Deepak Gupta - SEO Analyst Offers SEO, SEM & Social Media Tips and Updates

Google's Founder Wearing Google Glasses

2012-04-09T05:47:00.000-07:00

Thomas Hawk, an outstanding photographer, was at the Dinner in the Dark benefit for the Foundation Fighting Blindness where Sergey Brin was supporting his wife. Google's Sergey Brin was wearing a pair of the Google Glasses that probably were just for show and did not work at all.

Thomas posted the picture on his Google+ page. I cropped it a bit to just show Sergey wearing the glases, sorry Robert Scoble.

This post is part of our daily Search Photo of the Day column, where we find fun and interesting photos related to the search industry and share them with our readers.

Google Webmaster Tools Search Queries Still Has Three Day Delay

2012-04-03T05:44:00.000-07:00

If you go to Google Webmaster Tools and check out the search queries report, you might think that Google was able to show almost real time data in terms of search queries done related to your web site.

Google has changed the date range bar at the top right to be the current date. But if you look closely, you will notice that the charted data is still with a three or so day delay from the current date.

Here is a picture showing the date range at the top right being the current date and the chart showing March 31st data, which was a few days ago.

Or maybe Google is rolling out up to the day search query data and I don't see it yet? Do you see today's search queries in Google Webmaster Tools.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

PREVIOUS STORY: Google Maps Traffic By Day/Time For Roads

Google's New Ad Format: Consumer Surveys?

2012-03-30T05:44:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Google launched a new program called Google Consumer Surveys - it is basically taking an expensive thing to do, market research surveys, and making it fast and cheap. Will it last - I am not sure, but it does look exciting at this point.

How it works is simple.

Business and organizations looking to get market research data go to this service, create a micro-survey and decide who they want it to go to, how many responses they want and what questions to ask. Here is the step by step survey creation wizard:

Then when you buy it, results start coming in. Where do the results come from?

These surveys will begin showing up on select publishers web sites such as The Texas Tribune, the Star Tribune and Adweek in the form of a micro-survey box. In fact, many folks saw this happening before the announcement and felt it was a new ad type or AdSense type from Google. I received an email from a friend asking about it and there is a WebmasterWorld thread.

Here is a picture of one that we spotted:

Then as people see these surveys on publisher sites, they answer the questions and the responses go to the survey creator. The results look interesting, for example, Matt Cutts posted on Google+ a survey he ran for 150 as a beta test of the product asking the general US population, Have you heard of 'search engine optimization'?" The results said that only 1 in 5 people (20.4%) in the U.S. have heard of SEO.

Here is a video on how it works:

Now anyone can create market research studies and get flawed results based on how they ask the question. I am not implying that Matt's survey is flawed here, I don't think it is. But trust me, it can lead to issues. Fuzzy math.

Forum discussion at Google+ & WebmasterWorld.

Google: Want More Organic Traffic? Buy Search Ads

2012-03-29T05:43:00.000-07:00

My title is a bit extreme in summarizing the research study Google published namedImpact Of Ranking Of Organic Search Results On The Incrementality Of Search Ads.

In short, Google is saying that having search ads do help with incremental impressions and clicks on your organic search results.

Google said, "on average, 50% of the ad clicks that occur with a top rank organic result are incremental." They also noticed in this study that "on average, 81% of ad impressions and 66% of ad clicks occur in the absence of an associated organic result on the first page of search results."

Here is the abstract of the study:

In an earlier study, we reported that on average 89% of the visits to the advertiser’s site from search ad clicks were incremental. In this research, we examine how the ranking of an advertiser’s organic listings on the search results page affects the incrementality of ad clicks expressed through Incremental Ad Clicks (IAC) and as estimated by Search Ads Pause models. A meta-analysis of 390 Search Ads Pause studies highlights the limited opportunity for clicks from organic search results to substitute for ad clicks when the ads are turned off. On average, 81% of ad impressions and 66% of ad clicks occur in the absence of an associated organic search result. We find that having an associated organic search result in rank one does not necessarily mean a low IAC. On average, 50% of the ad clicks that occur with a top rank organic result are incremental, compared to 100% of the ad clicks being incremental in the absence of an associated organic result.

In short, having search ads with top rankings in the organic results does not hurt. In fact, it helps in most cases.

