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August 24, 2008 - August 30, 2008
August 29, 2008
Google Proceeding with Yahoo Deal in Early October
Google is proceeding with its deal to serve ads on Yahoo's search results. CEO Eric Schmidt told Bloomberg TV that they were moving forward on the deal despite regulatory concerns.
"We are in the process of talking to the government. They've not indicated one way or the other how they're dealing with us," said Scmidt.
Do you think the Google-Yahoo deal will be stopped? Let us know in the comments.
via Reuters
Related Reading:
Congressional Judiciary Committees Look into Yahoo-Google Ad Partnership
Now States are Investigating Yahoo-Google Deal
Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Does Today's Live.com Image Upset Over 50% of the U.S.?
Recently, Microsoft started putting images as the background design of Live.com. For two glorious weeks, the images were of Olympic events. Now, they've switched to politics.
Today's image is a closeup of Democratic Presidential Nominee Barack Obama at his big acceptance speech last night. But with less than half of those polled supporting Barack Obama, could such an image deter people from using Live.com?
We can say the same thing if/when a McCain picture appears on the site.
It's not that political events shouldn't be on Live.com's site. But perhaps a wider shot of the event would help visitors see the image as a news photo. Plus, with the hot spots that Live.com is using to help visitors explore searches - today's photo it has 2 boxes on the blurry audience background and one on Obama's collar. Kind of awkward.
How do you think Microsoft should handle political photos in its new design? Sound off in the comments.
Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Microsoft to Acquire European Price Comparison and Shopping Site
Microsoft has reached an agreement to acquire Greenfield Online, the owner of Ciao, a European price comparison and shopping site. This seems to be in line with Microsoft's strategy of focusing on building up focused areas of search.
Ciao also includes consumer reviews and ratings with its search results. They boast a multimillion-user-strong online community and see more than 26.5 million unique visitors per month across seven countries. So far, more than 5 million product reviews have been generated.
Ciao joins Farecast, FAST, and Powerset in Microsoft's portfolio of search-related acquisitions for 2008.
“Ciao’s success has been led by a team of talented people who took a unique combination of intuitive technology and the insight that comes out of their passionate consumer community to become one of Europe’s leading shopping comparison sites,†said John Mangelaars, vice president, Consumer and Online, Microsoft Europe, Middle East and Africa. “This makes the company a fantastic asset to the future of our search offer. Integrating Ciao’s capabilities into Live Search will provide a strong launchpad for our commercial search offer in Europe and enhance our e-commerce offering on MSN.â€
Posted by Nathania Johnson at 8:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
SEW Experts: For Local Search, It's All About the Online-Offline Gap
Though search volume continues to rise and capture a growing percentage of product research, more than 95 percent of actual purchase behavior in the U.S. still takes place offline. In today's vertical search column, "For Local Search, It's All About the Online-Offline Gap," local search expert Michael Boland explains that the need to bridge the gap between the online and offline worlds is a key issue in local search.
Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
SEW Experts: Looking for Answers in a Search Marketing Forum? Be Specific!
If you're a newbie looking for guidance in search marketing, there are plenty of places to find it, if you know how to best phrase your request for information. In today's SEM Crossfire column, "Looking for Answers in a Search Marketing Forum? Be Specific!," Frank Watson and Chris Boggs remind us that search marketing has grown into a very broad field, but if you take the time to ask specific questions, you're much more likely to get you the answers you need.
Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
SEW Experts: There's No Secret Recipe to SEO
Some marketers are looking for a secret, step-by-step recipe to SEO success. But while a general framework is necessary to be effective, the search engine optimization process must be adaptable. In today's SEM agency issues column, "There's No Secret Recipe to SEO," William Flaiz shares some tips for guiding you down the path to SEO success.
Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
August 28, 2008
How Search Marketers Can Use Landing Page Testing to Influence Offline Ad Campaigns
Search marketers deal with landing pages everyday in their work, but not all landing pages are created for paid search campaigns. Many landing pages, or sometimes entire sites are created for offline advertising on television, radio, and magazine ads.
