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May 31, 2006

Rumor Has It

In case you didn't get enough juicy gossip in this month's SEO Newsletter, here are some additional morsels floating around the Web.

Is Google about to release Google Checkout? And if so, is it really going to make PayPal cry mercy?

Answer: Likely. The blogosphere is in speculation mode after news broke that the GoogleCheckout.net/org/info domains were registered on May 25th – just one day after Yahoo! and eBay announced their newfound love for one another – to a company called DNStination, Inc.

Garett Rogers reported the actual register of the domains is MarkMonitor, a company which "prides itself on the protection of... corporate identity". And who is MarkMonitor's most famous client? That would be Google. Surely, MarkMonitor would not register these domains unless they were doing it to secure the positions for Google, right? Right?

Well, working under that line of thinking, Garett hypothesizes Google Checkout will be a shopping cart system that enables sites to accept online payments. "The money site owners make will be deposited into a holding account at Google – just like AdSense works", says Garett.

Hmm, that sounds a lot like PayPal. Garett thinks Google will ultimately tie this into AdWords, but my interest is on how monumentally huge a Checkout/ Google Base integration would be. It's a Craigslist you can buy from. Or, you know, a Google eBay. Keep your eye on this one. Things could get interesting fast, especially if Microsoft decides to buy eBay.

I heard some rumblings of Google Purchases. Is this real?

Answer: Yes. A tipster informed Nathan Weinberg of a notice he received from Google regarding a much closed beta testing of something called Google Purchase. Reportedly, Google is testing a system that "makes purchases from 'high-quality' merchants using their Google accounts".

The service URL is listed as purchases.google.com, which currently redirects me back to my account information. Hmm. What does this mean? Nathan says perhaps a Yahoo! store-esque feature for Google Base or maybe even a Google Mall. Ooo, Google Mall. Looks like Yahoo! and eBay have kicked Google into high gear.

Wait, did you say Microsoft is buying eBay?

Answer: Maybe, but probably not. While we were closing out of here early last Friday, the New York Post reported Microsoft was contemplating buying eBay and merging it with its MSN portal. Anonymous sources say talks have 'cooled' since the Yahoo!/eBay deal went public, but that the recent partnership 'would not stop Microsoft from pursuing the online auctioneer'. Wow, those anonymous sources sure are ballsy. I say, anonymously.

While I wouldn't bet on a Microsoft/ eBay acquisition anytime soon, they are certainly capable of coughing up the $48 billion that eBay is reported to be worth. And with Yahoo! and eBay partnering up, and Google and Dell partnering up, Steve Ballmer may be feeling just a little left out these days.

Did Google really bully a group of scientists into changing the name of their site?

Answer: Yes. A group of scientists trying to 'advance science one step further' created a science-based search engine called Chmoogle. The group believed the name suited their focus perfectly, telling users they do chemistry and searching in one word or less. Unfortunately, Google disagreed, crying copyright infringement.

Rather than go through a court proceeding, Chmoogle agreed to change its name to eMolecules and offered up an explanation for the name change on their site. I have to admit, after reading the explanation, and the provided court cases they use as their defense, I'm with them. Sorry, Google.

Is Yahoo! nicer than Google and Microsoft?

Answer: If you're basing it off how they respond to your job application, yes.

Are the Yankees a better baseball team than the Red Sox?

Answer: That's the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. The Red Sox are, and will always be, the superior team.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 05/31/06 at 5:21 PM | TrackBack (0)
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AdSense and AdWords Undergo Changes

There are a few important changes being made to both AdSense and AdWords. Some you may have heard about, but others perhaps not. Here's all the info you need to respond and adapt accordingly.

AdSense API Beta: We're sure you've heard the rumors that Google was dutifully working on a new API that would allow members of content-driven community sites (like YouTube and MySpace) to integrate AdSense ads into their pages. Rumors that seemed legitimized after RateItAll accidentally leaked a press release yesterday (dated May 18th no less) discussing these APIs and their implementation of them. These rumors have now been confirmed.

In true Google fashion, the AdSense blog decided to make the official announcement a mere day after the snafu. Yes, Google has created a new AdSense API that will allow community sites to pay people contributing content. Go ahead, look shocked.

The beta AdSense API allows developers to perform an array of AdSense functions, such as create and modify accounts, generate code snippets, add Google search results to their site and enable users to use referral buttons, without ever leaving their site.

But we knew all this was coming, even before RateItAll spilled the beans. How? Well, this was a pretty clear sign. You can't have a blog for something that doesn't exist. Thank Google's Eric Case for that paper trail.

While this could prove to be enormous for user generated content sites that can now pay members for contributing, it's not necessarily a slam dunk. As John Battelle notes, user generated content sites aren't normally driven by the bottom line, they're driven by pride and other social peer pressure aspects. Will the chance to make a buck change the nature of UGC? I guess we'll see.

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Ad Scheduling/ Dayparting for AdWords: Dayparting allows marketers to turn their PPC ads on and off depending on the day of the week and time of day. Advanced scheduling options mean ads are only running when they have the best chances to convert. Cool, right?

Very cool. Dayparting helps advertisers do several things. First, its budget control for ad campaigns. Allowing advertisers to turn off their campaigns when their target audience is not likely to be viewing them saves advertising spend and limits wasted clicks. It can also be used to lower bids during off-peak times so you can maintain your presence while making better use of those marketing dollars.

A more unconventional (and more branding-based) use for Dayparting would be to purposely turn on your bids when you know your competition is turning them off. This will allow you to increase your presence at low cost, and enable your company's name to appear in queries others are opting out of.

Dayparting is scheduled to be released sometime in June, but that doesn't mean you have to wait until then to prepare. We recommend you take a look at your conversion metrics now. When is your conversion rate the highest? On what days? At what times? Knowing this information is the first step to targeted scheduling.

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Mighty AdsBot: In December 2005, Google announced landing page quality would be used in determining a site's Quality Score equation. Fast forward a few months and meet AdsBot, the dedicated spider responsible for task.

The AdsBot will visit your landing page, follow all links on the page, evaluate its quality and report that information back to Google. Google will then use the collected data to assign minimum CPC prices.

Users can elect to opt out of the AdsBot, but in doing so you will immediately be labeled a 'non-participating advertiser' by Google. Also, you can bet opting out will cause your Quality Score to take a noticeable hit. We recommend handling the AdsBot like you would a tantrum-throwing two-year-old: give it what it wants! In this case it's a well-designed landing page that uses compelling copy to target keywords.

To make friends with the AdsBot, make sure your landing pages conform to Google's Landing Page and Site Quality Guidelines.

Consider yourself caught up.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 05/31/06 at 3:08 PM | TrackBack (0)
See more entries in Google, Pay Per Click

May 30, 2006

Just what are your intentions?

Microsoft AdCenter Labs has worked up a new tool aimed at Detecting Online Commercial Intention. The tool shows users and webmasters how the search engines categorize the URL or search term they entered. Is it informational, commercial-informational or commercial-transactional? While this tool is being touted as something that can help webmasters decide what kind of content to place on their site, I think the real value comes from being able to identify how the search engines categorize your site.

The tool helps webmasters gain invaluable information about their site based on the way the search engines categorize it. How is this useful? Simple – it tells you how to focus your site. Knowing the search engines consider a query for 'shoes' to be commercially based 89.7 percent of the time tells you in order to rank for that term your page must include commercial elements. Of course, since the organic results depend on the quality of information, it should also be informative and include lots of authoritative links.

This differs from a query for the term "college" which is deemed an informational search. If you were trying to rank for this term you would want your page to be categorized as informational by including loads of expert content and high-quality backlinks.

While I view all of that as being important, I think it's more interesting to see how the search engines view your site, and if they view your site the same way you do. Why? Because more often than not, search engines give the top rankings to the sites deemed informational and transactional. If these are the sites the engines view as 'most relevant' and give top placement to, than your goal is to be one of them. It's also a good way to see if the engines view your site the same way you do, especially if you're not receiving the rankings you think you deserve.

