conference call with investors said "while there is a lot of uncertainty about the pace of economic recovery, we believe the worst of the recession is behind us and now feel confident about investing heavily in our future."

The stock price which had dropped about 1% during regular trading today jumped up by over 3% in after hour trading.

"Google's strong third quarter could be a good sign for the economy, as the company's ad clicks serve as a kind of barometer of consumers' willingness to spend. The more people click on ads, the more willing they are to buy things," CNN Money noted.

Schmidt also said Google will be "stepping up" hiring in the engineering and sales areas.

Posted by Frank Watson at 7:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Bing's Growth Slows, Google Recoups Losses in comScore September 2009 Report

comScore has released their search engine share report for September 2009 and we're seeing yet another twist in the "Can Bing catch up with Google?" saga. You may remember that Bing has been on quite a roll since launch gaining over 1 percentage point, with Google and Yahoo! trading off the losses.

Well, the tides began to turn last month, with Google regaining 0.3% of its loss and Bing gaining another 0.1% in share, which is not the rate of growth they have been experiencing. This time, Yahoo! suffered the losses with a 0.5% decline. Ask.com and AOL held steady.

Another interesting tidbit is YouTube's continued growth and how it compares to search. Greg Jarboe already provided you with the scoop on how more YouTube videos were watched in August than searches conducted in September. Be sure to read his post because this is a phenomenon to watch for sure.

Also, read up on Promoted Videos, which is essentially paid search for YouTube. You can now purchase Promoted Videos in AdWords, which will appear in the search results over at YouTube.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 2:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

October 14, 2009

We Watch More YouTube Videos than We Conduct Google Searches

Now, we all know search is important. And we all know that Google is the leading search engine.

But here's a factoid that continues to amaze marketers:

In August 2009, Americans watched 10 billion videos on YouTube. That same month, Americans conducted 9 billion searches on Google.

Yep, Americans watched a billion more YouTube videos than they conducted Google searches.

The data comes from comScore, a reputable source. And the reason that it may have flown under the radar screen is that it comes from two different reports.

The YouTube data comes from comScore Video Metrix, which reported that 120.5 million Americans watched an average of 82.6 videos per viewer.

The Google data comes from comScore qSearch, which reported that 169.2 million American conducted an average of 53.2 queries per searcher.

So, do you want to be found when someone conducts a search for a relevant term on Google? Of course you do.

But do you want to be found when someone looks for a relevant video on YouTube? You should.

A lot of marketers are trying to get their arms around social media -- like Facebook and Twitter. These are both important. But YouTube is a video sharing site -- which is also a form of social media.

And according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 62% of Internet users in the U.S. have watched video on a video sharing site. This compares to 46%, who have used a social networking site, and 11%, who have used Twitter.

So, why is YouTube often left off the marketing to-do list? It's a mystery.

But, you can start to get your arms around the topic by watching the YouTube video below.

Greg Jarboe of SEO-PR discusses YouTube and Video Marketing at SES London 2009

You can also get a sense of why YouTube is neither fish nor fowl by reading the TubeMogul report entitled, "How do people discover videos online?" More than 45% of viewers find videos through direct navigation to a video site -- i.e. going to YouTube and running a search or clicking around the featured or related videos. But more than 44% of viewers find videos embedded in blogs.

Finally, you can attend the YouTube & Video Optimization session at SES Chicago 2009. I'll tackle this issue head on -- and provide you with proven, practical guidelines for developing and implementing video marketing for your organization.

With more YouTube videos being watched in America than there are searches being conducted on Google, you will want to find out what it takes to get your videos discovered, watched and shared.

Posted by Greg Jarboe at 8:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (14)

October 12, 2009

Google Creates Learning Site Specifically for Ad Agencies

Google has launched a new site called AgencyLand. The site is an answer to requests from advertising agencies for resources to help them manage their clients' accounts. Originally launched into a closed, private beta in March 2009, AgencyLand is now available by invitation to agencies and third parties in the United States and Canada.

You can request an invitation at the homepage of AgencyLand.

In the meantime, here's a video featuring advertisers saying why AgencyLand is Awesome Town.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Former Genentech CEO Levinson Quits Google Board

Arthur Levinson, former CEO of Genentech, has resigned Google's Board of Directors. Levinson had been on the board for five years.

"Working with Eric, Larry, Sergey and the whole Google team has been a remarkable experience for me. I greatly admire what they've built and have no doubt that Google has a terrific future," said Levinson.

Levinson is also on the Board of Directors at Apple. The FTC has been Google CEO Eric Schmidt recently quit Apple's Board.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Go to SES Berlin or SES Chicago for "Five Brand New Things"

During the past four weeks, I've provided four great reasons for going to either Search Engine Strategies Berlin or SES Chicago 2009. For those who want to join in the chorus, they are "four keynote themes, three key trends, two early birds, and a ranking in the top three."

This week, I'll share a fifth compelling reason -- and it isn't "five golden rings."

You should plan to attend SES Berlin or Search Engine Strategies Chicago 2009 to discover "five brand new things."

Most of the focus at these events is on the conference sessions, but I've always made time to prowl the floor of the exhibit hall to see "what's new." And I don't mean trade show tchotchke.

Now, sometimes I see a booth from a brand new company that I've never heard of before. And other times, I find a brand new product or service being demoed in the booth of a big brand name. And every now and again, I uncover the latest SEO or SEM tools in a sponsored session at the conference.

I know, I know, this is like saying that I watch the Super Bowl in order the see the commercials. But, that's why the official name of the event is Search Engine Strategies Conference & Expo.

Now, it's hard to predict the five brand new things you'll come across at either Search Engine Strategies Berlin or SES Chicago 2009. As either Niels Bohr or Yogi Berra once said, "It's tough to make predictions, especially about the future."

But, I've been attending five of more Search Engine Strategies a year for more than five years on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, so I'm reasonably confident that SES Berlin and Search Engine Strategies Chicago 2009 will feature their fair share of brand new things.

And I should probably say something like, "Past performance is not indicative of future results," but let me share some actual examples of the five brand new things featured at previous SES events by Byron Gordon, my colleague at SEO-PR, who conducts many of the interviews for SESConferenceExpo's Channel.

Acquisio PPC Management Client Demo & How-to

At SES Toronto 2008, Marc Poirier, Chief Marketing Officer of Acquisio, gave a how-to demonstration of Acquisio's online advertising campaign and client management / report generation tool. Acquisio is a PPC management software company that builds software to help agencies automate processes they have to deal with in their monthly campaign management. It is exhibiting at Search Engine Strategies Chicago 2009.

Stacey Jarvis, Microsoft Canada, on Bing, at SES Toronto 2009

At Search Engine Strategies Toronto 2009, Stacey Jarvis, Search Lead, Consumer & Online, Microsoft Canada, discussed Microsoft's Bing. Stacey said Bing has evolved from what was originally a pure search engine to a "decision engine." Bing is a Platinum Sponsor of SES Berlin.

Dan Morris, Brafton, on customized news feeds for websites at SES New York 2009

At Search Engine Strategies New York 2009, Dan Morris of Brafton, a custom news agency, was interviewed. Morris said Brafton writes for each client specific stories about breaking news developments in their respective industry, using keyword strategy and links. Brafton is exhibiting at SES Chicago 2009.

Alex Torres, Google, on Google tools that help to maximize your website's ROI

As Search Engine Strategies New York 2009, Google Enterprise Product Marketing Manager, Alex Torres, was interviewed about using Google's many tools, including website optimizer, Adwords analytics and Site Search to help website owners maximize their ROI. Alex discussed the reasons why Google expanded its offerings and recommends website owners to use a holistic approach when incorporating Google's website tools. Google is holding sponsored sessions at SES Chicago 2009.

Jeev Trika, Visibility Magazine, at SES Chicago 2008

At Search Engine Strategies Chicago 2008, Jeev Trika, Visibility Magazine, was interviewed. Visibility Magazine started in 2007 and focuses exclusively on Internet marketing strategies. Visibility Magazine is exhibiting at SES Chicago 2009.

Next week, we'll look at more reasons to go to either Search Engine Strategies Berlin or SES Chicago 2009. In the meantime, keep singing " five brand new things, four keynote themes, three key trends, two early birds, and a ranking in the top three."

Posted by Greg Jarboe at 2:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 7, 2009

6 Google Stories for Wednesday, October 7, 2009

There was a ton of news about Google today (in addition to the two [see here and here] we've already covered today), so let's dive right in:

Search Options was released on the mobile version of web search for Android, iPhone, and Palm WebOS. By the way, that's the second time in a week where a mobile update is for those three types of devices. Blackberry and Nokia phones are noticeably missing while omitting Windows Mobile is no real surprise.

Google Maps released a major update, with improved details for parks, bike paths, and college campuses.

The Google Webmaster Central team is proposing new standards for making AJAX sites crawlable.

PDFs in Google's search results are getting the "Quick View" treatment. Since July, Google has added the option, which is based on the same technology used in Google docs, to 50% of the PDFs in their index.

Google is testing Cloudboard, as pointed out by a great post over at Google Operating System. Cloudboard is an online clipboard that would enable copying between Google services including GMail and Google docs.

Google held a press conference today (a response to Microsoft Open House?) and mostly told reporters a bunch of stuff we all already know. Here are a couple of tidbits that stood out: They talked up the new Verizon agreement to sell Android mobile phones. They said the prices publishers set for their own content don't affect SERPs but that traffic could indicate which content is more relevant for searchers. Otherwise, it was your regular Google stuff - defending their book settlement (which they're re-negotiating), defending their luxurious culture in a recession, and how they're good not evil (like Microsoft is, don't ya know?!).

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

This Breaking News Just In - The Meta Keywords Tag is Still Dead!

At SMX East this week, Cris Pierry, the Senior Director of Yahoo! Search, surprised everyone by saying that Yahoo! had stopped supporting the Meta Keywords Tag several months ago.

Google has never supported the Meta Keywords Tag and Bing doesn't support it, either.

So, I think I can safely say, "The Meta Keywords Tag is still dead."

Actually, the first to notice that it had died was Andrew Goodman of Traffick, who declared way back on my September 2, 2002, "An End to Metatags (Enough Already, Part 1)". He observed, "If somebody would just declare the end of the metatag era, full stop, it would make it easier on everyone."

On October 1, 2002, Danny Sullivan, provided a second opinion in Search Engine Watch in "Death of A Meta Tag." He declared, "In my opinion, the meta keywords tag is dead, dead, dead."

Nevertheless, Inktomi and then Yahoo! Search continued to support the meta keywords tag, so some search engine optimizers continued using it, although it didn't have significant impact.

Time passed, Sullivan left Search Engine Watch to start Search Engine Land and Search Marketing Expo, and way too many search engine optimizers continued using the Meta Keywords Tag because there's a big difference between mostly dead and all dead.

But, now Pierry has officially notified the next of kin.

So, I think the entire search industry can stop using the Meta Keywords Tag -- just as Chevy Chase has stopped saying, "This breaking news just in - Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead!"

I can't wait to tell the public relations agencies and PR departments that don't want to include keywords in their headline or lead paragraph. They mistakenly think that their newswire can automatically sprinkle Meta Keywords Tags over an unedited press release like pixie dust and magically optimize it for Google News or Yahoo! News.

I've long recommended using top search keywords in headlines and at least the first 100 words of optimized press releases. However, since Yahoo! News paid even minor attention to the Meta Keywords Tag, just as Yahoo! Search did, it was hard to get some to change their behavior.

Even those who realized that top search keywords actually need to appear high up in very visible locations, had trouble dealing with the death of the Meta Keywords Tag. They would go through the five stages of grief described in the book by Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, "On Death and Dying." They are: 1. Denial (This isn't happening to me!) 2. Anger (Why is this happening to me?) 3. Bargaining (I promise I'll be a better person if...) 4. Depression (I don't care anymore.) 5. Acceptance (I'm ready for whatever comes.)

But, now I can stay the meta keywords tag is dead, dead, dead.

And now, as a public service to those of our viewers who have difficulty with their hearing, I will repeat the top story of the day, aided by Senior Vice President of content for Search Engine Watch, ClickZ, and Search Engine Strategies, Mike Grehan.

Greg Jarboe: "Our top story tonight.."

Mike Grehan: [ screaming ] "Our top story tonight..!"

Greg Jarboe: "..The Meta Keywords Tag.."

Mike Grehan: [ screaming ] "..The Meta Keywords Tag..!"

Greg Jarboe: "..is still dead."

Mike Grehan: "..is still dead!"

Greg Jarboe: Good night, and have a pleasant tomorrow.

Mike Grehan: [ screaming ] Good night, and have a pleasant tomorrow!

Posted by Greg Jarboe at 4:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)

Google Tests Homepage That's Even More Minimalistic

Over at TechCrunch, a reader tipped them to a new test by Google - to go even more minimalistic on their homepage. The test involves hiding everything on the homepage, save for the Google logo and the search box.

The links for Advertising Programs, Business Solutions, etc. are apparently still there, but unnoticed unless you mouseover them.

The buttons for "Google Search" and "I'm Feeling Lucky" are removed completely, however.

As this is just a test, only a small amount of users will see it. It will be interesting to see if Google goes even more white space in the future.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 12:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 5, 2009

Go to SES Berlin or SES Chicago for "Four Keynote Themes"

During the past three weeks, I've given you three great reasons for going to either Search Engine Strategies Berlin or SES Chicago 2009. For those who want to catch up, they were "three key trends", "two early birds," and "a ranking in the top three."

This week, I'll focus on a fourth compelling reason -- and it isn't to hear "four calling birds."

You should plan to attend SES Berlin or Search Engine Strategies Chicago 2009 to hear "four keynote themes."

Let's start with SES Chicago 2009, where there will be three keynote themes well worth hearing.

On Day 1, the opening keynote is being given by Jeff Jarvis, author of What Would Google Do? He is associate professor and director of the interactive journalism program at the City University of New York's new Graduate School of Journalism. He is also consulting editor and a partner at Daylife, a news startup.

Jarvis writes about media, technology and business on his blog, BuzzMachine. A former TV critic for TV Guide and People magazine, as well as the creator and founding editor of Entertainment Weekly, he has also been assistant city editor and reporter for the Chicago Tribune and a reporter for Chicago Today.

"My keynote, like my book, isn't really about Google," says Jarvis. "It will be about the profound changes in the economy and society brought on by the Internet -- as seen through the success of the one company that has figured out and exploited them better than any other: Google."

Jarvis adds, "We'll have fun discussing the impact of search and the Google economy on every sector from media to advertising to restaurants to government.

On Day 2 of Search Engine Strategies Chicago 2009, the keynote speaker is Peter Morville, author of the best-sellers Ambient Findability: What We Find Changes Who We Become and Information Architecture for the World Wide Web: Designing Large-Scale Web Sites. He is also the President of Semantic Studios and blogs at findability.org.

During his keynote, Morville is expected to expand on the themes found in his published works, including the idea of findability and the importance of a navigable and friendly user interface.

"At SES Chicago, this will be my first opportunity to talk about ideas in my new book - about the future of search and discovery," says Morville. "In addition to exploring the relationships between information architecture, ambient findability, and search engine optimization, we'll also be covering mobile search, decision engines, augmented reality, and emerging technologies that will change the way we find everything from answers and articles to products and people."

On Day 3, the keynote speaker is Dan Siroker, the web entrepreneur known for leading the analytics team for the Barack Obama presidential campaign. He also served as the Deputy Director of New Media on the presidential transition team.

Siroker's team of software engineers and analysts were responsible for optimizing the effectiveness of the Obama campaign's online operations that ended up raising over half a billion dollars, registering over 2 million voters, and enabling 3 million phone calls to be made in the final four days of the campaign.

Before joining the Obama campaign, Siroker was a Product Manager for Google Chrome and, before that, he worked as a Product Manager for Google AdWords.

"SES Chicago is, of course, in the President's hometown, so I'm really looking forward to sharing the lessons my team and I learned during the Obama campaign and how these practices can be applied to any data-driven decision," says Siroker. "Whether you're a developer, designer or marketer, if you're building a product or selling an idea, you can use data to do it better."

The fourth keynote theme will be delivered by Bill Hunt, the President of Back Azimuth Consulting and co-author of the best selling book "Search Engine Marketing, Inc.: Driving Search Traffic to Your Company's Web Site", who will be the opening keynote speaker at Search Engine Strategies Berlin.

Hunt is currently on the Board of Directors of the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization and writes Bill Hunt's Rants & Raves blog, which provides digital marketing commentary from a global marketing road warrior.

Hunt firmly believes that when we understand the searcher's intent, where a searcher is in the buying cycle or even understanding the type of search they are doing, advertisers can better intersect with the current demand for their type of products and services to increase sales. That's a keynote theme worth going to SES Berlin to hear.

Next week, we'll look at more reasons to go to either Search Engine Strategies Berlin or SES Chicago 2009. In the meantime, keep singing "four keynote themes, three key trends, two early birds, and a ranking in the top three."

Posted by Greg Jarboe at 3:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

October 1, 2009

Google Syncs Mobile and Desktop Searches

Google has enabled new sync features between desktop computers and mobile devices, specifically for local search and query suggestions. You need to be signed in, of course, to makes use of the sync. Here's what to expect if you do:

Local

If you're searching on Google Maps, you can star various local businesses. Later, you can pull them up on your phone on Google.com under the Local section. Just look for "Starred Places." Once you bring them up, you can access mobile optimized Place Pages, the new local content pages Google just released.

There's also a new category browse feature if you're looking for something to do, but you're not quite sure what it is or where to go.

These features are available in the US and China.

Query Suggestions Typing on a mobile phone is tedious, so to make querying Google a little easier on your mobile device, Google is syncing queries. If you've searched something on your desktop, it will now show up as a query suggestion in your mobile search. You have to sign in on your mobile search with the same account that you use on your desktop. Web history also needs to be enabled to use the query suggestion sync.

This feature is available for iPhone, Android, and Palm OS phones.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 5:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 23, 2009

Bing Continues to Boom, At Google's Expense

The August 2009 search rankings by comScore are out and the news continues to be good for Bing. Microsoft sites grabbed an additional 0.4% share. Meanwhile, Google lost 0.1% share as did AOL, which is powered by Google search. Yahoo! and Ask.com remained steady.

This brings Bing's market share gains since launch to 1.3% and Google's loss since Bing's launch to 0.4%. (See July and June data for reference.)

Meanwhile, Bing experienced the biggest growth among the top 5 in search queries, at 7%, outpacing the percentage growth of overall searches as well.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 2:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (18)

September 18, 2009

Google Officially Launches DoubleClick Ad Exchange

A week ago, ClickZ's Zachary Rodgers broke the news that Google would soon launch its new online advertising exchange. That news is now official.

Google is boasting that its DoubleClick Ad Exchange will be a time-efficient way for publishers and advertisers to get their respective jobs done with regards to online display advertising. Publishers will make available unsold inventory and advertisers will bid in real-time. Google handles all the billing and payments.

Google says it has three primary objectives with the ad exchange:

1. Simplify the system for buying and selling display ads. 2. Deliver better performance that advertisers and agencies can measure. 3. Open up the ecosystem

That last one could be a source of contention since it looks like advertisers will be forced to use DoubleClick's ad buying platform.

Additionally, Google's not the first ad exchange out there. Their main competition will be Yahoo!'s Right Media Exchange. So, while Google is launching this thing by saying it will help both publishers and advertisers get a bigger piece of the pie, this mostly seems like it will give Google a bigger piece of the display ad pie.

Still, there's a reason why everything Google touches seems to turn to gold, and there's no reason to think the DoubleClick Ad Exchange will be anything different.

As a result, I wouldn't be surprised if there is some antitrust scrutiny down the line if they do indeed end up with a big chunk of the aforementioned proverbial pie. But for the meantime, publishers and advertisers have a new option in the ad exchange market.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 12:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 15, 2009

Google Ad Exchange Launch Expected Soon

Over at our sister blog, Clickz, Zachary Rodgers has some inside information that the anticipated display advertising exchange from Google could launch as early as next week. Google would not confirm or deny the rumor. But, next week is Advertising Week in New York, making it the perfect time to launch the exchange.

The ad exchange will allow publishers and networks to offer up unused ad inventory to a pool where advertisers can bid for the space. The exchange has been developed within DoubleClick, which Google acquired over a year ago.

Right now, the ad exchange leader is Yahoo!'s Right Media Exchange, but Google could quickly take the lead in the marketplace. However, that won't happen as readily (or at all), if publishers are forced to use DoubleClick's Dart for Advertisers (DFA) platform.

What do you think of Google's forthcoming ad exchange? Let us know by leaving a comment.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Google Releases Visual-Based News Platform

Whenever a search engine briefs me with big news, I've come to wonder - "What will Google come up with to try and steal their thunder?"

Today was no exception. After Bing announced its Visual Search and Ask announced Search for the Cure, sure enough the web was buzzing with news of Google Fast Flip.

Of course, this unveiling had more to do with taking on Bing and Visual Search than Ask. Fast Flip is a Google Labs project that is like Searchme or Viewzi where you browse pages before you click and read. However, it's focused on news, whereas Searchme and Viewzi are for all niches. The idea is that you "flip" through newspapers and magazines, on the internet.

It doesn't look like it took much to code up Fast Flip, which leads to even more suspicion that it was a knee-jerk reaction to Bing's news. But that hasn't stopped the usual ogling from media and bloggers who react with infatuation at anything Google releases.

The New York Times seems to think that this is Google attempting to appease newspaper publishers, which is, at least, a plausible explanation. But trying to take people to an old way of flipping through print materials instead of progressing on how people are actually consuming the news on the internet is not going to work.

Check out Fast Flip for yourself and then come back and let us know what you think.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 1:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

September 14, 2009

Google Commands Attention Span in Internet Use Minutes for Brazil, India

Think Google dominates in the US? Well, according to new comScore data, internet users in Brazil and India are even more Googley-eyed. In those countries, almost 30% of total time spent online is spent with Google.

The United States doesn't even crack the top ten when it comes to minutes spent on Google. The global average is 9.4%.

Alex Banks, managing director of comScore Latin America offered up his thoughts on why it's Brazil and India that are so Google-icious.

As it turns out, there are interesting similarities between Brazil and India as emerging Internet markets. Google's prevalence in these markets can perhaps best be explained by the fact that the time at which these markets really began to develop and flourish was around the same time that Google was becoming a major player in the search landscape. As a result, Google became the dominant Internet brand in these markets and its success appears to have bled from search into other areas of the web like social networking.

By the way, these minutes include Google.com, YouTube, Blogger, Picasa - all of Google's sites.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 4:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

White Knight SEO Checks Google Cash Scam Artists

Back on September 2, 2009, I posted a story entitled, "Google Cash Scam Artists vs. White Knight SEO Campaign."

On September 3, Matt McGee of Search Engine Land posted "Google Cash Scams Targeted By 'White Knight' SEOs" and Chris Crum of WebProNews posted "'White Knights' Take on Fraudulent Results."

And on September 11, Kaila Krayewski of Inernet Search Engine Database posted "SEOs Try to Push Google Cash Scams Out of Rankings."

It appears that all the attention to this issue may have prompted Google to block advertising on the term, "Google cash," as well as another term, "Google money tree." On September 11, Jonah Stein of It's the ROI posted "White Knight Checks Google Cash."

Stein said, "For advertisers playing the Google cash game, this is at best check, not mate. We have not induced a moral decision by Google to protect naive users. This appears to be the narrowest possible compromise, a strategic retreat by Google to avoid the obvious embarrassment of having the organic results overtly exposing the scams advertised on the right. Google is still allowing advertisers to bid on variations like google cash detective and google cash system."

So, the chess game continues. Still, it's interesting to note that a handful of White Knight SEO blogs seems to have promoted Google to suspend bidding on a couple of exact match terms. Can the end game be near?

Posted by Greg Jarboe at 11:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 10, 2009

Google Plans Micropayment Platform for Publishers with Paid Content

Newspaper publishers and other media entities have made no secret about their desire to put content up behind a pay wall. The motivation behind it all is the slow death of traditional media and the loss of revenue that has come along with it.

Now, Google is planning to assist that effort by developing a micropayment platform that can help facilitate the paywall plans. It will be an extension of Google Checkout and be available for both Google and non-Google sites.

Of course, it remains to be seen if these paywall plans even work. Most newspapers had them in place when they first launched on the web. They didn't work, and the paywalls came down.

Google's smart to monetize the upcoming paywall efforts while they last. But don't be surprised if the micropayment platform ends up in the Google product graveyard if the paywall plans do indeed fail.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

September 9, 2009

Google Grows a Larger Search Box on Home Page

If something looks a little different on Google.com, don't adjust your screen. Something is different.

The search box is bigger. The buttons below the search box are bigger and the text size for the query suggestions is larger as well.

Google suggested the reasoning behind the change was to emphasize their focus on search. That seems a bit strange to me, but whatever. If I had to guess, it would have been that search terms are getting longer and that senior citizens are one of the fastest growing demographics on the web. Plus, with tens of millions of Americans set to enter senior citizen-hood in the next decade, it makes sense to cater to that demo.

If you haven't noticed this yet, don't worry, you will.

On my computer, I was able to see the new, bigger box on Internet Explorer, and Firefox but not Chrome.

Check out the screenshots below. First is the new Google and below is the old:

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 8:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)

September 2, 2009

Digg Goes Nofollow to Reduce Spam

Social bookmarking site Digg is incorporating the Nofollow tag to a bunch of links in order to reduce spam. Links on user profiles, comments and not-so-popular posts will get the nofollow tag, meaning it won't pass along link juice.

Many have submitted content to Digg just for the links. Of course, the more popular a link is, then there's the added value of a traffic bump.

In their blog post announcing the change, Digg was not specific on how popular a link would have to be in order to get the Nofollow tag removed.

Digg said it worked with leading experts in SEO to come up with the rule. But since Google bullied Twitter into integrating Nofollow, you have to wonder how much of a collaboration this was and who the experts were.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 6:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

Google Cash Scam Artists vs. White Knight SEO Campaign

During SES San Jose 2009, I heard about plans to launch a White Knight SEO campaign to fight the legion of Google Cash Scam artists. If you want some background on the effort, read Jonah Stein's post "Using SEO for Good - Introducting White Knight SEO."

As Stein explains, the group aims to protect users from spam blogs (splogs), Made for AdSense (MFA) sites, and other Google Cash Scam artists by "dominating organic search results with consumer protection information. We hope that we can place advisory content to take over the top 10 results in Google for searches related to common scams and online fraud with a particular focus on areas which are using adwords & adsense to snare victims."

The White Knight SEO campaign's first target is "Google Cash" and related terms. And it has already started generating posts.

One of the earliest that I've found is "Alert - Google Cash Scam," which was posted August 19, 2009, by David Rodnitsky of PPC Associates. Rodnitsky says, "Move over flogs, now there's something meatier! Introducing, um, fnews - fake news! I got a full-screen pop up today from the 'Los Angeles Tribunes' with the headline 'Breaking: Google is Hiring at Home Workers. Pay $373 Dollars a Day (or more).'"

On August 21, Jonathan Hochman, the founder of Hochman Consultants, joined the White Knight SEO campaign when he posted, "Google Turns Blind Eye to Scam Ads." According to Hochman, "Unless you live under a rock, you've no doubt seen those 'Google Cash business opportunity' ads from entities like Google Money Tree and Google Treasure Chest. They seem to be everywhere."

And earlier today, Stein re-doubled his efforts by posting "Google's Cash Cow - Scam Advertising & Profits." Stein writes, "By now, you have gotten at least one email inviting you to make easy money by placing links on Google. These scams go by names like 'The Google Cash System' or 'Easy Google Cash'. The bottom line is pretty simple, these offers are scams and they are designed to take advantage of the most vulnerable people in our society, the unemployed, the opportunity seekers and the naive."

It's still early days, but it will be worth watching the White Knight SEO campaign against the Google Cash Scam artists. If you search for "Google cash" in Google, the #1 organic listing is the question in Google's Web Search Help, "Is Google Cash a legitimate service?"

But the eye goes to the #4 organic listing, which is a YouTube video entitled "Google Cash Scam." You can also watch the 4-minute, 12-second video by Sean Kells of the ReviewAroo.com blog below.

Who knows, maybe there are already enough warning signs around for even the most naive searcher. On the other hand, it never hurts to ensure that the warnings are even more explicit. Stay tuned. This story has legs.

Posted by Greg Jarboe at 5:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (13)

September 1, 2009

Google Investigating Reason for Widespread Gmail Outages [UPDATED]

UPDATE: Over at the Official Gmail Blog, Ben Treynor, VP Engineering and Site Reliability Czar, wrote that the problem was related to a server upgrade. They underestimated the load that would be placed upon the request server, and things got bottlenecked after that.

Today, Gmail went down around 3:45 EST and the world came to a grinding halt so that millions could take to their Twitter clients and Tweet about it.

You could access your Gmail account via IMAP or POP, if you already had it set up. Some were able to access their GMail via iGoogle".

While many are speculating the cause, Google is currently saying it doesn't know what the root reason is and that they're investigating it.

Google was largely immune to the recent cyberattacks on Twitter, Facebook and LiveJournal. It will be interesting to see what the cause of this outage was. Of course, Google has suffered outages before which had nothing to do with cybersecurity.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 7:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

August 31, 2009

Global Search Market Tops Over 100 Billion Searches a Month

comScore has just released a study of the global search market that shows more than 113 billion searches were conducted in July 2009. This represents a 41 percent increase compared to a year ago.

Google attracted significantly more searches than any other search engine with 76.7 billion searches conducted, giving it 67.5 percent market share. Yahoo! ranked second worldwide with 8.9 billion searches (7.8 percent share), followed closely by Chinese search engine Baidu with 8 billion searches (7.0 percent share). Most of the top search properties worldwide experienced significant growth in search query volume versus last year, with Russian search engine Yandex growing at the fastest rate (94 percent) among the top ten.

It is worth noting that Europe accounted for the highest share of searches at 32.1 percent, followed by Asia Pacific (30.8 percent) and North America (22.1 percent). Among the five global regions, Latin America exhibited the heaviest search behavior per person with an average of 13 search usage days in July and 130 searches per searcher. Europe had the second highest overall search volume per person (117 searches per searcher) while North America exhibited the second heaviest frequency (12.5 search usage days per searcher).

This makes it as important to attend SES Berlin November 24-25, 2009, as it does to attend SES Chicago December 7-10, 2009. Why?

As Mike Grehan, the newly-anointed VP and Global Content Director at SES, SEW, and ClickZ, told me earlier this month, search isn't a static topic. The changes in the industry are accelerating. Can anyone afford to be behind the times in this new era?

Mike Grehan, the new VP and Global Content Director, ties social media to search, SES San Jose 2009

Posted by Greg Jarboe at 3:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 28, 2009

Microsoft Lobbyists Meet to Thwart Google; Politics as Usual Ensues

Daily Finance, an AOL site, is reporting that Microsoft's lobbyists hold weekly meetings where the discussion revolves around taking on Google. In attendance are consultants and others who oppose Google. The meetings have become known as "screw Google" meetings by DC insiders.

I used to work in politics. I used to work in DC. These type of meetings happen all the time, in all sorts of industries and with all sorts of issues. It's not a Microsoft or Google thing. It's not a Democrat or Republican thing. It's a politics thing.

Google lobbyists meet to discuss Microsoft, I would assume. If they don't, then Google should fire them for being crappy at their job.

Move on, there's nothing to see here. Just politics as usual in the nation's capital.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 3:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

August 26, 2009

Google Gets Spammed with Searches for "White People Stole My Car"

Via NowPublic.com, Google has been spammed with searches for "white people stole my car." The effort has been so big that the phrase has been showing up on Google Trends for a few days.

The term, when search, leads to sites that contain viruses and even more spam. According to Google Insights, the phrase began being "searched" August 19.

There are also reports that when people searched for "white people stole my car," Google returned with "Did You Mean: black people stole my car?" But I find that part to be a bit far-fetched and unlikely to have actually happened.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 1:57 PM | Permalink

August 21, 2009

Blind Search Test: You Might Be Surprised at Which Results You Prefer

Last night, I began playing around on BlindSearch, which returns results from Google, Yahoo! and Bing, but doesn't tell you which one is which. Then, you vote for the results you like the test and it reveals which search engine you chose.

BlindSearch was developed by a Microsoft employee, but not on the company dime or time. (Plus, if it was designed to trick you into liking Bing, it would be entirely too easy to prove that it was tampered with.)

I searched for things I've been searching lately. Waterproof watch, flip flops, Bahamas. (My family is going on a cruise this fall.) I was surprised at how many times Yahoo! results were the ones I liked.

Then I searched topics I'm very familiar with. "Thyroid cancer" (was diagnosed over 6 years ago) and "Synthroid" (which keeps me alive). The best search engine was Bing. This was also the results I felt the strongest about my vote. I know exactly which sites I would want to send people to if they got thyroid cancer and Bing ranked them the best.

It made me think - why am I searching on Google so much when the results I trust the most on topics I'm an expert on - are on Bing?!

On topics where I'm more of a casual observer, though, it was difficult to even choose a clear winner. the results are virtually identical for so many searches. The idea that Google is superior is definitely a myth.

It's clear that we're at a crossroads in search. Too many searches must be refined and the results the Big 3 engines are giving us are pretty much the same. Whoever is able to reduce task time in search will emerge as the next winner.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 4:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

August 13, 2009

Google Tests Ads with Images in Sponsored Links

Major hat tip to Al Scillitani who noticed that Google has added images to paid search ads. This seems to be a test as I couldn't personally duplicate it.

