Consumers Sharing Brand Opinions on Social Networks

Performics reports that Twitter may be the place to get your brand mentioned if you want social networkers’ attention, according to MediaPost. Nearly half (48%) of those who saw a brand mentioned on Twitter turned to a search engine to research that brand. Other social networks lagged far behind, with 34% researching. However, the study of [...]

Most Bloggers Discuss Products/Brands

According to Technorati’s 2009 State of the Blogosphere report, 70% of bloggers talk about products or brands on their blogs, eMarketer reports. And obviously some of these mentions would be prompted by free sample products, etc.—a practice popular enough to draw the notice of the FTC, which now requires disclosure on such review products. Interestingly, [...]

Skype Founders Re-Found in Settlement

The drama surrounding Skype as of late played out like a business soap opera. The accusations flew from both sides of the fence with founders and owners going at it tooth and nail. Check out Kara Swisher’s account over at All Things Digital for the blow by blow description. Now it looks like the ‘all clear’ [...]

The.Best.Google.Logo.Evah!

Hey Bert, Hey Ernie!

You’re Facing a Reputation Crisis, Now What?

There’s a growing interest in online reputation management. Over at Wildfire Marketing, I answered some reputation management questions for their Thought Leader Thursday series. Here’s a taster… What are some of the biggest mistakes you’ve seen people make when it comes to responding to a reputation management crisis, and how someone salvage the situation if they’ve already made one of these [...]

New Google AdSense Interface Will Tell You Precisely How Much You Suck

You know that $3.40 you make in Google AdSense each month? Well, Google is about to make it a lot easier to see just how badly your blog sucks at using AdSense. A new AdSense interface design will start rolling to users over the coming weeks: For those of you making more than enough AdSense [...]

E-commerce. Up? Down? All Around?

Welcome to this Friday’s version of surveys, research and statistics to ponder. Of course, how and what you ponder always has more to do with the source of the statistics and your mood which makes the numbers kinda funky but ‘Hey!’, if we didn’t have stats what would we do with our days? This latest statistical [...]

5 Tips for Effective Email Copywriting

The quality of email content is one of the core factors in determining whether an email marketing campaign succeeds or fails. But successful email copywriting is an art — rather than a science — making it differ from most other forms of business writing. To start out on the right path, consider these 5 tips [...]

Internet Summit Gives Strong Sophomore Effort

Living in the Research Triangle Park (aka The Triangle) area of North Carolina is a good deal. The weather is great because you get 4 seasons but winter is just a taste of what most of the area’s Northeastern US transplants are accustomed to. There is also a very vibrant technology and new media scene [...]

Google Joins the Dashboard Set

Everywhere in business these days you hear about dashboards. Dashboards for marketing, dashboards for the C-suite and even dashboards for dashboards. If dashboards are so popular it’s no wonder that Google rolled out their dashboard for your Google account. The official Google blog reports In an effort to provide you with greater transparency and control over their [...]

Twitter Rolling Out Retweets, Rolling Over Trends Spam

Remember Twitter’s plans to make “retweeting” an official function? Sure you do, the mock-ups looked like this: Well, Twitter just announced the following: We’ve just activated a feature called retweet on a very small percentage of accounts in order to see how it works in the wild. Retweet is a button that makes forwarding a particularly interesting tweet [...]

All Your eCommerce Are Belong to Google

I think every single one of us could share a frustrating online shopping experience, especially one about trying to find a product you know a retailer offers, but doesn’t show up in their search results. Google wants to make it easier for all of us with their new enterprise offering, Google Commerce Search. To participate, you [...]

How to Achieve Your Goals by Changing the Way You Surf the Web

Everyone has their favorite way of using the internet. Many of us search to find what we want, click in to a specific website, read what’s available and click out. That’s not necessarily a bad thing because it’s efficient. We learn to tune out things we don’t need and go straight for what’s essential. This goal-oriented way [...]

How to Achieve Your Goals by Changing the Way You Surf the Web

Google Falls Short for MySpace

There years ago, Google and MySpace signed a search deal. Google agreed to provide web, vertical and internal search and contextual ad sales for MySpace and other Fox Interactive Media properties and pay them $900M (guaranteed as long as Fox met its traffic requirements) in shared advertising revenue over the lifetime of the deal. But [...]

Reader Poll Winner: SEO Dojo for Best Paid Subscription SEM Community

TopRank has been publishing the BIGLIST of SEM blogs since Jan 2007. We’ve created other BIGLISTs of resources as well including the BIGLIST of 100+ Search Marketing Resources posted in October.  The categories for that list of SEM resources includes books, conferences, newsletters, blogs, forums and many more. We decided it would be interesting [...]

New Twitter Notifications Save Index Finger Blisters

If you’ve ever suffered a blister on your index finger, from constantly clicking the “home” or “refresh” button on Twitter.com, I have good news for you! This: Is coming to your Twitter homepage. According to Twitter: We’re starting a limited test of notifications on twitter.com for when you have new tweets. So if one of the folks you [...]

Add Your Own News Topics to Google News

Google News just added a neat new feature that can help you keep track of news that’s of interest to you, alongside the rest of the day’s regular news item. Clicking the new “Add a Section” link brinks up the following page that allows you to add pre-programmed news modules, or build your own. When you [...]

Google Gives You Fewer Passwords

Data portability is just all the rage these days. Google, Facebook, MySpace, OpenID, et al. have spent years creating services where you can use a single login and password to access email, network or make comments. Now Google’s taking it one step further with something called “hybrid onboarding.” When you receive an email invitation in a [...]

Google Friend Connect Gets Personal

Google Friend Connect can help convert any site into a Google-supported social network. In addition to allowing members of your site to send each other private messages, now Google is bringing its personalization home to your site with Friend Connect. The shared interests that draw people to your site can make it easier for you as [...]

Yahoo Search Experiments with Real Time Offering

It looks like Yahoo isn’t going to be left behind in the real time search race that was kicked off last month as bing and Google both announced deals with Twitter. As we saw last week, Yahoo is partnering with OneRiot for real time results. I’m glad that they are throwing their hat in the [...]

Yahoo Search Experiements with Real Time Offering

It looks like Yahoo isn’t going to be left behind in the real time search race that was kicked off last month as bing and Google both announced deals with Twitter. I’m glad that they are throwing their hat in the ring actually. Why? Well, I actually needed the reminder that Yahoo! is still a [...]

Use a Domain Privacy Service? There’s a Prison Sentence for That!

You know that domain name that you don’t want anyone to know that you own? The one that you’re either testing out some SEO stuff that’s in the "gray hat" area? The one you don’t want your competitors to know that you own? The one you’ve been considering for sending spam emails? Yeah, that one. Well, [...]

Twitter Ahora Habla Español!

Let’s hope this post doesn’t mess too much with Google’s head–I don’t want Marketing Pilgrim marked as a Spanish language site. Anyway, for all of our Spanish speaking readers, we have good news from Twitter! A principios de mes invitamos a algunos voluntarios a traducir Twitter en más idiomas. Gracias a estos entusiastas voluntarios hispanoparlantes, Twitter está [...]

I’m Sorry MSN

Earlier today, we posted news of the MSN.com redesign. Actually, we posted it a little too early. Despite my almost obsessive-compulsive checking of the post publication time and making sure my WordPress settings showed the correct time, the post published one hour before it should have. Unfortunately, I was already tucked-up in bed by 11pm, so didn’t know [...]

Don’t Stick a Fork in All Traditional Media – It Ain’t Done Yet

We could spend all day every day telling you about the latest and greatest flame out in the traditional media world. Every day a newspaper or magazine or some other bastion of the “old world media order” goes away but that gets kind of old. I would even go so far as to say that [...]

The New MSN.com: Less Links, More Social

I tried really hard to figure out how to “fluff-up” this announcement. After all, Microsoft went to the trouble to pre-brief me, but I just can’t say it any better than I can show it. So here goes. MSN is going from this: To this: Yes, one of the most popular destinations on the web–600 million monthly users no [...]

Local Mobile Search: They’ll Be Watching You

Local mobile search is heating up. The powerful combination of GPS location and user input creates a golden opportunity for accurate, local, useful information to break out in a big way. As more and more GPS-enabled smartphones come on the market, more and more search engines and apps want to know just where you are [...]

Turkey Suing Google for $47M in Back Taxes

Dear World: Google is advertising in your countries. Duh. Turkey has recently determined that Google owes them $47M US (71M Turkish lira) in back taxes on advertising sold in Turkey. The government maintains that because Google sells advertising in Turkey and maintains an office and registered subsidiary in the country. Google, on the other hand, points out [...]

Twitter, Lists and Widgets

The title says it all. Twitter has offered its list function and now there are widgets to go with it. Widgets and you; perfect together. This is a good thing for folks looking to add more and more to their blogs. Considering how many blogs look these days it may require ditching something else that [...]

Teen Girls Sue School for Wrongful Discipline Over Risque MySpace Photos

In recent interviews, I’ve talked about the future of online reputation management. In that future, I see a desensitizing towards negative content found online by employers, parents, and schools. In essence, as more and more of us post content online, any embarrassing photo or rude remark will be brushed off, as we learn that we [...]

How to Save Money on Social SEO Consulting

Social Media Marketing is getting a lot of attention in the media on and offline, causing many business marketers to wonder how to adjust budgets and resources to participate. Others that have allocated funds to Social Media and SEO programs without proper implementation, timelines or measurement may question their return on investment. While businesses decide to [...]

Google Lets You Preview 6-Year Old Technology

OK, you’re either going to love this new Google search feature, or think it’s the ugliest thing since, I don’t know, the last ugly thing you hated! Ready? Here we go: Yes, Google is revolutionizing search with the addition of "Page previews" to your advanced search options. Wait! This just in. I’ve been reporting on this type of [...]

Camelot, Atlantis and Now, Argleton

I’ve heard that a company can get so big, it can "put you on the map," but Google is apparently SO massive, it can put whole villages on the map–even ones that don’t exist! The UK’s Telegraph reports on the fictitious town Argleton that’s appearing in Google Maps. The town doesn’t actually exist, but because it’s [...]

Tribune Co. Papers Set to Go Almost AP-less For Trial

Imagine just a few short years ago what a headline like this may draw out from the newspaper industry and newspaper readers alike. The shock of such a claim would be the first reaction followed by the naysayers that would predict the rapid decline and fall of the newspaper company silly enough to make such [...]

Where Can Google Be Beaten?

Ad Age today summarize the state of the search engine marketing industry—and it’s largely good, including the fact that we’ve weathered the recession well so far, we’ve seen tremendous growth over our lifespan and most marketers are convinced of, interested in or doing SEM in some form. Naturally, the report focuses on the elephant in the [...]

SMB’s – Behind the Curve or Right on Time with Social Media

We spend all day talking to each other about the importance of social media. I agree that it is important. We also seem to yell a lot about how social media can cure many marketing ills. I am often included in that kind of talk as well. We act as if social media is right [...]

OpenX Now Angling for Google with Microsoft’s Help

OpenX has long been angling for Google’s online ad dominance. And after a new multi-year deal with Microsoft, announced this morning, they’ll have an even bigger ally in the fight. The partnership has been in trials for over a year, but is now official. Explains TechCrunch: Under the agreement, Pasadena-based OpenX becomes a preferred partner to [...]

Newsday Charges and Columnist Walks

Here’s an interesting twist on the ‘pay for access to conten’t dilemma that faces the newspaper industry these days. Newspapers who do this may actually lose a writer or two! While it’s not likely that staffers at any newspaper are looking to just walk out the door to another job because there really aren’t any [...]

