Google Adsense

What’s New With Bing & Yahoo Search Alliance

Written on July 20, 2010 by admin

Filed Under: Object

Yahoo has provided an update on the current status of the transition over to Bing’s search technology.
On the organic side, Yahoo began testing Bing powered results. They are currently testing Bing powered results on about 25 percent of the traffic. They hope to transition over to Bing fully, sometime in September [...]



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What’s New With Bing & Yahoo Search Alliance

Up To 25% Of Yahoo’s Search Results Now Powered By Bing

Written on July 20, 2010 by admin

Filed Under: Object

Right now, up to 25% of the Yahoo Search results are powered by Bing. Yahoo began testing Bing search results this month, currently there are live bucket tests underway on both the organic and paid side.
Mark Morrissey, Senior Vice President of Product Management at Yahoo, told me that while only 3.5% of [...]



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Up To 25% Of Yahoo’s Search Results Now Powered By Bing

Only 10% Of Businesses Would Pay For Foursquare: Survey

Written on June 13, 2010 by admin

Filed Under: Object, book, marketing

Only 10% of businesses that are currently using Foursquare as a free marketing tool are willing to pay for the service; that’s one of the interesting survey results presented last week during the “Location Services: The New Local Search?” session at the SMX Advanced conference in Seattle.

Search marketers Will Scott (of Search Influence) and Mat [...]



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Only 10% Of Businesses Would Pay For Foursquare: Survey

AdSense Supastar, That is What You Are

Written on November 19, 2009 by admin

Filed Under: marketing

AdSense publishers, I have some startling news for you:

Some of the ads displayed on your site are not that contextually relevant!

I know some of you are now saying, “well, duh!” but even Google is starting to admit that it’s showing some ads–when perhaps it shouldn’t.

OK, so Google didn’t actually admit that–at least not explicitly. It did, however, start testing a new “Featured Ad” format that will highlight AdSense ads that are more relevant than others.

Here’s an example:

A pretty little star, and a “Featured Ad” rollover is being tested on a small batch of AdSense ads. According to Google:

We are currently running a limited test in which a small number of users are seeing ads that are marked based on signals related to quality and relevance. This experiment is part of our ongoing efforts to help users find what they’re looking for, and we’re closely monitoring feedback.

Methinks that this is less about rewarding quality ads and more about increasing click-throughs with a stronger call-out.

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AdSense Supastar, That is What You Are

AOL Asking 2,500 Employees to Fall on Their Sword

Written on November 19, 2009 by admin

Filed Under: marketing

While I just read this over at All Things Digital I am still scratching my head (which means I am typing with just one hand, so if this reads slow you’ll know why). AOL tends to be in the news in the past year or so more about whether the business will survive and how will it look when it is pushed out of the Time Warner nest officially in December. Why today would be any different I don’t know but the news from AOL is how they are asking for 2,500, or one third of their work force, to volunteer for a layoff.

AOL, which has already told investors that it will spend up to $200 million firing a good chunk of its staff, has now told its employees. It is looking for “up to 2,500 volunteers,” CEO Tim Armstrong told his staff today. That’s a third of the company’s payroll.

The voluntary layoff program begins on December 4, a few days before the company spins off from Time Warner (TWX). If the company doesn’t get enough volunteers, it will axe people on its own.

Ok, so in this crappy job market you are asking someone to either volunteer to move on or just wait and see if they will be told to move on. What I didn’t see was what would make that kind of move better than rolling the dice and hoping that you don’t get axed? In other words, if there is any doubt in an AOL employee’s mind as to whether they would survive this what is the advantage of volunteering. Is there monetary incentive? I’m a little baffled. Of course, if you look at it from the business side this is the kind of news investors like to hear.

In a gesture of “I’m suffering too” Tim Armstrong is not taking his bonus in the neighborhood of $1.5 million due him this year. All of the cynics in the crowd can chime in on that one I am sure. I have no comment but here is Armstrong’s take.

