Search Engine Watch Blog

Judge Gives Google and Authors Another Book Settlement Extension

Nathania Johnson — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 23:54:27 -0500

Today, Google and the Association of American Publishers were supposed to have reached a new settlement, but instead asked for another extension. Judge Denny Chin, who has been presiding over the case, granted the request.

In September, Judge Chin granted the publishers' request for a delay of the originally scheduled October hearing. The book settlement was announced last spring, but was coming under increased scrutiny from outside groups and the government.

The new deadline is this Friday, November 13.

Google AdWords Adds Two New Alerts

Nathania Johnson — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 23:38:03 -0500

Google AdWords has launched new alerts to help you manage your paid search campaigns.

Under the Opportunities Tab, Google has added alerts for keyword and budget ideas.

If you're using conversion tracking, you can now set up a custom alert to notify you of changes in conversion volume, conversion rate, and cost per conversion.

So far, custom alerts are only available for individual accounts, but Google says they are working on rolling out custom alerts for accounts linked through My Client Center (MCC).

Murdoch to Google: Drop Dead

Greg Jarboe — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 21:07:28 -0500

Okay, so News Corp. Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch didn't really tell Google to drop dead. That's just an attention getting device like the classic headline in The Daily News back in the 1970s: "Ford to City: Drop Dead."

What Murdoch did say in a Sky News interview today was that his company is considering blocking Google from being able to search its Web sites.

Murdoch said, "I think we will (block Google), but that's when we start charging. We have it already with the Wall Street Journal. We have a wall, but it's not right to the ceiling. You can get, usually, the first paragraph from any story - but if you're not a paying subscriber to WSJ.com all you get is a paragraph and a subscription form."

In the past, Google CEO Eric Schmidt has said, "In general these models (paid online content) have not worked for general public consumption because there are enough free sources that the marginal value of paying is not justified based on the incremental value of quantity. So my guess is for niche and specialist markets ... it will be possible to do it but I think it is unlikely that you will be able to do it for all news."

If you want to watch the interview for yourself, check it out on YouTube -- which, ironically, is an independent subsidiary of Google Inc.

Sky News - Interview with Rupert Murdoch

Now, would Google really "drop dead" if News Corp. blocked it from crawling its websites?

Bill Tancer, the General Manager, Global Research at Experian Hitwise, took a look at this question in a blog post entitled, "News Corp. Google-less?"

According to Hitwise data:

On a weekly basis Google and Google news are the top traffic providers for WSJ.com account for over 25 percent of WSJ.com's traffic.

Over 44 percent of WSJ.com visitors coming from Google are "new" users who haven't visited the domain in the last 30 days.

Twitter and Facebook sent 4% of US visits to News and Media sites in October 2009. (via @Hitwise_US)

The percentage of upstream traffic from Facebook and Twitter to News and Media sites is up 490% year-over-year.

So, maybe Murdoch should think twice before pulling the plug on 25 percent of WSJ.com's traffic. Although the amount of traffic from social media like Facebook and Twitter is growing, it won't offset the upstream traffic from Google and Google News.

Or, who knows, maybe the tables will be turned someday and we'll read a headline like: "Google to Murdoch: Go Ahead, Make My Day."

Google Acquires Mobile Advertising Provider AdMob

Nathania Johnson — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 14:16:28 -0500

AdMob has been a major player in the mobile advertising world, really taking off when Apple enabled apps on their iPhone and iPod Touch devices. Google is gobbling up their competition mobile ad competition by acquiring AdMob.

"Mobile advertising has enormous potential as a marketing medium and while this industry is still in the early stages of development, AdMob has already made exceptional progress in a very short time," said Susan Wojcicki, Vice President of Product Management at Google. "AdMob is the quintessential Silicon Valley startup -- generating impressive year on year revenue growth -- and we're excited to welcome this talented team to Google."

As a result of the acquisition, Google expects the following:

Better engagement for advertisers in their interactions with mobile users
More effective monetization for publishers and developers
More relevant ads and access to more content (supported by ads) for users

Google bought AdMob for $750 million. AdMob founder Omar Hamoui founded the company in 2006. This is quite a payoff for him, both monetarily and with regards to innovation in the industry.