Pubcon Las Vegas 2009: Are You Ready?

Another year in the Search Marketing world, another WebmasterWorld Pubcon in Las Vegas.  Pubcon was one of the first search marketing conferences I attended and where I first met a number of highly talented SEOs in person. TopRank’s Online Marketing Blog has been liveblogging the Pubcon conference since 2005 and includes a mix of content ranging [...]

Don’t Read This, If You’re a Social Media Guru

There’s not much going on in the internet marketing industry this morning. I suspect everyone ate too much candy. While they recover from their belly aches, I’m going to do a little "belly aching" myself. I’ve noticed–as have others–that there’s a growing number of people referring to themselves as social media "gurus," "experts," and "geniuses" (OK, maybe [...]

Cup of Joe: You Aren’t a Drunk Monkey, So Don’t Act Like One!

The other day I clicked a link on Twitter to a blog post everyone was talking about. I did like everyone else and read the post and then left a snarky comment. But then unlike most everyone else, I right clicked the margin and selected “view source”. Why did I do that? I am [...]

Anchor Weighs in on Click Fraud

I. Am. Hilarious. Anchor Intelligence has just released its Q3 09 click fraud data—and it’s down, contrary to what Click Forensics reported for the same period. Anchor saw worldwide click fraud drop almost four percentage points from Q2, to 23.2% of all clicks in Q3. Interestingly, Anchor found that malicious, “attempted” click fraud had fallen off [...]

Facebook Changes Privacy Policy

Two months ago, Facebook responded to Canada’s inquiry into the privacy practices of the most popular social network in the world. The (somewhat surprising) result was Facebook changing the way that third-party apps could access users’ personal information and how long they retained user data. And now those changes are going live. With the info in [...]

TopRank’s SEO Halloween Costume Contest

The TopRank team loves to have fun – for holidays, on team outings, at conferences, etc. Because tomorrow is Halloween, members of the TopRank team decided to dress up for a costume contest. And it’s up to you to decide the winner! Please vote on your favorite costume below.             Subscribe to this Feed © Online Marketing Blog, [...]

Washington Post Co. Posts a 69% Increase in Profits

I am still rubbing my eyes to see if this is one of those sleep-deprived, delusional, mirage type things that can play tricks with you. Nope, it’s real but you don’t need to peel back too many layers on this one to see that the newspaper side of the Washington Post Co.’s business is actually [...]

Google Feeds Its Spiders

Just in time for Halloween, Google has given us a chance to put together a very timely and pithy headline (although I have to give credit where credit is due â€" hat tip to Andy). So how exactly is Google doing this and what the heck does it mean? In a nutshell, it’s a way [...]

Are There a Lot of Dumb People Using Google?

Google is always testing and tweaking its search interface. More recently, the search engine has tested a minimalist homepage design. Well, apparently that homepage might be a little too simple for the search-challenged, as the latest version adds the rather obvious “Press Enter to Search” text. I know that I’m not representative of the average search user, [...]

5 Basic Tips for Video Optimization

If you’re attempting to improve search rankings for your web pages, these days it’s no longer an option not to optimize digital assets. With search engines incorporating video, images and news into standard search results, marketers have the opportunity to achieve increased visibility by implementing video SEO principles. These 5 basic tips for video SEO are [...]

Facebook Continues to Can Spam

As far as Internet business goes it would be hard to imagine someone having a worse year than Sanford Wallace. Who you ask? Mr. Wallace is the Spam King who had a judgment made against him last year in a suit filed by MySpace for $234 million. Now add Facebook to the list of people [...]

StumbleUpon Updates Design Again (Abandoning Social Search?)

Earlier this month, StumbleUpon started showcasing their new homepage design, when they touted their “Google + Twitter” social search. Now they’ve gone through the rest of the site to make it more consistent (less customizable), easy to understand and streamlined. Read Write Web reports: The new interface is streamlined and more social with an updated relationship system. [...]

Google Chrome: Copyright Infringer?

Sometimes, when you have a really good idea, you have this irrepressible urge to do something crazy with it. Like register it with the government. And then, when other companies independently develop similar ideas, you protect that registration by suing the pants off those other companies. It is, after all, the American way. And it’s what [...]

5 Basic Tips for Video SEO

If you’re attempting to improve search rankings for your web pages, these days it’s no longer an option not to optimize digital assets. With search engines incorporating video, images and news into standard search results, marketers have the opportunity to achieve increased visibility by implementing video SEO principles. These 5 basic tips for video SEO are [...]

Google Fires Back Over AT&T’s Call Blocking Claims

While it remains unclear whether Google Voice should be treated the same way as other telecom companies, the search giant isn’t taking any chances with the rather unpleasant probing it’s receiving from the Federal Communications Commission. Thanks in part to the finger-pointing of AT&T, Google has to answer the accusations that it does not connect [...]

Defamatory Tweet Costs NFL Player $600,000

You’re already careful about what you say on Twitter, right? I mean, you read my advice on reputation management, so you know not to go around tweeting defamatory tweets in the name of "fun." Right? Good, then I never have to worry about you getting in as much trouble as Larry Johnson of the Kansas City Chiefs. [...]

Google Hits a High Note with New Music Onebox

What’s the name of that song? You know the one. They play it a lot at NC State football games? C’mon, you know it. "Boom, here comes the boom…." No? Forget it! I’ll Google it instead! Yes, that’s it! And, pretty soon, you’ll never have problems finding a song, artist, or album again–thanks to a new "Discover Music" onebox [...]

Bingahoo Delayed a Month or Two (or More)?

For all of the drama and the back and forth of the Microsoft and Yahoo courtship from the summer it’s almost laughable to learn that the two still don’t have all the details ironed out yet. The deal that was originally supposed to be signed off on October 27th isn’t quite ready for the super [...]

China Accuses Google of Censorship (Seriously)

Google wants a book deal. And no, not so it can spill all the secrets of the Internet, but so they can offer electronic versions of books. But their proposed settlement faced so much opposition that they had to drop it, although they’re still pursuing other avenues. Aside from Yahoo and Microsoft, authors also challenged [...]

Yahoo’s Time on Homepage Up 20% Since Redesign

Back in July, Yahoo premiered the latest version of their homepage. The two biggest differences were the ability to personalize apps to add content to the homepage, and ditching dozens of links to less popular Yahoo services. And after three months, Yahoo’s ready to report their progress: time spent on their homepage is up 20%. Speaking [...]

Verizon and iPhone in 2010?

It’s a slow news day so we’ll just enter into the realm of ‘what ifs’ and ‘maybe, kinda, sortas’ for a minute and imagine a world without barriers. Sounds nice doesn’t it? Imagine a place where you would be able to have the best possible smart phone device for you personally regardless of who your [...]

Google Wins Over the City of Angels

Google went a long way toward answering the naysayers of their Google Apps offering. How you ask? By winning a contract to provide e-mail and other Internet services to the City of Los Angeles. Nice get. While winning a contract is just the first step in proving that Google is a serious threat to the stronghold [...]

Google’s At It Again: Releases Diluted Challenger to GazoPa

Tell me if you spot any similarities between these two announcements: We’re pleased to announce you that GazoPa enters open beta today. GazoPa is a next generation image search engine that uses image features such as color and shape to search for similar images. And… Today, we’re happy to announce that Similar Images is graduating from Google Labs [...]

Barry Diller Ready to Stick a Fork in Ask.com?

Barry Diller is getting close to waving his white flag in the search wars. During IAC’s quarterly earnings conference call, the top dog made it quite clear that Ask.com may be on the chopping block: "We’ve been asked a lot whether we’re open to consolidating transactions in the area of search. The answer is yes," Diller said. [...]

YaToo: Y! Going Real Time

Apparently Twitter is all search-dealt out. After deals to bring real-time info to Bing (now) and Google (later), Twitter was not the last of the big three’s choice for real-time search. (But does it matter if Yahoo’s deal with Bing goes through?) Instead, Yahoo, almost a week behind the others, plans to go real time with [...]

Reader Poll: Best Paid Subscription SEM Communities

We recently posted a list of over 100 resources our readers could leverage to learn more about marketing online through search. One of the categories was paid subscription SEM communities that offer training, forums and often times templates, forms and guides for implementing effective Search Marketing programs. A pioneer forum that has a paid channel [...]

Baidu.com Profits Jump 42% Then Stocks Take a Dump

You read that correctly. Despite an increase in profits of 42%, which is a pretty strong showing by anyone’s standards, the stock price fell over 13% on the NASDAQ. How does this kind of thing happen you ask? It appears that Baidu.com is going to suffer from the same issue that has plagued Google for [...]

Don’t Miss Trackur’s PubCon Social

Whether you’re one of the 11,500+ that have registered a Trackur account, or one of the many that have helped spread the word about Trackur’s affordable social media monitoring plans, I want to thank you! Actually, I want to do more than just thank you. I want to invite you to a special cocktail reception that [...]

Google Voice Goes Mobile

My favorite Google Voice feature is the ability to have all voicemails transcribed and emailed to me. I can then read the text–transcribed with about 80% accuracy–or listen to the actual audio. It saves a lot of time and comes in handy when I’m on the road. That cool feature is now available on my cell [...]

Google Wave to Get App Store, Kill the iPhone?

Google Wave, an instantaneous/asychronous communication app (Okay, it’s IM+email) has been in beta testing for nearly a month. In that time, we’ve seen a couple “apps” developed for it (although they were really just stripped down browsers that helped Wave to run a little faster). But these pseudo apps were so well received, apparently, that Google [...]

Why iCrossing is to Search Share as Viagra is to Sexual Intercourse

Imagine for a second that I’m a doctor. Now imagine that I specialize in…ahem…erectile disfunction. Let’s say the average married couple has sexual intercourse 3-4 times a month–backed-up by most national surveys. But, I conduct a survey among my viagra-popping patients, and release a report that suggests married couples are in fact having sex 8-10 times a month. Would [...]

Sweet! Tweet Delete Complete

Have you ever put together that questionable 140 character outburst or ‘observation’ and then experienced ‘tweeter’s remorse’ when you sent the poorly designed nugget of wisdom? It’s like that e-mail you didn’t want to hit send on (those really suck though because in most cases you have no recourse other than to start putting together [...]

Book Review: Crush It by Gary Vaynerchuk

I picked up a copy of Gary Vaynerchuk’s book “Crush It” to read on my way to DMA in San Diego. Get the book from Amazon (link above) not at the airport unless you’re funding your own stimulus package for airport book stores. For readers that are not familiar with @garyvee and Wine Library TV, like I [...]

Google Rolling Out Social Search (in Labs)

There are two brass rings in search these days: real time and social. Google (and Bing) have been working on the real time thing with Twitter, and last week Google announced they were working on a Social Search option in Labs—and now it’s out. With Social Search, Google finds relevant public content from your friends and [...]

Bye Bye, Beacon

As announced last month, Facebook is finally ending its unpopular advertising program, Beacon, through a court settlement. The class action lawsuit settlement only needed judicial approval to make it final. And last week we they got that preliminary approval. Once the deal is good and done, Facebook will officially end Beacon, and pay $9.5M in [...]

What Can Brown Do for Social Media?

While this UPS sponsored video at Mashable is slick, I’m scratching my head over it. Aside from the fact that it’s extremely basic–which is probably UPS’s intent–I’m just not making the connection between a courier service and social media. Can anyone help me out? Why is UPS sponsoring this?

