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June 2008

June 30, 2008

Mike Moran Exits IBM, Joins Converseon

Mike Moran is leaving IBM after 30 years to take a position in the newly created role of Chief Strategist at social media marketing agency, Converseon. Moran will be involved in the development of Conversation Miner as well as provide consulting to Converseon clients.

“We’re thrilled to have Mike join us,†said Rob Key, Converseon CEO. “He brings to the table the perfect combination of industry-leading expertise with hands-on knowledge of how to internally adopt and promote these practices within complex, enterprise environments. As we often say, social media can be technically relatively simple, but culturally quite difficult. His experience will be invaluable as we help leading brands develop and execute innovative social media campaigns. He will also play a key role in consolidating Converseon’s position as a leading social media marketing and consulting agency offering end-to-end services, from listening to engaging to measuring.â€

While at IBM, Moran led several search technology projects including IBM's OmniFind search and text analytics products, the first commercial linguistic search engine, and automatic categorization technology for business search at ibm.com. He has been granted multiple patents and is the author of Do It Wrong Quickly: How the Web Changes the Old Marketing Rules.

“With their focus on pushing the edges of innovation in reputation management, search marketing and social media, Converseon is the ideal fit for me,†said Mike Moran. “I look forward to working with their standout team and clients.â€

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 12:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Google Maps Inks 5 Year Deal with Tele Atlas

Google Maps has signed a five year agreement with Netherlands-based digital mapping company, Tele Atlas. Google will now have access to Tele Atlas' content for over 200 countries for current and future projects, including Google Earth and mobile applications.

"Google's innovation and leadership is undisputed, and we are proud to have the opportunity to be the map foundation for one of the world's most progressive web companies," said Bill Henry, CEO of Tele Atlas. "This agreement is important too because it gives us access to input from a significant online community of map users, whose feedback can help us keep our maps fresh and accurate."

"Geospatial data enhances global search significantly by organizing data and delivering results based on location," said John Hanke, director of Google Earth and Google Maps. "Tele Atlas' map quality and the company's innovative approach to business were the key drivers for our decision."

Related Reading:
Google Maps Adds Richer Data to Search
Google Launches Google Map Maker
Google Opens Location-Aware Application to 3rd Party Developers
Google Maps for Mobile Adds Public Transportation Directions
Google Launches Google Earth API and Browser Plug-in

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 12:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

SLI Rolls Out Learning Search Update with New Auto Complete Feature

On-demand search provider, SLI Systems has upgraded Learning Search, a hosted site search solution. The update will include:

Shaun Ryan, CEO of SLI Systems had this to say about the announcement:

"We're always looking for new ways to improve our search solutions, and to give our customers more flexibility in how they can maximize the functionality of our offerings. The newest enhancements help everyone, regardless of their technical ability, to make decisions about merchandising, and make changes themselves -- without having to rely on their IT departments."

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 12:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Another Year, Another Reorganization for MIVA

Yahoo is known for its (in)famous reorganizations, but they now face a contender for the title of "Most Likely to Shake Things Up." Just over a year after its last reorganization, MIVA has headed back to the drawing board in the hopes of revising the struggling digital ad company.

On the chopping block is 15% of its workforce as well as the MIVA Media operations in Italy. MIVA says this will save them $4 million a year plus a one time savings of $1.4 million.

The recent reorganizations are just the latest of what ails MIVA. In 2006, Craig Pisaris-Henderson and Phillip Thune resigned as CEO and President respectively. And in 2005, the company agreed to an $8 million patent settlement with Yahoo.

As a result, MIVA dropped their partnership with Yahoo and made one with Google. Boy, that sounds familiar.

MIVA licensed FAST technology in 2005. FAST was recently acquired by Microsoft. Since MIVA has such an admiration for the way Yahoo does things, we offer the following words of advice: If Ballmer offers to buy, say YES.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

AOL's Platform-A to Offer Guaranteed CPM to Facebook, Bebo Developers

AOL has announced that its online advertising solution, Platform-A, will offer a guaranteed CPM to third party developers creating Bebo and Facebook applications. But the guarantee comes with a catch: it's only good for the first three impressions for each unique U.S. visitor who visits an approved developer’s application.

Boasting one of the highest CPMs in the industry, AOL says the offer is part of WIDGNET™ publisher network launched earlier this year by Platform-A’s Advertising.com. WIDGNET brings advertisers and third party developers of widgets and social networking applications together.

“This announcement reinforces Platform-A’s commitment to helping developers generate revenue and monetize their Bebo and Facebook applications in the rapidly evolving social networking space. Advertiser interest in social networks is rising at a steady rate, and Platform-A is making an unprecedented flat-fee commitment to help application developers generate revenue and guarantee monetization of their applications,†said Dave Jacobs, Senior Vice President of Publisher Services, Platform-A Advertising.com Networks. “Platform-A views social networking applications as an area where we can add significant value by letting developers focus on expanding their install base, without worrying about monetization of applications.â€

Earlier this year, AOL acquired Bebo for $850 million.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

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 (2)

Cutts Talks Spam While Obama Supporters Flag Blogspot Blogs

Matt Cutts is addressing the ever-present topic of spam again, only this time it's on the Official Google Blog. Cutts wrote about coming across spam links in the search results. He says this doesn't happen nearly as often as it used to, thanks to Google's anti-spam metrics.

One of those metrics is data from search logs. Many have worried what Google does with the data collects, and Cutts assures that data such as IP and cookie information is used to help improve the search results.