"I think people underestimate how important ads have been to funding the development of innovative content on the Internet. Our goal all along at AdMob has been to make it possible for developers and publishers to bring their products and ideas to mobile with the same business model," said Hamoui. "We're proud of the progress we've made towards accomplishing this goal, and joining Google will only accelerate this process, ultimately leading to very real benefits for end users around the world. As publishers and developers generate more revenue from their mobile products, they will invest more, and their mobile offerings will become richer, more creative and more robust."

What do you think of this acquisition? Let us know by leaving a comment.

American Daily Newspapers Employ 25% Fewer People Than in 2001

Greg Jarboe — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 12:04:26 -0500

I apparently caused a stir yesterday at the PRSA International Conference in San Diego. Actually, it was a disturbing fact -- or an inconvenient truth -- that I cited which caused the stir. So, don't shoot the messanger.

During the Q&A part of the conference workshop, "Looking Ahead: The Nexus of Social Media and Public Relations," Peter Himler, founder and principal of Flatiron Communication, asked a rhetorical question of the audience. I've known Himler for about 15 years, so I raised my hand when nobody seemed eager to speculate on when traditional media relations should be declared dead.

I'm presenting a PRSA teleseminar on Nov. 17, and I had been working on my presentation before heading to San Diego. So, I happened to have a data point at my finger tips that related to the question.

According to The State of News Media for 2009, which is published by the Pew Project for Excellence in Journalism, 5,900 full-time newsroom jobs, 11% of the total at America's newspapers, were cut in 2008. By the end of 2009, newsrooms of American daily newspapers may employ 25% fewer people than they did in 2001.

Ad Age estimates that just under 150,000 people worked in magazines in 2008, down from about 170,000 in 2000. And in local television, news staffs, already too small to adequately cover their communities, are being cut at unprecedented rates.

So, that's why PR people need to embrace social media as quickly as they can. If they don't include blog outreach, YouTube marketing, Facebook marketing, and Twitter marketing within the definition of public relations, then PR will employ 25% fewer people than it did in 2001.

Okay, so maybe that was a little like shouting "fire" in a crowded theater. But facts are facts, and I was just telling the truth.

But some of the people in the room reacted like they were going through the five stages of grief described in the book by Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, "On Death and Dying." They are:
1. Denial (This isn't happening to me!)
2. Anger (Why is this happening to me?)
3. Bargaining (I promise I'll be a better person if...)
4. Depression (I don't care anymore.)
5. Acceptance (I'm ready for whatever comes.)

To help the PR specialists in your company through the grieving process, you should have the SEO specialists take them to lunch. Eat some comfort food. And let them know that they will play a really important role in social media -- as soon as they get their arms around social media measurement.

Okay, that last part may be "tough love." They may not be ready to embrace social media measurement -- yet.

But, sooner or later, they have to move on. Sooner or later, they need to heed the advice of Cher in the movie Moonstruck: "Get over it!"

Twitter Tries to Get Rid of Spammy Trending Tweets

Nathania Johnson — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 11:44:58 -0500

If you've ever viewed the stream of Tweets in a Trending Topic on Twitter, you've no doubt seen your share of spam. Twitter is now testing improvements to trending topics in order to get rid of the spam.

Twitter says they're focusing on identifying high-quality Tweets, but didn't go into detail. They also said you probably won't notice much change right away, but assured that small steps are being taken.

It's good to see Twitter taking on spam. No doubt spam is something that killed MySpace's popularity, which led to the rise of Facebook and Twitter.

Microsoft Rolls Out adCenter Fall 2009 Upgrade

Nathania Johnson — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 11:33:12 -0500

Over the weekend, Microsoft adCenter began rolling out its Fall 2009 upgrade. Tina Kelleher took to the official adCenter blog to give the scoop:

The adCenter team is in the process of getting ready to roll out the adCenter Fall 2009 Upgrade this weekend. This upgrade will include improvements in reporting, account management and will even add a few new features; we'll have more detailed information on Monday. You should expect to see the upgrade changes after Sunday, November 8th.

Have you seen the new features yet? What do you think? Let us know by leaving a comment.

Google Maps Adds NYC Subway System Layer, Available for Some Mobile Phones Too

Nathania Johnson — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 10:55:45 -0500

Google has added a new layer to their Maps: the New York City Subway System. This will be handy for those of you attending SES New York next spring.

