Today’s search podcast covers the SES Latino show that just concluded in
Miami; a new Yahoo deal to reach Hispanics; Google & radio ad moves; search
engine office expansions; Google Force One revisited and more!
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Below are links to items discussed:
- Search
Engine Strategies Latino, Miami, Florida – Day One
Day one of the first ever Search Engine Strategies Latino edition is pretty
much complete. The networking cocktail is taking place now, there is a Google
party tonight and also some Yahoo boat thing. I have managed to cover the
Landscape & Tactics tracks, so here is the roundup. + The Opportunity: Tapping
Into US Hispanics & Latin America Via Search + Search Landscape: US Hispanics
+ Search Landscape: Latin America + The Challenges Of Search Marketing To US
Hispanics & Latin Americans I also took pictures of the sessions and outside
of the hotel, you can see them here….
- Search
Engine Strategies Latino, Miami, Florida – Day Two
The conference has officially ended, it was a really great event. Huge
congrats to Nacho for running this. I am writing this quickly, because they
are breaking down the room as I type this. Here are the sessions I covered
today. + Translate Or Create: Strategies For Those With English-Language Sites
+ Domain Issues – Latin American Version + Spanish / Portuguese Language Ad
Issues + SEO & Spanish / Portuguese Language Issues Again, pictures of the
event tagged with seslatino at Flickr….
Cartoon Barry Interactive by SitePal, Search Engine Roundtable
- Yahoo
Reaches Out To U.S. Hispanics Via Deal With Hispanic Digital Network
ClickZ reports that Yahoo has reached a deal with Hispanic Digital Network (HDN)
to supply web search and sponsored search listings for HDN’s 70+
Spanish-language Web sites. Reportedly, this gives Yahoo access to 2.8 million
U.S. Hispanic visitors per month. The ads will be both in Spanish and English,
not based on geo-location but based on the language used in the query. Yahoo
would like to see more Spanish content web sites developed in the future,
according to Peter Celeste, regional general manager for the Americas for
Yahoo Search and Search Marketing. For more information on the Hispanic
market, check…
Speculation: Google To Begin Selling Radio Ads Through AdWords Soon
TechToolBlog said he received a survey from Google specifically asking
questions about radio ads. Most of the questions in the survey are related to
radio ads, see the screen captures here or the close ups Donna Bogatin has
done here. He said that last time Google sent out a survey, it was about print
ads, and then they ran print ads soon after. Keep in mind, DMarc Broadcasting,
currently sells radio ads, but this seems like Google may begin pushing
AdWords advertisers into the radio ad game….
- New
Landing Page Quality Score Announced for Google AdWords Advertisers
The Google AdWords blog has announced new changes that will be seen next week
that will result in some advertisers faced with higher minimum bids to keep
their campaigns running on AdWords, as a result in changes being made to the
landing page quality score algorithm. While a small number of advertisers will
be affected, AdWords is targeting those landing pages that offer a poor user
experience to those who click the ads….
- Judge
Orders Google To Disclose Advertiser’s Information
Out-Law reports that Google was ordered by Justice Rimer to hand over the
information on an advertiser to Helen Grant for copyright infringement. Helen
Grant “complained that a Google advert led to a service which she claimed
violated her copyright in a forthcoming book.” A search brought up a site
named Realityunlocked.com, “which offered a free download of an earlier draft
of the book, and that the site violated the Trust’s copyright.” Google asked
Grant to take the issue to court, this way Google does not have to worry about
the privacy issues with handing over the information….
- Click
Packages Draw Local Advertisers Into Search
The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) reports on the “bundle of
clicks” search distribution packages that all the major yellow pages
publishers in the U.S. are now selling to their local advertisers. Here’s an
amazing quote from Simon Greenman, SVP of digital products at R.H. Donnelly,
“Our strategy is to connect our customers with their customers wherever they
may be.” That’s a radical statement for a yellow pages executive to make
because he’s not asserting that print yellow pages is the best lead generation
vehicle “and we also have Internet.” He’s saying Donnelly is “agnostic.”…
SuperPages For Sale
Verizon has formally filed with the SEC to sell its directory unit, which
contains the print yellow pages and online yellow pages/local search
businesses. A likely sale could bring as much as $15 billion. And because AT&T
does not look like it’s going to spin off its directory business, SuperPages
could fetch a significant premium….