"The IP and cookie information is important for helping us apply this method only to searches that are from legitimate users as opposed to those that were generated by bots and other false searches. For example, if a bot sends the same queries to Google over and over again, those queries should really be discarded before we measure how much spam our users see. All of this--log data, IP addresses, and cookie information--makes your search results cleaner and more relevant."

But Cutts is also aware that the war against spam continues on:

"If you think webspam is a solved problem, think again. Last year Google faced a rash of webspam on Chinese domains in our index. Some spammers were purchasing large amounts of cheap .cn domains and stuffing them with misspellings and porn phrases. Savvy users may remember reading a few blogs about it, but most regular users never even noticed. The reason that a typical searcher didn't notice the odd results is that Google identified the .cn spam and responded with a fast-tracked engineering project to counteract that type of spam attack. Without our logs data to help identify the speed and scope of the problem, many more Google users might have been affected by this attack."

Another unsolved webspam problem - that was not addressed by Cutts - is letting humans in on the reporting of spam. Over at Blogspot, supporters of Presidential candidate Barack Obama have reportedly been flagging anti-obama blogs as "spam." As a result, several of the blogs, including ones created by Hilary Clinton supporters, have been frozen.

Of course, this problem is experienced in the 'paid links debate' as well. Google accepts anonymous reports about paid links, which is an easy way for competitors to attempt to flag each other out of the results.

What do you think of Cutts comments? Do they reduce your fears about Google's data collection? Should Google let third parties flag sites? Let us know in the comments.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If Google Gives You Comics...

While the announcement of the Seth "Family Guy" MacFarlane link to Google was not new, the way in which Google has announced it will distribute and monetize reflects a deeper reach for the online media behemoth. Google is going into the content production space.

The caveat about this is the actual information given for advertisers about publishers and their audience.

As NYT reports: "The innovative part involves the distribution plan. Google will syndicate the program using its AdSense advertising system to thousands of Web sites that are predetermined to be gathering spots for Mr. MacFarlane’s target audience, typically young men."

The question is how are they determining the target audience? Topic-based decision or cookie-based?

Is Google making an across-the-board push to present as many of the new methods that they want to use to track, distribute and develop traffic? Are they headed for a period of controversy and legal challenges?

Hey, they have weathered them so far in numerous continents, so maybe they have it written into their growth program.

The creation of an online-only broadcast of popular content is interesting for the US, where over-the-air television goes digital early next year. The use of the Family Guy creator, popular with a large number of internet users and online spenders, is a smart move, if when the smoke clears they can monetize it in acceptable ways.

I am waiting for the day when Google and Yahoo are bidding for online presentation of the Olympics. Right now, it seems NBC is starting their Olympic online connection.

Bob Costas was pushing people off the TV and onto the NBC Olympics sites to follow the rest of the Swimming Olympic trials Sunday night. His closing was " Bob Costas telling people to turn off TV and watch online live Olympic trials. "if you are not online already online, fire up those computers and start watching."

In the meantime, I look forward to the new characters from MacFarlane.

Posted by Frank Watson at 12:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 28, 2008

If You Give Google A Cookie

If you give Google a cookie it will probably want to store your search behavior and given the scope of its publishing network....

Something tells me this story does not end happily.

Though this story has been developing for months, the New York Times article on Friday seems to have sparked a deeper look and the issue of privacy has come in to play.

And so it should at this stage. What really needs to be discussed is the establishing of what is allowed to be collected; how it is collected, stored and shared; what would be needed to opt in or out; and consequences of breaches of any limits set.

There seems to be a need to monitor what is being done and the extent our privacy can be invaded - since many times it is the fringe that uses technology to grab a little more than what we want.

The NYT article by Saul Hansell quotes Nick Fox, who - just so NYT knows for the future - is Senior Product Manager for Ads Quality. Nick will have a lot more to measure for Ads Quality if the traffic can be sorted in some quality manner.

As a marketer I would gladly use the information to improve my media buys. But then again we largely do with almost all other media and ours could be more accurate. I am sure the argument distills to Google would be providing the best connection possible between marketer and audience.

The synethesis of the "good user experience" with the "successful marketing effort" may be more than a cyberUtopia. But there are many who see this as the "belly of the beast".

Given the beta launching of Ad Planner - which Google intends to give away free (guess another industry is in jeopardy) - the depth of knowledge available could be quite large. Marry the cookie with Ad Planner information and the knowledge of our online behavior is soon extensively recorded.

As the Wall Street Journal noted:

Interestingly I have had a presentation from Microsoft that used aggregated industry info and five 'not named' competitors' information. Nothing specific or against rules but enough that I would not want to share. And the advantage of the marketing pioneers is given away to late entries - so why do the exploration, just wait for the report.

Steve Baldwin of Did-It made an interesting comment during OMMA Behavioral 3.0:

Though there is, as Zachary Rodgers at ClickZ notes, "a loose coalition of Internet watchdogs that have bent their will toward fighting this new breed of comprehensive behavioral targeting."

Interesting that he was talking about recent legal problems with NebuAd and their attempts to gather behavioral information using ISPs and other access providers. When you have the internet user information available to Google the reach is even greater.

Nick Fox told NYT "Google’s approach was different from what Yahoo, AOL and others call behavioral targeting. Those companies look at what a user did a few days earlier to show them ads about the same topic today. Google says it believes that search engine advertising is most effective if it relates to what the user has most recently searched for."