To use it, view New York City in Google Maps and then click the "More" option and select Transit.

Zoom in and you'll see individual station icons. Click on an icon to get more information about that station.

Mobile devices that have access to layers on Google Maps will be able to access the subway maps. Those devices include BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, and Symbian S60.

Go to SES Berlin or SES Chicago for Nine Trainers Training

Greg Jarboe — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 02:30:05 -0500

During the past seven weeks, I've shared seven compelling reasons for going to either Search Engine Strategies Berlin or SES Chicago 2009. For those of you who want to join in the chorus, they are "eight days a-learning, seven tracks amazing, six booths astounding, five brand new things, four keynote themes, three key trends, two early birds, and a ranking in the top three."

This week, I'll share an eighth great reason -- and it isn't "nine ladies dancing."

You should attend these events for "nine trainers training."

As I mentioned back in September, training is one of the three key trends. If you type "SEO training" into Google Insights for Search, you'll see that web search interest has grown steadily since 2004 -- and is forecast to continue growing in 2010. So, it's not surprising that more time is being added to the schedules of search engine conferences for training workshops.

But I often wonder if "in-depth training" is the right term for the "radical reorientation" that takes place in these intensive workshops. The small class setting ensures participants that their instructor is accessible for informal one-on-one or small group discussions of "why" as well as "how."

As Columbus discovered, training the crews of the Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria how to sail west was a relatively straightforward task. The real challenge was convincing Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand that they wouldn't fall off the edge of the world.

Fortunately, the instructors of the SES training workshops are experts who know how to handle both ambidextrously.

So, what can you learn by participating in one of these training workshops?

SES Berlin offers a "Workshopsprogramm" on 23 November, the day before the "kongress." The program includes:
• Link Building 2009 Workshop, which will be taught by Christoph Cemper, General Manager, and Melanie Arko, Project Manager CEMPER.COM.
• Web Analytics Workshop: Data Into Action, which will be taught by Timo Aden, Gründer und Geschäftsführer, Trakken GmbH.
• Best Practices der Suchmaschinenwerbung, which will be taught by Oliver Zenglein, Head of Online Marketing, be2.

Search Engine Strategies Chicago 2009 offers SEM training on December 10, the day after the conference. The half-day workshops include:
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Workshop, which will be taught by Shari Thurow, Omni Marketing Interactive.
• Landing Page Testing Hands On: Developing Your Action Plan, which will be taught by Tim Ash, SiteTuners.
• Advanced Keyword Research, which will be taught by Ron Jones, Symetri Internet Marketing.
• Social Media and Your Business, which will be taught by Sage Lewis, SageRock.com.

On December 11, SES Chicago 2009 offers partnered training. The full-day workshops include:
• Search Engine Optimization Training, which will be taught by Bruce Clay, Bruce Clay, Inc.
• Integrating Search Across All Online Marketing Efforts, which will be taught by Aaron Kahlow, Chairman & Founder, Online Marketing Summit; Ray "Catfish" Comstock, Senior Search Strategist, BusinessOnLine; Paul Sherman, President Emeritas, Usability Professionals Organization (OMI Professor); Jennifer Wessenmeyer, VP Analytics, Stratigent; Debbie Qaqish, Partner, Pedowitz Group (OMI professor); and Kevin Espinosa, Director eMarketing, Caterpillar.

Next week, we'll look at more reasons for going to either Search Engine Strategies Berlin or SES Chicago 2009. In the meantime, just keep singing "nine trainers training, eight days a-learning, seven tracks amazing, six booths astounding, five brand new things, four keynote themes, three key trends, two early birds, and a ranking in the top three."

Caution: Social Media May Be Closer Than They Appear

Greg Jarboe — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 23:01:26 -0500

I've just finished attending Day 1 of the PRSA International Conference in San Diego.

Arianna Huffington, founder of The Huffington Post, was the Sunday keynote speaker.

Katie D. Paine, CEO of KDPaine & Partners, discussed Social Media Measurement: Establishing ROI.

And Peter Himler, founder and principal of Flatiron Communications, Rick Clancy, former senior vice president of corporate communication at Sony Electronics, Jessica Smith, Vice President of Fleishman-Hillard, Rob Key, founder and CEO of Converseon, and Lee Odden, CEO of TopRank Online Marketing, participated on a panel entitled, "Looking Ahead: The Nexus of Social Media and Public Relations."

