Local Search

A busy day for Google on the legal front continues with news that the company has agreed to $8.5 million in payments to settle a federal lawsuit surrounding Google Buzz and privacy. According to AFP, court documents filed today show that seven plaintiffs will get no more than $2,500 each, lawyers that filed the case [...]

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Google’s announced a special press event for next Wednesday on search that “you won’t want to miss.” What big news could there be? Let’s speculate — but I wouldn’t get too excited. Here’s what the invite says: We invite you to join us on Wednesday, September 8, to share our latest technological innovation and to get an [...]

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It’s sort of a baby step in Facebook’s efforts to improve its search results, but certainly worth noting here: Facebook is now showing news articles in its search results and ranking them by how many “likes” and “shares” the articles have received from Facebook users. The All Facebook blog says the number of friends who [...]

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Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Texas Attorney General Investigating Google & Antitrust Issues Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott is conducting an investigation into Google’s business practices as they relate to search listings, in particular whether Google is manipulating its [...]

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Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott is conducting an investigation into Google’s business practices as they relate to search listings, in particular whether Google is manipulating its paid and editorial results in a way that violates antitrust laws. We received a tip about the investigation this week, and Google confirmed today that an investigation started in July. [...]

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A German court has found YouTube liable for copyright damages after one of its users uploaded copyrighted music videos. A Google spokesperson tells the AP that it’s evaluating the court’s decision and will appeal. The case stems around a YouTube user who uploaded several videos of singer Sarah Brightman. While YouTube specifically warns users not to [...]

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In Part 1, we looked at query operators for refining our searches. Now for Part 2, let’s look at parameters that we can add/modify in the URL of the the Google SERP (search engine results page.) The operators listed in Part 1 should suffice for most searches. Yet, certain types of searches are most efficiently accomplished [...]

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Earlier this summer Google rolled out Expandable Map Ads for mobile devices. These ads appear on the mobile web and in apps. To participate advertisers must enable location extensions and be opted in to the content network for mobile. They begin as a banner that expands when clicked into a map with the option to [...]

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If you visit Google on Saturday, September 4th, or visit a Google property where it is already September 4th such as Google New Zealand, you will see a special Google logo. The logo is of a buckyball or fullerence, which is any molecule composed entirely of carbon, in the form of a hollow sphere, [...]

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The Google Webmaster Central blog announced improvements to their rich snippets feature. The improvements include a way to tell Google how you want your breadcrumb URLs to appear and an improved rich snippet testing tool. The breadcrumbs you have seen before, we have pictures here. Sometimes you don’t like how Google shows breadcrumbs in [...]

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As I keep working on the message of “how” we get things done online, I’m getting clearer about this concept of generalized vs. specialized thinking and action. Those of you who know me or have read any of my Analyze This posts have probably heard this “lead pipes” example I throw around. The idea is this [...]

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Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Google Showing Four Top AdWords Ads, Top One Google Mortgage Ad When I search for [mortgage rates] in Google, I am presented with dozens of Google AdWords ads on the search page. But [...]

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Historically, Google has shown a maximum of three ads above its unpaid “editorial” search results. But now, the company is experimenting with four. Below is an example from a search for [mortgage rates] in Google: As you can see, there are four separate ads being displayed, rather than the usual maximum of three. The first one is one [...]

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A Consumer Watchdog group is airing a cartoon that is named “do not track me.” The video depicts Google’s CEO, Eric Schmidt as seducing children to come get their “free ice cream.” Then the cartoon version of Eric Schmidt talks about how nothing is really free and how Google gives away things in [...]

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Still wondering whether to attend SMX East in New York on October 4-6? You can get a great overview of what to expect from the show from SMX East: A Personal Tour By Danny Sullivan, where Danny talks about the content and structure we’ve developed for the show. Like Danny, I’m really excited about this conference, [...]

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Social media is all about engagement. Because of this, it is the perfect tool for outreach marketing efforts. Outreach marketing is the practice of seeking out individuals or organizations that have a shared interest in what you or your company has to offer. Sometimes, it is used in conjunction with direct sales, but often times [...]

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Now that you have your paid search account up, running, and are able to pull basic reports, it’s time to start setting up your schedule for handling all of the various tasks required to truly steward a successful SEM program. The amount of work you’ll be putting in will mainly be dictated by the [...]