Here is the info graphic Google made out of this study:

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google Analytics New Social Reports With $$$

2012-03-28T23:00:00.000-07:00

A week ago Google announced on the Google Analytics blog a new set of reports named Social reports that enables webmasters and marketers bridge the gap between social media and how those convert to your business metrics, such as conversions, revenues and more.

Google said the goal of these reports are three fold:

Identify the full value of traffic coming from social sites and measure how they lead to direct conversions or assist in future conversions
Understand social activities happening both on and off of your site to help you optimize user engagement and increase social key performance indicators (KPIs)
Make better, more efficient data-driven decisions in your social media marketing programs

Social Overview Report:

Social Conversions Report:

Social Sources Report:

Social Plugins Report:

Who is part of this? Which networks? Not Twitter or Facebook but these guys are, AllVoices, Badoo, Blogger, Delicious, Digg, Diigo, Disqus, Echo, Gigya, Google+, Google Groups, Hatena, Livefyre, Meetup, Read It Later, Reddit, Screen Rant, SodaHead, TypePad, VKontakte, and yaplog!.

Forum discussion at Google Analytics Help.

Google: New Top Level Domains (TLD) Will Not Help Rankings

2012-03-15T08:30:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Google's Matt Cutts went out of his way todebunk a story in Marketing Magazine named New top-level domains to trump .com in Google search results.

Adrian Kinderis CEO of ARI Registry Services made the claim as follows:

Will a new TLD web address automatically be favoured by Google over a .com equivalent? Quite simply, yes it will.

Wow! How can people spread such misinformation (I better be careful, I am sure I said things that weren't true as well). But seriously, this?

I am glad Matt Cutts called him out. Matt wrote:

Sorry, but that's just not true, and as an engineer in the search quality team at Google, I feel the need to debunk this misconception. Google has a lot of experience in returning relevant web pages, regardless of the top-level domain (TLD). Google will attempt to rank new TLDs appropriately, but I don't expect a new TLD to get any kind of initial preference over .com, and I wouldn't bet on that happening in the long-term either. If you want to register an entirely new TLD for other reasons, that's your choice, but you shouldn't register a TLD in the mistaken belief that you'll get some sort of boost in search engine rankings.

I hate when I hear people talk about proven SEO methods that they read from some marketing magazine, blog or even places like NY Times and claim it to be true because it was written. Something like this hurts the industry.

One thing, this is a great way for someone to lose his reputation as being an expert in anything. You said something so concret as fact and then a Google representative who knows the algorithm says you are absolutely wrong - well, that has to hurt your reputation.

What makes it worse is that he claims to have been "researching this topic" for about 6 years. Amazing.

Forum discussion at Google+.

Image credit to ShutterStock for sad presentation man.

Google Webmaster Tools +1 Metrics Maintenance

2012-02-27T05:40:00.000-08:00

Googler, Jonathan Simon announced in the Google Webmaster Help forums that the +1 metrics section in Google Webmaster Tools may have issues over the next several days.

He said Google is working on "housekeeping" tasks for that section of Google Webmaster Tools, which implies to me that Google is doing some sort of upgrade in that area.

Jonathan said:

Over the next few days we're doing some housekeeping in the +1 Metrics section of Webmaster Tools. While this work is underway the data for +1 Metrics will be intermittently unavailable. We expect to have +1 Metrics back online by early next week. Thank you for your patience.

Here is a picture of how the +1 metrics may look for some:

Any guesses as to how major of an update we can expect? Any ideas or wish list items for this section?

We know Google is pouring a ton of resources into the Google+ and +1 products, so honestly, it can be anything. Plus we know it is SMX this week, so maybe an announcement is expected there?

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

Google Shutting Down AdSense For Domains

2012-02-22T16:00:00.000-08:00

The Google direct AdSense For Domains program is being shut down by Google. The last day is April 18, 2012. This is not effecting the whole program, but specifically the "direct AdSense for Domains" program.

Google posted this news on this page and people have started to notice the news.

Here is the timeline:

February 22: AdSense publishers can no longer start using the Hosted domains product.
March 21: You will no longer be able to create new hosted domains.
April 18: Hosted domains will become inactive and it will no longer be possible to earn from them.
June 27: Hosted domains will no longer be available in AdSense accounts.

Google is also offering advice on how to migrate to another provider.

This is a smart move by Google since there have been numerous complaints on all sidesof the coin.