Of course Microsoft's tool isn't the only one out there categorizing sites. Yahoo! released Yahoo! Mindset into beta more than a year ago. The tool is similar to Microsoft's in that it ranks sites and keywords differently based on the user's intent. Are you looking for research-based information or commercially-based information? By using the slider on the Mindset SERP, users can skew the results to meet their personal needs. Mindset also tells you how that site ranks organically in a normal search setting.

Both tools represent a new way of SEO thinking and have one main thing in common: They show you (Yahoo! more visually than Microsoft) how the search engines are going to rate your site and your keywords so that you can better tailor your site for these preferences.

Let's face it, keywords will always be an important part of marketing and search engine optimization, but these tools help users understand the tone each word is setting and what words they need to use to ensure they're setting the proper one.

While the new Microsoft tool is an interesting release, it does have its kinks. Because it's a Microsoft tool, the Detecting Online Commercial Intention tool only works in IE, which is a wonderful way to prevent it from taking off. Because you know, the only thing worse than using a Microsoft product is having to open IE to do it.

Also, the tool itself seems to categorize things rather oddly. For example, Amazon.com is deemed an informational site despite being arguably the largest Internet marketplace alive, and doing a search for 'wedding' tells me there is only a 42 percent chance its commercial. Please! Anyone who has ever had to plan a wedding will tell you the term 'wedding' is 97 percent commercial and 3 percent sadistic.

So until the kinks get worked out and Microsoft's new tool recognizes (like we're sure all the engines do) that sites like Amazon are more commercial than informational, think of this tool as more of a concept, not something to redesign your site around.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 05/30/06 at 4:26 PM | TrackBack (0)
See more entries in Microsoft, SEO

May 26, 2006

Friday Recap!

First, our condolences go out to Robert Scoble and the entire Scoble clan after the passing of their mother yesterday evening. Robert has an inspiring post on his blog today entitled, "The Questioning of Career, Life Family, Love Follows Grief". It's heartfelt and inspiring, and we would urge you to give it read.

Okay, back to the search stuff:

Google began dropping sites for distributing hate content this week. Perhaps trying to avoid another Google lawsuit. Dropped sites included the conservative-based New Media Journal, The Jawa Report and MichNews.com, all of whom received personalized letters from Google explaining the reasons behind the drop. Site owners were outraged and claimed liberal Google was trying to quiet the conservative voice.

The uproar caused the boys at NMJ to write a letter to its reader claiming Google was setting a 'dangerous precedent' by trying to 'promote their unique brand of corporate censorship'. Yes, bad Google for trying to promote tolerance. Bad. NMJ worked up a list of alternative engines that people should use to replace Google. My favorite is the listing for the search engine "Clutsy" (misspelling of Clusty). I'd be careful with that one; they're probably dropping sites like crazy too. Ooo!

You know who else doesn't like Google? Steve Ballmer. Yes, Microsoft's CEO called Google evil. Well, sort of. Listen to it for yourself. Ah, more cat fights.

Google has announced their new partnership with Dell, which will preinstall Google software and its toolbar onto millions of new Dell computers. I vote good for Dell, but bad for Google. Google isn't going to gain any additional users because they are the default search on Dell systems. Google has become a verb. We're past that 'getting the word out' phase. All this deal does is make Google look like a bully for crying about IE7's MSN toolbar.

And a big thanks to Gary Price for posting an actual, relevant Ask.com blog entry this week. Readers were treated to an informative entry regarding Ask's Stock Search & Smart Answers and I couldn't have been happier. See, maybe all they needed was a little kick in the butt. Now if we could only talk to them about adding the Bruce Clay, Inc. blog to their blogroll...

An administrator in the V7N forums posed a very good question this week: If you were to launch a search engine to compete with Google, what Google weaknesses would you try to exploit? That troublemaker! Suggestions were to emphasize its 'family friendliness' (as opposed to Google's porn-o-riffic image searches), engine stability (no crazy ranking fluctuations) or create an engine with a better financial section.

A Cre8asite forum member consulted the masses after a 'pretty popular SEM company' told him they would use Google's paid inclusion (which doesn't exist) and Google Sitemaps to get his site top rankings. They also told him their engineers could predict changes to Google's algorithm. I'd like to get my hands on that guy's crystal ball. Forum members immediately discounted and pull apart this 'SEO's' bad faith claims and helped set the poster straight. It's sad when people jeopardize the entire SEO community by propagating lies.

Zillow, our favorite 'how-much-is-your-house-worth' site now features a page that gives users a view of their favorite celebrity residences, including shots of the Mike and Carol Brady's house, the San Francisco home of Charmed and the Walsh's quintessential '90s home from 90210. Oh, Dylan.

We leave you with Google's puzzle genius, Wei-Hwa's, SuDoKu puzzle-beating method, Phil Lenssen's Google Map Quiz, Google's new print ads, and Valleywag's Marissa Mayer giggle remix. That last one is a definite keeper.

That's it from us. From everyone at Bruce Clay, Inc., we hope you have a wonderful Memorial Day Weekend! We'll see you on Tuesday.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 05/26/06 at 12:17 PM | TrackBack (0)
See more entries in Ask, Fun Stuff, Google, Microsoft, SEO, Search Engine Optimization, Search Engines

May 25, 2006

Yahoo! & eBay in love

Yahoo! may not have wanted to play with Microsoft, but they are in l-o-v-e with eBay. News of an eBay/ Yahoo partnership has been rapidly circulating the blogosphere this morning after a joint press release was issued announcing the two would combine forces in the areas of advertising, merchant payment, Web search, click-to-call and browser toolbars. These are all areas with a huge amount of room for growth.

What will the partnership entail? Here is a breakdown:

• Advertising – Yahoo will be the exclusive 'third-party provider of graphical ads' for eBay, making them eBay's sole advertising broker. This means no AdWords or AdCenter ads on the entire eBay site.
• Merchant Payment – To the pleasure of many, Yahoo! Search Marketing will begin encouraging advertisers to use PayPal as their payment option. I can't imagine they will have to push too hard. Most advertisers will surely deem this a breath of fresh air.
• Web search – Yahoo! and eBay will collaborate to increase the quality Yahoo!'s search results for eBay.com and provide users with up-to-date eBay listings directly from its SERP to help shoppers find items related to their search.
• Click-to-call -- The companies will explore click-to-call ad technologies on their respective Web sites in the United States.
• Branded Toolbars – Yahoo! Web search features will be integrated into the eBay toolbar, which to date has been downloaded by more than four million eBay users.

Sounds like a marriage made in heaven. Unless you're a search engine and not Yahoo!. So why did eBay decide to partner up with Yahoo!? Why not Google or the re-emerging Microsoft?

Andy Beal hints it may have something to do with Google implementing its own payment system, Google Base. (And don't forget Microsoft's Live Windows Shopping!) Maybe these services were a little too similar or a little too threatening for the folks at eBay. By partnering with Yahoo! they get the number two search engine (with the most visited homepage), a far lesser threat and a better chance at maintaining a long partnership.

While Yahoo! stands to gain quite a lot on this deal, Google may find themselves losing more. The combinative powers of Yahoo! and eBay may be enough to turn them into an e-commerce superpower, causing Google to lose out on the growing social marketplace. I expect we will start to see a more fleshed out Google Base and payment system emerging in the near future. Or at least we'll need to if Google intends to complete.

It will also be interesting to see just how integrated eBay's listings will be in Yahoo!'s Web search. Integrating them too much may cause others to voice favoritism concerns, and I imagine eBay will want to hold on to those as much as possible for themselves. It's kind of their bread and butter.

