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Google Introduces New and Improved Keyword User Interface

Google webmasters have announced a brand new user interface for Google's keywords feature. Referring to the announcement as post-Halloween treat, the Official Google Blog says that data will now be updated on daily basis and will provide details on how often the team finds a specific keyword. A handful of URLs containing...

New Interface

... specific keywords will also be displayed now. The new user interface will have significance column to compare the frequency of keywords with the frequency on most popular keywords on the website. If you will click on any keyword to know more details, the list of up to 10 URLs containing that keyword will be opened.

If you wish to re-implement the website on a new technology frame or want to know the URLs that have been hacked from your website, the new interface will be really useful. Supposedly, you are noticing that your site is appearing on search results for unrelated keywords, the new feature can help you in identifying the pages that contain those keywords. By utilizing this feature, you can easily eliminate the hacked content.

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10 Blue Links (and a Bunch of Other Stuff!)

Google announced product listing ads today, a cost-per-action ad program that shows images in the search results: "Product Listing Ads is part of our effort to simplify the advertising process for merchants with large product inventories. Some of the key features of Product Listing Ads include...

Ads, Ads, Ads

• Pay only for results: Product Listing Ads are charged on a cost-per-action (CPA) basis, which means that you only pay when a user clicks on your ad and completes a purchase on your site. Because Product Listing Ads is charged on a CPA basis, it offers a risk-free way for you to reach a larger audience on Google.com.

• List your entire inventory: Product Listing Ads requires no keywords or additional ad text. Whenever a user enters a search query relevant to an item in your Google Merchant Center account, Google will automatically show the most relevant products along with the associated image, price and product name. Product Listing Ads makes it easy for you to promote your entire product inventory on Google.com.

At this time, Product Listing Ads is still a beta feature and is only available to a limited number of retail advertisers. Over time, we'll increase the number of users who see Product Listing Ads as well as the number of advertisers able to participate."

Along with this launch, Google is also pushing product search harder in the organic search results. If you look back at our last post, it is not beyond the realm of possibilities that those product listing ads and product search could eventually blend (to some degree) and appear as part of the AdWords ads above the organic search results.

Given that only launched today, the current impact on the search results of the new product ads is quite noticeable.

The big problem with this vertical data is that it is not as fuzzy as general search is...so none of the above products are the popular video game. But in time Google will collect lots of click data and use it to help determine if they should broaden or narrow the exposure for a particular product, product class, or vendor. And if they are collecting conversion data on the back end it makes it that much easier to measure customer satisfaction - just look at what adds the most money to Google's bank account.

In a recent interview Marissa Mayer stated that universal search results appear on about 25% of search results pages, and they would like to keep increasing that number:

"When we launched -universal search-, it was showing in about one in 25 queries. Today, it shows in about 25 percent of queries. And we think there are probably times when those auxiliary -file- formats could actually help, and we aren't triggering them on our results page. That's something we need to continue to strive to do."

As Google collects that data they can expand this stuff at will. It becomes a simple game of math. And even while charging CPA Google will still be able to increase yields because there will always be some new funded project, ambitious brand manager, or CEO looking to increase stock volatility to drive up share price to where "the company" wants to buy customers without profit to increase marketshare. Some non-sense metrics beyond lifetime customer value will be used to justify the expenses, because it is so easy to do nothing and let Google do all the work - even though that strategy yields no long-term competitive advantage.

Matt Cutts said that Google will wait on caffeine (though pieces of it might already be implemented), but I seriously doubt that any short-term changes to the search results under caffeine would present anywhere near as big of a concern to webmasters as Google becoming (roughly the equivalent of) an affiliate in ecommerce, local, and lead generation - while using their search results to aggressively push into market leadership roles in those new markets.

Question: Who cares where they rank algorithmically if the algorithmic #1 result is below the fold?
Answer: Nobody!

And yet for certain search types that is the world we are increasingly living in.

I am not sure how sloppy and aggressive searchers (and competitors) will let Google get with pushing verticals...but I am betting that the limit is probably even worse than the above. And remember that it can get far more aggressive while not appearing so to the end user. As Google collects data they will make the vertical insertions more relevant. And each time searchers see search results with more banner-like junk in them, they are being conditioned to expect more of it in the future.