Defining Search Engine Optimization

The search engine industry frequently innovates as do consumer behaviors for discovery and sharing. Those changes require search marketers to take a fresh look at what search engine optimization (SEO) is and why companies should or should not engage in its practice. Defining search engine optimization is often focused on the mechanics: “SEO considers how search engines [...]

Twitter Responsible for British Economic Woes?

Headline seem like it’s over the top? Maybe a little but a report has been released making the claim that Twitter costs the British economy 1.38 billion pounds on an annual basis. That’s a boat load of pounds! (We miss you Carol. Please say something outrageous soon, please!). Regular readers will know how I tend [...]

Google’s Sergey Brin Says “I did not try to buy Twitter”

I know that this video of Google co-founder Sergey Brin at Web 2.0 Summit is widely circulating the interwebz, but not everyone is taking the time to watch it and highlight the interesting sound bites. Here are some of the choicest quotes from Brin: "I did not try to buy Twitter" Admitted that AdWords was "a very lucrative [...]

Champagne Pops at Yahoo as Carl Icahn Resigns Board Position

The single biggest PITA for Yahoo has decided to leave his board position. If you’re not aware of just how disruptive the self-labeled "activist investor" Carl Icahn has been, a quick review of our archives should bring you up to speed. It appears that Carl Icahn isn’t happy unless he’s getting his way, and for all intents [...]

Is Facebook’s Reconnect a Trick or a Treat?

With Halloween looming in the very near future one wonders if the ‘reconnect’ feature’s algorithm doesn’t have a little bit of ‘All Hallow’s Eve’ mischief in it or is programmed for the macabre. Either way it is managing to upset more than a few Facebook users with suggestions that border on the, well, bizarre. Mashable shares [...]

Cup of Joe: Create Great Content or Hardcore Pornography?

You ever have one of those moments when you say something so crazy and off the wall that it has got to be true? For me this happens without me even giving a second thought about it because, to be honest, most of the time it tends to be exactly how I feel–and being sincere [...]

Google Reader Adds More Suggestions and MAGIC!

No, seriously, they added magic. As you’ve probably noticed today, Google Reader has added a few new features. The first is the Explore section, just below the People you follow section. Here, Google shows off two sources of new feeds: Popular Items and Recommended Sources. As you might guess, the Recommended Sources feature analyzes your [...]

Microsoft’s Q3: Earnings, Revenue Down, but Still Beat the Street

Despite a 18% drop in earnings and a 14% drop in revenue in Q3, Microsoft still beat Wall Street estimates for its earnings per share by 25% (eight cents). Naturally Microsoft’s revenue reports cover their bottom line, which includes all of their software, hardware, gaming and other offerings, not just their search engine. Bing falls under [...]

Geesh! Facebook Sure Gets A Lot of Pageviews

Everyone has watched Facebook grow in popularity and significance over the past year or so. It almost sneaks up on you just how far reaching the social networking site has become. Claiming over 300 million users is impressive enough but some research is showing that there is data to support the claim that Facebook gets [...]

5 Tips for Making a Corporate Blog Stand Out

These days it seems as if every corporation has tried its hand at blogging. The more corporate blogs that exist in the blogosphere, the more difficult it becomes to gain blog subscribers by creating one that’s truly unique. To ensure your corporate blog stands out from the crowd, follow these 5 tips: 1. Talk about something [...]

Net Neutrality: Business or Politics?

As the new proposals for rules and regulations start to show up regarding net neutrality moving forward it is apparent that politics and political wrangling will rule this one. A very real possible result of this could be that common sense is shelved. Why do I say this? Go ahead and read the article from [...]

19% of Internet Users Update their Statuses

Quick: if I asked you “Do you use an Internet service or site to share updates about yourself?”, how would you answer? “Yes: Facebook,” “Yes: my blog,” “Yes: Twitter,” (yes, all of the above)? Okay, let’s say I took all of those yeses, no matter which site/service you use, and declared them all to be [...]

Social Sites Send Fewer, but More Loyal Visitors than Search

While we all like our sites to have visitors, a loyal visitor—one who returns for later visits—is especially valuable. And while search engines do send a lot of visitors, a study issued by Chitika earlier this month shows that the most loyal site visitors come from social sites, as eMarketer reports today. Studying 33 million [...]

Act Now to Avoid a Flickr Reputation Headache!

Depending on your point of view, Flickr just created an easy way to spot any pending reputation disasters, or just made it easier for one to occur. The photo sharing has added a feature we’ve seen cause reputation headaches in Facebook–the ability to tag a person inside a photo. Here’s how it looks: Now, in the half-full [...]

Facebook and bing – Perfect Together?

Big day yesterday. Bing announces it is getting Twitter results for its index ahead of Google announcing the same thing. I wonder if that is a balm for Mr.Ballmer that at least he one-upped Google on one occasion. But wait there appears to be yet another rabbit that Microsoft can pull out of its hat. [...]

Google’s Social Search for You and Yours

Search is changing very rapidly these days and it looks like we are going to need to buckle up to keep up with the changes and, even more likely, the rumored changes. Until I can use something myself (which means the rest of you can as well) then it is all rumor. Experimentation is the [...]

Book Review: Putting the Public Back in Public Relations

When Brian Solis asked me to do a review of Putting the Public Back in Public Relations, the book he and Deidre Breakenridge published earlier this year,  it didn’t take a second to say yes. Putting that decision into action took a little longer and it finally took some time on a plane to get [...]

Google Plays Second Fiddle to Bing; Announces Twitter Deal Too!

Mark this day in history: Google plays second fiddle to Microsoft by announcing deal with Twitter AFTER Bing. …we are very excited to announce that we have reached an agreement with Twitter to include their updates in our search results. We believe that our search results and user experience will greatly benefit from the inclusion of [...]

Facebook’s Facelift (and Changes for Groups)

As we’ve heard before, Facebook is gearing up for yet another redesign. As we saw in leaked screenshots two weeks ago, Facebook is going to start sorting news feeds by Recent Activity and Top News stories (the ones with the most comments or likes). That change is supposed to also reduce load time, and relegates [...]

Bing Goes Real Time with Twitter

For many people, real time is the holy grail of search—and an area that the popular microblogging service Twitter has soundly beaten all the search engines on. Google’s struggling with it, and Bing’s last foray, in partnership with Twitter, was disappointing. But they’re not about to make that mistake again. Bing says if you can’t beat [...]

Wall Street Journal Ventures Further Into Paid Content World

It’s been a little while since we have drug the already weather beaten newspaper industry back into the spotlight with regard to its desperate need to generate new life. In what appears to be one of the success stories of this new era of content delivery, the Wall Street Journal is stepping up its efforts [...]

Comcast and Twitter: Can Words Overcome Products?

This is the classic social media case study that finally someone has put a real face on. I read MG Siegler’s account of Comcast’s CEO Brian Roberts speaking with John Batelle of Federated Media and was getting lulled into the same Comcast story we have been reading for months now. While it is a nice [...]

Google Already Indexing “Real Time” Web?

Sometimes I make a mistake in my writing. I know, hard to believe. So, after correcting an earlier typo, I just happened to check Google’s search index to see if my post had been indexed yet. Not only had the post been indexed, but the typo fix–from just seconds earlier–had already been updated! 0 to [...]

AT&T Activates Citizen-Shills to Oppose Net Neutrality

Is there a fine line between “rallying the troops” and “astroturfing?” Well, if there is, AT&T will be our case study for the day, after an internal email–asking employees to oppose net neutrality–has surfaced. It appears that proponents of net neutrality–and AT&T’s detractors–have jumped on a single line of the wordy memo: We encourage you, your family and [...]

Yahoo Revenue Down 12%, Net Income Up 244%

2008 was a rough year for Yahoo. First Microsoft tried to acquire them, then Yahoo spurned them, then shareholders wanted a merger, then they lost CEO Jerry Yang, then their search ad deal with Google fell through. There was nowhere to go but up in 2009, right? We got a new CEO, Carol Bartz, and [...]

Singing a Different Tune to DOJ: Please Okay Bingahoo!

It hardly seems possible, but it was just last year that the Goohoo (Yahoogle?) search ad deal was under scrutiny from the US government. Ultimately, that scrutiny killed the deal—since the DoJ informed Google that they’d face anti-trust charges if they went through with the deal. Here we are, a year later, and two search giants [...]

First Look: Google Analytics Adds Intelligent Email Alerts & More!

When the Google Analytics team shared today’s new features with me, they wanted to walk me through all of the minor updates–before they revealed the big news. I’m not going to do that to you! You’re getting algorithmically driven, artificially intelligent, email alerts! Andy, in English, please! If Google Analytics detects a change in the data patterns [...]

Google Gives Virgin Free WiFi

Ok, that headline was completely unfair because this post is about WiFi access on Virgin America flights that is being provided by Google. Got your attention though didn’t it? For a moment maybe you thought that Google had really taken this ‘providing service to everyone and type of person on the planet’ to a disturbing [...]

Google to Offer Branded Android Phone?

While Apple is making waves about the latest and greatest gadgets they are rolling out to the waiting public Google has made a little announcement of its own: It’s a phone! The word on TheStreet.com is that Google is planning on entering the hardware arena with the new Android offerings. It seems as if the [...]

Warning! That Political Ad on Google Could Cost You a $250 Fine!

There’s a problem brewing that involves Google and election mud-slinging. Ooh, I just heard a collective "I knew it" from political conspiracy theorists around the country, but it’s not quite what you think. The problem involves the mandated disclaimer often needed for any kind of political ad. You know the kind: "This ad was paid for [...]

Report: In 10 Seconds, this Mobile Web Surfer Will Self-Destruct!

A company that earns its living by optimizing web sites for mobile browsers just issued a report that suggests most of us need our web sites optimized for mobile browsers! Shocking, huh? OK, if we get over the potential bias in Gomez’s Why the Mobile Web is Disappointing End-Users, we find some interesting stats. Like this one: 82% [...]

10 Proven Applications For Social Media

Tenured digital marketing professionals have been applying social media for end business and marketing objectives for years. But what is clearly valuable to some is still a mystery to many. Whether you’re a marketer trying to get buy-in for social media from the top or a small business owner wondering why you should bother, knowing [...]

The Truth About SEO

I’ve been in the business of SEO for about 12 years and have worked with hundreds of companies of all sizes. I cannot be anything but biased towards the benefits of optimizing web sites to improve visibility in search and the commercial outcomes that can result. For some, Search Engine Optimization is a favorite whipping boy. [...]

Google’s Revolving Talent Door Spins in Europe

We have spoken before of the task that Google is faced with on a daily basis. While the company attracts the best and the brightest help it’s not as easy to keep them around as you might think. The trouble with having a lot of ‘talent’ are the egos that can be attached to that [...]

Report: Most Companies are Dumb When it Comes to Customer Intelligence

Despite most firms indicating their involvement in customer intelligence efforts, the lack of sophistication of said efforts–and the siloing of the data–is holding back many businesses, according to a new report from Forrester. The Intelligent Approach To Customer Intelligence report reveals more than 80% of companies say they use market research, direct marketing, and web analytics, [...]

YouTube: Not So Stupid?

This year, we’ve seen a lot of pessimistic estimates of YouTube’s operating losses. While the site does bring in some advertising revenue, they haven’t quite covered that $1.65B price tag yet. And based on bandwidth costs, various analysts have estimated annual operating losses of anywhere from $470M to $175M. Note that the more conservative estimate here [...]

Google Wave Going Mobile

In case you’ve forgotten, Google Wave is that cool new email-is-so-last-century communication method. Currently in invitation-only beta, some have hailed Google Wave and its instant, integrated communication as a huge timewaster, while others like it. Google Wave continues to roll, too, with new clients announced for both Macs and iPhones. Called Waveboard, the client will be [...]