SuperPages Upgrades Maps With Microsoft
I never saw a press release. But today I discovered that SuperPages, which had
dynamic mapping almost before anyone else in local (though it was “cludgey”),
has upgraded the mapping on its site using the Microsoft Virtual Earth
platform. The “new” maps are much nicer and easier to use than the last time I
checked, which was admittedly a long time ago. While there is aerial
photography, there’s no “Birds Eye” view here. YellowPages.com licensed
Virtual Earth, including Birds Eye, several months ago….
- Google
Maps Adds Click To Zoom
Loren Baker at Search Engine Journal points out that Google Maps has added
another way to zoom: double clicking. Of course you can still zoom with the
mouse rollerball. Here’s the official statement from the Google Maps API Blog.
Google Earth and Google Maps are now apparently running off the same platform,
which should permit more integration of Earth features into Maps over time….
- Yahoo
Buys Land In Santa Clara
The San Jose Business Journal reports that Yahoo has purchased 42.5 acres in
Santa Clara. The price of the land was not disclosed, but we do know they
bought it from San Francisco’s TMG Partners. Yahoo’s CFO, Sue Decker, said:
“We see this as an attractive asset that provides attractive additional
capacity and flexibility for Yahoo’s future. We are planning for future growth
and will analyze several different scenarios over the coming year regarding
the development of the property.”…
- Google
To Set Up Offices In Michigan
The NY Times reports (also try Reuters) that Google will house up to 1,000
employees in a new facility in Michigan. The office is to reside in downtown
Ann Arbor, “the hometown of the University of Michigan, where Larry Page, one
of Google?s founders, earned his undergraduate degree in engineering.” The
Times reports that the majority of the building will be used for “technology
and call center, with about 40,000 square feet needed to house the library
digitization project.”…
- Google
Drive Revealed?
Yesterday, Cocaman posted a screen capture of what was named Platypus or
GDrive. From the looks of the screen capture it seems like an internal tool
used at Google is getting ready for prime time. The page is now offline, of
course, but the screen capture read;…
- The
Matt Cutts Hard Drive Collection
- Matt
Cutts Of Google Comments On Recent Listings Issues
Last week we reported that Google may have revealed the spam scores to the
world. Well, Matt Cutts came back from vacation and he confirmed the data “was
real.” He promised not to “comment on what any of it means” but at least we
know Google is part of the borg. Just kidding. I doubt we will see a treasure
like that again, but if we do, it would be interesting to see if Google does
add “extra settings for fun,” such as ?initial_time_travel_wormhole=?Wednesday,
December 31 1969 11:11 pm.”…
- Weird
Results Counts On Google
I’ve written before about Google giving strange results counts and why maybe
it’s time for them to go. Yesterday, I came across the oddest ones ever, when
doing some typical searches to gauge the size of the index….
- MySpace
More Popular Than Google Or Yahoo
Bill Tancer over at his HitWise blog has data that claims MySpace Moves Into
#1 Position for all Internet Sites. This is incredibly important, MySpace.com
is more popular that Yahoo Mail, and MySpace’s growth of visits has surpassed
Google towards the end of May of this year. But as Bill points out, what is
most revealing is that the “top search terms driving traffic to all Internet
sites” is MySpace and MySpace.com with 1.28%, compared with last years top
search term being eBay at .31%. See all the details at HitWise….
- AdSense
Consulting Group Fed Up With Google AdSense
Wired has a story on AdSense, not Google AdSense, but AdSense Consulting, the
company who registered AdSense.com back in 1996….
- Google
Jet Plane Security Threat? And Testing A Sofa In Mountain View
Josh Gerstein at the New York sun has an update on the suit over Google Jet
disclosure. Basically, Google’s founders argue that the information given up
by aircraft designer can be could put the lives of those on the plane in
danger. Google asked for a court order to keep the designer quiet. Well, the
judge declined to hear or rule on the case – go figure. Read more about it
from Danny’s earlier post. Postscript From Danny: The security concerns voiced
in the case made me wonder out details getting out about Google Force One
compare to Air Force…
Google boys are “sofa king” rich