Should these landing pages be tested as well? I talked to Google Website Optimizer's Tom Leung to get his thoughts on how testing can influence offline campaigns.
Leung said there are two ways that tools like Website Optimizer can be used in offline campaigns:
The second point really got my attention. Leung expanded by saying that SEM's can use landing page testing as a "bargaining chip to get a seat at the table with other marketers in your organization."
This information gained from testing is highly useful to marketers planning offline campaigns. As a search marketer, you can use testing and analytics tools to be the one in their department or agency who knows the most about a target audience. That knowledge is highly useful to your colleagues, and can help you work more as an integrated team.
Even though offline and online campaigns can generate interest from consumers with different expectations, at the very least, testing can rule out things that don't work. An image, text, or highlighted feature that just doesn't resonate can be discovered through landing page testing. Marketers can test these factors in a paid search or other online ad test, and use the results to develop creatives for offline ads.
Online ad tests can also be used in advance of an offline-to-web ad campaign.
For offline traffic driven to landing pages, you can use those preliminary tests to narrow down the number of landing page options for the initial traffic driven from the offline ad. When the offline traffic begins to arrive (and you're expecting enough traffic to run a test), you can test the first visitors. You don't want to test more than 1 page per 100 conversions. Multivariate testing should generally be reserved for large, national campaigns.
WiderFunnel Marketing used Website Optimizer for Tourism BC's TV-to-Web ad campaign for HelloBC.com. According to a published case study, the campaign targeted the Los Angeles and San Francisco markets. Tourism BC experienced a 52% conversion rate (filling out a web form), up 7% from the previous year.
Even though search marketing has been gaining ground for years, SEMs still may find themselves struggling to lend their insight to traditional marketing methods that have been around for decades. Landing page testing is not just a must for SEMs in their own work but can be a strength to participate in the greater strategy at hand.
What do you think about landing page testing and integrating marketing campaigns? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.
Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Realtor.com Reveals Increase in Local Market Searches
Though the housing sector has been in turmoil for about a year now, last month showed a glimmer of hope with new home sales up 2.4% month over month in July.
Real estate search site Realtor.com is reaping the benefit of the little good news there is out there for the real estate industry. In July, Realtor.com saw increases in searches for certain local markets around the country, and they are:
As a result, traffic to the site is up 9.5% year-over-year, despite an overall industry traffic slump declining 1% year-over-year.
Related Reading:
Women More Likely Than Men to Begin Real Estate Search Online
The Impact of User Registration on Generating Real Estate Leads
Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Judge Throws Out Copyright Infringement Suit Against Online Video Site Veoh
A California federal court judge, Judge Howard Lloyd, has thrown out a copyright infringement suit against online video site Veoh. The suit was brought by adult entertainment company IO Group.
The judge's reasoning was that Veoh is protected by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act's (DMCA) safe harbor provisions. Since Veoh takes quick action in light of copyright issues, they are not acting illegally.
“Veoh has a strong DMCA policy, takes active steps to limit incidents of infringement on its website and works diligently to keep unauthorized works off its site,†wrote Judge Lloyd.
Guess who loves this ruling? Google. It's currently facing its own copyright infrigement suit brought against YouTube by Viacom. Because the Veoh case was heard in California, it doesn't set precedent for the YouTube case in New York. But Google hopes the Veoh ruling is still influential.
via NYT
Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Market Motive Search Marketing Certification Program
Market Motive announced today that they are launching a new search engine marketing certification program. The program is designed to complement their existing online training programs. Certification programs will cover SEO, web analytics, and paid search. All courses leading up to the certification are taught by known industry experts.
More details for the search engine marketing certification program can be found at http://www.marketmotive.com/search-marketing-certification.php. This web page includes a 2 minute introductory video by Michael Stebbins, CEO and co-founder of Market Motive.
