…and I have still not grokked the service. However, many have. Seems the reviews are mixed so far……
Gian Fulgoni, Executive Chair of Comscore, has an interesting analysis of what's happening in paid search lately. It's germane to my earlier posts about paid search share sliding and Google's decision to allow trademark ad bidding. In his post, Gian notes that overall search queries are up dramatically (68% over…
In his post, Gian notes that overall search queries are up dramatically (68% over two years) but:
if one looks at the number of paid clicks, the growth rate is a lower 18%, which raises the question: why have paid clicks grown 3x slower than the total number of queries?
Read More…and so will legal challenges, many of which are already underway. Google's blog post is here. Details: Google will now allow advertisers to bid on trademark terms, even if they don't own the trademark, so, for example, a local hardware store can bid on "Buy Makita Saws here" or Best…
Details: Google will now allow advertisers to bid on trademark terms, even if they don’t own the trademark, so, for example, a local hardware store can bid on “Buy Makita Saws here” or Best Buy could bid on “Best Prices for Sony Plasmas”.
Read MoreAccording to HitWise, all is not well in the land of paid search: Hitwise data indicate that the share of search traffic coming from paid listings is decreasing at the expense of organic traffic. In the four weeks to May 9, 2009, 7.25% of search engine traffic to All Categories…
Hitwise data indicate that the share of search traffic coming from paid listings is decreasing at the expense of organic traffic. In the four weeks to May 9, 2009, 7.25% of search engine traffic to All Categories of websites was from paid clicks. This compares to 9.84% in the same four week period in 2008 – representing a 26% decline in the share of paid clicks. This trend is apparent across 16 of the 17 Hitwise parent categories (i.e. Automotive, Food and Beverage, Health and Medical, etc). The only category that didn’t see a decline in paid traffic was Education, which received 1.45% of search visits from paid clicks compared to 1.39% last year.
Read MoreThe Google Twitter Facebook goat rodeo is getting more interesting. At its Searchology event this week, (TC/Post coverage), Google unveiled a suite of new offerings that feel reactive to various competitors, including "Google Squared," a Google Labs response to Wolframs' new Alpha (more on that soon). Reuters bills it this…
Reuters bills it this way:
Google also showed off a new feature, available immediately, that lets users view only the most timely search results, narrowing the results for a topic to the past 24 hours or the past week.
Read MoreFirst two headines from IWantMedia today: Here are the actual stories: Google May Add Twitter-Like Features Twitter to Expand Search Functionality…
Yesterday Twitter rolled out integrated real time search to its entire user base, no small feat, given how fast that base has grown. It's pretty elegant, with Trending Topics searched for on the right, and onoing, constantly updated searches integrated into the same interface as normal Twitter. This is a…
Yesterday Twitter rolled out integrated real time search to its entire user base, no small feat, given how fast that base has grown. It’s pretty elegant, with Trending Topics searched for on the right, and onoing, constantly updated searches integrated into the same interface as normal Twitter.
This is a big deal for the company. I’d love to see how search volume grows. Also important is that the interface now mixes search queries and tweets interchangably, a key step toward the monetization platform I’ve called TweetSense. It’s getting darn interesting, eh?
Over and over I've predicted that Google will be forced to act like a publisher, because there's only so much demand that can be harvested, and sooner or later, Google's core revenue-generating customers – that'd be marketers – will demand some help creating supply. Supply means branding, and branding happens…
Supply means branding, and branding happens in the magical world of publishing. Here are two additional Google initiatives that point the company toward that world:
Google launches Digg-like feature
Read MoreYesterday's news about Yahoo's layoffs was well received by Wall Street (which seems to love layoffs in every sector except its own), and part of the optimism about Yahoo's future seems to lay in folks expecting Yahoo and Microsoft to finally get around to doing a search deal. I've written…
Yesterday’s news about Yahoo’s layoffs was well received by Wall Street (which seems to love layoffs in every sector except its own), and part of the optimism about Yahoo’s future seems to lay in folks expecting Yahoo and Microsoft to finally get around to doing a search deal. I’ve written over and over that I think the two should do this, but as time goes by and the machine at Microsoft continues to iterate on its own internal search play, I find it harder and harder to see how such a deal actually gets done, at least when it comes to organic search.
Now, I predicted in January this deal would get done, of course, so I kind of have a dog in this fight. But recall how I predicted it would go down:
“Microsoft will gain at least five points of search share in 2009, perhaps as much as 10. This is a rather radical prediction, I know, but hear me out. I think Redmond is tired of losing in this game, and after trying nearly every trick in the book, Microsoft will start to spend real money to grow share (IE, buying distribution), while at the same time listening to the advice of thoughtful folks who want to help the company improve the product. However, search share is half the game, as we know. The second half is monetization, and Microsoft will continue to struggle here, unless it manages to buy Yahoo’s search business. Which it won’t, because….
Read MoreOne of the principal things nearly anyone does on Google.com is a vanity search: We ask the question: What do people see when they put my name into Google? Today, Google is announcing, for the first time, that anyone can change what is seen. (The initial launch is US only)….
One of the principal things nearly anyone does on Google.com is a vanity search: We ask the question: What do people see when they put my name into Google?
Today, Google is announcing, for the first time, that anyone can change what is seen. (The initial launch is US only).
This, to be clear, is a Very Big Deal.
Read More