Google realizes that if they want to keep increasing profits from search they have to drive down the organic search results with either

• more ad units in different formats
• other filler (like Youtube)

Increasingly these types of shifts in the search results will drive affiliate SEOs (or at least the ones that care about product quality and customer satisfaction and long-term profit margins) to create their own products & services rather than marketing someone else's. If you own the product you have the fattest margins and can partner directly with Google for distribution, rather than fighting for scraps of scraps as the organic search results keep disappearing.

The upside for searchers (and publishers) is that as Google aggressively pushes to become a back-door algorithmically driven portal it leaves a market opening for Blekko and other search players which would be happy to make just a few billion here or there...the same hole AltaVista and Yahoo! left for Google. :D

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Did Google Buy AdMob for Ads, Data, or Both?

One of the biggest acquisitions in the advertising and technology space over the past couple of years occurred this week Google recently purchased AdMob for $750 million in stock. There has been considerable speculation about why Google not only purchased Admob, but spent so much money in doing so. The obvious off the cuff answer is...

Unlocking Mobile Advertising

...to get their hooks into the mobile display advertising space by acquiring the most well-known mobile ad network. Some people such as Niki Scevak dont think thats a particularly good idea, and others such as Silicon Alley Insider seemed to have to work a bit to justify it.

While Niki makes some decent points about mobile advertising being tied to mobile commerce, and mobile commerce not being a huge market yet, I think the question Id ask here is how will mobile commerce NOT become huge over the next few years? Mobile phone usage is skyrocketing and innovations such as the iPhone, Droid, and phones and software yet to be developed are going to keep that pace of innovation and change going. While Im probably an early adopter, Ive conducted numerous ecommerce transactions through my iPhone and in fact bought a book for my iPhone Kindle App just today. While I didnt see an ad for this book on my phone, why couldnt I have seen one that drove me to the purchase?

Regardless, I dont think the mobile ad network is Googles sole motive, and perhaps not even its strongest motive for the acquisition. I think John Battelle and Ian Schafer nailed this one by pointing out that the key asset for Google is the DATA.

This is data that will obviously help for ad targeting and the like, but getting iPhone app data (and other types of data) will be immensely valuable as Google attempts to take on Apple to own the mobile phone (software) market. The mobile data nut is just being brought to the table and is just now people are beginning to think about cracking it. Its also worth pointing out some past Right Media colleagues of mine (Greg Yardley and Jesse Rohland) started Pinch Media a while back to handle mobile application analytics. This will be an interesting space to watch moving forward as mobile continues to grow.

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Google Moves Closer To Real Time Search With Caffeine Data Center

Since August Google has been experimenting with and testing its new Caffeine project for improving the indexing ability of the search giant. As Andy reported in August, there is a real shift to moving toward real time (read social media) results in this new environment.

Mashable, Google is feeling comfortable enough with the new environment to put it in at least one data center for some road testing.

Since the launch of the developer preview however, we haven't heard much about it. It's quietly been undergoing testing and tweaking. That's all changing though, as now the developer preview of Google Caffeine has been taken down, replaced with an announcement that Google Caffeine will go live in its first datacenter soon.

The new Caffeine splash page says it all. Here's the full text:

"Based on the success we've seen, we believe Caffeine is ready for a larger audience. Soon we will activate Caffeine more widely, beginning with one data center. This sandbox is no longer necessary and has been retired, but we appreciate the testing and positive input that webmasters and publishers have given. "

Matt Cutts had said in an interview with WebProNews back at SES in San Jose (August 2009) that this update was along the lines, in terms if significance, of the Big Daddy update of late 2005 / early 2006. So this is no small potatoes move by any means and of course Matt played down any coincidence that this just so happened to occur after the bingahoo announcement.

Personally, I could care less about whether Google is responding to the threat of a competitor. In fact, I find that healthy considering that Google could be resting on their laurels and saying that they can't be touched. Instead, they are working to make sure they can't actually be touched. That's just good business.