Costs of the program begin at $299. Existing members of Market Motive get access to the practitioner level testing and certification at no extra cost.
Posted by Eric Enge at 8:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
SEW Experts: Get Links Now: Make a Difference, Make Connections
Want to solve the link building riddle? Stop thinking about money and start thinking about something bigger. In today's link building column, "Get Links Now: Make a Difference, Make Connections," Sage Lewis shows you how getting outside of your own little world can expand your horizons, as well as your link portfolio.
Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
SEW Experts: Leveraging Social Media to Educate
There's been lots of hype about social media lately. But what's it mean from a business perspective? How can it help you educate potential clients or customers, or spread the word about your product or idea so that people are talking about it among themselves? In today's SEM.edu column, "Leveraging Social Media to Educate," Ron Jones explores the basics of social media, and tells you how to get started using it to help spread that awareness you seek.
Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
August 27, 2008
Google's Search Experiments are Sometimes Subtle
Have you ever been around a friend who points out a flaw about themselves and you say, "I would never have noticed that if you hadn't pointed it out?"
Google is doing the same thing sans flaws.
On the Official Google Blog, Ben Gomes explains that sometimes Google's search experiments are very subtle. They'll test things like white space in the search results or how big the plus box should be next to a stock quote link.
The differences among the options being tested are very difficult to detect without being told what's going on. But the results of tests show that even a small number of pixels can make a big difference. For example, it could mean the difference between a searcher spending a lot of time on one search result - and not necessarily the first one - or a searcher being able to scan the results more easily. And then Google has to decide which is better.
All in all, Google's search experiments are not always about the alogorithm. What do you think of these experiments? Leave your thoughts in the comments!
Related Reading:
Google News Testing Updates
Google Testing Time Elements In Search Results
Google Testing Expandable "More Google" Links On Home Page & More
Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Searches for Hybrids Up 43% from March to July 2008
Recently, CarMax released a new search feature allowing car buyers to search for vehicles by Miles Per Gallon (MPG). Now, they're releasing data shedding light on that decision.
From the period beginning March 2008 and ending in July, searches for hybrid vehicles increased by 43%. The spike is, of course, driven by high gas prices during that time, and hybrids get great gas mileage.
CarMax is also pointing out that cost alone isn't a reason to switch to hybrids. It can take years to make up for the extra cost, and thousands of non-hybrid cars in its inventory can get up to 25 to over 30 MPG.
This is such a great example of what a company can do by paying attention to analytics and what consumers are searching for. It also shows the importance of investing in a solid site search.
How does this inspire you to do the same in your search marketing efforts? Give us your ideas in the comments section.
Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Ask Relaunches AskKids.com with Updated Design, Cool Drawing Feature
As a new homeschooling parent, finding online learning resources that are safe, well-designed, and fun for my kids is important - but inexplicably difficult. That's why I was thrilled to learn about Ask.com's expansion and redesign of AskKids.com.
I've already found Ask.com itself to be a great search engine for my kids, with its suggested searches and images in the sidebars.
But AskKids.com gives me even more confidence. Plus, there's a SUPER FUN feature on the front page.
At the bottom right corner, there's a box with a pen, pencil and highlighter. You can grab one of the utensils with your mouse and draw directly on the page! It rocks. There's also a tab for "stickers" that you can put on your drawing.
Moving on to the search side of things, on the front page, in addition to the traditional search box, there are 5 categories kids can go directly to: Schoolhouse, Movies, Games, Video, and Images.
Clicking on one of the categories brings up even more options along with traditional search results.
Conducting a traditional search was much like doing so on Ask.com There's only one sidebar, on the left, and no images.
I do have two criticisms:
1. The design theme is built around a traditional school setting. Kids are so much more than school. The background design of notebook paper is not a great way to reach kids, who learn much better through visual and interactive approahches and are far more tech-savvy than traditional, old school (pun fully intended) educational methods.
