SERoundtable posts details and links regarding MSN’s paid listing program and concerns regarding privacy. The new program will allow advertisers the ability to filter ads using demographic information from users that have signed up fo various MSN services such as Hotmail.
There’s more detailed description of the MSN PPC program at SearchEngineWatch and a very good article by Gord Hotchkiss on SearchInsider
Yahoo is now making sure any tools developed are compatible with both Firefox and Internet Explorer, an indication of the popularity Firefox has achieved so far. There have been approximatley 27 million downloads of Firefox 1.0 so far. ZDNet UK News
Yahoo is planning on offering a blog service called Yahoo 360 that will be more like MSN Spaces than Google’s Blogger.com. Beta testing starts March 29 and will offer initial users the option of inviting friends to use the service, similar to how Google promoted Gmail.
Users will be able to draw upon content from other Yahoo services as well as share posts and photos of their own. Yahoo 360 is part blogging and part social networking.
“It’s really about keeping connected to people you know,” said Julie Herendeen, vice president for network services at Yahoo. “Yahoo 360 allows consumers to conveniently connect with the people they care about by creating and sharing blogs, photos and other content across Yahoo.”
Today Google revealed Google X. Not a new tool, rather a new toy. Google X is a mix of DHTML and JavaScript to create the Mac OSX dock full of Google’s tools. The quote at the bottom of the Google X page says it all. “Roses are red. Violets are blue. OS X rocks. Homage to you.”
[Update] It appears to have been removed from Google It’s 4:30 CST and the link is now dead.
TurboScout is a meta search engine that allows you to easily search a large number of search engines via a tabbed interface. Now you can add Turboscout as a search engine option to the built-in Firefox search tool and access search results from over 90 search engines.
Tags: search engine, Firefox
On the home page of Google Local, there’s a new link, “ Information for Business Owners” that allows you to add or update your business listing. Once you add your free listing Google will send you a letter with a PIN for verification. Once validated, your entry will appear in Google Local search results.
Battelle has posted an announcement email regarding Google Local Business Center
Tags: Google, Local Search
In fact, he’s not an Analyst, he’s a banker. A post made Andy’s blog mentioned comments by Jay MacDonald as not too favorable on the future of search. Apparently Jay MacDonald was mis-quoted. Here’s a follow up comment from SearchEngineLowdown:
“MacDonald believes that “as [search optimization] technology improves, it will have a far greater role, in a positive way”. He also believes that search optimization will be around for “many years to come”.”
There’s an interesting thread on this at SearchEngineWatch Blog
Tag: Oops
Microsoft plans to offer Google AdSense style ads in its search results. There is much speculation that Yahoo is to offer a similar program as the Bloomberg.com and SearchEngineLowdown
Three critical components that should be considered for any blog marketing campaign include: content, frequency and distribution.
Content must be interesting and useful to your readers. Develop your unique voice and don’t be afraid to post things others will not agree to.
Frequency of posts are important as there is a direct correlation to blog popularity and the number of times it’s updated. When we started posting 2-4 times per day, our SEO blog traffic increased by 50% the first week and has continued to improve since.
Distribution of your blog is important. A common issue I hear from people new to blogs and RSS is where to find them. What’s great about blog marketing is that you can promote a blog and your RSS/Atom feed within the blogoshpere via linking in/out, through directories and blog/feed search engines. You can also promote your blog through traditional directories, search engines and web site linking. The opportunity for blog exposure is much greater than a regular web site alone.
A few SEO Blogs have posted SEO and search marketing tools today.
Via SEO Scoop: Technobloggie Google search counts tool. Enables you to discover an estimate of the number of searches per month on a keyword phrase as well as: Max Bid, Market Value,
AdSense Effective CPM, Listings on Google and KEI.
Via Stuntdubl an assortment of keyword research tools including: Ontology Related Keyword Lookup, DaveN¬ís Synonym Tool, Keyword Map, Google Sets Tool, Digital Point Toolset. Todd says he’s planning on posting links to SEO tools every Monday.
I’ve been playing with SEO Scanner from WebmasterBrain which tracks various Yahoo and Google metrics on sites/target keyword phrases daily. Actually lot more granular than I need but interesting.
Tags: SEO Tools, search engine optimization, SEO blog
MediaWeek discusses consolidation in the search engine marketing industry in an article posted today. There certainly have been some interesting acquisitions recently, especially the $50m iProspect and Isobar deal. However, an analyst from DeSilva & Phillips makes one of the most uninformed comments I’ve heard all year:
Jay MacDonald, an analyst at DeSilva & Phillips, added that a flurry of acquisitions is imminent, yet it all may be for naught. “As technology improves, the need for optimization will go away,” MacDonald said. “Their business won’t exist in three years.”
Hat tip to SearchEngineLowdown who, interestingly enough, posted that their parent company has acquired Kowabunga! Marketing – a company well known for their affiliate management program.
Tags: seo, search engine marketing, consolidation, clueless analyst
I noticed today that Google is now checking for automated web site submissions on the Google add URL form. When submitting a site Google has added an optional field to enter in a string of characters that dynamically displays on each visit to the page in order to distinguish from manual and automated submissions.
This is fairly new as the Google cache of that page from yesterday does not show the extra form.
Recently it was also reported that Google search engine ranking checkers were being presented with the same type of form.
So is Google tightening up the general access to some of it’s services? If Google is getting hit pretty hard with a large number of automated queries, it makes sense. I am curious where else this feature will show up on Google.
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