<title> 2009 September</title> (2)

Welcome to Think2010 Series

In a mere few days, the 4th quarter will be upon us. Seems like just yesterday we were running our Do More with Less series to arm you with tools and tactics to show the 2009 recession who’s boss.

As we start wrapping up 2009 and start thinking about what 2010 might hold, we’re feeling optimistic. We’re hoping we can transition from being your partner through the recession to being your partner through a recovery. That’s why we’re launching the Think2010: Getting Ahead of the Recovery series. For the next few months, we’ll be devoting a weekly post to looking forward. The series will highlight wisdom from Googlers and outsiders alike, and offer opportunities for deeper learning. Over the course of the series you’ll see posts on innovation, experimentation, speed, and deeper customer connections — themes we believe will be critical to 2010 success.

In 2010 you’ll likely have products to promote, news to share, and promotions to tout, so you’ll need a targeting strategy that is as effective as those messages you have to get out the door. Precision and relevance will be as important as ever as you aim to (re)connect with customers and direct them your way. That’s why we’re focusing our first webinar of our Think 2010 series precisely on this topic.

Next Tuesday, Oct 6th, we’ll be hosting a Think2010 webinar on “Using Data to Better Connect with Your Customers.” If you haven’t registered, take a look! Our very own Avinash Kaushik will set you out on the right foot for really (truly) making data actionable for decision-making next year — and right now. He’ll discuss core data sources to have in your 2010 targeting toolkit and show you how to capitalize on these tools for refining your targeting approach and honing in on your most relevant and valuable audiences. The webinar will also highlight how free tools like Google Trends for Websites, Insights for Search, and Ad Planner can help you be more efficient and help you confidently make decisions to maximize your return-on-investment.

As you scope your strategy and tailor your tactics for next year, we hope the Think2010: Getting Ahead of the Recovery series will be a good resource to help you charge ahead feeling informed and inspired.

Share

Google Broadening Wave Access With GMail-Like Rollout

As we previously reported, starting tomorrow Google will widen access to its innovative communications platform Wave, offering 100,000 new invitations to use the service. Many of these people in turn will be allowed to invite others to join as well, reminiscent of how GMail propagated. (It’s wise for Google to allow these new users to invite friends and family because you effectively can’t use Wave without contacts on the system.) Those who will gain full access tomorrow will apparently be developers, early users who provided feedback and some Google Apps customers.

Share

Shashi Seth, Another Ex-Googler, Lands At AOL

AOL announced today that it’s hired former Google employee Shashi Seth as its Senior VP of Global Advertising Products. While with Google, Seth was head of monetization for YouTube. Most recently he was the Chief Revenue Officer for Cooliris.

AOL’s addition of Seth is the latest in a series of hirings from the search industry — and Google in particular — going back to March when Tim Armstrong left Google to become AOL’s Chairman and CEO. Armstrong was one of Google’s longest serving executives, and AOL credited him for helping to “build one of the most successful media teams in the history of the Internet” at Google.

Share

Short URL Services

  1. 0rz.tw
  2. 2tu.us
  3. 307.to
  4. 6url.com
  5. a.gg
  6. a.nf
  7. a2n.eu
  8. ad.vu
  9. adf.ly
  10. adjix.com
  11. alturl.com
  12. atu.ca
  13. azqq.com
  14. b23.ru
  15. b65.com
  16. bacn.me
  17. bit.ly
  18. bloat.me
  19. budurl.com
  20. buk.me
  21. canurl.com
  22. chilp.it
  23. clck.ru
  24. cli.gs
  25. cliccami.info
  26. clipurl.us
  27. clop.in
  28. cort.as
  29. cuturls.com
  30. decenturl.com
  31. digg.com
  32. doiop.com
  33. dwarfurl.com
  34. easyurl.net
  35. eepurl.com
  36. ewerl.com
  37. ff.im
  38. fff.to
  39. fhurl.com
  40. flingk.com
  41. flq.us
  42. fly2.ws
  43. fwd4.me
  44. fwdurl.net
  45. g8l.us
  46. gl.am
  47. go.9nl.com
  48. goshrink.com
  49. hex.io
  50. href.in
Share

Question Box Aids Search in Developing Areas Without Web

If you’ll join me in crawling out of our connected lives for just a second, let’s remember that there are still parts of the world that still don’t have the internet. These areas more than any other are in dire need of answers that search can provide. Answers related to farming and entrepreneurship. Answers that could transform a community, improving its economics and health.