If PR people seem to be very interested in social media, they are. But they aren't alone. Search engine optimizers have been interested in social media for five years. And customer relations management is interested in social media, too.

Now, blogs started taking off in 2003. Facebook was launched in 2004. YouTube was launched in 2005. And Twitter was launched in 2006.

So, maybe we should cut many PR people some slack for waiting until 2009 to get their arms around social media. But life is unfair -- and PR people who waited until now will find themselves saying, "Hey, that's my job," to other people in other departments who didn't wait to get started.

Now, PR people bring a lot of relevant skills to the social media table, but so do SEOs and customer relations people. All this will generate some interesting discussions when it comes time to launch a company's first social media campaign.

I remember similar discussions in the mid-1990s, when I tried to make the case at my old employer that the corporate communications department should be responsible for creating the company's first website. I lost that argument -- and the IT department was put in charge of creating a new way to interact with "the public" online. The result was a website that wasn't user friendly -- and it used a content management system that wasn't search engine friendly, either.

So, we face another one of those pivotal moments when PR people will be asked why social media is important, how social media works, and which social media to use.

They need to be read with answers now, not next year. Anyone who looks at social media through the passenger side mirror needs to be cautioned: Social media may be closer than they appear.

5 Google Updates for 11/6/09: News, Maps, Books, Music and Mobile

Nathania Johnson — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:38:55 -0500

It's the end of another eventful week in search blogging, and once again there are several Google updates just piled up waiting to be written about. So, we're saving everyone some time and just compiling them into one post. Check them out:

Google News has a new sitemaps interface. You have six months to adopt the new sitemap.

Google Books now has a magazine search page.

Via Google Search's new music search, you can now access exclusive songs hosted by MySpace and Lala for artists such as Lady Gaga and Arctic Monkeys.

Google Maps has released imagery of Berlin from 1945 to 1953.

The Google Mobile App is now available at Best Buy (still free, which is the ultimate "best buy").

PRSA 2009 International Conference Features Two Online Marketing Heroes

Greg Jarboe — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:25:38 -0500

I'll by flying to San Diego this weekend to speak at the PRSA 2009 International Conference next week. Lee Odden, CEO of TopRank Online Marketing and a member of the SES Advisory Board, will also be speaking at the annual Public Relations Society of America event.

Odden is speaking on Monday, November 9, at 10:15 a.m. about "Help Google Find Your Releases: Top 10 Search Engine Optimization Tactics for Public Relations Professionals."

Nine out of 10 journalists, reporters and editors use search engines to do their jobs, according to a recent survey by TopRank Online Marketing. In this environment, public relations professionals must understand the ins and outs of search engine optimization (SEO).

So, Odden will help PR people find out how to choose the best key words, optimize their newsroom and press releases, build better links, and sell SEO to decision makers. Plus, he'll share "the No. 1 SEO tactic to implement today."

I'll be speaking on Tuesday, November 10, at 11:15 a.m. with Laura Sturaitis, the senior vice president, media and product services, at Business Wire.

How do you know your press release delivers value? Are there ways to increase a press releases' ROI?

Sturaitis and I will discuss real live examples and techniques to get the most mileage for press releases, especially in the Web 2.0 world. We'll explain why PR people need to work hand-in-hand with their Web team to see how visitors are getting to their site and moving through it. We'll also examine Web analytics for compiling, tracking and measuring activity deriving from the press release via the wires and elsewhere.

If you want a preview, check out my post on the ComPRrehension blog, which is entitled, "Does Your Press Release Deliver Value?"

Odden and I also spoke last year at the PRSA 2008 International Conference in Detroit. Why is this useful information for search engine optimizers to share with their colleagues down the hall in the public relations department? SEO specialists and PR specialists need to work together to handle the opportunities and threats created by Google universal search.

When Google announced universal search in May 2007, Marissa Mayer, vice president of search products and user experience at Google, said, "The ultimate goal of universal search is to break down the silos of information that exist on the web and provide the very best answer every time a user enters a query."

This radically changed everything we knew about search engine optimization (SEO) and public relations (PR). If your webmaster isn't optimizing content for YouTube, Google News, or Google Images, then who is?