The ads with images don't have description text. There's simply a link, a price and the brand. Here's Scillitani's screenshot (click to enlarge):

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 12:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)

Matt Cutts of Google Joins Extreme Makeover: Live Site Clinic at SES San Jose

Matt Cutts, the Software Engineer Guru at Google Inc., will be joining the panel during the Extreme Makeover: Live Site Clinic at SES San Jose 2009 on Thursday, August 14, 2009, from 10:30 to 11:45 a.m. The session will be held in Room C at the McEnery Convention Center.

Cutts will be joining Moderator Elisabeth Osmeloski, Director of Online Media at Advertures in Search, and speakers Tiffany Lane, Search Quality Team at Google, and Greg Boser, President of WebGuerrilla LLC at the session.

In case this is your first SES conference, Cutts works for the Search Quality group in Google, specializing in search engine optimization issues. He is well known in the SEO community for enforcing the Google Webmaster Guidelines and cracking down on link spam. Cutts also advises the public on how to get better website visibility in Google.

Cutts joined Google as a software engineer in January 2000. Before Google, he was working on his Ph.D. in computer graphics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has an M.S. from UNC-Chapel Hill, and B.S. degrees in both mathematics and computer science from the University of Kentucky. Cutts wrote SafeSearch, which is Google's family filter. In addition to his experience at Google, Cutts held a top-secret clearance while working for the Department of Defense, and he's also worked at a game engine company. He claims that Google is the most fun by far. Cutts talks about webmaster-related issues on his site at http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/.

This interactive session takes volunteers from the audience and examines their websites live to provide general feedback about improving them to gain more traffic from search engines.

I interviewed Matt at SES San Jose 2008 -- back before he'd shaved his head on a bet with his team at Google. He talked about his job interview at Google in 2000. The video interview is one of the most popular on SESConferenceExpo's Channel on YouTube.

Matt Cutts, Google, discusses mobile search at SES San Jose 2008

The Extreme Makeover: Live Site Clinic was already on a lot of people's list of must-attend sessions. But, with Cutts added to the panel, get there early just to get a seat.

Posted by Greg Jarboe at 2:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

iGoogle Gets All Facebook-y with Social Gadgets

iGoogle has a new feature called Social Gadgets and it smells like Facebook spirit. You can add social games, share news, update your status - sound familiar?

They're only launching 19 social gadgets initially, but iGoogle has traditionally been pretty open, so expect this to expand.

It's becoming clear that Google itself might see its biggest threat as Facebook, especially with the social network launching real-time search of its live feeds this week. Facebook web search is also fueled by Bing, which is set to become the 2nd biggest search engine with its deal with Yahoo!

In the words of Charlie Crews, character in the now-cancelled series Life: "It's all connected."

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 12:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 12, 2009

Google Services for Websites Adds New Features

In March, Google began bundling tools together for web hosting providers who can in turn provide it to their customers. It's called Google Services for Websites and they've added a few new tools to the mix:

Web Elements allows customers cut-and-paste maps, real-time news, calendars, presentations, spreadsheets, YouTube videos, conversations and custom search on their sites.

Page Speed does exactly what you think - helps site owners measure speed and makes recommendations for making things run faster.

Tips for Hosters Wow, they really know how to name these things. Yes, this page offers tips for web host providers for helping their customers develop better sites and use tools like Google Analytics and Google Translate. There's also offer info on platform costs on referral fees.

What do you think about these additions to Google Services for Websites? Let us know by leaving a comment.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 3:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

August 11, 2009

Protect Your Data By Moving to the Google Opt-Out Village

The Onion reports:

Google Opt Out Feature Lets Users Protect Privacy By Moving To Remote Village

via Google Blogoscoped

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 2:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 7, 2009

Yesterday's DoS Attacks Included Google, Possible Cyberwarfare Suspected

As news broke yesterday about the Denial of Service (DoS) attacks affecting Twitter, revelations began to unfold about how widespread the attacks really were. Facebook slowed down and produced error pages. LiveJournal experienced downtime as well.

While Google didn't go down, they were affected. This statement from a Google spokesperson explains their involvment:

We are aware that a handful of non-Google sites were impacted by a DoS attack this morning, and are in contact with some affected companies to help investigate this attack. Google systems prevented substantive impact to our services.

While not explicitly saying they were attacked, I think it's pretty clear they're just more prepared for malicious attacks of all kinds.

Of course, they've been around for a longer period of time than Facebook, Twitter and LiveJournal. But social media sites are going to have to beef up their security, especially considering the nature of the attacks.

It turns out that the attacks were aimed at a Georgian blogger who had accounts on Facebook, Twitter, LiveJournal, YouTube and Google's Blogger. While not confirmed, it seems pretty obvious to anyone following events in the region, that Russia could be behind the attack.

As Patrica Skinner at Search Engine Journal points out, this isn't the first time Russia has been involved in a cyberwarfare attack. Plus, it's hardly a coincidence any longer that the US Marines this week were barred from using social media.

All of this comes the same week that the acting White House Cybersecurity Czar stepped down. Melissa Hathaway resigned just months after replacing the last Cybersecurity Chief, Rod Beckstrom, left the post. Beckstrom left because cybersecurity is mostly handled by the NSA, a division of the Department of Defense. Beckstrom felt that cybersecurity should be handled by a civilian agency.

Hathaway left after being marginalized by political opponents within the White House. She was a holdover from the Bush administration, who lost favor with Obama's economic advisors when she said there should be cybersecurity regulations for the private-sector.

Hopefully, this week's attacks will encourage bipartisan action on addressing what is increasingly becoming very serious cybersecurity threats.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 2:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 6, 2009

Google Testing New Positioning for PPC Ads

Hat tip to SEW forum member rodhull who spotted Google repositioning PPC ads to be closer to the organic listings in the SERPs.

I could definitely tell a difference when I conducted searches on Google in Internet Explorer and then Firefox.

In IE, I could see the test with the paid search ads moved over to the left a bit:

Then in Firefox, Sponsored Listings are hanging out closer to the right:

What have you observed? Share your experience in the comments below or over at the forum.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 2:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

August 4, 2009

SES San Jose 2009 to Feature Search Engine Foosball Smackdown Rematch

If you attended SES San Jose last year, you may have seen the Search Engine Foosball Smackdown. It was a heated event between Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo! Each search engine sent some of its best foosers to see who would dominate (well, at least who would dominate the foosball table).

Microsoft was knocked out in the elimination round, although that was before Bing. This left Google and Yahoo! to battle it out in the finals.

The Yahoo! team of Daniel Wong and Jake Rosenberg took home the coveted Stonetemple Cup after a tough finals match. Check out the photo by Kelsey Jarboe to see just how seriously everyone took this event.

But, that was then, and this is now.

Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft will be meeting for a rematch at SES San Jose 2009. According to Eric Enge, the president of Stone Temple Consulting, the teams have been changed as each search engine has brought in their best and brightest foosers -- and there's no telling if some of them are ringers.

Who will take home the the coveted Stonetemple Cup this year?

Will this match tell us what will be the dominant search engine of the future?

Will the matches tell us anything about the working relationship of the new tag-team wrestling team created by the Microsoft-Yahoo! deal?

Will Adam Lasnik or Maile Ohye of Google show up in cheerleading costumes?

You need to be there to know the results before everyone else has tweeted about them in the Twittersphere, posted the news for the blogosphere to comment on or Digg, or uploaded a video for the YouTube community to discover, watch and share.

In other words, don't wait to see the story on ESPN 8, "The Ocho" along with everyone else. Be in the front row to document the outcome yourself. The Tweeter, blogger, or YouTuber who posts the story first has the greatest chance of getting the most links.

Posted by Greg Jarboe at 6:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

August 3, 2009

Google Launches Billboard Campaign to Promote Apps, Steal Microsoft Customers

Google has purchased billboard advertising along highways in 4 major metropolitan areas. The billboards are part of the "Going Google" campaign, which encourages companies to switch from whatever applications they're currently using (eh hmmm, Microsoft) to Google Apps.

Commuters in Boston, Chicago, New York and San Francisco will see a new billboard every day for four weeks. Google says the vinyl being used for each ad will be recycled.

1.75 million companies and organizations have "gone Google," according to the Mountain View, CA-based company. However, many IT departments are hesitant to switch due to security issues. They feel that whatever solution they're currently using is more secure than what Google is offering.

But this campaign seems to be directed at non-IT workers. It seems they want to get employees asking their bosses for Google Calendar and Google docs. It will be interesting to see if this approach works.

What do you think of the "Going Google" campaign? Leave a comment and let us know.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 2:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Google CEO Resigns from Apple's Board of Directors

Amidst investigations from the FTC and FCC and with DOJ's antitrust head Christine Varney talking about how she wants to go after Google, Eric Schmidt has resigned from Apple's board of directors.

This has been inevitable. For awhile, the two companies didn't really compete. But now, with Google's Android mobile platform and plans for Chrome OS, Schmidt's place on the board was becoming questionable. (Schmidt did leave the room during the board's iPhone discussions, but with Chrome OS, he would barely be in attendance.)

Late last week, the FCC opened an inquiry as to why the Google Voice application was rejected for Apple's iPhone. And earlier this may, the FTC launched an antitrust investigation into the ties between the two companies.

Government investigation or not, it's wise for Schmidt to step down. There's very little left for him to contribute to as Google expands its business.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 1:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

July 31, 2009

Google Removes Beta Label from New AdWords Interface

Recently, Google removed the "beta" label from a bunch of apps, including GMail. Now they're at it again. The new AdWords interface is the latest to say goodbye to beta.

If you haven't made the upgrade, you'll eventually be required to. But you can do so now, and here's what to expect when you do:

• Performance graphs: Quickly recognize trends in your account performance via custom graphs on every page
• Roll-up tabs: Identify top priorities by viewing and editing all keywords, placements or ads in an account on a single tab
• In-line editing: Make faster adjustments with single-click editing that doesn't require loading a separate page
• Networks tab: Improve performance on the content network by looking at site-level statistics and making changes directly from your reports
• Filters: View only the keywords, ads or other parts of your account that meet or miss the performance thresholds you specify
• Spreadsheet editing: Make efficient bulk edits to keyword lists by using spreadsheets directly in your account
• Location extensions: Make ads locally relevant by including business addresses with your ads
• Custom alerts: Flag real-time changes in key metrics to stay on top of trends in your performance and quickly take corrective action

Search marketers are already seeing improvements in their paid search efforts as a result of the new interface.

"The new AdWords interface has given us huge gains in efficiency," said Alex Mann, CEO, ClickTime. "We're spending less time navigating the system and more time making good decisions."

What do you think about the new interface? Let us know in the comments section below.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 1:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)

July 28, 2009

Time Warner Buys Back Google's 5% Stake in AOL

When the Time Warner board voted in late May to spin off AOL, buying back Google's 5% stake in the company would be a prerequisite for the sale. This week, Time Warner did just that.

The return on investment, however, was not so hot. Google invested $1 billion in 2005 to acquired the 5% stake. They only got back $283 million.

Other statements made in the filing are quite telling of the possibilities for AOL's future. Google currently powers the search on AOL (including paid search). That will be in place until December 19, 2010, but they're leaving open the possibility of ditching Google after that.

They may then strike up an agreement with an alternate search engine, such as Yahoo! or Microsoft, or Microhoo. Though, with former Google exec Tim Armstrong now running things at AOL, I'd prefer to see AOL go for broke and develop their own search engine.

AOL also plans to maintain some licensing agreements with Time Warner.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 2:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 24, 2009

Google Latitude on the iPhone: There's an App for That (on Safari. Ew.)

Google has announced the launch of Latitude for the iPhone. If you're not familiar, Latitude is a tool that lets you share your whereabouts and find friends geographically (because Facebook and Twitter haven't gotten TMI enough).

You won't find it in the App Store, and it's not a native app like Google Maps. No, dear iPhone readers, you must browse to it on the mobile Safari browser.

A native app was developed, according to the rumoriffic TechCrunch. It's not clear why that wasn't at least released in the App Store.

Unless...

Apple and Google are trying to show how anti-anticompetitive they are. After all, they are under investigation for possible monopolistic ties.

For now, you'll have to launch the good-ol Safari browser to reveal your current location and to stalk your friends.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 12:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 22, 2009

Google Updates Webmaster Tools

Google's Webmaster Tools has received an update. Google is calling it the "Summer Shine" update. Here are some of the changes you can expect:

• Site selector lists all of your verified sites and allows you to search for the sites while you type.
• Blocking non-homepage sitelinks is enabled. Previously you couldn't block sub-directory sitelinks.
• View URL removal requests submitted by others for any of your sites. You also have the ability to revoke them if necessary.
• Webmaster Tools homepage is easier to navigate. There's a distinction between verified and unverified sites.

What do you think of these updates? Let us know by leaving a comment.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 3:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 16, 2009

Google PSA: News Publishers Can Use Robots.txt to Block Us

Google is once again reminding news publishers that they do not have to be indexed by the search engine. All they have to do is slap some simple code on a robots.txt file to block the Googlebot.

News publishers, for whatever reason, can't seem to understand that Google doesn't host their content. Perhaps they think that the web is a system of interpipes that are built high in the clouds where they're burning holes through the ozone layer or something. Sigh.

The truth is that news publishers want to charge for access to their sites, just like they charged for print editions. So, they want Google to pay to index their site. If they were truly concerned about the Googlebot, they would simply block it. But they know how much Google sends traffic to their sites. They're just playing dumb.

Remember when newspapers did charge for access to online content? And that didn't work out? So they offered it free with ads? Because they don't own the news and it's going to spread around the interpipes no matter what they charge?

So here's my PSA to news publishers: The web has largely been built on the path of least resistance. And thou protesteth too much.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 2:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

July 15, 2009

Welcome to Your Google-Branded Life

It's 6:30 am. Your alarm goes off. On your Android phone. You turn it off, roll over and check your GMail before dragging yourself out of bed.

You get ready to leave but learn that your normal bus line is off schedule. You use Google Transit to navigate a different way to work.

Finally, at the office you turn on your Chrome OS-powered notebook, which provides access to company information using Google Apps. Can't find something? No problem. The Google Search Appliance is fueling enterprise-wide search for your entire company.

Getting on with your day, you open up Google Calendar to check your schedule and then it's back to GMail for a look at Tasks you need to tackle.

You open up a Google docs (that is shared with several coworkers) and contribute. Then you check the Google Sites intranet to get updates on your department and the company.

It's lunchtime. Your buddy wants to meet up for lunch so he texts your Google Voice phone number and you arrange to meet at that new Italian restaurant for lunch.

You're not quite sure where it is so you look it up on Google Maps. In the afternoon, you work on some Google Spreadsheets and upload pictures of the company picnic to Picasa.

A message pops up on Google Talk. It's your wife. She uploaded that cute video of your daughter (recorded on her Google Android phone) to YouTube and then posted it on your family's Blogger blog.

An email arrives from your family care practitioner. Those labs from your doctor's visit the other day are in. You check them in your Google Health records.

After work, you go home. Your son needs help with his homework. You get out the Android-powered netbook and use Google search to look up the information you need to help him out. You explore Google Earth to assist with his geography and help him with SketchUp to complete a social studies project due the next day.

Before settling down for the night, you check Google News, your feeds in Google Reader and Google Finance to stay informed with what's going on in the world and your portfolio. You watch a couple of shows on YouTube and then finally hit the hay.

This all might sound extreme, but it's completely possible - right now. These are all items and offerings that currently exist in the Google product line.

Would it really be farfetched to add a few things like a Google TV, a Google gaming console, or a Google personal media player? No, not really. After all, think about the competition.

Apple has the iPod, iPhone, and Apple TV. Microsoft has the XBox 360. Yahoo! created a Widget Channel to enhance Internet on TV.

Actually, come to think of it, Google has already begun their journey onto TV. Gaming devices, the Apple TV and Vudu offer the ability to access YouTube on your television.

Then there's Google's connection with the government: their close relationship with NASA, Eric Schmidt's appointment to the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST), and the White House's YouTube channel. There's the support for a national broadband plan and their involvement in spectrum auctions.

For the most part, it makes sense for Google to grow as they do. They're a public company headquartered in a democratic, capitalistic society. It's their duty to their shareholders to generate profit and to preserve their role in the marketplace as best as possible.

But Google now has a lot of power. It's probably more power than any of the first hundred or thousand employees ever anticipated when Google was just a startup. Let's hope that power never becomes absolute.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Google Voice Launches Mobile Apps for Android, Blackberry

This past March, Google rebranded the acquired GrandCentral as Google Voice with the promise of expanded service and features in the future. They're making good on that promise with the release of mobile apps for Android and Blackberry phones.

The app incorporates contacts and enables phone calls and text messaging directly from the app. It uses Wifi or data capabilities to conduct calls and SMS.

Google Voice touts its major benefit as being able to have one phone number to forward all your phone calls, voice messages and text messages to. The idea is that you don't have to worry about changing phone numbers. But since porting phone numbers is possible among carriers, I'm not sure how much value this really is. It's likely more convenient, but, of course, it will be personal preference if shelling out the moolah for the service is worth it.

Another feature Google Voice highlights is visual voicemail, but this is hardly revolutionary at this point, since the iPhone has been offering it since inception two years ago.

The real value is in the ability to transcribe messages, which of course enables search of messages. And this is where Google's strength really lies, no?

If you don't have an Android or Blackberry, you can access Google Voice via web at http://www.google.com/voice. It's only currently available to U.S. users and is also only available by invite, which you can request.

What do you think of the new Google Voice apps? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 2:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 14, 2009

Google Friend Connect Adds Support for 47 More Languages

Google Friend Connect has announced support for 47 new languages. (It's already supported in English.) The new languages are......(drum roll please).....

• Arabic
• Bengali
• Bulgarian
• Catalan
• Chinese
• Croatian
• Czech
• Danish
• Dutch
• Filipino
• Finnish
• French
• German
• Greek
• Gujarati
• Hebrew
• Hindi
• Hungarian
• Indonesian
• Italian
• Japanese
• Kannada
• Korean
• Latvian
• Lingala
• Lithuanian
• Malay
• Malayalam
• Marathi
• Norwegian
• Oriya
• Persian
• Polish
• Portuguese
• Romanian
• Russian
• Serbian
• Slovak
• Slovenian
• Spanish
• Swedish
• Tamil
• Telugu
• Thai
• Turkish
• Ukrainian
• Vietnamese

Google Friend Connect launched last year and is a tool for web developers to add social networking to websites. It simply allows people to log into the network via their Google account. Then they can connect with others using the site.

If you come across comments in another language, no problem. This past May, Google Friend Connect added a Translation Widget to help you connect with users speaking a language foreign to your own.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 4:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Google Site Publishers Can Now Display AdSense

Google Sites is a free product that makes it easy to create websites. It's pretty basic, and it's designed primarily to be a group site or intranet, where you can share documents, calendars, etc.

Now, Google is allowing AdSense to be displayed on these Sites. Publishers have the option to place AdSense in the sidebar as well as the main content of each page.

Check out this video for more details:

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 4:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

July 13, 2009

Adgooroo Q2 2009 Search Ad Report Shows Market Stability, Despite Bing

Adgooroo has released their quarterly search engine advertising report, and despite the launch of Bing in June, things have remained pretty much the same.

Keep in mind that quarter two includes April and May, during which Microsoft's search was still Live Search. However, the report lobs them all under the title of Bing, and is comparing past data to Live Search. Let's dive in.

For the year ending June 2009, Microsoft grew advertiser base by 35%, but Google still outpaced them by growing theirs by 52%. Yahoo! fared worse than both by only growing their base by 14%.

The share of advertisers among Google, Yahoo!, and Microsoft has remained largely unchanged.

The number of first page ads on Microsoft search products dropped by 24%. Meanwhile, the number of ads per keyword are still on the rise for Google and Yahoo! internationally. In the U.S., Microsoft and Yahoo! are seeing declines in the average number of ads per keyword while Google remains on the rise.

Keep in mind that a reduction in ads per keyword could indicate better ad quality.

Below is a list of the top 25 advertisers per search engine for June 2009, according to Adgooroo. The list is in alphabetical order and is calculated on impressions and not ad spend.

What do you think of the Adgooroo Q2 2009 report? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Is TechCrunch Calling For Search Regulations or Running Test of Social Media, Link Building?

Okay, TechCrunch publishes an anonymous article calling for the regulation of SEO and SEM aimed squarely at the monopoly that is Google.

The hue and cry is being heard around the world, mainly through comments being posted on Twitter. But is the article really just a way for TechCrunch to do a test of Twitter traffic and its impact on link building, and ultimately on Google's search algorithm?

Our industry has weighed in on this article as if it were another installment of Dave Pasternak's annual controversial traffic generators. But what is it saying and what will this article achieve?

As many of the comments on the article have stated, an anonymous post about transparency is an oxymoron -- you can't tell the search engines to be open when writing without accrediting the author. This is not some revolutionary tract aimed at overthrowing the British, written anonymously for fear of being shot. Even Google does not retaliate against those that criticize them -- I have not been shot, and I give them grief all the time.

There are two paths to look at involving this article: the information it contains, and the motivation behind TechCrunch publishing it.

Let's look at the information first. Using anecdotes of countries and companies controlling access is really distracting -- at first I did not know if this was discussing Google's different country based search or the company as a whole. Google is a multinational conglomerate -- a huge corporation that operates in every country on the planet because of its internet existence.

Google is not the only search engine -- but they are the big dog when it comes to being a gatekeeper of where and how people find information online. We recommended them, we helped make them the most popular source of information on the web. And now we are bitching about it because they were smart enough to monetize it and we are now at the mercy of any change they decide to make.

Yes, we really can't go anywhere else -- they have the searchers we're trying to reach. But you can't complain when a company does its job too well. Asking for someone to come in and regulate it now is like wanting to take your ball back because you are not getting everyone to pass it to you during a game.

Funny how I do not see the industry shouting from the roof tops that Bing or Wolfram/Alpha is a great search engine that makes searching easier or more accurate. The only way the market share will shift is if people evangelize other search engines -- and that means a lot of people.

I have suffered through the changes just like everyone else, and could add several to the list in the article. But sadly, yet realistically, we have to adapt to these changes.

Countries can stop you from entering based on any rules they want. Companies have the right to refuse service, change their prices, the layout of their stores, what products they offer and promote etc. etc. etc. At least that is the case in democratic, free countries.

Getting the government to force Google to show everything will -- as the comments to the article express in the majority -- allow the people with deep pockets to just grab even more of the prime positions.

Do the big spenders at AdWords get preferential treatment? Yes -- and I know that from personal experience. When I was spending over a million dollars a month with AdWords, I got all kinds of help -- including advice on SEO.

Mr. Anonymous, you really lost me at this statement. "It's now conventional wisdom that search engine optimization, representing the organic result sets on any search query, is more voodoo than science."

Sounds exactly like Dave Pasternak. And when it was bandied about two years ago there were some great replies. Barry Schwartz's counter was good, as was Aaron Shear's reply about C execs thinking SEO was voodoo.

So beyond the basic complaint that many of us have about Google's position as gatekeeper of information, let's look at the second point.

What has motivated this article's publication at TechCrunch?

Apart from the huge amount of traffic it is now getting through Twitter and everywhere else, could it be a test of social media traffic? Or is it a clever way to grab links?

TechCrunch has lost a lot of its traffic from search engines, if you can believe Alexa numbers.

Since 2008, it appears TechCrunch has lost almost 50% of its search traffic numbers. Have the algorithm changes finally impacted them, and this is a case of sour grapes? (I am sure that will get some reaction).

Interestingly, TechCrunch does not seem to have been impacted if you look at pageviews. Quite the contrary: they have increased even while getting less search traffic.

So where is all this new traffic coming from? I wonder why this was not added to the post? How to grow numbers despite dropping search traffic would be a much more interesting piece. But that one may not get the huge spike in traffic this one is getting right now.

Michael Arrington is a sharp guy. Like Guy Kawasaki and Jason Calacanis, he recognizes the power of Twitter and has jumped on it as a new source of large amounts of traffic.

So what are we to infer from all this? I don't have a definitive answer, but I'm hoping TechCrunch is running a test of social media, and Twitter in particular. I hope that I will soon see the definitive article on the power of retweets and the global wave of viral social marketing.

I really am hoping this was not a ploy to garner a huge number of links. Either way, you are getting them Michael, and I will watch closely how those search numbers over at Alexa are influenced. Could there be a huge jump in the next few months and get you back where you were a year ago?

Now that would be a clever play. Increased traffic from Twitter -- no doubt getting huge followers today -- and a return to the larger numbers from search would be one hell of a trick. Almost worthy of a Voodoo priest!

Posted by Frank Watson at 12:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

July 8, 2009

YouTube Biz Blog Touts Social Media and Video Strategies Forum

How cool is this? On Monday, I posted "Social Media & Video Strategies To Be Held With SES San Jose:. It broke the news that ClickZ, YouTube and Google will be holding an event on August 11, 2009, in conjunction with SES San Jose 2009.

Then on Tuesday, the YouTube Biz Blog posted "Join Us at the SES Social Media & Video Strategies Forum." Kristin Kovner, the Industry Marketing Manager at YouTube, said, "We're excited to be a part of this first-time ever event. SES is one of the best places for businesses to learn about search; now that YouTube has millions of searches each day, it's only fitting that ClickZ and SES are expanding the agenda to include a full day dedicated to video and social media."

Just as importantly, the YouTube Biz Blog embedded the featured video on the SESConferenceExpo's Channel on YouTube. Views of the video, which was uploaded four months ago, shot up immediately. You can see the video for youself below.

Search Engine Strategies Conference & Expo

This illustrates the link between search and social media that I mentioned on Monday and Mike Grehan writes about in his cover story in the latest issue of SES Magazine.

Additional evidence can be found in research conducted by TubeMogul entitled "How do people discover videos online?" Here's the gist of what they found:

-- 45% of all videos are found on a video site, i.e. going to YouTube and doing a search or clicking around featured and related videos. -- 44% of all videos are found embedded in blogs. -- 6% of all videos are found with search engines, like Google. -- 2% of all videos are found in social networks, like Facebook. -- 2% of all videos found in social bookmarking sites. -- Less than 1% of all videos are found with video search engines, like Google Video.

So, optimizating the title, description and tags of your YouTube video is half of the success formula. But the other half is engaging what Google calls "the buzzing blogger community."

I mentioned this a year ago at SES San Jose 2008 during a video interview with Liana Evans, who was then with KeyRelevance and is now with Serengeti Communications. Looking at it again a year later, I wouldn't change a word. (And I can't anyway.)

VSEO - Video Search Engine Optimization - with Greg Jarboe at SES San Jose 2008

So, stay tuned. Because this year's events -- as you can see in the SES San Jose 2009 agenda and the Social Media and Video Strategies agenda -- are likely to demonstrate the link between search and social big time.

Posted by Greg Jarboe at 11:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Google Chrome Is Now An Operating System The Official Google Blog announced the launch of the Chrome Operating System - late night in California - the entry is timestamped 9:30 pm PST - but an hour and a Twitter link ago - I found it. A number they claim - "30 million regular Chrome browser users" - seems high. But who cares Chrome is now an operating system. It will run on the web with interaction through browsers based in most OSs. If they can flip a decent percentage of the browser users, get a good number of laptops and other methods of connecting to the web it could be something Microsoft will notice diving deep into a field they have just begun to test. As Google blogs "Google Chrome OS is a new project, separate from Android. Android was designed from the beginning to work across a variety of devices from phones to set-top boxes to netbooks. Google Chrome OS is being created for people who spend most of their time on the web, and is being designed to power computers ranging from small netbooks to full-size desktop systems. While there are areas where Google Chrome OS and Android overlap, we believe choice will drive innovation for the benefit of everyone, including Google"

Browser Statistics Month by Month

2009 IE7 IE6 IE8 Firefox Chrome Safari Opera June 18.7% 14.9% 7.1% 47.3% 6.0% 3.1% 2.1% May 21.3% 14.5% 5.2% 47.7% 5.5% 3.0% 2.2% April 23.2% 15.4% 3.5% 47.1% 4.9% 3.0% 2.2% March 24.9% 17.0% 1.4% 46.5% 4.2% 3.1% 2.3% February 25.4% 17.4% 0.8% 46.4% 4.0% 3.0% 2.2% January 25.7% 18.5% 0.6% 45.5% 3.9% 3.0% 2.3%                 2008 IE7 IE6 IE5 Firefox Chrome Safari Opera December 26.1% 19.6%   44.4% 3.6% 2.7% 2.4% November 26.6% 20.0%   44.2% 3.1% 2.7% 2.3% October 26.9% 20.2%   44.0% 3.0% 2.8% 2.2% September 26.3% 22.3%   42.6% 3.1% 2.7% 2.0% August 26.0% 24.5%   43.7%   2.6% 2.1% July 26.4% 25.3%   42.6%   2.5% 1.9% June 27.0% 26.5% 0.5% 41.0%   2.6% 1.7% May 26.5% 27.3% 0.7% 39.8%   2.4% 1.5% April 24.9% 28.9% 1.0% 39.1%   2.2% 1.4% March 23.3% 29.5% 1.1% 37.0%   2.1% 1.4% February 22.7% 30.7% 1.3% 36.5%   2.0% 1.4% January 21.2% 32.0% 1.5% 36.4%   1.9% 1.4%                 2007 IE7 IE6 IE5 Firefox Mozilla Safari Opera November 20.8% 33.6% 1.6% 36.3% 1.2% 1.8% 1.6% September 20.8% 34.9% 1.5% 35.4% 1.2% 1.6% 1.5% July 20.1% 36.9% 1.5% 34.5% 1.4% 1.5% 1.9% May 19.2% 38.1% 1.6% 33.7% 1.3% 1.5% 1.7% March 18.0% 38.7% 2.0% 31.8% 1.3% 1.6% 1.6% January 13.3% 42.3% 3.0% 31.0% 1.5% 1.7% 1.5%                 2006 IE7 IE6 IE5 Firefox Mozilla N7/8 Opera November 7.1% 49.9% 3.6% 29.9% 2.5% 0.2% 1.5% September 2.5% 55.6% 4.0% 27.3% 2.3% 0.4% 1.6% July 1.9% 56.3% 4.2% 25.5% 2.3% 0.4% 1.4% May 1.1% 57.4% 4.5% 25.7% 2.3% 0.3% 1.5% March 0.6% 58.8% 5.3% 24.5% 2.4% 0.5% 1.5% January 0.2% 60.3% 5.5% 25.0% 3.1% 0.5% 1.6%                 2005 IE6 IE5 Firefox Mozilla N7 O8 O7 November 62.7% 6.2% 23.6% 2.8% 0.4% 1.3% 0.2% September 69.8% 5.7% 18.0% 2.5% 0.4% 1.0% 0.2% July 67.9% 5.9% 19.8% 2.6% 0.5% 0.8% 0.4% May 64.8% 6.8% 21.0% 3.1% 0.7% 0.7% 0.6% March 63.6% 8.9% 18.9% 3.3% 1.0% 0.3% 1.6% January 64.8% 9.7% 16.6% 3.4% 1.1%   1.9%                 2004 IE6 IE5 Mozilla N3 N7 N4 O7 November 66.0% 10.2% 16.5% 0.2% 1.2% 0.3% 1.6% September 67.8% 11.2% 13.7% 0.3% 1.4% 0.3% 1.7% July 67.2% 13.2% 12.6% 0.4% 1.4% 0.4% 1.6% May 68.1% 13.8% 9.5% 0.6% 1.4% 0.4% 1.6% March 68.2% 14.6% 7.9% 0.8% 1.4% 0.6% 1.4% January 68.9% 15.8% 5.5% 0.4% 1.5% 0.5% 1.5%                 2003 IE6 IE5 Mozilla N3 N7 N4 O7 November 71.2% 13.7% 7.2% 0.5% 1.6% 0.5% 1.9% September 69.7% 16.9% 6.2% 0.6% 1.5% 0.6% 1.8% July 66.9% 20.3% 5.7% 0.6% 1.5% 0.6% 1.7% May 65.0% 22.7% 4.6% 1.0% 1.4% 0.9% 1.4% March 63.4% 24.6% 4.2% 0.9% 1.4% 1.1% 1.2% January 55.3% 29.3% 4.0% 1.2% 1.1% 1.7%                   2002 IE6 IE5 AOL N3 N5 N4 IE4 November 53.5% 29.9% 5.2% 1.1% 4.9% 2.0%   September 49.1% 34.4% 4.5% 1.3% 4.5% 2.2%   July 44.4% 40.1% 3.5% 1.2% 3.5% 2.6% 0.5% May 40.7% 46.0% 2.8% 1.2% 2.7% 3.4% 0.7% March 36.7% 49.4% 3.0% 1.2% 2.4% 4.1% 0.7% January 30.1% 55.7% 2.8% 1.3% 2.2% 4.4% 1.0% Thank you w3schools for the stats

Posted by Frank Watson at 1:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

July 7, 2009

Google Finally Rips the Beta Bandaid Off of Apps, Including GMail

You probably don't even notice it anymore. You know, the little Beta tags that Google attaches to its Apps like GMail and Google Talk. But it's been there, faithfully reminding anyone who's really cared that the products weren't technically ready for prime time.

Now, Google has finally come to the place where they feel okay about removing the label. So, beginning today, Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs and Google Talk will lose the "Beta" that has been accompanying their logos for years.

How do you feel about the change? Are you going through Beta withdrawal? Let us know by leaving a comment.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 12:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

July 6, 2009

8 Google Updates: RSS for Blog Search, Increased Upload Size for YouTube and More

Once again, there are so many Google updates that I'm bunching them together in one big post. Here they are:

Google Blog Search now has RSS and Atom feeds that users can use to subscribe to topics or stories.

YouTube has increased the upload size from 1GB to 2GB.

Google Book Search is including tag clouds to help demonstrate what a book is all about. Plus, there are new ways to search within a book.