Google Apps: You Can Run but ….

Ever get the feeling that as Google announces more and more services for more and more people at more and more spots on the globe that there is less and less room to go without a primary colored logo looking over you? Now, don’t get me wrong. I am feeding this animal as much as the [...]

Why I May Run Ads in My Twitter Stream

It’s been interesting to see more and more bloggers moving their thoughts to Twitter. I’ve certainly found myself blogging less, and instead using Twitter to share my thoughts, links, and news. The downside to that approach is that complete inability to directly monetize that content on Twitter. With Marketing Pilgrim, I can place ads around our [...]

Tech Giants Ask the FCC to “Preserve an Open Internet”

It appears the leaders of some of the world’s largest tech companies are not taking any chances that the FCC could be persuaded to ditch Net Neutrality at the last minute–they just sent the following letter to FCC. Dear Chairman Genachowski: We write to express our support for your announcement that the Federal Communications Commission will begin [...]

Waste Your Day Away with Google Chrome Experiments

Chrome-huhWhat is it good for?Absolutely nothing…but playing gamesSay it again OK, maybe Google won’t adopt Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s "War" as the unofficial anthem of its Chrome browser, but fun and games? Sure, why not? Since early this year, Chrome Experiments has been collecting a bunch of user-created JavaScript applications that are designed to show off the [...]

Book Review: Crush It by Gary Vaynerchuck

I picked up a copy of Gary Vaynerchuck’s book “Crush It” to read on my way to DMA in San Diego. Get the book from Amazon (link above) not at the airport unless you’re funding your own stimulus package for airport book stores. For readers that are not familiar with @garyvee and Wine Library TV, like I [...]

FAIL! Google Running PageRank AdWords Ad?

So, yeah, I thought Google killed PageRank in Webmaster Tools? More importantly, why is Google running an ad that encourages PageRank obsession? FAIL!

Cup of Joe: Google Wave, Please Give Me Face Touching

So I finally got my invite to Google Wave! I must say that it is rather impressive. I like it a lot and I think it will probably redefine the way that we collaborate in the future. One of the more impressive features is its “real time” chat interface. Which basically means that as a [...]

IAB Against New FTC Regs

In case you’ve missed it, the FTC has finally finalized its new blogging guidelines—including an up-to-$11,000 fine for not disclosing free products or other remuneration given for product reviews (or maybe not). Naturally, this has caused an uproar in the blogosphere—and now the president and CEO of the Interactive Advertising Bureau, Randall Rothenberg, has written [...]

Google Chasing Real Time on YouTube

Real time search is hot (theoretically), but Google is struggling to deliver results. They’ve started some real-time stuff in Gmail, though, with interactive widgets within emails. And now they’re branching out to real time on YouTube. At first glance, real time video sounds even harder than real time search—and yeah, YouTube’s popular, but shouldn’t the Goog [...]

Google’s Q3: We’re “Very Happy”,”Investing Heavily” & “Accelerating Hiring”!

If Google is any litmus test for the state of the US economy, the worst recession in 70+ years is now firmly behind us. The search giant reported a stellar third quarter, beating all Wall Street Estimates. …net income in the quarter ended Sept. 30 rose to $1.64 billion, or $5.13 a share, from $1.29 billion, or [...]

Android Set for Search and Destroy in Mobile Market

Now this is the kind of news I need to hear! Eric Schmidt, Google’s Chief Googler, has told folks during the third quarter earnings call yesterday that Android is set to further the world domination plan that Founding Father’s Sergey and Larry set in place back in the year 1 AG (After Google) which is [...]

Social Networking via Mobile Phones has Doubled in Last 6 Months!

Forrester continues to examine the intersection of mobile phones and social networking. One startling–or maybe not–statistic: 10% of us access social networks from our cell phones, double the number at the beginning of the year! Two new reports look at how mobile phones are a becoming a big component of our socially networked lives.

5 Tips for Creating an Effective Content Marketing Strategy

It’s difficult to find much value in content with no strategy behind it. Without a content strategy plan, your intended audience is unlikely to find your copy, let alone read it. During the MIMA Summit last week, the importance of a content marketing strategy was the topic of a session presented by Rachel Lovinger of Razorfish. For [...]

Google Gives a Thumbs-up to Reputation Management

It’s a good day for reputation management consultants everywhere–we just got Google’s official endorsement! Yep, Google has come off the fence and wholeheartedly endorsed the creation of positive web content to try and outrank anything negative. In the Google post, the search engine does an admirable job of creating a primer for Google Reputation Management which [...]

SMB’s, Social Media and Reality

I have followed the SMB market for a little while now. I am considered an SMB myself and I certainly was when I had a small Internet marketing agency / practice as recently as a year ago. As a result, I know the small and medium business market pretty well. I find the typical small [...]

AT&T Tells Google, “Don’t Be Evil”

After getting the Google Voice App blocked on the iPhone and the FCC to scrutinize Google Voice, you’d think AT&T could sit back and rest assured. But not so. Yesterday, they fired another volley in their war against the Internet-based telephony service with a 13-page letter to the FCC. It’s like they read the comment section [...]

Google to Kindle: It’s On

Google’s been saying they’re entering the eBook arena since June. While their Google Books offerings were clearly part of the plan, it hasn’t always been clear exactly what, if anything, they were planning to do for hardware. Well, it looks like they’ve made up their mind (at this point): they’re going ahead with offering eBooks [...]

Twitter at C Level

As Internet marketers and social media users / practitioners we are always digging and trying to find out more. Since most of what is related to social media is happening on the fly the innovation comes more often from good intention rather than good planning. One common theme that occurs, however, is the apparent lack [...]

SMS Ads to Become the Detective David Starsky of the Mobile Industry

According to new predictions from Coda Research Consultancy, the "Year of the Mobile" will be funded by search and display ads, not the current "go to" channel SMS. In fact, SMS (text messages) are likely become the mobile equivalent of Paul Michael Glaser–once the hottest thing around, but now trying to eek out a paycheck from [...]

Google is Finally Killing PageRank

We are one step closer to never having to discuss Google’s PageRank again. According to SER, the PageRank metric has been removed from Google Webmaster Tools, after the search engine realized it was talking out of both sides of its mouth, all the while it continued to display the infamous metric: Susan Moskwa, Google Webmaster Trends Analyst, [...]

Social Media Blunder or Brilliance?

In the latest round of social media’s own “You make the call!” game regarding a social media campaign’s failure or genius enter Pepsi and its Amp Energy brand. There appears to be some buzz in social media circles about an iPhone app that Pepsi developed for the drink that is being called crass by some [...]

Yahoo, It’s Not Me. It’s You.

Last month, Yahoo announced the slogan for its new advertising blitz (perhaps hoping to replicate Bing’s blip of search share success): “It’s You!” On September 28, they premiered the first TV commercial for that campaign. In our totally nonscientific comments section, people were 2:1 against the ad, either because it didn’t sell Yahoo’s products or because [...]

The New Technorati Thinks It’s a Blog

Have you ever seen one of those people who spends so long studying a group, they begin to believe they’re part of the group? If not, you can now: Technorati has launched a new design/mission/layout, and it looks like the once-awesome blog search engine has been assimilated. As they put it: While we’ll still track and [...]

Twitter and Spam Look to Part Ways

Do you hate spam? Do you hate Twitter spam in particular? Had it with spam? Well, Twitter feels your pain. I get almost teary eyed thinking about their concern for our well being in the Twitterverse. Here’s there blog post to let you know they are thinking of you. Folks can now help us conquer spam [...]

Bing Holding Steady in September – Maybe, Kinda, Sorta

Bing is going to be a monthly issue apparently when it comes to reporting just how good, bad or indifferent their performance has been in the previous month. What does that mean? Well, it simply means that the reporting of results of what the market share is for the Microsoft search offering is going to [...]

How Social Media & Email Marketing Boost Customer Reach

For years, rumors that email marketing is dying and teenagers the world over have proclaimed email as, “something old people do”.   Whether you agree or disagree that email has one foot in the grave, many online marketers are finding effective ways to leverage email as part of a social media marketing mix. Integrating email and [...]

Did Old Navy Acquire Ask.com?

Other than looking like an Old Navy commercial, I really don’t know what to make of this new Ask.com TV ad. Still, when did Ask.com ads ever make sense?

Ad Spend Up and Down, Depending on Where You Look

As usual, you can find statistics to support almost any argument. For example, if you want to use online ad spending as a measure of the economy, things are either looking up or looking down—take your pick. With search ad spend, the trend is up, but on social networks, the trend is down. Now, don’t get [...]

Google #1 Site Worldwide with 6% Global Traffic

What do you get when you analyze nearly 300 quadrillion megabytes of Internet traffic? Aside from really tired, I mean. Well, if you’re Arbor Networks, you get the largest study of global Internet traffic since the beginning of the commercial Internet in the ’90s. And ten guesses who came out on top. (No fair cheating, [...]

Do You Have Malware or Just Crappy Code? Google Will Tell You

Nothing will scare a web site marketer more than either of these two situations: 1. Google flagging your site: "This site may harm your computer" 2. Seeing exactly how your site looks to Google’s spider Well, Google has announced two new Webmaster Tools Labs features that help with either of these scenarios. First, Google will provide snippets of [...]

Yahoo Settles Class Action Lawsuit; Attorneys Walk Away with $4.3 Million!

If there’s one solid truth about class action lawsuits, it’s this: only the attorneys win. That truth has held out over and over again, especially when it comes to any kind of class action against a search engine. Adding to the list, Yahoo has settled a 2006 lawsuit that claimed it allowed advertisers’ ads to be [...]

Will Google Give Microhoo a Free Pass?

A free pass on what you ask? Well, a free pass on the partnership of Microbing and Yahoo as it morphs into Microbingahoo to provide search from bing that will be sold by Yahoo that will make the online world a better place because of competition. You remember that one, right? Funny how we forget about [...]

Tweets from Above

No, this is not about God using Twitter so if you have any issues around that please put them aside now. This is actually about a service that some airlines are putting in place that utilizes Twitter and Facebook to update those who care where you actually are while flying from point A to point [...]

Top 10 Pitfalls of International SEO

TopRank is fortunate to have an excellent team of consultants, many of whom contribute here at Online Marketing Blog.  It is therefore, a rare occasion that we invite guest posts. The globalization of search and to follow, search marketing, brings a tremendous need for quality information and best practices.  Search Engine Optimization for North American [...]

Facebook Poke = Arrest

Let this be a lesson to us all: be careful who you poke on Facebook. The click of that button can get you arrested. For most of us, the note that we’ve been poked only elicits an eye-roll. But when Shannon D. Jackson of Tennessee poked one of her Facebook contacts, she actually broke the law—a [...]

FCC Eyes Google Voice’s Rural Call Blocking

Last week, twenty members of Congress sided with AT&T and asked the Federal Communications Commission to take a good look at Google Voice, because the free telephony service doesn’t allow users to call certain rural numbers. Two days later, Sharon Gillett, chief of the FCC’s Wireline Competition Bureau, sent Google telecom counsel a list of [...]

How Quickly the Rumors Fall

Seems like just yesterday that the Telegraph was reporting that Twitter was considering the introduction of video tweets into its playbook (actually it was just yesterday). Interesting and scary thought all at once (honestly, do you need to actually see some of the folks who pass along their nuggets of 140 character wisdom?). So while [...]