To be honest, I am a bit surprised they closed it down because they have fought off these complaints for years and years now. Now they decide to close it down? Google said:

After evaluating the benefits of our partner network, we’ve decided to retire the Hosted domains product within AdSense. Going forward, undeveloped domains will only be served through our existing AdSense for domains distribution network.

For more details on this change, see this page.

Forum discussion at Acorn Domains and Twitter.

A Fake Google Store

2012-02-14T15:00:00.000-08:00

We know Google has a Google Store in at their headquarters in the GooglePlex. We know they are thinking of adding one also to their Dublin office. But a random Google store somewhere in the Middle East?

This Google Store seems to not just sell Google Lava Lamps but instead, they sell fruits and vegetables.

I found this picture on ffffound.com. I am not sure exactly where in the world it was taken but it seems like somewhere in the middle east.

I assume this is not an approved and sanctioned Google Store. :)

This post is part of our daily Search Photo of the Day column, where we find fun and interesting photos related to the search industry and share them with our readers.

Google Updates Average Position In Webmaster Tools & Analytics

2012-01-26T10:00:00.000-08:00

As I reported last night at Search Engine Land, Google haschanged their definition for the "average position" as used in Google Webmaster Tool's search query reports and Google Analytics SEO reports.

Google is now using the top positions and averaging those, as opposed to using all the positions and averaging them. Google explains it best with this:

Let's say Nick searched for [bacon] and URLs from your site appeared in positions 3, 6, and 12. Jane also searched for [bacon] and URLs from your site appeared in positions 5 and 9. Previously, we would have averaged all these positions together and shown an Average Position of 7. Going forward, we'll only average the highest position your site appeared in for each search (3 for Nick's search and 5 for Jane's search), for an Average Position of 4.

Google said that the old reports won't change - instead, the new reports will, so historically this won't make much of a difference.

Google's John Mueller said on Google+, "I think it makes more sense this way." I guess it does.

Either way, this is a big change to the reports with little impact to you or I.

Here is how they look in the Webmaster Tools and Analytics section:

Forum discussion at Google + and Google Webmaster Help.

Yahoo's Co-Founder, Jerry Yang, Resigns

2012-01-18T07:30:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, I was shocked to learn that Yahoo's co-founder, Jerry Yang has resigned from Yahoo effective immediately.

Yang told the Yahoo board:

My time at Yahoo!, from its founding to the present, has encompassed some of the most exciting and rewarding experiences of my life. However, the time has come for me to pursue other interests outside of Yahoo! As I leave the company I co-founded nearly 17 years ago, I am enthusiastic about the appointment of Scott Thompson as Chief Executive Officer and his ability, along with the entire Yahoo! leadership team, to guide Yahoo! into an exciting and successful future.

This comes a couple weeks after Yahoo hired a new CEO, Scott Thompson. Yang took over as CEO of Yahoo in 2007 and then a year later was ousted from that position.

In any event, it is sad to see an internet legend leave the company he helped co-found. Yahoo was a great company and in the past several years have not found their way. Will Yang stepping down help Yahoo find their way - I don't think so but maybe it will give it a clear headspace?

Google's Bradley Horowitz, former Yahoo employee, but now head of Google+, said onGoogle+ a very passionate thing about Yang:

Wow. I didn't expect this, and wouldn't have expected this news to matter to me... but it does.

I worked at Yahoo for four years, and had an amazing, life-changing experience. Much of this was due to Jerry's support and enthusiasm for what I was trying to get done. Most of the projects under my purview (Flickr, Brickhouse, Yahoo Research Berkeley, Hack Days, etc.) flew against the grain of "Yahoo as Usual", and would have failed without Jerry's explicit endorsement. That he not only allowed me to do this, but encouraged me to (and funded the efforts) is something I deeply appreciate.

Best wishes to whatever is next for you Jerry. Thank you for giving me a chance to be part of Yahoo's history.

Thanks for sharing this Bradley! Best wishes to Jerry Yang for helping to build the internet as we know it.

Forum discussion at Google+ & WebmasterWorld.

Google Re-Lists CO.CC Domains After 6 Month Ban

2011-12-30T22:00:00.000-08:00

Six months ago, Google publicly wiped out any co.cc domain from showing in Google's search results. That subdomain wide penalty seems to have now beenlifted.