Microsoft, if I were you, I'd start talking to and playing nice with Amazon. They already picked you over Google once, right? Here's your chance. Go.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 05/25/06 at 12:15 PM | TrackBack (0)
See more entries in Branding, Search Engines, Yahoo

May 24, 2006

Thirty Pieces of Silver: How Lane's Gifts lawyers sold out

The continued furor over the $90 million click fraud settlement exposes a truth that must be acknowledged. The advertisers who were wronged by click fraud through AdWords had insult added to injury by the pitiful and inadequate settlement accepted by the Lane's Gifts and Collectibles lawyers on the behalf of all class action case participants. All participants were cheated of their rightful settlement and those responsible must be called to task for it. I think this settlement is an insult for both the trivial financial compensation allotted and the absence of any provision requiring Google to fight click fraud in their network. By the terms of this settlement, Google gets to continue to make money on fraud.

I have no issue with Google admitting there was fraud – it happened. I have no issue with Google having the business sense to settle when they learned they could – settling was very good business for Google and I think that most of us (were we in that position) would have tried that path ourselves. Google's offer was the one that made the most business sense for their company and their stockholders. For Google, it was the right move.

However, as good as the offer was for Google, it was terrible and insulting to the class action participants. While we cannot know the motivations of the lawyers in the case, one fact is clear: the proposed settlement should have been rejected by the lawyers that opened the case as a class-action suit. Instead, when faced with having it thrown out for not being in the correct jurisdiction, the lawyers settled, perhaps so that they could take their tens of millions of dollars out of the settlement amount, effectively placing their own financial interests above those they represented in the case. In essence, they would be settling in order to make millions instead of making nothing if the case were dismissed.

I have an issue with the lawyers not representing the best interests of their class action participants and settling for their own personal profit. In failing to secure a settlement that would fairly compensate advertisers for the fraudulent clicks on their ads and stop continuing fraud, the lawyers in this case have chosen a path leading to personal profit over the responsibility to their clients and the many class action advertisers they represented.

The settlement fee is an insult to everyone involved (except the lawyers) and we all know it. If the lawyers were doing the best thing for their class action clients by accepting a trivial compensation and without requiring Google to take any action to restrict future fraud activity in any way, then I just do not see it. I do not agree that this is a fair and equitable settlement.

I urge everyone to object to the settlement by writing to the court and specifically objecting to the proposed settlement. The case should have gone to trial, or these lawyers should have withdrawn, or they could have filed in California themselves. Stopping future fraud is just as important as compensation for the damage already done, and that was not a part of the settlement. None of these options were taken and so every affected advertiser must take a stand.

For sample letters to object to the manner and amount of this settlement as well as to exclude you or your company from the class action lawsuit, please follow the links below. Note that the objection letter must be sent to all three addresses included in the file.

Exclusion Letter
Objection Letter

Posted by Bruce Clay on 05/24/06 at 4:10 PM | TrackBack (1)
See more entries in Google, Pay Per Click, Search Engine Optimization

Time to Dust off Those Email Campaigns!

The weather is warmer, the days are getting longer and Memorial Day is almost upon us. Do you know that means? Yes, it's time for a little spring cleaning! Only we're not talking about cleaning out your house or your dangerously cluttered garage. We're more concerned with the current state of your email campaigns.

If you haven't started an email campaign, we don't know what you're waiting for. Its importance is immeasurable – actually, it's very measurable, and that's one of the many perks!

However, working off an outdated email list benefits no one. Take a look at your email stats. Figure out who's reading those monthly emails you're sending out and who's not. While it's good to be persistent, continuing to send email to a customer who hasn't opened one in a year increases your chance of having them label you spam. While one spam complaint may not hurt you, if your count reaches 1 to 3 percent, your ISP may decide to take action. And if you're sending out hundreds of emails each month, it only takes a handful to reach that pivotal 1 percent mark.

As a reward for trimming your email list fat, you may notice an immediate change in your e-mail metrics, including a considerably higher open rate and an enhanced click-through rate. This is a result of you targeting a more dedicated set of readers. Additionally, if you're paying your email service provider per hundred sent, cutting the fat is a good way to lower costs and increase your ROI.

Once you get your list back in shape, it's time to look at your stats and start analyzing those numbers. After all, one of the greatest benefits of implementing an email campaign is its ability to be tracked. Not taking advantage of its built-in monitoring system is not only dangerous, it's bad business. Reviewing your statistics will enable you to ask yourself some very important questions.

• What do your click-through rates look like?
• How many users opted-out of each email?
• What topics are getting the most click-throughs?
• Are readers forwarding your emails to family and friends?
• What's your percentage of bounces?

Tracking click-throughs will help you get a better understanding of what your customers are interested in. You will be able to pinpoint which topics are most popular and which are going unread, as well as determine who is reading and who's not to aid tighter targeting, and show you where your leads and sales are coming from so you can cease unprofitable tactics. The changes you implement will also show readers you're listening to them, which they are likely to reward with increased loyalty.

Dusting off and revitalizing those campaigns will help you tweak and better target your emails to give you the greatest possible ROI. We believe the time you spend adjusting campaigns to reflect newly acquired data will be given back to you in the form of more successful email campaigns, increased conversions and elevated profits.

Isn't Spring fun?

Posted by Lisa Barone on 05/24/06 at 11:29 AM | TrackBack (0)
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May 23, 2006

AdWords Goes Video

This could be the start of something big: Google will begin integrating click-to-play ads into its AdSense network 'in the coming days', according to the InsideAdWords blog. At launch, the ads will be available to advertisers in the US, Canada and Japan.

Advertisers will be able to use the ads on a CPM or CPC basis, allowing them to decide if a keyword- or site-targeted format works best for them. The ads will be placed on sites that are signed up to Google's advertising network and will appear as static screenshots until a user opts to view them. (A non-instantaneous play feature? Thank you, Google.)Users will be able to fast-forward, adjust the volume or click through to an advertiser's site.

As far as I can tell, there's no word on what format Google will accept ads in (or if this will be an issue for users), though they say ads may be up to two minutes in length. Two minutes? I imagine two minutes would seem like an eternity to someone staring at their computer screen. I'm thinking advertisers have twenty seconds to make their point, unless their ad is particularly hilarious (i.e. features people falling down. Or babies).

The integration of video ads on AdWords is interesting because of the size of the AdWords audience. These ads have the potential to expose Mom, Dad and Uncle John to the effect (or maybe even to the existence) of online video. Of course, advertisers may also find video advertising unsuccessful if these same three can't figure out how video works, what it is or how to navigate (or find) that dastardly play button. We'll have to see.

If video advertising does take off, the real winner will be small businesses. I haven't heard anything regarding the approval process for these ads, but assuming ads can be uploaded and live within a day or two, advertisers should find themselves with a lot of room to experiment to see what format, length or approach works best for their target audience. And think about the geo-targeting possibilities.

Google says: An owner of a small bed & breakfast in Lake Tahoe can put a video tour of his beautiful chalet right next to an article that talks about skiing the epic slopes of Squaw Valley.

How's that for targeted advertising?

I am slightly concerned this may cause a spike in inadvertent click fraud, as most users view video as being entertainment-based. If I'm reading an article about skiing in Squaw Valley, and see a charming screenshot of a bed & breakfast sitting to the right-hand side, I may be inclined to click on it (though I know better) just to see the video, not because I have any interest in staying at a bed & breakfast, or in skiing. And I don't think I'm the only one.

That concern gets even larger considering the "Ads by Google" marker that sits on the bottom right of each ad is so small and unobtrusive an untrained eye many not even notice it. Where are all those extra o's when you need them? Heck, I was afraid to click on the example InsideAdWords gives for the fear that someone may get charged.

It will be interesting to see how Google, advertisers and users all connect with the new advertising format. My fear is that once the novelty wears off, most users will stay clear of that play button.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 05/23/06 at 12:00 PM | TrackBack (0)
See more entries in Branding, Google, Pay Per Click

May 22, 2006

Strictly Search

Here's what the engines were doing while you were finalizing your upcoming Memorial Day plans.