AdWords is already adjusting the new interface to provide support for Safari 4 and Firefox 3.5, enable faster load times, and reduce horizontal scrolling.

There is also a new version of the AdWords API.

Ad Planner has a new look.

Google Checkout is offering Buy Now buttons for digital products.

Google Earth has released more 3D cities in Europe. The new cities are Warsaw, Prague and Oslo.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

July 1, 2009

Bing Continues Microsoft Search Share Growth in June 2009, According to StatCounter

StatCounter made news fast and furious in Bing's first week when they offered up data showing Bing had surpassed Yahoo! in search. And now they're making a splash again by quickly releasing data for the whole month of June.

Overall, things are relatively steady, but there's an ever-so-slight increase in Microsoft search share.

The data shows Bing gaining .5% search share in June compared to May. But Live Search had gained about .5% in May over April.

One percent growth over the last two months may not seem significant, but it could be the beginning of momentum.

"At first sight, a 1% increase in market share does not appear to be a huge return on the investment Microsoft has made in Bing but the underlying trend appears positive," commented Aodhan Cullen, CEO, StatCounter. "Steady if not spectacular might be the best way to describe performance to date."

Plus, the 1% growth has come at the expense of Google. The search mammoth saw its search engine share according to StatCounter decline by 79.07% in April to 78.48% in June.

By the way, despite that first week of traffic for Bing, Yahoo! still retained its second place status for the entire month of June. Yahoo!'s traffic has remained fairly steady over the past three months in StatCounter data.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 1:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

June 29, 2009

Google Testing Logo Sizes in Search Results?

Philip Lenssen over at Google Blogoscoped noticed a variance in the size of Google logos in the search results from browser to browser.

I did a little experimenting and noticed the same thing. On Firefox and Safari, the Google logo is proportionately smaller than on IE and Chrome for me. Check out the images below.

Anyone else seeing the same thing?

Firefox

Safari

Internet Explorer

Chrome

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 5:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 26, 2009

7 Google Updates for the Week Ending June 26, 2009

It's been another week of mega Google updates. Several have been noteworthy-enough to get their own post. The leftovers are included below:

Google Android has launched 1.5 NDK, Release 1.

Meanwhile, Google Android phones are being announced and rumored for multiple carriers.

Google Maps now offers a "What's Here?" feature if you right-click on a map. However, it only provides light tourism information in the left sidebar. It would be a much better feature if it showed restaurants, shopping, hotels, etc in the area you click on.

Google News is using Wikipedia as a source, according to the New York Times.

Google search added friends to individual Facebook results, according to Google Blogoscoped.

Kevin Marks leaves Google.

Mobile Gmail gets a swipe-to-archive feature and expanded English language support.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 22, 2009

Google Launches Volunteer Search Site

If you're looking to give back to your community or volunteer for a charity, a new site from Google can help you find the right opportunity. It's called AllforGood.org and it's a volunteer search site.

When you visit the site, it detects your location via your IP address. The results will return opportunities from a variety of organizations.

The site was built on 20% time with App Engine and Google Base. An API is also provided for third party developers.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 2:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 19, 2009

7 Google Updates Including Flash Indexing, Custom Search, and AdSense

Another week, another slew of Google Updates. Chew on these new features while you watch the US Open this weekend:

Google Flash Indexing - The googlebot will now index external content sources used in SWF files.

Google Webmaster Central - Reconsideration requests now come with notifications so you'll know where you're at in the process.

Custom Search Automatic Transilteration - You can type in one language but see results in another.

Google AdSense - Change the font size for your ad display units.

Google Maps and Transit - 7 new agencies have been added including

• Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County, Houston, TX
• VIA Metropolitan Transit in San Antonio, TX
• Utah Transit Authority, Salt Lake City, UT
• Metro St. Louis, St Louis, MO
• Foothill Transit, San Gabriel Valley, CA
• Riverside Transit, Riverside, CA
• Charlotte Area Transit System, Charlotte, NC
• Pinella Suncoast Transit Authority, St. Petersburg, FL

Google Book Search - Got a makeover, including embedded links, book search within each book, thumbnail view, content drop-down menu, plain text mode, page turn button and animation, and an updated book overview page.

A microblogging search engine may be coming soon to Google, according to the unofficial Google Operating System blog. This would compete with Twitter search as well as Facebook's new search tests.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 4:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 18, 2009

Privacy Roundup: Google Street View, French Law, and Congressional Hearings

Privacy concerns are ever-present, but the past week has generated significant buzz on the matter.

First up, Google has been asked by a the European Article 29 Working Party to keep "unblurred" photos for Street View for as little time as possible. The conundrum is this. Google sends its cars out to photograph countries. They use technology to blur things like license plates. However, sometimes the tech goes awry and blurs things that don't need blurring. When Google finds out about it, they use the original, unblurred photo to correct and then add it back into the system. Clearly, that raises a privacy issue. Google says it's working with the Article 29 Working Party to determine the amount of time they should keep the photos, but no solid timeframe has been given yet.

Speaking of Europe, France is putting the pressure on social networking sites like Facebook when it comes to privacy issues. The matter at hand is the trend towards being "open" so that third-party developers can build applications using APIs. French politicians are concerned about these third parties gaining access to private information. There are two things the politicians should consider. One is that most APIs are restrictive. In other words, you don't get access to all of a social network's functionality just because there's an API. Secondly, most of the networks provide an option for users to opt-out of their information being shared.

Last but not least, the United States Congress is having yet another round of hearings on web advertising and privacy. Yahoo! Vice President of Policy and Head of Privacy Anne Toth today testified at the House Energy & Commerce Committee subcommittee's "Behavioral Advertising: Industry Practices and Consumer Expectations." Toth explained the benefits of relevant advertising but also touted the Yahoo! Privacy Center.

Google Deputy General Counsel Nicole Wong also appeared at the hearing. Wong spoke about Google's recent launch of interest-based advertising. The benefits of relevancy of the ads was a talking point for Wong, as well.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 3:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 12, 2009

9 More Google Updates to Shake a Stick At

At the end of last week, Google released so many updates, we had to consolidate them into a single post. This week, the Google factory is busy pushing out a bunch of new tweaks and launches you'll want to know about:

Webmaster Tools released a slew of updates in the past couple of days. Google has completed its switch to the new interface and launched a new feature: Change of Address. You can also now forward messages from Webmaster Tools to your email address. Last but not least, Webmaster Tools offers an update on the latest goings on with Sitemaps.

YouTube has also been busy. A new update allows users to share videos on Facebook, Twitter, and Google Reader. Also, the new YouTube Biz Blog has been created to serve up tips and tricks for advertisers and partners.

Google Analytics has released Urchin 6.6.

A new version of iGoogle has been released for Android and iPhone devices.

You can now broadcast your Latitude location on your Google profile by enabling the Google public location badget.

Mobile Gmail now has faster email address completion and Android devices are getting Gmail keyboard shortcuts.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

June 5, 2009

More Google Updates Than You Can Shake a Stick At

I don't know if Google is trying to distract you from Bing's launch or if it's just that they're just this huge of a company (or more likely both), but they've released a ton of updates on many of their products this week. Today alone, there are 11 updates. Normally, I like to try and give each one a single post, but I don't have that kind of time! So, here they are in consolidated form:

Webmaster Central released a tool called Page Speed which works in conjunction with the Firefox extension Firebug to give suggestions for improving loading time.

Google Analytics is now offering Event Tracking for all accounts.

Chrome, Google's web browser has been released in alpha (that's right, pre-beta) for the Mac. It's definitely not ready for primetime, folks. They're looking for developer feedback on it.

Google Maps improved Street Navigation by allowing double-clicks (the action, not the ad network) to access Street View.

Google Friend Connect has four updates to help developers create widget for the social networking feature.

Google Search, Maps and YouTube are built into the hot new mobile device, Palm Pre.

Android has released Activity and Task Design Guidelines.

YouTube debuted a new political debate tool called Google Moderator, which was recently used in a Virginia gubernatorial democratic primary debate.

Sony has joined VEVO, the online music video project initiated by Universal and YouTube.

An orkut mobile app has been released that should work on most Java-enabled devices.

Picasa Web Albums are now faster without sacrificing image size.

What do you think of all these updates? Which ones get you most excited? Let us know in the comments.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

June 4, 2009

Search Companies Part of Fed Antitrust Investigation into Hiring Practices

Do tech companies have a secret agreement not to aggressively hire away talent from each other? That's the question behind a new federal antitrust investigation, and search companies are not immune.

Google, Yahoo!, and Microsoft have already received requests for information. Of course, it's easy to understand why companies would want to prevent their talent from heading elsewhere - their secrets just might end up at a competitor's headquarters. Most recently, Jonathan Miller had to wait out his non-compete agreement with AOL before beginning his new role as chief digital officer at NewsCorp.

Meanwhile, Microsoft has hired several people who used to work for Yahoo! Though I'm sure that gets Yahoo!'s goat a little, there hasn't been much of a fuss. Some companies would sue if their talent so quickly jumped ship. (Of course, Microsoft is a big company with other divisions, where the hiring practices could come into question.)

The federal government is increasingly investigating antitrust issues regarding tech and search. Last year, they became quite wary of a search advertising deal between Google and Yahoo! When it became clear the investigation would lead to a lawsuit, Google backed out.

But Google's antitrust problems did not end there. They are currently under investigation for their book settlement and for their ties with Apple. By the way, Apple is another one of the companies being examined in the hiring practices investigation.

Do you think search companies are engaging in anticompetitive hiring practices? Should they be investigated? Let it fly in the comments.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 3, 2009

Google Squared is Live!

A few weeks ago, Google announced a forthcoming search computation project called Google Squared. It's now live at http://www.google.com/squared (h/t Google Blogoscoped). Go explore your deepest need for knowledge via the spreadsheet results provided by Google Squared.

Warning: This search is terribly imperfect. A search for Dunkin' Donuts flavors returned a single row: coffee. And while DD coffee is really good, I wanted a spreadsheet of the different kinds of donuts they offer.

However, searching for the different types of thyroid cancer was, at least, moderately more productive.

As always, go check it out for yourself and let us know what you think in the comments below.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 4:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

June 2, 2009

Acer to Launch Android-Powered Netbook; T-Mobile to Offer Second Android Device

Coming late this summer or early this fall is a new Acer netbook that will be powered by Android, Google's mobile operating system. This will be the first official netbook with Android running on it. Of course, we've seen hacking of netbooks with Android in the past, showing the obvious desire to see this provided for consumers. Looks like it's finally happnening.

If you're not familiar, netbooks are mini laptops, usually ranging from 7-12 inches. Many of them run on Windows XP or Linux. Netbooks are designed for people on the go. You may notice mobile carriers such as Verizon offering broadband internet deals for netbooks. I've seen deals where you pay $99 for the netbook with a 2-year contract at about $60 a month. It's very similar to purchasing a mobile phone.

Of course, Android's first venture was on the T-mobile/Google co-branded phone, the G1, which is manufactured by HTC. T-Mobile's second Android device is expected "early this summer" according to the blogosphere. Since it is essentially early summer, might the new phone be out any day now? Details are still vague, so stay tuned.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 1:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In Today's Global Recession, Flat Is The New Up

A bunch of us SES conference speakers happen to be in Washington, D.C., this week speaking at the Specialized Information Publishers Association (SIPA) conference. This includes Matt Bailey, President of SiteLogic, Bill Barnes, Co-founder and Executive Vice President of Enquiro Search Solutions Inc., Nan Dawkins, Founder and CEO of Serengeti Communications, and me.

It's not hard to figure out how this happened. The chair of the Online Marketing Track is Rory Brown, chair of SIPA UK, who is the former chairman of Incisive Media. Yes, it's a small, small world.

During the cocktail reception last night, our group gathered to compare notes -- and one of the observations that bubbled up was this: "In today's global recession, flat is the new up."

In other words, we all overheard specialized information publishers asking their colleagues, "How's business?" If one of those colleagues said, "Flat," then the other specialized information publishers were impressed.

Nevertheless, as they gathered for their 33rd annual international conference, even those who had remained flat during the steepest US recession in 50 years are more than ready for the economic recovery.

This hope that the worse is behind us was reinforced by the luncheon speaker: Andrew Madden of Google. His address was entitled, "How Google Can Support Specialized Publishers in 2009."

Madden talked about the different ways Google has been working with publishers to support their business models -- whether they be ad-supported or premium content. With the current economic downturn depressing even online advertising, more and more specialized publishers are looking at pay-per-view mechanisms or ways they can charge for online content.

Madden discussed how Google is expanding into areas like content digitization in partnereships with publishers and how that can result in a new source of online revenue and brand awareness. He also pointed out that using Google's free Webmaster Tools could help publishers improve their visibility on Google.

No, the audience didn't burst out singing, "Happy Days Are Here Again." But, for a group that has been saying, "Flat is the new up" for the past 12 months, I could sense that they were ready for the time when "Flat is so last year."

My, that will sound good.

Posted by Greg Jarboe at 10:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

June 1, 2009

Google Adds Nearest Intersection to GOOG-411

If you've ever called an information service, you know you can get an address and a phone number. And, of course, many times you can get patched through instead of having to remember the phone number. But simply getting an address isn't necessarily helpful.

Now, GOOG-411 is offering up nearest intersection to help people find their way. You can imagine how this would be useful if the address given was on a long road. For some, it also might be easier to remember an intersection than a specific address.

For example, here in Raleigh, if I were to get the address of a business on Glenwood Avenue, it would make a big difference if the nearest intersection was Glenwood/Peace Street as opposed to Glenwood/Brier Creek Parkway. It would be a 20-45 minute difference depending on traffic.

Also, businesses closer to the Glenwood/Brier Creek end of things would have a higher number address, which could potentially be more difficult to remember than the ones near Peace Street, where Glenwood begins.

What do you think of this update? Let us know in the comments.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

May 28, 2009

Google Unveils Custom Search Web Element, Previews Wave at Developer Conference

Google is holding its annual developer conference this week and have unveiled a couple of noteworthy projects.

First up is the Custom Search Web Element. This is a tool that generates code which you can then copy and paste on your site. This is a feature of Custom Search, which you can have on your site to assist in on-site searches. The element supports Promotions, which lets you specify information pertaining to a particular search, as well as refinement tabs, which help filter searches.

Next up is Google Wave. The idea behind Wave is the next era of internet communication. The product was designed by brothers Jens and Lars Rasmussen who came to Google via the acquisition of their mapping product Where 2 Tech. A "wave" can be created about a given topic and then people contribute to it with rich formatted text, photos, feeds, and gadgets.

Here's an image provided by the Official Google blog (click to enlarge):

While impressive, I'm not sure how innovative this is. It appears to basically be a fancy-pants wiki. Wikis definitely need this sort of updating, but there's nothing that appears to be truly brand new here.

Having said that, the product is only being released as a developer's preview. The team is still working on Wave for months until it is released for public use.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 2:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

May 22, 2009

Is Google Testing SearchWiki Note Sharing in SERPS?

Last November, Google launched SearchWiki, which lets signed-in Google users to customize their search results. You can vote up results to have them appear at the top of your page or remove results altogether. You can also write notes on a given result.

Brian Ussery has noticed that Google may be testing SearchWiki Note sharing option being listed at the top of the SERPs. Here's an image he posted on Picasa:

Have you noticed this in your search results? Please share your findings in the comments below.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 2:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Fast and the Furious: Google Chrome Adds More Lead to Its Foot

Google has announced that its internet browser, Chrome, is now faster. How much faster? About 30% faster. Chrome is also boasting some new features:

• Form autofill
• Full screen mode
• Remove thumbnails from the New Tab page

Google launched Chrome last September and it has steadily been gaining browser market share (because, you know, if there's anything Google needs to do, it's dominate even more of the internet). A few days later, Google Analytics was tracking Chrome visits.

By the end of 2008, Chrome was released out of beta, then just last month a new version was launched into beta.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 2:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 21, 2009

Google Updates Search Suggestion Feature with Links and Personalization

Google is making 4 major updates to its search suggestion feature. If you're not aware, Google Suggest is a list of keywords that appear in a drop-down menu when you type your query on Google.com. It was set as default on the Google homepage last August. The new updates will be rolled out gradually to new users.

The most significant update is the placement of links in Google Suggest. If your query looks like you're looking for a specific site, the actual site will appear in the search suggestions drop-down menu. This will streamline the process of such searches, reducing the amount of clicks needed to reach the end destination.

There will also be Sponsored Links in Google Suggest, which are search ads placed directly in the search suggestion box.

The other 2 updates are related to the actual queries.

If you're on the results page and conducting another search, you'll get search suggestions. The first suggestions to pop up will be related to the search on the current results page.

Additionally, Google Suggest will be injecting personalization into its suggestions. If you're signed into Google and have Web History enabled, Google will use past searches to provide search suggestions. The reason for this is that Google has found that up to 25% of queries are repeat searches, at least when it comes to users who are signed in.

Finally, one feature is being dismissed. The number of searches conducted on a query will no longer appear next to that suggestion. Google says users haven't found that data to be useful, though I'm sure SEO's and SEM's will disagree!

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 2:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

May 20, 2009

And the 2009 Doodle 4 Google Winner Is ..... (Drum Roll, Please)

The 2009 Doodle 4 Google winner is Christin Engelberth, a sixth grader at Bernard Harris Middle School in San Antonio, Texas. Her entry was "A New Beginning" based on the theme of this year's contest, What I Wish for the World. Her wish is that "out of the current crisis, discoveries will be found to help the Earth prosper once more."

The three national finalists were:

Grades K-3 Miriam Elizabeth Lowery ~ Grade K, Austin Peay Elementary Covington, TN "Friendship Around the World"

Grades 7-9 Blakely Linz ~ Grade 7, Indian Hill Middle School, Cincinnati, OH "Stop to Smell the Flowers"

Grades 10-12 Emerald Lu ~ Grade 10, Covington Latin School Covington, KY "From the Ashes"

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 1:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

May 19, 2009

Google Friend Connect Launches Recommendation Widget

One of the foundations of the social web is viral content, which is, at its core, based on recommendations. It's why sites like Digg are so popular. That's why it's no surprised to see Google Friend Connect launch a recommendation widget.

Via the new widget, sites using Google Friend Connect to enable social networking now have a vehicle to support content recommendation. This can help give the networking on a given site momentum - and act as a magnet to attract new and repeat visitors.

Here's a video explaining more:

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 1:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 15, 2009

Google Responds to Thursday Morning Outages

Google has responded to the outages that affected several of its services in various locations throughout the world. Even though the buzz was big, only about 14% of users experienced issues. Of course when you're Google, that's millions of users.

Apparently the outages were caused by a system error, which necessitated re-routing traffic through Asia. However, there was too much traffic for the detour, creating a bottleneck which served up slow load times as well as preventing access altogether.

The down time did affect a percentage of Google Analytics users as well. If your account was affected, you may see a 1% dip in traffic for Thursday.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 12:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 14, 2009

The Great #googlefail of May 2009

Google services have gone down (or were down earlier today) in various cities. There aren't too many concrete details out there. ZD Net is reporting that the outages in New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Australia, France, China among others. There's also a possible glitch regarding Google and AT&T.

According to CNet, the services down include: YouTube, Gmail, Google Analytics, Google Maps, Google Docs, AdSense, and Blogger.

But you don't need an online tech source to know what's happening. Just log on to Twitter (or visit search.twitter.com) and you'll see that #googlefail is a hot topic today. Looks like the "Poor man's email" is a little more reliable than Gmail today.

Related Reading: Google Launches Apps Status Dashboard To Address Outage Information

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 1:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

May 13, 2009

Voting is Open for Doodle 4 Google Contest

Doodle 4 Google is an annual contest where schoolkids can submit their Google-logo designs. Now, you can vote for your favorites for this year's contest. Voting ends May 18 at midnight PST. Click here to vote.

The theme this year is "What I Wish for the World." So far, Google has selected 400 state finalists and 40 regional winners. The results of the public vote will reveal 4 national winners.

The 40 regional winners will have their designs on display from May 21 - July 5, 2009 in New York City at the Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum.

Here are some of the finalists' designs:

From Sinceraty Alexander, age 6, PS 34 Oliver H Perry Elementary School in Brooklyn, NY:

From Elizabeth Harman, age 16,at Harman Academy in Wake Forest, NC:

From Elizabeth Keto, age 13, at the National Cathedral School in Washington, DC:

From Lauren Sarantopolos, age 12, Highland Park Elementary in Sheridan, WY:

From Courtney Bodine, age 11, Moorestown Upper Elementary in Moorestown, NJ:

From Miriam Elizabeth Lowery, age 5, Austin Peay Elementary, Covington, TX:

From Johnny Zuk, age 6, Monroe Elementary School in Monroe, CT:

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 12, 2009

Google Launches Search Options, Previews 'Google Squared'

At today's Searchology press event, Google launched new search features as well as unveiling the upcoming 'Google Squared.' Read to the end, folks, because there are not only some significant updates, but pretty cool tech as well.

Google Search Options

Beginning today, when you search Google.com, the results page will show a link just above the results that says "Show Options." When you click on that link, a left sidebar will show filters for the search, including images, videos, dates, Wonder Wheel etc. Here's a screenshot for a search for the Smithsonian:

Rich Media Snippets

This is basically Google's answer to Yahoo!'s SearchMonkey. Web developers can add a piece of code to their HTML, which can be picked up by the Googlebot to serve up in their results. Here are two examples:

1. Searching for a person can be complicated when multiple people share the same name. One code snippet can reveal the profession and location in the results, preventing the user from clicking on links that aren't relevant to their search. Notice the grey text underneath the link:

2. If you're searching for a restaurant you've never been to, you might be looking for reviews. With another code snippet, you can allow Google, if its algorithm so chooses, to display the number of reviews and a graphic (i.e. a 5 star display) showing the average of the reviews.

This is an example of the rich media snippet code given at the Searchology event today:

Rich snippets can also be used in Site Search or Custom Search.

Because the rich snippets use open standards, other search engines and web tools can access the data. Additionally, websites who do not wish to have such data displayed in the search results can essentially "opt-out" by simply not having the code on their site.

Sky Map

If you're the owner of a G1 or other Android powered-device, you now have access to Google's new Sky Map. And it's, yes, a map of the stars in the sky. The app uses GPS to determine your location and serve up the map of stars you can view in your location.

You can hold up the phone to the sky and the map will show which stars are viewable in the direction in which the phone is held. You can move the device and the map will move.

Search for a constellation and a circle with an arrow will pop up and show you which direction to point your device. Move in that direction until you reach the constellation. The app will let you know when you're there.

It's hard to understand this fully without a good visual, so here's a video demo:

Google Squared

Expected to be launched in Google Labs by the end of the month, Google Squared could quite possibly be one of Google's significant achievements. Searching via Google Squared means searching for pure information.

In Google Squared, the results would show up in a spreadsheet format that can be edited and saved. The example they gave was the term "small dogs." Across the top are the names of data columns. The first column is breed, and rows of breeds stretch down the page. If a breed is missing, you can add the breed. If you'd like to add a column of data, that is possible as well.

Google Squared still needs a lot of improvement, which is why it's being released to Labs. It collects the information by looking for structures that seem to imply facts. The squares are built out based on high probability of facts.

There will be concerns over Google providing this data on its own by grabbing data and serving it up without sending searchers to the sites that provided the info.

Phew. That's a lot of new Google all in one day. What do you think of the Google News? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 8:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

John Battelle Discusses Future of Search

John Battelle - author of The Search, founder of Wired, Federated Media and The Industry Standard - discussed the future of search with HubSpot.

The HubSpot blog added a few videos of the interview which covered Google and Social Media, How Small Businesses Can Compete, as well as the Future of Search.

"Search is currently an interface for working with machines. As we learn new ways to interact with information, it will stop looking like a list of links and will start feeling more like a conversation," Battelle told HubSpot. Noting, "Search in social media platforms is a threat to Google."

John is always an engaging speaker on our space. This one is worth the time to look at.

Posted by Frank Watson at 6:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

May 8, 2009

iPhone Searches Longer and More Diverse Than Other Mobile Phones

Google has released some information about the search behavior of iPhone users. Many of the searches are longer than 3 words and more diverse than other mobile devices. In fact, many searches are longer than typical computer searches!

Typical mobile searches tend to average around 2.5 words and be centered around the Adult and Entertainment niches.

Google attributes the phenomenon to what it refers to as "bar-bet" searches. The idea is that you're out with your friends debating some obscure piece of trivia and you pull out an iPhone to look up the answer.

They've even devised a mathematical equation to determine the intent of a searcher over time. It's called entro-percent and it looks like this:

What do you think of entro-percent and the iPhone search data? Share your thoughts by leaving a comment.

Related Reading: iPhone Advances Mobile Search in the UK Google Unveils Adsense for Mobile Search Google Releases Study on Mobile Search Query Suggestions

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 1:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Google Friend Connect Adds Translation to Comments Gadget

Google Friend Connect has added a new feature to its comment gadget: Translation. This is designed to help people understand comments written in languages they don't speak or understand.

To use the feature, look for the "Translate" link at the bottom left corner of the comments gadget. When you click on it, a list of languages will pop up. Select the language you would like to see the comments in.

Related Reading: Google Friend Connect Adds Event Widget Google Friend Connect Launches API

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 1:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 7, 2009

New Version of Android Includes YouTube, Picasa Uploads

The new version of Android, version 1.5, includes the ability to upload multimedia directly from the mobile device. Here's what can be done:

• YouTube: record and easily upload videos to YouTube
• Picasa Web Albums: upload photos directly to your Picasa Web Albums
• Gmail: multiple-thread selection to easily archive, delete, label or mute several threads at once
• Search by voice: improved speech recognition

Google released the Android 1.5 SDK for developers last week.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 12:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 6, 2009

Google Ad Planner Seeks Voluntary Data Contributions from Publishers

Google has launched an Ad Planner Publisher Center, which they hope will improve the data offered by the media planning tool. Through the Center, publishers could contribute their own data which will be combined with shared Google Analytics data. Google hopes this will enhance the quality and accuracy of the data.

Publishers will be able to specify their site descriptions, content categories, supported ad formats and sizes. Here's a visual sample of what participating in the Center looks like:

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 2:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 5, 2009

FTC Looks Into Google/Apple Ties for Antitrust Concerns

Google is really having a hard time escaping antitrust concerns. Last year, it was the nonexclusive search advertising deal with Yahoo. Last week, it was the nonexclusive book settlement. Now, it's the relationship it has with Apple.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt and former Genetech CEO Arthur Levinson both sit on the boards of Google and Apple. Schmidt has to leave the room when Apple talks iPhone because of Google's competing Android mobile platform.

At issue is Section 8 of the Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914, which has a provision against "interlocking directorates." Under the Act, it's only a problem if the two companies in more than 2% of either companies' sales.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 12:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

May 4, 2009

DoubleClick Launches Rich Media Creation Tool for Agencies

DoubleClick, an online ad network acquired by Google, has launched a new rich media creation tool. The tool, dubbed DoubleClick Studio, is available to creative and media agencies.

For creative agencies, DoubleClick Studio is designed to:

• Produce traffic-ready ads quickly
• Provide organization via a single place to manage rich media ads
• Output high-quality ad units using drag-and-drop Flash components (and/or APIs for advanced users)

For media agencies, DoubleClick Studio is designed to:

• Save trafficking time by having new and updated creatives pushed directly to DART
• Save time creating preview links by allowing creative agencies to do this on their own
• Get tighter control and insight into custom metrics through an enhanced creative preview system

Here's an intro video for the tool.

Will you be trying out DoubleClick Studio? Let us know in the comments below.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 12:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 30, 2009

Google Enables Public Data Search

If you're a numbers, geography or news junkie, then you'll love a new feature released by Google to its main search engine. It enables searches for public data. Type in population followed by a county and you'll get data for that. Type in unemployment rate followed by a location and, again, you'll get data for that. Those data types are available for almost any U.S state or county. Google hopes to make more public data available for such easy searching in the future.

Related Reading: Google Launches Toolbar Labs; My Location is First Feature Google Profiles Offer Some Control and Visibility for Name-Based Results

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 2:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 29, 2009

AOL Ad Revenues Drop 20% in Q1 2009

Time Warner, parent company of AOL, has reported their first quarter earnings for 2009 and the news isn't great for AOL. Ad revenues have dropped 20% or $109 million. The losses largely contributed to the 7% decline parent company Time Warner experienced overall.

The losses added to Time Warner's desire to rid itself of AOL.

"With our separation of Time Warner Cable, Time Warner has become a more content-focused company. We're also working to determine the right ownership structure for AOL," said Time Warner Chairman and CEO Jeff Bewkes. "With our powerful brands, industry-leading scale, track record of innovation, heightened focus on efficiency and strong balance sheet, I'm confident that we'll continue to make progress toward our key long-term goals - to be the world's leading content company and improve returns to our stockholders."

After shopping itself to potential buyers, Time Warner appears to be posed to spin off the struggling internet company. Time Warner has notified Google of its intent to purchase their 5% stock in AOL. AOL recently hired Tim Armstrong, former Google Senior Vice President, as CEO.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 1:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 28, 2009

Eric Schmidt and Craig Mundie Named to President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology

Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Microsoft Chief Research and Strategy Officer have been named to the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST). The council is comprised of scientists and engineers who will advise President and Vice President on policy involving science, technology, and innovation.

"This council represents leaders from many scientific disciplines who will bring a diversity of experience and views," said President Obama. "I will charge PCAST with advising me about national strategies to nurture and sustain a culture of scientific innovation."

Schmidt and Mundie join the following members named to PCAST:

• John Holdren, serving as co-chair of PCAST, Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy
• Eric Lander, serving as a co-chair of PCAST, Director of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and Professor of Biology at MIT, Professor of Systems Biology at Harvard Medical School and member of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research
• Harold Varmus, serving as co-chair of PCAST, President and CEO of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
• Rosina Bierbaum, Dean of the School of Natural Resources and Environment at the University of Michigan
• Christine Cassel, President and CEO of the American Board of Internal Medicine
• Christopher Chyba, Professor of Astrophysical Sciences and International Affairs at Princeton University and a member of the Committee on International Security and Arms Control of the National Academy of Sciences
• S. James Gates Jr., John S. Toll Professor of Physics and Director of the Center for String and Particle Theory at the University of Maryland
• Shirley Ann Jackson, President of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and former Chair of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (1995-1999)
• Richard Levin, President of Yale University
• Chad Mirkin, Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, Chemistry, and Medicine at Northwestern University, and Director of Northwestern's International Institute of Nanotechnology
• Mario Molina, Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of California, San Diego and the Center for Atmospheric Sciences at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, as well as Director of the Mario Molina Center for Energy and Environment in Mexico City
• Ernest J. Moniz, Professor of Physics and Engineering Systems, Director of the Energy Initiative, and Director of the Laboratory for Energy and the Environment at MIT
• William Press, Professor of Computer Sciences at the University of Texas at Austin
• Maxine Savitz, vice-president of the National Academy of Engineering, retired general manager of Technology Partnerships at Honeywell, and former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Conservation in the US Department of Energy
• Barbara Schaal is Professor of Biology at Washington University in St Louis and Vice President of the National Academy of Sciences
• Daniel Schrag, Sturgis Hooper Professor of Geology in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard University and Professor of Environmental Science and Engineering in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
• David E. Shaw, chief scientist of D. E. Shaw Research, LLC, fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and serves on the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board of the National Academies
• Ahmed Zewail, Professor of Chemistry and Physics at Caltech and Director of the Physical Biology Center

Related Reading: Google, Microsoft Higher Ups Dish Out the Dough for Obama Inauguration Google and the Obama Administration Obama Aide: Broadband Portion of Stimulus Package for Timely Needs, Not Overall Goals Obama to Nominate Former IAC Executive as FCC Chairman

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 12:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 27, 2009

Android 1.5 SDK Officially Released

A couple of weeks ago, Google let developers get an early-look release of the new Android 1.5 SDK in order to start prepping their apps for the updated platform. Today, Android 1.5 is officially released.

Click here to see the release notes.

The Android team also said that HTC, the manufacturer of the Android powered G1, has made new system images available to upgrade dev phones to Android 1.5.

Hmm, perhaps some of you developers out there will be creating a new Android app with Facebook's new Open Stream API?

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 1:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 22, 2009

Google Profiles Offer Some Control and Visibility for Name-Based Results

Google has launched a new feature to allow users to gain some visibility in searches conducted on their name. It's called Google Profiles is similar to many social network profiles. You can add as much or as little information as you wish.

At the bottom of name-based searches in the US, links to these public profiles will be shown. The links feature a name, job title and location, which will hopefully help searchers find the person they're looking for.

As you can see, also included in those social profile listings are links to the same name-based searches on social networks including MySpace, Facebook, Classmates, and LinkedIn.

To set up your Google profile, click here.

Related Reading: Google Friend Connect Launches API Google Friend Connect Launches "Social Bar"

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

April 18, 2009

When Will There Be A New Google Hacks Released

Every couple of years Google Hacks has been updated since its first greatly received edition in 2003 and the two subsequent updates in 2004 and 2006.

The last edition had many new Google products to cover. Now with even more updates and additions to Google products it is time for a new one. I am hoping it comes soon, I could use the help.

The people over at Google Code have produced some helpful stuff - it would be nice if there was more of these that could be easily accessed at Google.

Posted by Frank Watson at 9:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Does Google Really Listen To Its Users?

Three years ago Danny Sullivan wrote two articles "25 Things I Love About Google" and "25 Things I Hate About Google". They were both good articles, though like Matt Cutts, I do not agree with all of his points. Which ones and why are very different from Matts.

But looking at the articles is a good way to see how Google has addressed user needs over the past three years.