2. The search results have ads taking up a good portion of the space. The same criticism can be made of the Ask.com page. Being user-friendly and not ad friendly almost always wins the day and it would be nice if Ask could figure out a more user-friendly way to make the moolah.
Still, the homepage design is at least better than the old version:
What do you think of the new AskKids.com? Leave us your impressions in the comments.
Related Reading:
Student Searches: The Top 15 Searches for the K-12 Set
The New Multitaskers: Kids Split Attention Between TV, Internet
Content for Kids
Learning from Our Kids
Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
AdWords Report Center Will Remove Older Reports September 2
Google AdWords will remove older reports from its Report Center beginning September 2. Reports that are 6 months old or older, or before March 2, 2008, will be removed.
The data will not be removed, just the reports.
Until September 2, you can export these reports to Google Spreadsheets or .CSV files, Excel, HTML or another format.
Expect the purging of 6 month old or older reports to happen periodically going forward.
via Inside AdWords
Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Microsoft Top Display Advertiser for June 2008
comScore has released display ad data for June 2008. Microsoft was the top display advertiser, while Fox Interactive Media, with its ownership of MySpace, was the top publisher.
180 million unique visitors were exposed to display ads in June. On the publisher side, Yahoo reached 130,680,000 and Fox reached 83,714,000. On the advertiser side, Microsoft reached 126,367,000 of them. Ask Networks advertised to 102,565,000, coming in as the 10th top display advertiser.
Here are the charts:
Related Reading:
Online Publishers Turning to Ad Networks to Sell Unused Inventory
Google, Microsoft and Facebook to Testify to U.S. Senate about Online Ad Privacy
Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
SEW Experts: Rehabilitating SEO
Search marketers are some of the most passionate and dedicated people I've ever encountered. Those seeking to advance their position within search results can easily become obsessed (to the point of addiction) with checking results and positioning. In today's Searching for Meaning column, "Rehabilitating SEO," Kevin Ryan asks, when considering how your SEO time is spent, what's important and what isn't so important? What kinds of things are OK to obsess over? Are there ways to improve or correct obsessive SEO behavior?
Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
SEW Experts: A Challenge to our Attention-Challenged Generation
Nothing important ever gets invented, created or built without putting in some serious time. In today's Web analytics and ROI column, "A Challenge to our Attention-Challenged Generation," Eric Enge reminds us that if we want to get some real work done, we need to stop accepting interruptions from the Internet, e-mail, cell phone, texts, IM, and other technologies.
Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
August 26, 2008
SES San Jose 2008: Top 10 Stories
Over the past few days, more and more articles and posts from SES San Jose 2008 have been written. I'm sure there will be more stories to come out of the event, but this seems like a good time to recap the conference.
A quick Google News search for “SES San Jose†finds 276 articles from the past month – 138 when the duplicates are removed. A search in Yahoo! News for “SES San Jose†finds 114 articles from the past month. A query in Google Blog Search for “SES San Jose†finds 5,554 blog posts that mention “SES San Jose†from the past month, 337 when the duplicates are removed.
A little content analysis reveals the top 10 stories from the past month that were triggered by a keynote, panel, session or workshop at the 10th annual SES confence. Seven of these stories were ones that I predicted in my post on the Search Engine Watch Blog entitled "SES San Jose tip sheet for bloggers and journalists." But three of the top stories came as surprises -- even to an SES veteran like myself. Here, in order, are the Big Ten.
Kevin Ryan, VP, Global Content Director, SES & Search Engine Watch. (Twenty-three articles and 72 unduplicated blog posts, including “SES San Jose Photos – Paparazzi Style†by Lee Odden of TopRank’s Online Marketing Blog.