Levinson Picks Apple Over Google; Will the FTC Abort the Colonoscopy?

Remember Arthur Levinson? Sure you do. Levinson was the sole remaining board member causing a boatload of headaches for both Google and Apple, by serving on the board of directors for both companies. Ring any bells? Well, he finally manned-up and vacated his role on Google’s board. Google CEO and Chairman Eric Schmidt described Levinson in a [...]

Banks Get Billions in Bailouts, but an Unemployed Blogger Loses Benefits Over AdSense Check

Google AdSense or unemployment benefits? It’s your choice, but you can’t have your cake and eat it too–even when that cake amounts to just $1.30 a day in AdSense earnings! The New York State Department of Labor is investigating the eligibility of an unemployed attorney who was receiving $405 a week in unemployment benefits. That $405 [...]

The Search for Twitter Search Continues

While talk swirls around Twitter on subjects ranging from video to revenue to biz plans and Biz’s plans, there is one that keeps coming up because it is pretty important. How do you search Twitter and mine it for the nuggets of wisdom amongst the wasteland of wackiness? Last week we told you about the unholy [...]

Ten Search Marketing Awards You Should Know

“A person will work for a living, but they’ll die for recognition.”  I’m not sure who I heard that from first, but it’s just as true for agencies and companies as it is for individuals.  One common way to recognize excellence is through awards. There are awards for just about every industry from software to [...]

Cup of Joe: You are a Creepy Guy Dressed as a Pretty Unicorn!

I remember once hearing someone say, “you are your business card”. Essentially, the idea is that the way you present yourself in public defines who you are–more than any piece of paper ever can. I think this is extremely true today, now more than ever. Think about it this way, if you are always [...]

Some Social Media Stats for Your Weekend

It looks like September of 2009 was a pretty good month or Facebook according to Experian’s Hitwise report about social media usage. If you are a regular reader of Marketing Pilgrim you know that we report on statistics all the time and we approach them with same amount of reverence as we do skepticism. What [...]

Oh Goody, Senseless Tweets in More Languages Soon!

The Twitter blog informs us that if you are not already lucky enough to get the good, the bad and the truly ugly of Twitter in the English or Japanese language that help is on the way. Founder Biz Stone gives us some more “Bizdom” on the Twitter blog regarding the status of the social [...]

Some Social Media Stas for Your Weekend

It looks like September of 2009 was a pretty good month or Facebook according to Experian’s Hitwise report about social media usage. If you are a regular reader of Marketing Pilgrim you know that we report on statistics all the time and we approach them with same amount of reverence as we do skepticism. What [...]

Facebook Sued for Infringing Patents

Facebook is no stranger to lawsuits. And now they’re being slapped with two more, for allegedly infringing the patents of Japanese company Mekiki and Phoenix Media/Communications, publisher of the Boston Phoenix. Both allege that Facebook’s core social networking capabilities violate their patents. Mekiki, owners of the Japanese social networking site SamuraiTime.com contends that they have three [...]

StumbleUpon: Now We’re Social Search, Like Google + Twitter

Remember StumbleUpon, the recommendation engine that lets you surf the web for random sites—but mostly sites that other people liked in your areas of interest? (If you haven’t tried it, it’s pretty fun). Well, since they bought themselves back from eBay in April, they’re changing things up. According to TechCrunch, StumbleUpon is revamping itself as [...]

YouTube Now Serving 1 Billion Spam Videos Per Day!

Congratulations YouTube! The video site is celebrating over 1 billion views per day and the 3 year anniversary of being acquired by Google with…some nasty spam videos. No, this just in. YouTube is celebrating with a new logo. The spam is something it doesn’t actually have any control over–and that’s going to be a big problem. RWW is [...]

Social Media in Healthcare Marketing: Making the Case

For marketers in any industryâ€"from manufacturing to real estate to banking, and everything in betweenâ€"making the business case for social media isn’t a quick and easy process. But in healthcare marketing, it’s an understatement to say that gaining buy-in for social media isn’t easy. Consider for a moment just what healthcare marketers are up against: A multitude of [...]

Free PDF: 30 Reputations You Should Be Monitoring Online

If you’re one of those people that won’t set up any online reputation monitoring because “you don’t have anything to monitor,” I have a wake-up call for you. Over at Trackur, we just put together a free list of 30 reputations everyone should be monitoring online. Thirty! Three, zero! 30! Honestly, whether you use Trackur or not–which you [...]

Google Street View Comes to Canada, Czech Republic

Google Maps Street View continues its relentless march, despite privacy protests. Google has recently added two new countries to it quiver: Canada and the Czech Republic. Which will be the first to balk? In Canada, they have added twelve cities in time for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. And naturally, they focused on major metropolises. Metropolii. Uh [...]

Who’s In Charge of Your Conversions?

Who’s in charge of conversions in your company, or at your clients’ companies? Anyone? Maybe it’s time to get on that—a new study by Econsultancy and RedEye, published today, indicates that companies with at least one employee directly responsible for conversions are more likely to improved their conversion rates over the last year. And it’s not [...]

By a Show of Hands, Who Would Like 1,500 Brand Evangelists on Facebook?

Talk to me long enough about online reputation management and we’ll likely get to the topic of managing online reviews. I truly believe that more of your happy customers would be willing to post a positive review of your business, if only you’d ask! Well, Emphatica has launched a new Facebook application that does just that–encourages [...]

FTC Confirms Bloggers Need Not Fear the $11,000 Fines

For those of you in a panic over the FTC’s plans to fine bloggers $11,000–each time they don’t disclose a sponsored endorsement–can put down the brown paper bag. It’s not as bad as it appears. Fast Company asked Richard Cleland, assistant director, division of advertising practices at the FTC, a number of questions about the new [...]

Is Yahoo’s New Mobile Homepage Really the “World’s Most Advanced”?

When your announcement claims you’ve launched the "World’s Most Advanced Mobile Homepage," you’d better live up to the hype–or this Pilgrim’s going to cut you down. Well, the verdict is in on the new Yahoo mobile homepage, and it’s actually pretty darn good. The new mobile homepage (http://m.yahoo.com) is now compatible with more than 1,900 different mobile [...]

Publications Taking ‘Pay to Play’ to Heart

There has been much talk about the survival of the traditional media in the online era. Magazines have avoided much of the focus as it relates to the transition to their online presence. Why? It’s likely because magazines are not a daily publication that has its weaknesses exposed by the more “real time” acquisition of [...]

Twitter Talks To Google and Microsoft About This Data Thingy

We don’t need to go over just how valuable the data that Twitter gathers on a minute to minute basis can be to the world as a whole. We can sit and bemoan the fact that the search capability leaves something to be desired, however. Of course, when it comes to Twitter the discussion wouldn’t [...]

Now See PDF’s PDQ in Google Results

Traditionally, PDF’s and search engines have not gotten along as well as most would like. While being indexed is not the problem it once was there have been difficulties in the rendering of those PDF’s from the SERP’s (search engine results pages). Google today has moved closer to true harmony between the PDF and engine [...]

Google to Go Cloudboarding?

We’re always on the hunt for Google’s next big thing. This week’s report is from Google Operating System, who’s found an internal tool that might roll out to all users. Google Cloudboard is a server-side clipboard that makes cutting and pasting between Google Apps—specifically Gmail, documents from Google Documents and spreadsheets from Google Documents, and [...]

Facebook’s (Semi) Annual Redesign

Whether they’re trying to keep us from going design-blind or they just get bored with their layout periodically, Facebook has regular redesigns. But the new features and redesigns aren’t always popular, and Facebook users seem highly resistant to change. But apparently it’s time for a bunch of new “i h8 the new lay out” groups to [...]

7 Considerations for Tracking Social Media Success

With more and more marketers jumping onto the social media bandwagon, a lot of questions come up. Is it possible to track metrics and ROI? What are other companies doing? Why isn’t it working? Being prepared to answer  questions like these can make a difference in how a company interacts with social media and [...]

Android to Make Waves by 2012

This is interesting timing for me personally regarding the release of a report from Gartner regarding its predictions for the future of smart phones once Android finds its stride. I have noted here before that I am a BlackBerry Storm user on the Verizon Network and I am underwhelmed. I like the network and chuckle [...]

When Google Manually Adjusts Rankings, Does It Violate a New Yahoo Patent?

The next time you suspect Google has manually adjusted your search results, you can do more than simply complain at WebmasterWorld, you can snitch to Yahoo. The #2 search engine was just awarded a patent for its "Method and apparatus for search ranking using human input and automated ranking." In other words, Yahoo holds a [...]

Our Fling With Bing Has Lost Its Zing

It’s time for Microsoft to put the champagne back on ice: Bing’s market share gains are starting to evaporate. StatCounter was the first to dare suggest that Bing was losing its sting, but now new Hitwise data suggests both Bing and Yahoo have lost US audience share in the past month: At first glance, it looks like [...]

Phishing Attacks Plague Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo & More

A phishing attack is targeting thousands of web-based email users, according to the BBC and Read Write Web. Tens of thousands of users of each site have already been victimized, with the usernames and passwords available on lists. The scam to entice the users to offer up their private passwords, phishers imitate legitimate sites and ask [...]

Google Paid $1 Billion Too Much for YouTube? What Will It Pay for Twitter?

The big news this morning is a CNET report quoting Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s admission that he paid around $1 billion too much for YouTube. Here’s an extract from Schmidt’s deposition in the ongoing Viacom suit: Schmidt: I believe YouTube was worth somewhere around $600 million to $700 million. (Viacom Attorney) Baskin: And you communicated that to the [...]

Google at Its Minimalist Best?

Google is well known for many things to many people. Of course, search comes to mind. Then there’s e-mail and apps and on and on and on. Finally, there is the concern of world domination but that’s at least a year or two away so we can all breathe easier. One design element that Google has [...]

The Ultimate Reason for Getting Your Boss on Twitter

This says it all…

Social Media at a Fortune 10 Company: Ford’s Scott Monty

Kudos to MIMA for getting Ford’s Scott Monty to do a session at the MIMA Summit, “Social Media at a Fortune 10 Company”.  Scott will be keynoting the DMA International conference in San Diego with Martha Stewart later this month (10,000 attendees) and MIMA was able to get him to do a breakout session. The [...]

Social Media at a Fortune 10 Company: Scott Monty Keynote

Kudos to MIMA for getting Ford’s Scott Monty to do a session at the MIMA Summit, “Social Media at a Fortune 10 Company”.  Scott will be keynoting the DMA International conference in San Diego with Martha Stewart later this month (10,000 attendees) and MIMA was able to get him to do a breakout session. The [...]

MIMA Summit: Jackie Huba (Church Of The Customer) Keynote

Jackie Huba, blogger at the popular Church of the Customer blog kicked off MIMA Summit 2009 with a moving presentation on the idea of 1%’ers â€" those influential people creating content on the web (similar to Jakob Nielson’s participation inequality). Through the democratization of publishing content, the vocal minority, those 1%’ers (”sneezers” as Seth Godin calls [...]

Yahoo! Turns Yellow in India

Yahoo! Is busy rebranding itself around the world. There is plenty of money being pumped into the effort and apparently some research as to how to grab someone’s attention. In India at least it looks like you need to be on the front page and really bright! Maybe this technique should be considered by the [...]

Bloggers Face $11k FTC Fines For Not Disclosing Paid Endorsements

This blog post was not sponsored by anyone. If it were, I would have to disclose such a relationship or face up to $11,000 in fines from the Federal Trade Commission, according to newly published guidelines. An update to FTC’s Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising includes the following language (emphasis added): The [...]

