Search Engine Watch Blog

LinkedIn Enables Simultaneous Twitter Updating

Nathania Johnson — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 01:10:39 -0500

You can now update your status on LinkedIn and Twitter simultaneously. To do this, sign on to LinkedIn.

Then, go to your home page and under the Inbox, look the status update box under "Network Updates." See the Twitter icon next to the "Share" submit button? Click that if you want to enable simultaneous updating.

When you do, a pop up box will ask you to authorize your Twitter account and then will give you options on updating Twitter from LinkedIn. You can enable your Tweets to become your LinkedIn status updates at this point. Once you've selected your options, you're set to simultaneously update.

Bing Launches New Cashback Contest: Win $10k and Time with Apple-icious Ryan Seacrest

Nathania Johnson — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:57:36 -0500

Bing has unveiled a new Cashback Contest. The winner gets a trip to LA, cash and time with the host of American Idol. (Tech and pop culture junkies take note: American Idol has been sponsored by Apple for years with contestants blatantly using iPhones during the show. Can you feel the bitter corporate irony?)

Whoever wins gets all of this:

$10,000 cash
A round-trip flight, hotel
A Hollywood makeover
Serious E! studio time with Ryan Seacrest

Throw in a meet-and-greet with Joel McHale, and I'd be game. Ok, it's not ethical for me to enter, but if you want to - all you have to do is Register for Bing Cashback. If you're already registered, go to this link and click "Enter Now!"

Johnson OUT!

Google Voice Gives Priority Invitations to Military Families

Nathania Johnson — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:46:53 -0500

In honor of Veterans Day, Google Voice has announced that it will be giving priority Google Voice invitations to military families associated with the organization Blue Star Families.

Over at the Google Voice blog, Jason Toff, Associate Product Marketing Manager explains:

Military families encounter unique challenges and frequent separations, so staying in touch is vitally important. With one Google Voice number, families won't have to worry about missing calls from service members abroad.

Google Voice is a call management system. You can associate your one Google Voice number with multiple third-party phone numbers such as work, home, cell, etc. Then, when the Google Voice number is called, it can alert all numbers, so that you don't miss a call. This is a great way for military families to stay in touch and a great gesture by Google on this Veterans Day.

Google Adds Street View to Hawaii, Int'l Locations; Latitude Gets History and Location Alerts

Nathania Johnson — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:33:45 -0500

The Google Earth and Maps Team has been hard at work unloading a bunch of updates. First up, Street View images for the state of Hawaii have been added. Now, all 50 states have Street View.

Additionally, Street View imagery has been added to 5 cities in Mexico, "huge swathes" of Spain, and 30 towns in the Netherlands.

Meanwhile, new updates have come to Latitude. You can now track the history of where you've been. This history is not made available to your friends.

But speaking of your friends, you can now get alerts when they're nearby (and using Latitude, of course). This will keep you from having to check Latitude constantly to see if anyone is nearby.

What do you think of these Google Maps updates? Let us know by leaving a comment.

Bing Incorporates MSN Content into Video Search

Nathania Johnson — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:06:10 -0500

Recently, MSN unveiled its new homepage, which relies on structured data from Bing. Now, the MSN/Bing integration intensifies with a re-vamping of Bing's video search. Bing has updated its video search to incorporate high-quality MSN content. With the update, you'll be able to access videos from Hulu, MSN, ABC, and Youtube directly from Bing's video search page.

The update is rolling out and should be complete in the next week or so. Right now, I'm able to access a preview at bing.com/videos/browse or by clicking "Videos" on the homepage.

Here's a screenshot of the new Bing Video (click to enlarge):

Check out this video of Rob Bennett, General Manager of MSN Network Programming, talking about the new video connection between Bing and MSN.

Yahoo! Announces Yodel Studio Finalists; Google LatLong Announces Trike Finalists

Nathania Johnson — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 21:36:00 -0500

Last month, Yahoo! and Google launched a couple of contests (separately), and this week both are announcing the finalists.

