Search Engine Land: News About Search Engines & Search Marketing

Google, Yahoo, Bing & Others Do 4th Of July Logos

Danny Sullivan — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 17:13:24 +0000

It’s the 4th Of July! Happy 4th to those celebrating today, and here’s a look at how search engines are recognizing the holiday in logos: Google went with a cookout theme for its logo: Yahoo had a small eagle next to its logo, which produced fireworks-stars if you hovered over it: Bing went with fireworks exploding behind the [...]

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US Justice Dept. Formally Confirms Google Books Inquiry

Greg Sterling — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:34:38 +0000

It’s not really a surprise or even news that the US Department of Justice (DOJ) confirmed yesterday it was formally investigating the terms of the Google Book Search settlement. This was known as far back as April and essentially confirmed last month by various publications reporting that formal requests (called “civil investigative demands”) had been [...]

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The 3 SEO/SEM Conference Personas

Shari Thurow — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 11:14:37 +0000

I recently returned from the successful SMX-Advanced search engine optimization and advertising conference, and I had an epiphany: as a speaker, usability principles are applicable to these conferences. Which usability principle, you might ask? Before usability professionals create an information architecture and corresponding interfaces, they must identify and address various personas or profiles. The primary persona [...]

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FriendFeed Joins The Real-Time Search Race

Matt McGee — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 23:28:55 +0000

Add FriendFeed to the long and growing list of players who are trying to win the race for comprehensive and quick real-time search. FriendFeed has always had a real-time element — the ability to track social activities almost as they happen. But the company has announced the addition of real-time search today. If you’ve used search.twitter.com, [...]

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Google Blog Search Sees Twitter Trends & Raises With Blog Search ‘Hot Queries’

Matt McGee — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 19:52:46 +0000

A lot of the innovation in search these days is all about What’s happening right now? Twitter is the poster child where real-time search is concerned, and despite its ongoing spam problem, Twitter Trends has become one of the primary places to get a snapshot of what’s happening now. Google Blog Search is getting in the [...]

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What Ads Types Are Most “Helpful”? Search Ads Follow Newspapers, TV

Greg Sterling — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:59:45 +0000

Trade magazine AdWeek and pollster Harris Interactive conducted a survey in early June among 2,521 US adults. People were asked what types of ads they found most “helpful” and what types of ads they ignored. Below are the top-line results as well as the age and geographically segmented data. Most helpful in making purchase decisions: 37 percent [...]

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The Collusion Of Editorial & Advertising; Plus: Cheap Ways To Buy Exposure

Aaron Wall — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:48:47 +0000

Many reporters would like you to believe there is a firm wall between content and advertising, but often they merge…particularly for niche or trade related publications. When my wife was getting started in business and wanted to promote her first website, a trade magazine kept trying to push her for an ad and she kept [...]

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Google News No Longer Wants Newsmaker’s Comments

Barry Schwartz — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 13:54:27 +0000

In August 2007, Google News released a feature to allow newsmakers to add comments to stories found in Google News. That feature has gone away very quietly. When Google News launched the feature, not only did we find it “weird,” but we felt that Google didn’t “know what they’re getting into.” Google told the [...]

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Google Expands Universal Search To More Phones In More Countries

Greg Sterling — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 13:33:13 +0000

Of the big three search engines, one could argue that Google is directing the most focused, ongoing effort toward mobile. Clearly Yahoo and Microsoft see mobile as a critical part of their business but Google is more or less continually doing things that seek to improve the mobile user experience. First, of course, there’s Android itself. [...]

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It’s All About Local Organic Domination

Hanan Lifshitz — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 10:31:28 +0000

Lately I’ve been speaking with SEM experts about what small business owners should do to increase their online visibility. While opinions vary, most experts agree about the importance of ranking high on Google’s various organic search results. Listening to them explain what a local business can hope to achieve, I found that the language was hardly [...]

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