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The Google Merchant Blog announced they have opened up the help documents for how merchants can submit content, such as local stock inventory levels, for their products. Google said this is still a limited beta program, which was first announced in March of this year. Google also said that if merchants are interested in being [...]

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AOL announced they have extended their search deal with Google for an additional five-years. This includes Google powering AOL’s organic and paid search results. The deal also added in that Google will power search on mobile search, in mobile apps and content. Also, all of AOL’s video content will also be on [...]

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Most of Apple’s announcements yesterday were anticipated. Still there were a few surprises; for example the specifics of the iTunes-based social network Ping, as well as the pricing of Apple TV 2.0 ($99). Apple pre-empted Google to some degree with both products. Business Insider does a nice job of contrasting the two TV initiatives and their [...]

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Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Google Maps “Sponsored Map Icons” Test Comes To U.S. Google Maps is now testing “sponsored map icons” in the United States. This was first tested back in March in the Australian version of [...]

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Google Maps is now testing “sponsored map icons” in the United States. This was first tested back in March in the Australian version of Google Maps. The sponsored map icons are basically company logo enhanced points of interest icons. For example, instead of seeing a generic ATM machine icon on Google Maps, [...]

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Some of you may remember my debut Search Engine Land post which looked at the process for buying an iPhone 4 on various UK retailers. The article went down quite well so I’d like to repeat this process for another set of websites to see how they convert visitors into buyers. This time I’ve chosen [...]

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Need authority links? Twitter is one of the best ways I’ve found to get your site (or yourself as the case may be) on the radar of the journalists who decide what topics and websites are discussed (and linked to) in mainstream media. Interacting with the folks who report on your chosen industry on Twitter – [...]

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The Google Webmaster Help blog announced they are now indexing SVG files and documents. SVG is a royalty-free graphics format typically used on the web for fancy font usage. Google said: We index SVG content whether it is in a standalone file or embedded directly in HTML. The web is big, so it may take some [...]

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Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Is SEO Integrated Into Your Localization Process? For many, the question posed in the title of this post seems silly, often resulting in either a confused expression, or a “how dare you ask that [...]

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For many, the question posed in the title of this post seems silly, often resulting in either a confused expression, or a “how dare you ask that question” look from localization managers. Yet over the past few weeks I have spoken to a number of localization and SEO managers at Fortune 500 companies who [...]

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Dear Facebook, A couple of weeks ago you launched your new location service, Places. We all think it’s great and are really excited that you’re opening up the world of location to a whole new audience. We can’t wait to start finding new and exciting ways of using Places to connect consumers and brands. But we [...]

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The bounce rate of a site is the percentage of users who leave without going to another page on your site before the analytics session times out, with the length of a session being dependent upon your specific analytics package (I’ve heard that 30 minutes is the average.) Usually listed as Bounce Rate in your [...]

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Yahoo announced their Yahoo Search Marketing advertisers can now begin the transition process from Yahoo Search Marketing to Microsoft adCenter. This is the first step of the paid search transition from Yahoo Search ads to Microsoft Bing search ads. Last week, Yahoo’s organic transition to Microsoft Bing was complete. This week, Yahoo and Microsoft [...]

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Google this evening has launched what it calls “priority inbox” for Gmail. It uses a variety of algorithmic and machine learning techniques to automatically capture and organize “important” emails and de-emphasize other email. It’s like a spam filter in reverse: Gmail’s servers look at several types of information to identify the email that’s important to [...]

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If you’re running a large site that sells a lot of products, you’ve probably had to come up with a plan to deal with pagination: showing products over several pages of otherwise similar content. That was the topic of an interesting discussion in the Google Webmaster Help forums recently, and it also reached the Sphinn [...]

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Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Bing Mobile App Comes To Verizon Android Handsets Microsoft previously said there was going to be an Android version of Bing soon, following its successful iPhone app. Today there is — for Verizon Android [...]

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Microsoft previously said there was going to be an Android version of Bing soon, following its successful iPhone app. Today there is — for Verizon Android handsets only however. It was announced on the Bing Community Blog. I’m sure a more general Bing-Android app will be out in the not to distant future. Although it’s overshadowed by [...]