It has begun. Emails entitled "Important Legal Notice Regarding Your Google AdWords Account" are being sent to advertisers involved in the Google click fraud lawsuit. We recommend AdWords users carefully read the settlement notice and settlement FAQs found on the www.clicksettlement.com site to get a better understanding of what this means for them. And be on the lookout for a post coming from Bruce himself regarding the matter.

It seems the clever TV commercials may not be enough. comScore released their latest stats today that shows Google increasing its market share while the rest of the major engines suffered drops, including our beloved Ask. According to the new data, Google has gained another .4 percentage points since March, while Yahoo! dropped 2.7; MSN 3.2 points and Ask .1 percent, placing them in the number five position behind the Times Warner Network. Get bloggin', boys!

Symantec, the antivirus company and the guys suing Microsoft, warned users yesterday of a 'yet-to-be-fixed' security hole in Microsoft Word that reportedly exposes computers to 'cyberattacks'. The New York Times reported that hackers have already tried to take advantage of the flaw, attempting to compromise a Japanese government agency. Symantec warns users to be cautious when opening unexpected email attachments. And we ask why you're opening unknown email attachments anyway. Delete that stuff.
And because they listen to their users (or at least to Danny and Dave), MSN Search has designed a new Meta tag that allows Webmasters to decide if they want to use the Open Directory title in their MSN search results or not. Hear that? The ability to opt-in or out means no more forced upon descriptions created by third-parties. Cool.
More Microsoft-induced cool: The upcoming 'pay as you go' computer for countries like Brazil, India, Mexico, Russia and China.

The Yahoo! Publisher's Network has made a bunch of new friends with the launch of a direct deposit feature for Y!PN advertisers. The feature will give advertisers a payment cycle 10 to 15 days shorter, added withholding options and automatic responses for those rare occasions when they may have 'trouble' with your bank (we know how it is). This should make a lot of people very happy.

Thanks to Nathan for pointing out what could be a cool new blog. Ben Maurer, who defines himself as a Noogler aka New Googler (I like him already), is a new Google intern working for the AdWords anti-fraud team. His Blogger profile is seriously lacking so at first glance all I can tell you about him is that he goes to Carnegie Melon (I think) and has recently begun blogging about his Google adventures. A new kid in the AdWords anti-fraud team? Tell me that doesn't pique your interest.

Also interesting, Barry points us to a tool created by the folks at Text Link Ads that calculates the value of links on your page. Type in the URL of your favorite website (or, you know, your own) and the tool will calculate how much that link is worth. Apparently, this tool also has a sense of humor. Typing in seorountable.com brings up a cartooned version of Barry, while Google is marked 'fuh-get about it!' and a link from MySpace has been deemed 'priceless'. Well, okay then.

And finishing things up, Robert Scoble is causing trouble again with his reasoning on why there are no A-list female bloggers (present company excluded, I'm sure) out there. His commentary is interesting, but his readers' comments are more interesting and are what make it worth the read.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 05/22/06 at 3:03 PM | TrackBack (0)
See more entries in Ask, Fun Stuff, Google, Live Search, Microsoft, Pay Per Click, Search Engine Optimization, Search Engines, Yahoo

May 19, 2006

It's the Friday Recap!

It's coming later in the day than normal, but here it is, our Friday recap! It's all the fun stuff we wanted to tell you about, but didn't have time to include in our regular posts this week.

Symantec is suing Microsoft claiming they violated a 1996 agreement with Veritas, a Symantec-owned company, which prohibits Microsoft from releasing storage tech products that directly compete with Veritas software. According to Symantec, certain Windows Vista features are in direct violation of that agreement, and they're fighting back. Nathan has the full details over at InsideMicrosoft.

And because lawsuits are cool this week, Google was sued (again) for producing kiddy porn (yes, again). That's all I have to say about that.

Garett Rogers has the scoop on the new mobile version of Google Reader that lets users get RSS feeds delivered straight to their cell phone. When users click on a link via Google Reader, their reading list will automatically be reformatted to fit their cell phone's screen. Geez, I hope your screen is bigger than mine is. Otherwise, I'm not sure how well that will work, or how readable it will be, but I think it's pretty neat nonetheless.

The SEOmoz blog had a great post last night dealing with the subject of vlogging. I know, it sounds disgusting, but it's totally not. It stands for videoblogging, and if YouTube is any indication, it may be the next big thing. Guillaume's post breaks down the potential vlogging community into three segments: the casual video amateur, the youth and those already vlogging. Damn those Early Adopters, they beat me to everything! Last night's entry was only part one, so keep your eyes out for the next installment. And of course, if you miss it, we'll be here to tell you what you need to know!

Despite Matt Cutts' very busy week, he still managed to take some time to present his readers with some helpful Rules of Thumb. While most of Matt's lessons were tech-related, comedy ensured when his readers shared their own learned life lessons. Some of my personal favorites included remembering to keep your mouth closed when cleaning out the kitty litter, and why you don't want to be that guy who holds up 40 people trying to make exact change. True that.

Thanks to Nathan Weinberg for keeping us (or, at least me) constantly amused this week. First, he pointed us to Ctrl-Alt-Del's take on the Mac/ PC ads, then provided readers with a complete recap of the Google-inspired Dilbert comic strip that has been developing over the past couple weeks and then he showed us the dangers of giving your mother too much information. Giggle fits were had all around and we thank you!

And please, will someone stop Phil Lenssen before he hurts himself. He's clearly had a breakdown of some sorts, whipping out collector's cards for Googlers like Matt Cutts, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Marissa Mayer, and one very special bonus card. We're almost afraid of who he'll target next. Hey, think he takes requests?

Finally, landing in the completely-unrelated-but-too-funny-not-to-share category, was Boing Boing's link to a mash-up for the trailer that would have ran had Charlton Heston's 10 Commandments been a John Hughes-style teen comedy. It's pure genius, if only because it makes Charlton Heston less scary.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 05/19/06 at 4:53 PM | TrackBack (0)
See more entries in Branding, Fun Stuff, Google, Microsoft, Search Engine Optimization

The Importance of Getting In The Game

I love Ask. I love their tools. I love their human focus. I respect their attempts to improve their search engine. And I love 10-year-old Eli Gerasouli. What I don't love (yet) is the Ask blog – I think they can do more with it. In fact, I'm kind of demanding that they do.

The Ask.com blog could be an enormous branding tool for a company that has recently revamped its entire focus. While I love Ask's recent TV ads, why spend millions of dollars on TV advertising when you have a blog falling into obscurity? Why not use that blog to spread the Ask word? Why not create strong word-of-mouth buzz to entice users to give Ask a chance. And yet they don't. They let their blog lie dormant. And when blog posts do materialize, they often give users no (relevant) insight into the company or the individuals behind the post.

I present Ask's last four blog posts (which spanned over two months) as evidence.

On April 28th, Ask blogged about the 33rd Annual Daytime Emmy Awards. It was a worthy topic as this would be the first year an award was being presented for non-traditional programming (content created specifically for computers, mobile phones, iPods, etc.). However, the post served only to list and congratulate the respective nominees. There was no discussion or insight into the expanding video ad market or in the growth of non-traditional media itself. A significant conversation was dropped and an important message lost.

The next post dealt with the first series of Ask's ads featuring Apostolo Gerasoulis. As everyone knows, we loved them.

Two weeks later we got our next post, Ask.com Employee Spotlight: Dmitriy Ryaboy. Great, an in-depth look at one of Ask's Product Developers! Surely, there would be some insight in this one, right? Wrong. All we learned about Dmitriy was that, unlike most boys, he never grew out of his fantasy of being a knight. Yes, Dmitriy participates in full-contact medieval armored combat, outfits and all. It was a humanizing (though superficial) post, but now when I picture the boys of Ask, I picture them hitting each other. And of course, in my mind, they're all on horseback.

