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 [...]

Google Street View Still Unwelcome in English Village

Broughton, Buckinghamshire, England, has found a way to get on the map—by staying off the map. Back in April, an angry mob defeated a Google Street View car by forming a human chain, and apparently this is news to UPI. It was a good thing the villagers acted when they did—the search giant is so powerful [...]

Bing’s Visual Search Needs to Be Seen to Be Believed!

When the folks at Bing first demonstrated Visual Search, I was blown away. That’s quite an accomplishment for this search cynic. Now you get to try it for yourself–as the feature has just gone live. It’s really hard to describe Visual Search, which is why I told Bing, “You have to do a video demo of [...]

Ask.com Introduces ‘Search for the Cure’

What’s a great way for a search engine that struggles to be mentioned with the top search providers in the marketplace to get some traffic? Do something for someone else. That’s exactly what Ask.com is doing with its ‘Search or the Cure’ campaign which is designed to raise one million dollars to Susan G. Komen [...]

Real-Time Google Search Hack–With Free Açaí Berries!

Psst! Want some real time search in ya Google? I’ve picked up a batch from the same people that make Açaí “detox-weight-loss-live-forever” supplements, so you know it’s the real deal! You in? OK, all you have to do is make a slight change to the output URL for any Google search. It’s easy. Conduct a search for anything and [...]

Is Your PR Agency SEO & Social Media Savvy?

[Note from Lee:  The PR industry is in a state of flux with changes in the print industry, citizen journalism and the social web. Consumer behaviors with information discovery, consumption and sharing have been significantly affected by the dramatic increase in social platform usage and ease of self publishing. Companies that rely on reaching and [...]

Cartoon: Radical Transparency

Never fear, you won’t find me adopting this the next time I give a talk about my book. (via) Pilgrim’s Partners: SponsoredReviews.com – Bloggers earn cash, Advertisers build buzz!

Cup of Joe: Transparency is Killing Ad Profits.

Not long ago we reported that Hulu is now attracting more viewers than Time Warner Cable. However, despite that, the cable networks that own Hulu are still making the majority of their ad profits from traditional media. Hulu is not the only one suffering from failed ad programs while their user base rises. Facebook now has [...]

Affiliate Marketers to Courts – Kill the Amazon Tax!

By Trisha Lyn Fawver If ever a cause was near & dear to me, this is definitely one of them. As an affiliate manager, affiliate marketing is my livelihood.  Over the last year, several states have introduced legislation defining affiliates as tax nexus for businesses.  This means that if a merchant has affiliates in a [...]

Job Seekers and Social Media: Not So Perfect Together

You hear the stories all the time. The human resources manager decides to do a little ORR (online reputation research) on a job candidate. They hear that they is a great candidate for a job opening. They are the best interview by far and the scuttlebutt in the office is that they are the person [...]

Is Bing 2.0 in the Chute?

Apparently, Twitter is making waves with Microsoft in ways that you may not consider. Yesterday Mary-Jo Foley of ZDNet reported about some of the tweets coming from the annual Microsoft product demo event (and pep rally â€" her terminology) held at Safeco Field in Seattle. About 20,000 folks attended and were leaking some info (not [...]

Social Media: Total Copycats

Is it just me, or does it seem like every time one social media service comes up with a cool feature, it’s only a matter of time before every other site copies it, and there are no cool new features left? This time, Facebook is copying Twitter (yet again) and YouTube is copying Facebook. YouTube’s latest [...]

DOJ Ups Bingahoo Scrutiny

If you were just waiting for the other shoe to fall on the Yahoo-Microsoft deal—good news. Wait no longer. The US Department of Justice is taking another long, hard look at the deal. The New York Times reports that the DoJ has requested a second round of information from the companies about the pending search deal. [...]

If Your Domain Includes “Google” the Search Giant is Coming For Ya!

