Archive for June, 2007
Weekly Rap-up of Search Engine Industry News – 6/25 – 6/29
A summary of search related news items that occurred this week including Google to acquire telephone management company – GrandCentral, U.S. web broadcasters hold day of silence in protest to increase in royalty fees, MySpace to launch MySpace TV to compete directly with Google-owned YouTube, Yahoo! Search Marketing adds some new features to their ad management console, and finally, Twitter getting ready to raise first round venture capital funds.
What Are Google’s Intentions With the Acquisition of DoubleClick?
Alex Kinnier, a Group Product Manager at Google, has shed some additional light on why Google went after DoubleClick in April of this year, an acquisition that is still in process of completing. The post first of all provides a short history lesson on how online advertising ha evolved since its birth. We then are reminded what ad serving actually is and how it works. Before revealing the exact reasons why Google is buying DoubleClkick, the author points out some differences between the two companies – Google sells ads while DoubleClick provides ad serving.
A Lesson in Customer Relations Behavior
I spent all last week visiting amusement parks in the New England area, which not only included riding roller coasters, but interviewing some of the owners and key people responsible for each park’s existence and success. In reality, I am not doing the actual interviews, but rather my friend, Gary Kyriazi, who writes for Park World Magazine is conducting them. I am simply along for the ride. Out of four interviews, one stands out as a great example of how to practice customer relations the right way while another stands out as the wrong way to go about it.
Weekly Rap-up of Search Engine Industry News – 6/18 – 6/22
A summary of search related news items that occurred this week including Yahoo! CEO, Terry Semel, steps down, Jerry Yang takes his place, YouTube now available in nine specific country formats including Brazil, France, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Poland, Spain, and the U.K., Yahoo! takes Yahoo! Go out of beta and makes big global push, 20 mistakes to avoid in your SEO strategy, and finally, Business.com is on the auction block and could fetch as much as $400 million.
Six States, Six Parks and 33 Coasters – Off Next Week
Not related to search in anyway but simply wanted to announce that I’ll be off next week on my annual roller coaster trip. We will be hitting six separate amusement parks in just six days. Our travels will take us to five U.S. states as well as Montréal, Canada. There will be opportunity to ride 33 roller coasters ranging from woodies, steel, kiddies (they add to coaster count) and even a bobsled coaster. This will push me past the 100 mark to a total of 121 individual coasters.
Weekly Rap-up of Search Engine Industry News – 6/11 – 6/15
A summary of search related news items that occurred this week including Google ranked the worst in privacy policy practices by watchdog group, Privacy International, YouTube tests new video id system on Time Warner and Walt Disney video products, Google Analytics graduates from beta with new features, eBay halts their Google AdWords campaign after controversial move to directly compete against the auction giant, and finally, Vanessa Fox leaves Google for Zillow.
Can Flash Animation and SEO Live Together in Harmony?
There is an interesting debate going on over at Small Business Ideas Forum where forum member, Dale King, starts a thread entitled “The Truth About Flash Websites” where Dale lays out his arguments as to why Flash and SEO together are not a good idea. He summarizes by stating that while Flash may look fantastic and can admittedly add a lot to any presentation from an accessibility and SEO standpoint, it should be used very sparingly and only for non-crucial content.
A Deeper Look Into the Workings of Business.com
Jeff Behrendt of Aviva Directory has put together an interview with Jessica Bowman, Director of Search Engine Optimization at Business.com. She is their in-house SEO and also frequently writes for Search Engine Land, Search Engine Watch and Search Engine Journal. The interview sheds some light on her duties managing SEO for such a large site as well as a look into how the directory itself is run.
The Yahoo! Acquisition Report Card
After putting together a clever post grading Google’s acquisition progress over the years, Joe Sinkwitz from the Pay Loan Affiliate Blog has put together another report card grading acquisition behavior. This time it is for Yahoo! The Yahoo! Acquisition Report Card reaches back to their first acquisition of Net Controls in September 1997 to its most current acquisition of Right Media in April 2007.
Hidden Text – It’s All About the Intent
I’ve always had a problem with the hard fast rule of “don’t use hidden text.” Even though it is technically against search engines guidelines, there are valid reasons to hide text. Sites that are developed completely in Flash, pages that are graphic heavy and web designers who want complete control over font styles are just a few examples. Whether for one of these reasons or possibly something not quite so ethical, webmasters have always been warned by both search engines and white hat search marketers that is is risqué. “Go ahead and do it but do so at your own risk.”
Can Your Business Survive Online Without Google?
Most web site marketers wouldn’t even consider such a question especially where Google can at times send 50% if not more of a web site’s traffic. How about if you take Yahoo!, MSN and Ask out of the equation as well? Would your business have a chance of attracting traffic and succeeding if these engines were to send you zilch traffic?
What is Microsoft Cooking Up in Keyword Research Tools?
I came across a few nifty keyword research tools that Microsoft is experimenting with in adCenter Labs. What is adCenter Labs anyway? It appears to be a place where Microsoft beta tests tools that they might eventually make available for general use. In their About Us page, Microsoft describes adCenter Labs as a place that includes over 100 researchers, analysts and developers, all of which cultivate exciting technologies in the areas of paid search, behavior targeting, contextual advertising, social network analysis, and image/video mining.