I considered today's post, Data Mining and Search, a personal assault. Reading the title lead me to believe that this post would be important. Something about how they're fighting to improve search or a detail that would make me proud to be an Ask user. Unfortunately, this time all we learned was that a noted specialist recently hired by MSN (!) once co-authored a book with a member of Ask's research and development center. What? The entry includes key details like that he's a 'mean guitar player', while the post's author plays bass. Not even mean bass.

I think Ask needs to step up and start using their blog more effectively. MSN Search uses their blog to update users on the search, their newly re-branded AdCenter and all the issues and delays regarding Windows Live Vista. Yahoo! does the same, and I'm pretty sure Googlers are ordered to begin blogging as soon as they finish signing their non-disclosure agreements.

Ask may be gaining market share, but a better advertising and branding strategy could have them gaining more. Their revamp and re-branded may have received a lot of attention from the SEO and tech world, but what about your everyday user? Have they noticed a difference in Ask? Have they heard about all the great changes? Probably not.

A recent forum post over at WebmasterWorld commented how Ask seems to be the only engine not participating in PPC advertising. Doing a search for the term "search engine" in any of the major engines will bring up paid ads for Google, Yahoo! and MSN. All the major players are there, except for Ask. Taking that one step further, performing a query for "best search engine", regardless of which engine you use, will always bring up MSN Search. Now, that's branding!

I don't think purchasing paid ads will help Ask to receive a noticeable increase in market share, but I do think to compete you have to be in the game. It's what we tell clients all the time at training: you have to be equal before you're better. If your competition is participating in paid search, in order to stand a fighting chance at overtaking them, you have to be there as well.

And if Google, Yahoo! and MSN are all blogging, you better be blogging too. Blogs are a great way to spread and direct company buzz. They help give your company a friendly face and help you establish authority. If you don't take advantage of that, you're missing out. Ask needs to start utilizing their blog to establish connections with users. Give them an insight into what you're working on and they'll be more excited when it comes out. Let them feel a part of your company and you stand a better chance of them being loyal to you. Heck, give Eli a keyboard and let him write. I'd read that.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 05/19/06 at 3:31 PM | TrackBack (0)
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May 18, 2006

Google Lawsuit: New beta?

No, it's just the new Google way of life. Proving suing 'the man' isn't just an ugly American trait, the blogosphere is reporting two new International Google lawsuits. Fun, right?

The first group taking aim at Google are the folks behind the Belgium IT company ServersCheck. The company has taken issue with the engine's Google Suggest feature that inadvertently 'suggests' illegal, 'cracked' or keygen versions of ServersCheck software. The Belgium-based company is calling for Google to strip out suggestions that might lead illegal download sites. When Google refused to do so, ServersCheck filed suit against them in a Belgian court.

The case was originally introduced in Leuven, Belgium three months ago, according to a ServersCheck press release. Google claims they are unable to adjust the Google Suggest technology to meet the company's request, but has offered to remove sites that offer the illegal versions.

Could Google meet ServersCheck request? Absolutely. After all, they already adjust results for sexually-related keywords. For example, typing in "se" or "por" skips right over anything that would be considered inappropriate content. Clearly they could do it if they wanted to. But is it Google's job to filter out content leading to illegal downloads. I don't think so and they probably don't want to break that dam. Think all of the companies that would start petitioning to have their anti-'brand x 'sites removed.

Google says they will do their best to remove the sites that offer the illegal versions of software, and really, that's all they are required to do. Google's job is to control the quality of sites in their index (which is why we get so outraged when they don't!), they can't control or influence what users are searching for. It's simply not their job, nor should it be. The folks at ServersCheck say Google is contributing to the piracy of their product and fear it will only continue to hurt them in the future. What do you say: Legitimate concern or an easy ploy to get media attention? No comment here.

Next up for Google, Brazil's Attorney General wants charges filed against Google Brazil, who he says is responsible for the distribution of child pornography and racist materials created by users of the social site Orkut. Google, Inc. was ordered to hand over information regarding the origination of the material, but because Google is not Yahoo, they declined. The court order may have received more weight if it had been handed to United States Google, since Orkut is hosted in the US, not Brazil. The attorney general is asking a federal judge to authorize a full police investigation into Google's Brazilian unit -- again, not hosted in Brazil.

This whole suit confuses me. Why are they suing Google? There is no way you can fault Google for what appears on a social networking site, even if it is technically Google-owned. It would be like starting a suit over an offensive post originating from Blogger. The content authors are responsible for what they write, not Google. All Google can do is enforce the rules set out in their terms agreement.

And perhaps a better question: Why is Marissa Mayer on the Orkut front page? That sure looks a lot like her Google press photo to me.

You have to respect Google for not backing down under the pressure of legal threats, especially when these cases have very little legal merit.

One other thing, I hope both groups remembered to file in California.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 05/18/06 at 2:48 PM | TrackBack (0)
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May 17, 2006

Is Microsoft planning their Google attack?

Microsoft is taking serious steps in its attempt to pull itself up the search engine ladder. According to recent reports, the perennial number three engine is set to offer a new Web Analytics program, search software to aide employee/employer communication, and has even set a plan in motion to kill users illegally pirating software. And we're only half sure they're kidding about that last one.

Fresh off their recent DeepMetrix acquisition, news is spreading that Microsoft is about to release some sort of (possibly free) analytics tool that will compete head-to-head with Google Analytics. So far Microsoft is being tight lipped about what the new app will look like, however, theories abound. Ben Charny theorizes Microsoft's announcement may deal with a new service that integrates DeepMetrix technology into AdCenter, or the development of hardware that will allow business to create more efficient intranets. I think it's safe to assume Microsoft probably has both of those projects already in the works.

And announced today, Microsoft will release a preview version of a program called Windows Live Search (not to be confused with their Internet search of the same name) that will allow workers to search their desktop, corporate networks, and the Internet from a single program. The 'search corporate networks' feature will only be available to those who use Microsoft's SharePoint server software. The Live Search program is expected to remain in beta until the second half of this year.

Speaking of Microsoft's SharePoint: Have you heard about the new feature being added to the SP system? It's called 'Knowledge Network' and at best it makes me more than a touch nervous. Knowledge Network works by automatically building profiles of employees to determine their particular area of expertise. Sounds smart, right? Sure. But it doesn't do this by having employees enter in information about themselves or by uploading a resume, or any other method that would make sense. Instead, it tries to 'ease the task' of finding out who knows what by 'looking through worker's' email and other data and then automatically generating working profiles'.

Hello privacy issues. I guess if you're that employee who has never read a personal email via your work computer, you're in the clear. But having a profile created by what your email and computer says about you, makes me slightly uncomfortable. I'm not even sure I understand how this would work. The system was designed under the idea that 80 percent of company's institutional knowledge is inside its employee's head. So this is their way to extract information that employees generally keep to themselves? Is free thought not allowed anymore? It sounds odd to me. It should be noted that employees are able to "alter" their profiles once they're created. I guess that's something.

And to cap all that off, Nathan quotes an article out of The Inquirer that seems to allege Microsoft is threatening to beat people over the head with rocks. Something about sending resellers a quasi-threatening package in the mail that includes a personalized note and a rather large (and ominous looking) rock. It's all a bit odd. Now, I'm not in the habit of quoting things out of The Inquirer, but Nathan did so I figure its fair game.

Except for that last nugget, it sounds like Microsoft is making good on their six month plan. I'm interested in seeing what their new analytics announcement will look like. Hopefully it will be juicy enough to result in more Google tears. C'mon, I need more fun stuff to blog about.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 05/17/06 at 11:32 AM | TrackBack (0)
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May 16, 2006

Matt Cutts is everywhere

Mike Grehan has summarized (and posted) his recent podcast with everyone's favorite Googler Matt Cutts over on ClickZ. The interview covers hot topics such as the Google sandbox (Rand Fishkin breaks this down further), the importance (or unimportance) of PageRank, cloaking, linking strategies and the idea that marketing is the basis beyond all this silly SEO stuff. Mike gets Matt to give very honest answers to some of Google's toughest questions, so it's definitely worth a read through. Or, for those with 75 minutes to spare, Mike took the liberty of posting the entire interview online. He was even nice enough to break it down into two almost manageable parts. Thanks, Mike.