Amazon Goes Mobile–Mobile Payments, That Is

I know it’s a conundrum you’ve just puzzled over for years. When will “the mobile” “arrive”? What will it take to get mobile payments off the ground in the US? A month ago, we looked at Read Write Web’s series on this subject, where they concluded that mobile payments wouldn’t take off until a site [...]

Twitter Name Auction Raising Money for Cancer Fight

Let’s for just one moment concentrate on something that while connected to social media is about something much bigger. Hopefully we are able to do that without being prompted but for today we’ll give you just a little push . Mashable tells us that over the weekend, Drew Olanoff, who is fighting Hodgkins lymphoma, [...]

Google Goes Real Time—In Gmail

Google continues to struggle with real time search results, but interactive real time features may be headed for a Google property you probably use—Gmail. Recently, a few people spotted favicons appearing on emails in Gmail. Read Write Web traced the new feature to Google’s Enhanced Content feature, as mentioned in a Google Help page last updated [...]

Ads on the iPhone Makes Perfect AdSense!

Google is determined to make sure it doesn’t miss out on the “Year of the Mobile.” Like the rest of us, the search engine doesn’t know when that year will actually start, but if it has anything to do with it, 2009 might just be the top candidate. As of today, publishers can now drop smart [...]

Whoah! You CAN Make Money With Podcasting…$1.5M or More!

Podcasting just doesn’t make money, right? In fact, if you’re going to start a podcast, you may as well dig out that old Ham radio and talk into static–you’ll make as much money doing so. Right? Wrong! Sure, a podcast is not the easiest beast to monetize, but that hasn’t stopped Leo Laporte from raking in $1.5 million [...]

Social SEO & Channels of Distribution

At several conferences I’ve used the image above to illustrate how a blog can be the centerpiece to a social SEO effort where objectives are focused on raising brand awareness and improving customer relationships in a way that is beneficial to search engine visibility. I see several key opportunities with a unified SEO and Social Media [...]

Cup of Joe: The Big Beer Twitter List

We just heard a few days ago that Twitter plans on launching a new feature that will enable users to create custom list of users that they recommend to others. I like thinking of this as a Twitter “Blogroll”. While, I think its a pretty cool idea, Andy seems to think it is going to [...]

Cup of Joe: The Only Twitter List You Will Ever Need!

We just heard a few days ago that Twitter plans on launching a new feature that will enable users to create custom list of users that they recommend to others. I like thinking of this as a Twitter “Blogroll”. While, I think its a pretty cool idea, Andy seems to think it is going to [...]

How NOT to do Email Marketing: Scare Tactics

Toyota and their advertising agency, Saatchi & Saatchi must have thought they were onto something huge when they launched a series of emails last year. And then this week, AdAge reports, they were slapped with a lawsuit by one of their subscribers/victims. The plaintiff in this case was enrolled in the email marketing campaign when [...]

Facebook Making It Easier to Manage Ads

I have to give the folks at Facebook credit. They keep grinding forward with news that is relevant to making money and providing a better service for marketers. Earlier this year everyone wanted to throw the whole Facebook thing in the center of the ring and stone it to death. They couldn’t do anything right [...]

Revenue?! We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Revenue!

While it isn’t news that Twitter has no revenue model what is interesting to note is near yawn that the prospect of not having can draw from one of the founding fathers of the Twitterverse. The New York Times reports that Evan Williams, who doesn’t get the pub that a guy with a cool name like [...]

Are Banner Ads Dying?

comScore reports that over the last two years, banner ads have seen a sharp decline in clicks—half as many web users click on banner ads now. Two years ago, 32%—nearly one in three—web users clicked on banner ads; comScore’s data show that now only 16% do. And half of those clickers—one in twelve—account for 85% [...]

Google Adds New Search Options

A year ago, we first started seeing Google adding Search Options to their SERPs to refine results by time or to change how those results were listed on the SERP. In May, Search Options became official, adding the ability to filter by medium (image, video, etc.) and view the results as a WonderWheel or timeline. [...]

Will “Bing Losing Sting” Have a Familiar Ring?

I can’t decide if this is newsworthy or just our buddies over at StatCounter trying to get a little pub for themselves. Back in July they were reporting the June search engine numbers on the 2nd when every other reporting agency (Nielsen, comScore and HitWise) waited for their numbers to come in. Now the Dublin based [...]

Basics of User Generated Content for Search Engine Optimization

[Note from Lee: User Generated Content for SEO is something we haven't written about in a while, but now more than ever, marketers need to find efficient ways to generate content assets for search engines as well as the ability to meet customer needs to interact and share. Michelle takes a un updated look [...]

Lawsuit Over Facebook Gets Hand Tossed at Pizza Maker

I am a big fan of pizza. Maybe it’s my New York / New Jersey roots but there’s nothing like a really well done pizza with (insert favorite topping(s) here) sitting in front of a ballgame of some sort. You get the picture right? Well, since pizza is a borderline spiritual occurrence for me it [...]

Facebook Connect Expands to Easy Installation & Translations

As if propelling Facebook into world domination weren’t enough, Facebook Connect is branching out. Now they’re making it easier for non-developers to add Facebook to their sites, and they’re adding translation as one of their services. The “Connect Wizard” distills integrating Facebook Connect into a website into three steps. Many popular websites have long used Facebook [...]

ICANN Haz .XXX Domain Names Now?

After 11 years, the not-for-profit group Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers–which we all know as ICANN–is becoming more independent. ICANN has managed internet domain names since 1998, but up until now had been closely tied to the US Department of Commerce. Going forward ICANN will… …operate as a more independent entity. Other governments and the [...]

Google Translate: Now for YOUR Website

Google has long been working on their machine translation offerings. Over last year, they’ve added translation services to Google Reader, Google Toolbar, and Google Docs. And now they’re bringing their translation skillz to you—on your website. Google announced a new translation widget on Monday, bringing Google Translate to any site. Insert a short script—a mere snippet [...]

Grab the Shoehorn! Google Adds Forum Posts to Crowded Search Results

Give it another couple of years and no one will remember the phrase "ten blue links"–especially if Google has its way. The Google search results page is already looking cluttered these days–box results, news item, videos, book results, profiles–now Google wants to add deep links to forum posts to the crowded mix. This new addition to Google [...]

Be Warned, Twitter Lists Will End in Tears!

It will all end in tears. OK, maybe the A-List won’t be crying, but if you thought the “they’re not following me” snub was bad, Twitter’s about to ramp up your angst with the pending launch of Lists. Twitter Lists will allow you to create your own themed list of Twitter users. Want to create a list [...]

Google Mobile…Now Has Everything, Including the Kitchen Sync

Google knows that more and more of our searching is carried out away from our main computers, and it doesn’t want to risk you using some other mobile search interface–hence the rollout of some new synching features. First up, we learn that Google’s Personalized Suggest feature has gone mobile. If you’re signed into your Google account [...]

80% of Social Media is About ME

Yes!! Just last week I was lamenting that everything is all about you—but it turns out that now it’s all about me! Or at least when it comes to social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, according to Rutgers University researchers Mor Naaman and Jeffrey Boase (and Mashable). After analyzing 3000 tweets from >350 tweeple, the [...]

FeedBurner Goes Full-on 301

Back in April 2007, we pointed out that if you used FeedBurner click tracking to see which feed items people clicked on, it might be “siphoning off your link juice,” if people used those redirected links instead of your real URL. For example, your URL might be http://adsenseforfeeds.blogspot.com/2009/08/feedburner-terms-of-servic e-update.html but the redirect would be http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/MQiv/~3/Z8Es5QuvgEI/feedburner [...]

Follow Me Follow You: WhyFollow Twitter Poll

With Twitter riding the social media wave to a $1 billion valuation, the attention from celebrities, usefulness for everything from real-time communications in natural disasters to serving as a profitable marketing channel, a momentum of interest has spawned in how to make the most out of spending time on Twitter. Like any tool, Twitter is [...]

66% Americans Don’t Want Ad Tracking…or “2 for 1″ on Coke 12-Packs

Professors at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of California, Berkeley just conducted one of the largest independent studies on privacy and advertising tracking–and you may want take note of the findings. Of 1,000 adult internet users: …66 percent that said tailored ads were “not OK,” an additional 7 percent said such ads were not OK [...]

For Tech Execs It’s Not About the Money…This Just In: It’s About the Money

Isn’t funny how there tends to be disconnect between what technology execs say and what they mean? Take Shashi Seth for example. When he left Google’s YouTube, he stated “Google got a little big for me.” Well, apparently the one year at Cooliris was enough to either a) throw us off the scent, or b) help [...]

UK Internet Ad Spend Tops TV for the First Time

The headline is pretty spectacular, to be sure, if you are in the Internet marketing biz. The UK has become the first major world economy to report that online ad spending has topped that of television. The IAB put together numbers as reported by The Guardian that attests to the true coming of age of [...]

Do You Actually Watch 157 Videos Per Month?

This week comScore has released the latest numbers regarding video viewed online and I am still scratching my head. According to the findings (remember class, repeat after me â€" “It’s research and research ain’t perfect”) in August of 2009 there were just over 25 billion videos viewed by the approximately 161 million US Internet users. [...]

More Insight into YouTube

Mm, I love the smell of data in the work day. Introduced in March 2008, YouTube Insight data and stats on video usage. In May of that year, they added demographic data. And that October, they unveiled Click-to-Buy, which used their Content ID system to find copyright-violating music and video on UGC content on the [...]

Twitter Gets Blitzed Out of Lubbock

Unless you are a college football fan (hang in there social media geeks, we’ll get to your stuff soon enough ) you probably wouldn’t even have a clue what this post is about. Honestly, unless you are a Texas Tech student or fan or resident of Lubbock, TX you may not know what [...]

Do the Wave: Google Wave to Roll Out to 100,000 Testers

I’m certainly jealous. Google first showed off its new integrated communications platform, Google Wave, back at Google I/O in May. When I first heard the stories, I was all ready to roll my eyes and berate the new technology. IM and email and pictures and social networking-type stuff in the same place? Get real. And then [...]

Google Still Can’t Deliver Real-Time Search; Offers Warmed Up Leftovers Instead

There’s no doubt that Google’s feeling the heat from Twitter. Just about everyone wants to know what Google has planned to address Twitter’s rise in dominance for "real time" search results. The biggest problem for Google is that it’s built its market share by being the most relevant search engine. How can it balance relevance [...]

Why Internet Summit Might be the Best $295 You’ll Spend in 2009!

When do you ever find an internet marketing event with this much to offer? Speakers? How about this line-up: Google Twitter Microsoft Digg AOL comScore CBS Technorati Expedia Pandora ESPN Many more! Session topics? Broad and deep: Blogging Search marketing Mobile Cloud computing Social Media Email marketing Video Real-Time Plus more great topics! Location? The mild Fall temperatures of Raleigh, North Carolina. The cost? Just $295 if you register this week! Yes, just $295! Last year’s Internet Summit sold out early [...]

Google & Bank Work Together, But Still Can’t Reactivate Gmail Account

So it was all for nothing. After having a panic attack and asking a judge to shut down a Gmail user’s account, Rocky Mountain Bank and Google have worked together on a resolution. The only problem is, Google can’t reinstate the Gmail account without the judge’s permission! “While we regret that the user has been locked out [...]

Google Docs and the New World Student

If you are going to school it is probably hard to imagine a better resume builder than an internship at Google. I suspect that those folks will have a bit of an advantage in an interview situation over the kid who tries to spin his gig waiting tables at the beach for the summer by [...]