The New York Times featured a nonprofit organization called Question Box is determined to bring those answers to such communities. Founded by Rose Shuman, Question Box staffs calling centers who receive questions, via cell phone, from developing villages in Uganda. Though the internet remains slow and elusive, cell phones have taken hold in Africa.

Share

Microsoft Windows 7 House Party: Public Relations Disaster or Video Marketing Triumph

If you create something so bad that it goes viral, is it a public relations disaster or a video marketing triumph?

That’s the question that journalists and bloggers are asking after watching HostingYourParty, which tells you how to host a Microsoft Windows 7 House Party.

Microsoft is putting a Tupperware-style twist on the upcoming Windows 7 rollout — launching a new initiative to encourage thousands of employees, partners and technology enthusiasts to throw parties in their homes and communities to demonstrate and help spread the word about its new operating system.

Share

SEO Horror Stories

Well, with Halloween right around the corner, I thought I’d write something a little fun today. Although “fun” is hardly the word many people would use to describe their experiences with certain SEO companies.

Our industry has made so many strides in gaining a more credible reputation, and — truth told — many SEO companies have become much better at what they do. Yet we still suffer from many people and companies who claim to do SEO, but that really don’t know anything beyond how to write a title tag. Scratch that, there are some who can’t even manage to get that right.

Share

Small Business Guide to Tools that Help Your SEM

All of us in SEM use certain tools and Web sites to track, analyze, and collect data — it’s not a secret. The fact that we use sites to help us is another reason why anyone can learn SEM — but it takes time, commitment, and a certain aptitude.

There are plenty of tools that a small business can and should use to make their limited time most productive in online marketing. We use these tools while optimizing our clients’ sites at Blizzard, and recommend them to our clients to track our progress and compare baseline data to gains we’ve made for them throughout the year.

Share

Google SERPs Analysis: Which Factors to Take into Account?

Google algorithm is a mystery but we do know there are plenty of factors and signals taken into account. Thus, one thing is for sure: you can’t take SERPs analysis lightly: there are plenty of things to consider to make some judgments as to how easy it will be to achieve top ten rankings.

So how do you evaluate your future SERPs neighbors and competitors? Here’s a list of various factors to pay attention to:

  • Average toolbar PR (while most people prefer to ignore this completely, I still think it is important when taken NOT in isolation). Tool: SEOquake FireFox addon
Share

YouTube Still the King of Online Videos

Latest data from comScore’s Video Metrix service is showing a familiar trend in the video viewing habit of U.S. Internet users for August. With a total of 161 million U.S. Internet users watching online video, 25 billion of these videos were viewed during the said month.  And yes, videos on Google sites account for most of these videos, roughly around 10 billion.

videosites

Do we have to tell you which Google Sites those videos are coming from? Of course, it’s pretty obvious that those are all YouTube videos. Ok  just 99% actually are from YouTube.

Share

Shopping Engine Wize Relaunches To Align Product Research With Word Of Mouth

What amazes me is that in more than a decade no “brand” has really emerged in shopping search. What do I mean by “brand”? I mean a site that’s top-of-mind for consumers, trusted and that they navigate to directly for products and product information. One could say that the exceptions to this are Amazon, eBay (probably) and CNET in the consumer electronics category. But there are literally dozens and dozens of shopping sites that have been playing the search arbitrage game or trying their best to rank for product-related searches. But they’re not really building any “brand equity” or long-term value.

Share

Google Launches Merchant Center For Google Base Users

The Google Base blog announced the launch of the new Google Merchant Center. This is the location for you to “upload your feeds, check on the status of your items, and get information on the performance of your listings.”

The Merchant Center is replacing Google Base for those who submit products to Google. This new portal is designed around product listings and submitting data for product listings. Transitioning between Google Base and Merchant Center should be very easy, Google said they would automatically show your existing data feeds, items, FTP settings and other data in the new Merchant Center, based on your login.