With more than 12.8 billion expanded search queries a month on Google Sites in the U.S., this isn't a rhetorical question. In other words, the SEO specialists and PR specialists need to get out of their silos to ensure that their organization is getting found in all the right places.

As I told Michael Miller, the author of "Online Marketing Heroes: Interviews with 25 Successful Online Marketing Gurus," back in 2008, "For a good part of the 20th century, every part of the marketing mix was in a different silo. Advertising had its lingo and its metrics, and PR had its lingo and its metrics, and if you had a group that was focused on trade shows and events, they had their lingo and their metrics, etcetera. One of the things that is sort of a byproduct of keeping people in their silos is that things that the email marketing people learned ten years ago, or the search engine marketing people earned five years ago, the PR people in the same organization haven't learned yet. As a result, they keep doing what used to work but stopped working a long time ago, only nobody noticed."

I added, "To the extent that you can get the PR people interacting with the search people, they will discover that there are lots of things they can do together."

And Odden was also interviewed for Miller's book. So, your PR people will be getting the same advice no matter which online marketing guru they listen to at the PRSA 2009 International Conference -- or which chapter of Miller's book they read.

Odden and I both spoke at SES London 2008. Check out my video interview with him below.

Lee Odden, TopRank Online Marketing, at SES London 2008

And Odden and I are both speaking at SES Chicago 2009. So, there's no escaping our combined message: Get out of your silo; start interacting with other members of your marketing team.

Get it? Got it? Good.

Google AdWords Updates Conversion Tracking Options

Nathania Johnson — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:06:29 -0500

Google AdWords has updated the interface for Conversion Tracking. There are three tabs to manage data: Conversions, Webpages, and Code.

Conversions

Under this tab, you'll view details about the conversion actions you're tracking. The "Tracking Status" column shows whether those actions are being tracked properly. The "Value" column displays the accumulated value of the conversion actions. This is based on the value you assign to each action. Use the "New Conversion" button to set up the conversion actions to be tracked. These can also be imported from Google Analytics.

Webpages

Under this tab, you can view which web pages on your site are converting. You'll see the same columns you see under the Conversions tab (Tracking Status, Value, Conversions per click). This can help you identify poorly performing pages.

Code

Under this tab, grab the tracking code for each conversion. You can change the value of an action here too, which aids in ROI calculations.

What do you think of this Google AdWords update? Let us know by leaving a comment.

AOL Completes Financial Team, Names Additional Board Member in Advance

Nathania Johnson — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:55:02 -0500

In preparation for being spun off from Time Warner, AOL has hired executives to their financial team and announced one additional board member.

Here's a list of the financial execs:

Mike Suffredini - Vice President and Treasurer
Eoin Ryan - Vice President of Investor Relations
Don Neff, currently a Senior Vice President of Finance, will become Senior Vice President of Internal Audit.
Ned Brody - rejoining the company as Executive Vice President of Paid Services

Meanwhile, Susan Lyne, Chief Executive Officer of the online luxury retailer Gilt Groupe, Inc. has been named to the Board of Directors. Last week, AOL named nine board members for the post-separation operations.

Click Forensics Unveils Online Audience Verification Platform for Shopping Engines

Nathania Johnson — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:45:51 -0500

At ad:tech New York this week, Click Forensics unveiled a new online audience verification platform for comparison shopping search engines. The technology evaluates traffic to determine its value to merchant partners.

"Comparison shopping engines and other content aggregators need a simple way to optimize the money they spend on search engine marketing, while improving the quality of leads they send on to merchant partners," said Paul Pellman, CEO of Click Forensics. "The solution we're delivering does just that. To our knowledge, it's the only system available that provides the ability for content aggregators to manage traffic acquisition and traffic monetization in a single interface."

Features include:

High-Volume Campaign Support - measures the quality of tens of millions of clicks, which supports the increase in demand during high traffic seasons.
Real-Time Quality-based Filtering - prevents fraudulent and low-quality traffic from reaching merchants, which aids in optimizing ad spend.
API Integration - allows integration of the platform directly with existing internal reporting and billing systems.
Browser-based Reporting - enables viewing of traffic and audience quality statistics in a browser-based dashboard.

Ultimately, Click Forensics hopes their new platform will help shopping search engines maintain and grow their merchant partner base.