Tuesday Morning Keynote by Satya Nadella, SVP, Search, Portal & Advertising Platform Group, Microsoft. (Nineteen articles and 69 unduplicated blog posts, including “Is Microsoft’s Vision of Search Enough to Catch Google?†by Rob Hof of BusinessWeek. Rob wrote, “It would be dangerous for anyone to write off Microsoft. Its determination was on display today at the Search Engine Strategies conference in San Jose. Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s senior VP of search, portal, and advertising platform group, told the crowd that he sees searchers moving from merely typing keywords into Google to getting tasks done.â€
Matt Cutts, Software Engineer Guru of Google. (Ten articles, 74 blog posts and a YouTube video entitled “Matt Cutts on Big Brand BlackHat Sites†on the ChrisDaviesCa Channel. Chris happened to be sitting next to Matt, Google’s head of webspam, when Matt weighed in about big brand sites that have been banned for black hat seo practices during the Black Hat/White Hat session during SES San Jose 2008.
Danny Sullivan, Editor-in-Chief of Search Engine Land. (Eleven articles, 41 unduplicated blog posts and a video interview by Mike McDonald of the WebProNews Video Blog entitled, “SES: Staying Focused On Search.â€) Danny said that social marketing and all sorts of other things can be useful, but it’s important to get back to the search marketing basics.
Universal & Blended Search. (Four articles, 42 unduplicated blog posts and a video interview for the SESConferenceExpo channel entitled, "Johanna Wright of Google on Google Universal Search." Johanna gives some insight into how vertical search results are blended into universal search results and advocates a thoughtful approach to making information accessible to Google through use of sitemaps and detailed descriptions.
Keynote Roundtable: Why Does Search Get the Credit for Everything? (Four articles and 38 blog posts, including “SES roundtable: Search shouldn’t take all the credit†by Ellen Keohane of DM News. Ellen wrote, “Search marketing often gets credit for the final sale or conversion, even when it shouldn’t, according to a roundtable discussion today at Search Engine Strategies in San Jose.â€
Opening Keynote Presentation by Lee Siegel, author of Against the Machine. (Two articles and 27 unduplicated blog posts, including "Trust: The Backbone of Consumer Satisfaction" by Kevin Lee of ClickZ.) Kevin wrote, “In an afternoon keynote, Lee Siegel, author of "Against the Machine," predicted a backlash against the Internet as it has evolved. His book (which I’ve partially read) discusses how there are unforeseen consequences due to technology, and the Internet is responsible for largely unforeseen positive and negative effects on individuals and society.â€
Thursday Morning Keynote: Dan Heath, author of Made to Stick. (One article and 27 unduplicated blog posts, including “Dan Heath 2008 SES San Jose Keynote†on WebmasterRadio.FM.) Listen to Dan explain Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die as he delivers his 2008 SES San Jose Keynote. Dan offers six key factors for sticky ideas, plus offers numerous supporting examples.
Orion Panel: How Much Search is Enough? (Three articles and 19 unduplicated blog posts, including “SES San Jose 2008 - Where's Money For Search Going?†by Manoj Jasra of WebProNews. Manoj wrote, “How much Search is enough? Aaron Goldman of Resolution Media, Steven Kaufman of Digitas, Robert Murray of iProspect and Bob Tripathi of Discover Financial Services were posed that very question by SES’s own, Kevin Ryan.â€
Orion Panel: Technical & Information Giants. (Six articles and 15 unduplicated blog posts, including “Technical & Information Giants Keynote - SES San Jose 2008†by Jason McElweenie of The SEM Blog. Jason wrote, “WOW. Let me repeat that. WOW….This was a great panel of some very huge icons on the web today. Bravo SES!â€
Posted by Greg Jarboe at 1:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Social Media is Key Component of Back-to-School Marketing Supply List
More retailers are turning to social media as part of their back-to-school marketing campaigns, according to Jupiter Research. From Facebook to widgets, from virtual worlds to online video, retailers are targeting youth, who may not share the same feelings as their parents about a tough economy.
