Search Engine Marketing and PPC Management News & Info

Google Guys Interviewed by Barbara Walters

Barbara Wawa featured the 10 Most Fascinating People on tonight's 20/20. I really don't like "Babs" so we hope you appreciate the sacrifice we suffered to bring you this transcript and screenshot. ;-) Larry Page and Sergey Brin are not your typical bil
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Search Engine Strategies Chicago - December 13-16

You have your ticket, right? I know it's going to be boo-chilly in Chicago, but you can't possibly miss SES Chicago. We're back as the top-level sponsors and MSN Search is sponsoring for the first time. Danny has added lots of new sessions to the li
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JupiterResearch's Search Engine Marketing Agency Constellation

We participated in Jupiter's survey and were one of the top 14 firms included in the data. Some nice information, but one thing bugs me. The report claims to have rated the participants, but really only focussed on two sets of criteria; length of tenur
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Blingo, a Search Engine For Prize Lovers

News of a new search engine named Blingo, which tries a business model similar to iWon.com. Each search you do on www.blingo.com gives you a chance to win a prize. Users don't have to pay anything, register or provide personal information, and they wil
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Google Earns Nine Cents Per Search Engine Query

John Battelle has some interesting Google data revealed by Majestic Research. - 98 percent of GOOG revs are from paid search. 65% of revs are domestic. - Q3 domestic growth driven by 7% quarter to quarter increase in paid introductions (paid clicks),
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Yahoo Enhances Local Search Business Listings

According to Search Engine Watch, Yahoo has quietly expanded its local business listings and rolled out a service that gives businesses control over their listings in Yahoo Local through a new content inclusion program.
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It's Search Spock, but not as we know it...

Peter Davanzo points out an article submitted by a searchengineblog reader that hits the nail right on the head for me. Mobile search will change everything.. - See the full article threadlinked above.

The author, Scott Schaffer points out that at some point in the not to distant future, mobile net activity will surpass the regular PC net we know now. And more to the point, the throat will be ripped out of online advertising as PPC advertisers struggle to adapt to a very different set of stats for net usage and a mobile consumer landscape with a very different model for information retrieval.

He goes on to hypothesis about scanning barcodes to get information rather than laboriously typing in phrases into a search engine and how who holds a trademark will count far more than who has the highest ranking on Google.

It's a damn good read, and although there is still infinate room for the mobile web to shape itself in any manner of direction I think he paints a plausible picture. Go have a look and tell me what you think...

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SES Chicago Kicks off Next Week

Well, Barry Schwartz has got the ball rolling with regards to the upcoming SES so i guess it's time I pulled out a few threads i've had bookmarked the last couple of weeks:

• Digitalpoint
• HighRankings
• SEW
• Cre8asite

I've most likely missed a load, couldnt find one at wmw for example? heh.. If you have any please pm me or add them as comments..

I guess many of you are going, im green with envy but Ivana's due date is friday so "im just nipping out for some milk..." just wont cut it..

Hope everyone has a great time, and if you get a chance, do login and post in this thread.

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Images and Copyrights: What's ok and what's not?

Adland point to this post by blogger Jason Calacanis on reposting images. Naturally Jason is talking about it in the context of blogs, like there was some kind of difference between a blog and a regular site, but as many a web dev knows, it's a tricky issue.

From the adland post:

it seems there's a new idea forming - posting images without permission is OK as long as they are small?? Please help me out here, am I reading this right? Fair use? Has the world gone mad!? Is this the guy Denton thought should be the one to look up to when it comes to blogger ethics?
The web does cause trouble in this area, but would this new 'rule' hold water in court, or work in the long run - in a fair way? I don't think so.

And I see his point. But then the idea of images as fair use doesn't sound all that crazy does it?

Opinions? I know we have a few copyright experts in here, let's have your thoughts...

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Search Loyalty - What Factors Influence the battle over Search?

Forresters Charlene Li shares some snippets from a consumer survey conducted on US households. Some of the data is unsurprising but it does make for interesting reading.

• Google continues to lead as the site consumers use most frequently to search the Internet, while Yahoo! lost share from 2003.
• MSN gained substantial share as the default home page for online consumers. + Among Google's loyal searchers, many were likely to have MSN and Yahoo! as their default home pages, opening up the possibility that these portals will regain search loyalty.
• MSN has a slight lead in the percent of consumers who use its toolbar.
• Almost half of all toolbar users also use another toolbar.
• Google tops the list in terms of search effectives (as ranked by their own loyal searchers) but overall quality remains poor, leading consumers to use multiple search engines.