But then Larry Page has already told Reuters: "On the more exciting front, you can imagine your brain being augmented by Google. For example you think about something and your cell phone could whisper the answer into your ear."

Danny Sullivan openly admits he had the implant.

Google has the technology and wants to use it. In the mobile space it is being offered to jump start advertisers apparently. Democratic Media's Digital Destiny reported:"Google has made presentations to advertisers about its mobile marketing capabilities. It appears that mobile cookies are part of their targeting marketing plan. Google told advertisers that “Google provides mobile conversion tracking on phones that support cookies. Google can measure clicks, impressions and conversions for all campaigns.â€

How all this plays out will change the way many things are done. Being aware of the various directions at least has you thinking. Add to the opinions at the forum.

Posted by Frank Watson at 12:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

June 27, 2008

Yahoo Registers Meal Search Patent

Bill Slawski, of SEO by The Sea, has uncovered another patent filing. This time Yahoo is applying for a patent for meal search technology. Bill's article gives a much better interpretation than I ever could and should be read.

The interesting parts include technology that ties photo recognition to meals and ingredients and places to buy either the meal or the ingredients to make them.

The details Bill gives shows the scope of what is planned and it definitely covers a lot of work for some of the Yahoo programmers in the near future.

With thinking outside the usual search box, Yahoo may have come across the best way to meet Google in the search arena. They are suggesting a whole new potential for search.

And yes I will have fried with that!

Posted by Frank Watson at 8:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Google Maps Rotten Neighbors

Rotten Neighbors, founded last July, is the U.S. twist on ""human flesh search engines." The site singles out neighbors for offenses ranging from sanitary to violent.

Using Google Maps, Rotten Neighbors shows homes of the accused, represented by red Monopoly-style houses (for rotten) and green (for good).

Most of the postings are anonymous on Rotten Neighbors which averages several hundred thousand "hits" per day. Neighborhood ratings can be given for Noise, Safety, Appearance, Services, Traffic based on a star system that rolls up into an Overall rating.

Yes, you can find where registered sex offenders live in your neighborhood.

Co-founder Brant Walker, a 27 year--old Web site designer from San Diego, created the site after he moved into a new apartment and noticed a rotten stench coming from his neighbor's door.

Rotten Neighbors added a "flag for removal" after people targeted as bad neighbors complained. If a post gets flagged a certain number of times, it is now removed as with Craigslist.

Rotten Neighbors gives people a window into "The Lives of Others" - allowing neighbors to turn each other in for alleged offenses. It's just one more way the Internet acts as Big Brother.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 1:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Human Flesh Search Engines in China

In China, online vigilantes, or “netizens,†use the Internet as a “human flesh search engine†to find and punish people who publish material they consider inappropriate.

“Human Flesh Search Engine†is an imprecise translation of “ren’rou sou’suo,†which can be translated as “human-assisted search engine.†In China, though, the Internet is searched by people to hunt down other people and conduct muckraking campaigns.

A mob of Chinese ‘netizens’ tracked down and punished a 21-year old video blogger whose clip they deemed unpatriotic.

Gao Qianhi, a 21-year old Chinese woman, recently posted an online video of herself complaining about the huge amount of TV coverage of the southwest China earthquakes: “You guys, if you're hit by the rubble, just go suffer by yourself quietly.â€

Hours later, intimate details about Ms. Qianhi’s life were spread across the Internet.

With internet mobbing, the victim’s personal information is published to a broad audience, along with derogatory comments and death threats.

While Internet mobbing occurs in other countries, the movement appears to be particularly powerful in China because large-scale human flesh search engines are unique to are made easy by ubiquitous manpower and China's ingrained tradition of ‘people's war’ dating back to Mao, along with a justice system that's less than perfect.

Hat tip to search engine Finding Dulcinea for uncovering this terrific story.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 11:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Microsoft to (Finally) Acquire Powerset? Should Someone Tell Icahn?

Microsoft must have been putting on a good poker face a week ago when it said they weren't looking at any internet-based acquisitions in the wake of failed talks with Yahoo. Venture Beat is now reporting that Microsoft is poised to acquire semantic search company Powerset in the neighborhood of $100 million.

Meanwhile, Carl Icahn is still living his proxy dreams. He's calling on Microsoft to not make an alternative deal with Yahoo unless a $33 per share guarantee is in place, according to Reuters.

The question is: Which of Microsoft's bluffs should we call? The one where they said they weren't interested in acquisitions? Or the one where they're buying Powerset (to once again put pressure on Yahoo)?

Call bluffs in the comments!

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Google Updates BlackBerry Search Results Pages

Two weeks after launching faster pages for mobile search, Google Mobile is announcing updates to search results pages for BlackBerry devices. Included in the update:

Need a visual? Here's a video demo of the new BlackBerry search pages:

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Local Advertisers Shifting Dollars to Internet

This year, local advertisers are expected to shift $13.1 billion of their budgeted funds to the Internet, according to Borrell Associates. The number is up 50% over last year.

In 2009, local online ad spending is projected to grow another 40% to $18.2 billion in 2009. By 2012, the growth in spending will eventually slow down and plateau at about $23 billion, but still average 15% growth over the next four years.

Online advertising is cheaper than traditional methods of marketing and is thought to be the reason for the change. According to Borrell, internet CPMs average $3.65, the lowest of any media, while an offline Yellow Pages ad carries an average CPM of $9.29.