“The back-to-school season has grown in importance for retailers and leads into the all important fourth quarter sales period,†explained Patti Freeman Evans, Research Director and Online Retail Analyst at JupiterResearch. “With the shaky economy expected to impact the amount of money consumers spend on back-to-school shopping, retailers are using social media to capture the attention of younger consumers.â€
Examples of social media back-to-school implementation are JC Penny and Sears. Both retailers used integrated marketing campaigns, using tv ads to drive youth online where they can view tips on getting the same looks seen in the campaigns.
To promote its two new clothing lines, department store J.C.Penney created an online game called "DorkDodge" in which a girl has to navigate through a number of undesirable boyfriends to find her dream date. The retailer also launched an integrated marketing campaign showing teens how they can “get that look†with an array of clothing brands sold at J.C.Penney stores, featuring the theme of “The Breakfast Club.â€
According to David Schatsky, President of JupiterResearch, “Retailers experimenting with Web 2.0 experiences will largely find benefit from them in the form of branding and awareness building rather than direct sales as social media has shown little direct impact on actual online retail sales.â€
What do you think of using social media in your seasonal campaigns? Let us know in the comments.
Related Reading:
Back-to-School Offline Purchases Influenced by Online Ads
Live Search Cashback Launches Back-to-School Rebates
Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Newegg Defies State of New York with New Tax Policy
Electronics merchant Newegg.com has decided to not charge taxes in accordance with a new New York state law requiring e-commerce sites to collect sales taxes. The law, which went into effect June 1, is highly controversial. Amazon.com is suing the state of New York, saying the law is illegal and unconstitutional.
Opponents of the sales tax point to a 1992 Supreme Court ruling that said a mail-order company only has to pay taxes in the states where it has operations. Newegg only charges sales taxes in California, where the merchant is headquartered as well as Tennessee and New Jersey, where it has operations.
What do you think of Newegg's defiance? Is New York's tax law illegal? Sound off in the comments.
via Internet News, hat tip to Al Scillitani
Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Google Suggest to Be Set as Default on Homepage
Google is adding a feature that brings up suggested searches as you type, Google Suggest, as default on Google.com in the coming weeks. Google Suggest has been working on this feature for years, and it has been available to users in Google Labs.
Google has already added Suggest to the toolbar and YouTube.
Yahoo, Live.com, and Ask.com already offer search suggestions.
Like many updates and features, expect it to be rolled out to a few users first and then more and more as the days pass.
Posted by Nathania Johnson at 8:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
SEW Experts: SEO Success -- Guess What...Content Works!
You've heard it before, but that doesn't make it any less true: content is king. In today's natural search column, "SEO Success -- Guess What...Content Works!," Mark Jackson notes that while fixing problems and implementing some search engine-friendly practices can have an immediate effect on a site's search engine rankings, but for long-term improvement, no search engine optimization technique works better than creating quality content.
Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
SEW Experts: Weapons of Mass Optimization
Building an in-house SEO team can be a daunting task, especially for large organizations. With proper planning, the experience becomes more manageable, and success becomes more likely. In today's enterprise search marketing column, "Weapons of Mass Optimization," Aaron Shear reminds us that when planning such a big project, the key is to start small, and pay attention to the smaller details within the larger project.
Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
August 25, 2008
AOL, Live.com, and Ask.com Best Search Engines for Democratic National Convention Info
With the Democratic National Convention starting today in Denver, I thought it would be prudent to see which search engine is handling the highly anticipated event the best. Of course, Microsoft rocked the Olympics and outpaces everyone in mapping Georgia, but who's got political game?
Microsoft proved again that it's on top of current events, but it's AOL that takes the cake in my book. First, AOL makes use of its design as a portal to serve up content on the homepage, which eliminates searching for today's biggest US story.
Then, AOL makes use of its news and content networks to provide relevant links in its search results. Something that caught my eye is a link to News Video. I would have thought YouTube would dominate online video for the conventions, especially considering their involvement in the debates. But YouTube left a lot to be desired, while AOL News Video served up relevant, organized video.