Wait, there's more. Despite his claim he's going on vacation, Matt is back on his blog clearing up some misconceptions concerning Bigdaddy and the alleged Google server crisis. Seriously guys, someone needs to give Matt a hug, without him we'd all be left in the Google Dark.

So what does Matt want you to know? First, Bigdaddy is complete. While we knew that already, forum members have been spreading rumors (as they sometimes do) that the pages were 'falling out of the index' because they were being manually entered into Bigdaddy. Silly, we know, but group think is a powerful thing. Matt says the reason pages seem to be 'falling out' is because the Bigdaddy algorithm doesn't reward sites with weak linking. After investigating the problem, Matt noticed many of the sites failing to rank had one thing in common: lots of very low valued inbound and outbound links. This included excessive reciprocal linking, links to spammy neighborhoods or involvement in link buying/selling schemes.

Matt notes one real estate site that had links to a free ring tone site, an SEO contest and an Omega 3 fish oil site tucked away towards the bottom of the page. Enter red flag.

And don't panic, as far as Matt knows, Google's not running out of server room. It's his opinion that Google 'certainly has enough machines to crawl/index/serve web results'. So you don't have to feel bad about your new Google Video obsession. Well, not yet anyway.

Reminder: If I were you I'd try and catch Danny's special edition Daily SearchCast with Matt Cutts coming directly from the Googleplex later today. The interview will be broadcast live at 8:10 EST. That's 5:10 RIGHT NOW for those of you not mathematically-inclined. Of course, after it ends you'll be able to download the podcast and listen at your convenience. And I'm sure Danny will blog about it over on SEW.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 05/16/06 at 4:03 PM | TrackBack (0)
See more entries in Google, Search Engine Optimization

Google Notebook: Noteworthy Indeed

Google launched Google Notebook early this morning after announcing it to the world during last week's Google Press Day. After playing around with it for a little bit, I like it more than I thought I would. I admit, I originally wrote this off as another silly Google toy, but this does seem to have several practical uses. It may even be something I could use daily, replacing Clipmarks as my preferred clipping tool.

What makes Notebook rise above Clipmarks is its ability to go beyond a simple Web clipping tool and serve as an actual notebook. I like having a place to store information. I'll admit, I'm something of a packrat, and my obsession with saving has extended even to my Internet usage.

I run a cluttered ship around here. My desktop is stacked with 15-25 browser windows at any given time, and because I'm a Firefox user, most of those are tabbed five levels deep. However, now that I can 'note' things, Google Notebook may allow me to leave my collection of browser windows behind.

What I like (very much) about Google Notebook is how integrated into my browser it is. Once installed, an "Open Notebook" feature at the bottom of my browser gives me instant access to my notebook. Even better, I can instantly clip text (and pictures) just by highlighting it. And if I see that something that interests me on my SERP, I can click the "Note This" link that appears to the right of the URL and immediately save it for the future. Proving that Google is smarter than your average bear –er, engine, it remembers things you've noted, and produces a 'Duly Noted" mention where the "Note This" link used to be.

Duly Noted? Cute, very cute.

Users can create and print multiple notebooks, categorize sections, have sources automatically attributed and designate notebooks as public or private. Noted text and links are saved via Google, not your computer's hard drive, making them accessible from anywhere. This is ranking very high on my convenience scale.

Google recommends using Notebook to create wish lists, plan vacations (what to see, where to eat, compare flight prices, etc.) or for good old fashioned research. I think I'll be using it to create a 'Things I Haven't Read Yet, But Want To' list and various "This May Be Important Later" memos.

Because I'm hard to satisfy, I do have a few recommendations. I want a date stamp next to the things I bookmark to further help my obsessive-compulsive nature. I think knowing when I noted things will help keep me organized and serve as an accurate timeline. Also, I'd like a 'digg it'-esque link to appear on pages for even easier clipping. And maybe even some Gmail/ Google Calendar integration. Other than that, I'm a very happy packrat.

For those interested, Graywolf provides an in-depth look at Google Notebook (with screenshots) over on his site.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 05/16/06 at 2:59 PM | TrackBack (0)
See more entries in Branding, Google

Yahoo Revamps Website

Yahoo is allowing Firefox and Internet Explorer users to try their hands at their revamped beta homepage.

The new homepage has been completely Web 2.0'd and is outfitted in the necessary pastel trimmings (with five different color choices, ooo!) that have been all the rage this season. The overhaul is mostly cosmetic, but does feature a simpler navigation system and lots of personalization. Wonderfully, Yahoo! Answers, which just yesterday appeared out of the way at the bottom of the SERP, has been moved up to the top, making it permanently in the way.

Yahoo says the new design includes a bigger search box, but I'm not seeing how that's true. It doesn't look any bigger or prominent to me, and its positioning finds it almost getting lost in a sea of text. Honestly, my eyes skipped right past it when I first landed on the page. Overall, the page is still cluttered, loaded in AJAX and DHTML, has an array of useless information, and defaults back to the "old" Yahoo once you perform a search. What's the point in that?

I suppose it's better than before, but I still don't find it particularly user-friendly – unless you're using Yahoo for its portals and not for the actual search. Actually, now that I think of it, this probably is what you're using it for. In that case, the new Personal Assistant box gives users' instant access to Yahoo Mail, Messenger, Radio, Weather and other features.

I'll surely like it better once MyYahoo! takes on the same format and I can pick which features I want and which I don't. I don't hate the new look, I'm just not crazy about all those widgets. I'm not interested in the marketplace or Yahoo! Pulse or anything else that connects me to the average searcher. I prefer my homepage to be about me – hearty chunks of news from different sources, maybe some weather, a splash of gossipy tech goodness and that's about it. All these other features and space-taker-uppers need to go.

Currently, Yahoo founders Jerry Yang and David Filo have posted a video of themselves straight on the homepage to give users an 'inside look' behind the redesign. Because it's not like we've been looking at screenshots of it for months. Yawn.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 05/16/06 at 2:00 PM | TrackBack (0)
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May 15, 2006

Weekend Highlights

I'm a little bummed. I had all my Firefox windows tabbed and ready so I could update you all on some quirky things that happened this past weekend, but unfortunately, I accidentally closed them all. Yeeeah.

Dear Firefox: please create a multi-step warning system that will alert (and prevent) me from killing 20-25 perfectly tabbed windows. You're awesome.

Anyway, here's a quick(er) update to get those of you who have a life up to speed:

While you were running out of your office late Friday afternoon, the Department of Justice ruled that Google was being a big baby and approved MSN Search as IE7's default engine. The judge ruled defaulting to MSN Search 'respects users' and "OEM's [original equipment manufacturers] default choices and is easily changed". So, stop crying, Marissa.

The Google Base blog announced users can now create AdWords ads for items they're trying to unload via Google Base. Users can create ads directly from the control panel in Google Base and watch the service finds queries to attach their ad to. Selling advertising to individuals who just want to get rid of that ugly neon green chair that has been cluttering their apartment for 6 months sounds like an untapped audience to me. Smart. Let's hear it for new ways to integrate Google Base into our lives.

On the BCI front, we've updated the Search Engine Relationship Chart to reflect all the crazy search engine mergers, shifts and rebrands. Ask has dropped Jeeves, Teoma has been merged into Ask and Overture has morphed into Yahoo! Search Marketing. Who knew keeping up with the engines was such hard work?

The winner of the V7ndotcom Elursrebmem contest was announced this morning. Congratulations to V7ndotcomElursrebmem.net who was able to employ some crafty SEO techniques to rank above the more than 100,000 other crazies who took part in the four-month long contest. The brains behind V7ndotcomElursrebmem.net have earned themselves $4,000 and an iPod for their troubles. That seems like a lot of work for an iPod. I hope it was a tricked out iPod.

