Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the Web.
From Search Engine Land:
- Yahoo-Microsoft Search Tensions On Public Display In Court Ruling
Microsoft has essentially had to sue Yahoo to get the company to fully comply with the terms of their 2010 “Search Alliance” agreement. Yahoo under Marissa Mayer had sought to delay rollouts of Bing search results in Taiwan and Hong Kong, awaiting a new Microsoft CEO. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer resigned ahead of schedule under […] - Matt Cutts At Pubcon 2013: Moonshots, Machine Learning & The Future Of Google Search
This morning, the head of Google’s webspam team Matt Cutts gave a keynote speech at Pubcon in Las Vegas. The keynote comes on the heels of a scathing day — 1 keynote from Jason Calacanis, who said that Google rules everything, that they were essentially evil. On Twitter yesterday, Matt asked if Jason wanted the […] - Why No PageRank Update? The “Pipeline” Is Broke & Google Isn’t Interested In Fixing It
We already knew Google wasn’t likely to update the PageRank meter in the Google Toolbar this year. The head of Google’s web spam team, Matt Cutts, reiterated today that this will stay the case and explained why. Google’s ability to update the toolbar is broken, and it’s not a priority to fix it. Speaking at […] - Google Testing Huge Banner Ads For Branded Queries
Google has confirmed that they are testing incredibly large banner ads for specific branded queries. @SynrgyHQ posted an image on Twitter showing for the query [southwest airlines a huge “sponsored” ad at the top of the search results. A Google spokesperson confirmed this is a “small experiment” running currently in the U.S. market. The ad […] - New Foursquare Homepage Offers Context, Time-Sensitive Recommendations
In its continuing bid to become more useful and to differentiate from competitors such as Yelp and Google, Foursquare introduced a redesigned homepage this week. There’s a signed-in and signed-out experience. The major difference between the two is friend activity and personalization. The new homepage shows recommended or popular nearby businesses, as well as places […] - Google’s Music Knowledge Graph With YouTube, Google Now, New Carousel & More
Part of Google’s big birthday event & Hummingbird announcement was that Google has made some serious strides to the knowledge graph. One such example was visible a week or so after the announcement, which was a major improvement and user interface change for musician-related search terms. For example, when you search for [neil young] you […] - Schema.org – 7 Things For SEOs To Consider Post Hummingbird
Schema.org was launched on June 2, 2011, providing a structured data markup supported by major search engines. Since then, we have seen schema.org markup implemented on many websites; however, you usually only see it on the tech-savvy and gung-ho webmasters’ sites (or being generated by a CMS). This structured markup can be tedious to implement, […] - A Call To The SEO Industry: Stand Together For Useful Reporting
Want to measure organic traffic? Just take the number of Google Webmaster Tools clicks, average out the CTR by position across all of them, then take the broad match volume of all those terms (because that’s the only volume Google will give you), and then take your position and divide it by CTR and volume. […] - Social Media Plugins: Are They Weighing You Down?
Many B2B companies use social media plugins on their websites to increase engagement and sharing of their content. According to AddThis, 14 million domains use the AddThis social plugin; another 2 million publisher sites use the ShareThis plugin. In fact, one of the three largest B2B companies in the United States (in terms of revenue) […] - Moz Launches Google Alerts For New Links Named “Fresh Alerts”
Moz announced the launch of a new link and SEO tool feature called Fresh Alerts. Fresh Alerts is kind of like Google Alerts but specifically designed for SEOs and marketers to keep track of not just new web mentions but also new links pointing to your site or a competitor’s site. Moz’s Cyrus Shepard said […] - Google+ Discontinuing Saved Search, Asks You To Bookmark Searches Instead
Google is quietly disabling the saved searches feature within Google+. For example, I have saved searches in Google+ for pictures that match the term [google] but now when you access it via the Google+ Circles drop down menu, Google returns a notice that reads: Saved searches are going away. Bookmark this page on your browser […] - Are Google Searches The Best Way To Highlight Discrimination Against Women?
The United Nations is continuing its admirable and proper work of highlighting discrimination against women around the world; but, is using Google’s autocomplete feature the best way to do it? UN Women, a UN entity formed in July 2010 that focuses on gender equality and women’s rights, revealed a new ad campaign this week that […]
Recent Headlines From MarTech, Our Sister Site Dedicated To Internet Marketing:
- Google To Upgrade All To Universal Analytics, But There’s A D-I-Y Upgrade Tool Coming First
- “Blockbusters”: Why The Long Tail Is Dead And Go-Big Strategies Pay Off
- Facebook Opening Access To Custom Audiences For All Advertisers By End Of November
- Brands Dominate Instagram Videos: 40% Of Top Shared Videos Are From Brands
- Giant Banner Ads Being Tested In Google’s Search Results
- Networked Insights New Technology Platform Charts 100 Million Pieces Of Social Data In Real-Time
- The Future Of SEO Reporting: A Call To The Industry
- Tapped-Out: Swipe-to-Engage Ads Will Save Mobile Advertising
- Katy Perry Gives (Questionable) Advice On How To Make Your Twitter Account Roar
Search News From Around The Web:
Industry
- Matt Cutts Live at #Pubcon, Search Engine Journal
Link Building
- The Impact of Penguin 2.1: Recovery, Knockout Punches & Fresh Hits, Search Engine Watch
Local & Maps
- Get the latest on the Australian fires with the Google Crisis Response map, Official Google Australia Blog
- Google Approved Guide to Local Listing Page Identification, Local University
Search Marketing
- Growing Trend in Internet Marketers Investing in Website Usability Site Reviews, internetmarketingninjas.com
SEM / Paid Search
- 7 Data-Driven Ways to Use PPC for Inbound Marketing, www.searchenginepeople.com
- Are Offer Extensions Worth The Effort?, 3qdigital.com
- Don’t Ever Stop Looking for New PPC Keyword Opportunities, www.clixmarketing.com
- Google AdWords Click Through Rate Per Position on Desktop, AccuraCast
- Google’s Ad Rank Logic Changes, Ad Extensions and CPC Thresholds for Top Positions, Rimm-Kaufman Group
- Marketers Expect to See Lead Gen from PPC Campaigns, eMarketer
- Seven Essential AdWords Features For Ecommerce Websites, Koozai
Searching
SEO
- 5 Legendary SEO Tools That Are Extinct Today (And What to Use Instead), Search Engine Journal
- Are Google’s Panda and Penguin on Your Radar Screen?, dailyseotip.com
- Google: That Scraper Stealing Your Content Isn’t Benefiting In Our Search Results, Search Engine Roundtable
- Schema.org – 7 Things For SEOs To Consider Post Hummingbird, Search Engine Land
- Success with the Google News Standout Tag: A 90-Day Study, Adam Sherk
- The Future of SEO and What it Means for Inbound Marketing [SlideShare], HubSpot
- Twitter and Google verified authorship, David Naylor
- What Star Wars Can Teach You about SEO, Search Engine Journal
- Why Clients Don’t Trust SEO – How to Overcome SEO’s Bad Reputation, Wallaroo Media
Contributing authors are invited to create content for Search Engine Land and are chosen for their expertise and contribution to the search community. Our contributors work under the oversight of the editorial staff and contributions are checked for quality and relevance to our readers. The opinions they express are their own.