That great idea you had that involved launching a new SEO company using PwnGoogleRankings.com? Yeah, you probably should have saved the $10 you spent on domain registration fees, because you have approximately zero chance that ICANN will let you keep it. Just ask Absolutee Inc which registered googlewebmarketing.com hoping to convince us all that it was [...]

4 Scary Scenarios That Twitter’s New Terms Allow

I know it may appear I go looking for trouble, but I promise you I just like to share with you my concerns. In the case of Twitter’s update to its Terms of Service, I started thinking about what the changes could mean to us users. I’m a huge fan of Twitter, and very much rely [...]

5 Tips for Writing Fresh and Unique Copy for the Web

A novelist can ride the tails of that one great book for years. And a print journalist who’s broken the story of the century might be able to play off that success for several months. But for writers producing copy for the web, creating that one great blog post or article is just that: one [...]

CMO Summit Thoughts

For the past day and a half I have been able to listen to some of the leaders in the world of marketing discuss the trials and tribulations of marketing’s corner office dwellers: CMO’s. As I discussed yesterday there are plenty of specifics from these marketing leaders and I will likely be talking about some [...]

Facebook Lite Lights Up in US and India

Back in August we told you of the premature introduction of Facebook Lite. Many people speculated about what this could mean for the social media world and Facebook tried to calm everyone’s nerves by deflecting all the fuss and launching the beta version just a few days later. Well, now it’s official. Facebook Lite is here [...]

Connect Propelled Facebook Past MySpace

In case you missed it, Facebook is pretty popular. As of June 2008, they’d beat MySpace in terms of total unique visitors worldwide (ballooning to twice as many uniques as MySpace in January 2009)—and even in the US, one of the few Facebook-is-#2 holdouts, Facebook has caught up to MySpace. Hitwise takes a look at [...]

More Video Coming to Google Search Ads

Back in March 2008, we first saw video live in Google search ads. However, eighteen months later, video ads are still scarce in the SERPs. But maybe Google’s rethinking that, according to a Reuters report about a conference call yesterday. Google is looking at changes in their search ads: “Our search ads have largely looked the same [...]

Google Internet Stats Could Become My Favorite Tool of 2009!

As a blogger who enjoys nothing better than nomming on delicious industry statistics, Google just served up a feast–and didn’t tell anyone. Fortunately, RWW was kind enough to share news that Google UK has quietly rolled out Google Internet Stats for public consumption. Basically, it’s another of Google’s “structured search” efforts, this time taking stats and [...]

Search Behemoth Gets Behemoth Search

Just a week after Google was granted a patent for its unique homepage design, the search engine has thrown it out the window. Yes, Google has made a HUGE change to the homepage design. OK, I’m embellishing a little. Google has made a small change to the homepage…and it only applies to the search box. The new [...]

CMO Summit Outlines Challenges and Opportunities

Over the next day or so I will be giving you some information that I have been gathering while at the CMO Summit in San Francisco. The even is put on by the Aberdeen Group and thus far has been incredibly informative. I write that with a bit of surprise because unfortunately events often sound [...]

Internet Radio Trying to Carve Out a Future

While we talk about the death of newspapers with great regularity it gets to be old news real quickly and even starts to feel a little mean. So to relieve that pressure eMarketer has come out with a report that is evidence of the decline and fall of another old friend, radio. Terresttrial radio is [...]

Nielsen to Measure Online TV Audience

Nielsen has been measuring television audiences for decades. Now online TV is starting to take over—but do we have accurate measurement of the online TV audience? comScore and other online measurement companies are watching videos—I mean, online video audiences—grow and grow. Now Nielsen will use a new “Internet Meter” with its People Meter families to measure [...]

Have a Facebook Page? Post on Tuesdays

When the company I worked for got into email marketing, the perfect day and time to send an email blast was the holy grail. Can’t send on Monday because people are digging out from the weekend. Can’t send on Friday because people are thinking about the weekend. Can’t send first thing in the morning because [...]