In the Hate article, some things were addressed - the user interface, easier access to tools, RSS feeds, use of Open Directory titles and descriptions, breaking out search revenues, and Gmail customization.

But many still have not been changed - some may not need to be - such as making things paid or putting brakes on self-served AdSense - but there are some that just show a disregard for the users.

Search counts still make no sense, results are still stacked with pages from the same sites as you drill down in the hopes of better information, country specific search ( Danny's idea of a universal result seems a little dated in these days of international marketing and information written to specific cultures), giving advertisers the ability to pick and choose search (expanded has gotten even more out of hand), copyright infringement on blogger still not addressed and links to referring sites in Analytics.

Danny's call to "fix the philosophy" is a concept many people have complained about and derided for years. I guess Google believes in there is no such thing as bad publicity - as their continuing of "Do No Evil" is just a joke at this stage.

In his "love" list there are a few elements that I disagree with. Google Analytics while a decent product has killed an industry without antitrust examination. Returning search to its glory is a little too much love - Google is fast becoming a monopoly of search - and as it is the source of most people's information that is a scary thing to have in the hands of a money motivated corporation - though the government would do little better.

And if you think the willingness to censor Chinese results or have a set of rules that go beyond what is legally limited to a corporate vision is wrong. Their stance on RipOff Reports is just one such example that shows disregard for people especially when they do censor other areas.

Google has not really addressed the issues, despite Matt suggesting the artciles be looked on as bug reports. Come on guys it has been three years and yet you still have the major issues Danny listed yet to be changed.

If you want to be the big brother then act responsibly.

Posted by Frank Watson at 6:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

April 17, 2009

Google Friend Connect Adds Event Widget

Google Friend Connect has added an event widget to help site administrators harness social media for event planning. When the event gadget is set up, visitors can RSVP for the event and view a map, if the event is in a physical location (aka not online).

Here's a video to show you how to do it:

Google Friend Connect launched last year as an easy way for site owners to add social networking to their websites.

Related Reading: Google Friend Connect Launches API Google Adds Friend Connect to Blogger Google Friend Connect Launches "Social Bar" Google Friend Connect Adds Twitter

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 4:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Google Gives More Results Sitelinks, With a Twist

Sometimes when you're searching Google, the first result will have "Sitelinks" under the main result. Like this:

Now, Google is allowing non-first results to have sitelinks, but there are fewer and they appear as one line underneath the result. Check out this snorkling result:

If you want to prevent a link from showing up in the sitelinks for any of your results, you can do so (for 90 day intervals) at Google Webmaster Tools.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 4:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Want Visibility in Google? Become the Next Sensation on Britain's Got Talent

Susan Boyle is having the BEST WEEK EVER! As I'm sure you've seen by now, Boyle is the next big thing on Britain's Got Talent.

Google pulled out all the stops with its universal features. The results start with News then there are 2 YouTube videos, a result for a realtor in Long Beach (she's probably hating this about now), and then Blog results. Eventually, another Susan Boyle, an artist, gets first page treatment, before quickly being engulfed by more British singing sensation links.

I would like to point out that Susan Boyle achieved her special place in the limelight by being true to herself. She's an unemployed church volunteer who cared for her aging mother until she passed away in 2007.

So many times, and yes in the SEM industry, it's all about being like someone who got successful. Sure, we all need inbound links. But do you need to create a clone of work created by that "A-lister" you've placed squarely on a very high pedastal? No. It won't work for you. Just like in Britain's Got Talent or American Idol, you've got to take the ideas that inspire you and make them your own!

If you think I'm wrong to come to all of these conclusions based on a current television and YouTube sensation, I dare you to think again. Paul Potts pulled off the first singing shocker on Britain's Got Talent two years ago. His Google results today are almost as universal as Boyle's.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 4:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 6, 2009

T-Mobile Planning Home Phone, Tablet Powered by Android

Last year, T-Mobile became the first mobile carrier to offer a cell phone powered by Google's open source mobile platform, Android. The love affair between T-Mobile and Android must be serious because the carrier has big plans to expand Android to home devices for consumers.

According to documents obtained by the New York Times, T-Mobile is planning a home phone as well as a tablet that will both run Android. The home phone is expected early 2010 with the tablet following shortly thereafter.

So far, Android hasn't taken the mobile world by storm, but sometimes slow growth is the best growth, especially in this economy. With independent bloggers hacking up netbooks with Android, there is obvious desire to push the open source platform to its fullest potential.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 7:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

April 2, 2009

Google Shows Local Results for Non-Local Queries

Do a search for a broad keyword and you're likely to come across some local results in Google now. You don't even have to be signed into your Google account.

The local results appear along with a Google Map about mid-way down the page. It's hit or miss. I was able to produce the results for "golf" and "pizza" but not "coffee."

Must give props where props are do. Florist SEO Watch blogged about this over the weekend and was pointed out to Mike Blumenthal (where I learned of it) by Cathy Rhulloda.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 4:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Google Suggest Goes International

Last August, Google set a search query suggestion feature as default on its homepage. But like many Google features, it was rolled out to the U.S. only.

Now, Google Suggest is going abroad. It's available to 155 domains in 51 languages.

Adjusting search suggestions for different languages and regions involves more than simply adding a feature. You have to understand locations and interest. For example, a search in the UK that begins with "liv" is probably headed for a query related to "Liverpool," while in the US it would be for one of the most vital organs in the human body.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 1:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 31, 2009

Google Starts a Venture Capitalist Fund

If you didn't think Google had enough dominance in search, try this on for size: the search engine giant has started a venture capitalist fund. The areas they seek to invest are:

• Consumer Internet
• Software
• Clean-tech
• Bio-tech
• Health care

Google says more industries could be added in the future as their interest determines. Google says it will follow the best practices of "top-tier, financially focused venture capital firms" and place Googlers at the center of the effort.

Will Google be successful? I'm sure a lot of you have opinions on the matter. Let 'em rip in the comments.

Related Reading: Google Beats Wall Street Estimates for Q4 2008, Despite Profit Drop Google's Schmidt Talks Yahoo, Newspapers, 'Don't Be Evil', and iPhone

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 26, 2009

Google Bundles Tools in a New Service for Website Hosting Providers

Last year, Google extended Webmaster Tools to hosting providers, who could in turn offer it to their customers. Now, Google has released "Services for Websites," a bundled package of tools for website hosting providers. Included in the bundle are Webmaster Tools, AdSense, Custom Search, and Site Search.

When a hosting provider implements "Services for Websites," its customers can integrate Google tools with just one click. Here's what it looks like for customers of two providers:

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

March 25, 2009

Google Experiments with Search "Wonder Wheel"

Over at Google Blogoscoped, Tony Ruscoe & Philipp Lenssen have uncovered a Google Experiment called the "Wonder Wheel." The experiment shows related searches. Ruscoe and Lenssen offered up screenshots using the search term "comic books."

Wonder Wheel is reminiscent of the concept (though not the visual implementation) behind Quintura.

Related Reading: Google's Search Experiments are Sometimes Subtle

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 1:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

March 24, 2009

Google Launches Two Updates to Results Pages

Google has announced two updates to results pages which they hope will enhance the users experience by better understanding user intent. First up, a new technology has been deployed to understand the associations of a given search phrase. Google offered up the example of "principles of physics." With the new technology, Google now understands that "angular momentum," "special relativity," "big bang" and "quantum mechanic" are terms associated with the original term.

The next update is related to long search queries. These results will now return more lines of description (the words under the title) when necessary. The idea is that with more words, more lines may be necessary to help users find precisely what they're looking for.

What do you think of these updates? Will they improve the search experience on Google? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Related Reading: Google News Gets Ads in Search Results Google Search Results Now (Visually) Optimized for the iPhone and G1

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Google Updates Insights for Search Keyword Metric Tool

Last year, Google launched "Insights for Search," a tool that aids with keyword research and overall search marketing research. Now, they've updated the tool with the following features:

• New data sources - Googl has added more data from Google News, Image and Product Search sites.
• Category suggestions - Insights for Search will now suggest categories that your search terms could be classified under.
• Metros for the U.S. - When you look at the geographic data in the U.S., you can drill down into metropolitan areas.

Check out this Insights for Search geographic map showing the interest of search term, "coffee." Check out these maps from state then metro then city:

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SES New York is a Search Expo as well as an SEM Conference

Most of the attention at SES New York is focused on the SEM conference. But the must-attend industry event is a search expo, as well.

If you look over the list of participating sponsors and exhibitors, you'll see Premier Plus Sponsors like iProspect and Google as well as Premier Sponsors like Ask Sponsored Listings, iContact, Microsoft and WebTrends. But as you scroll down the list of close to 100 sponsors and exhibitors, you'll see lots of other names, too.

As I mentioned yesterday, I plan to visit the booths of the SES sponsors and exhibitors. I always find useful products and services -- not to mention the trade-show tchotchke and promotional swag.

In fact, I generally discover a couple of under-reported stories in the Expo Hall.

For example, at SES New York 2008, I thought one of the under-reported stories was LifeTips, which is a content design and content development company working on ebooks and other products. They had just launched an SEO content grader. So, I invited Byron White, the founder of LifeTips, to give us his escalator pitch. (This is a lot like an elevator pitch, except the escalators at the Hilton New York are a lot faster than the elevators.)

Lifetips Escalator Pitch, SES NY 2008

However, there's no way to know in advance which booths will contain under-reported stories at SES New York 2009. (Although, it won't hurt to check out Booth #1302, because WebTrends and Business.com are sponsoring the ultimate conference give-away: A brand new Smart Car.)

Nevertheless, it turns out that some of the exhibitors have submitted proflies to Business Wire's Virtual Press Office (VPO). So, that increases the odds that there is gold in them thar hills. Check it out for yourself.

Company: Click Forensics, Inc. Booth: 1108 Click Forensics is the industry leader in scoring, auditing and improving traffic quality for the online advertising community. By optimizing every step in the online advertising process, Click Forensics maximizes ROI for advertisers, publishers, and ad networks. Click Forensics' traffic quality management solutions are relevant for advertisers seeking to reduce costs and improve conversions rates, ad networks seeking to attract and retain advertisers and improve overall eCPM, and publishers seeking to attract quality advertisers and increase earnings per click. For over 5 years the online advertising industry has relied on Click Forensics as the independent authority on traffic quality and click fraud.

Company: DOCLIX Booth: 225 DOCLIX owns and operates AdSide, a pay-per-click ad network which brings search-level performance to content-targeted ads. It provides advertisers and publishers with tools to maximize revenue and growth. AdSide places user-activated text ads on premium sites. Its patent-pending Two-Step Click™ lead qualification model ensures that advertisers pay only for twice-qualified leads, generating higher conversion rates and ROI. AdSide expands publishers' real estate, providing them with a new revenue stream that does not dilute user experience. Our custom ad formats and yield optimization technology maximize click-through rates and effective CPMs. Premium publishers are pre-screened for content and are required to have over 1 million unique visitors. Company: Ektron Booth: 120 Ektron, a global leader in Web content management software and services, empowers organizations to maximize their business performance online. With tools and functionality that maximize SEM, SEO and social media optimization strategies for SMBs and enterprises alike, Ektron CMS400.NET delivers organizations' valuable content to the people who are looking for it. Ektron empowers developers and non-technical business users. Developers can take advantage of built-in Server Controls to deploy a Web site out of the box or customize the deployment using CMS400.NET's API, addressing all of the business's SEO needs. Business users benefit from an intuitive user interface for managing Web site content and messaging. In addition to SEO tools and core content management, CMS400.NET ships with a wide array of functionality, including social networking, Web 2.0, SEO and synchronization tools.

Company: Emailvision Booth: 322 Emailvision has become the global market and technology leader in on-demand software for email marketing automation. Used daily by over 1500 companies worldwide, the Emailvision flagship product, Campaign Commander, is the benchmark tool for e-commerce and publishing. Sold as a subscription service it enables clients to improve message deliverability, lower costs and focus on their online retention marketing strategies without important technology investments. The company has offices in major international markets including the US, UK, France, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Netherlands and Spain. Emailvision (ALEMV) was founded in 1999 and is listed on the Euronext/Alternext stock exchange.

Company: eZanga Booth: 121 eZanga (www.eZanga.com), a search engine marketing company and search engine founded by Beth and Richard Kahn in 2003, provides online advertisers with local, regional, and national advertising focused on generating high return on investment and users with access to a search engine powered by eZanga's proprietary Meta Search technology, which pulls data from numerous, unique content sources and displays the results in an easy-to-read and relevant fashion. In 2008, eZanga was recognized by Inc. magazine's Inc. 500 as the fastest-growing company in its home state of Delaware.

eZanga Escalator Pitch, SES NY 2008 Company: GoECart Booth: 213 GoECart is the clear choice for serious merchants focused on creating and rapidly growing a successful online business. With integration with industry-leading partners like Google Checkout, Paypal, Amazon.com, Linkshare, UPS, Google Analytics, Campaigner and LivePerson, GoECart is the most connected e-commerce solution on the market. GoECart combines 250+ powerful features and On-Demand Tier 1 hosting with a delightful shopping experience for customers - all at a surprisingly affordable price. GoECart is THE MOST Search Engine Friendly Ecommerce Software on the market, bar none! GoECart serves a diverse customer base ranging from small- and medium-sized enterprises to Fortune 500 companies. www.GoECart.com

Shopping Cart Software SEO with goecart.com

Company: iCrossing Booth: 100 iCrossing is a global digital marketing company that combines talent and technology to help world-class brands find and connect with their customers. The company blends best-in-class digital marketing services - including paid search, search engine optimization, Web development, social media, mobile, research and analytics - to create integrated digital marketing programs that engage consumers and drive ROI. iCrossing's client base includes such recognized brands as Epson America, Toyota, Travelocity and 40 Fortune 500 companies, including The Coca-Cola Company and Office Depot. Headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona, the company has 580 employees in 12 offices in the U.S. and Europe.

Company: ideaLaunch Booth: 202 Valuable, relevant content is what your company needs to attract and retain customers. ideaLaunch offers a suite of content marketing services that hundreds of clients are using to gain the trust and win the business of online customers. From content creation to content optimization to content testing to content performance to content sponsorship, ideaLaunch offers a full range of content marketing services, solutions and resources. Start delivering fresh, relevant content to your customers with the revolutionaries at ideaLaunch. And improve your company's mind share, market share and profit share.

Company: Ingenio Inc. Booth: 315 Ingenio, Inc. pioneered Pay Per Call in 2004 as a way to connect millions of buyers and sellers around the world through the combination of the Internet and the telephone. Today Ingenio partners with leading providers in Web and mobile search, online directories, vertical content, and directory assistance to deliver live phone leads to any type of business. For more information, please visit www.ingenio.com.

Company: Local.com Booth: 1110 Local.com (NASDAQ: LOCM) is the largest local search network in the United States. The company uses patented technologies to provide over 19 million consumers each month with the most relevant search results for local businesses, products and services on Local.com and over 700 regional media sites. Businesses can target ready-to-purchase consumers using a variety of advertising products. To advertise, visit http://corporate.local.com/advertisewithus or call 1-888-857-6722. For more information visit: www.local.com or http://corporate.local.com/.

Company: Marchex, Inc. Booth: 201 Marchex, Inc. is a leading local search and performance advertising company. Marchex's innovative advertising platform delivers search- and call-based marketing products and services for local and national advertisers. Marchex's local search network, one of the largest online, helps consumers make better, more informed local decisions through its content-rich Web sites that reach tens of millions of unique visitors each month.

Chad Schott of Marchex on Local Search at SES NY 2008

Company: Onward Search Booth: 309 Onward Search is the nation's leading provider of internet marketing and creative services talent. Onward Search specializes in placing search marketing, graphic design, web development, and related creative services and technology professionals to companies nationwide. Onward Search provides their customers with the ability to rapidly source the best talent in the marketplace, so they can successfully deliver against their creative services, online marketing, and technology initiatives. Onward Search offers a full range of recruiting, staffing, and talent management solutions to include temporary staffing, consulting, and permanent placement options to ensure our customers have access to the right talent to get the job done.

Company: SearchIgnite Booth: 320 SearchIgnite is a leading provider of paid search and performance media optimization solutions that enable large, sophisticated marketers to achieve their online goals faster and smarter. The company's platform gives advertisers an advanced suite of tools to manage, optimize and report on their paid search campaigns in one central dashboard. In addition, marketers who use SearchIgnite have the ability to gather insights into the relationship between media channels, enabling them to spend smarter. Some of the world's leading brands and advertising agencies depend on SearchIgnite technology to power their online marketing campaigns. More information can be found at http://www.searchignite.com/.

Company: SLI Systems Booth: 303 SLI Systems provides site search, site navigation and user-generated SEO services for online retail and content-rich websites. These solutions are built with patented Learning Search technology - an intelligent search system that learns from customer behavior to increase sales and conversions. Learning Search enhances the user experience while delivering valuable insights on visitor activity, and provides ecommerce sites with advanced merchandising capabilities and intuitive navigation. SLI's Site Champion service creates optimised pages to increase a retailer's visibility in natural search engine listings and increase site traffic. Customers like FTD, Tupperware, ULTA, and hundreds more benefit from SLI Systems' search technology.

Company: TMP Directional Marketing Booth: 209 TMP Directional Marketing (TMPDM) is the largest local search marketing agency, offering online, offline and mobile local advertising solutions to top national brands. Providing clients search with a local focus, the agency understands the local nuances that help national merchants reach local customers. Combining its years of success in Yellow Pages advertising with online search expertise gained as a former unit of Monster Worldwide, TMPDM serves hundreds of national advertising clients, including nearly 100 Fortune 500 companies. TMPDM (www.tmpdm.com) is headquartered in New York with more than 500 employees and 15 offices in the U.S. and Canada.

Company: Wpromote Inc. Booth: 112 Wpromote prides itself in Superior Search Engine Marketing. From two employees in 2001 to over forty the company has experienced unwavering growth and continuous recognition for its exceptional service to each and every client. As a two-time Inc. 500 honoree, Google Adwords Qualified Company and recipient of countless other accolades, clients are assured that The Best Search Starts Here, at Wpromote. Since its inception Wpromote has dedicated itself to a single mission statement: help businesses succeed on the web. With unmatched experience in search marketing and an unrivaled dedication to our clients' results, Wpromote always stands out above the crowd.

Company: YELLOWPAGES.COM Booth: 321 "Need something?" For more than 125 years, consumers have trusted the Yellow Pages to deliver comprehensive local business information. And today, wherever, however and whenever they "Need something" local, they use YELLOWPAGES.COM. YELLOWPAGES.COM connects consumers to local businesses across the three screens they use most - Web, mobile and TV through AT&T U-verse services. As one of today's leading local search sites, YELLOWPAGES.COM provides comprehensive local business information, maps, driving directions, videos, user reviews and more. And new mobile features make it easier than ever to find information on the go.

Posted by Greg Jarboe at 6:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

March 23, 2009

Mainstream Publishers Want Google to Change their Algorithm to Favor Them

AdAge has a story about how some mainstream publishers want Google to favor them in their algorithm. To which most of SEW readers would probably say, "Welcome to my world!"

I have just one question for the publishers. "If Google came to you and asked you only for favorable coverage of their brand, would you give it to them?"

Some of the publishers' points are valid. At times, Google's results - especially when it comes to current events - can be a bit outdated. Mainstream publishers want to see links at the top of the results for their stories.

Why their stories over bloggers or other non-mainstream sites? BBC The New York Times argues that because they have a man on the ground in a place like Gaza, that their site should trump blogger commentary, for example.

But the very fact that the BBC The New York Times and mainstream publishers are lobbying Google suggests that their problem lies in their own business model. Either they are refusing to get involved with SEO and/or paid search, or they are not producing content that people want - even with eyes on the ground. Or both.

And that's why not all publishers are complaining. As Vanity Fair columnist Michael Wolff told AdAge:

Sometimes it's true that you'd rather get what The New York Times has to say about something rather than a host of bloggers. But more interestingly it's not always true. And it is in fact less and less true.

Of course, the biggest irony of all is the rocky history Google has had with newspapers. Some publishers have sued Google for copyright issues. Now that print is dying and consumers are increasingly going online for news, they want Google's favor.

Still, Google may be listening. A recent algorithm change does seem to favor brands, though Google denies it.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

March 17, 2009

Next Version of Google Chrome Released Into Beta

Google's browser, Chrome, was released as a beta last year. Then, in December, it was released out of beta. Now, the next version has been released into beta. Confused?

If you're using Chrome, only upgrade to the next beta if you're willing to test out the new features. They may not work perfectly yet.

The new beta includes:

• Speed improvement
• Additional Browsing Tools
• Basic Form Auto-Fill
• Full Page Zoom
• Support for Autoscroll
• A New Way to Drag Tabs into Side-by-Side View

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 5:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Google Friend Connect Launches API

Google Friend Connect, the tool that allows web developers to add social networking to any site, has launched an API. Here's what site owners and developers can expect:

• Site owners - Integrate Friend Connect more deeply into your site. JavaScript APIs allow you to integrate a social community directly within the markup of your page, and our REST APIs allow you integrate existing login systems and your existing data with new social data and activities. These are your visitors and this is your site, so you should be able to add social features the way you want.
• Plugin developers - Make plugins to integrate with popular content management systems, bulletin boards, or any open framework. To get you started, we have created open source plugin samples for WordPress, Drupal, and phpBB.
• Gadget developers - Make OpenSocial applications with greater control over how data flows across servers with signed requests. Use server-side authentication mechanisms so that a site with Friend Connect can act as an OpenSocial container.

Related Reading: Google Adds Friend Connect to Blogger Google Friend Connect Launches "Social Bar" Google Friend Connect Adds Twitter

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 5:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 11, 2009

Google Reprices Stock Options for 15,000 Employees

Google has repriced the stock options for 15,642 employees (out of about 20,000). All employees were eligible for the program that ended this past Monday.

The reprice stock came in at $308.57. Since Google had been priced at upwards of $747 over a year ago, the repricing option was attractive to many of the search engine's employees.

Other shareholders are not as thrilled as they are stuck with their losses. The repricing could cost Google as much as $400 million in accounting charges.

via NYT

Related Reading: Google Stockpiling Cash: Storing Nuts For Economic Winter Or Just Plain Nuts? The Good, The Bad, The Ugly: Google 2008 Review Google Stock Downgraded to Hold; Local.com Authorizes Stock Repurchase Program

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 1:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Facebook Referring More Traffic to (Some) Big Sites than Google

Some big sites are getting big traffic, but it's not from the usual suspect of Google. Instead, it's from Facebook. PerezHilton.com and Cafemom.com are among the sites benefitting from the word of mouth and social networking going on at Facebook.

Interestingly enough, there is one more site benefitting from Facebook traffic: Twitter, whose buzz as of late seems a bit of a threat to both Facebook and Google. The threat is less for Facebook, who benefits from user mashups allowing status updates to appear on Twitter and vice versa.

Facebook sees about 1/3 of the U.S. traffic that Google does. So, it's surprising to see this trend happen so soon.

Still, Microsoft seems just a little more brilliant for becoming Facebook's search partner last year.

via AdAge

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 12:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Google Beta Tests Interest-Based Advertising

Google is launching a beta test of "interest-based" display advertising. What that means is that Google will use information from your browser to offer up relevant ads on their partner sites and YouTube. For advertisers, the obvious benefit is (hopefully) reaching a more targeted audience, better traffic and higher conversion rates. For Google, the obvious benefit is mo' money.

Of course, the inevitable reaction to such news is "WHAT ABOUT MY PRIVACY?"

Personally, I like this type of advertising. If I'm researching cruises and an ad pops up with a deal better than the ones I've found, then that really helps me out as a consumer.

But I know there are those of you who are the opposite of me. It creeps you out that a big company like Google is checking into your browsing behavior and history. Here's what Google has to say about that, verbatim from the Official Google blog:

• Transparency - We already clearly label most of the ads provided by Google on the AdSense partner network and on YouTube. You can click on the labels to get more information about how we serve ads, and the information we use to show you ads. This year we will expand the range of ad formats and publishers that display labels that provide a way to learn more and make choices about Google's ad serving.
• Choice - We have built a tool called Ads Preferences Manager, which lets you view, delete, or add interest categories associated with your browser so that you can receive ads that are more interesting to you.
• Control - You can always opt out of the advertising cookie for the AdSense partner network here. To make sure that your opt-out decision is respected (and isn't deleted if you clear the cookies from your browser), we have designed a plug-in for your browser that maintains your opt-out choice.

What are your thoughts? Do tell in the comments.

Related Reading: Google GeoTargeting Patents Show Influence of Language, Location Google AdSense Releases News Widget AdSense Publisher Sues Google - And Wins

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

March 9, 2009

Google Stockpiling Cash: Storing Nuts For Economic Winter Or Just Plain Nuts?

Seems every time Google's CEO Eric Schmidt mentions the harsh economic times we are experiencing the company's stock price drops. Now, following his comments last week about the company stockpiling cash with no immediate plans of acquiring any new companies - Twitter seems to be everyone else's popular choice - the stock has fallen again (nearly 5% at the time of writing this).

The possibility of Google acquiring Twitter has been discussed by many recently, as has the idea of Twitter challenging Google in the future.

Marketing Pilgrim's Andy Beal suggests that Schmidt's denial of plans to buy Twitter could be double talk to allow the price to drop.

"Don't believe Google's slight-of-hand talk about the timing not being right. The timing is perfect! While other companies pull back on spending-causing Twitter's valuation to drop due to lack of interest-Google can fly in under the radar and pick up perhaps the most important internet start-up since Facebook," Beal stated.

Google recently has talked about long term plays to help the economy such as going green, which Schmidt has stated will improve Google's bottom line.

Google is in a tough place themselves - stock prices have drop more than 50% over the past 12 months and over 60% from its high of nearly $750, just over 12 months ago.

Recent layoffs and closing of products once thought of as Google's move to aggregate the world's information may be eroding investor confidence. Storing nuts for a harsh economic winter shows investors that Google has no faith in its own industry. This approach is not what got Google to the forefront in the first place. They were innovators who took a stand and maintained its search core while building other ancillary products and buying complimentary companies.

Buying other companies and investing in others helps stimulate the economy at a time when there is a need for more jobs and security for the ones that exist. Even if Google does intend to hold on to its cash, making such a public statement about it may not have been the wisest move.

Obviously, Schmidt's public statements is not the only contributing factor to Google stock price drop and being a squirrel right now could be a smart long term play, but is not a leader's play. Has Google joined the status quo? It may be a safe play, but not one indicative of an industry leader.

Posted by Frank Watson at 12:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Google Website Optimizer Releases Techie Guide

Landing page geeks, get excited. The team Google Website Optimizer has released a Techie Guide to their tool. In order to know what the heck the guide is talking about you should know HTML, have a basic understanding of JavaScript and how cookies work. The advanced topics require knowledge of PHP and/or ASP.

Included in the Techie Guide are:

• A detailed explanation of the Website Optimizer experiment scripts
• How to implement segmentation in your experiments
• How to test with dynamic content

The guide is available as a free download (PDF) at google.com/websiteoptimizer/techieguide. Related Reading: Website Optimizer Now Tracks with Google Analytics Code GA.js Google Website Optimizer Launches New YouTube Channel Google Website Optimizer Launches New Help Forum for Those Pesky Landing Page Testing Questions (and Answers!)

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 8:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

March 6, 2009

Google Adds Recent Earthquake Info to Search Results

If you do a search for "earthquakes" on Google, now you'll get info on the most recent earthquake activity. This information is listed at the top of the results. Here's an example of a search for just "earthquakes" -

You can also narrow the search to a specific region. Here's a search for "earthquake California" -

Interestingly enough, this info was not included on a search for "earthquake New Jersey," despite the incidence of earthquakes in the Garden State in recent weeks.

Related Reading: Google Returns Search Web Option To Gmail Google Maps Now Shows More Than 10 Results Google News Gets Ads in Search Results Matt Cutts Clarifies Google's New Preference of Brands

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 4, 2009

Google's Kaushik Says Measuring Clicks Is For Idiots, Bounce Rates Are It

It seems to be denigrate users week at Google. CEO Eric Schmidt called Twitter a "poor man's email", now the company's analytics evangelist Avinash Kaushik has called website owners who use clicks or hits as measurement idiots.

Speaking at a keynote address at a conference hosted by the Magazine Publishers of America trade association on Tuesday, Kaushik said HITS stood for "How Idiots Track Success" to him, MediaPost reported.

Interestingly his belief that bounce rates should be of major attention could be a tip of the hand in its prominence in the search algorithm.

"What does a high bounce rate tell you? Visitors are effectively saying, "I came, I puked, I left," said Kaushik, MediaPost reported.

Has Google gotten so jaded that it no longer cares about the users? It may be time to reassess their position in the world and the ability these "idiots" have to go to another source for their information - after all they do not create the information they just gather it. What happens when the "Trust Rank" they place so much stock in turns on them because of such comments?

Posted by Frank Watson at 8:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (20)

March 3, 2009

Firefox Greasemonkey Script Returns Realtime Tweets in Google Searches

Mark at MT-Hacks is quite the genius. He's created a Greasemonkey script that will return real-time Tweets in your Google searches, if you're using the Firefox browser.

If things like "Greasemonkey script" throw you off, don't worry, it's very easy. Just three steps:

1. Install Greasemonkey plugin (click here). 2. Install "Twitter Search results on Google" script (click here). 3. Search.

I searched "coffee" and the script returned the 5 most recent Tweets atop the Google results:

Related Reading: Best Twitter Tip of the Day Twitter Tests a Search Box on the Root Domain How to Go Viral on Twitter: The Science of ReTweeting Twitter Not Planning to Charge for Commercial Use 10 Ways Twitter Can Make Money Are Social Media Experts Ruining Twitter? Twitter Passes Digg For Usage, Is Facebook Next? Twitter Brings Back People Search Google Friend Connect Adds Twitter

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 12:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

February 27, 2009

Google Launches Apps Status Dashboard To Address Outage Information

Google launched an Apps Status Dashboard this week, following the problems they had with Gmail, AdSense and other products.

Given many businesses now rely on these services, it was a smart move to give people an area they can go to check whether the outage or problems are local to them or something Google is experiencing on their end.

As they stated in their Enterprise blog:

"The Google Apps Status Dashboard represents an additional layer of transparency that we believe will be particularly useful for our business users, and it's also relevant to users of our consumer products. The Status Dashboard is the best place to check for information on service availability for Google Apps anywhere in the world. In my role on the sales team, I regularly talk with customers to make sure that they're getting the most out of Google Apps and I think that you will find this tool indispensable in managing your Google Apps deployment."

TechCrunch mentioned the dashboard in terms of "Gfail" - funny how we all seem to be using the new Twitter-speak (the Fail Whale has become an icon).

While I am sure Google does not want to have an association with the up and down swing of Twitter - the fact that they launched this app was a smart way to take away the impact of their recent outages.

They also offered a 15 day credit to all enterprise level users of Gmail following the problems earlier this week. But given these users are paying $50 a year (per user) - the discount amounts to about $2 per person. If my dedicated server goes down for more than an hour I get a month credit as part of the contract.

Posted by Frank Watson at 6:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 26, 2009

Brands Hit Big In Google SERPs, Others Drop

Hats off to Aaron Wall for a great article about how Google has used brands as the basis for their most recent algorithm update.

Seems many sites have fallen from their comfortable front page rankings in preference for sites well branded in the niche for many of keywords impacted. Insurance companies, airline tickets and boots to name a few have suddenly seen well known but unoptimized sites shoot up in the rankings.

These results will no doubt send us SEOs running to the mattresses s we try to figure out how to counter this action by Google. Is it an increase in attention to trust rank? If these sites have not done any quiet SEO, then Google has obviously increased their worth on some basis - who is to say an airline deserves the better position for a travel search. Many small sites provide all types of support information not available.

To make this happen Google had to use some method to measure - brands do not shout out numbers that an algorithm can measure - in normal circumstances. Are they being rewarded for years of PPC spend - not likely.

My theory - and is only that - is they may be using some sort of measuring of typed in traffic numbers. But no doubt the methodology will be explore quite a bit over the coming weeks and be a major conversation piece at SES NYC next month.

Hey if you have any insights drop a comment.

Posted by Frank Watson at 9:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (16)

February 24, 2009

Dr. Brilliant Shifts Role at Google.org

Dr. Larry Brilliant has shifted into a new role at Google.org, the search giant's philanthropic arm. He will now be the Chief Philanthropy Evangelist. Meanwhile, Google's Vice President of New Business Development will add Google.org General Manager to her duties.

As part of the shift, Google will re-align its goals to focus on philanthropic missions tied more closely to its business model.

Dr. Brilliant explained in a post on the Official Google Blog:

During our review it became clear that while we have been able to support some remarkable non-profit organizations over the past three years, our greatest impact has come when we've attacked problems in ways that make the most of Google's strengths in technology and information; examples of this approach include Flu Trends, RechargeIT, Clean Energy 2030, and PowerMeter. By aligning Google.org more closely with Google as a whole, Megan will ensure that we're better able to build innovative, scalable technology and information solutions.

Related Reading: Google.org Reveals Five Focus Areas Google.org investing in plug-in hybrids

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 1:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 16, 2009

Google Launches 'Conversion Room' Blog

Google has launched a new blog that is dedicated to improving conversions. Dubbed the "Conversion Room," the new blog is run by European Googlers. In addition to providing tips that are useful to a global audience, the Conversion Room will highlight events taking place in Europe.

So far, the blog offers tips on keywords and the most recent post talks about installing site search and tracking the results.

