IndustrySearchDay | Search Shifts and Predictions for 2009

SearchDay | Search Shifts and Predictions for 2009

Today's search engine marketing news and opinion: Search Ad Quality Score 101; What Makes a Successful Online Promotion?; 5 Web Resources to Find a Job in Search; and more.

Today’s Top Story:

SEW Expert - William Flaiz William
Flaiz
Search Shifts and Predictions for 2009
More OUTSOURCED OUTSOURCED
Time to ring in the New Year with a few search marketing predictions for 2009. What will another year hold for Google, the Web and SEO?
» Full story » Print version


Search Engine Watch Experts Columns

SEW Expert - Ron Jones Ron
Jones
Search Ad Quality Score 101, Part 1
More SEM 101 SEM 101
It’s been about two years since Google and Yahoo implemented their quality score algorithms. Instead of giving the top ad spot to the highest bidder, search engines now take the perceived quality of the ad’s landing page into account. Let’s take a closer look at what affects the quality score.
» Full story » Print version
SEW Expert - Sage Lewis Sage
Lewis
What Makes a Successful Online Promotion?
More LINK LOVE LINK LOVE
To begin his new role as a “promotions and link building guy,” Sage Lewis is offering a bribe to get readers to help him write his next column.
» Full story » Print version
SEW Expert - Eric Enge Eric
Enge
Use Caution When Growing Your Site
More BY THE NUMBERS BY THE NUMBERS
If you’re planning on rapidly expanding the size of your site, exercise some care. Devise a strategy that will lead to pages that have something to offer users, and you will stay out of trouble with search engines, and better serve your users at the same time.
» Full story » Print version

News from the Search Engine Watch Blog

The 5 Web Resources You Need to Find a Job in Search
Posted by Nathania Johnson Jan 5, 2009

It’s a New Year, but we’ve got that same old economy from 2008. If you find yourself looking for a job in search, these five resources should be the foundation of your efforts: Indeed.com – Culls results from a variety of jobs sites as well as job listings from company web …
» Continue reading

Google, Microsoft Higher Ups Dish Out the Dough for Obama Inauguration
Posted by Nathania Johnson Jan 5, 2009

Execs from Google and Microsoft are ponying up big time for President-elect Barack Obama’s big day. On January 20, the former junior Senator from Illinois will become the 44th President of the United States. Who from search is giving big for the shindig? From Google: Eric Schmidt (CEO) $25,000.00 Larry Page (Co-founder) $25,000.00 Marissa …
» Continue reading

China to Crack Down on Search Engines
Posted by Nathania Johnson Jan 5, 2009

Bloomberg is reporting that China plans to crack down on search engines, among other sites they deem harmful. This certainly wouldn’t be the first time. The reason this time is concerns over pornography. Of course, search engines don’t host pornography on their sites, they simply provide links to searchers. If …
» Continue reading

Apple Should Buy Yahoo: Why I’m Now Convinced
Posted by Nathania Johnson Jan 2, 2009

I’m not the first to ponder this, but I would never have given it true consideration until today’s earlier speculation about Google Android netbooks. Should Google head in that direction, it would make the company not just a search engine but an operating system provider. Simply competing in just the …
» Continue reading

Google Wants You! (To Vote for Mobile Product Ideas)
Posted by Nathania Johnson Jan 2, 2009

Have an idea to improve a Google Mobile product? (Like the ability to edit Google Docs on the iPhone? Just sayin.) Now you have a way to suggest it. Or vote for it, if someone else has suggested it. Google Mobile has launched its Product Ideas site and once you’re signed in, …
» Continue reading

Google Explains the Nuances of Language Translation
Posted by Nathania Johnson Jan 2, 2009

Since search involves people from all of the world speaking a variety of languages, Google takes language translation very seriously. Shankar Kumar and Wolfgang Macherey recently took to the Official Google Research blog to explain more about Google’s translation methods. Specifically, Kumar and Macherey talked about the Minimum Bayes Risk (MBR) …
» Continue reading

Stanford Students May Have Answer To Video Monetization
Posted by Frank Watson Jan 3, 2009

Another group at Stanford may have come up with the next big thing. Zunavision is a way to embed video inside video and could lead to true successful video monetization. Okay it has been out there since midNovember, but it really does have some of the slick tricks needed to ultimately …
» Continue reading

Google Android on a Netbook: How Soon Will We See It?
Posted by Nathania Johnson Jan 2, 2009