Big Ben Edition: BIGLIST SEO Blog Reviews 090909

What a remarkable date today! 09/09/09.  Welcome to the UK Edition of TopRank’s BIGLIST of Search Marketing Blog reviews. Since I’m in London this week, (photo above was taken with my trusty 3GS iPhone) I decided to focus mostly on SEO/PPC and Social Media Marketing Bloggers here in the UK.  It’s a nice mix of search, [...]

Warning: Marketers Are Watching Your Children

Companies that sell software to monitor your child’s online activity are double-dipping by selling the collected data to marketers, according to AP. Not every software provider is engaging in the practice, but EchoMetrix Inc’s Sentry and FamilySafe brands are called out in particular. Because the software “listens” to the instant messenger conversations of kids, it’s able [...]

WordPress Acquires Grammer Gramer Grammar Checking Software

I’ve always maintained that it’s dangerous to take a single Marketing Pilgrim post and assume you understand our sentiment and bias towards any one company. If you read yesterday’s criticism of WordPress, you’d think we were “automattic” haters. Today, you’d be eating humble pie. Automattic has announced the acquisition of After the Deadline, a service that provides [...]

Icahn’s Not the Only One: Bartz Selling Yahoo Stock

Carl Icahn’s recent Yahoo stock dump didn’t cause too much alarm—although he took a $125M loss, he still retains 4.5% of the company (and his board seats). But now Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz looks like she’s dumping stocks—and investors are none too happy. As The Guardian reports, when Carol Bartz took the helm, she was given [...]

Google Giving Up ANYTHING for Book Deal to Get eBooks

Thousands of aspiring authors from around the world can now totally sympathize with Google—because the search giant is also struggling to get a book deal. Well, okay, so mostly they’re struggling to get regulatory approval of a book deal, and said book deal is more about licensing and ePub than actually breaking into the industry—but [...]

Shocking! Twitter is a Big Influence

If the Hitwise data for Twitter usage in Australia is any indication of how the rest of the world uses the microblogging service, it’s growing in influence–insanely! In the past 6 months: The number of Australian sites that send visitors to Twitter is up 479%. The number of Australian visitors to Twitter is up an equally impressive 460%. The [...]

Pay No Attention to the WordPress Hacking Threats; Look at the Shiny rssCloud!

What would you rather have? A safe, secure WordPress platform that doesn’t require a half-dozen plugins in order to run effectively, or, faster distribution of your RSS feed? If, like me, your vote went to option A, then you’re probably not going to be too thrilled about the latest update from the WordPress mothership. If you [...]

5 SEO Pitfalls to Avoid

Are you engaged in a Search Engine Optimization program and wondering how to get more out of it? Look no further, I’m going to share with you 5 Pitfalls to Avoid as part of an SEO program. Having worked with many, many clients I’ve seen just about everything. However, there are 5 pitfalls that consistently pop up and [...]

Philly Papers in Peril

With a slow start to the week regarding Internet news one can unfortunately almost always find a story about more newspapers having more difficulty. In Philadelphia, one of the largest markets in the country that no one seems to talk about not just one but both local papers are facing Sept. 15 deadlines that could [...]

AOL Still Lurking About and Hiring Big Names

AOL has made some waves this year that have mostly centered on the people that are coming on board rather than services that will turn the companies fortunes to the plus side. Tim Armstrong has come over from Google and injected a sense of purpose and urgency (one would guess) as the unit of Time [...]

Have an Otterly Awesome Labor Day!

You work too hard! You otter just kick back and relax today!

Measuring Real Value from SEO

I know you’re thinking, “What does a castle have to do with measuring value from search engine optimization?”. Nothing really, but I’m in England for the next week or two and didn’t need much of an excuse to post a photo of Hever Castle, which I visited recently. Actually, I do have a metaphor, so [...]