Of course, we'll keep providing search marketing news and expert advice right here at Search Engine Watch. For a broader look at online marketing, check out our sister site, ClickZ.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 3:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Website Optimizer Now Tracks with Google Analytics Code GA.js

Here's an especially geeky post for all you search tech types out there. Google Website Optimizer, a tool for landing page testing, was tracking visitors using Google Analytics code. They were using an old version of the code, urchin.js.

Now they're using a newer version of the code, ga.js. If you're using code with the old urchin.js, don't panic - you're tests will run fine. For more info on the Google Analytics code, click here.

Related Reading: Updated Google Analytics Code Fixes Rare JavaScript Message Google Website Optimizer Launches New Help Forum for Those Pesky Landing Page Testing Questions (and Answers!) Website Optimizer Enables Pruning and Offline Validation

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 12, 2009

Google Friend Connect Launches "Social Bar"

Google Friend Connect is a tool that helps web developers add social networking to their sites. Thankfully, Google realizes that adding such functionality can take up precious page real estate. Their solution to such design woes is a feature they're calling the "Social Bar."

The social bar is basically a social toolbar, but instead of residing in the browser, it resides on your website. It can be placed at the top or the bottom or your site. It enables drop-down menus to host widgets, a space saver indeed.

Here's a screenshot of the social bar and below that is a basic introduction to adding social bar to your site.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 8:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 6, 2009

Google Website Optimizer Launches New YouTube Channel

Google Website Optimizer has launched its own channel on YouTube. This is a great way for you visual learners to get tips on how to set up landing page tests and how to interpret the results.

Included on the channel are the Always Be Testing webinar series by the very awesome Bryan Eisenberg and the video case studies of the Website Workout contest.

Here's a video from the channel. It's the Introduction to Website Optimizer webinar from the always-friendly Tom Leung, Senior Business Product Manager at Google:

Related Reading: Google Website Optimizer Launches New Help Forum for Those Pesky Landing Page Testing Questions (and Answers!) Landing Pages: Test Now or Forever Hold Your Peace

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

February 4, 2009

Is Google Testing New Technology Which Prevents Third Party Analytics Search Referral Tracking?

Analytics vendor Clicky has published a blog post saying that Google is testing Ajax-powered search results which prevent third-party analytics providers from tracking search referrals.

This sounded a bit fishy to me. It's to Google's advantage for third-party analytics programs to be able to track referrals. This helps sites know that they should keep Google as a major part of their search marketing campaigns.

So, I reached out to Google and this is their official statement:

We're continually testing new interfaces and features to enhance the user experience. We are currently experimenting with a javascript enhanced result page because we believe that it may ultimately provide a faster experience for our users. At this time only a small percentage of users will see this experiment. It is not our intention to disrupt referrer tracking, and we are continuing to iterate on this project. For more information on the experiments that we run on Google search, please see: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/04/this-is-test-this-is-only-test.html

What do YOU think? Let us know in the comments.

Related Reading: Google's Search Experiments are Sometimes Subtle Google to Test Video Ads on SERPs Google Beta Testing New AdWords Interface Google AdWords Beta Testing Demographic Bidding

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 12:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

February 3, 2009

Doodle 4 Google 2009 Theme is "What I Wish for the World"

Google has announced the second annual "Doodle for Google" contest. The contest is open to K-12 students (homeschoolers allowed!) and rewards the most creative artistic interpretations of the Google logo with the contest theme. This year's theme is "What I Wish for the World."

The winner will get a $15,000 college scholarship. Also, the school district that submits the most high-quality entries will get $10,000.

Google is partnering with the Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum. The 40 finalists will have their art on exhibit at the museum. Related Reading: Doodle 4 Google: Artsy-Craftsy March Madness London Kids Doodle For Google As Part Of New Office Opening Marc Chagall Google Doodle Google Chooses Diego over D-Day

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:29 AM | Permalink

February 2, 2009

The Obligatory Google "Site May Harm Your Computer" Post

Over the weekend, the blogosphere, journalists and Twitterers were all a-flutter over a Google glitch. It seems for an hour on Saturday morning, every site in the Google results were labeled with "This site may harm your computer."

Yes, that's right. Google made a mistake. And you know what? The earth still rotated on its axis and the apocalypse did not happen (except for a little bit at last night's Superbowl).

My dad had a saying about technology: "Computers are only as smart as the people who run them."

You see, I'm not sure if you're aware, but Google is staffed by imperfect humans and not some advanced robot-human-alien hybrid that can do no wrong, despite their "Do no evil" mantra.

So move along people, there's nothing to see here. At least, not anymore since they quickly fixed that buzz-creating glitch.

Related Reading: Google Trends KO'd - Up Off the Mat After 15 Hours Google Hack Gets At Personal Data Google and the Site: Command Glitch

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 21, 2009

New York City and Google Team Up for New Information Center

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg guest blogged on the Official Google Blog today to announce a new website and Information Center. The effort is a partnership between NYC and Google. The new site is nycgo.com.

The site uses Google Maps and the physical location can be found at 810 Seventh Avenue, between 52nd and 53rd Streets. The center features interactive map tables powered by the Google Maps API for Flash. There's also a video wall that uses Google Earth to display a 3D layout of the city.

Check out this video to learn more:

Related Reading: Google Maps Adds Comprehensive NYC Transit Directions Google Pretties Up for Madison Avenue Google Takes Manhattan Google's New New York Office

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 20, 2009

On a Slow Search News Day: My Google Sauce Dream

My daily search news duties are a bit slow today due to some apparently big government change of power in the nation's capital. So it is with great pride that I share with you a dream I had involving Google last night.

I was back at the summer camp I worked at in high school and college. But this time, a couple of Google sales reps were there. They wanted the kitchen to use Google Sauce in a pasta meal. The sauce was a white, creamy, cheesy sauce but didn't taste like alfredo.

It was very delicious and I wanted to use it at my house.

I have no idea what this means, dear reader, so I'm accepting dream interpretations in the comments. Should Google get into the pasta sauce game or am I just drinking too much of the Google Kool-Aid? You decide.

Related Reading: Wikia Search: Wikia Dream? Or SEO Wake-Up Call? Find Your Dream Job with the New SEW Job Boards Google's Android Arouses Augmented-Reality Dream Dream Home = Dream Traffic for HGTV.com

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

January 19, 2009

Google Celebrates 100,000th Knol

A few weeks ago, Google Knol received its 100,000th entry. Google Knol launched as a Wikipedia-esque knowledge sharing product last summer. In October, Google integrated Custom Search with Knol.

Knol has grown quickly and the interface is now available in eight languages including Arabic, English, French, German, Italian, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish. Knols have been written in 59 languages thus far.

People from 197 countries have visited Knol. And the community of workers is collaborating as Google hoped. Writing on the Official Google Blog, Cedric Dupont, Product Manager, and Michael McNally, Software Engineer commented:

We are happy to see that most authors choose to accept moderated edits from their audience and that the volume of suggested edits from readers is steadily growing. So if you find yourself reading a knol and want to suggest an improvement, go ahead and press that edit button! You will be able to make the desired changes directly in the knol, and the author(s) will be able to review and act upon your suggestions. We look forward to seeing this new mode of online collaboration used more widely.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 8:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

January 16, 2009

Google Apps Get an Added Layer of Security

Just a few days after the announcement of the Google Apps reseller program, comes news that an added layer of security has come to Google Apps. The new layer gives administrators the ability to set password length requirements and view indications of password strength.

Apparently, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards are already getting in on the action:

Administrators of Premier and Education Edition apps can find the new features in the administrative control panel under 'Advanced Tools' > 'Advanced Password Settings.'

Related Reading: Google Apps Adds Mail Migration Google Launching Paid Enterprise Edition of Apps

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 15, 2009

Google Website Optimizer Announces Website Workout Winners (Plus, Visualize Testing!)

Last June, Google Website Optimizer launched the Website Workout contest, where companies could submit their websites for analysis. Four winners were chosen and they are:

• Colonial Candle
• Extra Space Storage
• Outrigger Hotels & Resorts
• Team In Training

Google posted a video of Colonial Candle's experience in website testing and landing page optimization, which helped boost their sales by 20% (yes, even in this economy). I know when reading a blog, things like landing page testing can seem very cerebral if you've never done it before. So, check out this video to get a visual sense for what testing can do for your site:

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 14, 2009

Matt Cutts: Hate Review Sites With No Reviews? Tell Me About It

Google's spam guru Matt Cutts is asking for people to help his team address the issue of review site pages with no reviews.

In other words, have you ever been researching a product and included "review" in the search phrase - only to click on sites with no reviews? Annoying to say the least. (Especially on a mobile browser!)

Cutts says this is a major concern among his blog readers. So, his team has set up a way for you to help them find out about URLs with this problem. Per Cutts' blog:

1. Go to our authenticated spam report form. You'll need a Google account to sign into our webmaster console. This form is available in dozens of languages, not just English.
2. In the “Additional details” section, make sure you include the word “noresults” (all one word, all lowercase). Feel free to fill in the other fields with info if you want.
3. Provide an actual “no results found” or “empty review” example url.

Cutts rightfully points out that these sites/pages are not intended as spam per se, but, of course, they do affect the quality of search.

Related Reading Matt Cutts Video Interview on SESConferenceExpo's Channel If You Want To Know When Google Updates Toolbar PR Follow Matt Cutts on Twitter Matt Cutts Shares 5 SEO Tips with USA Today

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 8:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 13, 2009

Google to Announce Q4 2008 Results on January 22, 2009 (Same Day as Microsoft)

Google has announced that its earnings call for the fourth quarter of 2008 will occur on Thursday, January 22, 2009 at 1:30pm PST (4:30pm for East Coasters). The call can be accessed live at http://investor.google.com/webcast.html.

Guess who else is holding their earnings call that day? Microsoft. Their call will begin one hour later and can be accessed at http://www.microsoft.com/msft.

We've already seen indications that the fourth quarter was a rollercoaster for search advertising. This is likely to have much more of an effect on Google than Microsoft, who will benefit from strong Xbox 360 sales during the holidays and be affected by the larger software and enterprise offerings of their overall business.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 8:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

January 12, 2009

Google Unveils New Favicon

Google has a new Favicon, which it unveiled over the weekend. If you're not familiar with the term, a Favicon is a small image that appears in a browser bar or tab, next to the title tag and/or URL, depending on the browser you use.

Here's Google's new Favicon:

It's based on a submission by a computer science undergraduate student at the University of Campinas in Brazil named André Resende. Here's Resende's original design:

Here are some honorable mentions, which also incorporate the letter G and Google's famous use of primary colors:

by Hadi Onur Demirsoy

by Lucian E. Marin

by Yusuf Sevgen

Related Reading: Google Favicon Bookmarks the Best Internet Research

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 8:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

January 8, 2009

GiiNii's Movit Mini is like the iPod Touch for Android

Last week, we talked about the idea of putting Google's mobile operating system Android on a netbook. This week at the Consumers Electronic Show (CES), a device akin to the iPod Touch is also running Android.

The GiiNii Movit Mini is basically a small tablet running Android. It's Wifi-enabled, has a touch screen and of course, can play music. The screen is 4.3 inches with a resolution of 480 x 272. It only comes with 256mb of storage, but a microSD slot allows users to add memory cards.

Engadget got to play with the device at the trade show and when they asked about pricing, they got a very vague answer about the device costing less than an iPod Touch.

With less internal storage, lack of multi-touch and a not-so-sexy design, pricing it below the iPod Touch will be a necessity!

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 2, 2009

Google Android on a Netbook: How Soon Will We See It?

Thought Android was just for mobile phones? Think again! VentureBeat has taken an Asus Eee netbook and thrown Google Android on it as the operating system. It took them four hours to configure and they expect to see the first Android Netbooks in 2010. Keep in mind this is purely speculative and not at all official from Google.

Related Reading: Motorola Betting Big On Googles Android Motorola Betting Big On Googles Android G1 Officially Available Today, Should You Buy One? How Google is Integrating Search into Android and the G1

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

December 29, 2008

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly: Google 2008 Review

2008 has been an up and down year for Google. From their stock price to the various products they have introduced or updated - it would seem the bloom is finally off the rose.

All investors are aware that Google has had a 52 week swing of 707.95 to 247.30 this year and they are currently hovering around the $300 level. While this can be partially blamed on the general economic malaise of 2008, another part is the drop in growth rate of the company. Not surprising, given the large percentage of the market they already had going into the year and the decrease in overall advertising budgets.

All year long there have been claims that search advertising is recession proof. Well apparently, in the short term, this has not been the case, though given many bigger budgets are preset, it is possible we will see this swing in 2009.

The Yahoo-Google as partnership seems like another misstep by Google this year. What was once seen as a move to stop Microsoft from buying Yahoo, has left Yahoo in even worse financial straits following the dissolving of the agreement due to pressure from the Department of Justice.

I suggested another more sinister possibility, in my own blog, where Google knew what it was doing, but perhaps that was a mere conspiracy theory. But the demise of Ringside Networks despite involvement with Google is a sad story.

Google's entry into the browser space did not go the way of most previous Google product launches. After 4 months, Chrome has barely grabbed 1% of the market - despite its promise and definite unique properties. Meanwhile, Mozilla has managed to increase to over 20%, and gets the bulk of its income from Google.

Though Chrome could be the future for Google - because while a browser it also is a web application execution platform. If they stay with their commitment, Chrome may be the product that ultimately makes Google the true organizer of the world's information.

Meanwhile, they have also had some successes.

The search engine, itself, added a few features that are very handy and will only become more popular with time such as the information on when pages were created, improved the use of snippets, and indexing of Flash. Many also see the including of search suggest as a default as an improvement.

The jury is still out on some of the new products Google launched this year. SearchWiki - the ability to shape your search results - and Knol - the Google version of a wikipedia.

The introduction of the much hyped G-phone - G1 - has not yet been the iPhone killer it had been thought.

Google has been increasing its involvement with its users reaching out through a number of its publishing and social networking products - such as providing insights into converting traffic with Conversion Room, their commitment to Open Social and the Black Googlers Network.

They have even improved the quality of the videos over at YouTube and offered niched landing pages.

It has been a mixed bag this year for Google, but without a doubt the company continues to provide helpful products. What 2009 brings we will have to wait and see, but can know it will not be passive.

Posted by Frank Watson at 3:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

December 24, 2008

On the Go or at Home: Keep Tabs on Santa's Whereabouts

If your kids are like mine, it's been a bit difficult for them to sit still, focus on anything and have good behavior because of their extreme excitement about opening presents tomorrow. Need help keeping them occupied? Let them track Santa via the interwebs.

Google is the official partner of NORAD Santa, which reveals Mr. Claus's real time location on the all important Christmas Eve. If you have to go out for last minute shopping, you can even track Santa via Google Maps for Mobile.

Of course, because of time differences, Jolly Ol' St. Nick is already on his way. In fact, as of this post, he was getting stuck in chimneys in Southeast Asia! (Don't worry, he'll wrangle himself loose and make it to all the homes just in time.

Who knew Santa could be so geographically educational? Enjoy your holidays and don't forget to leave out the cookies and milk! (And carrots for the reindeer).

Related Reading: Who Stole Santa's Pants? Link Building Case Study: Santa Claus With New Dell Campaign, Santa's List Meets Web 2.0 Santa's Naughty or Nice Deliverability Lists

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

December 18, 2008

Google Website Optimizer Launches New Help Forum for Those Pesky Landing Page Testing Questions (and Answers!)

So you've heard about all of this landing page testing you're supposed to be doing and are delighted that Google offers a free testing tool - Website Optimizer. Still, you're not sure how to proceed, got stuck in your test setup or maybe don't know what the heck you're doing in the first place.

Have no fear, the new Google Website Optimizer help forum has arrived. Popular questions will be pushed to the forefront, based on votes by the users. Related questions will appear as you type in your question.

On the flip side, it's also a great venue for experts in landing page optimization to strut their stuff. Related Reading: Google Website Optimizer Integrated with Magento Open Source Ecommerce Platform Landing Pages: Test Now or Forever Hold Your Peace Website Optimizer Enables Pruning and Offline Validation

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

December 15, 2008

Google Friend Connect Adds Twitter

Google Friend Connect was made available (in beta) to all webmasters last week. But most of these types of social efforts that enable portability among sites/networks have been missing one very important network. Until now.

Twitter has joined Google Friend Connect. Now if you're using the technology to add social components to your website, Twitter users can sign in with their ID and check to see if any of their followers are also using your site.

Anyone using Google Friend Connect yet? Tell us about your experience in the comments - and if adding Twitter will be a boost to the experience.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 12:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Google, Lessig Defend Net Neutrality Positions (Mis) Stated in Wall Street Journal

The Wall Street Journal has caused quite a stir by publishing a story saying that leading proponents of net neutrality have been softening on their positions. Few blogs fell for the embellishment and Google and Lawrence Lessig have defended their not-so-shifty positions.

Google's Richard Whitt, Washington Telecom and Media Counsel, took to the company's public policy blog to clarify:

Despite the hyperbolic tone and confused claims in Monday's Journal story, I want to be perfectly clear about one thing: Google remains strongly committed to the principle of net neutrality, and we will continue to work with policymakers in the years ahead to keep the Internet free and open.

Lessig, a professor of internet law at Stanford and keynote speaker at last week's SES Chicago, explained how the Journal got his position correct, but the idea that his position new is wrong: I distinguish between "zero price regulations" (such as Markey's bill (which I say I am against)) and what I called "zero discriminatory surcharge rules" (which I say I am for). The zero discriminatory surcharge rules are just that -- rules against discriminatory surcharges -- charging Google something different from what a network charges iFilm. The regulation I call for is a "MFN" requirement -- that everyone has the right to the rates of the most favored nation.

This is precisely the position that the Journal breathlessly attributes to me today. It represents no change -- no "softening" no "shift" in my views.

When it comes to net neutrality, no matter what side of the issue you tend to take, one thing is for sure: journalists and PR people who misunderstand how the internet works are only adding to the confusion.

Google also seems to be learning little from its recent failure in Washington, which cost them a search advertising deal with Yahoo!. Unless they learn to be proactive instead of reactive, they're going to consistently lose to more experienced players. Then again, being against regulation for search advertising and for regulation regarding net neutrality is a delicate stance to balance.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

December 12, 2008

Google Releases Chrome Out of Beta

In early September, Google launched a new product: a web browser named Chrome. Like most of Google's products, it was released into beta, which basically means the product could be (and was) imperfect but they kinda sorta don't have to take credit for it.

But 14 updates and 10 million users later, Google Chrome gets to shine in all of its glory, without that pesky little beta tag holding it back.

With its new beta-less state comes the 15th update and here's what to expect, via the Official Google Blog:

• Better stability and performance of plug-ins (particularly video). Google improved the performance of video and audio and fixed a bunch of the bugs that existed during the beta period.
• Faster than ever Since the first beta, the V8 JavaScript engine runs 1.4 times faster on the SunSpider benchmark and 1.5 times faster on the V8 benchmark. Google says Chrome will get even faster in the future.
• Bookmark manager Better bookmark features were a top request Chrome users made to Google. It's now easier to switch your bookmarks in other browsers over to Chrome.
• Privacy controls Features related to privacy are grouped in one spot with detailed explanations.

Have you tried the beta-less Chrome? Let us know your impressions in the comments.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 8:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

December 11, 2008

Google Webmaster Tools Launches Message Center API

Google Webmaster Tools has launched a new Message Center API that is part of the Webmaster Tools GData API. Google uses the Message Center to relay important messages about a site to its webmaster.

Here's what Google says you can expect from the Message Center API:

• Retrieve messages: The messages feed contains all the messages sent to your account. These messages have important information about your verified sites. Examples of messages include infinite spaces warnings and crawl rate change notifications.
• Mark messages as read or unread: In order to keep track of new communications from Google, you can mark your messages as read or unread, the same way that you would manage your inbox. If you retrieve a single message, this message will be automatically marked as read.
• Delete mesages: It's possible to delete messages using the GData API. However, be careful because if you delete a message through the API it will also be deleted in your Webmaster Tools account, as both interfaces share the same data.

You can download code samples in Java to assist you in your API development.

Related Reading: Google Creates One Page for Webmaster Tools Settings Google Webmaster Tools Adds Hack Alert For CMS Programs Google Webmaster Central Updates Include API Settings and Crawl Error Sources

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 1:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

December 10, 2008

Skin Your iGoogle Page for a Good Cause

If you're looking for an iGoogle theme with a little more meaning, then look no further than iGoogle Themes for Causes. These new themes feature charitable partners representing a variety of causes to be passionate about.

One of the participating charities (and a favorite of yours truly) is Doctors Without Borders, one of the only charities assisting in the current crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo and helping Somalian refugees who arrived in Yemen this week. Here's what their theme looks like:

That "I'm Feeling Lucky" button sure does take on a whole new meaning when you are reminded of what millions of less fortunate people face every single day of their lives. These people would love to have the "problem" of cutting back on Christmas.

It's far too easy to forget the needs of people around the world and here at home. But these iGoogle Themes for Causes can help you keep charity constant in your life.

Other charities include: The One Campaign Charity:Water Heifer International American Red Cross Save the Children

Related Reading: Blogger Releases Two Updates Regarding iGoogle and Commenting iGoogle: O Pop, Where Art Thou? Jeff Koons, Wiggles, La Cicciolina Google's iGoogle Announcement

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 3:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

December 5, 2008

Google Creates One Page for Webmaster Tools Settings

Google has placed the Webmaster Tools settings on one page for your convenience. The settings that can be adjusted are:

1. Geographic Target 2. Preferred domain control 3. Opting in to enhanced image search 4. Crawl rate control

Some settings are time-bound, such as the crawl rate, which automatically sets back to default after 90 days. So, be sure to make note of those settings and revisit as warranted.

You'll also be prompted every time you make a change to Save or Cancel.

Have you checked out the new settings page? What are your thoughts?

Related Reading: Google Webmaster Tools Adds Hack Alert For CMS Programs Google Webmaster Central Updates Include API Settings and Crawl Error Sources Google Extends Webmaster Tools Access Program to Qualifying Hosting Providers

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Google Friend Connect Beta Available for All Webmasters

Google has made Friend Connect available to all webmasters in a beta form. Friend Connect lets sites add social networking to their site. But users can sign in with an established account from Google, Yahoo, AOL, or OpenID, instead of creating yet another account.

Here's a vid with more details

Google Friend Connect was announced in May and made available as a preview release.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

December 2, 2008

Google Buys Digital Historical Newspaper Archives from PaperofRecord.com

Google has completed the purchase of 20 million digitized historical newspaper pages from PaperofRecord.com. The two have had an agreement for two years and has now concluded in a sale that was voted on by shareholders of PaperofRecord's parent company, Cold North Wind, Inc.

This should be quite an asset to Google's historical newspaper initiative, announced in September.

PaperofRecord is based in Canada and was the first to digitize the entire history of the Toronto Star. In addition to digitizing newspapers in Canada, the United States, Mexico and Europe, PaperofRecord has digitized historical documents including he Diaries of William Lyon Mackenzie King, Canada's longest serving Prime Minister.

"It is a bittersweet day for PaperofRecord.com. We are very pleased to have our legacy and vision of a 500 year, global, multiple language newspaper historical archive being placed in the stewardship of Google. As a Canadian entrepreneur, it is disappointing to not be able to muster the resources in our country to bring such a digital resource to its fruition at home. However, without the help and vision of a company such as Google, this immense, global, educational resource would not be possible on the scale that is being contemplated," said R.J (Bob) Huggins, Founder and CEO of PaperofRecord.com.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

December 1, 2008

Google Website Optimizer Integrated with Magento Open Source Ecommerce Platform

Open source e-commerce platform Magento has released a new version of its software, and with it is a Google Website Optimizer integration.

All you have to do is cut and paste a URL into Magento's GWO tool and bam - you're ready to optimize that landing page.

Seriously, if you're not convinced you need to be testing - then stop everything and read these links:

Landing Page Optimization: Guessing vs. Testing Coherency in Landing Page Testing Landing Pages: Test Now or Forever Hold Your Peace Testing Applies to Widgets and Accessories, Not Just Landing Pages Testing Landing Pages Includes Testing Best Practices Assembling Your Landing Page Optimization Dream Team, Part 2

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 2:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

November 21, 2008

Google Launches Customizable Search Feature, SearchWiki

Google has released a new feature to its search results. It's called SearchWiki and it lets searchers, while signed into their Google account, customize their own results.

When you do a search, you can move results around. If a result is third, you can move it to first. (You SEOs are going to looooove that [detect my sarcasm]).

You can make notes about search results. If you return to the same results, you will find them the way you left them last time.

Your changes only affect YOUR searches. Check out this vid for more:

Related Reading: Custom Search Business Edition Always Rank No. 1 in Google: Custom Search Google Search Appliance adds new features to customize enterprise search

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

November 20, 2008

Google Pulls the Plug on Lively

Over the summer, Google launched a Second Life-esque 3D chat product called Lively. It seems Lively is not exactly living up to its name. Google is killing Lively at the end of the year.

While Lively is certainly not the first Google product to head to the chopping block, its shelf life did seem a bit short. Still, Google says it needs to focus on its flagship areas of search, ads, and apps.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

November 18, 2008

Google Adding Ads Across Its Web Properties

Last week, Google introduced Sponsored Videos to YouTube and also recently started testing ads on Image Search. Today, text ads come to Google Finance and soon, Google News will be getting some ad testing.

The ad testing on Google News will be a bit different. The ads will appear on the results for "search refinements." Google gave the example of conducting a search on the "regular" Google for an iPod. Clicking on the news search link from the results would be a refinement. That's where you would see the ads, should you be graced with the testing.

What do you think of the expansion of ads to other Google Properties? Let us know in the comments.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

November 14, 2008

Google Adds Voice Search to iPhone Search Application

Google is updating its iPhone search application with a new voice search feature, according to the New York Times. The update is expected to be available in the iTunes app store sometime today.

Users will be able to speak their questions into the phone. The speech is recorded and sent to Google servers which will try to understand the recording and find the answer via Google's search engine.

One of the cool parts of the app is that it will use the iPhone accelerometer to know when a user has raised the phone to their ear. For the iPhone-less, the accelerometer senses motion. There's a bunch of games that use this feature for their apps. So if you ever see an iPhone user making weird motions, that's why.

The update wasn't yet available in my iTunes, but I'm looking forward to checking it out when it is.

Oh, I should mention that Google isn't the first to bring voice search to mobile. Microsoft and Yahoo already have brought voice search to some devices. But a search in the iTunes store didn't reveal anything else that was a solid voice search app (not that Apple's iTunes search is the best).

Related Reading: Google Updates Search Results for iPhone Google's My Location Now with WiFi Google Prepares iPhone Ad Options

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

November 13, 2008

Google CEO to Speak About the Future of Tech in DC Next Week

Eric Schmidt may have turned down the job of Obama's CTO, but he's still part of the President-elect's transition team. And during this transition time, the Google CEO will give a speech about the future of technology and economic growth.

The speech will take place in DC, next Tuesday, November 18, 2008 from 1:00 - 2:30pm EST. The event is hosted by the New America Foundation and will occur at the Ronald Reagan Building Ampitheater at 1300 Pennsylvania Ave NW. Be sure to RSVP if you wish to attend.

Can't attend? There will be a live webcast. Click on the RSVP link above to watch. You'll need Flash 9.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

November 11, 2008

Google Ad Planner Now Available to Everyone

Earlier this year, Google launched a media measurement tool called Ad Planner, designed to assist media buyers in their purchasing decisions. The tool was available in limited release by invitation/application only.

Now, the tool is available to anyone with a Google account. There are also some new features for Ad Planner.

Define your audience by keywords and geography - You can use search terms and location to help determine your target audience

Site results management - Choose among three new ranking methods to display results from the sites you're considering running your campaigns on. Select from niche sites, larger sites, or a balance of the two.

Interactive bubble chart - this feature helps offers a visual that helps you compare demographics, frequency, traffic, and unique visitors.

International demographic data - Check out audience data from France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the UK.

Related Reading: Does Google Analytics Share Data with Google Trends and Ad Planner?

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 8:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

November 10, 2008

Google CEO Schmidt Will Not Be Obama's CTO

President-elect Barack Obama ran on a technology platform that included creating a new cabinet-level position of Chief Technology Officer (CTO). Many names have been thrown around as possibilities with the most prevalent of them all being Google CEO Eric Schmidt.

But Schmidt says that's not going to happen. He's happy at Google and he has no plans to go anywhere. He does intend to remain an advisor to Obama.

This is good news since Google likely needs Schmidt to stay put right now. Search advertisers, like many other companies, are bracing to see just how big of a hit they'll take during the tough economy.

Related Reading: Google CEO Calls Internet "Cesspool" Google CEO Affirms Stance on Independent Yahoo Google's Schmidt Talks Yahoo, Newspapers, 'Don't Be Evil', and iPhone

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

November 7, 2008

Google Search Quality Team Talks Field Studies

Over at the Official Google blog, Dan Russell of the Search Quality team, has written a lengthy post on field studying search behavior. One of the things Russell discovered is that there is often a disparity between what people say they're searching for and what they actually do search for.

There's also a disparity between what they searched for and what they remember searching for later on.

Another area Russell dives into is eye tracking. Here's a video showing the eye tracking of 3 different people searching for "school backpack."

Last but not least, Russell explained the discovery that the "Advanced Search" page was really turning searchers off. They often were so overwhelmed or uninspired by the options, that they left the advanced options blank. They used that information to re-design the Advanced Search page.

All in all it was a nice little insight into how Google doesn't just use tech testing such as Website Optimizer or Analytics to create a better experience for their users, but watching actual human behavior in person is extremely useful as well.

Related Reading: Google Shares Three Ranking Philosophies Google On User Intent in Search Queries What Search Quality Means to Search Engine Google Google Discusses Search Evaluation Process

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 1:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Microsoft Goes after the Verizon Default Search Deal

Microsoft is attempting to pull the rug out from under Google's talks with Verizon to be the default search engine on its mobile phones. And they're doing so by dishing out the dough.

It's no secret that Microsoft has a bunch of cash on hand. They've been using some of it to create incentive programs like Cashback and SearchPerks to essentially pay people to search.

Now, it looks like they're willing to shell out some green by offering Verizon a larger piece of the revenue-sharing pie than Google has thus far offered.

Could this be why Google was unwilling to spend moolah on a costly court battle defending its now-defunct search advertising deal with Yahoo? Both Google and Yahoo said they could have won the suit, but Google declined to pursue it.

Could this be why Steve Ballmer is saying he's not interested in acquiring Yahoo anymore (depsite the blue light special)?

Mobile is hot and it's only going to get hotter. Becoming the default search engine on the largest mobile carrier in the U.S. (Verizon recently won approval for their acquisition of Alltel) is prime real estate indeed.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 12:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Google Help Forums Being Converted to New System

Google is converting their Help Forums to a new system. The new features include:

• improved search results, including posts from current and new forums
• the ability to designate especially helpful forum members as "Top Contributors"
• a reputation and ranking system
• the ability for users, Top Contributors and Googlers to mark questions as answered
• easier access to Help Center content
• expanded user profiles that highlight your forum activity

Forums that have already been converted include:

• AdWords
• AdSense
• Android Market
• Google Apps
• Google Chrome
• Most of the Polish products

For a more detailed look, check out this vid:

Related Reading: Google Groups Becoming a Gold Mine for SEO Information AdSense Adds Help in Hebrew

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

November 5, 2008

Over Before It Started: Google and Yahoo Search Ad Deal Canceled

Google is ending its search advertising partnership with Yahoo. It was never even implemented. Concerns over antitrust issues rose fast and furious since Google + Yahoo = an enormous chunk of the search ad market.

Groups of advertisers spurred on by Microsoft lobbied the Department of Justice to oppose the deal. But they might have just facilitated the search market going from 5 major engines to 4, providing less competition.

Yahoo is in dire straits and desperately needed this influx of cash. It's looking more and more likely that their stock could drop (fairly or unfairly) to single digits, at which point Microsoft could get a great deal on a company they once offered $31 a share for.

Take that number 4 and reduce it to 3 if a Yahoo-AOL merger occurs before the (inevitable?) acquisition.

Both Google and Yahoo are saying that the cancellation of the deal won't affect their commitment to search innovation.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

November 4, 2008

Google and Yahoo Revise Ad Partnership in Hopes of Winning Over DOJ

Google and Yahoo have revised their search advertising partnership in the hopes of winning over the DOJ. Primarily, the deal has been reduced from 10 to 2 years and a cap has been placed that would restrict Yahoo to only being able to bring into 25% of their search advertising revenue from the deal with Google.

It's unlikely that shortening the deal will qualm the fears of advertisers. Robert Liodice, president of the Association of National Advertisers, which opposes the deal, told the New York Times, “If a deal can't survive long-term scrutiny, what's the benefit of allowing it for the short term?”

Still, keeping Yahoo alive as the second place competitor in the search market is ultimately good for advertisers. As Mike Masnick over at TechDirt wrote, "We're still waiting for a clear explanation of how this deal will actually negatively impact consumers, but some people still insist it will. For those who believe so, let's ask a simple question: how is this any worse than Yahoo disappearing from the marketplace? Because if the company doesn't do something soon that may be what we're looking at."

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

November 2, 2008

Does Google Want To Take Over GMT?

I just noticed when checking my Gmail late Saturday/early Sunday that Google did not move the clock back in New York when it turned 2 am. My computer clock moved, my cable clock changed, but I guess Google works from Mountainview time, not GMT.

Surprising, but hey we know the center of the universe is based at Google HQ - the rest of the world just needs to change I guess.

Posted by Frank Watson at 3:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 31, 2008

Google Integrates Custom Search with Knol

In July, Google launched Knol, a knowledge sharing platform. You can find all sorts of information from baking to AutoCAD.

Google says users have been asking for a more "robust" search platform for Knol. And who is Google to turn down such a request.

