For the second straight month Bing saw its U.S. search engine market share on the rise. Meanwhile, Google held steady, duplicating its record share of the search market, while Yahoo held steady after 10 months of declines, comScore reported. comScore Explicit Core Search Share Report* July 2012 vs. June 2012 Total U.S. – Home & Work Locations Source: comScore qSearch …
Google’s $22.5 million FTC penalty is not enough:
As reports circulate Google is about to enter into a record privacy settlement with the FTC, just how bad is Google’s privacy record compared to other major tech companies? The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) reports that Internet giant Google is on the verge of agreeing to a $22.5 million settlement with the FTC to put to rest charges that …
Google Axes Content Marketing
It happens all the time… your website finally secures a starring role on the first page of a Google SERP. And then… KAPOW! Google “slaps” your website, sending it into virtual purgatory (SERP page 1,398,530 or beyond) — effectively flushing your web-based income down the toilet. Google’s infamous slaps strike without warning, penalizing websites that somehow offend their never fully …
Google Gets Patent for Using Background Noise to Target Ads
Google, on Tuesday, was awarded a patent for “advertising based on environmental conditions.” In other words, Google has patented the technique of using environmental factors gathered through a device’s sensors to target ads at users. “When determining what ads to serve to end users, the environmental factors can be used independently or in combination with matching of keywords associated with …
The new Search Plus Your World
This week Google started rolling outGoogle Search Plus Your World, which — besides being the worst case of bad branding in a long time — will cause Google a lot of problems. Searchers will go elsewhere and governments will complain. Here is why. The idea behind Google Search Plus Your World (let’s call it +World, shall we?) is good. Personalized …
Link Building Has Fundamentally changed
This past weekend, I had a friend call call me to talk about his latest SEO scheme. It was this topic specifically, he had paid five dollars for a back link program from .edu domains. I had advised him that paying for back links from a website that had nothing to do with his business wouldn’t benefit him very much …
Google+ Pages Begin Showing Up in Primary SERPs
If you haven’t discovered the plus one button as of yet…you are missing out. Being able to have your favorite sites in the top of the search results (if it applies), and if your a business owner…Another great way of showing up high on SERPs. In a move that could raise some charges of anti-competitive behavior, Googlehas begun integrating Google+ …
Social Media & 4 Trends in Social Business
Forbes posted another great article on Social Media Trends. I thought it was a must read for business looking at embracing social media in their advertising programs this year. 2012 is primed to be the year of social. In particular we can anticipate a blitz of publicity around social business. But social media too still has room to surprise. Talking …
Justice Dept. approves Google’s AdMeld acquisition
The Justice Department on Friday gave the green light to Google’s $400 million acquisition of AdMeld, a major display advertising company. The agency said the deal can proceed without any conditions, because a detailed analysis by antitrust lawyers found there are enough competitors that offer services similar to AdMeld, a company that helps online publishers sell their ads. For the …
Google Hides Search Referral Data with New SSL Implementation
On October 18th 2011, Google announced they would be encrypting search queries, for privacy reasons. Unfortunately, this disrupted organic keyword referral data, returning “(not provided)” for some organic traffic. This number increased in the weeks following the launch. Most users used non-SSL Google for their searches. Now, according to Google, “…a web site accessed through organic search results on http://www.google.com …