Share

Google Broadening Wave Access With GMail-Like Rollout

As we previously reported, starting tomorrow Google will widen access to its innovative communications platform Wave, offering 100,000 new invitations to use the service. Many of these people in turn will be allowed to invite others to join as well, reminiscent of how GMail propagated. (It’s wise for Google to allow these new users to invite friends and family because you effectively can’t use Wave without contacts on the system.) Those who will gain full access tomorrow will apparently be developers, early users who provided feedback and some Google Apps customers.

Share

Take That, Twitter: Google Hot Trends Integrated Into Google Search

Twitter and real time search continues to attract buzz, and Google’s reacting by positioning its “Hot Trends” information in a place where more people will see it, within Google’s regular search results.

Starting around 3:45 Pacific Time today, those searching on topics that are spiking or “hot” in popularity should see a new Hot Trends OneBox near the bottom of the search results page and just above the related search area, similar to below:

Google Hot Trends In Regular Results

Here’s another example:

Google Hot Trends In Regular Results

Share

CitySquares Offers Local Feeds for Online Publishers

Local search site CitySquares has rolled out new local feeds for online publishers. This is a great feature to place on your site if you have a local blog, newspaper or community site.

With the local feed, you can do things like list local restaurants on your website. The feed is free. Here’s how to do it:

1. Go to CitySquares.com and type in your city.
2. Look for the categories listed on the results page.
3. Click on a category you’re interested in
4. Click “Get this feed” at the top right corner in the results column.
5. Plug the feed into any widget platform (or build something yourself, web developer).

Share

YouTube Merges Content ID with Insight Analytics

YouTube’s Content ID is an identification and management tool that allows content providers to determine how their videos will appear on the popular online video site. As of last week, over 1,000 partners had signed up for Content ID. However, the tool only provided limited stats on videos.

Today, Content ID is being combined with YouTube Insight to provide more robust analytics.

For example, Sony Music can view analytics on the JK Wedding Entrance video, which, though uploaded by a third party, uses a song by Sony artist Chris Brown.

Share

120.5 million viewers watched nearly 10 billion videos on YouTube in August 2009

comScore has just released August 2009 data from the comScore Video Metrix service, showing that 161 million U.S. Internet users watched online video during the month, the largest audience ever recorded. Online video reached another all-time high in August with more than 25 billion videos viewed during the month, with YouTube accounting for nearly 10 billion.

Share

#tweetsforboobs and Pledge $1 for Breast Cancer

TweetsforBoobs.org is helping raise awareness and donations for breast cancer during October, which is breast cancer awareness month. The site tracks mentions of the hashtag #tweetsforboobs and records a pledge of $1 to the Susan G. Komen foundation. At the end of the month, the total pledge amount for each Twitter account will be available and people will be directed to the site’s Susan G. Komen donation page (http://www.info-komen.org/goto/tweetsforboobs) to follow through with their pledge and donate.

The site even has a leaderboard of the top BRA’s (boobie research activists) which shows who has pledged the most so far.

Share

6 Ways to Make Google Image Search Better

Google image search is something I’ve been playing more and more recently. It is a visual, more simplistic, less smart variation of general Google search and for many queries it does work better for me.

Here are 6 ways to make it better (and chances are, you will love it too!).

1. How to Add Direct Image Links to Google Image SERPs

Note: while both the tools listed allow you to quicker click through to the image itself, don’t forget to link to the image source if you are going to re-publish it.

1. Google Image Search Direct Links

Share

Google Celebrates Confucius’ Birthday

confuciussp09

Google is celebrating Confucius’ birthday with a new logo that has the Chinese philosopher standing in place of the “l” in Google’s regular logo. September 28, 551 BC, is traditionally recognized as Confucius’ birthday.

Somewhat oddly, however, the Confucius doodle isn’t showing up on Google.com or on Google France. “We don’t always show every doodle on every domain,” a Google spokesperson tells us. “As you can imagine, it’s sometimes tough to make these decisions but we aim to pick doodles that are most relevant to most users in any given country.” The Confucius doodle can be found on Google’s country-specific search engines in the UK, Germany, Spain, Austria, Russia, Serbia, and elsewhere. It was also shown on Google Australia and Google New Zealand (where it’s already September 29 as I write this).

By the way, if you’re into following Google’s doodles (and we know some of you are), you may want to check out a new site called Doodle Source, which tracks and archives new Google doodles appearing worldwide. Right now the site only has Google’s most recent doodles, but they plan to add all of the company’s logos going back to 1999.

Share