“As a member of our team and the person who takes accountability for the results of the company, I am making the decision to forego my 2009 bonus. That decision is a personal one and is not a sign for the future payout of the overall bonus plan for employees.”

So what about AOL as an Internet business? What about what this will look like moving forward? With ICQ on the block and MapQuest as well what is AOL going to be offering the market place when it is asked to stand alone other than 2,500 more folks with AOL on their resume when looking for work?

It might be interesting to hear from the MP crowd as to what their view of AOL is in the Internet marketing space as we approach this new phase in the company’s history. Let’s hear it.

Originally posted here:
AOL Asking 2,500 Employees to Fall on Their Sword

Google Addressing Site Hierarchies in SERPs

Written on November 19, 2009 by admin

Filed Under: marketing

While Google made the announce of their new inclusion of site hierarchy to help searchers understand the context of a search result more clearly on Tuesday, it also stated that this will be seen globally over the next few days. Well, that brings us to today right? So keep an eye out for the latest update that Google has put into play to try to make their flagship offering, their search engine, better. After all there may come a day when some ‘competitors’ may need to join forces and actually challenge Google search supremacy (oh that’s right that’s already happening).

Google’s blog tells us

Google usually shows a green web address, or URL, at the bottom of each search result to let you know where you’re headed. Today we’re rolling out an improvement that replaces the URL in some search results with a hierarchy showing the precise location of the page on the website. The new display provides valuable context and new navigation options.

As most know, oftentimes the URL of search result that would give an indication to those who would think this way that the page they are looking for is part of a larger scheme. Since many URL’s are too long and get cut off on the SERP’s then that benefit is lost.

Google’s answer is to provide a breadcrumb presentation of a site’s hierarchy is it is available for the result. The look of the result (in which each individual word is a link to a different destination) is like this

The information in these new hierarchies come from analyzing destination web pages. For example, if you visit the ProductWiki Spidersapien page, you’ll see a series of similar links at the top, “Home> Toys & Games> Robots.” These are standard navigational tools used throughout the web called “breadcrumbs,” which webmasters frequently show on their sites to help users navigate. By analyzing site breadcrumbs, we’ve been able to improve the search snippet for a small percentage of search results, and we hope to expand in the future.

Whenever anything like this is rolled out I always try to think about this kind of improvement as it relates to the vast majority of Internet users and search engine users. I suspect we over estimate their level of sophistication quite regularly. While this is interesting I don’t even really feel compelled to go to another page within the hierarchy because there is just a little information about the direct result I am looking for and it’s not even the same page so why would I go elsewhere right out of the gate?

Personally, I like to keep things simple. Is this a true improvement or just something else to talk about? Google’s take is that they are impressed with what this does.

When we design the way results appear on google.com, our goal is to get you to the information you’re looking for as quickly as possible. Sometimes that means improving how we represent websites, and other times that means giving you new ways to explore content. We’re always happy when we can introduce a feature, like site hierarchies, that does both!

Maybe my persoanl need for simplicity in an increasingly unsimple world is missing something? How do you see it?

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Google Addressing Site Hierarchies in SERPs

What’s The Right Way To Think About Google?

Written on June 29, 2009 by admin

Filed Under: Object, book

The NY Times offers a broad article about Google’s efforts to define, explain and clarify its place in the market in the face of increasing anti-trust scrutiny (Google Makes a Case That It Isn’t So Big). There are currently three Justice Department investigations pending that involve Google, concerning its Book Search settlement, overlapping directors with [...]



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What’s The Right Way To Think About Google?

Google Slides On Ranking Issues

Written on June 29, 2009 by admin

Filed Under: Object

The Google Webmaster Central blog posted slides on traffic drops and site architecture issues. The slides are from an SMX London 2009 presentation.

For more information, see the Google blog post.



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Google Slides On Ranking Issues