A search for [site:co.cc] returns over a 100 million results now:

The results started appearing about ten days ago, when before, it returned nothing:

I am not sure if Google changed their mind of this penalty was automatically lifted after a certain time period? Who knows if the subdomain will be banned again when Googlers return from their holiday break.

But at least now you can check to see just how spammy the co.cc sites are.

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

Google Panda Update During Holidays? Panda 3.2

2011-12-22T05:33:00.000-08:00

There is discussion and chatter at WebmasterWorld around a possible Panda update that started on December 19th.

There is discussion around shifting of the search results and a top SEO at WebmasterWorld said "I wonder whether there has been a "Minor Panda update" since Dec 19, 2011." Many agree with him.

Why an emphasis on "minor"? Google said last week there would be no major Panda updates until the new year.

Like I said, several SEOs at WebmasterWorld strongly believe there was an update on December 19th. If that is the case, I believe we are up to version 3.2 of the Panda updates.

Panda Updates:

Panda 3.2 on December 19th
Panda 3.1 on November 18th
Panda 2.5.3 on October 19/20th
Panda 2.5.2 on October 13th
Panda 2.5.1 on October 9th
Panda 2.5 on September 28th
Panda 2.4 in August
Panda 2.3 on around July 22nd.
Panda 2.2 on June 18th or so.
Panda 2.1 on May 9th or so.
Panda 2.0 on April 11th or so.
Panda 1.0 on February 24th

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Image credit to ShutterStock for holiday panda.

Update: Matt Cutts replied to questions on this on Twitter, without confirming or denying an update. He did make sure to repeat that there would be no "large" or "major" Panda updates. Here is the tweet:

Bing Webmaster Tools Showing Numbers Instead Of Keywords

2011-12-09T14:00:00.000-08:00

A Bing Webmaster Help thread has a user posting a weird bug in Bing Webmaster Tools.

The bug is found under the traffic reports, in the "Rank and Traffic Stats" section, under the graph where it lists out the keywords you rank for and how valuable they are on a CPC basis.

In that section, instead of just listing out keywords, Bing is also listing out weird strings of numbers. Here is a picture from my Bing Webmaster Tools account:

Bing has yet to reply with any information about this bug.

Forum discussion at Bing Webmaster Help.

Update: Duane from Bing said this was fixed recently:

We had a database error that has now been fixed. Fresh data populated over the weekend, so now reports should all be back to normal and showing accurately.

Google Panda Recovery Overnight

2011-12-07T02:30:00.000-08:00

A WebmasterWorld thread has a post from an SEO who has been a WebmasterWorld member since 2006 claiming he has recovered from the Google Panda smack down over night.

How did he do it? He moved some of the pandalized content from that old site to a new one. He said since doing so, in 24 hours, he has noticed a 300% increase in traffic.

He wrote:

I'd heard quite a bit about getting out from under Panda just by moving sub-domains or pages so I finally gave it a try. I moved a half dozen pages that were drawing a few hundred visitors a day from Google on my Pandalized (down 80%) site to my Panda pleased (up over 300%) site this weekend.

It took a little over 24 hours for Google to start indexing the pages on the new site so I'm not sure if Monday results represent a full day. Of the half dozen pages, three were slightly above their pre-Panda level (year-over-year) on Monday, and three were around 20% under. The average Google traffic for the six pages Monday was around 250 visitors each.

So now the waiting begins for the next Panda cycle. I'm expecting one of three things to happen, so it will probably be the fourth.

What he should expect that when the Panda algorithm runs, that if the content he moved over is the reason the old site downgraded in rankings, that the new site will be hit also. And maybe, if the old site no longer has that content, the old site might increase in rankings. Why? Well, the pandalized content may have hurt the rest of the site and by moving it off the main site, it may improve the ranking of the other content on the site.

Your thoughts?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Image credit via ShutterStock for Panda image.

Link Generation Idea Sharing

2011-12-01T05:30:00.000-08:00

A WebmasterWorld thread has a bunch of long time link builders sharing some of their new link generation ideas and concepts in the open thread.

I love these threads, cause sharing these ideas, lead to others to share and then new ideas can come out of it that isn't communicated in the thread.

Here are a few select ideas from the thread, but make sure to go to the thread and participate.