So has anyone had any direct experience with the new caffeinated motor on Google? If so tell us what you think. We're up already and have had enough coffee to pay attention.

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Does Reframe It Have Just Cause To Sue Google?

About a year ago, Reframe It launched a product that allowed web users to add public (or private) comments on any part of any website, using a side pane in the browser. According to the users choice, the comments would be available for later visitors to that website to see and respond to.

Six weeks ago, Google launched SideWiki which . . . does the same thing (without the privacy options). A coincidence? Possibly. But Reframe It co-founder and CEO Bobby Fishkin believes the similarities extend beyond just the ideas for the products. He tells eWEEK that even the layout of the buttons of the two services is strikingly similar.

And the evidence he offers goes deeper:

A Reframe It board member recommended the service to a Google exec in July 2008

Within a few months, at least six Google employees registered for the service.

Days before Sidewiki's launch, Google tried to hire Reframe It co-founder and lead engineer Ben Taitelbaum.

Of course, all we have for for all this is Fishkin's word (though I assume Taitelbaum and the board member would testify as well). Fishkin says Reframe It has a patent pending"and the law says they can amend that application, including to specifically cover the aspects they think Google might be copying. Once the patent is officially issued, they can sue for infringement.

On Google Watch, eWEEK reporter Clint Boulton assembled the side-by-side comparison of the two services:

Reframe It Vs. Google Sidewiki "

Naturally, neither Reframe It nor Sidewiki can claim to be the first web annotation service. However, depending on exactly what their patent will cover, Reframe It may still be able to claim Google violates their patent. (However, at present Reframe It is focusing on launching its 2.0 version, and couldn't take the distraction, Fishkin says.)

What do you think? Should Reframe It sue Google once it's patent is issued? Or is this just a coincidence?

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Excuse Me, But Where Did Google's Organic Search Results Go?

In the past many SEOs have called organic search results the results on the left side of the page and the pay-per-click / AdWords results as the results on the right side of the page. As Google has grown more aggressive witht promoting vertical/universal search I think a better way of defining the portions of the search result page are ABOVE THE FOLD...

Where are the Search Results?

...and BELOW THE FOLD.

As recently as yesterday Google stripped the phone numbers off of non-sponsored map listings, even if you were doing a navigational search! And that shows that the primary goal of the maps is as filler content (rather than utility).

Update: it looks like Google claimed the phone number removal was a bug, but weird timing that the bug appeared at the same time they started selling premium local ads that appear on the regular search results.

So lets redefine these search result pieces as they are...

• AdWords Ads: the ads at the top of the search results and those which run down the right rail of the search results.
• Universal Search Results: filler stuff to put in the search results to a.) drive the organic search results lower down the page, while b.) driving additional incremental click volume to other Google properties which display ads.
• Organic Search Results: the results on the search result page that are determined algorithmically and appear below the fold. On some larger monitors a listing or 2 from this category may appear above the fold, at least for the time being.

In the future A LOT of verticals (movies, music, books, news, ecommerce, travel, etc.) are going to look more and more like local, where Google in some cases has at least 15 ads above the fold AND filler pushing down the organic search results...quietly building a backdoor portal that sends Google the second click if they were not able to monetize the first one.

To me this screams the importance of working the tail of search, because the more obscure a search query is the greater the risk to Google if they pollute it with junk from vertical search databases.

As Google gets stingier with their traffic that will increase the importance of relationship development and lead capture, as well as developing distribution channels outside of Google.

This new search result layout also highlights the importance of being #1 for your most important keywords...if only 1 result is going to show above the fold then there is little point being #2. So that will really help/force you to decide which words are practical to target and which words are not. If you have some valuable #3 or #4 listings you better start marketing them today before they end up below the fold tomorrow.

The last important thing this search result signals is the importance of increasing conversion rates and lifetime customer value...if/when search becomes pay-to-play in your market, will you still be able to compete? If not, what can be done to help bridge that gap?

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More Ways for Google to Embed Themselves...

... in Your Conversion Stream. The Free Credit Report ads have caused such user confusion in the marketplace that the government has felt the need to create a spoof site with $100,000 worth of amateur video to mock Free Credit Report.com. And yet even if you search for the official website -Annual Credit Report- to this very day Google is cashing in showing 3 PPC ads...