Cup of Joe: Please Keep Your Armpits Out Of My Spaghetti

Last weekend I visited my father at his home in Hartsville, South Carolina. Hartsville is a typical southern small town that the likes of Andy Griffith would be proud of. So you can imagine the buzz around town when a new Italian restaurant opened up. There wouldn’t be much debate, this is where we would [...]

Gmail is Down! (With the Latest Themes, That Is)

Gmail had a rough week with its downtime. We talked about that already and here at Marketing Pilgrim, at least, have decided to forgive them â€" just this once! Maybe as a make good to all of you still steamed about the failure of Google to be perfect you can take comfort in the new [...]

Will Facebook Get Us Ready for M-Commerce?

Don’t you just love how every year, someone predicts that “the mobile” will “arrive”? (Me too! I love these crazy forecasts! Must be my penchant for fiction.) Well, today, Read Write Web takes a hard look at mobile eCommerce and the challenges that stand between us and buy-anytime-anywhere. A couple years ago, about 6 months after [...]

Size Matters: Shorter is Better

In a world of 140 characters, URLs are a thing of the past. As Twitter has grown and gained in hype popularity, the URL shorteners have seen a similar rise—but the sprint for shortest URL may actually be over. Back in May, Twitter abandoned its default support of TinyURL, a URL shortener that reduced URLs to [...]

Verdict is In……Twitter and Fox Went Past the Fringe

Earlier this week we told you of Fox and Twitter teaming up to create some buzz about repeats of the shows Fringe and Glee. Well, hopefully there is no such thing as bad press because the comments we received about the experiment were unanimous: FAIL! Check out our impassioned reader feedback. Ginger Says: September 3rd, 2009 at [...]

Google’s Schmidt Gives Search Insight

Over at TechCrunch Michael Arrington has been doling out portions of his interview with Google’s Grand High Pubah (that’s code for CEO) Eric Schmidt. It’s interesting to see what one of the more influential people in the space (and in business overall) sees for the future of the industry / service. There is even some [...]

5 Tips for Gaining Subscribers to Your Blog

Are you ready to celebrate the successful launch of your new company blog? Technically speaking, the launch went off without a hitch. Your content is fresh, informative and even entertaining. And your blog’s design is well-branded and intriguing. But before you pop open the bottle of champagne, consider one more piece of the puzzle: blog subscribers. [...]

Kai-Fu Lee Leaves Google; Soft Snickering Heard in Redmond

The man that gave Google one of its biggest legal headaches, is leaving the company. According to the WSJ, Kai-Fu Lee, president of Google’s China operations is leaving Google to work on his own start-up. You may remember that Lee, was smack in the middle of a legal battle between Microsoft and Google over allegations that [...]

Will YouTube be the Next Netflix?

As impossible as it sounds, Netflix, the popular rental-by-mail-and-instant-download service, may be facing some stiff competition in the future—from YouTube. The Wall Street Journal reports that major studios are discussing YouTube rentals. Yep, you read that right: YouTube movie rentals. If this comes true, this will be the biggest test to see if users of the [...]

7 Reasons Social Media Is A No-Brainer For Passionate B2C Brands

Social media is fast becoming a standard element in the marketing mix of major consumer brands.  And with good reason: never before has such a creative landscape existed for people and the brands they love to interact, share stories and build relationships – in all directions. With social media marketing spends predicted to grow at an [...]

Google Patents Simple Search

One of the secrets to Google’s massive success is not the immense size of its search index, but the sparse design of it’s homepage. A design that is now officially patented! From now on, if you launch a search engine, it had better not use a homepage design that contains the bolded elements below: It might have [...]

Twitter Hires More Exec Firepower

Twitter is really trying to become the company that everyone has it pegged to be, or at least it seems that way by their hiring tactics as of late. While the media daily predicts the emergence / unfettered growth / imminent doom of the micro-blogging service daily (are you sick of it yet?) Twitter goes [...]