Look at your log files for deeper insights and new ideas
The phone. I.e. Relationships. Not cold calling - call your buddies regularly.
Broken link tool on massive ancient directories and purchase of related domains

There are dozens of ideas being shared and I don't want to copy them all down here.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Image credit to ShutterStock for link image.

Don't Miss The New Google Webmaster Hangouts

2011-11-30T09:00:00.000-08:00

Pierre Far announced on his Google + page that there will be a bunch of upcoming Google Webmaster Hangouts soon. You do not want to miss them.

Here is the break down:

Wednesday, 30 November, at 2pm Seattle time, English office hours with +Susan Moskwa
Thursday, 1 December, at 2pm London time, English office hours with me +Pierre Far
Thursday, 1 December, at 2pm Seattle time, English office hours with +Jonathan Simon
Friday, 2 December, at 2pm Zürich time, German office hours with +John Mueller
Friday, 2 December, at 3pm Zürich time, Hungarian office hours with +Gary Illyes

These are always great for SEOs and Webmasters to join.

Forum discussion at Google +.

Google Panda 3.1 Update : 11/18

2011-11-23T07:00:00.000-08:00

Friday afternoon, sometime after 4pm I believe, Googletweeted that they pushed out a "minor" Panda update effecting less than one-percent of all searches.

The tweet reads:

Tiny weather report: Minor Panda algorithm data refresh (affects <1% of searches). Context from Feb: http://goo.gl/EgZ8u

The last time Google said a Panda update was minor, it turned out to be pretty significant.

That being said, we should have named it 3.0 - in fact, I spoke to someone at Google who felt the same. So I am going to name this one 3.1, although it does make it easier to reference these updates by dates.

Panda Updates:

Panda 2.5.3 on October 19/20th
Panda 2.5.2 on October 13th
Panda 2.5.1 on October 9th
Panda 2.5 on September 28th
Panda 2.4 in August
Panda 2.3 on around July 22nd.
Panda 2.2 on June 18th or so.
Panda 2.1 on May 9th or so.
Panda 2.0 on April 11th or so.
Panda 1.0 on February 24th

For more on Panda, see our Google Panda category.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google Indexing & Displaying Images Within Universal Search Fast

2011-11-21T04:25:00.000-08:00

Back in April, I reported at Search Engine Land that Google was indexing images within hours and displaying time stamps on images.

But since then, there has not been much discussion around the speed of Google indexing images recently.

A WebmasterWorld thread changed that, when an image expert came in and said Google is back at it.

He said:

Today I noticed for the first time, that a new indexed image is shown in the images Onebox of the Google serps (universal serach). This is extremly fast.

I found it when searching for the actual Google Doodle "Louis Daguerre".

If you switch to google images I see 20 (!) new indexed pictures in the Top 35. Amazing - I call this "freshness" :-)

So not only are the images showing up in image search really quickly, which it has been since April. But he also says they are showing images that are really fresh in the web results within hours.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google & Bing See Canonical Tags Differently

2011-10-11T04:24:00.000-07:00

Nick Roshon has an excellent post on the difference between how Google & Bing handle the canonical tag, something non of us really noticed before until he pointed it out.

The key differences are two fold:

(1) Mass use of the canonical tag and

(2) Canonical tag pointing to itself.

How does each engine differ?

(1) Google doesn't care if you use the canonical tag on hundreds or thousands of pages, where Bing says they will trust the tag less if you do.

(2) Google doesn't care if you link a canonical tag to the same page (i.e. a redirect back to the redirect), but Bing does and says don't do it.

Nick quotes Bing's Duane who wrote, "the rel=canonical is that it was never intended to appear across large numbers of pages" and "Its best to leave them [canonical tags] blank rather than point them at themselves."

Nick then quotes Google's Cutts and Ohye who say, "it doesn’t hurt to have this on every page of your site," and "it's absolutely okay to have a self-referential rel="canonical". "

These are very interesting distinctions between Bing.

Forum discussion at Sphinn.

Links Increase In Google Webmaster Tools

2011-10-10T04:24:00.000-07:00

There are many webmasters reporting a huge increase in the number of links reported within Google Webmaster Tools, "links to this site" report.

There are reports at WebmasterWorld and Google Webmaster Help with webmasters asking why.

Here is a screen shot of this site's links, showing a screen shot from November 2010 till now:

I rarely look at my link counts, so I am glad I captured a screen shot back in November.