The numbers seem to be in line with recent projections for global internet advertising, expected to exceed $106 Billion by 2012.

Of course, search engines are gearing up for the increased ad spends. Google recently announced its brand new media planning tool, Ad Planner. Microsoft recently acquired Navic Networks, a TV ad company that will likely help Microsoft clients integrate online and offline campaigns. And Yahoo inked an online and mobile advertising partnership with Publicis.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Geoff Ramsey of eMarketer spots three key market trends

Geoff Ramsey, the co-founder and CEO of eMarketer, recently shared 0.001% of the information that his team of researchers and analysts knows about Internet market trends during his morning keynote at Electronic Retailer’s LiveEdit Lab.

Why can I be so precise?

He presented 60 slides out of the 54,000 charts available to eMarketer’s subscribers. You do the math.

Now, I’m not going to try recapping all 60 of his slides here.

Instead, I’m going to highlight three key market trends that Ramsey touched on. Plus, I’ll pass along his analysis of how each of these new trends is profoundly affecting the business landscape.

Slide #15

The first market trend that is worth highlighting is the percentage of Internet users who are watching video online monthly.

According to eMarketer, it’s 73% – or 137 million Americans. And by the end of the year, eMarketer estimates that 154 million, or 80% of Internet users, will be watching online video.

About a year ago, I reported on a survey conducted by PR News and Medialink which found that “PR pros aren’t using online video as often as they're watching it.â€

Well, they better start using it now. Online video isn’t an emerging market trend. It’s already emerged – big time!

Slide #18

Ramsey said, “Online video is a great way to engage with your customers.†And he recommended:
• Placing video footage of your products on your Web site (e.g., create a video demo!);
• Placing video ads on other content video sites, e.g., on YouTube and product category-related sites; and
• Creating your own Webisodes – content so entertaining that people will come to watch it (and share it with others).

Slide #24

The second market trend that deserves serious attention is the percentage of large companies that already have a blog. According to JupiterResearch, it’s 34%.

Last August, at Search Engine Strategies San Jose, I caused a stir in the blogosphere when I said, “Getting excited that you’ve got a blog is like getting excited that “the new phone book’s here!’â€

Now, less than a year later, it appears that if your company doesn’t have a blog already, it’s going to feel even more like Steve Martin in “The Jerk.â€

Slide #28

Ramsey said, “Advertisers should explore creative ways to leverage the power of blogs.†And he advised:
• Monitoring the blogosphere not only with professional services, but also on your own;
• Working with existing relevant bloggers, in ways that will encourage them to link to your site;
• Placing advertising on popular blogs; and
• Creating your own blogs -- to create a community of interest around your product.

Slide #44

While the third market trend didn’t surprise me, it may come as a shock to some others in the industry.

A survey by AdMedia Partners found that 69% of senior media execs think social media is “over-hyped.†(I should disclose that AdMedia Partners is a client.)

And Hitwise has validated this skepticism by reporting that only 4% of US online retail traffic is driven by social sites, which is significantly less than the 29% of online retail traffic that is driven by search engines.

Slide #48

So, what’s a marketer to do? Ramsey outlined four strategies for gaining consumer insights into social networking:
• Looking, listening, lounging and learning;
• Advertising on the big social networking portals, e.g., MySpace and Bebo;
• Getting vertical with your social advertising on smaller, niche sites like Flip.com; and
• Building your own social network, e.g., Procter & Gamble’s Capessa community site.

Now, six slides out of 60 are only 10% of Ransey’s presentation. And that’s just 0.0001% of the information that eMarketer knows about Internet market trends.

So, you may want to dig deeper. Nobody wants to be the last one on the block to spot key market trends.

Posted by Greg Jarboe at 8:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

SEW Experts: SEO Basics: Effective Iterative Keyword Research in 2008

The value of any SEO effort lies in the keywords you choose. It's really that simple -- you can't overestimate the importance of strong keyword research. In today's Search Marketing Crossfire column, "SEO Basics: Effective Iterative Keyword Research in 2008," Chris Boggs and Frank Watson share some methods for performing keyword research.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SEW Experts: Creative Messaging in a Direct Response World

Should a company focus on building their messaging around their brand image, or on driving direct response via their Web site and online media? In today's Vertical Search column, "Creative Messaging in a Direct Response World," local search expert Gregg Stewart shows that branding and direct response messaging can co-exist online, and local business profile pages are a good place to meld writing techniques for both.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 26, 2008

Google Launches Latin American AdWords Blog

Multilingual search is one of the growth areas of our industry and Google has added its own help in the space by launching its Latin American AdWords Blog. Written in Spanish, the launch today introduces itself and gives an overview of its intentions and direction.

I used a machine translator to get the English version of the opening post - but its seems to be pretty good (guess the translators are improving).

Posted by Frank Watson at 3:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Google Holding Free Webinar On Analytics, Optimizer and Tools

Set the date aside, July 8th, if you want to get the inside scoop on Google's website tools. As announced today over at the Official Google Blog, they will be holding a webinar about Google Analytics, Website Optimizer and Webmaster Tools.

These Google products have become an invaluable set of tools for most serious web owners and marketers and it will be a great opportunity to see if there are any methods one is not using at the moment.

It will be interesting to see what numbers sign up for this and if Google can handle the potentially huge crowd signing up for this event.

Posted by Frank Watson at 3:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Google Getting Sued For $1 Billion Over Gmail Tool

Apparently Chicago-based firm LimitNone is suing Google for misappropriating the trade secrets of its "gMove" application that Google allegedly used to develop its Email Uploader.