However, Google wanted to maintain the look and feel of Knol. So they used Custom Search to keep it feeling very Knol-y and not so regular Google-y.

What do you think of the Custom Search in Knol? Leave your thoughts in the comments.

Related Reading: Google SERP Bias? Google Knols Best

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 2:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Election Tools from Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, and AOL

I'm sure I don't have to remind you that election day is next Tuesday. Whether you're observing or you're breaking out the campaign gear for some hardcore get out the vote effors this weekend, here are some tools to help you keep up with the news and your efforts:

Google Earth

You can download a KML file that lets you search results from past elections, since 1980. The data is broken down and can show you how different regions of the country voted - even by county. I used to work as a political consultant, and let me tell you - this kind of data is heavily relied on. It's a bit of a late release for campaigns, who already have this data. But it's great for political junkies.

Google News

Trying to remember what a candidate said on an issue? Just type their name into Google News. If Google has indexed a quote by that person, it will appear on top of the search results in the one box.

Google Mobile

Want to know your precinct location? The Google Mobile team has created a special tool just for that purpose. Go to m.google.com/elections on your mobile phone, type in your address and you'll be directed to your precinct.

The tool did not point me to early voting locations, which in my state are not the same as Election Day precinct locations.

As cool as that is, always verify with your local elections office. Google even helps you do that. They have a box where you enter your state's abbreviation, and it will pull up relevant links to voting information.

Yahoo Elections Hub and Political Dashboard

Yahoo makes the most of its successful portal platforms with its Elections Hub and Political Dashboard. The dashboard is a super slick map showing the latest poll results. Hopefully they update it with real time results on election night. I can totally see myself keeping the dashboard open while watching results come in on the tv.

Microsoft Live Search xRank

xRank, Live Search's buzz tool, has a politician section. It's no surprise that the Rep and Dem presidential and vice presidential candidates take the top 4 spots today. The rest of the top 20 is filled with senate and gubernatorial races, with Hillary Clinton and George Bush thrown in for good measure.

MSN Election Live Q&A

Q&A is Live Search's answer product, and over at the MSN Election Guide, you can find the Election Live Q&A. It's pretty straightforward. You can ask and answer questions about the election in real time.

AOL Elections Toolbar

AOL has a toolbar for IE and Firefox that can keep you up to date with election news. If you like to surf the net while watching TV - this could be an ideal toolbar for you come Tuesday night.

Well, hopefully that's enough to keep you busy and up to date.

Got any tools to share? Leave your suggestions in the comments.

Related Reading: Obama is Winning the Internet War ChaCha Selected by Rock the Vote for Mobile Answers

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 29, 2008

Rep. Barton Suspicious of Google/Yahoo Deal

It turns out that the concern over the Google/Yahoo search advertising partnership is bipartisan. Earlier this month, Senator Herb Kohl (D-Wisc) urged caution in a letter to Assistant Attorney General Thomas Barnett.

Now, Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) has written a letter to Barnett expressing his concern. Barton's beef is with what he feels is Yahoo's inadequate response to questions regarding the deal.

Barton represents a district that includes Fort Worth as well as suburbs of Dallas. The area is home to many search advertisers. It's no surprise that Barton is raising concern on their behalf.

Google and Yahoo have tried to assure both the DOJ and advertisers that prices will not go up as a result of the deal, but fears remain. Both companies have said that advertisers set the pricing through the bidding process, but when you're thinking about bidding for a term on the top 2 search engines, it's understandable to think that prices will go up - even if Google and Yahoo do not set them higher. What remains is uncertainty, which is not exactly comforting in a volatile economy.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 8:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Motorola Betting Big On Googles Android

Despite cutting 10,000 jobs, Motorola is betting big on Google's telephone technology Android, dropping all but three of their phone operating systems, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Though Android has had security problems, Motorola's chief of the handset division Dr. Sanjay Jha is a big proponent of the operating system and is using it "for mid-tier (very high volume) phones," according to the New York Times

"Jha is planning large scale job cuts at Motorola's handset business, and is also overhauling the manufacturing and supply chain operations of the beleaguered handset maker," the New York Times stated.

Sprint and Verizon are not early adopters of the Android system - Sprint CEO Dan Hesse even went so far as to say it was not "good enough to put the Sprint brand on it," the Alley Insider reported.

But given sales of the new system sold over $1.5 million in the first few days, and that WalMart will be offering the device, seems Android may be battling IPhone in the near future.

Posted by Frank Watson at 5:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

October 27, 2008

Android Week 1: Sprint's Not on Board (Yet) and a Security Flaw Discovered

The first phone with Google's new mobile platform Android was released last week on Tmobile. Unlike the iPhone, Android will be seen on more devices and more carriers in months and years to come.

But Sprint CEO Dan Hesse says Android isn't quite ready to carry the Sprint name on a device - not yet anyway. He says that Sprint will carry an Android phone in the future, but the platform needs work.

It might be tempting to suggest that the struggling Sprint should hop on board. After all, Tmobile's G1 pre-sold $1.5 million devices. But Sprint is smart to wait on a ready-for-prime-time device. It needs to sell solid products that garner their own word of mouth instead of simply hopping on a hype wagon.

One of the reasons Android might not be ready is because of a newly discovered security flaw. The flaw was found by former National Security Agency computer security specialist Charles Miller.

Miller has reported the flaw to Google, which says it is working with HTC and Tmobile to issue a fix to G1 customers.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 8:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 22, 2008

G1 Officially Available Today, Should You Buy One?

The G1, a new mobile device from HTC available and featuring Google's brand spankin' new mobile platform Android, is now officially available at T-mobile.

But should you ditch your Blackberry, Palm, iPhone, etc to get one?

The G1 has a touch screen, similar to the iPhone, but it doesn't have multitouch. It has a mobile application version of the Amazon mp3 store, which I love and use all the time for DRM-free music.

Unfortunately, you'll need an adapter for that headphone jack to listen to all that music. Plus, you'll have to purchase a memory card to store your music, and you can only do so up to 8GB.

The G1 does have a slider keypad, which I would love. I've had my iPhone for months, but typing on it is still a pain. Prior to that, I had the Samsung Glyde for a couple of weeks and loved the slider keypad. (It was just everything else that was a pain.)

So, should you or shouldn't you? Here's what the reviewers who have are saying:

Gizmodo

The G1 phone and the Android operating system are not finished products. There are only three working Google Apps here—Gmail, Maps and Calendar—while Google Docs, Google News, Google Reader, Google Shopping, Google Images, Google Video, Blogger and Picasa are nowhere to be found. What's the deal?

We have high hopes for third-party coders to fill in gaps Google intentionally or unintentionally left in this OS. There's already a video player, and we're sure VLC will try and port some kind of version over. But your question is not whether the phone will be great down the line, it's whether or not it's good enough for you to buy it now.

The answer depends most on who you are. Despite all the UI quirks and bad design decisions, it's still better than other smartphone OSes out there. It's not perfect, but for people who like tinkering, its cons are outweighed by its pros such as Gmail and the Marketplace. Hopefully Android updates and more ports of Google apps will augment not just future phones but this one too. This isn't something you're going to give your mom for Christmas, but if you're an adventuresome gadget guy with some money to spend ($179) on a totally new, pretty exciting venture, then why not?

CrunchGear

If you've been waiting for Android then I suggest you keep waiting. The overall OS seems to be held together by duct tape and needs a lot of work. Apple focuses on the minute details to enrich the overall experience for iPhone users and Android could learn a lesson or ten from it. The hardware design is dated and while the touch-screen and keyboard are great you can't just forget about the wretched battery life, horrible GPS and the overall ergonomics of it. I wish the G1 were better in every respect because I don't think the iPhone is that great, but I find myself wishing it were more like it. It's the best alternative to the iPhone, but it's just not there yet.

CNET

While we're not in love with the design and would have liked some additional features, the real beauty of the T-Mobile G1 is the Google Android platform, as it has the potential to make smartphones more personal and powerful. That said, it's not quite there yet, so for now, the G1 is best suited for early adopters and gadget hounds, rather than consumers and business users.

Engadget

When you put the G1 up against, say, a Sidekick LX, it seems like a no-brainer for T-Mobile customers looking for a powerful QWERTY device -- especially at $20 less. You don't need to be a cutting-edge mobile geek or a pundit to do that math. When facing off with platforms like the iPhone and Windows Mobile devices, it holds its own, but has a lot of ground to cover before it's really making the competition sweat. Still, if you're just excited to be a part of a platform that's likely going to be around for a very, very long time, the G1's a totally reasonable day-to-day device to make it happen, and we expect some pretty great things from this corner of the market down the road.

Walt Mossberg at All Things Digital

Overall, the G1 is a very good first effort, and a godsend for people who prefer physical keyboards or T-Mobile but want to be part of the new world of powerful pocket computers.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Google's My Location Now with WiFi

Google's My Location technology is cool. When I'm using my iPhone, I just hit a button and it gets a pretty close assessment of where I am, using cell triangulation (yes, I still have a first gen iPhone).

Now, Google is outfitting My Location with the ability to use WiFi access points in determining location. The feature is also included on the Gears Geolocation API.

Blackberry users can download the newest version of Maps for Mobile to access this feature. Other mobile devices will get the feature soon.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

SEW Experts: Vote Obama/Google in '08?

Google CEO Eric Schmidt hit the campaign trail this week with presidential candidate Barack Obama. Is there any merit to Google's statement that Mr. Schmidt's personal beliefs are his own and Google isn't backing Obama, just its CEO? In today's Searching for Meaning column, "Vote Obama/Google in '08?," Kevin Ryan asks if Schmidt crossed the line of appropriate behavior and good sense.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 17, 2008

A Bunch of Cute Little Updates to Google Properties (and the Algorithm)

Today, there are more updates to Google products than you can shake a stick at. So intead of writing a bunch of short, little posts, I have consolidated them into one for you, faithful SEW reader.

Both my awesome husband and my awesome 11 year old son have pointed out to me the new changes to iGoogle. I personally don't use my iGoogle page all that much (Keepin' it real [simple]), but I did browse over to it and found some cosmetic changes (The Foo Fighters theme was already there.)

Notice the tab on the left hand side. It includes links to the widgets on your iGoogle page. When you click on one of the links, it switches to a screen with that widget. Some take up the whole page. Others present a list of similar widgets as suggestions. Still others make use of Google reader to present a feed.

Moving on to other Google properties....

Webmaster Tools now testing a Message Center warning that alerts webmasters to possible vulnerabilities with their Content Management Systems (CMS).

Google TV ads has announced new partnerships with COREMedia Systems and Harris Corporation. The COREMedia partnership allows CoreDirect customers to view their Google TV ads right along with their CoreDirect data. The Harris Corp. one adds more inventory for Google TV advertisers.

AdWords has separated the metrics for Google and search partners such as Ask, AOL, etc. This is probably in preparation for the implementation of the Yahoo search advertising partnership.

Last but most important is the changes to the Google algorithm regarding Adobe Flash. Brian Ussery has a writeup about it on his extremely minimalistic-looking blog. Basically, he finds that indexing of Flash still isn't ready for prime time. I know there may have been some hope with recent news of Adobe working with Google to provide better indexing, but we're just not there yet, folks.

And that concludes the flurry of Google updates for Friday, October 17, 2008. Leave your thoughts, impressions, etc in the comments!

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 8:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 16, 2008

Google Releases Display Ad Builder

Following in MySpace's footsteps, Google's AdWords has released a display advertising builder. Now, you can create your own ad right in AdWords without hiring a designer (Sorry, designers!).

While advertising art may suffer (you did used to hire that designer for a reason, didn't you?), many people are looking for ways to cut costs during this economic crisis. So these new display ad builders are one way to do that.

Of course, you'll want to test those ads. If those professional ads done by the aforementioned designer have higher conversions, then outsourcing still may be the way to go!

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

October 14, 2008

Google, Yahoo Trying to Work It Out with the DOJ

Google and Yahoo are attempting to avoid an antitrust lawsuit by working with Department of Justice on their search advertising partnership, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Details are vague, but the search engines are willing to put extra measures in place per negotiations with the DOJ in order to get the deal to go through.

Google and Yahoo have already delayed the implementation of the advertising deal, after going on offense in August and September about going through with the deal in October no matter what.

Related Reading: Senator Kohl Wants Oversight of Google-Yahoo Deal Yahoo Also Launches Site Defending Search Ad Deal with Google Yahoo's Sue Decker Weighs In on the Defense of the Search Ad Deal with Google Google Launches Facts Site About Yahoo Search Ad Partnership To Fear or Not to Fear: That is the Question (About the Google-Yahoo Ad Deal)

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 12:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 13, 2008

Google Prepares iPhone Ad Options

Google is preparing for the launch of their iPhone ad options, according to AdWeek. Several ad agencies have been given previews of the new option by the search giant.

The ads will be optimized for browsing on the iPhone, which enables direct Internet browsing instead of browsing via the mobile web. They will include an option for click-to-call. The iPhone already has a feature allowing users to click on any text phone number and it will dial it automatically.

Expect the new iPhone ads to be made available soon. AOL's Platform-A already offers iPhone ad solutions. So has Admob.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 9, 2008

Google Stock Downgraded to Hold; Local.com Authorizes Stock Repurchase Program

Soleil Securities has downgraded Google stock (GOOG) from "buy" to "hold." Their reasoning is that ad-driven companies will see a slowdown to the weak economy and that Google is already experiencing a slowdown in growth of their ad revenues. Soleil analyst Laura Martin downgraded the price target for GOOG from $580 to $350. GOOG was at $334 at the time of this post.

Google will hold its 2008 third quarter earnings call and webcast next week.

Meanwhile, Local.com has announced a stock repurchase program. The program will last 18 months and the company may buy up to $2 million of outstanding common stock.

“The board of directors has confidence in our company,” said Heath Clarke, Local.com chairman and chief executive officer. “Local.com is a leader in the rapidly growing local search market with both patented and patent-pending technologies. We are gaining significant market share, increasing our organic traffic, growing our direct advertiser base and, as a result, projecting continued high growth.”

LOCM was at 1.89 at the time of this post. Its high is 2.36 and its low is 1.78.

Both GOOG and LOCM trade on the Nasdaq which was up 4.40 points at the time of this post.

Related Reading: Local.com Partners with Hearst's White Directory Publishers Local.com Launches Ratings and Reviews Engine Google Earnings Top $5.37 Billion in Revenue Q2 2008

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

October 6, 2008

Google to Hold 2008 Q3 Earnings Call Next Thursday

Q3 earnings season is on its way and along with it are announcements about earnings calls and webcasts. Google will hold its call next Thursday, October 16, 2008 at 1:30 p.m. Pacific Time.

You can access the live webcast here.

Of course, with the economy in the state it is, investors and marketers alike will be watching earnings calls very closely for any indication of where things might be headed.

Q2 earnings disappointed the easily-disappointed Wall Street despite gains quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year.

What do you expect from Google's third quarter? Give your predictions in the comments.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 2, 2008

How Google is Integrating Search into Android and the G1

Recently, Google and T-mobile teamed up to unveil the new G1, the first Android-powered phone to be made commercially available. There was a lot of hype about the device and how it compared to the iPhone, but how does Google's baby, search, fit into the mix?

Marc Vanlerberghe, Google's Product Marketing Director, took to the Official Google Mobile blog to address that very issue.

It turns out search pops up in a bunch of places on Android, as you might expect.

The search feature on Maps sounds pretty cool. Just start typing, and the search interface pops up.

Other applications have your typical search button, and then there's a good ol' fashioned search widget on the home screen.

Query suggestions will be seen throughout, some using Google Suggest and some using query histories.

Google put together a video to show more of how search will work on Android. Check it out:

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 26, 2008

Google's "In Quotes" Search Helps the Spin Go Round and Round

Just in time for the debates (whenever they happen), Google has released a political search engine called "In Quotes." The search engine helps people find what John McCain or Barack Obama have said about a variety of issues. (For elections in Canada, India, or the UK, see the drop-down menu in the top right hand corner.)

Sad but true, elections are often won and lost on one-liners, whether they be gaffes or zingers. Now, "In Quotes" will help passionate politicos perpetuate the sound bites fast and furious.

Interestingly enough, the "quotes" that appear on the front page are already soundbites culled by reporters. It would be a little more helpful if the search results provided excerpts from speeches posted on the candidates' websites so that people could (finally) start investigating the context of what was said.

Related Reading: John McCain Outspending Barack Obama in Search Engine Advertising Obama v. McCain in Online Display Ads, Video Views, and Searches Is John McCain or Barack Obama Winning the YouTube Vote? Can Google Predict the Next President?

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Google Launches Facts Site About Yahoo Search Ad Partnership

In Google's quest to make sure its search advertising deal with Yahoo goes through, it has added yet another defense to its arsenal: a new facts site. If it sounds political, that's because it is. The Department of Justice opened an official investigation into the deal months ago. It turns out that when the largest search engine teams up with the second largest search engine to combine advertising, it raises antitrust issues!

On the homepage, Google doesn't waste any time getting to the three major talking points it touts in support of the deal:

• This is a non-exclusive deal that will strengthen Yahoo!.
• Ad prices will continue to be set by competitive auction.
• The deal is win-win for consumers, advertisers and publishers: more and better ads.

On the right hand side is a link to an in-the-tank New York Times article that drinks extremely potent Kool-aid by practically copying and pasting a previous Google blog post supporting the deal.

Underneath that are quotes from rather large advertisers who also support the deal.

But those who have the most to lose from the deal are small businesses and web entrepreneurs who, rightly or wrongly, have built their success on Google. They fear a sharp increase in prices once the deal goes through.

Google assures that hardly anything will change, save for Adsense ads showing up on Yahoo. They also point to their relationship with Ask.com as proof that the marketplace will remain competitive.

But Ask, despite its slight growth, is not Yahoo. And when it comes to politicking, people have been burned far too often by broken promises. Plus, websites have also been burned by changing algorithms and vague policies.

Right now, in the midst of a significant economic prices, people are looking for stability. And they're not finding it in huge companies with enormous, quick growth. The housing market is certainly different from the search market, but with sensitive emotions running high, Google just seems insensitive right now, another characteristic of companies "too big to fail."

I don't know what they hope is the outcome of this site. Do they hope for a groundswell of support and grassroots letter writing campaigns on their behalf? I just don't see that happening.

Google needs to continue its lobbying and legal advocacy with the Department of Justice. But unless Google wants to suddenly become more transparent on their algorithms and site penalties, then they should just leave the little guy alone in this effort.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 8:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 25, 2008

Google Site Search Integrated with Adobe Community Help

Adobe released Creative Suite 4 this week and included with the update is a Google Site Search-powered help feature. Google Site Search is used with the new Adobe Community Help, which harnesses the power of social media and online communities to provide another source of support.

Adobe Senior Product Manager John Nack, writing on the Official Google blog, said, "We've plugged the whole community brain trust right into the Suite and used the power of Google Site Search to do it. Creative Suite 4 customers can find fast, relevant information from our online communities, without ever having to leave their desktop work environments, making design faster and more fun. And because we've built the Adobe Flash Platform into the whole Suite, other developers can take these concepts even farther. This is just the start of great online integration to come."

Indeed, recently Adobe provided Flash technology to Google in order to assist with indexing of text within Flash.

Related Reading: Google Partners With Adobe For Toolbar Distribution In Shockwave, Other Product To Be Named Google Rebrands, Enhances Google Site Search

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 23, 2008

T-Mobile Officially Unveils First Google Android Phone

After months of speculation, the long-awaited announcement of the first Google Android-powered mobile device has officially been announced. Today, in New York City, T-mobile unveiled the G1, an HTC device with a touch screen and a slide-out QWERTY keypad.

This definitely has the potential to be an Apple iPhone competitor. There have been previous attempts at competing with the iPhone, but that was primarily by going after the touch screen technology only. But the real competition with the iPhone lies in the user interface and applications. Only the geekiest of geeks are likely to notice the advantages that the cult of Mac are going to tout in claiming the iPhone as superior.

But that might not last long. The word of the day at the G1 launch is OPEN. While Apple allows third parties to develop for the iPhone, there's a relatively strict application and approval process. Not so with the Android.

Additionally, the music player on the G1 plays mp3s that can be purchased from Amazon. If done right (and if opened up to other vendors such as Napster and eMusic), this could seriously take a chunk out of Apple's iTunes and iPod/iPhone profits.

Android will also be available on additional advices in the future. And did I mention that T-mobile/Google/HTC is smart to add a QWERTY keypad in addition to the touch-screen technology?

What does this mean to you, dear Search Engine Marketers and Website Owners? It means that you have to start paying attention to the mobile internet.

You'll need mobile versions of your websites. And I don't mean with .mobi extensions (sorry, .mobi domain owners!). No, you'll need the ability to know what device your visitors are browsing from - whether it's an iPhone, G1 or other device - and be able to send them to a mobile-friendly site accordingly.

The mobile site will need also to compatible with the mobile browsers. G1 will be using a browser built on Webkit, something Chrome uses too. Developing mobile applications that reside on the phone itself will become a marketing tool all on its own.

Of course, search is also a highly important factor. Mobile advertising is largely in its infancy. Until mobile search ads are widely implemented, organic results reign supreme.

GPS and cellular triangulation make local search all that more important. As an iPhone owner, I have access to several apps that are solely based on finding what I need locally. There are also user reviews and ratings.

Which leads us to social networking, which in turn reminds us that the internet has made life global as well.

Mobile will advance all of these initiatives. iPhone got the ball rolling. But G1 may just take it to the next level, if for no other reason but reaching those, who, for whatever reason (phone contract, pricing, touch-screen only, etc) are not on board with the iPhone.

Are you ready?

Related Reading: AOL's Platform-A Launches iPhone Advertising Solution AdMob Launches New iPhone Ad Solutions, Offers Free Advertising to iPhone Developers Has Mobile Local Search Finally Arrived? AT&T iPhone Google Deal Pits Apple Against Blackberry

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

September 20, 2008

Has YouTube Passed Yahoo in expanded searches?

Back on July 20, 2008, I asked: "Is YouTube about to pass Yahoo in expanded searches?" Well, I've just had a chance to digest the latest data from comScore for August 2008 and its appears that YouTube has passed Yahoo -- if you look at "expanded" search queries instead of "core" search queries.

First, what's the difference between an expanded and a core search query? According to comScore, a "core" search query is one that occurs on "the five major search engines including partner searches and cross-channel searches. Searches for mapping, local directory, and user-generated video sites that are not on the core domain of the five search engines are not included in the core search numbers."

If you expand the definition of a search query to include searches on YouTube, MapQuest, MySpace eBay, Craigslist.org, Facebook.com, or Amazon, then you get a different picture.

Google had 7.4 billion core search queries and 7.6 billion expanded search queries in August to lead no matter how you define a "search query." Yahoo! had 2.3 billion core search queries and 2.4 billion expanded search queries that month. But "YouTube/All other" Google sites had 2.6 billion expanded search queries that month. Microsoft sites had 977 million core search queries and MSN-Windows Live had 988 million expanded search queries.

So, depending on your definition, the top three search engines are either (1) Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft, or (2) Google, YouTube, and Yahoo! That is a distinction with a big difference.

By the way, comScore Video Metrix reports that YouTube accounts for more than 98 percent of all videos viewed at Google sites. (This means Google Video accounts for less than 2 percent of all vides viewed at Google sites.)

So, if you've optimized the pages on your website that contain videos, you've optimized them for Google Video and other video search engines. They won't help them get discovered, watched or shared on YouTube.

YouTube doesn't crawl the web trying to index videos posted on millions of websites. Instead, users are now uploading 13 hours of new video to YouTube every minute. So, getting your video found in about 2.6 billion expanded searches a month means uploading and optimizing video for YouTube, not Google Video.

Posted by Greg Jarboe at 2:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

September 17, 2008

Google Goes on the Defensive About Yahoo Ad Deal Cost Projections

Google is none-too-thrilled about a SearchIgnite study suggesting that search advertising prices would increase by 22%. Now they're fighting back by saying the study was misleading. Here are their main points:

• Ad prices are not set by Yahoo! or Google, but by advertisers themselves
• Yahoo! won't be able to see the current auction prices for Google ads, just as Google won't be able to see Yahoo's prices
• The report mistakenly assumes that Yahoo! will serve Google ads for as many of its search queries as possible. This contradicts Yahoo's own statements that their plan is to serve Google ads on search results pages where they have few relevant ads to serve.
• The report includes a misplaced focus on cost per click (CPCs) rather than the more important measure for advertisers -- return on investment of their advertising dollar.
• the study fails to take into account that fact that Yahoo! shows significantly more ads per page than Google

I'm sure the analysts will be split on whether they agree with Google or not.

But one thing Google is getting wrong is the timing. This week's fast collapse of companies in the financial market and the mortgage problems that have plagued the U.S. for a year now are only reminders of the great risks associated with companies becoming TOO BIG.

Of course, forging an ad deal with Yahoo is not the same as taking on irresponsible loans, but consumers, Wall Street, and the feds are undoubtedly wary of big promises made by big corporations. And Google has become just that in a short 10 year time frame.

Even without the current mess, antitrust concerns abound. And while Google may have permeated our culture, for some the side effects of such power have been extremely costly.

In a week after a devastating hurricane and financials falling left and right, Google is not exactly demonstrating sensitivity to the current consumer and regulatory climate by supporting their desire to expand their overwhelming majority market share even further.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Google Releases Audio Indexing into Google Labs

In July, Google launched an iGoogle gadget that enables video speech search for select election videos. The technology searches transcribed speech snippets from the videos.

Now, Google has released this technology into Google Labs. So far, you can still only search the few transcribed snippets from election-related videos.

Now, you can "search within a video" and share videos with pals.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 8:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SEW Experts: Launch Google Freedom Now

How much power should Google have? How much is too much? Why should you care? In today's Searching for Meaning column, "Launch Google Freedom Now," Kevin Ryan asks if we would really be better off in a Google-free world.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 16, 2008

Google Discusses Search Evaluation Process

Google had been doing a series of posts about search quality. Today, the latest post in the series discusses how evaluation enters into the the process.

Scott Huffman, Engineering Director, gave four insights into the nuances of difficulty experienced in search evaluation:

• First, understanding what a user really wants when they type a query -- the query's "intent" -- can be very difficult. For highly navigational queries like [ebay] or [orbitz], we can guess that most users want to navigate to the respective sites. But how about [olympics]? Does the user want news, medal counts from the recent Beijing games, the IOC's homepage, historical information about the games, ... ? This same exact question, of course, is faced by our ranking and search UI teams. Evaluation is the other side of that coin.
• Second, comparing the quality of search engines (whether Google versus our competitors, Google versus Google a month ago) is never black and white. It's essentially impossible to make a change that is 100% positive in all situations; with any algorithmic change you make to search, many searches will get better and some will get worse.
• Third, there are several dimensions to "good" results. Traditional search evaluation has focused on the relevance of the results, and of course that is our highest priority as well. But today's search-engine users expect more than just relevance. Are the results fresh and timely? Are they from authoritative sources? Are they comprehensive? Are they free of spam? Are their titles and snippets descriptive enough? Do they include additional UI elements a user might find helpful for the query (maps, images, query suggestions, etc.)? Our evaluations attempt to cover each of these dimensions where appropriate.
• Fourth, evaluating Google search quality requires covering an enormous breadth. We cover over a hundred locales (country/language pairs) with in-depth evaluation. Beyond locales, we support search quality teams working on many different kinds of queries and features. For example, we explicitly measure the quality of Google's spelling suggestions, universal search results, image and video searches, related query suggestions, stock oneboxes, and many, many more.

Not sure if I'm buying that Olympics example. Google didn't do a great job with the Beijing Olympics, and surely their algorithm could handle serving up more relevant search results during the time surrounding the event.

I'm not saying that search query intent evaluation is easy, just that the Olympics query is not quite as problematic as Google is making it out to be.

The rest of the points are things we've been hearing from Google for a long time. We know they're progressing on universal and personalization search efforts, all in their famous intent to create the best user experience.

So, what methods does Google employ to address these evaluations? Huffman offered up the following:

• Human evaluators. Google makes use of evaluators in many countries and languages. These evaluators are carefully trained and are asked to evaluate the quality of search results in several different ways. We sometimes show evaluators whole result sets by themselves or "side by side" with alternatives; in other cases, we show evaluators a single result at a time for a query and ask them to rate its quality along various dimensions.
• Live traffic experiments. We also make use of experiments, in which small fractions of queries are shown results from alternative search approaches. Ben Gomes talked about how we make use of these experiments for testing search UI elements in his previous post. With these experiments, we are able to see real users' reactions (clicks, etc.) to alternative results.

What do you think of Google's search evaluation? What evaluations would you like to see them conduct? Discuss in the comments.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

September 15, 2008

Concerns Over Google's Monopolistic Actions Make Their Way to DOJ

Sourcetools.com, a former business directory, was making $115,000 a month in profit until the summer of 2006, when Google changed its algorithm and spiked some AdWords bid prices for sites with "poor landing pages." The business model was one employed by many an internet entrepreneur - bid on AdWords and slap some AdSense on the site.

Of course, Google calls this ad arbitrage if all you have is a made-for-adsense site. But Sourcetools provided a service - a business directory not unlike many other directories out there.

Sourcetools spent a ton of money revamping their site to make it to Google's liking, not that Google was being terribly specific about what that liking is. But they could never get back into Google's good graces, and now the domain sits service-less, and up for sale.

This is just one of the many complaints being sent to the Department of Justice as they conduct an investigation into Google's ad deal with Yahoo.

Last week, the Association of National Advertisers sent a letter to the DOJ expressing their opposition to the deal. And the DOJ is taking the concerns seriously. They hired antitrust lawyer Sandy Litvack to consult on the deal.

Whether Google's actions are an inadvertent breakdown in internal communications or intentional pursuit of power, they do appear to be monopolistic. That along with today's financial news is a good reminder that to be wary of fast money and to diversify your site's income!

via NYT

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

September 12, 2008

Google Invests in Low-Cost Internet Connectivity for Developing Nations

Google has announced an investment in 03b Networks, whose goal it is to get internet connectivity to developing nations. Of course, the idea is that the internet will be high-speed and low-cost.

Google Product Manager Larry Alder explains why this is so difficult, but how it can be accomplished:

Most of today's developed countries are linked by thousands of kilometers of submarine fiber optic cables to carry core Internet traffic. This is a very cost-effective solution, once the fiber is in place; but in many developing and remote areas, fiber isn't available due to economic and sometimes political roadblocks. Though existing geo-synchronous satellites are able to reach theses areas, they provide slow Internet connectivity because of their distance from the Earth - and they're expensive and often fully subscribed. O3b plans to deliver fiber-like Internet backhaul service using a constellation of medium-orbit satellites. This means data can be quickly transmitted to and from even the most remote locations such as inland Africa or small Pacific islands.

What do you think of this initiative? Will it work? Let us know your impressions in the comments.

Related Reading: Google Joins the "Internet for Everyone" Initiative Google Earth Outreach Non-Profit Initiative Launches I'm Google, And I've Just Found...The Internet

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 12:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

September 9, 2008

Google Updates IP Retention Policy; Adjusts Anonymization in Google Suggest

Google is slicing and dicing the amount of time it stores IP addresses. Previously keeping them intact for 18 months, Google is now anonymizing IP addresses at 9 months.

This should make a European Group happier. In April, Article 29 Data Protection Working Party called for search engines to set their data retention at 6 months. The EU requires search engines to set their data retention limit at 18 months.

On another privacy front, Google is addressing concerns about Google Suggest. They're changing the anonymization of user suggestions to 24 hours. Google only takes 2% of search requests as data for Suggest.

Expect the new Suggest data anonymization to be rolled out by the end of the month.

What do you think of Google's updates to their stored data? Do you feel better about privacy? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

U.S. Hires Lawyer for Possible Court Action Against Google-Yahoo Deal

The United States has hired a lawyer to consult in their investigation of the search advertising deal between Google and Yahoo. The DOJ informed the companies that they've tapped Sandy Litvack, former Disney vice chairman and former antitrust chief.

The news comes just a couple weeks after Google CEO Eric Schmidt said Google was moving forward with the deal in October.

Yesterday, we reported that the Association of National Advertisers wrote a letter to the DOJ expressing their opposition of the deal.

via Reuters

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Google Launches Historical Newspaper Initiative

Google has announced a new initiative that aims to digitize newspaper archives. Through the initiative, Google will be partnering with newspaper publishers to bring what they estimate are billions of print records online.

Already available is a 1969 article from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette about the first landing on the moon.

Searching for the digitized records can be conducted via Google News Archives or through using the Google News timeline.

Related Reading: Google News Enables Cross-Language Search Google News Clusters: Keep 'Em Un-Separated Google News Unveils Two Updates to Comments Feature

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 8:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 8, 2008

I'm Google, And I've Just Found...The Internet

A new patent filing by Google evokes images of a new advertising campaign by AT&T featuring tv anchor Bill Kurtis traveling to the furthest regions of the earth and using a mobile broadband card to "find the internet."

Google seeks to take the internet to the seas by placing shipping containers filled with data centers on barges or other platforms.

And the energy source is quite efficient. Google wants to use the splashing of waves up against the barge to create energy to power the data centers.

Google wouldn't be the first to use shipping containers for servers. Hewlett-Packard, I.B.M., Dell and Sun Microsystems have all used the method, and Microsoft is building one of the world's largest data centers using shipping containers.

Google hopes that their data containers could be used at large events to ease the burden on the local infrastructure. They also seek to aid the military with their data containers.