Dirty Google Deeds

...ABOVE the organic search results for that NAVIGATIONAL search query...sorta like how they were cashing in on eBay's brand recently.

For -Annual Credit Report- the government has stepped in and said what is right for the consumer. But the Google AdWords team has different ideas. "Increasing user choice" means the official site at best ranks #4.

It doesn't matter if you are a white knight SEO. This free credit report link doesn't matter if Google is going to put scammy AdWords ads at the top of the search results where most searchers think those are the most important results.

Google is cashing in on searcher ignorance and misplaced trust, at least while they can - just like other scammers pushing reverse billing fraud would do.

Search competition is important, because without it, consumers lose out on choice. You can see the absurdity of Google's position when they claimed sitelinks on AdWords ads increase user choice. Giving the most dominant players in any market more share of voice only aims to consolidate the marketplace further. If they wanted to increase user choice they would show more result diversity on the page and/or more search results on the page, not just show you more from a big spending market leader.

When you think about Google moving into lead generation and becoming an affiliate play you can see they have massive upside potential. Why? They are the default way most people search the web. So even if someone is searching on a brand and making a navigational search, Google still gets a bite on the apple and shows up as the source of conversion. Don't pay Google their tithing? Too bad, they will sell your brand to leading competitors.

And they are aiming to extend out with this strategy. Not only did the Google Chrome browser replace the address bar with a search box, but Google has been pulling back on data they put in some search results to drive a second click onto other Google properties.

Here is my favorite local Indian restaurant on Google

Up until this past week that listing had a phone number on it. Now it doesn't. I am required to make 1 more click so Google can show their large local search marketplace and their dominance over local/maps search.

In the short run Google makes it easy to embed themselves in your business. Analytics and testing are free. They provide services at a loss to gather data and destroy marketplace competition - exerting their monopoly power without being called a monopoly. Cell phone providers get the Android operating system for less than free. Ecommerce players get a new commerce site search option. Content players get an enhanced Friend Connect. In the short run they make life easier and margins thicker. But after competition is removed from the marketplace look for Google to claw back on partners - just like they did to LendingTree, domainers, and anyone with a brand or a local business listing.

BEWARE: Information wants to be free. Attention wants to be monetized. After net-neutrality will we need a Google neutrality?

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Turkey Suing Google for $47M in Back Taxes

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

Turkey Sues Google

Google, on the other hand, points out that it runs its ad network operations from Ireland and thus is not obliged to pay taxes in Turkey merely because it owns a subsidiary there. The suit recognizes that bills and checks (or should I say cheques?) for such advertising are addressed from/to the companys European headquarters in Dublin.

Says TechCrunch:

"In a statement, Google said it is acting in accordance with the tax laws of every country in which it operates, including Turkish laws, and that its negotiations with the government on this issue are ongoing. . . .

Weve also been in touch with a Turkish lawyer, who tells us the government is making a valid claim, pointing out that Google has set up a full-fledged company called Google Reklamclk ve Pazarlama Ltd. ti. (which means Google Advertising and Marketing Ltd.) in Turkey rather than what he refers to as a liaison branch. Had it done the latter, says the lawyer, the company would have had to pay very little or no taxes at all."

Personally, Im a little skeptical of the Turkish governments claim, mostly because if Google has really been taxable all this time (and since Google is the #1 online and search ad company in Turkey), they (the government or Google) would have figured this out a lot sooner. Did the Turkish government just figure out they could tax Google? Or is this, as TechCrunch points out, just a bargaining tactic tor force Googles negotiations to go faster?

(Note: the Turkish government says theyve determined this after a year of investigating. Again, a year? It doesnt take a year to figure out that someone should be paying you taxes, especially not if a Turkish lawyer can figure it out in one email. If they really wanted the taxes, they could have indicated that Google should be paying taxes at the beginning of the investigation instead of stalling a year while Google racked up more income that they could penalize. I think being dishonest like that should be reason enough to lose the suit.)