Yahoo! is releasing Yahoo! Answers out of a beta and into its core search after the service celebrated its 10 millionth answer last Sunday. [Isn't that rewarding (read: pushing) your own content or something?] The way I see it, this has both negative and positive consequences. Negative: I have to read people's blatantly uninformed questions on an endless array of topics on my SERP. Positive: Yahoo! has decided to place these results at the bottom of their search results. Meaning, I'll never scroll down far enough to actually see them. Oh wait, I don't even use Yahoo. Carry on.

On a related note, did you know when you search for 'google' on Yahoo! a onebox appears that gives you one more chance to pick Yahoo as your search? Or maybe you did and I was the only one who had never seen it. In any case, it's there. You know, just in case you didn't really mean to type Google. It's actually kind of sad. It's like that old boyfriend from high school who just can't let go. Sorry, Yahoo. We can still be friends, right?

Matt Cutts has a MiniMatt. I'm so jealous. I forgot to hand in my application! MiniMatt's real name is Adam Lasnik (though I'll never call him that) and he'll help bridge the gap between Google and Webmasters, aide Matt in his blogging duties, and be on his best behavior at SES. Curiosity found me taking a peek at his Bladam blog, and after reading it, I'm still undecided. I'll have to trust Matt's instincts on this one. That being said, welcome aboard, MiniMatt!

And with MiniMatt on the team, Matt Cutts has announced he'll be on vacation and away from his computer through the end of June. Jeremy is also out. Wait, when did we agree these guys got to have lives? Was that in one of my lost Firefox browser tabs? I'm so confused.

Okay, back to my SEO-induced crossword puzzle. Thanks SEO Scoop.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 05/15/06 at 5:11 PM | TrackBack (0)
See more entries in Branding, Design, Fun Stuff, Google, Search Engine Optimization, Search Engines, Yahoo

Ask and you shall receive

I quipped on Friday that I was saddened by the lack of Ask-related goodness appearing in my Bloglines feeds lately. While I'm still waiting for an Ask blog post, I was informed via email (thank you, Paul Loeffler!) that two brand new Ask commercials have been posted! Oh, how sweet it is!

Bear Attack and Poetry are the two new :30 additions and again feature Ask's resident Greek Apostolos Gerasouli. While Bear Attack proves Ask is the engine of choice 'when your life depends on it', it's Poetry that gets your full attention.

AG's thick Greek accent may have earned him my affection during his Rims ad, but he is no match for his adorably insightful 10-year-old son Eli. Eli uses the topic of poetry to prove once and for all that Ask is the better search engine.

"Ask.com is better... It gets you hooked, it gets you excited. It gets you the good detailed answer. You're just getting confused. Google's not better; it's just more popular."

Looks and brains! If that doesn't get you to try out Ask, I don't know what will. Congratulations to Ask on another set of ingeniously clever TV spots. And if I may offer up a suggestion: I think Eli should be the new Jeeves! You put that little kid's face on the right of your search box, letting him speak at opportune moments and you have yourself a goldmine! Just a thought.

Now, go use Ask!

Posted by Lisa Barone on 05/15/06 at 2:23 PM | TrackBack (1)
See more entries in Ask, Branding, Fun Stuff

UPDATE: Google Click Fraud Settlement

Ever since Google settled its highly-publicized click fraud settlement for a mere $90 million, talk has been circulating that AdWords customers were getting a raw deal. But if the deal was so bad, why did they agree to it in the first place? Blogger Jordan Glogau of Adotas has a new theory that alleges that the advertisers' lawyers were given a sour-sounding ultimatum – settle or watch the case get dismissed.

As Glogau accurately notes in his post, Google is currently the King of Click Fraud lawsuits, with three suits pending. Currently on the books for Google: the Lane's Gift case that was filed in Arkansas, the now-paused Click Defense/AIT case and the recently filed Kinney vs. Lane case.

Let's rewind. For those just joining us, a class-action lawsuit was brought against Google in February of 2005 that alleged Google had charged advertisers billions of dollars in fraudulent clicks. However, regardless of how much evidence advertisers may or may not have had to prove the fraudulent clicks, it may not have mattered. Google's Terms and Condition states that in order for a suit to be valid, it must be filed in California. Section 17 of Google's Terms and Conditions clearly states;

"This Agreement shall be governed by the laws of California , except for its conflicts of laws principles. Any dispute or claim arising out of or in connection with this Agreement shall be adjudicated in Santa Clara County, California."

This case was filed in Arkansas. Bringing a case in the wrong state, regardless of the evidence, usually means the case will be automatically dismissed.

So when the case went forward in Arkansas, it did so under the very likely possibility that it would be dismissed due to wrong venue grounds. Google knew this. And allegedly, Google made sure the plaintiffs' lawyers knew this as well. According to Glogau, Google used this knowledge to strong arm Lane and his lawyers into accepting a $90 million settlement that was, at best, insulting to advertisers.

Jump ahead to May 2006, when Kinney and his lawyers filed to have the proposed $90 million settlement overturned. Kinney argues that Lane agreed to a bad settlement and that his acceptance does not represent the wishes of the rest of Google's advertisers. Kinney is asking the courts to void the settlement.

If the court does agree to block the proposed settlement, the case would be free to either go to trial or reopen settlement negotiations. The controversy has caused the pending AIT lawsuit, properly filed in San Jose last year, to be put on hold awaiting the outcome of the Arkansas case.

Of course, this is all speculation. We don't know enough to say what is true and what isn't. Google, of course, denies the claim and says Kinney's lawyers are trying to 'circumvent the normal class action process'. We reiterate -- this is all speculation -- but it makes you wonder.

Why would Lane and his lawyers agree to a settlement that gives advertisers less than $.50 for every dollar lost, allows Google to be the judge and jury when deciding if a claim is legitimate, gives AdWords 'credit' instead of cash as a refund and includes no guarantee that Google will improve their ability to fight click fraud in the future? Why would someone agree to that so freely if they didn't fear the case was on the verge of dismissal? The only group who benefited from this deal was Google, and perhaps the lawyers who got to split $30 million among themselves. The conspiracy theory makes sense. And that makes it dangerous.

If true, the big losers in this case are the advertisers, and in a much grander scale than previously thought. The futures of their businesses were jeopardized when Google found a convenient loophole around a bigger problem. If Glogau's claims are right, this has the power to be huge blow to Google's AdWords, and an even bigger blow to Google's Do No Evil mantra.

Also, if true, congratulations to Lane and his posse for effectively selling out the entire Internet marketing community. We hope you use your $50 in Google AdWords credits wisely. Assuming they judge you are worthy of receiving them in the first place.

What goes better with Mondays than a little conspiracy theory?

(via Andy Beal)

Posted by Lisa Barone on 05/15/06 at 12:47 PM | TrackBack (0)
See more entries in Google, Pay Per Click, Rumors

May 12, 2006

Is the SERP going extinct?

There's a great thread being discussed over at Kim's Cre8asite Forum entitled Will SERPS be pointless in the future? In it, a question is posed that I admit I hadn't even contemplated until I made my way over to Kim's site this morning.

The question is: Will the SERP become obsolete as users begin to subscribe to personalized search?

As concepts like behavioral targeting and personalization take off, and search engines begin to factor these into each user's individual results, will the future of SEO change?

Of course it will. As we mentioned last month, SEO is constantly evolving. Strategies that worked today, won't work tomorrow. And methodologies that are considered white hat today, may soon be labeled black. That's just the nature of the beast. However, the phasing out of the SERP would be substantial. One might say it would everything.

Once the engines incorporate personalized search into the organic results, my search results will no longer resemble yours. What ranks third in Google for me, may not even appear on your first page. To be fair, my SERP has never been an exact match to yours or anyone else's. There will always be slight differences due to database variations. But personalizing results means the results won't even be close.