What do you think of the patent? Share your impressions in the comments.

via NYT

Related Reading: Google To Build Data Center In India Google's Costs To Increase With Data Center Needs & Increased Employee Compensation Google Rankings Depend On Data Center, Geographic Location & Personalization

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Association of National Advertisers Opposes Yahoo-Google Deal

The Association of National Advertisers (ANA) have written a letter to U.S. Assistant Attorney General Thomas Barnett expressing their opposition to an advertising deal between Yahoo and Google. The deal, which has come under much scrutiny from the US Department of Justice and a U.S. Senate committee, has Yahoo using Google ads in their search results.

Google has said they will proceed with the deal in early October. So far, there has been no action against the deal from the federal government.

Do you agree or disagree with the ANA? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

via Reuters

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 4, 2008

Sugarrae: Google Pushed Twitter To NoFollow All Links?

While the rest of the world was distracted by the launch of Chrome, Sugarrae aka Rae Hoffman - definitely a woman who "pulls rank" - was covering the nofollowing of links over at Twitter at the behest of Google.

Her argument is powerful and once again challenges Google for pushing sites to do what they want. As she asks: "If Google is the one who wants that web link nofollowed because some twitter profile pages may be automated bots or spammers, then it is time they realize that THEY are responsible for determining which of those individual pages is authoritative, trusted and legitimate enough to pass link popularity, by a method other than demanding that other websites and social networks change the ways they do business to help Google stop links being used as a form of currency and to manipulate their algorithm - an issue Google and Google alone created and profited from."

This should be read by everyone in our industry. Leave the shiny new browser alone for a few minutes and see where our futures are going. Thanks for not being distracted by Chrome.

Posted by Frank Watson at 5:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)

September 2, 2008

Google Courting Agencies for Advertising Beyond Search

Traditional advertising agencies have long been wary of Google. That's no surprise, really, when a company comes out of almost nowhere to change an entire industry.

And as Google has grown, the search company has expanded beyond search to create revenue streams from other all-too-lucrative advertising mediums.

Now, Google is courting agencies in an attempt to get them to divert those ad spends via Google ad products.

The New York Times features a story about how Google employees set up shop at an agency for a day to expand upon the technology and opportunities the internet giant has to offer. It wasn't a laptop-fest. Google brought couches, bean bag chairs, candy and food. This isn't your three martini lunch on Madison Avenue, but it is making an impression.

Still, many remain wary. They feel Google is just using the ad agencies to get to their clients, with an ulterior motive of stealing them away.

What do you think of Google's efforts? Let us know in the comments.

Related Reading: Google Will Not Kill the Agency Star, Says Publicis CEO Microsoft Continues Pursuit of Google with Navic Acquisition

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Google Offers Video Sharing in Business Applications Suite

Google has added video sharing to its business applications suite, Google Apps Premier Edition. The feature is being called Google Video for business and there are high expectations for the application.

Matthew Glotzbach, product management director of Google Enterprise told Reuters, "What YouTube did in the consumer world, Google Video for business is going to do in the enterprise."

Google Apps Premier Edition is $50 a year per user and includes e-mail, scheduling, Web site design capabilities, and other business software. Starting September 8, educational users can try Premier Edition free for the first 6 months and $10 a year afterwards for video capabilities.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 8:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

August 29, 2008

Google Proceeding with Yahoo Deal in Early October

Google is proceeding with its deal to serve ads on Yahoo's search results. CEO Eric Schmidt told Bloomberg TV that they were moving forward on the deal despite regulatory concerns.

"We are in the process of talking to the government. They've not indicated one way or the other how they're dealing with us," said Scmidt.

Do you think the Google-Yahoo deal will be stopped? Let us know in the comments.

via Reuters

Related Reading: Congressional Judiciary Committees Look into Yahoo-Google Ad Partnership Now States are Investigating Yahoo-Google Deal

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

August 27, 2008

Google's Search Experiments are Sometimes Subtle

Have you ever been around a friend who points out a flaw about themselves and you say, "I would never have noticed that if you hadn't pointed it out?"

Google is doing the same thing sans flaws.

On the Official Google Blog, Ben Gomes explains that sometimes Google's search experiments are very subtle. They'll test things like white space in the search results or how big the plus box should be next to a stock quote link.

The differences among the options being tested are very difficult to detect without being told what's going on. But the results of tests show that even a small number of pixels can make a big difference. For example, it could mean the difference between a searcher spending a lot of time on one search result - and not necessarily the first one - or a searcher being able to scan the results more easily. And then Google has to decide which is better.

All in all, Google's search experiments are not always about the alogorithm. What do you think of these experiments? Leave your thoughts in the comments!

Related Reading: Google News Testing Updates Google Testing Time Elements In Search Results Google Testing Expandable "More Google" Links On Home Page & More

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

August 20, 2008

Website Optimizer Enables Pruning and Offline Validation

Google has released a major update to Website Optimizer, which contains new features that will have users breathing a sigh of relief.

First up, you can now disable combinations that just aren't working out for you. Dubbed "Experiment Pruning," the feature allows users to eliminate combinations that are poorly performing or just don't make sense for your campaign. This can help you achieve faster results as well as set up a reasonable number of combinations relative to the traffic you expect to receive.

Next, offline validation is now available for pages that aren't accessible to Website Optimizer. Simply upload a copy of the tagged page and Website Optimizer says everything will be tagged properly.

Finally, reporting has been updated to better show which combinations are performing well and which ones aren't. Google hopes this will prevent false conclusions and prematurely ended campaigns.

What do you think of the updates? Let us know in the comments.

Related Reading: “Always Be Testing: The Complete Guide to Google Website Optimizer” Google Website Optimizer Offers Flexible Service Plans Google Website Optimizer's Technology Partner Program Shows Compatible CMS Google Website Optimizer Tool is Out of Beta!

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 19, 2008

Introducing Google Without All the Google

Want to search Google for results that don't include sites under the Google umbrella? Try Google Minus Google. The site shows YouTube-less, Knol-less, and Blogger-less results.

The site was started by Finnish blogger Timo Paloheimo, who was inspired by an article in the New York Times asking the question, Is Google a Media Company? Paloheimo claims he received 3,000 visits the very first day.

via NYT

Related Reading: Is Google Becoming a Portal?

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 1:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

August 15, 2008

SEW Experts: Google SERP Bias? Google Knols Best

If you need some lift, start dropping pages into Google Knol and Google pages. They show up in the organic results faster than you can get them through Webmaster Central. In today's SEM Crossfire column, "Google SERP Bias? Google Knols Best," Frank Watson and Chris Boggs discuss the limitations of Google's algorithms, and its hypocritical stances on some web spam topics.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

August 11, 2008

Yahoo Snags Search Ad Marketshare Gain at Google's Expense

Analytics firm Covario says Yahoo gained paid search advertising at the expense of Google in the second quarter of 2008.

Covario also said that paid search has gone through a "compression" period, where growth has declined from 52% to 43%.

“Our client roster inspired us to launch this analysis series due to our customers' unique positions in the advertising ecosystem – they are US-based, but also global in the scope regarding their paid search advertising programs, so they tend not to be retailers or ecommerce vendors who focus on one geographic region,” said Craig Macdonald, vice president of marketing and product management at Covario. “It is very exciting for us to be able to observe first-hand such trends as the bucking of the biggest losing streak in the paid search market – the loss of market share by Yahoo to Google.”

Of course, Google has seen a decline in clicks and search ads they attribute to increasing quality of their ads. That reasoning worked for Q1 results, which blew away Wall Street expectations, based largely on analytical data. Q2 disappointed the street, but so did Microsoft and Yahoo.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Google Sits Out Olympic Search Results; Microsoft , Yahoo Take Home Medals

On Saturday night, while watching the Olympics, I learned that there is a British swimmer named Hannah Miley. As a mom of a 10 year old, I found this amusing as my daughter has been thoroughly obsessed with the Disney show Hannah Montana where the lead character is played by Miley Cyrus.

I was curious as to how the search engines would handle a search for Hannah Miley. Would the results be completely dominated by the increasingly scandalous teen queen? Or would there at least be one mention of the Olympic athlete?

First, I checked out Google. After all, they're the best search engine in the world and everyone knows it except people in China (who prefer Baidu) and southeast Asia (who prefer Yahoo). Perhaps we should learn something from this year's Olympic hosts and their neighbors.

Google had ZERO results for Hannah Miley the swimmer on their front page. They didn't even pull results from their news search product, which does have results about the swimmer - during the Olympics! Tsk. Tsk.

Next, I moved onto Microsoft's Live Search. I was greeted with an photo of an Olympic event as the background and part of their new home page design. The first result for Hannah Miley was about the British swimmer!

The main link was to NBCOlympics.com, who is partnering with Microsoft for the Olympics. Then there were several site search links below to send searchers automatically to more detailed information they might be looking for.

You might say that's cheating, that it's not part of some supreme algorithm. I say, it's useful and relevant information for searchers and most will not particularly care how it got there.

Plus, Microsoft did include a link to Hannah Miley's wikipedia page as part of their "regular" result, something the googlebot ignored.

Last, I headed to Yahoo. They served up some news results for the Hannah Miley search. The first one was for the British swimmer and the second was for the Disney star. Then the organic results are dominated by the latter, save for one result from Zimbio.com about the athlete.

So that's how the "big three" search engines are handling the 2008 Olympics. Microsoft clearly takes the gold, Yahoo is half-heartedly participating, and Google is sitting out the games altogether.

And if you think it's unfair of me to use a search for "Hannah Miley" as the basis for such a statement. Check out the screenshots below for a search for American superstar swimmer Michael Phelps and tell me who's serving up the best results. (This time Yahoo wins the gold!)

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 8:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

August 8, 2008

Google Offers Guidance on Starting a Multi-Lingual Site

Do the Beijing Olympics have you thinking global? If so, you may be considering whether or not to offer your site content in another language.

Google understands and they have offered up three points worthy of consideration when making the decision to go multilingual.

Site Structure

First, you need to decide if you want to feature other languages because you want to target another country (geo targeting) or because you simply want to reach an audience that speaks a specific language. If geo targeting is the case, then you may want to set up your content on a country-specific TLD (top-level domain, i.e. co.uk).

If you're focused more on just the language, Google has these two tips:

1. Put the content of every language in a different subdomain. For our example, you would have en.example.com, de.example.com, and es.example.com.
2. Put the content of every language in a different subdirectory. This is easier to handle when updating and maintaining your site. For our example, you would have example.com/en/, example.com/de/, and example.com/es/.

Webmaster Tools for Geo Targeting In Google's Webmaster Tools, you can set geographic targets for different subdirectories or subdomains, if you choose to host the multilingual content on your original site.

Content Organization When it comes to organizing your content, Google says straight out of the gate that the same content in two or more languages is not considered duplicate content.

Moving on from there, keep navigation and content on a subdirectory or subdomain to one language. Mixing up the languages could confuse the googlebot.

What are your tips for creating multilingual sites? Share them in the comments.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

Hit Me While I'm Down: Google Warns on AOL Investment Loss

Google has filed a quarterly report with the SEC that includes information about its 5% stake in AOL. The news is not good for the Time Warner owned internet company, which has already posted a loss of $230 million in the second quarter of 2008. Google said that their stake in AOL may be "impaired," an accounting term that explains a significant loss stemming from an investment.

Google invested in AOL to stave off a Microsoft advertising partnership, which would have replaced the one AOL had with Google. The question now is, was it worth $1 billion to keep the 3rd place Microsoft with a 10-ish% market share at bay?

And Yahoo should be wondering if their new Google partnership will really be enough to keep the company afloat.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments.

via AP

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

August 7, 2008

Google to Update Content Network as Part of DoubleClick Integration

Google has announced new features that are coming to the Content Network. They said the new features are part of the integration process with DoubleClick, since finalizing the acquisition of the company earlier this year.

The new features are:

• Frequency Capping: Enables advertisers to control the number of times a user sees an ad. Users will have a better experience on Google content network sites because they will no longer see the same ad over and over again.
• Frequency Reporting: Provides insight into the number of people who have seen an ad campaign, and how many times, on average, people are seeing these ads.
• Improved Ads Quality: Brings performance improvements within the Google content network.
• View-Through Conversions: Enables advertisers to gain insights on how many users visited their sites after seeing an ad. This helps advertisers determine the best places to advertise so users will see more relevant ads.

Yesterday, Google announced the sale of DoubleClick's search engine marketing arm of Performics, to Publicis.

In May, Google integrated DoubleClick mobile with its Adsense program, as well as other mobile ad networks.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 6, 2008

Google Sells Performics to Publicis Groupe

Google has sold its Performics search marketing business to the Publicis Groupe.

Chicago-based Performics has about 200 employees in Chicago, San Francisco, New York, London, Hamburg, Sydney, Singapore and Beijing. The business will report into Curt Hecht, president of Paris-based Publicis' VivaKi Nerve Center. Hecht is the former EVP Chief Digital Officer, GM Planworks, a unit of Starcom MediaVest Group (SMG)

"Publicis Groupe has been a leader in the advertising industry for decades, and we believe Performics' growing business will benefit from being part of it," said Google Chairman and Chief Executive Eric Schmidt in a statement. "We look forward to working with Performics as a partner."

The financial terms of the deal weren't disclosed.

The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 1:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Google Launches New Metric Tool, Insights for Search

Google has launched a new metric geared towards marketers: Google Insights for Search. The tool is very similar to Google Trends, but includes "Rising Searches" and a map representing Regional Interest, which is also broken down by ballpark figure numbers.

Check out these screenshots for a better idea of what the tool is like, then go try it for yourself. (Don't forget to come back and leave a comment about your first impressions of the tool!)

Related Reading: Does Google Analytics Share Data with Google Trends and Ad Planner?

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 8:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

August 5, 2008

Planet Google - Everything You Always Wanted to Know

There's one book every search engine marketer will be reading this fall:

Planet Google: One Company's Audacious Plan to Organize Everything We Know.

Based on unprecedented access he received to the "Googleplex," New York Times columnist Randall Stross takes readers deep inside Google. His revelations demystify the strategy behind the company's recent flurry of bold moves, all driven by the pursuit of a business plan unlike any other: to become the indispensable gatekeeper of all the world's information, the one-stop destination for all our information needs.

Will Google succeed? And what are the implications of a single company commanding so much information and knowing so much about us?

As ambitious as Google's goal is, with 68 percent of all Web searches (and growing), profits that are the envy of the business world, and a surplus of talent, the company is, Stross shows, well along the way to fulfilling its ambition, becoming as dominant a force on the Web as Microsoft became on the PC.

Google isn't just a superior search service anymore. In recent years it has launched a dizzying array of new services and advanced into whole new businesses, from the introductions of its controversial Book Search and the irresistible Google Earth, to bidding for a slice of the wireless-phone spectrum and nonchalantly purchasing YouTube for $1.65 billion.

Google has also taken direct aim at Microsoft's core business, offering free e-mail and software from word processing to spreadsheets and calendars, pushing a transformative -- and highly disruptive -- concept known as "cloud computing." According to this plan, users will increasingly store all of their data on Google's massive servers -- a network of a million computers that amounts to the world's largest supercomputer, with unlimited capacity to house all the information Google seeks.

The more offerings Google adds, and the more ubiquitous a presence it becomes, the more dependent its users become on its services and the more information they contribute to its uniquely comprehensive collection of data.

Will Google stay true to its famous "Don't Be Evil" mantra, using its power in its customers' best interests?

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 11:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

August 4, 2008

Google Releases Update to Ad Planner

Google just launched Ad Planner a little over a month ago, and already the media measurement and planning tool is getting an update. The new features are based on user feedback. Here's what you can look forward to, straight from the horse's mouth:

• New metrics and dataWe've added additional metrics for site visitation including average time on site, total visits, and average visits per visitor. These metrics can be useful in understanding how engaged users are with a particular site. In addition, we've upgraded our content categorization algorithms and have improved content category labels.
• Direct-add functionalityIf you have an idea about some sites you'd like to include in your media plan, you can now add them directly to your plan rather than having to locate them using the research function.
• In-plan indicatorThe research tab in Google Ad Planner now indicates the sites that are already in your media plan, to help prevent sites from being added multiple times.

Have you been using Ad Planner? Will this update be a welcome one? Let us know in the comments!

Related Reading: Does Google Analytics Share Data with Google Trends and Ad Planner? comScore: No Clients are Leaving Us for Google

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

August 1, 2008

What Search Quality Means to Search Engine Google

In the boldly headlined blog entry, "Search quality, continued," Googler Ben Gomes explaines in greater depth what search quality means to Google.

It's too bad Google didn't publish the post before the Un-Search Engine, Un-Cuil, launched.

Gomes has written a clear overview of factors that Google considers to improve search user experience. Those are some of the same factors SEOs take into consideration when consulting on site design:

1. A small page. A small page is quick to download and generally faster for your browser to display. This results in a minimalist design aesthetic; extra fanciness in the interface slows down the page without giving you much benefit.

2. Complex algorithms with a simple presentation. Many search features require a great deal of algorithmic complexity and a vast amount of data analysis to make them work well. The trick is to hide all that complexity behind a clean, intuitive user interface. Spelling correction, snippets, sitelinks and query refinements are examples of features that require sophisticated algorithms and are constantly improving. From the user's point of view search, almost invisibly, just works better.

3. Features that work everywhere. Features must be designed such that the algorithms and presentation can be adapted to work in all languages and countries.

4. Data driven decisions - experiment, experiment, experiment.

We're looking forward to the next installment when Google discusses some of the specific experiments they've done to improve search quality.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 4:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

comScore: No Clients are Leaving Us for Google

During their conference call announcing second quarter results, comScore addressed whether or not a new Google research product is impacting their business. Google announced their new media measurement tool, Ad Planner, in late June. So far, the program is open by invitation only (though companies can apply for an invite).

comScore CEO Magid Abraham said, "We really haven't seen an impact so far on our business, we haven't heard any client who's said well use [the Google product] instead of comScore," according to Marketwatch.

A conflict with comScore's data doesn't seem to be hurting the measurement company either. Earlier this year, analysts used comScore's search advertising numbers, showing a decline for Google, to underestimate the search giant for the first quarter of 2008. But Google beat Wall Street in Q1. Google says that the improved quality of their ad product decreased clicks but improved revenues.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 31, 2008

Is SEO the Real Google Killer?

This morning the Guardian UK published a scathing analysis of Google, SEO and the launch of Cuil. In his article, Chris Williams claimed that the greatest threat to Google is spam. No argument there.

But Williams takes the argument one step further and states:

Plenty of digital ink has been needlessly spilt this week over the launch of the suicidally-monikered new search engine Cuil.com. But the only threat to Google is itself and, in a roundabout way, the legion of spammers and "search engine optimisation" (SEO) consultants that buttress its dominance.

It's clear that Williams is crying over "spilt ink." He's right in saying that Web sites have adapted their design and structure to accommodate Google.

But Williams would like to think that all companies - including competing search engines - are in the business of "reverse engineering" Google.

The people at the vanguard of reverse-engineering Google are not its jealous search rivals. They're the spammers and SEO consultants. They have driven an ever-closer relationship between the quirks and whims of Google's algorithms and policies, and the structure and content of the web. It's a feedback loop that was unavoidable once Google's early rivals proved unable to respond to its better search results and presentation.

He feels that techniques such as "adding needless internal links, creating PageRank-friendly URLs and distorting normal grammar" are all widely deployed with varying degrees of dastardliness.

While grammar may be distorted, the fault doesn't lie with SEOs but with writers lacking sufficient command of the English language.

Somehow Williams connects Google's share of searches with SEO efforts, rather than user preference. If that's the case, then SEO must be producing superior SERPs.

Williams writes, "Thanks to the mutualistic process driven by spammers and SEO consultants, that dominance is only going to increase, and it's the only 'Google Killer' on the horizon."

Williams envisions a future "when the favours spammers and SEO consultants have been doing for Larry and Sergey will become dangerous, anti-trust style." He believes regulatory intervention now seems the only bar to a complete Google autocracy over the Web economy.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 11:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (12)

Google Opens Up About Customized Search

Google is helping its users understand what's behind customized, or personalized, results (as opposed to Google Custom Search). They're rolling out a new feature that explains why results may be tailored to a particular user.

The feature will be rolled out over the next few days. When it does, you'll notice a new link for "More Details" in the top right corner. Clicking on the link will take you to an explanation of customized results. The explanation says that location (IP address), recent searches and web history to serve up the personalization.

Google noted that this feature does not change how they compile results.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 29, 2008

The Real Reason No One Can Beat Google

When it comes to beating Google, many entrepreneurs attempt to have what they consider better results than Google. Whether its indexing a trillion pages, advancing semantic search, or harnessing social search, everyone's looking for their Unique Selling Proposition.

I have conducted a great deal of thinking on the matter and have concluded that technology or financial backing has nothing to do with it. The real reason no one can beat Google is all in the name.

Think about it. It's quite easy and acceptable to say, "Google it." I say this to my kids. Despite the fact that Google does not prefer that their brand name is used as a verb, we do it all the time. It even happens in the movies!

But if I were to say "Cuil it," it, of course, would sound like "Cool it." That may even sound offensive in some cultures. Like you're telling someone they have an attitude and they need to chillax. Next thing you know, you're engaged in a nasty brawl on the Jerry Springer show. Or worse, face to face with Omarosa.

Cuil isn't the only search engine to face this problem. Microsoft doesn't need to buy Yahoo, they just need a better name for their search engine. Do they really think anybody is really going to "Live Search it"!?!?!

I'm not going to "Mahalo it" or "Wikia it" or even go old school and "Lycos it."

Sure, I could say "Look it up on hakia" - but that's just so many syllables!

No, dear readers, the only way to beat Google is to come up with a cooler name. So, get those thinking caps on and don't forget to call me before you IPO.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (13)

July 24, 2008

Knol Is Googlepedia

Knol is knowledge without the W(ikipedia) and an edge.

Knol is the newest product launched by Google. The Wikipedia competitor is in beta. Get ready for Knollywood.

Knol is basically Blogspot on steroids, organized by topic.

Google states the key principle behind Knol is authorship. Every knol will have an identified author (or group of authors). It's their knol, their voice, their opinion. Google expects multiple knols on the same subject.

With Knol, we are introducing a new method for authors to work together that we call "moderated collaboration." With this feature, any reader can make suggested edits to a knol which the author may then choose to accept, reject, or modify before these contributions become visible to the public.

People can submit comments, rate, or write a review of a knol. At the discretion of the author, a knol may include ads from our AdSense program. If an author chooses to include ads, Google will provide the author with a revenue share from the proceeds of those ad placements.

The New Yorker magazine will allow any author to add one cartoon per knol from the New Yorker's cartoon repository. Cartoons are an effective (and fun) way to make your point, even on the most serious topics.

Of course, The New Yorker is a publisher.

Google will continue to claim that Google is not.

It's like the famous New Yorker cartoon, "On the Internet, no one knows you're a publisher."

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 10:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

July 22, 2008

Google Barely Inches Out Yahoo for Top Web Property; Platform-A Top Ad Network for June 2008

comScore has released the top 50 ad networks and top 50 web properties for June 2008.

In ad networks, AOL's Platform-A takes the top spot, reaching 90% of American internet users. Yahoo comes in second, reaching 83% and Google comes in third with 81%. Here's the full list:

In web properties, Google leads the pack 140.2 million unique visitors, but Yahoo comes in a very close second at 140.1 million. This past April, Google's sites beat Yahoo's properties for the first time. Microsoft trails in third with 119 million. AOL is in 4th with 110 million and Fox Interactive rounds out the top 5 with 85 million. Here's the chart:

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 18, 2008

Google's Matt Cutts on Spam, Ranking, and Your Search Future

Matt Cutts has now earned international film star status.

Google Webmaster Central in Germany has created an SEO video with excellent production values - particularly by YouTube standards. They've even translated Matt into German:

Hallo an alle User aus Deutschland! Ob ihr nun User, Webmaster oder ein SEO seid - ich freue mich, hier die Gelegenheit zu haben, ein bisschen mit euch zu sprechen. Ich hoffe, dass ich bald die Möglichkeit finde, auch einmal nach Deutschland zu kommen. Bis dahin bin ich froh, dass wir hier viele talentierte Googler haben, die sich um den deutschen Markt kÌmmern und den Kontakt zu deutschen Webmastern halten.

We were hoping they might dub Matt into German for the video with English subtitles, but no such luck. You will find out a number of cool things, including Matt's vision of search in the next five years.

For example, do you know when Matt first came across spam at Google?

After this interview, you will.

To find out Matt's true vision of the future of search, you'll have to read SES Magazine, available only at SES San Jose.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 1:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Google Buys Russian Ad Agency for $140 Million

Google is looking to extend its global ad reach with its purchase of a Russian ad agency. Rambler Media has sold Begun advertising agency to Google for $140 million. Begun serves up contextual ads. Rambler will also contract search technology from Google as part of the deal.

"Google is very committed to giving Russian users, advertisers and partners the best possible service and experience," said Mohammad Gawdat, Managing Director Emerging Markets, Google. "This agreement will result in better search results and more relevant advertising for our Russian users and publishers."

In 2006, Google opened a development center in Moscow, and tapped another Sergei, last name Burkov, to run the place. Burkov was the founder of Dulance, which Google acquired in the process of opening their Russian center.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

July 17, 2008

Google Earnings Top $5.37 Billion in Revenue Q2 2008

Google revenues topped $5.37 billion for the quarter ended June 30, 2008, an increase of 39 percent compared to the second quarter of 2007. That's also an increase of 3 percent compared to the first quarter of 2008.

But those numbers still disappointed investors who basked in the glow of Google's growth and perhaps lingered a little too long in the sun.

The big news? Weakness in key sectors such as real estate, where paid search has proven resilient in the face of the recession. As SEW readers know, Auto finance average CPC was down in June; as was the total Finance category.

Google reports its revenues, consistent with GAAP, on a gross basis without deducting traffic acquisition costs, or TAC. In the second quarter of 2008, TAC totaled $1.47 billion, or 28 percent of advertising revenues.

"Strong international growth as well as sustained traffic increases on Google's web properties propelled us to another strong quarter, despite a more challenging economic environment," said Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, in a statement. "As we continue to focus on innovating in our core business of search, ads and apps, we also look forward to enhancing the experience of our users and expanding the reach of our advertisers and partners with new technologies and formats, particularly as our integration of DoubleClick gains momentum and creates new opportunities in display advertising and elsewhere."

Highlights of the 2nd Quarter:

Google Sites Revenues - Google-owned sites generated revenues of $3.53 billion, or 66% of total revenues, in the second quarter of 2008. This represents a 42% increase over second quarter 2007 revenues of $2.49 billion and a 4% increase over first quarter 2008 revenues of $3.40 billion. Google Network Revenues - Google's partner sites generated revenues, through AdSense programs, of $1.66 billion, or 31% of total revenues, in the second quarter of 2008. This represents a 22% increase over network revenues of $1.35 billion generated in the second quarter of 2007 and a 2% decrease over first quarter 2008 revenues of $1.69 billion. International Revenues - Revenues from outside of the United States totaled $2.80 billion, representing 52% of total revenues in the second quarter of 2008, compared to 48% in the second quarter of 2007 and 51% in the first quarter of 2008. Had foreign exchange rates remained constant from the first quarter of 2008 through the second quarter of 2008, our revenues in the second quarter of 2008 would have been $88 million lower. Had foreign exchange rates remained constant from the second quarter of 2007 through the second quarter of 2008, our revenues in the second quarter of 2008 would have been $249 million lower. Revenues from the United Kingdom totaled $774 million, representing 14% of revenue in the second quarter of 2008, compared to 15% in the second quarter of 2007 and 15% in the first quarter of 2008. Paid Clicks - Aggregate paid clicks, which include clicks related to ads served on Google sites and the sites of our AdSense partners, increased approximately 19% over the second quarter of 2007 and decreased approximately 1% over the first quarter of 2008.

The growth of paid clicks year-over-year is good news, showing the strength of the paid search marketplace. As Google has stated previously, the company has made an effort to improve the quality of clicks rather than increasing click volume. AdWords and AdSense were down sequentially, due to quality control and seasonality.

Google acknowledged the weakness of key sectors (Autos, Finance, Real Estate) that have wreaked havoc with display advertising. Real estate sector for paid search and contextual ads is down year-over-year. Auto ad spend is up year-over-year, but not consumer financing.

Ad Sense partners may have felt the squeeze too. Traffic Acquisition Costs (TAC), the portion of revenues shared with Google's partners, decreased to $1.47 billion in the second quarter of 2008. This compares to TAC of $1.49 billion in the first quarter of 2008. TAC as a percentage of advertising revenues was 28% in the second quarter, compared to 29% in the first quarter of 2008.

The majority of TAC expense is related to amounts ultimately paid to Google's AdSense partners, which totaled $1.32 billion in the second quarter of 2008. (TAC is also related to amounts ultimately paid to certain Google distribution partners and others who direct traffic to Google's website, which totaled $154 million in the second quarter of 2008.)

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 5:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

July 16, 2008

Q&A with Google's Tim Armstrong

Canadian Business Magazine has an excellent Q&A with Google's Tim Armstrong. Here are some choice excerpts that show where Google's headed and why.

Canadian Business: What are some other emerging trends you're seeing in Internet advertising?

Tim Armstrong: Social networking will be a big part of online advertising in the future. There's also going to be a lot more analytics beneath Internet advertising. It's still hard to measure how different types of online ads and targeting techniques affect a consumer's perception of a brand. We're also excited about mobile opportunities.

CB: How big could mobile advertising become for Google?

TA: It will vary depending on the country. For example, in some developing countries, the infrastructure is being built more for cellphone access than stationary computer connections, and some people are skipping the computer generation altogether. We've done a lot of mobile testing in Japan, which has done a nice job of building high bandwidth access for cellphone users. I don't think one mobile search will eliminate one computer search or interaction on the web. Consumers have different needs when they're using those devices.

CB: How will the advertising industry change in the future?

TA: Advertising over the last 50 years has been about coming up with a big idea, planning around it for a year, then launching a six-month or year-long campaign for a product or service. In the future, advertisers will come up with 10, 100 or 1,000 creative messages for their products and services, then run, test and optimize them in real time. Campaigns won't be based on a time schedule, but on consumer behavior patterns.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 2:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

DoubleClick to Launch Proposal Exchange Platform

Currently being tested by over 20 companies, DoubleClick has an electronic propsal exchange platform in the works. In a 2007 survey, 70% of DoubleClick's ad agency clients said that a publisher's use of an automated proposal tool would have a positively impact on their decision to send that publisher an RFP (Request for Proposal).

The new tool would automate the RFP process and integrate with DoubleClick's existing DART® Sales Manager (DSM) for publishers and DART® for Advertisers' (DFA) MediaVisor planning tool.

"DoubleClick's vision is to help digital advertising scale by developing platforms that bring advertisers and publishers together," said Group Product Manager Jonathan Bellack. "Our new proposal exchange platform reduces operational friction by eliminating error-prone manual data entry. In addition, our tight integration with Salesforce.com continues to develop DART Sales Manager's mission to enable an integrated quote to cash solution for publisher sales teams."

Related Reading: Google + DoubleClick = 69% of Online Advertising Market DoubleClick Mobile Integrates with Mobile Ad Networks Google Nixes AdSense Referrals, AdWords PPA; Rebrands DoubleClick Performics

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 15, 2008

Google Share of Searches Almost 70 Percent

Google grabbed 69.17 percent of all U.S. searches for the four weeks ending June 28, 2008, Hitwise announced today. Yahoo! Search, MSN Search and Ask.com each received 19.62, 5.46 and 4.17 percent respectively. The remaining 42 search engines in the Hitwise Search Engine Analysis Tool accounted for 1.70 percent of U.S. searches. Note: Data is based on four week rolling periods (ending 5/31/ 2007, 4/26/08, 5/26/2007 from the Hitwise sample of 10 million U.S. Internet users. * - includes executed searches on Live.com and MSN Search but does not include searches on Club.Live.com. In the U.K. market, Google search properties (Google.co.uk and Google.com) accounted for 87 percent of all UK searches in June 2008 representing a 10 percent increase compared to June 2007. Yahoo! search properties accounted for 4.00 percent of UK searches in June 2008, a 2 percent increase compared to April 2008. MSN search properties accounted for 3.72 percent and Ask search properties accounted for 3.07 percent of searches. MSN increased two percent compared to April 2008 and Ask increased 6 percent.

In the Australia market, Google search accounted for 88 percent of all AU searches in June 2008 representing a 12 percent increase compared to June 2007. MSN search accounted for 7 percent and Yahoo! search accounted for 4.00 percent of AU searches in June 2008.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 3:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Google Website Optimizer Offers $100 AdWords Credit for 60 Minutes of Your Time

Google's Website Optimizer Tool came out of Beta in April, and practing what they preach, they're doing some testing. They are looking for a few good partipants for a test that requires 60 minutes of your time. In exchange, you'll get $100 AdWords credit.

Here are the requirements in order to sign up:

• 18 years old or older
• Sign their Usability Non-Disclosure Agreement
• Windows 2000/XP and Internet Explorer installed (sorry, no Macs)
• Broadband Internet connection or stronger (such as DSL, Cable, or T1)
• Have a phone (cell or land line) with a handless option so you can speak on the phone and use your computer simultaneously

Interested? Sign up here.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

July 11, 2008

Google CEO Affirms Stance on Independent Yahoo

In the wake of Carl Icahn's declaration that Microsoft would buy a Yahoo run be a different board (and Microsoft's affirmation of the claim), Google CEO Eric Schmidt hasn't changed his position on what should happen with Yahoo. Speaking to reporters in Idaho yesterday, he reiterated that he believes an Independent Yahoo is best for the industry.

Schmidt called Microsoft's bid for Yahoo "anti-competitive," something Google has been saying from the beginning. He also said that the Redmond-based software giant has a history of being anti-competitive, and that's evidence enough of their intentions with acquiring Yahoo.