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 …
» Continue reading

Building a Business Case for Going to SES London 2009
Posted by Greg Jarboe Jan 5, 2009

With six weeks to go before SES London 2009, itâ””s time to build a business case for going to the definitive event for UK and European marketers, corporate decision makers, webmasters and search engine marketing (SEM) specialists, including pay per click (PPC) advertisers and search engine optimization (SEO) consultants. …
» Continue reading

IE Browsers Drop Below 70% Market Share
Posted by Frank Watson Jan 2, 2009

The Dallas Morning News reported Internet Explorer – Microsoft’s pervasive web browser – has fallen to 68% market share. Firefox is now over 20% and browsers such as Safari, Opera, and Google’s Chrome make up the rest. The article shows Chrome at below 1% though I have seen reports that have that …
» Continue reading

Google Offers Browser Security Handbook
Posted by Frank Watson Jan 2, 2009

Google recently published a Browser Security Handbook and given that they are now in the browser space it is worth a read. It gives a good overview of how a browser works and then details security issues to be aware of, as well as some good advanced security issues. Perhaps if …
» Continue reading

Phishing Scam Hits Twitter; Will it Become the Next MySpace?
Posted by Nathania Johnson Jan 5, 2009

This morning, I received a direct message from one of my Twitter friends. It was a very strange message. Check it out: I clicked on the link, which lead to this: I checked the Tweet stream of the friend who sent me the direct message. She said she had been fooled into …
» Continue reading

UPDATE: Steve Jobs Weight Loss Due to Hormonal Imbalance
Posted by Nathania Johnson Jan 5, 2009

UPDATE: Link to Steve Jobs Letter at Apple Site Last week, Frank Watson reported to you that Steve Jobs health was in question. If you read a bunch of tech blogs, you’ve seen the rumors. Jobs once had cancer, and bloggers, journalists and Wall Street analysts have been wondering if it …
» Continue reading

Rumors Have Microsoft Laying Off 17% of Work Force This Month
Posted by Frank Watson Jan 1, 2009

Though the possibility of Microsoft laying off 15,000 employees this month is getting some attention, it is definitely in the heavy rumor category, as Ars Technica reports. We will not have long to see if it is real as the sack by date is January 15, a week before the company’s …
» Continue reading

Can Google Maps Find $3 Billion Treasure As Well As New Porsches
Posted by Frank Watson Jan 1, 2009

Add treasure hunting and new car previews to the list of benefits from using Google Maps. A court case in Texas about access to a possible $3 billion treasure has included Google Maps as a source of the treasure hunters research. “Nathan Smith testified Tuesday that he not only used Google …
» Continue reading

If You Want To Know When Google Updates Toolbar PR Follow Matt Cutts on Twitter
Posted by Frank Watson Jan 1, 2009

Call it a late Christmas gift or a New Year’s present, but Matt Cutts confirmed the recent Google toolbar PR on Twitter the other night. His tweet can be seen here. While you are there you might as well start following him for any other short sentenced pearls of wisdom.
» Continue reading


Search Engine Watch Forum Discussions

How many hours / week do you work (net time)? Jan 3, 2009
Hi, I’ve been wondering lately: How many hours do you guys actually spend “working”? And do you have any time, at all during the week to do something such as working out or having a hobby other than SEO?:-) Or is it not really a problem to you because you can …
» Join the discussion
Google Adwords Certification Jan 4, 2009
Hi There – I recall back a bit that there was some for of certification available to provide that you are proficient with Google Adwords. Is this true? If so, I am wondering if anyone knows of a reputable source where this can be achieved. Thanks so much. -Beth:)
» Join the discussion
How much shall I ask for PPC? Dec 31, 2008
Hi all, I was working as an inhouse SEO before I have just begun working on my own. I am responsible from an adwords account for a US company.I have to prepare a proposal and I do not know very well pricing about PPC. Could you please tell me how the pricing …
» Join the discussion

Resources

The 2023 B2B Superpowers Index

whitepaper | Analytics The 2023 B2B Superpowers Index

8m
Data Analytics in Marketing

whitepaper | Analytics Data Analytics in Marketing

10m
The Third-Party Data Deprecation Playbook

whitepaper | Digital Marketing The Third-Party Data Deprecation Playbook

1y
Utilizing Email To Stop Fraud-eCommerce Client Fraud Case Study

whitepaper | Digital Marketing Utilizing Email To Stop Fraud-eCommerce Client Fraud Case Study

1y