The two-count lawsuit also claims Google violated Illinois' consumer fraud laws.

The lawsuit was filed Tuesday by Kelley Drye & Warren LLP - "the same commercial litigation group which challenged Google over the company's online advertising system," SlashDot noted.

Details of the suit can be found in the press release sent out by the law firm.

Posted by Frank Watson at 2:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Yahoo Plans Reorg: More Centralization

Confirming recent rumors of another coming reorganization, Yahoo today announced its plans to centralize many of its product and engineering teams into one regional group in the U.S., rather than maintaining separate divisions for each set of products.

Yahoo is creating three new teams that will report to President Sue Decker:

According to Decker, these moves have been in the works for several months, and complement last year's changes to centralize more of Yahoo's business.

"The changes we're making today will help deliver superior global products for users and enable faster and better decision-making," Decker said in a statement. "This is a logical next step in light of our success last year in moving to a more centralized approach to developing world-class marketing products. We have planned these changes deliberately over the past several months to clarify responsibilities and to capitalize on the scale advantages while allowing for fine tuning to meet local market needs."

Yahoo has restructured its search group, which recently lost SVP and General Manager of Search Vishal Makhijani to Russian search engine Yandex. Prabhakar Raghavan has been tapped to direct search strategy, and Tuoc Luong is the interim leader of the search product team. Both Prabhakar and Tuoc will also continue in their roles as the leaders of Yahoo! Research and Search Engineering respectively. In addition, David Ku will lead the Advertising Technology Group within Search.

Yahoo is also making changes to its technology organization, devoting resources to developing a cloud computing and storage infrastructure; moving more of Yahoo onto common platforms; and creating a stronger partnership between product and engineering teams.

The new Cloud Computing & Data Infrastructure Group will be charged with developing a computing infrastructure that balances scalability with cost effectiveness. It will also move all consumer-facing platform teams to the Audience Technology Group, led by Venkat Panchapakesan.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 1:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Google Maps Easter Egg Discovered

Google Maps features a very funny Google Easter Egg: If you ask for directions from an address in Australia to an address in the USA the ever helpful "Get directions" tool gives some great tips on how to cross the Pacific Ocean.

Easter eggs are hidden surprises created by programmers.

Tip of the hat to Michael Smith of Technocrat.net for uncovering the Google Maps egg.

Now at least I know how Aussiewebmaster made his way to the USA.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 1:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Twellow: Twitter Member Search

The people who give us WebProNews have launched a search engine for Twitter members - Twellow. Smart move given the popularity of Twitter and one Twitter itself could have launched if it was not already trying to lift a whale with a bunch of small birds.

The site has categories and will be interesting to see the breakdown of users by these categories. Something tells me the search space will be one of the leading categories.

Posted by Frank Watson at 1:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Google Names Patrick Pichette New CFO

Google has announced their replacement of outgoing CFO George Reyes. Former Bell Canada CFO Patrick Pichette has been offered the position along with an employment package as good as many first round draft picks in sports.

As the San Jose Mercury News details, Pichette will get a $500,000 signing bonus and the rest of the package makes his first year's pay in the millions.

Welcome to the team Patrick.

Posted by Frank Watson at 12:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Searchme Adds Media Search and Visual Bookmarking

Visual search engine Searchme has announced the addition of two new features. The first is Media Search, which allows users to search for videos and images from YouTube and Flickr. The second is "Stacks," a visual bookmarking and sharing features that enables users to share what they find on blogs, social media profiles, email and web sites.

"These visual search applications enhance our core search engine by allowing people to use Searchme in fresh, innovative ways across various media and all over the Web," said Randy Adams, Searchme CEO. "It's another step in our long-term plan to add features and functionality, improve our beta engine's relevance and coverage, and create a world-class search experience."

"Until now, most web users have had to check multiple bookmarks every day, click on dozens of links pasted into an email, and hunt multiple times for sites they saw once but didn't have time to check out," said Adams. "With Stacks, they can now bypass these methods, saving time and creating an organized web experience."

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

State of Missouri Releases Collaborative Search Portal

The State of Missouri has launched a collaborative search portal, enabling citizens of the Show-Me state to explore millions of historical documents. The search, dubbed Missouri Digital Heritage, is powered by Deep Web Technologies' Explorit Research Accelerator. Included in the searchable material are nearly 20 "Collections" such as Transportation, Sports, Women, and Agriculture.

"This is a unique project because of the queries this site is designed to handle," said Abe Lederman, CTO of Deep Web Technologies. "A family historian may have only a fragment of a name or a street address that they want to explore. By delivering every hit -- even the most remote -- we significantly increase their opportunity to put another piece of their family tree in place. Missouri Digital Heritage is truly designed to support every local researcher's needs."

Related Reading:
Google Helping State Government Sites Get Indexed

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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 (1)

Apartment Guide Launches Mobile GPS Search Application

Apartment Guide has launched a mobile search application allowing users to find apartments via GPS. They've partnered with Mobile Accord to provide the location-based listings, available through participating carriers.