NBC Goes Mobile With Investment

NBC understands that the future of television may have less to do with TV’s. As a result, the company has made a move into the mobile ad space by investing in the mobile ad network Greystripe. The funding is said to have been made to assist the sales team headquartered in New York in selling [...]

Google To Get Hardware to Take on eBooks?

This year, Google has made no bones about the fact that they’re looking to take on Amazon in the eBook arena. First, they made a deal with Sony (maker of the Sony eReader, top competitor to Amazon’s Kindle reader) to provide more than half a million public domain titles. Then in June, Google “signaled its [...]

Facebook: An Internet unto Itself

Facebook has a lot going for it lately. They’ve got more than 250M users worldwide, they’re the most popular social network in almost every country in the world, they’re hiring in a down economy, and according to a new comScore report, 8.2% of all Internet ads are served on their site. But, then, maybe this all [...]

Why the US Government Might Take Control of Twitter

You know how I love a good conspiracy theory, so try this one on for size. Millions of people decide they don’t like the way the US government is handling a major issue–healthcare for example–they start protesting. They use social networks to voice their concerns, Twitter almost buckles under the strain of the conversations. A group of very [...]

NFL (No Fun League) Policies Around Social Media Expand

While it’s probably not fair to attach the “No Fun League” tag to the NFL in this instance it certainly makes for a better headline, so there. The league, which earlier this year linked itself to the US Marine Corps and others by limiting social media use by its ‘employees’ has expanded those terms before [...]

Google Calls Gmail Outage a “Big Deal”

Many of the readers of Marketing Pilgrim likely had a rough 100 or so minutes yesterday when Google’s popular Gmail application crashed and went dark via the web. Watching the Twitter stream of panic and rage caught in 140 character snapshots was amusing for a while but when everyone tries to ‘out Tweet’ the next [...]

Icahn Sells Off (Some) Yahoo

Remember all the drama between Carl Icahn and Yahoo last year? As a major shareholder, he lobbied for Yahoo to take Microsoft’s buyout offer (any offer!). And then there were some I’ll-replace-your-whole-board-of-directors threats, and some nuh uhs. And some I’ll-get-you-yet,-Yang!s and some “what-ever”s and some pbbbts and “You’re nuts”s. . . . Yeah, for a [...]

Global Search Numbers: That’s A Lot of Zeros

According to comScore the number of global searches in July of 2009 topped 100,000,000,000 (that’s 100 billion for the calculator crowd). The actual number is around 113,000,000,000 (ok, that’s 113 billion), which represents a hefty 415 increase over July searches from 2008. Considering that the US was in the middle of a pretty serious political [...]

MySpace Lags Behind Twitter in UK

Twitter, media sweetheart and microblogging service extraordinaire, has another coup to add to its list: they’ve now beat out MySpace in terms of most visits in the UK. Remember MySpace? The overhyped media sweetheart before Twitter and Facebook? Hitwise UK reports that Twitter is now the 27th most visited website in the UK. This is a [...]

PubCon Las Vegas 2009 – You Know You Want to Go!

If you’re debating which of the remaining 2009 internet marketing conferences you should attend, I have a suggestion for ya: PubCon! PubCon is returning to Las Vegas November 10th thru 13th and it promises to be better than ever! The four day event is packed with great sessions, great speakers, and great networking. In fact, the [...]

Sony Defaults to Google’s Chrome Browser; Chrome OS Next?

Sony and Google would like to confirm that, "it’s not what you know, but who you know" is alive and well. At least, that’s the official basis for Sony agreeing to make Google’s Chrome the default browser in all Vaio notebooks sold in the US. "Our decision to carry Chrome is based not only on the [...]

Skype Being Sold by eBay

The New York Times is reporting that eBay has a deal to sell Skype thus ending a rather tragic acquisition saga that began in 2005 when eBay ‘won’ in their fight with Google and Yahoo to buy the Internet phone service. Since that time the original deal which was for $3.1 billion has resulted in [...]