Heres what I think: if you really want to tax Google, countries of the world, then do it - but pass a new law that they cant get out of. Dont try to cobble together a legal argument, backform your present laws that may or may not fit the situation, or stall an entire year to try to squeeze more out of them. Because, after all, taxing Internet companies for selling stuff in your jurisdiction has worked really well in New York, North Carolina, etc.

What do you think? Will Turkey get their cash, will the case get thrown out, or are they really just hoping for Google to settle for any amount? Will this make Google reluctant to operate in that country in the future?

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Where Can Google Be Beaten?

Ad Age today summarize the state of the search engine marketing industry - and its largely good, including the fact that weve weathered the recession well so far, weve seen tremendous growth over our lifespan and most marketers are convinced of, interested in or doing SEM in some form. Naturally, the report focuses on the elephant in the room...

VS. Google

...the biggest search engine in the world. Google dominates the search market in almost every country of the world - but there are a few places where competitors might be able to find a chink in Googles armor.

Bingahoo is cited as one possible challenger, although by the measure Ad Age is using, a combined Yahoo/Bing share would be 26% to Googles 65% of the market. However, Bing has shown notable success, including a report from Nielsen in July:

"According to Nielsen data from July for the U.S., 27% of Google searchers also used Bing at least once that month, and 39% used Yahoo. Of course, the same holds true for Bing and Yahoo searchers - a majority of them also use Google."

We saw similar reports on low search-engine loyalty back in February as well, even before Bing and its marketing blitz. But the fact that people are at least trying Bing bodes well for Microsoft"since CEO Steve Ballmer pledged to spend up to 10% of MSFTs operating income a year to pushing Bing to the top of the heap (up to $2b/yr).

The other major area is mobile search. While lots of people do turn to Google for their mobile search, just like they do with . . . immobile search - and Android is helping with that - Ad Age reports that the number of mobile Internet devices outweighs the number of computers - which means that lots of mobile Internet users dont have a desktop habit of Googling. Instead, they may use whatever default their service provider or phone includes (again with the Android).

What do you think? Does it really matter if Google is so dominant in the search industry, or is fine and dandy (as long as they dont penalize your site)? Can they be beaten?

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Google Really Does Pay Attention to Feeds

There has been speculation about the efficacy of putting news content into RSS feeds for some time. As early as 2005 Charlene Li, then at Forrester Research, said if you do nothing else, put your press releases in RSS feeds. The TEKgroup/Bulldog Reporter survey shows increasing use of RSS feeds by journalists every year. Other research shows that 98% of journalists start a story by doing a Google search.

RSS in Search

It has been suggested that content in a feed gets more attention from Google and now theyve confirmed it.

Using feeds for discovery allows us to get these new pages into our index more quickly than traditional crawling methods. We may use many potential sources to access updates from feeds including Reader, notification services, or direct crawls of feeds. Google Webmaster Blog.

If you do not yet have your news content in RSS Feeds it should be top of your list of action items for 2010. In fact, get your news content into a social media newsroom with feeds on all content categories. Make it easier for Google to find your content and index it faster. Get an edge in search so journalists find your content when they search your topics.

The Google blog post also has advice on how the feeds and the website should be programmed " bear with me here, this gets a little technical: In order for us to use your RSS/Atom feeds for discovery, its important that crawling these files is not disallowed by your robots.txt. To find out if Googlebot can crawl your feeds and find your pages as fast as possible, test your feed URLs with the robots.txt tester in Google Webmaster Tools.

The point of this is that weve seen many a feed incorrectly programmed. Google has to see it right away andthey have to be able to crawl the feed. So make sure your webmaster or IT department is up to speed on the latest RSS technology. If they dont see the feed on your site it cant be used to get you faster indexing and better ranking.

All feed content should be optimized for search and the feed should automatically notify the major feed aggregators when new content is entered. (Notification services is one way Google says they find your feeds.)

If you have audio and video content, the feeds have to have specific tags added so that your multimedia content gets indexed not only by search engines, but also by sites like iTunes.

If all this is Greek to you, pass it along to your webmaster or your IT department. If you have questions about how to leverage your news content with feeds, email me at sally@press-feed.com

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