Of course, Google is facing its own anti-competitive issues with its recently announced search advertising deal with Yahoo. Despite the partnership being non-exclusive, the Justice Department formally opened their antitrust investigation into the matter earlier this month.

Still, it's no doubt that the search ad deal fuels Schmidt's desire for Yahoo to remain independent. That and a Microhoo would mean a stronger second place competitor in the search ad marketplace. Though, most would agree that second place is definitely first loser in a Google-dominated search industry.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 9, 2008

Google Earth Doesn't Kill Rabbits; Rabbit Serial Killers Do

A sadistic serial killer has set his sights on rabbits in Germany. He decapitates them (chops off their heads) and then exsanguinates them (drains their blood).

Dubbed the "Rabbit Ripper" in the English tabloids ("Serienmörder von Kaninchen"), the Germans have created a five-man special task force to find the unsub.

His accomplice?

Police suspect the Rabbit Ripper is using Google Earth satellite images to find homes where pet rabbits reside. Volker Schuette, one of a special team of five officers hunting the killer, warned that many animals had been snatched from cages away from public view, suggesting the killer might be using Internet satellite images to track them down.

What's worse: They fear the murderer will move on to humans if he or she isn't caught soon.

Seriously? Jawohl.

Estimates of the bunny bodycount range from 30 to 40 bunnies beheaded in the towns of Written and Dortmund, in the Ruhr Valley, since last summer.

A taskforce of five officers has interviewed more than 300 people in the search for the killer.

The 'bunny murders' have alarmed owners living around the city of Dortmund who have now offered a £2000 reward to catch the killer.

In one case, brother and sister rabbits Fussel and Marianne were dragged from their cage, decapitated, bled dry and their bodies left for their owners to find the next morning.

One woman, Julia Perkun, has built a secret bunny bunker for her 13 rabbits in woodland on the edge of Witten.

"This place isn't visible from the street," Mrs Perkun told the BBC. "I try not to tell anyone where this place is. People know that I have rabbits, but I don't tell anyone where this place is, so I hope my rabbits are safe."

Police suspect there could be a satanic or occult connection to the killings. Ruhr Valley police said they feared that the assassin could be a Satanist, or Satanists, engaged in bloody, ungodly rituals.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 3:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

July 8, 2008

Google Lively: Comprehensive Guide to Getting Started

Second Life, get a life. Google Lively is the new virtual world created by the world's largest search engine.

Google Lively is billed as a "chat experience" using avatars. Google says, "You're about to embark on a chat experience in which you can communicate and express yourself using avatars in your very own space. Choose an avatar and use it to make friends and chat. Create rooms, decorate them to your liking, and make sure to invite your friends over." Here's how it works: Choose a Google Lively room

* From the Room List, click the title of the room you'd like to visit first. * Use the tabs at the top of the page to sort rooms by most popular, most visitors, or newest. * Once you've added friends or created a room, the My Rooms and Friends' Rooms tabs will also be handy.

Choose your Google Lively avatar

1. Click My Avatar on the right sidebar. 2. Click the avatar you like and choose Select Avatar (your avatar changes instantly). 3. Once you've chosen the one you want, click the X to hide the menu. Change your Google Lively avatar's clothing

To change your outfit, check out the styles available in the wardrobe picker. Here's how:

1. Click My Wardrobe on the right sidebar to open your wardrobe. 2. Browse or search the options in your wardrobe inventory and select items to wear. When you double-click an item, it'll appear on your avatar instantly. You don't have to close the window to find out if you like the look.

If you don't like how something looks on your avatar, go back to your wardrobe, left-click on the item, and choose Remove Item.

If you want more wardrobe options, add new stuff to your inventory by o quickly change your entire outfit, click my avatar and choose I'm Feeling Lucky . You'll see the new duds on your avatar instantly.

Create your own Google Lively room

1. Click new room and choose Create New Room to start the process. 2. Look over each tab and choose what you want your room to look like, the permissions you want to grant visitors, and whether you'd like to play music in your room.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 6:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)

Ex-Google Exec Heads to Bebo Europe

Ex-Googler Kate Burns has been tapped by social networking site Bebo to head up their European operations, according to the Guardian. Burns previously was Google's managing director for the UK. She also helped launch DoubleClick and AltaVista in the UK.

Bebo was recently acquired by AOL for $850 million. The site boasts 40 million members worldwide. AOL's Platform-A recently announced a guaranteed CPM for Bebo developers. Platform-A was the largest ad network in March.

Also in March, Microsoft announced a data portability with 5 social networks, including Bebo. However, AOL joined Google's OpenSocial initiative in May. Google owns a 5% stake in AOL, and was recently given permission to unload the stock, though it has yet to do so.

Meanwhile, rumor of a possible Yahoo-AOL merger have reared its (ugly?) head again, but today reports are suggesting any deal would not be completed in July. Yahoo's shareholder meeting is August 1.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 7, 2008

Free Google Webinar July 8th - Website Optimizer/Analytics/Webmaster Tools

As many of your know I am a big fan of both Google Analytics and Google Website Optimizer. But these excellent tools, along with Google Webmaster Tools are treated by most people as individual single-purpose applications.

There are tremendous synergies possible when you combine them in innovative ways. For the first time, the product teams for each one are stepping out of their respective silos and putting on a joint webinar about how to get the most out of combining them.

More info on the The Google Trifecta: Webmaster Tools, Analytics, Website Optimizer webinar (July 8th, 9-10am PDT)

I strongly urge everyone to listen in…

Posted by Tim Ash at 2:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 2, 2008

DOJ Opens Formal Antitrust Investigation into Google-Yahoo Deal

We knew this was coming. The Justice Department has begun a formal antitrust investigation into the search advertising agreement recently announced between Google and Yahoo. But other internet companies will be required to provide documents, according to the Washington Post. The move is thought to indicate a closer scrutiny than originally expected.

Lawyers told the Post that the demand for documents from other companies suggest that Google-Yahoo deal will be reviewed by those higher up in the antitrust division of the DOJ.

Still, the investigation should come as no surprise. When Yahoo was running a test of Google's ads back in April, the Justice Department investigated. However, they were notified of the test ahead of time.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

June 30, 2008

EveryScape Goes Where Google Maps Does Not

Going where no man - or search engine - has gone before, Everyscape has launched an online mapping feature that allows people to go inside shops and restaurants.

Users can navigate through neighborhoods and tourist sites. A special icon next to a building invites users to enter and have a look around.

"While Google has focused their technology on building a better map, we wanted to do more and replicate the experience of actually being somewhere," Everyscape chief executive Jim Schoonmaker told ABC News.

Everyscape employs independent contractors to operate specialized equipment. "Destination ambassadors" are assigned regions and are paid per mile to map. By getting locals involved, Schoonmaker hopes to "enable the world to build the world."

On top of earning $10 for every street mile, destination ambassadors receive a commission whenever they convince a business to have its interiors photographed.

Joe Ryan, owner of the Press Box Sports Bar in Manhattan, was quickly sold on the idea when he was approached with an offer to lease his locale on the interactive map.

"It's absolutely worth the price of the lease," Ryan said. "We have a very nice private party room upstairs and whenever people call to see if they can have a party there, it was very hard for me to describe it. Now I just tell them to go to the site, and they can take a look around. It's a big help."

Everyscape has secured $7 million in investment from venture capital firms. Some experts say to cut into Google's market, the company would need to extend its mapping capabilities abroad to popular destinations like Sydney and London, where the legality of such technology has been challenged.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 10:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

June 26, 2008

The Hottest Google Search of the Summer

The hottest Google search of the blockbuster movie summer is "Wesley Gibson."

The film "Wanted" features a Matrix-like opening with star James McAvoy playing a working stiff unaware of his super powers (as an assasssin) just as Keanu Reeves was clueless as Neo at the start of The Matrix.

According to Wikipedia, Wesley Gibson, was a pathetic, cubicle-dwelling hypochondriac. His boss frequently chewed him out and his girlfriend regularly cheated on him with his best friend. His depressing life plodded on interminably and it seemed to him that he would never amount to anything. One day Wes is contacted by The Fox (Angelina Jolie in the film), who reveals to him that his father, who had been absent through out Wesley's life, was actually a super-criminal called The Killer who had been recently assassinated, and that Wesley had inherited his perfect aim and uncanny skill with any weapon in addition to the name, twenty-five million dollars and his father's place in the fraternity.

The vanity search by McAvoy when he Googles himself comes up with no results. (shown above)

The irony? A search for the keywords "wesley gibson" now shows results for the character in the comic books and film rather than any real-life Wesley Gibson.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 9:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

June 25, 2008

Google Searches Lead to One Conviction, One Arrest

CNN/crime nailed one Google search crime story but missed the other. CNN caught the man who murdered his wife and daughter but missed the sex offender practicing medicine in Florida.

Neil Entwistle, the British husband and father who did a Google search on "how to kill with a knife" four days before the slayings of his wife and daughter, was convicted today. The jury found him guilty of two first-degree murder charges, possession of a firearm and possession of ammunition.

The story CNN/crime missed was in Florida where a Google search by a patient uncovered that a doctor practicing medicine lost his license.

On Tuesday, a man accused of practicing medicine without a license was arrested after a South Florida woman who sought treatment from him discovered he was a registered sex offender during a Google search of his name, according to the Broward Sheriff's Office.

Reginald Phillips was arrested on a charge of practicing medicine without a medical license.

Carol LaGraves was being treated for rheumatoid arthritis at the Center for Rheumatology, Immunology and Arthritis in Oakland Park since last year. Her doctor recommended she receive an intravenous medication to treat arthritis from Phillips. He agreed to perform the procedure late last month and spoke to LaGraves on the telephone.

But days before the planned treatment, LaGraves conducted a Google search of Phillips and found a link to the Florida Department of Health's Web site, which revealed that his license had been revoked. He also appeared as a registered sex offender.

Phillips was arrested in 1995 and convicted of sexually molesting two men who sought medical care from him when he worked as a neurologist at Cleveland Clinic. He spent more than seven years in state prison.

When LaGraves and her husband met with Phillips on the day of their appointment and recognized him from his mug shot, they canceled the procedure and contacted the sheriff's office.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 4:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

June 24, 2008

Google to Unveil Media Planning Tool

Google is planning to launch a media planning tool which will aid advertisers in targeting audiences, according to published reports. The tool will be free and feature audience measurement data. While geared specifically towards advertisers, though web publishers will have access as well.

Additionally, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that a separate tool will be launched to show how web users respond to online ads.

Audience measurement is already an established field with players such as comScore, Hitwise and Nielsen. Though, comScore did come under fire earlier this year for their measurements of search advertising, which Wall Street used to devalue Google, which ended up posting strong first quarter results.

And as we reported yesterday, Google is taking on sites like Compete and Alexa by offering a new website comparison tool as part of its Trends product.

We expect to have more details about the new media measurement tool when the official announcement is made later today.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

June 23, 2008

Google 411 Launches in Canada

Google is the world leader among search engines and even Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has conceded Google's won the search game.

But most people don't think of Google as an offline information service - until they try GOOG 411. Canadians now have their chance to experience GOOG 411. Not French Canadians, though. Google has launched GOOG 411 in the Canadian market only in English.

Canadians can dial 1-800-GOOG-411 to connect to a computer that's armed with voice recognition software software.

The automated voice will ask for city and province. A voice menu will assist users by finding the information they're looking for.

Users can ask for directions to a business or location, phone numbers, or receive a voice spoken text message about the business or restaurant that they're researching.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 2:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

June 20, 2008

Google Porn Lawsuit Tossed in Manhattan

A New York Supreme Court judge has tossed out a $100 million lawsuit against the ex-employees a doctor blames for associating his name online with hard-core porn Web sites - and creating his own obsession with Googling his name, according to the New York Post.

SEW Expert Chris Boggs has written about the benefits of Googling your name in "Confessions of an Online Reputation Management Junkie." But Chris never warned readers of the hazards. It may be an incurable disease.

The three ex-employees sued Dr. Arden Kaisman for sexual harassment last year. Since then, Google searches under his name lead to hundreds of raunchy Web sites.

Dr. Kaisman claimed the trio and others "conspired" to have his name linked to the porn sites, and that the anesthesiologist has lost business and developed a strange form of mental distress as a result.

"I find myself obsessed with 'Googling' my name," Dr. Kaisman said. "The Internet, the great information equalizer, has been corrupted to hurt me. . . . I'm told I have an 'incurable Internet disease.' "

State Supreme Court Justice Jane Solomon didn't buy Dr. Kaisman's diagnosis and said there's no evidence the three former employees are linked to the postings.

Even if there was, Kaisman couldn't sue over having his name linked to pornography. It seems the women complained about - and Kaisman has admitted to - e-mailing employees "sexually explicit images."

Kaisman's lawyer, Sidney Segall, said there's a big difference between the types of e-mails his client was sending and the types of sites he's now linked to.

Solomon said there are "qualitative differences" between the sites and Kaisman's e-mails, but ruled in favor of the employees.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 2:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Summer Solstice is First Day of Summer and Google's Hot

Today is the first day of summer. Google is celebrating the summer solstice with a hot, new Google Doodle.

"When does summer start?" is always one of the most popular questions people ask. Today is the longest day of the year.

There are lots of ways to celebrate the summer solstice. Here are a couple proven ones handed down through the ages:

Modern-day druids (no, not the Grail Movement) meet at England's Stonehenge to celebrate the summer solstice. Many still wear Celtic attire, even though a civilization known as the Beaker People finished Stonehenge a millennium before the Celts were known to exist.

The Tropic of Cancer—the latitude on Earth where the sun is directly overhead at noon on the summer solstice—got its name because the sun appeared in the constellation Cancer.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 12:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

June 18, 2008

Google Earth Pool-Crashing Parties Latest Teen Craze

Tech savvy UK teens are using Google Earth's aerial shots to create the latest summertime craze – pool crashing. The Register Hardware site confirmed several pool trespassing cases with local UK police.

Google Earth is used to locate suitable pools and then Facebook is used to organize the pool crash parties.

Teens begin by surfing Google Earth's satellite images to find houses with swimming pools. Once a target has been identified, teens then use Facebook to arrange an organized, but uninvited, pool-crash.

A spokesman for Devon and Cornwall Police has already told the Daily Mail that owners of swimming pools should be on their guard. The spokesman reminded any readers planning to google for swimming pools on Google Earth that “using someone else's pool is trespassing and therefore illegal”.

Owners of several upscale poolside properties have already returned home to find teenagers "taking a dip in their man-made lakes or their spoor: beer cans, dog-ends and vomit floating atop their once crystal-clear pools," according to RegHardware.com.

Mobile phones, of course, seem to be an invaluable tool for a good pool-crash. Apparently, mobile numbers were doled out on Facebook for the organizers of one such event held earlier this week between midnight and 3am – the late hour because, well, it was a school night.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 12:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Google Doesn't Kill People, People Do

Kate Knight, 28, from Wirral, was convicted of attempting to murder Lee Knight by lacing his food with ethylene glycol, had her appeal rejected by the Court of Appeal.

The jury heard Knight used internet search engine Google to find a method of killing, settling on anti-freeze.

Knight served the anti-freeze in red wine and Indian takeout on their wedding anniversary.

In a separate murder trial:

A detective testified in a US court that a laptop computer taken from the home of a British man accused of killing his wife and nine-month-old daughter was used to search online on "how to kill with a knife", four days before the slayings.

Medford police Detective Lawrence James, a computer expert, said the Google search was done on January 16, 2006.

Neil Entwistle has pleaded not guilty to murder charges stemming from the killing of his 27-year-old wife, Rachel, and their daughter, Lillian Rose, in their rented home in Hopkinton, Massachusetts on January 20, 2006.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 9:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 17, 2008

Google Code Jam Rocks Summer '08

Registration opened today for Google Code Jam 2008. Programmers will use their coding skills, creativity, and ingenuity to solve a series of challenges. The top 500 contestants will win an all-expenses paid trip to the semifinals at regional Google offices, with the top 100 advancing to the finals at Google's Mountain View headquarters.

"Google Code Jam is an incredible opportunity for the most talented computer scientists in the world to come together and compete on an international stage," said Vic Gundotra, Vice President, Engineering in a statement. "Google is proud to support these coders as they take on some of the world's most challenging programming problems, and we're pleased to have the chance to introduce them to our research and offices around the world."

This year marks the first year with regional semifinal playoffs in over ten countries. "It's an incredible opportunity to introduce the best of the programming world to our offices across the globe and demonstrate the incredible diversity of experiences that Google offers engineers worldwide," said Nelson Mattos, Vice President, Engineering, EMEA, in a company statement.

This year's Google Code Jam will be powered by tools created by a 20%-time team that includes previous Code Jam winners, and will allow contestants to program in any language.

In addition to the trip to local engineering offices and Mountain View, finalists will also divide over $80,000 in prize money, ranging from $10,000 for the grand prize to $250 for the 76th to 100th place winners.

Participants can register throughout the qualification round, which ends July 17.

In 2006, more than 21,000 competitors from over 100 countries took part in the Google Code Jam, and Petr Mitrichev of Russia won the grand prize.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 12:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 16, 2008

Planet Google: How One Company is Transforming Our Lives: Sold!

The most talked-about book in the search engine industry was just bought by Atlantic Books' editor-in-chief Ravi Mirchandani. He bought the investigation into internet superpower Google by New York Times columnist Randall Stross.

Planet Google: How One Company is Transforming Our Lives looks at the company's story so far and its impact on business and culture.

Rights in the UK and Commonwealth, excluding Canada, were acquired from Free Press / Simon & Schuster. Atlantic will publish in October.

News comes courtesy of Tom Holman over at Bookseller.com, which just awarded the annual "oddest title" to "Want Closure in Your Relationship, Start With Your Legs" was crowned the winner of the Diagram Prize for Oddest Title of the Year, after a record-breaking 8,500 votes online.

The runner-up is "I Was Tortured By the Pygmy Love Queen" (20%) and in 3rd place is "Cheese Problems Solved" (19%).

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 11:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Q&A Interview with Google's Matt Cutts

Here's a must-read for the week: a great interview with Google's Matt Cutts by Eric Enge, CEO of Stone Temple Consulting, in his blog this morning.

There's terrific information on link building from Google's perspective, among other topics.

What Google looks for are links that will stand the test of time. In Matt's words:

So, what are the links that will stand the test of time? Those links are typically given voluntarily. It is an editorial link by someone, and it's someone that's informed. They are not misinformed, they are not tricked; there is no bait and switch involved. It's because somebody thinks that something is so cool, so useful, or so helpful that they want to make little sign posts so that other people on the web can find that out.

Matt also clarified Google's views on links originating with Digg:

Whenever you pay money to a social media consultant to try to show up on Digg, you are not paying for links. You are funding some creativity; you are sponsoring your page for some creativity.

It's not like you held a gun to anyone and said “Okay, you have to link to me.” The people who link to the site are linking because it's something compelling instead. So, there is still some editorial choice there.

Don't miss Matt's take on widgets either. For that you'll have to go to the interview.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 10:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

June 13, 2008

Google Website Optimizer's Technology Partner Program Shows Compatible CMS

Google Website Optimizer has launched the Technology Partner program, which shows which CMS platforms are compatible with their JavaScript-based testing tool.

Website Optimizer can still be used on CMS platforms not listed in the program, but the certified CMS partners come with documentation and support.

Jon Stona of the Website Optimizer team, wrote on their blog, "We see this program as a win for CMS providers and website-owners alike. CMS platforms of any size can offer their customers a powerful A/B and multivariate testing solution, which might have cost them millions of dollars to develop internally."

What do YOU think of the Technology Partner program? Useful or useless? Let us know in the comments.

Related Reading: Testing Landing Pages Includes Testing Best Practices Testing Applies to Widgets and Accessories, Not Just Landing Pages

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Google Confirms Yahoo-Google Deal on Friday the 13th

Google's official spin on the Yahoo-Google search deal portrays the pact as a technology play. Yahoo will have access to Google ad technology under the terms of the agreement.

Yahoo stated to Microsoft yesterday that an independent search business is critical to its future. We're puzzled how a partial outsourcing of search ads to Google would somehow ensure its independence.

If anything, the Google deal will weaken Yahoo's position in the search marketplace and likely lead to a defection among software engineers.

Our agreement to provide ad technology to Yahoo! 6/12/2008 03:28:00 PM Posted by Omid Kordestani, Senior VP, Global Sales and Business Development

Today, we announced a non-exclusive advertising agreement that will provide Yahoo! with access to our AdSense for search and AdSense for content advertising programs on their U.S. and Canadian web properties. In addition, we will work to enable interoperability between our respective instant messaging services allowing users better, broader communication online.

We are proud of the advertising technologies we have built, which show users a relevant ad whether they are searching for a specific item or browsing the internet. This arrangement extends those benefits to Yahoo! and its many users, advertisers and publisher partners. We currently provide similar services to sites like AOL and Ask.com as well as many other partners, and we work closely with all of our partners to ensure that our partnership drives their long term success.

Why did we make this agreement? Quite simply, we think it is good for users, advertisers and publishers. By offering Google's industry-leading technology to Yahoo!, the whole system becomes more efficient, and everyone benefits:

* Consumers will see more relevant ads when they are looking for information and browsing the web. And with interoperability between IM services, users will have easier access to even more of their contacts.

* Publishers currently in the Yahoo! Publisher Network will benefit from Google's advertising technology, potentially increasing the revenue they earn from their sites.

* Advertisers will have new ways to reach their target customers online more efficiently.

We also think this is good for competition. The truth is, this kind of arrangement is commonplace in many industries, and it doesn't foreclose robust competition. Toyota sells its hybrid technology to General Motors, even though they are the number one and number two car manufacturers globally. Canon provides laser printer engines for HP, despite also competing in the broader laser printer market. Google and Yahoo will continue to be vigorous competitors, and that competition will help fuel innovation that is good for users.

It is important to say what this agreement is not:

* This is not a merger. Rather, we are merely providing access to our advertising technology to Yahoo! through our AdSense program.

* This does not remove a competitor from the playing field. Yahoo! will remain in the business of search and content advertising, which gives the company a continued incentive to keep improving and innovating. Even during this agreement, Yahoo! can use our technology as much or as little as it chooses.

* This does not prevent Yahoo! from making similar arrangements with others. This arrangement is not exclusive, meaning that Yahoo! could enter into similar arrangements with other companies.

* This does not increase Google's share of search traffic. Yahoo! will continue to run its own search engine and advertising programs, and the agreement will not increase Google's share of search traffic.

* This does not let Google raise prices for advertisers. Google does not set the prices manually for ads; rather, advertisers themselves determine prices through an ongoing competitive auction. We have found over years of research that an auction is by far the most efficient way to price search advertising and have no intention of changing that.

We have been in contact with regulators about this arrangement, and we expect to work closely with them to answer their questions about the transaction. Ultimately we believe that the efficiencies of this agreement will help preserve competition.

The Internet is a healthy, competitive environment where content creators, advertisers and users come together to access information, communicate and create new business opportunities. We think this deal extends these benefits -- it's good for users, advertisers and publishers and good for the industry.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 9:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Yahoo Google Deal: Yahoo Adds AdWords Search Deal

Yahoo signed a new advertising deal with Google that will face antitrust scrutiny during the next 90 days or so. The deal, which will not be executed until regulatory review is completed, will allow Yahoo to display some ads sold by Google.

U.S. Senator Herb Kohl (D-WI), chairman of the Senate Antitrust Subcommittee, issued the following statement in response to the announcement by Google and Yahoo:

"We will closely examine the joint venture between Google and Yahoo announced today. This collaboration between two technology giants and direct competitors for Internet advertising and search services raises important competition concerns. The consequences for advertisers and consumers could be far-reaching and warrant careful review, and we plan to investigate the competitive and privacy implications of this deal further in the Antitrust Subcommittee."

The benefit to Yahoo? An estimated $800 million in annual revenue come come through improved monetization of search. For now, the deal is limited to search. Google and Yahoo are looking at ways to expand the partnership, most likely into display advertising.

Yahoo will determine how Google's ads are displayed. Yahoo's pitching the agreement as part of its "open strategy" but it's a clear indication that Yahoo Panama failed to deliver.

Yahoo President Susan Decker called the pact "a bridge" that will help the company create a unified display and search business. Yahoo said either party can end the agreement in the event of a change in control. If that happens in the next 24 months, Yahoo would be penalized with a termination fee of $250 million, less some of the revenue Google had earned through the deal.

Full text of the agreement after the jump:

Yahoo! to Strengthen Competitive Position in Online Advertising Through Non-Exclusive Agreement With Google

Agreement Advances Yahoo!'s Open Strategy; Enhances Ability to Compete in Converging Search and Display Marketplace

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Jun 12, 20 -- Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO), a leading global Internet company, announced today that it has reached an agreement with Google Inc. that will enhance its ability to compete in the converging search and display marketplace, advancing the company's open strategy. The agreement enables Yahoo! to run ads supplied by Google alongside Yahoo!'s search results and on some of its web properties in the United States and Canada. The agreement is non-exclusive, giving Yahoo! the ability to display paid search results from Google, other third parties, and Yahoo!'s own Panama marketplace.

Under the terms of the agreement, Yahoo! will select the search term queries for which - and the pages on which - Yahoo! may offer Google paid search results. Yahoo! will define its users' experience and will determine the number and placement of the results provided by Google and the mix of paid results provided by Panama, Google or other providers. The agreement applies to paid search and content match and does not apply to algorithmic search. The agreement also applies to current partners in Yahoo's publisher network.

Yahoo! CEO and co-founder Jerry Yang said, "We believe that the convergence of search and display is the next major development in the evolution of the rapidly changing online advertising industry. Our strategies are specifically designed to capitalize on this convergence -- and this agreement helps us move them forward in a significant way. It also represents an important next step in our open strategy, building on the progress we have already made in advancing a more open marketplace."

"This agreement provides a source of funds to both deliver financial value to stockholders from search monetization and to invest in our broader strategy to transform display advertising and advance our starting point objectives with users," said Yahoo! President Sue Decker. "It enhances competition by promoting our ability to compete in the marketplace where we are especially well positioned: in the convergence of search and display."

Agreement Provides Attractive Economics and Enhances Search Monetization

Yahoo! believes that this agreement will enable the Company to better monetize Yahoo!'s search inventory in the United States and Canada. At current monetization rates, this is an approximately $800 million annual revenue opportunity. In the first 12 months following implementation, Yahoo! expects the agreement to generate an estimated $250 million to $450 million in incremental operating cash flow.

The agreement will enhance Yahoo!'s ability to achieve its goal to grow operating cash flow significantly, while at the same time providing flexibility to continue to invest in ongoing initiatives such as algorithmic search innovation and search and display advertising platforms. It gives Yahoo! complete flexibility to continue to use its Panama paid search results.

Significant Benefits Will Flow to Users, Advertisers, Publishers and Employees

Users will also benefit from Yahoo!'s ability to invest incremental operating cash flow in ongoing improvements to its search services, building upon recent major innovations such as Search Assist and SearchMonkey. Advertisers will continue to benefit from multiple marketplace alternatives including Panama, Google and others. Publishers will benefit from a winning combination of distribution, monetization and services to help them grow their businesses. The financial benefits will enable Yahoo! to broaden the scope of its investments and initiatives, enhancing Yahoo!'s ability to offer attractive career opportunities to its employees.

Terms of the Agreement

The agreement will enable Yahoo! to run ads supplied by Google's AdSense(TM) for Search and AdSense(TM) for Content services next to Yahoo!'s internally generated paid search and algorithmic search results. Yahoo may also run Google-supplied ads on non-search Yahoo web properties, as well as on current members of its partner network. The agreement has a term of up to ten years: a four-year initial term and two, three-year renewals at Yahoo!'s option. It applies to Yahoo!'s operations in the U.S. and Canada only. Advertisers will continue to pay Yahoo! directly for clicks served by Yahoo! from Yahoo!'s Panama and Content Match marketplaces. Advertisers will pay Google directly for each click on Google paid search results appearing on Yahoo! owned and operated network or certain affiliate sites. Google will share a percentage of such revenue with Yahoo!.

In addition, Yahoo! and Google agreed to enable interoperability between their respective instant messaging services, bringing easier and broader communication to users.

The agreement allows either party to terminate the agreement in the event of a change in control of either party. The agreement also requires Yahoo! to pay a termination fee if the agreement is terminated as a result of a change in control that occurs within 24 months. The termination fee is $250 million, subject to reduction by 50 percent of revenues earned by Google under the agreement.

Although Google and Yahoo! are not required to receive regulatory approval of the deal before implementing it, the companies have voluntarily agreed to delay implementation for up to three and a half months while the U.S. Department of Justice reviews the arrangement.

Goldman, Sachs & Co., Lehman Brothers and Moelis & Company are acting as financial advisors to Yahoo!. Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP is acting as legal advisor to Yahoo!, and Munger Tolles & Olson LLP is acting as counsel to the outside directors of Yahoo!.

Yahoo! will host a conference call to discuss the agreement with Google at 6:30 p.m. Eastern Time today. To listen to the call live, please dial 877-391-6847 (reservation number 70308474#). A live audiocast of the conference call can be accessed through the Company's Investor Relations website at http://yhoo.client.shareholder.com/index.cfm. In addition, an archive of the audiocast can be accessed through the same link. An audio replay of the call will be available following the conference call by calling 888-286-8010 (reservation number 84138579).

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 7:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

June 11, 2008

Sergey Brin: Astronaut or Cosmonaut?

Sergey Brin, Google's co-founder, is planning a trip to outer space in 2011, according to a report in the New York Times. Space Adventures flies wealthy explorers on Russian Soyuz rockets to the International Space Station. The Virginia-based company plans to buy a Soyuz flight all its own in 2011, with the option of buying more.

At the Explorers Club in NYC, Space Adventures is expected to announce that Sergey Brin will be one of two passengers on the flight. Brin made a $5 million investment in the company that will serve as a deposit on a future flight.

Brin said in a Space Adventures statement, “I am a big believer in the exploration and commercial development of the space frontier, and am looking forward to the possibility of going into space.”

His company is a sponsor of the Google Lunar X Prize, a $25 million competition to land an unmanned craft on the moon.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 9:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 10, 2008

Google Favicon Bookmarks the Best Internet Research

Google has a new favicon for the first time in 8.5 years. A favicon is the small icon you see in your browser next to the URL or in your bookmarks list.

While the reviews on the change have been mixed, Google designers went through more than 300 versions of the favicon to determine the best one.

Here are the ones that didn't make the cut. Let us know if you think favicons on this grid beat the "small g" that Google chose.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 3:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

McCain to Use Google to Choose Vice Presidential Candidate

Republican presidential candidate John McCain joked to a small crowd of supporters that he was using Internet search engine Google to research his list of potential vice presidential candidates for his ticket.

"You know, basically it's a Google," Mr McCain said, to laughter, when asked how the selection process was going during a 10,000 dollar per person lunch in Richmond, Virginia. "What you can find out now on the internet - it's remarkable."

We tend to agree with ClickZ's Kate Kaye, who interviewed Google political guru Peter Greenberger who concluded Hillary Clinton's campaign was hampered by its failure to use search advertising consistently throughout the primary season, as both the Obama and McCain campaigns did.

We like the fact that McCain calls Google "a Google" as opposed to President Bush who referred to the search engine giant as "the Google." It proves he's much more Internet-savvy.

So who might be on McCain's short list of candidates?

Based on a Google search for "vice president" there's the obvious choice: US House approves prolonged protection for Vice President Cheney - 13 hours ago WASHINGTON, June 9 (Xinhua) -- The US House of Representatives passed a legislation on Monday to prolong the protections for Vice President Cheney

Then there's Condoleeza Rice, who's actively campaigning for the slot according to ABC News:

Political Radar: Dan Senor: Condoleezza Rice Is Pursuing the VP Spot If you don't like Dr. Rice for Vice President, then you are a liberal ...... The Republicans who think that Condi is qualified to be VP or President have to ... blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2008/04/dan-senor-condo.html -

We like the dark horse candidates found on the bottom of Page One:

Blog Search Brian Schweitzer for Vice President - The Creature Politic - 20 hours ago Arianna Huffington for Vice President - Financial Post - Diane Francis - 17 hours ago Vice President - Flimsy Sanity - Jun 8, 2008

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 8:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

June 4, 2008

Google Launches Website Workout Contest

Google has announced the launch of its Website Workout Contest. Four winners will get consulting to help improve their sites' ROI. Google's Website Optimizer will be used to test graphics, copy, design and other web page factors.

The contest deadline is June 17th. Google has created a promo video for the contest. View below.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 12:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 30, 2008

Most Irrelevant Google News Story of the Day

We know how fascinated people are by every move that Google makes. Google experiments on a daily basis. We're glad. It gives us something to do.

Sometimes, though, we think people get carried away with reporting Google news. It's like the song "Every Breath You Take" by The Police.

So here's our contribution: the most irrelevant Google news story of the day.

Google has apparently changed its "favorite icon" or favicon from an upper-case G to a lower-case G, as shown here blown up by 300 percent.

Granted, it may be a slow news day but does this story deserve play in Search Engine Roundtable, SearchEngineLand and SearchEngineWatch? If we're wrong and this is a life-changing event for you, let us know.

"Every move you make Every step you take Ill be watching you

Ill be watching you Ill be watching you Ill be watching you Ill be watching you..."

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 10:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

May 19, 2008

Google Content Network Expands Ad Network

The Google Content Network has expanded its ad network to include new advertising partners. The new partners underwent a certification process to make sure ads comply with Google's ad standards.

Here they are broken down by category:

• Advertiser ad servers: DoubleClick (DFA), Mediaplex