First up, Yahoo! is looking for a new Yodel, and they received 21,000 entries. They've narrowed it down to three contestants each for the US, UK and India. Click on the links below to view the finalists' entries and cast your vote:

Tiffany Jo from Arizona
Carlo from Arizona
Christopher from Oklahoma

Katherine
Hajar
James

India

Nishant
Ankitaa
Ayesha

Meanwhile, Google launched a contest to see where the new Street View vehicle, Google Trike would go. They received 25,000 suggestions, 44% of which were college campuses. Below are the finalists for the various categories. You can cast your vote at Google.com/trike.

University Campuses
Arizona State University
Michigan State University
Princeton University
Rochester Intitute of Technology
Stanford University

Parks & Trails
Boulder Creek Bike Path, CO
Capital Crescent Trail, MD/DC
Centennial Trail, WA
Schuylkill River Trail, PA
Stevens Creek Trail, CA

Pedestrian Malls
Faneuil Hall Marketplace, Boston, MA
Navy Pier, Chicago, IL
Pier 39, San Francisco, CA

Landmarks
Alcatraz Island, San Francisco, CA
Central Park, NY
Millenium Park, Chicago, IL
Kennedy Space Center, FL
National Mall, DC

Theme Parks & Zoos
Bronx Zoo, NY
Busch Gardens, VA
Detroit Zoo, MI
Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago, IL
San Diego Zoo, CA
Universal Studios, FL

Google, Yahoo!, and Bing Launch Free Wifi Campaigns

Nathania Johnson — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 21:24:01 -0500

The big three search engines all announced this week separate efforts to provide free Wifi in various locations.

Google is offering free Wifi in 47 airports. See the list here. The campaign runs through January 15, 2010.

Yahoo! is offering free Wifi to the 500,000 people who pass through Times Square each day. They're partnering with the Times Square Alliance in the effort, which will last through 2010.

Bing is offering free Wifi through JiWire hotspots in airports and hotels. All you have to do is conduct a search on Bing to get access. The program began in Q3 2009 and has been extended through the end of the year.

Web Marketing Today Celebrates its 15th Birthday

Greg Jarboe — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:52:26 -0500

If "Internet years" are anything like "dog years," then celebrating your 15th anniversary is like celebrating your 105 birthday. Can you remember what the world wide web was like in 1994?

That was the year that Netscape Navigator was launched. That was also the year that Dr. Ralph Wilson, Editor, launched Web Marketing Today.

Bryan Eisenberg, recognized authority and pioneer in online marketing and ClickZ's ROI Marketing columnist, says, "Ralph Wilson's newsletter was one of the first that I signed up for when I started in this industry and I still read it today. I would not be where I am today, and as respected as I am today, without his initial guidance. This newsletter is a must-read. Dr. Wilson really cuts through the clutter."

Jim Sterne, Founder of Web Marketing Association (WMA) and director of the eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit, recently interviewed Dr. Wilson at SES San Jose 2009.

Jim Sterne Interviews Dr. Ralph Wilson of Web Marketing Today

To mark the 15th anniversary, anyone who subscribes to the Web Marketing Today newsletter receives six e-books/whitepapers that cover the basics of Internet marketing -- a $50 value. This includes his most requested item: "The Web Marketing Checklist -- 37 Ways to Promote Your Website."

Bing Maps Gets a Major Makeover; Silverlight Control 1.0 Released

Nathania Johnson — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:16:26 -0500

There are some big changes happening at Bing Maps, both on the user end and the developer end.

On Bing.com/maps, you can check out the following updates:

Draggable Routes
Zoom Bar with predefined settings
Command Parsing
Embed a Map
Dynamic Compute
New Navigation
World Wrap (no longer stops at International Date Line)
Diet Bing Maps - loads faster due to lighter load

Meanwhile, Bing Maps Silverlight Control 1.0 has been released. This allows developers to incorporate Bing Maps into their applications. There are a ton of updates, too many to mention in this post, so be sure to check them out here if you're a developer.

The terms of use have changed, allowing educators and tax-exempt non-profits to use Bing Maps on their sites for free.

There are also the following updates to the terms of use, per the Bing Maps blog:

Bing Maps AJAX Control - all maps rendered onto the client upon the initial request is considered 1 session. Session includes any requests for geocoding, routing or search.
Bing Maps Silverlight Control - all maps rendered onto the client upon the initial request is considered 1 session. There are no services built into the Bing Maps Silverlight Control, so you would use the Bing Maps Web Service for geocoding, routing and search, but we'll include those too.
Bing Maps Web Service - all maps, geocodes, routes and searches will each invoke 1 transaction.