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After months of being without a long-term content deal, Google and the Associated Press have finally renewed their vows. Google will continue to host AP stories on Google News and have access to AP’s news feeds without fear that the AP will make legal claims against the company. From the announcement: We’ve extended our existing licensing [...]

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Last week Google acquired Angstro. The site has been described as a way to discover and organize information about individuals across various professional networks. Here’s how Angstro describes itself: Ångströ represents the ability to hone in on highly focused, relevant news across professional networks. Where search engines such as Google and other news aggregator [...]

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Google plans pay-per-view films from the Financial Times reports Google is in talks with several major Hollywood film companies to offer a pay-per-view service of their films. Reports say that the streaming movie service from YouTube will bring these movies to online consumers at about $5 per movie. The movies would not download to [...]

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Google has a special logo on many of the Google properties, not Google U.S., for Mary Shelley. Mary Shelley is well known for novel, Frankenstein. The Google Doodle is a gothic theme, which conveys Mary Shelley’s work as a writer. She started writing Frankenstein at the age of 18, completed it a [...]

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Will this year be the year when online holiday sales return to double digit growth? Or will the holidays once again deliver lackluster growth in the low single digits for online advertisers? While predicting how much consumers will buy may be difficult, predicting how they will likely behave is not. We recently [...]

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In my last Paid Search column I wrote about six common business fallacies that lead paid search managers to spend time unproductively. Unproductive work is costly in that someone internally or externally is paid to do work that adds no value, and that same person is prevented from doing work that is valuable. Prioritizing tasks [...]

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Early bird rates for Search Marketing Expo – SMX East end soon. Save up to $300 on your All Access ticket by registering now! Why should you join us October 4-6 in New York City? More than 100 of the world’s most knowledgeable speakers will present at SMX East. They’re selected based on ability AND willingness [...]

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If you a) believe in the power of search—as a technology, as a consumer experience and as a business model, and b) believe in the economic promise of the “local” opportunity, then you need to commit to a simple axiom: the ultimate destiny of a local search is a phone call. Two relatively new macro trends [...]

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We’re delighted to announce that Yelp Chief Operating Officer Geoff Donaker will be in the spotlight for SMX East’s second day keynote on Tuesday, October 5th. Combining local search with customer reviews, special offers and a healthy dose of social interaction, Yelp is an indispensable resource for local businesses and those who enjoy “getting out [...]

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Google has added a new filter to its blog search option that makes it easier to find blogs themselves, not just individual blog posts. The filter is part of Google.com search, not Google’s specific Blog Search service at blogsearch.google.com. The filter appears in the left-side menu. When you choose the Blogs option after your search, it [...]

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Google has launched a new videoblog series that will highlight “some of the hottest searches” on Google’s U.S. search engine. It’s called The Google Beat, and the first weekly video was published this morning. Here’s how Google explains it: Using data from Google Trends, Google Insights for Search and some additional tools, the Google Beat will [...]

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Paul Allen, the Microsoft co-founder and one of the richest men on earth, has filed a patent infringement suit today against several Internet titans, the Wall Street Journal reports. The lawsuit centers on technology developed a decade ago by Interval Research Corp., a technology lab that Allen owned between 1992 and 2000. Eleven companies are [...]

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Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: International SEM Goes Beyond Simple Translation: Q&A With Latin3’s Matias Perel Because only a fraction of the world’s population resides here in the United States, the idea of global reach is a tempting one. [...]

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Because only a fraction of the world’s population resides here in the United States, the idea of global reach is a tempting one. There are some obvious business issues for anyone attempting to market to international consumers, and those challenges certainly extend to the realm of search engine marketing. Regardless of the complications of doing business [...]

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Bing is now powering Yahoo’s organic results, and retailers wonder how this algorithmic shift will impact their organic traffic with holiday season just around the corner. Market share trends all seem positive so where’s the beef? While I’m a fan of the direction Bing is taking, don’t expect this market shift to produce short-term organic [...]

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Google Operating System reports some users are seeing Google search results center or middle aligned. For some reason, Google may be testing padding white space on the right and left of the search results. I personally cannot replicate it but Google Operating System posted a screen shot, which I will share here [...]

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