10 SEO & Social Media Posts To Read Before MIMA Summit

In just under a week the annual Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association Summit will be held downtown Minneapolis at the Hilton. With keynotes from Seth Godin and Jackie Huba as well as a collection of local and national subject matter experts ranging from Greg Swan of Weber Shandwick to Scott Monty of Ford, it should be [...]

What Do Y!ou Think of Yahoo’s New TV Ad?

Presenting the first ad from Yahoo’s multi-million dollar campaign. I’ll save my thoughts for now, but what do Y!ou think of it?

Product Placements with Nobodies?

Let me guess: you’re looking for a way to get your clients’ products placed in all kinds of media—but you can’t afford any celebrity endorsements. Well, if you’re okay with your products being hawked by nobodies, you might be in luck, according to an AdAge article on Udorse. Okay, at first it doesn’t sound so appealing: [...]

How Many Ads Make $1 Billion?

Now that Twitter has been able to convince some pretty wealthy folks that their little ol’ 140 character deal is worth in the range of $1 billion it’s time to get down to brass tacks. What does that mean? Since people now have this huge number in their head there will be continued and likely [...]

Marketers (Still) Taking Facebook Seriously–With Good Reason

It’s always great when the mainstream media realizes (again) that something is big—like social media marketing or Facebook. The Wall Street Journal posted an article Friday on the popularity of social media marketing on Facebook. Okay, so really they were reporting about the Social Data Summit in New York Thursday. At the summit, Facebook’s social [...]

The Secret to Andy Beal’s Reputation Management Success?

Late last week, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Jennifer Lindsay to discuss online reputation management, Trackur, and, well, life in general. Mid-way through the interview I give up the secret to my success. You can listen to it via the player below:

New Study: One Word Describes Affiliate Marketing via Social Networks – Craptastic!

If you’re an affiliate marketer, 2009 doesn’t hold much growth for you, but Forrester predicts a healthy rise in spending after that–through 2014. In fact, US affiliate marketing spend will increase to $4 billion over that 5 year stretch, realizing a very healthy 16% growth rate. However, if you’re hoping Facebook, Twitter, and others social networks [...]

5 Twitter Tips for Staying Authentic and Transparent

Any marketer who’s successfully made the move to social media will tell you the rules of traditional marketing have to be reexamined. That’s particularly true with Twitter, where brands have just 140 characters to inform, evoke emotion and inspire action. One of the most basic and critical rules for brands on Twitter? Be authentic and [...]

Washington Post’s Social Media Guidelines Get Posted

What is probably most ironic about the story that you are about to read is the fact that an journalistic icon, the Washington Post, is trying to maintain control of its staff while it can’t even keep an internal memo from going public. Having made that observation from the start you can see that this [...]

Cup of Joe: The Danger Of Being Oz

Thursday marked the 70th anniversary of the film classic The Wizard of Oz. One of my favorite parts of the movie is when Dorothy discovers the true identity of the Wizard. This scene is symbolic of many political and social truths in our society. Coincidentally, we saw this same scene play out in the Internet marketing [...]

You’re Doing What Where?

Twitter asks “What are you doing?” and people respond in 140 character max chunks of ‘wisdom’ ranging from helpful to inane. As the rest of the world gets used to what many technophiles have known for years they will have the opportunity shortly to not only know what someone is doing but where they are [...]

New Data Suggests We’ve Grown Bored of Twitter

If we can believe Hitwise, we’ve all hit a Twitter slump: Of course, this could just mean that we’re all switching from the web interface to desktop and mobile applications, but surely if Twitter were adding new users, they’d start with the web site, right? Hmm. Maybe there’s a slump in those seeking out Twitter too! What are [...]

Social Media Ad Spend on the Rise

The headline alone should not be a surprise to anyone who is in the marketing, and particularly the Internet marketing, space because despite the economy social media is on the rise. The number of users and the amount of time spent on various social media sites has seen the ‘hockey stick’ kind of growth that [...]

Friday Fun: DailyBooth Caption Contest

If you’re not familiar with DailyBooth.com, the best way to describe it is it’s like Twitter, but with snapshots of your face. Yeah I know, sounds lame, right? Except that I can help but laugh out loud every time Dream Systems Media owner Matt Siltala posts his latest mugshot to DailyBooth–which he then feeds to his [...]

Rare Video Footage: MSFT’s Steve Ballmer Sitting In–Not Throwing–a Chair!

It’s always nice to see Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer actually sitting on a chair, as opposed to throwing one. In this video, he chats with TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington about a host of Microsoft initiatives. Mid-way through, he discusses search… …the UI, the approach, the algorithms have changed less in the last five years, then more [...]

Google Chrome: 40x Faster at Attracting Malware in Internet Explorer

Whether you saw Google’s attempts to insert Chrome into Internet Explorer as genius or evil, both sides just upped the ante. First Google. OK, technically Google didn’t thump it’s chest over these startling numbers… IE7 using Chrome Frame is about 40 times faster at running through the SunSpider JavaScript benchmark test than IE7 alone. IE8 using Chrome Frame [...]

Judge Shuts Down Innocent User’s Gmail Account Over a Bank’s Screw-up!

It’s bad enough that financial institutions are screwing up our economy, they’re now screwing up our privacy and freedom of speech! U.S. District Court Judge James Ware, in the northern district of California, just issued a court order forcing Google to shut down a Gmail account and turn over users identity & contact information. The user [...]

Twitter About to Get Mo’ Money

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Twitter is on the edge of raising another $100 million in VC from around seven investors. Just last week the scuttlebutt was that this round was going to be in the range of $50 million but hey, what’s an extra $50 million amongst friends, right? The Journal reports Twitter, the [...]

Aspiring Doctors May Have Knowledge but Aren’t Always Smart

Social media has become the newest and possibly best way to expose just how stupid people can be. Last week we talked about the rocket scientist burglar who left Facebook’s equivalent of breadcrumbs to his front door. Hey, he is 19 years old and probably not the sharpest knife in the drawer anyway so maybe [...]

Yipee! Microsoft Enters the Social Media Monitoring Space

Microsoft is building a social media monitoring tool called Looking Glass. Now, at this point, you’re probably thinking that I’m panicking. After all, isn’t that what my own company, Trackur, does? Aren’t I scared stiff that Microsoft will hurt my business? Nope. In fact, when I spoke to Microsoft executives in 2008, I asked them why they [...]

A Mega Acquisition & a Paid Subscription Model Coming from Google?

Whenever you listen to Google CEO Eric Schmidt, you have to either; a) pay attention to what he doesn’t say, or b) read between the lines of what he does say Let’s break down a couple of interesting statements the search chief told Reuters. First up, what are Google’s plans for future acquisitions? “My estimate would be one-a-month acquisitions and [...]

Old Phones Still Need New Ads

All of the talk these days is about smart phones. The iPhone, BlackBerry and Android’s of the world often get the bulk of the media attention but there’s more to the mobile market. AT&T is seeing that as it is now enabling non smart phone users who use ‘older’ phones to see some of the [...]

Review: YouTube and Video Marketing An Hour A Day

“Master Story Teller”, that’s how I would describe Greg Jarboe, someone I’ve known in the internet marketing and PR world for several years. Now he’s pioneered yet another essential digital marketing channel: online video. In YouTube and Video Marketing: An Hour A Day, Greg has assembled a priceless collection of insights, examples and practical [...]

Push Gmail Comes for Mobiles with Google Sync

Back in February, Google premiered Google Sync, which coordinated participating phones (all those with the SyncML standar) with Google Calendar, Contacts and Gmail. However, in the first iteration of the product, the Gmail sync left a little to be desired. Rather than popping up with new messages, you had to manually check your email from your [...]

Google Chroming Out Internet Explorer

The browser wars just got ugly. Google Chrome was unveiled just over a year ago (really? wow…). Sony is using them as their default browser and Chrome is coming to the Mac. And now it’s coming to Internet Explorer. Back in January, we noted that Google was telling Internet Explorer/Gmail users to download Chrome for a [...]

Why I’m Not Sweating Reputation Bullets Over Google Sidewiki

So thanks to Google, I will once again start hearing from my reputation management clients. They’ll all want to know about the ramifications of Google’s new Sidewiki for their online reputation. My response? Don’t sweat it. If you’re not familiar, I’ll give you a quick overview of Google Sidewiki. It’s a Google Toolbar add-on that lets you [...]

Google Book Deal Runs Out of Ink; A New Chapter Coming Soon?

Almost a year after Google announced an agreement with the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers (AAP) to display the text of in-copyright, out-of-print books, the deal is now dead. The proposed agreement has been fraught with issues–and many attempts to block it–and with the DoJ saying it wouldn’t approve the settlement as written, [...]

Is This Recession Over Yet?

We appear to be caught in a rut as of late. No one wants to make a definitive statement as to whether or not the recession / slow down / depression / aberration or whatever we call this thing is over or not. Depending on who you talk to we can either be on the [...]

About 1 in 4 Users of Twitters Use Access Apps

This is one of those chances for our readers to help with an informal survey of sorts. According to a report issued by Crowd Science and reported over at the GigaOm blog, 27 % of Twitter users access the service via a third party application like TweetDeck, Twhirl etc. etc. If you would be so [...]

News of the Weird: Nigeria Demands Apology from Sony for Defamation?

All right, folks. Raise your hands if you haven’t received a scam email from someone purporting to be either Nigerian or a Nigerian governmental-type person. (Don’t worry, I won’t ask whether you fell for it.) The practice has gone on for so long, I sort of figured Nigeria didn’t care. (Then again, what were they [...]

New Twitter Contest: $8,000+ of Prizes to Give Away!

You should already know that Trackur is the easiest social media monitoring tool around, so how about a Twitter contest that is equally easy to enter? Get ready for the Trackur Twitter Sweepstakes! Starting Wednesday September 23rd Trackur is giving away 14 fantastic prizes over a one week period. Each week day (23rd, 24th, 25th, 28th, 29th, [...]

Bing Up Again; Can Yahoo Follow in its Footsteps?

Microsoft’s Bing continues to grow its market share, according to comScore. They’re up from 8% (Microsoft’s market share at launch) to 9.3% (that astounding leap represents over 16% growth!! Google’s growth rate, by comparison, is paltry! Paltry, I tell you!). And we probably have to ascribe at least a little of their growth to their [...]

Europe Says Google Has a “Pecuniary Interest” in AdWords Trademark Infringement

Google’s not unafraid of the legal action it often faces from France, but there’s an interesting twist in an ongoing saga over trademark infringement–and Google should be concerned. While a European Union court advisor has submitted an opinion that mostly exonerates Google from accepting and displaying bids for trademarked keywords, apparently there’s an interesting loophole–at least [...]

100+ Search Marketing Resources to Learn SEO & PPC

How do new marketers learn SEO and Pay Per Click? How do professionals stay current with search marketing tactics considering the sheer volume of social media distraction?  Last month we ran a poll of Online Marketing Blog readers to discover preferences for learning and staying up to date with current search engine marketing strategies and [...]

Newspaper Publishers Half Way Sure About Paid Content Success

So the big guys like Rupert Murdoch and Barry Diller have already told us that paid content for newspapers is the wave of the future. Of course, when these two titans of the media world say jump the rest of us mere mortals are supposed to enthusiastically yell “How high?!” While, these guys have been [...]

Don’t Take Facebook’s Word for It, Let Nielsen Help

Facebook is taking steps to help advertisers understand just how valuable advertising on Facebook can be. While there has been some discontent in the advertising community re: Facebook’s effectiveness as an advertising vehicle the Wall Street Journal tells of the new alliance Facebook has with Nielsen. Under the partnership, Facebook will begin polling its users [...]

