Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
From Search Engine Land:
- Doodle 4 Google Winner Announced: Melton’s Rainforest Habitat
Google announced the winner of the 3rd annual Doodle 4 Google competition. The Doodle is viewable above and will be displayed on the Google home page tomorrow, May 27th.
The winner was Makenzie Melton, a third grader at El Dorado Springs R-2 Schools in El Dorado Springs, Missouri for her “Rainforest Habitat” doodle. Besides […] - Live Blogging Facebook’s “Simpler Privacy Controls” Press Conference
Facebook is holding a special press conference today, where it will be discussing the new “simplied” privacy settings that the company has developed in hopes of easing recent concerns over privacy. I’ll be live blogging the news.
The press conference starts at 10:30 Pacific Time. It’s happening at Facebook’s headquarters in Palo Alto. From what the […] - Google Already On Next AdWords API: v201003 Beta
Just about a month ago Google shut down v13 of the AdWords API for v200909. Now Google announced the next version of the AdWords API, v201003 beta.
Google explained that v200909 is not going away anytime soon. But they want to release this new beta to enhance the current offerings of their AdWords […] - Top Google Ranking Gets Twice The Traffic Of #2 Ranking: Chitika
A web page that ranks at the top of Google’s search results gets twice as much traffic as the number two listing, and triple the traffic as the page listed third. That’s according to some new research published by the online ad network Chitika.
Chitika’s Dan Ruby explains that they looked at traffic coming into their […]
- Google Rolls Out More Tweet-Based Ads
Two months ago, Google confirmed an “alpha” test of new ads distributed on its AdSense network that featured tweets. Today, it appears more of these tweet-based ads are live an in the wild.
Magne Uppman is part of that test and he has shared screen shots and examples of his Twitter Google AdSense ads […] - Why B2B Blogs Aren’t Achieving SEO Success
Earlier this month, I led the Hot Seat Lab on Better Blogging for Business at MarketingProfs’ B2B Forum in Boston. In it, three brave B2B marketers volunteered to have their corporate blogs critiqued in front of a room full of peers. While the blogs obviously differed in design and content, their shortcomings from an SEO […]
- Evil Conversion: When Optimization Goes Too Far
As online marketers and conversion experts, we want our sites to be effective. But when does conversion optimization go too far? When does it stop being useful and become, well, evil?
- Brand Bidding Techniques: Smart Ways To Use Typos & URLs As Keywords
Finding the right mix of keywords is as much science as it is good common sense. When it comes to your brand, there are typo and URL derivation techniques that you should consider as part of your overall brand bidding strategy, even when the science (search volumes) appear too low to matter.
Typos as […] - Google Ends Community Editing Free-For-All In Maps
Local business owners can breathe a sigh of relief: Google has ended the “community edit” free-for-all in Google Maps. According to Tuesday’s announcement, “all community edits [will] be reviewed before they are shown.”
For local business owners, this means that competitors, spammers, jilted lovers, and the angry parents of the kid whom your son struck out […]
Search News From Around The Web:
Applications & Portal Features
- New in Labs: Move the attachment and other icon column, Official Gmail Blog
- Google Building Speech Capabilities for Browser, PC World
- Yahoo Adds More Facebook Features to Email, Wall Street Journal
Business Issues
- E.U. Says Search Engines Violate Rules on Personal Data, New York Times
Local, Maps & Mobile
- Inside Foursquare: Checking In Before the Party Started (Part II), Wired
- Experience the 9/11 Memorial in Google Earth, Google LatLong
- Where Have I Been? Get Your Answer with the Google Location History Dashboard, Official Google Mobile Blog
Link Building
- About Ecommerce Sites and Link-Worthiness, adgooroo.com
- Link Building Workshop 1: Rethinking The Link, Search Marketing Standard
- Local Links For Local People, Hobo
Paid Search & Contextual
- Facebook Ads Raises Spend 5X- Without Asking, AIM Clear Blog
- Google ads used by 1.5M US marketers, websites, Washington Post
- Google Asking AdSense Publishers To Testify in Congress?, Search Engine Roundtable
Searching
- Does Turning Off Personalized Results In Google Really Work?, Search Engine Roundtable
- Searchers Can’t Go Back To Google Due To Bug, Search Engine Roundtable
- What’s So “Super” about a Supernova?, Wolfram|Alpha Blog
SEM Industry
- Google’s Matt Cutts Says He Doesn’t Come To WebmasterWorld Due To No URL Policy, Search Engine Roundtable
SEO & SEM
- 5 Fatal SEO Failures of Ecommerce Sites, Search Engine People
- Eliminating the Profit Motive in Unethical SEO, Search Engine Journal
- Google Appears at Small Business Week to Educate, Small Business Trends
- How to Optimize Flash Files, Shimon Sandler
- Is Google’s reasonable surfer model no longer a model at all?, BlogStorm
- Search Geek Challenges – Google, Mayday, and Sniffing Google IP Addresses, DazzlinDonna
- Ultimate Beginners Guide to Real Time Search, Site Visibility
- Writing Keyword Focused Blog Posts that are Interesting, Michael Gray
Social Media
- Find and Follow Your LinkedIn Connections on Twitter, The LinkedIn Blog
- 3 Social Media Guidelines for Keeping Your Private Parts Private, Search Marketing Blog
- Google tries its hand at influence in Washington, Washington Post
- Should Government Take On Facebook?, New York Times
Video, Music & Image Search
- New Google Interface: My Before and After Images Disappeared from Google Images!, searchinfluence.com
- Google Looking For Feedback on Full Video Episode Search, Search Engine Roundtable
Web Analytics
- ComScore Is Now Free For Startups, TechCrunch
- Google Analytics vs.Omniture: An Independent Review, AIM Clear Blog
- Overcome the Google Analytics Learning Curve in 20 Minutes, SEOmoz
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