AOL Homepage
AOL convention search results
AOL News Video results
YouTube results
Ask.com didn't have to do anything different. Their usual results, which includes a right sidebar with images, provided a nice offering of convention-related content.
Ask.com search results
Microsoft's Live.com could have made use of their new design, making the image of the day related to the convention. But they still have an Olympics-themed image up. Still, a search provides the latest convention news results at the top, and I like how their links to image, video, and other types of search are below the search box instead of on top. That helps users find what they're looking for even better. Searching for video via Live.com brings up results from AOL, YouTube and other sources such as the AP. The videos are organized like image results, which makes for quick browsing - probably quicker than AOL or YouTube. However, some of the videos are from past conventions.
Live.com search results
Live.com video search results
As I was writing this, Yahoo changed its results. Before, it showed News Results about halfway down the page, now news results for the convention are at the top. This puts it on par with Microsoft. Yahoo does take slight advantage of being a portal to provide content right on the front page so no searching is involved. But today's headline is the new Dancing With the Stars cast and whether Kim Kardashian's foot injury will prevent her from participating.
Yahoo convention search results
Google offered nothing special. They both provided News Results, but placed them about halfway down the page.
Google results
Yahoo front page
But don't take my word for it. Do some searching of your own and then leave a comment giving your vote for best search engine for Presidential politics.
Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Trulia Rolls Out Three New Interactive Features
Real estate search engine Trulia today announced three new features to assist home buyers, sellers and agents. Personalized news feeds, mobile applications, and a blogging platform are now available to those in the home buying and selling process.
The personalized news feed can be found on Trulia's homepage and includes new property listings, home prices changes, upcoming open houses, median sales price trends, recently sold properties, relevant blogs and Q&As from our Trulia Voices Community.
New mobile apps are available for iPhone and iPod touch users as well as owners BlackBerry, Blackjack, Sony Ericsson, Nokia and many more mobile phones.
The iPhone/iPod touch app can search via price, number of bedrooms and bathrooms, square footage, color photos and local open house information. The app can detect location for the 3G phones based on the location-aware technology, or other users can simply input their location.
For other mobile phone users, you can use an interactive mobile map. Search options include property details, color photos and updated open house dates and times.
Trulia has also partnered with Dash Navigation to provide real estate search via their GPS device, Dash Express. The device is Internet-connected, providing users with real time search results.
Last but not least, the new blogging platform enables agents as well as home buyers and sellers to communicate about the real estate process. From home renovations to open houses, users can blog to their hearts desire, with the opportunity to reach Trulia's 5 million users right off the bat.
What do you think about Trulia's new features? Let us know in the comments.
Related Reading:
Real Estate Search Engine Trulia Adds New Depth, Features
Trulia Distributing Its Maps To Local Realtors
The Impact of User Registration on Generating Real Estate Leads
Women More Likely Than Men to Begin Real Estate Search Online
Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
MapQuest Partners with Citysearch for Comprehensive Search Results
In February, AOL announced a partnership with Citysearch to distribute its data across its network. Now, MapQuest has announced that it is integrating Citysearch's data to provide more comprehensive search results. Features such as reviews, menus, and photos will be available for select listings.
When you conduct a search, if you see an gold icon with a star on it, that's your clue to click for the new results. I was unable to find an icon after several searches, but here's a screenshot from MapQuest:
Related Reading:
Local Search: Competing All Over the Map
Local Search: Competing All Over the Map - Part 2
MapQuest API for All
MapQuest Enhances Mobile Mapping Products
Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
SEW Experts: Killer PPC Ads: The Fundamentals
Writing small, punchy ads requires plenty of art and science. In today's Profitable PPC column, "Killer PPC Ads: The Fundamentals," David Szetela offers some guidelines to help you get more clicks and stymie your competitors.
Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