“Apartment Guide makes finding apartments easier through mobile GPS,†said Arlene Mayfield, president of Apartment Guide. “Powered by Qualcomm’s BREW® Platform, the application also enables mobile phone subscribers to search for apartments anywhere in the United States, access prices, photos and property features and contact the leasing office directly.â€

“According to ABI Research, North American subscriptions to ‘personal locator services’ using GPS-enabled mobile phones will grow to more than 20 million by 2011,†said James Eberhard, chairman, Mobile Accord. “By enabling consumers to find apartments through GPS on their cell phones, Apartment Guide addresses a growing technological demand and meets the needs of renters ‘on the go.’â€

Related Reading:
Google Opens Location-Aware Application to 3rd Party Developers

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

1.8 Billion Internet Users by 2012, China to Overtake US Internet Use by 2011

By 2012, 1.8 billion people will be using the internet, according to JupiterResearch. That will be a 44% increase from 2007. China, India, Russia and Brazil will see the highest growth rates. China will overtake the U.S. in internet use by 2011.

"Even though the emerging economies will have lower online penetration rates compared to the developed countries, JupiterResearch believes that they will ramp up the learning curve in adopting sophisticated online activities compared to the developing countries," explained Vikram Sehgal, Research Director and lead author of the report for JupiterResearch.

Recent moves in the search industry seem to echo those projections. Yahoo's reorganization is mostly focused on a global strategy, likely building on their success in Asia. Last November, Yahoo added 9 countries to its mobile search, and recently expanded partnerships in the Asia/Pacific region. Yahoo has also invested heavily in India. They have a research lab in Bangalore and recently began testing "Glue Pages," a different way to view search results.

Meanwhile, Yandex, the leading Russian language search engine, has hired a Yahoo exec away to lead their San Fran-based operations.

Not to be outdone, Microsoft and Google have their eye on the big enchilada by staffing up in China, a market that is currently dominated by Baidu.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hillary Clinton out-Googled by Barack Obama 2008 campaign

Was the more seasoned Hillary Clinton presidential campaign out-Googled by the more search savvy Barack Obama 2008 campaign? According to Kate Kay, senior editor of ClickZ, our sister site, Clinton Spent Far Less Online Than Obama.

And there are lessons here that every search engine marketer is going to want learn regardless of his or her political stripes.

BNN (Business Network News) recently interviewed Kate Kay, who explained that the Barack Obama 2008 campaign also used pay-per-click advertising on Google for different purposes than the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign. You can watch the video interview with Kate below.

Obama Ads Online: Search Advertising Analysis by Kate Kaye

So, are you using geographic targeting? Are you using a soft offer in your PPC advertising and then using an email marketing campaign to follow with direct response marketing?

If you are trying to out-Google your seasoned PPC competitors, consider borrowing a couple of SEM techniques from the search savvy people working for the “skinny kid with a funny name.†Yes, yes, I know they’re from Chicago, not New York. But, there’s nothing “Second City†about their approach to search engine marketing.

In April, Li Evans reported that Barack Obama was Rocking the Youth Vote. In May, Kevin Heisler reported that the Obama campaign was advertising on the Search Engine Watch Jobs Board. In June, Nathania Johnson reported that Google’s Peter Greenberger had tied the Obama and McCain victors to their AdWords spend.

And, now the Barack Obama 2008 campaign is getting ready to make history in American presidential politics. To borrow a line from Abraham Lincon, find out what Chicago-style deep-dish pizza they eat and give it to your other generals.

Posted by Greg Jarboe at 8:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SEW Experts: Link Building Ideas for Local Auto Dealers

The beauty of certain industries -- and the challenge -- is they're international, national, and local all at the same time. Such is the case with auto dealers. In today's Link Building column, "Link Building Ideas for Local Auto Dealers," Justilien Gaspard shares two link building ideas for a local auto dealer that can be applied to various types of local businesses.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SEW Experts: Can Google Predict the Next President?

A look at Google Trends comparative data can help guide companies in making strategic decisions. In today's Building Brand Equity column, "Can Google Predict the Next President?," Erik Qualman shows how the same can be done in the political world, as McCain and Obama are trying to build up their respective "brands" in the eyes of voters.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 25, 2008

Yahoo Sends Shareholders Letter About Google, Microsoft

Guess the wagon circling has begun over at Yahoo in preparation of the stockholders' meeting August 1. They sent out a letter to stockholders outlining the various events of the past few months and promoted voted for the existing board of directors.

The letter attacks Carl Icahn.

"It is time for Yahoo! to turn its undivided attention to implementing its key strategies, and we therefore urge you to reject Mr. Icahn's slate and his ill-defined agenda," the letter from Yahoo CEO Roy Bostock states.

The letter - posted below - is very slanted towards the actions of the existing executives. Right now the Microsoft offer of $31 to $34 looks good given the stocks major slump to the low $20s.

The letter read:

Posted by Frank Watson at 9:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Microsoft's Steve Ballmer Sees All Media Electronic in 10 years

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer told the Washington Post today that trees will have no fears from newspaper publishers as all media will be eletronic.

Funny to see someone with such influence on our lives be so far off the track. Guess it is a long time since he used public transportation, Unless Microsoft is working on some method of running cars using paper and give the world electronic readers to stop them from wanting newspapers. Or the advertisers sponsor the giveaways in return for strategically inserted ads?

Either way I have the comment time logged.... wonder where Ballmer will be in ten years? Fighting off a Google takeover perhaps, if that prediction comes true.

Posted by Frank Watson at 8:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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)

Q&A with Darby Sieben of the Yellow Pages Group

Search engine marketers in the US tend to look West when trying to spot new SEM trends. As Frederick Jackson Turner first observed back in 1893, the frontier has always had a significant influence on American perceptions.