I find it very difficult to break the Google habbit (and there's mostly no reason why i should) but I have in recent months been turning to Yahoo! a significant proportion of the time.

I cant seem to take Clusty seriously, no matter what good things i hear :)

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The Google Biz Model - Strong & Healthy - Can they Sustain it?

It's a day or 2 old and I almost missed it but it seems G's quarterly report shows they are earning just under 9c for every search.

Nice business if you can get it and G definately HAS it!

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Manipulating Yahoo Local & The Quality Control Nightmare

Chicago, recenlty appointed moderator of WMW's new Local Searh Forum has a fantastic discussion going with some of the boards heavy hitters on how to manipulate Yahoo! Local with "user ratings".

Users can order their results by user reviews and so both automated, dodgy tactics and clever legit strategies for exploiting this are disussed in detail. Stars of the show are Chicago, eWhisper and tedster. This from Chicago:

When is the last time you checked your business or your client's business reviews? When is the last time you submitted a review? How about your competitors (scary)?

and this from tedster:

Using Amazon's review system, the best way we found to get good, natural reviews was to ask our happy customers to post one. In some cases, we offered a perk of some kind, especially for those listmaniacs who took the time to put together a list. This worked very nicely and created natural positive reviews - avoiding the stilted sound that people who have a business involvement with a product tend to use.

So I would imagine the same would apply to a pizza parlor, a general contractor, a real estate agent - anyone who already has happy campers in their corner and uses local search. And of course, if you don't make customers happy (or don't know if you do) then that would be step number one for the business anyway.

A very nice read, thanks Chicago!

Some questions this raises for me:

• Will we see bots developed to manipulate this feature?
• How will Yahoo maintain a level of quality control?
• Is it as important as it might first appear?

Good stuff from the wmw boys and girls...

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Technology & Voyeuristic Privacy Invasion

The BBC are reporting on the proposed outlawing of "upskirt pics" - It's quite amazing that this kind of invasion of privacy isn't covered already in some more general law but in NZ apparently the photos would have to be proven "objectionable" first...

Under the proposed measures, the making, publishing or distributing of voyeuristic material made without consent will carry a penalty of up to three years in prison.

Knowingly possessing such material without reasonable cause will become an offence carrying a penalty of up to one year in jail.

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Accoona a Fool to Enter Search Engine Arena?

The Motley Fool throws in its two cents regarding the launch of Accoona. It seems they think the industry might be too mature for a new contender to catch-up. Even if you offered me $70 billion, I am not sure I could effectively break into the search e
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Can Accoona Challenge Google?

BusinessWeek looks at the launch of Accoona and whether the new business search engine can compete. Even with a Clinton appearance, Accoona has a long way to go before it can compete with Google. Its artificial intelligence had better prove to be a qui
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Trademark Infringement Claims Now Extend to Meta Tags

According to Out-Law, using trademarked terms in your meta tags, could get you in trouble. A biopharmaceutical firm that distributes plasma derivatives has sued a rival, alleging that Health Coalition Inc. used the trade marked name “BDI Blood Diagnost
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Charlene Li Looks at Search Engine Loyalty

Charlene reveals some data from a Forrester report she recently completed on the loyalty (or fickleness) of search engine users. Some interesting observations including: Among Google's loyal searchers, many were likely to have MSN and Yahoo! as thei
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Is There Room for a Fourth Player in Search?

SELowdown point out this post threadlinked above at motley fool.

They're talking about Accoona specifically:

Even if you offered me $70 billion, I am not sure I could effectively break into the search engine business. To me, Accoona's late entry is a sign that the teams headed for the playoffs have been named and the competition will now begin in earnest. But maybe I'm wrong. As Rick Aristotle Munarriz pointed out, maybe it's just starting to boom. Either way, there's some tough competition down the road from the big guys in the search engine business.

So we have MSN, Google and Yahoo! making up the big 3 players with Jeeves coming up from the rear (i cant help it, im english) and a whole gaggle of specialist SE's that seem to only make a hit with Search folks.

Could the game sustain another player of is that it?

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