Did you see a massive increase in the number of links reported by Google Webmaster Tools?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and Google Webmaster Help.

Google Definitions Asking Users To Email error@google.com

2011-10-07T04:23:00.000-07:00

There are many reports in the Google Web Search Helpforums that Google Definitions feature is not working on some browsers for some people.

I cannot replicate it, but when you search for things like [what is toast], Google will provide this definition at the top:

Instead, users are getting errors that read:

server error comes up...
Please email error@google.com

I couldn't replicate the issue myself, but here is an old screen shot of such an error:

Thing is, that email address is no long valid. Try emailing it and you will get a "Delivery Status Notification (Failure)" due to the "User unknown" or the user not being a real email account.

Kelly from Google said "Thanks for the info. We're looking into it now."

I am not sure if it is fixed or if they are still working on it at this point.

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.

Where's The Google Logo For Steve Jobs?

2011-10-06T04:22:00.000-07:00

Last night, the world heard the sad news that Steve Jobs has died. Apple and the world has lost one of the most visionary people to ever live. Most of you know, I grew up on Apples and am one of the largest Apple users out there - people think I am a bit cultish. So yea, the news was very sad for me personally.

There is no doubt the impact Steve Jobs had on the world. But yea, he lead Apple, a company that he directed in changing the world. That company and his leadership also shaped Google, Yahoo, Microsoft in many ways.

Larry Page posted a message on Gogle + as did Sergey Brin on Google + on just how much of an impact Apple and Steve Jobs had on Google:

From the earliest days of Google, whenever Larry and I sought inspiration for vision and leadership, we needed to look no farther than Cupertino. Steve, your passion for excellence is felt by anyone who has ever touched an Apple product (including the macbook I am writing this on right now). And I have witnessed it in person the few times we have met.

Apple.com has an iconic image of Jobs on the home page leading to a message atapple.com/stevejobs, here are pictures:

Google rushed last night to put up a small text link under the Google search box that links Steve Jobs to Apple. Here is a picture:

But Google users want and expected more - they wanted a logo that honored and remembered his legacy. I have no doubt there will be one on October 5, 2012 - but for now, Google did not want to do a logo. They don't like doing logos for sad occasions and instead, they used the plain text link approach - which works for me but not for many.

There is a petition in the Google Web Search Help forums to make a Google logo. I doubt we will see one today, but I'd be surprised if we didn't see one next year.

Anyway, I sit with many of the world in mourning the loss.

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help , Google Blogoscoped Forums andWebmasterWorld.

Hosted On A CDN? You May Get A Special GoogleBot Crawl Rate

2011-10-05T04:22:00.000-07:00

Gary Illyes from Google responded to a question in theGoogle Webmaster Help forums about hosting your content on a CDN, content delivery network.

The question was why did Google assign a special crawl rate to his site.

Gary from Google said, Google may assign content hosted on a CDN with a special crawl rate. He specifically said you should most likely never increase the crawl rate manually if you are on a CDN, at best, leave it for Google to decide. You can lower the crawl rate, but do not increase it.

Gary from Google explained:

When you're using a CDN, we may assign a special crawl rate for your site so that we can crawl as much as possible without affecting negatively others who're using the same service. It's best to not tackle that setting, especially since we're already accessing your site more than 4000 times a day.
If you want to lower your crawling rate, let me know, but I definitely not recommend increasing it. I'd rather focus on posting unique and compelling content and on user experience.

Google's Latest Ad Format: Circulars

2011-10-04T04:21:00.000-07:00

Bloomberg reports Google is starting to test a new search ad format that looks like web based online circulars.

The ads will be a new search ad format that supposedly will open up an interactive online circular for the store, instead of a standard ad that simply takes you to the seller's web site.

Nick Fox, Google's vice president of product management, told Bloomberg:

Retail in general is a large category for us. They're trying to understand what the answer is in the digital age to the offline print circular. They're trying to understand how to get their online visitors into their stores. And this is our answer to that.

How will it work? Bloomberg explained, "Web surfers will find the circular-style advertising, which shows multiple pictures and large type, by clicking on search ads. The service will automatically craft the promotions based on factors such as query topics and the location of users."

Google said the click through rate will increase from 15 percent to more than 50 percent on some of the ads.

Some advertisers are a bit skeptical in the WebmasterWorld.

I have not seen these ads live yet, if you do, please share a screen capture.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.