The forum member who posed the question uses Google as their example, so I'll do the same. Just this week, Google has released a hoard of products (Google Notebook, Google Co-op, etc) whose sole purpose is to gather user-specific information to allow for better targeting. Right now this information is being used solely for advertising, but what happens when Google begins skewing user's results to produce a more relevant search?

I suspect this will do many things. I think it's going to make competition that much more fierce. Users will enter a query and only see the most relevant results. This makes your job of targeting them substantially harder. Your main goal is no longer to make it into the top 10. It's to be number one. Ideally, users will no longer have to scroll through a list of irrelevant results. If personalized search works the way it is supposed to, the user will immediately find the results they're looking for. If you're ranked second or third, they may never even get to you.

How will this change the way sites are optimized? I suspect the focus will be more behaviorally-based. Webmasters and SEOs will need to know exactly who they are targeting. They will need what sites they visit, what they're doing on those sites and what they're looking for. They need to know what words they're going to use in their search.

It will also change how we measure results. SEOs can no longer type their client's name into a search engine, see where they rank and determine if the implemented methodologies have worked or not. A search done on one user's account will have no correlation to a search done elsewhere. That makes everyone's job harder.

I imagine the engines will also feel the heat. If users have to log in to access their personalized results, I imagine brand loyalties will be strengthened. Like New Yorkers who are Islander/Met/Jet fans or Rangers/Yankees/Giant fans, users will become solely Google, Microsoft or Yahoo-based, using one brand's complete line of products. And of course, all of these products will be adjusted to remember all of your personal settings, information and interests.

Will personalized take off? I don't know. I think search is heading there. And if the future of search is about personalization and tailored search results, then the future of SEO will no longer be about rankings. Instead it will be about traffic, and ultimately conversions.

And that's exciting.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 05/12/06 at 5:09 PM | TrackBack (0)
See more entries in Design, Search Engine Optimization

If it's good enough for PPC, it's good enough for Email

We thought now would be a good time to remind you about your email campaigns. You remember, it's that thing you haven't touched since you sent out your first one. Yes, that. Consider it our gift to you.

There has been a lot of talk concerning behavioral advertising lately, specifically when dealing with your PPC campaigns. But how about using that information and applying it to your email campaign instead? We thinking employing behavioral advertising to better target emails can make the difference in whether your email campaign converts or dies.

Behavioral advertising targets users based on previous searching and buyer behavior. It's tracking and analyzing your customers' interests by using their IP address to monitor their movements across the Web. This typically involves using cookies to track what sites your customers visit, what content they viewed and how long they stick around.

While regular targeting shows you how to appeal to the whole, behavioral targeting allows you to appeal to specific customer groups.

For example, if a user frequently visits sites like Men's Health, Maxim and WWE, behavioral targeting would likely classify this user a male, likely in his late teens to mid-20s, interested in health and fitness. Creating this profile will allow you to better target this user in the future, you may even want to create a specific email campaign just for users similar to him. The strength of behavioral targeting comes from its narrowed focus.

And while we think behavioral advertising will help increase conversions, there are some experts touting large obstacles. Many associate behavioral advertising with the coming of 'big brother'. They paint a grim picture of corporations spying on their users to find out what information they're looking at. That's not how we view it.

We view behavioral advertising as the analysis of the data you should be collecting anyway. You should know who your target audience is. You should be tracking customer activity and email campaigns to see who is clicking on or showing an interest in what. You should be keeping records of what this customer has bought in the past and what they have expressed interest in seeing in the future. Doing this is not spying, not doing it would be bad business. If a customer is making daily trips to the LA Times site, you're not reading the articles they're interested in, it simply tells you they're interested in current events.

Of course, this task gets harder as more people disable cookies, and spyware programs urge users to delete all personal information. Also, it's possible that multiple people are using the same computer, causing their IP address to show up for a variety of sites. Mom may be reading Cosmo, while Billy is checking out sports scores. If you find this is the case, send out an email addressing your customers and ask them what sites they frequent, how often they're online, what are the things important to them, etc.

Once you have this information you should break your customer base down into different groups. We recommend using personas to help you in this process. If you're a shoe company, maybe you want to create one newsletter for users who have a history for buying sandals, another for those who only buy running shoes and one to users who buy business shoes.
By targeting your campaigns based on past behavior, you will see a higher rate in conversions as you continue to give your customer base what they are really interested in. It will also increase goodwill as customers feel like you are really listening and addressing their needs. Remember, the purpose of your email campaign isn't to get clicks, it's to increase conversions.

For more information regarding Behavioral Targeting, read our latest Branding article. Or if you just need help setting up an email campaign, including newsletters, we can help you with that too.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 05/12/06 at 2:53 PM | TrackBack (0)
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Weekly Recap

It's the entry I wait all week to write: the Bruce Clay, Inc Weekly Recap. Today's edition is filled with Friday's big headlines, as well as all the fun stuff we didn't have time to include in our regular posts this week! You may want to grab a cup of coffee, because this is going to be a good one.

Actual search news first: Google has launched a standalone tool that allows advertisers to calculate traffic and cost information for their keywords without having to log in to their AdWords account. Users can calculate keyword/ minimum bids, search volume, estimated average CPC, ad positions and other data. Of course, by not logging in, you won't have access to any of your settings or account history, but still interesting. Especially for users just starting out who don't yet have an AdWords account.

If you haven't noticed, the search engines are getting catty this week! Yesterday Terry Semel told Microsoft they had 'no chance' in the search market and today Microsoft is taking their own shots at Google, accusing the Goog of wanting special treatment in IE7. Right now, the IE7 toolbar offers a drop-down menu with an alphabetical list of search sites (go Ask!) so that users can pick which they prefer, not that that will satisfy Google. Ballmer quipped Google will likely still have complaints, saying they probably 'want to see a list of search providers, with the No. 1 search provider listed first'. Heh! I love when grown men act like little girls.

The Wall Street Journal uncovered a new study that suggests 3.1 percent of organic results and 8.5 percent of paid search results lead to 'dangerous' content that may harm your computer. Even innocuous searches for terms like 'birthday cards' or 'care bears' brought up dangerous content 15 percent of the time. C'mon, for care bears? Way to ruin my childhood memories. Don't worry guys, 'snuffleupagus' still looks pretty clean!

I supposed you can't blame the engines for the organic results. After all, they just index what's out there. But 8.5 percent of paid search results? That's troublesome. As Andy Beal said, if they can't control ad quality, what hope do we have they can control the quality of the clicks?

Well, I received a shock this morning. I logged into my Bloglines and discovered the Ask blog had posted three new entries. This made me pretty excited. I hurriedly moused over to see what they had to say only to find it was a false alarm. No new entries. Again.

Ask, where are you? I'm beginning to worry, and apparently so is my Bloglines. Come back to us Ask. We miss you.

Andy Beal just about killed me this morning with his Something Is Missing post. I won't ruin it for you; but you're going to want to check it out. Trust me.

People are having way too much fun with Google Trends. Steve Rubel presents us with 25 Things I Learned On Google Trends and a battle of the bloggers, while Nathan enters Jesus in a high-school popularity contest and then points us to a fight featuring our favorite superheroes! And you thought my Red Sox/ Yankees example was bad.

Lastly, you also may have seen the marriage proposal Nathan found on Google Earth earlier in the week. It was impressive only for the childish writing ability of the asker. (To the asker, we'd love to hear what the response was!) Well, Gray Hat News has one-upped that guy by posting messages they 'found' while perusing the London landscape via Google Maps. Highly amusing. Overall, I'd say it's been a fun week!

Posted by Lisa Barone on 05/12/06 at 11:41 AM | TrackBack (0)
See more entries in Ask, Fun Stuff, Google, Live Search, Microsoft, Pay Per Click, Search Engine Optimization, Search Engines, Yahoo

May 11, 2006

Semel: Microsoft has no chance

There was a rumor going around last week that Yahoo and Microsoft were going to combine efforts to tackle Google. The idea of a joint ven