But, if you stare into the sunset too long, you might not see the other “new frontier†North of the Canada-United States border that’s also shaping search engine marketing trends. While Search Engine Strategies Toronto ended last week, I’m still sorting through some of the new SEM trends that I spotted by looking in a different direction.

One of the more intriguing trends that I noticed was this one: More than 80 employees of the Yellow Pages Group (YPG), Canada’s largest directory publisher, attended SES Toronto. YPG also owns and manages Canada’s most visited online directories, YellowPages.ca and Canada411.ca, so the company is no stranger to local search or Search Engine Strategies Toronto.

Now, I’ve often encouraged SES alumni as well as first time attendees of Search Engine Strategies to “bring a couple of colleagues along with you†to an upcoming SEM conference. And I’ve seen companies send teams of more than a dozen people to other SES conferences. But, I’ve never seen a group quite as large as the one I saw at SES Toronto last week.

So, I tracked down one of the key players behind this new trend. His name is Darby Sieben and he’s the Director of Online Services at the Yellow Pages Group. You can watch my interview with Darby on the SES Conference Expo channel on YouTube.

Or you can read my interview with Darby Sieben of the Yellow Pages Group below. He has some very interesting insights into small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Q: The Yellow Pages directory story started 100 years ago by connecting Canadian buyers with sellers. YellowPages.ca went online in 1995. Has the Internet dramatically changed the way people approach the shopping experience?

A: Yes and No. By this I mean, the need of connecting buyers and sellers has not changed and never will. The way in which they go about doing it has changed and will continue to evolve and the Internet is only one way. Consumers are more complex today and depending on the need and particular circumstances will connect using a combination of ways including print, internet, voice, mobile, etc. The key piece of advice to a SME in this evolving world is to understand that this is about syndication of their information across multiple media platforms.

Q: According to comScore Media Metrix, the Yellow Pages Group reaches 41% of all online Canadians -- and ranks #8 out of the top properties in Canada. In the United States, the SuperPages.com Network reaches about 16% of all online Americans and ranks about #21 out of the top properties in the United States. What's going on in the Great White North?

A: The main difference between Canada and the US is the fact that the Yellow Pages brand in Canada is trademarked; we are the sole owners and users of the brand. In the US, the value and strength of the brand has been diluted as there is confusion. Second, I believe we are a very progressive directory player. We were the first to sign a deal to license data to Google, we work with all the major search players and we continue to push the envelope on technologies such as our 411 voice services, SMS, IM and our mobile platforms. Syndication of our advertiser’s information is very important. We believe in the anywhere, anytime and on any platform to get information.

Q: The content and keywords found in a print advertisement in the Yellow Pages Group and contained in a business profile on YellowPages.ca are fully searchable on the web and made available to your online partner network including Google, MSN and Yahoo! Isn't that that a strange brew?

A: We don’t think so. If we examine a key barrier to search, that would be content. YP.ca and the search players are only as good as content that is digitized. The issue is that half of Canadian SME’s don’t have a website. We view print as the start of a very incredible journey for a SME because it contains very important pieces of content that consumers look for in the buying process. Those ads get digitized; keywords extracted, bucketized and distributed on YP.ca for our users as well as being pushed to search engines who index. It creates some incredible synergies and creates an ROI for our advertisers. To add one point here – a few years back we launched an initiative called the WebNumber. This is where we have mapped every phone number in our directory to a URL. For example – http://7804517857.yp.ca (this is the phone number for a Harley Davidson Dealership in Edmonton, Alberta). If you type that URL in – you land on their merchant page and can see their video and a host of rich content about that business. Many of our clients will register a domain name and simply point it to their page instead of investing in expensive design services.

Q: More than 80 people from the Yellow Pages Group attended Search Engine Strategies Toronto last week. Why did you bring everyone except the McKenzie brothers to the conference?

A: Well Bob and Doug are launching a cartoon version of their hit from SCTV to be aired this fall, so they were unavailable. On a serious note it is all about further learning’s and understanding. In 2007 we signed Canada’s first reseller agreement with Google and have bundled AdWords with our print and YellowPages.ca advertising. We also launched last year full customized search marketing solutions based on a budget spend and have been testing and continue to sell a guaranteed clicks product. To really become the CMO for small businesses you need to understand all sources of generating results for your customer.

Q: You mentioned that you are bundling Google with your print and YellowPages.ca advertising – isn’t Google considered a competitor?

A: We are definitely in a world of cooperative competition. You referenced ComScore earlier; here is a key fact that best explains the strategy. If we examine the unduplicated audience between Google Maps and our properties – what you realize is that there is a significant boost in audience reach. Both of us have around 31-32% reach and combined we reach over 50% - that is incredible for any SME who is looking to be placed in the path of consumers when they are making buying decisions. One thing I would like to add is that in terms of the purchase funnel – YellowPages.ca generates a very high ROI because by the time users come to us they tend to already know what they want to buy or are very close to a buying decision and need to do some comparisons. We tend to be further down the purchase funnel than search engines and the measurement for SME’s has to go beyond clicks to include phone calls and store visits. As we often say, nobody comes to YellowPages.ca to surf they come to buy and this remains a key focus for us.

Posted by Greg Jarboe at 1:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Twitter Gains a Googler and Amazon's Bezos

It's no secret that Twitter has been struggling lately. At any given moment, the social chat platform can go down, preventing a plethora of Tweets from being broadcast to the socially adept.