Celebs’ Tragedies Google News’s Boon

Last week was a record week for Google News in the United Kingdom, according to Hitwise UK—and largely because of celebrities missteps, tragedies and deaths. The overall share for Google News UK jumped dramatically this week, from 46th most popular site to 28th most popular: The perfect storm that contributed to this: “Google News UK was a [...]

Facebook Beacon Bows Out

Announced in November 2007, Facebook’s Beacon integrated advertising and profiles on the popular social network. It initially looked like a great way for Facebook to monetize—but users saw the implementation, where their activities on other sites were broadcast on FB without their consent, as highly invasive. Facebook reformed the program to be opt-in, and apologized. [...]

Omniture & comScore Join Forces for Good Measure!

It seems that getting itself acquired by Adobe isn’t enough to keep the web analytics giant Omniture busy. It has announced today that it will partner with the Boy That Cried Wolf comScore to unify online audience metrics. Joking aside, it looks like a peanut butter/chocolate moment for the world of online audience measurement. The partnership [...]

Warning: This Blog Post is Riddled With Legal Problems

One of my favorite tech blogs is Techdirt. Michael Masnick does a great job of mashing together technology and legal issues. I normally find at least one good story each day, but today I found three–so I thought I’d share them in a single legal round-up of sorts. Up first: Brazilian Court Says It’s Illegal To Distribute [...]

Will Yahoo’s New Marketing Blitz See Success? It’s Up to You!

Who’s responsible for the recent turmoil at Yahoo? Who’s responsible for Yahoo signing a deal with Bing? Who’s responsible for its stagnant search share? It’s You! It’s all you, baby! OK, perhaps that won’t be the entire message in Yahoo’s new global marketing campaign, but the "It’s You" part will be in there. According to the WSJ, Yahoo is launching [...]

8 Companies Every Marketing Pilgrim Should Know About

We don’t often ask you to thank our awesome advertisers, but the next time you need help with your marketing, please consider these Marketing Pilgrim supporters. Text Link Brokers – increase your traffic and search engine rankings. WPromote – offers a wide range of professional search engine marketing services. Sponsored Reviews – bloggers earn cash for reviewing products [...]

Housekeeping! New Features on Marketing Pilgrim

Now that WordPress makes it a piece of cake to add new plugins, I’ve been busy this weekend. Here’s what’s new on Marketing Pigrim: Ajax comments – for when you make a spelling mistake–or change you mind about dissing me!–you can now edit your comments for up to 5 minutes after you’ve posted them. Threaded comments – finger’s [...]

Cup of Joe: The Magic of Sincerity

Here’s a little confession: I am a big fan of magic. I actually took lessons as a kid and continued it as a hobby through high school, and briefly considered it as a career in college. So it’s no surprise that I would be familiar with Steve Fearson. Fearson is one of the magicians that [...]

Google Now Lets You Strip Parameters from URLs

Two years ago, Yahoo heard requests from SMX Advanced attendees and added a Dynamic URL Rewriting feature to Yahoo Site Explorer, allowing webmasters to remove parameters from URLs, like session IDs, that might create duplicate content issues or otherwise confuse search engines. Now Google’s finally catching up. As Exoogler Vanessa Fox reports at search Engine [...]

Google Going Backwards in eBook Tech

It’s no secret Google’s angling for the eBook market. Their book settlement, if ever approved, would give them a library of over two million out-of-print or out-of-copyright works. But a new deal could make those books available for more than just eReaders. The deal with On Demand Books provides Google’s copies of out of copyright works [...]

5 Tips for Avoiding the Deadly Sins of SEO Copywriting

Nothing will turn readers away more quickly than blatant errors, boring copy and long-winded writers. Recognizing the deadly sins of SEO copywritingâ€"and identifying ways to avoid themâ€"is essential whether you’re drafting a blog post or creating an article to submit to an online directory. Critical? Yes. Difficult? It certainly can be. But simplify the task and reduce the [...]

Google Displays More Power

Continuing to make sure that everyone knows that whatever Google does in the online world is for the greater good, the company has announced its DoubleClick Ad Exchange on the Official Google Blog. Neal Mohan, Vice President of Product Management posts the explanation of how Google is going to make the online advertising world better [...]

Social Media Stupid Human Tricks are Funny

In the recent past we talked about how job seekers often do themselves more harm than good in the realm of social media. The responses we got mostly spoke of the younger crowd not being fully aware of what kind of digital fingerprints they were leaving all over the Internet. As a subject for another [...]

Email Losing out to Social Networking

The Online Publishers Association has released the results of another study—a six year analysis of its Internet Activity Index. Can you guess which of the five areas (Commerce, Communications, Community, Content and Search) has grown the most—and which has shrunk? The most surprising results actually aren’t in Community and Communications. Yes, email (Communications is down), the [...]

Google Buys reCAPTCHA

There’s nothing we love more than warped words (or random numbers and letters) we have to type in before we’re allowed to comment. These CAPTCHAs cut down on spam (and, sometimes, legitimate comments. grrr.)—and every once in a while, someone comes along with a great idea to make that kind of technology useful, like reCAPTCHA [...]

21 Must-Follow Tips For Optimizing Time Spent In Social Media

Several weeks ago, I revisited the 16 rules for social media optimization. Switching things up, today I thought it would be useful to approach this slightly differently and look at how to optimize time spent in social media. These tips aren’t necessarily just for brands or companies to follow, rather they may prove even more [...]

7 Quick Shopping Cart Tips = 11% Increase in Sales

If you’re B2C web site is not displaying McAfee’s SECURE trustmark you may as well pack up the shop and go live off the land. At least, that’s what McAfee would like you to believe. In its new (somewhat self serving) report Digital Window Shopping: The Long Journey to Buy, McAfee found that in a study [...]

Shiny Future for Chrome?

For all of the talk of social media, software as a service (SaaS) and the future of the Internet one of the most important components for delivery is that workhorse of the whole deal; the browser. Right now, Internet Explorer is the market leader with Firefox a solid second. While Safari will always be limited [...]

A Billion Reasons for Twitter to be Happy

So it looks like Twitter has entered some rarefied air for sure. According to ReadWriteWeb and TechCrunch the micro-blogging juggernaut is moving into an exclusive club by securing a new round of funding ($50 million) based on a valuation of $1 billion (yup, it’s a b). No doubt, this will begin to stir the supporters [...]

eBay’s Skype Deal in Peril

Just when eBay thought they had moved Skype, the Wall Street Journal tells us “Not so fast!” A copyright suit has been filed in Northern California by the founders of Skype over the use of a technology by Skype. The license to continue its use ended in March and since then the founders of Skype [...]

Another Media Giant Says Paid Content on the Way

Remember not so long ago when Rupert Murdoch was espousing the future of paid content? It is unavoidable was the cry but there has been not much said since. That is, until Barry Diller stated his version of the story at the Goldman Communacopia conference as reported by the Business Insider. Diller has never been [...]

Interview on Future of Digital PR With Albert Maruggi

Minnesota is home to one of the most vibrant social media communities in the country, with attendance at Social Media Breakfasts exceeding 300+ (more than NYC or San Francisco). With all that local interest and talent, I thought I would do a few interviews with some of the Minneapolis social media set that I’ve come to [...]

Facebook Launches Lab-like Prototypes

Remember back, years ago, when we had something to report about Facebook almost every day? I guess they’ve moved along the hype cycle now, so tit’s only natural that we see fewer stories about them—but every once in a while, two in a day can’t hurt. Especially not when Facebook’s out there launching something like [...]

Facebook Hits 300 Million–and Cash Positive

Facebook is still growing. They’re now at 300 million members—you know, roughly the population of the US. But unlike the US, Facebook has also entered the world of “free cash flow positive.” In his post announcing the milestones, CEO Mark Zuckerberg says that they’d hoped to reach cash positive sometime next year—but, happily, they made enough [...]

“Google” in Court and You’ll Face Jail Time!

There’s now a place in the US, where using Google can land you in jail: a San Diego courtroom. According to the Union Tribune, a case going before a California jury will be the first to enforce a rule preventing jurors from using Google (or the web in general) to conduct research on the case, or [...]

Google’s Matt Cutts Goes Fishing for Yahoo Employees

Ask not what your current company can do for you, but what you can do for Google! That’s the battle cry just sent out by Google’s top search engineer Matt Cutts. In a brazen attempt to convince departing Yahoo employees to consider the dark side of the force Google, Cutts has posted the following to his [...]

Adobe’s Analysis of Omniture: Pass the Cigars, It’s a Buy!

Adobe is now moving into another area of the Internet space with its purchase of web analytics company Omniture. Adobe’s suite of products is well known but has been losing its traction over the recent past. In the Internet world, Adobe is probably best known for it’s anti-search product Flash that has been a [...]

Let My Data Go!

Have you ever experienced a time where you had some important data stored in a SaaS (software as a service) application like e-mail or CRM and you wanted your data out of the application? Sounds simple enough, right? After all it is your data? Often times this turns into a process / project that makes [...]

Jim Lanzone: Vengeance in Video?

In January 2008, Ask CEO Jim Lanzone stepped down. He moved to Redpoint Ventures, a VC firm, to be their entrepreneur-in-residence. But his latest project brings him back to search: Clicker, an online TV video search engine. Kinda. Lanzone is CEO of the video service, which launched yesterday at TechCrunch50 into private beta. Clicker aims to [...]

A Step toward Semantic: Google Gets RDFa, Facebook Capabilities

Lest we forget, social networks aren’t the only copycats. Search engines certainly do their fair share of feature and markup poaching, as evidenced this week by Google’s latest video search additions: understanding the microformat data from Facebook Share and Yahoo SearchMonkey RDFa. Oh, sure, Google says they’re in it to help us find more (and more [...]

August Search Share: Bing Up, Yahoo Down, Google’s Both Up & Down

I don’t know how much of the estimated $100 million marketing budget Microsoft has burned through in its promotion of Bing, but the ad bailout campaign is working! According to new Nielsen data, Microsoft managed to increase its search share by 22.1% last month–bringing its total share of searches from 9% to 10.7%! On the opposite side [...]

August Search Share: Bing Up, Yahoo Down, Google Neither Up Nor Down

I don’t know how much of the estimated $100 million marketing budget Microsoft has burned through in its promotion of Bing, but the ad bailout campaign is working! According to new Nielsen data, Microsoft managed to increase its search share by 22.1% last month–bringing its total share of searches from 9% to 10.7%! On the opposite side [...]

Google Fast Flip Shows the Newspaper Industry How It’s Done!

It appears the newspaper industry is completely unable to figure out a way to innovate and monetize online content, so Google’s going to show them how it’s done. When I started reading the official announcement for Google Fast Flip, I was pretty impressed by the novel approach to loading online news: Like a print magazine, Fast Flip [...]

Case Against Unmasked Blogger Thrown Out

The status of Internet anonymity continues to evolve in the courts. The most recent example is the “skank” blogger who was sued for libel. Although the blogger tried to play off the comments as “trash talk” and opinion (and to remain anonymous), the court ruled that Google must disclose her identity (and she’s ticked that [...]

Social Networks on Media Buyer’s List for 2010

Let’s try something new here in the world of Internet marketing. Rather than rushing off and pronouncing next year as the year of (place latest over-hyped trend here) let’s enjoy the real beginnings of social media and networks. If you’re asking “What do you mean, that’s old news!” then you are one of the sheep [...]