What do you think of the updates for Bing Maps? Map your thoughts in the comments section below.

UPDATE: Google Caffeine to Launch After Holidays (For the Most Part)

Nathania Johnson — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:41:06 -0500

Earlier today, news broke that Google's new index would launch soon. The news was simultaneously exciting and disconcerting since most SEOs and search marketers are in full-fledged holiday mode, and boy, would this disrupt things.

But Google spam ninja Matt Cutts took to his personal blog to assure that most people won't get the update until after the holidays. You can breathe that sigh of relief now.

Caffeine will still be rolled out to one data center, which Cutts said will affect a small percentage of searchers.

Google Includes Place Pages Ad Info on Placement Performance Reports

Nathania Johnson — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 09:50:21 -0500

In September, Google launched Place Pages, which aggregate content to give a fuller listing for local content in Google Maps.

Ads appear on those Place Pages and now AdWords users can see if their ads are appearing on them. The data is included on Placement Performance reports.

You can't currently bid for an ad to be placed on a Place Page, but Google says bidding higher will increase your chances of appearing on them.

Google Caffeine Sandbox Closed; Expect New Index Soon

Nathania Johnson — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 09:39:55 -0500

In August, Google released a developer preview of their new index, dubbed Google Caffeine. Changes in the index appeared to be largely a "Your Mileage May Vary" situation, with some noticing hardly any changes to their rankings while others noticed bigger changes.

Now, Google has closed the preview sandbox and is prepping the new index for a larger release. It will initially roll out to one data center.

I would imagine that for many, this isn't the greatest time to be experiencing changes in Google's index. The holidays are coming and the economy has been in a rough place for quite a while now. Changing up rankings in the biggest search engine could affect holiday revenues and that's a scary thing. Although, for others it will probably be a positive change as well.

Google To Murdoch: Use No Index Or Just Ask

Frank Watson — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 06:41:12 -0500

News Corp. Founder and CEO Rupert Murdoch claims Google is stealing their content - the "content kleptomaniacs" as he has termed them. As Greg Jarboe's article below details this could be a major problem for News Corp web sites. Watch the embedded video to hear Murdoch's position.

The UK Telegraph quotes an unnamed Google spokesperson suggesting Murdoch just tell them they want to be dropped from the Google News index.

"Publishers put their content on the web because they want it to be found, so very few choose not to include their material in Google News and web search. But if they tell us not to include it, we don't," the Telegraph quotes.

"If publishers want their content to be removed from Google News specifically all they need to do it tell us."

Murdoch's interview with Sky News shows he may be a little out of touch with how the web works and how to use the traffic from search engines. I wrote an article suggesting he allow more web savvy people to deal with this issue.

The biggest problem with the current situation is that without a solid web approach and the increasing decline in newspaper circulation, there will definitely see a loss in the quality of journalism and in the range of stories that get covered. The Fifth Estate needs help - but battling with Google is not the way to help it.

Interestingly, in the interview Murdoch said there were no news or blog sites that were making big money or more than a couple of million dollars - must be nice to think of those numbers as small change. He obviously misses the power of large online communities and the amount of money they are generating.

Judge Gives Google and Authors Another Book Settlement Extension

Nathania Johnson — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 23:54:27 -0500

Today, Google and the Association of American Publishers were supposed to have reached a new settlement, but instead asked for another extension. Judge Denny Chin, who has been presiding over the case, granted the request.

In September, Judge Chin granted the publishers' request for a delay of the originally scheduled October hearing. The book settlement was announced last spring, but was coming under increased scrutiny from outside groups and the government.

The new deadline is this Friday, November 13.

Google AdWords Adds Two New Alerts

Nathania Johnson — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 23:38:03 -0500

Google AdWords has launched new alerts to help you manage your paid search campaigns.

Under the Opportunities Tab, Google has added alerts for keyword and budget ideas.

If you're using conversion tracking, you can now set up a custom alert to notify you of changes in conversion volume, conversion rate, and cost per conversion.

So far, custom alerts are only available for individual accounts, but Google says they are working on rolling out custom alerts for accounts linked through My Client Center (MCC).