But that hasn't kept the company from getting another round of funding, and help from friends in high places. Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos is investing in the social network using his personal venture investment company, Bezos Expeditions.

Meanwhile, Rudy Winnacker is leaving his Google position of 5 years to tackle the operations going (or not going) on at Twitter.

Hopefully, these new additions can help the birds finally lift that whale once and for all. (If you don't know what that means, you're not Twittering enough!)

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 12:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Global Internet Ad Spend to Exceed $106 Billion by 2011

IDC has released new projections for global internet ad spending. This year, they expect internet advertising to reach $65.2 billion, which accounts for roughly 10% of all ad spending. And despite current economic woes, spending will continue to increase. By 2011, the worldwide spend is expected to exceed $106 billion.

Earlier this month, IDC released data showing that online advertising was up 23.9% in the first quarter of 2008 over the same period in 2007.

"Compared to more mature types of advertising, Internet advertising is growing at a phenomenal rate," said John Gantz, chief research officer at IDC. "But Internet advertising is still relatively new and growing from a much smaller base. By the end of the forecast period, spending for Internet advertising will trail direct mail – the third largest form of advertising – by more than $30 billion, while spending on TV and print ads will each be nearly twice as great as for online ads. The long-term opportunity for Internet advertising can be seen in the disparity between per capita spending. Total advertising revenues equate to more than $105 per inhabitant of the planet, while Internet advertising revenues are less than $50 per active Internet user."

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Google Joins the "Internet for Everyone" Initiative

Like a politician making campaign promises, Google has announced its involvement in the launch of the "Internet for Everyone" campaign. Unlike politicians, we actually know what the campaign is all about from the title and there's a higher chance of Google carrying out this platform than politicians keeping their promises.

The "Internet for Everyone" campaign is based on four principles: Access, Choice, Openness, and Innovation. Yup, that sounds like Google. Here's a brief history.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yahoo's Latest Partnership: Online and Mobile Advertising Integration with Publicis

Today, Publicis announced the launch of their new digital advertising initiative, VivaKi. And Yahoo wasted no time sending out a press release regarding the new partnership with Publicis, perhaps in an attempt to compete with the news of Google's Ad Planner. But with Google already having its own agreement with Publicis, Yahoo is really just playing catch-up.

Yahoo's partnership is a dizzying array of product integrations between the two. Let's dive in:

First up, mobile marketing. Publicis' mobile marketing agency, PhoneValley, will be the first global agency to integrate Yahoo's Blueprint, a mobile developer platform language. The integration aism to aid brands in scaling their messages to a global level. Publicis will also be creating "microsites" to leverage Yahoo's Smart Ads, a mobile advertising tech solution.

Another part of the agreement is Publicis' integration of Yahoo's Right Media Exchange with their current media buying systems. Yahoo touts Right Media Exchange as "the largest open community of buyers and sellers including advertisers, agencies, publishers and networks." Yahoo hopes the integration will help clients of Publicis be able to target demographics with a single campaign buy.

"Our goal in working together with advertisers and agencies is to help them build brands, reach consumers and increase sales in new ways," said Yahoo President Sue Decker, who recently spoke about the online advertising transformation and is believed to be behind Yahoo's latest reorganization. "Through this relationship, Yahoo! and Publicis will empower the next generation of innovative advertising solutions."

"This partnership with Yahoo! takes the biggest challenge facing marketers today-the need for hyper-personalization on a massive scale-and turns it into a scalable, direct opportunity for Publicis Groupe clients," said David Kenny, Managing Partner of Publicis Groupe VivaKi. "By creating an evolved business structure built specifically to capitalize on this medium, we'll advance the larger industry and in the process set new standards for online advertising innovation."

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Microsoft and Yahoo: Are They or Aren't They?

Yesterday, TechCrunch reported that Microsoft and Yahoo were talking again. I was immediately skeptical. Recently, All Things Digital had called out TechCrunch as conducting piggyback reporting instead of doing their own heavy-lifting. While I thought that was a bit harsh (All Things Digital is a project of the Wall Street Journal, and quite frankly - who has their connections?), it came as no surprise that TechCrunch would attempt to break a big story.

Still, the mainstream press ran with the story. Surely, they had done their homework.

Maybe not.

This morning, Kara Swisher of All Things D explained why she didn't run with the story: she couldn't corroborate it. I read her story with a firm sense of "I thought so" until she said that her Yahoo and Microsoft sources "emphatically went out of their way yesterday–which is not so typical–to deny any talks were going on..."

Sounds like Ms. Swisher's sources are protesting a little too much.

If talks have resumed, it sounds like they might be doing it the right way this time - keeping the conversation behind closed doors instead of blasting rhetoric through the press. But that might be a big IF.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SEW Experts: Yahoo's Suicide Pact with Google

Who cares if Yahoo outsources its search advertising to Google? You should. In today's Searching for Meaning column, "Yahoo's Suicide Pact with Google," Kevin Ryan asks, 'On what planet is having only one place to buy anything a good thing for competitive pricing?'

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SEW Experts: Uncovering Site Problems for Landing Page Optimization, Part 2

Web analytics on your Web site can help you uncover and prioritize potential site problems. In today's By the Numbers column, "Uncovering Site Problems for Landing Page Optimization, Part 2," Tim Ash offers some additional techniques to discover conversion issues on your landing pages, including mining onsite search, or conducting usability testing, focus groups, and surveys.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM |