Internet News and SEO Internet Marketing Information from DC2NET

2012-01-31T08:23:00.001-08:00

Link Building Tool Review: WordTracker Link Builder

This week's tool review focuses on the Link Builder toolset from Wordtracker. Wordtracker has been around since 1998 and is most widely known as a keyword research tool. In 2010, they added Link Builder in response to consumer demand and to help their keyword customers with their link…

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2012-01-30T08:05:00.001-08:00

Half of U.S. Cellphone Owners Research In-Store Goods With Their Devices

The rise of mobile commerce is going to give traditional retail stores a headache. Results from a survey done by the Pew Internet and American Life Project shows that 25% of cellphone ownersused their phone to look up the price of a product before buying it at a store. More than half of cellphone owners used their phones to determine what product to buy while in a retail store.

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2012-01-29T08:36:00.001-08:00

Greatest Super Bowl Commercials Ever & 2012 Ad Preview

Unruly Media has just unveiled a new viral video chart of the greatest Super Bowl commercials of all time. The social video advertising experts at Unruly have also created a second viral video chart of top Super Bowl ads of 2012.

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2012-01-28T08:43:00.001-08:00

Netflix Engineer Daniel Jacobson: The API at the Root of Your Business

The first place I had ever seen an API actually at work was as part of an operating system. It was a strange OS at that, a permutation of CP/M that used a graphical front end called GEM, which would later be ported to the Atari ST. The definition was explained to me like this: An "interface," as everyone knows, is a specification for how electrical components interconnect. Well, now it's possible for an application program – the part that does what users need – to interconnect with the operating system, which does what the computer needs. This way the operating functions don't have to be built into every program, they can just be handed off to the OS and the connection will look seamless. The principle was called a layer of abstraction. It was 1984, and it was the first time I'd heard the term.

It would be wrong to call the concept "revolutionary," unless you measure time in units of eons. Nearly three decades after its introduction, only recently have businesses come to realize how widely this architectural principle could be applied. No longer do complex processes have to be bound to precise, policy-intrinsic procedures. If teams can work independently, and computer resources devised to suit each team individually, then all that needs to be specified is the exchange of information between them.

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2012-01-27T07:51:00.001-08:00

Is Twitter Helping Users Get Around Its New Censorship Rules?

Some of the messages Twitter is sending about its new policy on censoring tweets in certain countries seem ambiguous at best.

Perhaps the biggest piece of confusion for people trying to make sense of yesterday's announcement is Twitter's inclusion of a link with instructions on how to change your country setting. The change would appear to at least temporarily allow some users to read messages banned in their country by overriding the IP-address detection mechanism Twitter uses to assign a country to a user.

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2012-01-26T07:34:00.001-08:00

Why Your Business Needs to Be on Google+ Now

Why Google+? The quality and corresponding engagement around your search engine visibility stands to either noticeably improve or gradually decline. Here are some recommendations on what you to do with your Google+ Pages for businesses and brands.

View full post on Search Engine Watch

2012-01-25T07:27:00.001-08:00

CRM Software to Improve Online Marketing

Over the past few months I have been concentrating on improving my time management skills with the introduction of a number of different tools and processes. During that time I noticed CRM software becoming more integrated with online marketing tools and wanted to share those with you. Online Marketing CRM Integration Using CRM tools, like Workbooks

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2012-01-24T07:41:00.000-08:00

SEO Outsourcing: When to Listen to or Question Your SEO Provider

For those of you looking to outsource your SEO, link building, or other online marketing strategies efforts, pay attention! Here is a quick list of times you should listen to or question your SEO consultant or online marketing agency.

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2012-01-23T07:42:00.001-08:00

See a Breakdown of Top 10 Industries Contributing to Google's 2011 $37.9B Revenues

Did you see Google's "disappointing" #37.9 Billion 2011 earnings announcement for their 2011 ad revenues? Ever wonder which industries contribute the most to Google's ad revenues? The findings are summarized in this cool new Infographic by Wordstream. What can your clients learn from these numbers? "This is all original research – Google doesn't provide

View full post on Search Engine Journal

2012-01-22T08:34:00.001-08:00

Tablet Visitors Spent 54% More Than Smartphone Visitors in 2011

The study pointed to two reasons why tablet visitors may be more valuable than those using smartphones, laptops, desktops: tablet users are more affluent than those using other devices, plus the devices may be more conducive to shopping.

View full post on Search Engine Watch

2012-01-21T08:49:00.001-08:00

Facebook Would Like to Launch IPO in May

Facebook is reportedly planning to launch its initial public offering (IPO) in the third week of May of this year. Facebook's IPO would be the largest from a techn company in recent years, with recent valuations reaching as high as $100 billion.

View full post on Search Engine Watch

2012-01-20T08:21:00.001-08:00

Website Usability 101 For SEO Professionals

Want to be better at search engine optimization? What all SEO professionals should know about website usability.

View full post on Search Engine Land

2012-01-19T07:42:00.001-08:00

Search Engines & Opinions: Just How Trustworthy Are Search Results

Whether it's on Google or Bing, websites want to rank in the top positions on search engine result pages (SERPs) and watch the free traffic roll in. However, the traffic isn't nearly as powerful as the effect search results have on public opinion.

View full post on Search Engine Watch

2012-01-18T07:36:00.001-08:00

How To Build A "Navy Seal 6 Team" Of Search Marketers

In the last nine months, I have seen a hiring blitz as Adobe moved its search program in house. Seventeen search marketers were hired and each has turned out to be extremely capable. One colleague compared the new search marketing team to the Seal Team 6 that took out Osama Bin Laden. Through an…

View full post on Search Engine Land

2012-01-17T08:13:00.001-08:00

Linking Strategies For Google Plus Your World

With all the hoopla and hundreds of columns and posts about the launch of Google's "Search Plus Your World", you are likely already quite aware of what has taken place over the past week. If not, Danny Sullivan eloquently covers it in detail in his post Google's Results Get More Personal With…

View full post on Search Engine Land

2012-01-16T08:28:00.001-08:00

Paid Search: The Bright-Line Divide

There are plenty of good reasons to advertise on your brand name. Advertising on your brand allows you to: Control the message. The text of the message can be kept fresh, highlighting promotions, shipping cut-off dates, whatever makes sense for the brand. Direct traffic. Site-links provide an…

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2012-01-15T07:58:00.001-08:00

White House Strangles SOPA, Citing Censorship, Security Concerns

In a statement on behalf of the Obama administration this morning, a trio of senior officials including the nation's Chief Technology Officer made clear that any anti-piracy legislation passing the President's desk would not create risks of censorship, nor would it condone any alterations to the Internet's domain name system that could invite security dangers.

The statement, which lists all three anti-piracy bills currently under discussion – the PROTECT-IP and OPEN bills in the Senate, and the SOPA bill in the House – is a loud warning shot indicating the President's lack of support, and likely veto, of any legislation that requires tampering with the structure of the Internet to enable enforcement.

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2012-01-14T07:28:00.001-08:00

comScore: Bing Takes No. 2 Spot From Yahoo in December 2011

Bing is finally the No. 2 search engine in the U.S., according to the latest figures from comScore. Bing which launched in June 2009 with an 8.4 percent search engine market share, now accounts for 15.1 percent of searches.

As Yahoo dropped…

View full post on Search Engine Watch

2012-01-13T07:58:00.001-08:00

Google 'Search Plus' and Our Ever Decreasing Circles

Earlier this week Google rolled out Search Plus Your World. In short, this development features personalized results from your contacts – which may be images, shared posts, or pages that have been given a +1 by your contacts;

View full post on Search Engine Watch

2012-01-12T07:23:00.001-08:00

Google Search App For Android Updated

Google announced on the Google Mobile Blog that they have updated the Google Search App for Android. The new update makes it easier and faster for searchers to use. The new additions include: New color scheme and simplified UI Faster Enhanced suggestions and query editing Better localized…

View full post on Search Engine Land

2012-01-11T09:23:00.001-08:00

Will Bing Get A Boost Thanks To Google's Your Way?

It may take awhile to figure out if Google has alienated some of its long-term search fans with yesterday's launch of Your World. But if they did, Microsoft's Bing may be poised to pick up some of the castoffs.

Jon Mitchell has details on Your Way, but in a nutshell, the new service better integrates Google+ content into Google search. That could have some looking for more objective ways to search, while also raising the ire of some big Web players.

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2012-01-10T08:10:00.001-08:00

How to Take Control Over Your Social Media Proliferation

A new report by Jeremiah Owyang out last week describes the growing proliferation of social media across corporations and shows exactly how out of control things have gotten. Owyang, an expert on the topic who is part of the Altimeter Group, has a lot to absorb here. He surveyed 144 corporations using social media along with 27 software vendors who have various management tools to help. One of the nice things about this report is he lists his sources explicitly, so you know the quality of the information. On average, a company has 178 different corporate accounts on various social networks. And that isn't counting the personal accounts. That is a lot of stuff to manage.

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2012-01-09T08:04:00.001-08:00

When Amazon's EC2 Isn't Potent Enough For Your Cloud Hosting

If you are looking to virtualize some of your data center and host it in the cloud, you probably have heard about Amazon's EC2 by now. But one IT shop used EC2 as a strawman to consider what they really needed from their eventual service provider. It is interesting and instructive to see the steps that WoundVision took for this process. The company produces a risk assessment software solution supported by infrared thermal imaging for early wound detection.

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2012-01-08T07:47:00.001-08:00

2011: The Year Google & Bing Took Away From SEOs & Publishers

Increasingly over the years, search engines — Google in particular — have given more and more support to SEOs and publishers. But 2011 marked the first significant reversal that I can recall, with both linking and keyword data being withheld. Here's what happened, why it matters…

View full post on Search Engine Land

2012-01-07T08:11:00.001-08:00

You Don't Need A College Degree to Be a Great Coder

Okay, so we all know that both Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg never finished their Harvard degrees, and look where they are now. But for the rest of us who just aspire to have a full time job, let alone an equity share in a hot startup, is a college degree really necessary to code? Maybe not, according to this blog post from Good Technology.

Erin Biba, who wrote the post back in November, asks: "Programming isn't accounting. It requires creative thinkers and problem solvers, people unlikely to thrive in the confines of a college classroom. So why do hiring managers apply traditional methods to a nontraditional job?"

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2012-01-06T07:47:00.001-08:00

10 Search & Website Usability New Year Resolutions for 2012

No matter where in the world you live, it's likely you have rituals that you participate in at various times of the year. Website owners have a New Year ritual too. The first item we need to address is updating the copyright year in the footer of our website. Not only does this show that...

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2012-01-05T08:18:00.001-08:00

Report: Social Media Spending Threatens To Overtake Paid Search Among SMBs

Borrell Associates has come out with an extensive new report about small business ("SMBs") and social media adoption. It contains forecasts and spending estimates as well as other data about SMB usage of social media as a marketing tool. There's a great deal of data already in the…

View full post on Search Engine Land

2012-01-04T08:06:00.001-08:00

It's Official: PayPal President The New Yahoo CEO

AllThingsD reported late yesterday that PayPal president Scott Thompson would likely be named CEO of Yahoo. It's now official; Yahoo just put out it's formal press release announcing Thompson's appointment. In appointing Thompson, Yahoo is choosing a leader with a deeper…

View full post on Search Engine Land

2012-01-03T07:54:00.001-08:00

7 PPC Resolutions to Keep You Focused and Inspired

Many of the resolution-focused articles that touch on PPC this time of year are geared toward specific account tactics. You may expect to see goals such as, "build out long-tail keywords," or "conduct more/better landing pages...

View full post on Search Engine Watch

2012-01-02T07:56:00.001-08:00

Hitwise: Google+ Approaches 50 Million Monthly Visits

According to data shared by Experian Hitwise US, Google+ received around 50 million visits in December. That's a jump of nearly 20 million from the month before and its biggest month of traffic since its launch at the end of June.

Google's social network launched a holiday barrage of commercials featuring the Muppets and pro basketball stars using Google+ video Hangouts. CNET called the commercials "desperate," but according to Hitwise's numbers, the effort paid off.

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2012-01-01T08:31:00.001-08:00

Did New Year's Eve Well-Wishers Crash Twitter

There were reports of widespread outages of Twitter's main Web site Saturday, with speculation centering on the problems stemming from a flood of New Year's greetings.

We asked Twitter for comment and "Our engineers have identified the issue and Twitter is now almost fully recovered," Twitter spokesperson Carolyn Penner said in an email at 4:30 p.m. ET Saturday.

By 2:50 p.m. ET, MSNBC was reporting that the site was "slowly coming back online" and there seemed to be few problems with accessing the site and posting messages by 4:15 p.m. ET. The only official indication from Twitter that something was amiss came Saturday morning, when the company posted "Users may currently be experiencing some site issues; our engineers are working on resolving this issue" on its status microblog.

If the site goes down again — particularly as you hope to send out your New Year's tweets as the calendar turns in your part of the world — try using an app or the mobile site. Some users reported success posting messages using clients like HootSuite, TweetCaster and Twitter's own TweetDeck during the earlier outage.

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2011-12-31T08:02:00.001-08:00

How To Use Google+

Waiting for a Google Plus invite? Google is rolling out the service in waves and you can expect it to become a ubiquitous social option in the coming months. We have been playing with the service since getting invites yesterday and there are a lot of things to like about Google's new social initiative.

Unlike Google's last big invite-only rollout of a social initiative – Google Wave – users will not be confounded on just what the heck you are supposed to with the service when signing up for the first time. From Friendster, Friendfeed, MySpace and Facebook, users are familiar with how a social platform is theoretically supposed to look. At its core level, Plus is not that much different. Yet, there is so much more. How do you get started with Google Plus? Let's break down the nuts and bolts.

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2011-12-30T09:28:00.001-08:00

NSTIC, Google & SEO

In case you missed it, Google is now a credentialed provider of Trusted Identities for the federal government. This means that the NSTIC, or National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace, framework now has federally recognized and certified identity providers.

View full post on Search Engine Watch – Latest

2011-12-28T08:14:00.001-08:00

The Coming Opportunity of BYOD

A few weeks ago, RWW Channels Editor David Strom posted Why BYOD Isn't a Trend.He skewers the notion that BYOD is new, notes that IT leaders have dealt with user-purchased tech for generations, and declares the "consumerization of IT" a new name for an old trend.

Strom's take away: BYOD has been around since the '80s, and the only change is that it is now writ large, thanks to low-cost smartphones, tablets, and Internet-enabled access to corporate data. But he asks the wrong question and misses a much more important point, about how rapid the influx of tablets is changing enterprise IT. Don't ask if BYOD is a trend. Ask what IT leaders are doing about BYOD.

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2011-12-27T08:01:00.001-08:00

How SOPA Would Kill Art & Creativity Online

If SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) passes, artists online will be at risk – especially if Big Media has anything to say about it.

Under SOPA, websites can be blacklisted and removed from the Internet if they appear to be infringing on intellectual property or distributing copyrighted works. This is especially troublesome for artists whose work depends on fair use law and resides at the intersection of art, mass media critique and appropriation.

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2011-12-26T08:11:00.001-08:00

5 Ways to be Productive During Holiday Down Time

SEOs are an intrinsically disorganized bunch. By our very nature we're constantly taking in information from a thousand different places at once. It's what makes us good at our job, but it also means that we're very easily distracted

View full post on Search Engine Watch – Latest

2011-12-25T08:18:00.001-08:00

Technology in Real Life: In Praise of the "C" Word

You should write more what you feel, I've been told. Be more open about yourself, Scott. If you want to engage people, to build a community, to get people talking in comments, and bring more people into your social circle, you need to be more open, more accessible, more of a personality. Show people your soft side, your heart. What do you really believe, Scott M. Fulton, III, besides your insistence on using Roman numerals in your name? You talk about issues that have six or seven sides to them, but you don't tell people where you stand. How do you expect people to engage with you if you don't engage with them?

Well, okay, if you insist. I am a Christian.

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2011-12-24T08:04:00.001-08:00

Where's Santa Claus? The 2011 Santa Tracker List, From NORAD To Your Phone!

It's Christmas Eve! Santa Claus is on his annual trip of delivering presents to good little boys and girls around the world. Time also for our annual tradition, telling you how to track Santa using the internet, by smartphone and even through good old-fashioned voice telephone calls.

View full post on Search Engine Land

2011-12-23T08:36:00.001-08:00

Search In Pics: Google Snow, Yahoo Decorations & Google Menorah

In this week's Search In Pictures, here are the latest images culled from the web, showing what people eat at the search engine companies, how they play, who they meet, where they speak, what toys they have, and more. Snowing At Google: Yahoo Holiday Decorations: Facebook Bike: Google's…

View full post on Search Engine Land

2011-12-22T08:02:00.001-08:00

CES 2013 Minus Microsoft: No More Tomorrow-land

There's a good possibility that Microsoft may have made a bigger splash by exiting the keynote address and booth presence at the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show than it made by being there in the four years leading up to 2012. If CES were an accurate barometer of consumer sentiment, then today we would all be snug in our vibrating chairs with our femtocell-enhanced home wireless phones (with built-in universal remotes), watching HD DVD movies with "TV Everywhere" live interactive background feeds on our plasma screens through our VIIV media PCs, and with mobile TVs in our shirt pockets feeding us live sports scores via AOL's colossal media empire.

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2011-12-21T08:07:00.001-08:00

Best BigCo of 2011

As part of our annual review of the Web, we single out a big Internet company that has impressed us the most over the calendar year. The first Best BigCo was chosen back in 2004, so this is the 8th year we've done this. Only four companies have won it up till now. Google has been our selection three times (2004,2006 and 2009) and Facebook has won it twice (2007 and 2010). The only other two winners have been Apple (2008) and Yahoo (2005).

This year we're pleased to etch a fifth name onto the Best BigCo trophy (although like our own little company, the trophy is virtual). Our Best BigCo of 2011 has been around since the Dot Com era, but what's most impressive is how it has disrupted entirely new markets over the past year. Our Best BigCo for 2011 is…

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2011-12-20T08:44:00.001-08:00

IT Survey: Businesses Embrace APIs for Apps Integration, Not Social

In perhaps one of the more counter-intuitive surveys to be published this year, commissioned by developer tools maker Apigee, a majority of businesses interviewed whose IT departments are currently managing API-intensive development projects say that integration with social networking sites is the least of their concerns.

Though the interview was limited to only 24 companies (leaving some doubt as to whether the sample size is adequate enough), the Web API study published by Hurwitz & Associates shows only 12% (3 firms) registering "expanding to social networking sites" as an important motivating factor for adopting APIs in applications.

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2011-12-19T08:11:00.001-08:00

Google Releases Ten Videos On Rich Snippets

Google has released ten different videos for webmasters on how rich snippets work. Google's rich snippets are special markups used by webmasters to enhance the Google search results. They often take a while to show up in the search results, and often lead to webmaster confusion

View full post on Search Engine Land

2011-12-18T08:11:00.001-08:00

Let It Snow Google Easter Egg Blankets Search Results in Snow

If the weather outside today is more "delightful" than "frightful" where you live and you're wishing for some snow without all the hassles of shoveling, there's one place you can definitely see some (virtual) snowflakes: Google's search results.

Type in "let it snow" (without quotes) when you visit Google and you'll be treated to a new Easter egg. Snowflakes will fall from the top of your screen and slowly cover Google's search results (prominently featuring links to YouTube videos of the famous song "Let it Snow") in a light coating of snow.

View full post on Search Engine Watch – Latest

2011-12-17T07:39:00.001-08:00

Top 50 Funniest Tweets from SomeEcards

We wrote earlier this week about the most quoted tweets of the year, but how about the most humorous? Luckily, we have the service SomeEcards.com, which always seems to capture the zeitgeist of the moment, and they have announced the top 50 funniest tweets of the year.

View full post on ReadWriteWeb

2011-12-16T08:04:00.001-08:00

Android 101: Google Launches Mobile App Training Program

In days of yore, kids wanted to be policemen, kung fu experts or jet fighters when they grew up. They saw what was being glorified on television and in the movies and said, "Daddy, that is what I want to do!" These days, kids may want to grow up to be great mobile developers. It could happen.

Google is making that easier than ever to learn to developer for Android. Last night it introduced a new beta program, Android Training, a collection of classes designed to help mobile developers make better Android apps. Google realizes that in the realm of public opinion Android apps are perceived to be inferior to iOS. Hence, Android Training is targeted to help developers make slicker, sexier, more functional apps.

View full post on ReadWriteWeb

2011-12-15T07:31:00.001-08:00

Google Webmaster Tools Author Stats

Google has introduced a new report in Google Webmaster Tools named "Author Stats." Author Stats shows you how often your content is showing up on the Google search results page. This will show up under Google Webmaster Tools in the "labs" section in Webmaster Tools.

View full post on Search Engine Land

2011-12-14T07:43:00.001-08:00

Google Tests Its Hotel Finder As A New Comparison Ad Atop Search Results

Hotel industry, you're on notice: Google appears to be running a test that places its own Google Hotel Finder at the top of very competitive, hotel-related queries. Search Engine Land reader Alex, who works in the hospitality industry, tipped us to this development

View full post on Search Engine Land

2011-12-13T08:14:00.001-08:00

Search Engine Market Share, November 2011

It's no question that Google is currently the dominant search engine in the U.S. market, although their major competitors turn up the heat, and as Google continues to expand on their many product offerings, two key questions have arisen: Is Google focusing on search the way it has in the past?

View full post on Search Engine Journal

2011-12-12T07:54:00.000-08:00

Google Panda: How Can Affiliate Sites Cope?

Google's Panda update is the hot topic in the affiliate world and with good reason. Affiliate sites, in general, are more susceptible to the effects of Panda, which have caused some sites to lose anywhere from 20 to 95 percent of their organic traffic from Google in a single month.

View full post on Search Engine Watch – Latest

2011-12-11T08:27:00.001-08:00

Untethered Jailbreak For iOS 5 Coming Any Day Now

Owners of iPads, iPhones and iPods running the latest version of iOS have not yet had the option to jailbreak their devices in a way that's at all worth the trouble. For those who are dying to break free of Apple's restrictions, an untethered jailbreak appears to be on the way.

On Friday, France-based iOS hacker @pod2g uploaded a video showing that he was successful in jailbreaking iOS 5.0.1 running on his iPhone 3G. This came about a month after he announced on Twitter that he had discovered a bug in iOS 5 that would make a jailbreak possible.

View full post on ReadWriteWeb

2011-12-10T07:36:00.001-08:00

Google+ Stream Filtering Upgrade In Works

Google plans to add filtering mechanisms to Google+, allowing users to receive more relevant social content as the company seeks to challenge rival Facebook.

"Noise control" will soon be added to the social site

View full post on Search Engine Watch – Latest

2011-12-09T07:50:00.001-08:00

Infographic: What Tools Developers Actually Use

The folks at BestVendor.com interviewed 500 developers and compiled this profile of the tools that they actually use. A few stalwarts, such as Git, Eclipse, AWS, Dropbox, MySQL, and Google Analytics. But a few surprises too, including 23% use Notepad++ as their text editor and 8% using Heroku for hosting their apps. Many of the categories are wide open too. All of those surveyed are from smaller companies of less than 100 people from around the world.

View full post on ReadWriteWeb

2011-12-08T07:42:00.001-08:00

Survey Says SEO The Single Most Important Marketing Channel For SMBs

SEO: one channel to rule them all? A new "merchant confidence survey" from lead-gen company MerchantCircle/Reply.com, among 2,500 US small businesses, finds that search engine optimization is the marketing channel they would choose if they could choose only one. The question asked was:…

View full post on Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing

2011-12-07T08:32:00.001-08:00

New iPhone, iPad and Android Apps for November 2011

We love new apps. It is one of the joys of our life to sift through the flood of apps that are published or updated every month and deliver the best or most interesting to our readers. November had some great apps for Android, the iPhone and the iPad. In our ongoing series of Apps Of The Month, we take a look at what November produced below. We are continuing for the third month with our list of app updates so you can keep track of what you need to update for functionality and security purposes.

The list, as always, is a bit subjective so please let us know in the comments if we missed an app or you have found one that you cannot live without.

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2011-12-06T07:50:00.001-08:00

Eric Ward Answers 10 Questions on BizDev Link Building

Eric Ward is the godfather of link building (just ask Jeff Bezos, who hired Eric to help launch Amazon). I've been learning from him since I started in the SEO industry back in 2001, and continue learning from him to this day through his LinkMoses…

View full post on Search Engine Watch – Latest

2011-12-05T07:47:00.001-08:00

Browser Wars: How Chrome Overtook Firefox for the First Time

Almost as quickly as November came to a close, news broke from StatCounter indicating Google's Chrome browser overtook Mozilla Firefox as the second most popular browser worldwide for the first time.

View full post on Search Engine Watch – Latest

2011-12-04T07:34:00.001-08:00

The Right Stuff: Heavy Duty Real-Time Airline Flight Tracking Tools

Seemingly every day, more real-time or near real-time data becomes accessible on the internet. Over the next few weeks, I'll be writing about many different types of real-time resources, but today, I'll be focusing on real-time flight data—virtually addicting tools for frequent…

View full post on Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing

2011-12-03T07:46:00.001-08:00

Do We Really Need a New Microsoft?

The discussion is already nearly five years old, and yet the vacancy in the public conscience persists as if something big had collapsed just last week. Microsoft is no longer the dominating, polarizing force that it was in the previous decade. The mindset of the company that once preached to its employees, "Every line of code that is written to our standards is a small victory; every line of code that is written to any other standard, is a small defeat," has exited out the back door and sneaked past the gaze of European regulators.

And boy, do we ever miss it. From the moment Ycombinator co-founder Paul Graham famously proclaimed "Microsoft is Dead," our casting couches have been warmed by the seats of would-be substitutes. Like it or not, Microsoft fulfilled a latent psychological need in many folks' minds: the need for a strongly polarizing force that made it easier to decide what to like and what to hate.

View full post on ReadWriteWeb

2011-12-02T07:56:00.001-08:00

Twitter Launches Self Serve Ad Platform

Although it is in beta testing and currently only available to a small number of approximately 20 advertisers, Twitter has finally launched its self-serve ad platform. The new platform, which enables advertisers to use a self-serve system to purchase advertising without speaking to a human, currently allows the purchase of promoted accounts and promoted tweets.

View full post on Search Engine Journal

2011-12-01T08:23:00.001-08:00

How Search Engines Use Machine Learning for Pattern Detection

Search engines use machine learning for pattern detection. While it's impossible to explain in one short article how machine learning influences our lives, understanding the basics of machine learning can give you some insight into search

View full post on Search Engine Watch – Latest

2011-11-30T07:45:00.001-08:00

3 PPC Ad Tips Inspired by Infomercials

A few weeks ago at ad:tech New York, Matthew Lesko stopped by my company's booth and freaked me out by doing this! And as that finger haunted me for the following couple of nights, it got me thinking about the success he's had

View full post on Search Engine Watch – Latest

2011-11-29T08:09:00.001-08:00

Windows Phone Outperforms Android and iOS In Mobile Advertising, Smaato Reports

Mobile ad optimizing network Smaato has released its third quarter metrics and the good news for developers is that U.S. fill rates have stabilized. The problem for developers is that fill rates have stabilized at 18%, a one-point drop from the second quarter. The question that developers have to ask themselves is whether or not mobile advertising can be relied upon to create a viable business for their products

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2011-11-28T07:23:00.001-08:00

Thinking Beyond Typical PPC Landing Pages

Many paid search advertisers send visitors to landing pages that sell specific products and/or services. Landing pages are not the only option available to PPC advertisers – there are many more things paid search advertisers can do in order to generate leads, sales or just plain old allow…

View full post on Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing

2011-11-27T07:35:00.001-08:00

Google Chromebooks Get Price Drop, Updates, In-Flight WiFi

Google's cloud-based computers are getting a holiday-season push. Chromebooks are getting a price drop, the Chrome OS is getting some in-demand tweaks, and those taking plane trips for the holidays may get access to a free Chromebook during their flight.

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2011-11-26T08:16:00.001-08:00

Amazon and Facebook Have Become Unwitting Platform Evangelists for Android

There is a general thought going around the Internet that by making Android open source, Google has lost control of the platform as companies like Amazon and Facebook use to source code fork to create their own devices. It has been said that Google has lost the keys to Android and it was a mistake to let anyone outside of Google-approved original equipment manufacturers build off the platform.

Has Google really lost control of Android? By forking Android to their needs, have Amazon and Facebook really taken money out of Google's pockets? Probably not. In fact, with the Kindle Fire and rumored Facebook Phone, both Facebook and Amazon may have unwittingly become platform evangelists for the Android platform.

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2011-11-25T08:04:00.001-08:00

SEOnomics: A New Way Of Thinking About SEO For Business

SEOnomics (pronounced 'see-oh-nomics') is a term I conceived to meld SEO with economics, but in a style and fashion not usually covered by traditional SEO experts. SEOnomics interweaves elements of SEO (especially Web Analytics), buyer psychology and business administration to…

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2011-11-24T07:47:00.001-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving Logos From Google, Yahoo, Bing & More

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! Below is a collection of the 2011 Thanksgiving logos and themes from the search engine industry. Including Google's logo , which went live a couple days ago, and logos from Yahoo, Bing, Dogpile, Ask.com, and others.

View full post on Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing

2011-11-23T07:49:00.001-08:00

Google Adds Mobile App Search Tool

You can now go to Google and restrict and filter your search results to only show mobile apps. To do so, search at Google for an app, and then on the search tools on the left, click "more" and then select "Applications."

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2011-11-22T07:54:00.001-08:00

A 4 Step Multivariate Testing Process That Works

When we talk about website testing, we mostly talk about what to test: unique selling propositions, headlines, calls-to-action, etc. It's equally important to understand howto test (i.e., the process that produces better results).

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2011-11-21T07:44:00.001-08:00

10 Stats to Justify SEO

Have you seen the potential of SEO but are struggling to convince your boss or colleagues? You are not alone. SEO can often be viewed as a difficult, techy oddity, and not something that every company needs. Small-scale businesses often think they won't benefit from spending money on online marketing.

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2011-11-20T07:43:00.001-08:00

The Internet Will Get a Peer Review Layer Next Year

A project lead by some of the most-respected leaders of the Internet has secured $240,000 in funding to build a prototype system for both expert and peer review of all the content on the web, sentence by sentence. Called Hypothes.is, the project is lead by early search engine innovator and climate change activist Dan Whaley and backed by advisors from John Perry Barlow of the EFF to Garret Camp of StumbleUpon to Kaliya Hamlin of the Internet Identity Workshop to Nate Oostendorp of Slashdot, and many more.

We wrote about the Hypothes.is fundraising effort on Kickstarter last month. That effort succeeded, including with a large matching pledge by cleantech and web venture capitalist Sunil Paul. And so Hypothes.is will be built. What do people want out of it and does it stand a chance to change the web? Opinions differ.

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2011-11-19T07:31:00.001-08:00

Peak to Peak Marketing Unveils New Website and Offers Free SEO and Marketing Guide – DigitalJournal.com

Peak to Peak Marketing is also offering a free SEO and Marketing guide available for download. VANCOUVER, BC, November 19, 2011 /24-7PressRelease/ — Peak to Peak Marketing is proud to announce the launch of their redesigned website.

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2011-11-18T07:34:00.001-08:00

Websites & Social Media Resources For Black Friday & Cyber Monday

I know many of you are very savvy on the web and don't need a list of websites and resources, but there are many that don't have time to track down all the places that will show the best deals on items this holiday season. So for all of you that want to save time

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2011-11-17T07:20:00.001-08:00

Google Checkout Is Dead, Long Live Google Wallet

Yesterday Google Checkout users were notified that it was being merged into and replaced by Google Wallet. This makes sense on every level. From a 'brand" and visibility standpoint Wallet is a more successful product already. Checkout was introduced in June, 2006

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2011-11-16T07:43:00.000-08:00

Search Retargeting: 4 Tips To Use Recency To Drive Performance

In life, timing can be everything. But in marketing, it can make the difference between a sale and a missed opportunity. That's why the topic of recency is so important to marketers. Fortunately, search retargeting can help marketers capitalize on recency to drive performance. Understanding Recency…

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2011-11-15T07:44:00.001-08:00

Android Dominates Q3 Worldwide Smartphone Sales

Research firm Gartner has come out with its third quarter global mobile sales numbersand overall, the industry grew 5.6% from the same period last year. About 440.5 million cellphones were sold, with 115 million of those being of the smart variety, a 42% growth rate from Q3 2010 but only 7% growth from Q2 2011. The feature phone market is being buoyed by emerging markets while most of the smartphone growth was in Russia and China. Many other markets have stalled in smartphone growth.

Gartner says the slowdown of smartphone growth in markets such as the United States and Western Europe was due to consumers waiting for flagship devices to be released, such as the newest iPhone, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus and the HTC Rezound. Nokia is still No. 1 in the world in overall sales while another study shows that the best selling single devices in the U.S. are Apple's variety of iPhones.

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2011-11-14T07:37:00.001-08:00

Bing Launches "Editors Picks"

Bing has launched a new section named Editors Picks. Bing Editor's Picks is a collection of web pages grouped into topics, much like a web directory. Yes, Bing Editor's picks is basically a limited version of the Yahoo Directory or Open Directory Project.

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2011-11-13T08:06:00.001-08:00

Yahoo, Microsoft, AOL Confirm Display Ad Deal

An unprecedented ad network agreement between three of the largest display ad sellers is now official. Yahoo, AOL, and Microsoft have confirmed plans to pool together their unsold inventory in a deal that aims to increase their margins, secure higher prices for remnant ads, and augment the reach available to agencies and advertisers.

View full post on Search Engine Watch – Latest

2011-11-12T07:40:00.001-08:00

Facebook Nearing Privacy Settlement With FTC

Facebook is close to a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission over charges that it acted in a deceptive manner in regards to its privacy settings, according to reports from The Wall Street Journal.

The settlement would require Facebook to receive user consent before making "material retroactive changes" to its privacy settings. It would also require independent privacy audits for the next 20 years.

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2011-11-11T07:52:00.001-08:00

Why Blending Usability & SEO Really Matters

Whenever the phrase, "usability and SEO", enter a conversation, there's a very good chance it goes in one ear and out the other. Corporate management interprets it as "We need more money", and middle management fixes their poker face until they're free to run to Google to look up the term.

View full post on Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing

2011-11-10T07:30:00.001-08:00

Google May Penalize Your Site for Having Too Many Ads

Google is looking at penalizing ad heavy sites that make it difficult for people to find good content on web pages, Matt Cutts, head of Google's web spam team, said yesterday at PubCon during his keynote session.

View full post on Search Engine Watch – Latest

2011-11-09T07:43:00.001-08:00

Google Expands Offers To Five New Markets

This morning Google is announcing that its Offers product is coming to five more US cities: Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles and Brooklyn (NY). That brings to 24 the number of live Offers locations (although New York City is divided into three distinct areas).

View full post on Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing

2011-11-08T08:39:00.001-08:00

PubCon: Social Media Conversion Optimization with Brian Massey

Brian Massey, a conversion optimization scientist and widely published author, recently presented on how to measure and improve social media conversion rates. Massey, the owner ofconversionscientist.com, emphasized that regardless of the size of a brand's "social footprint," it is important to measure conversions. It is this data that will ensure the site is properly converting the visitors from social sites into positive ROI.

At one point during the presentation, Massey said:

"Social media is great for customer support, but I don't care. Social media lets us tune into the conversations about our brand, but I don't care. People say social media is free, but it is not. Social media can drive sales that a brand otherwise would not have seen – Now you have my attention, prove it."

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2011-11-07T07:57:00.001-08:00

Back to Basics – SEO 101

Quite a few folks who are new to SEO come to Search Engine Watch or the SES conferences to gain an understanding of what many of us have practiced for years. So, first of all…welcome newbies! Don't be afraid.

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2011-11-06T07:32:00.001-08:00

Microsoft Kinect Turns One Year Old, Ushers in New Interface Era

Microsoft's gesture interface Kinect turns one year old this weekend; it was the 4th of November 2010 when it was first publicly available. The device has taken the world by storm, from casual gamers to device hackers around the globe and it's breathed new hope into a lagging tech giant. Perhaps most importantly, it's helped create an entire new category of human-computer interface. After the Command Line came the Graphic User Interface – and after that has come the Natural User Interface (NUI): the human-computer interface that is transparent or invisible.

Along with the iPad, which itself is just over 18 months old after launching in the Spring of 2010, the Kinect has helped turn ideas that were once science fiction into developments that seem imminent. See, for example, the video below made by Microsoft to celebrate the innovation occurring on the Kinect platform.

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2011-11-05T09:00:00.003-07:00

How eMusic Scaled WordPress

WordPress has grown by leaps and bounds from its origins as a personal blogging platform. Despite the evidence, though, a lot of folks view WordPress as a CMS that's exclusively for blogs or small sites. So what if I told you eMusic is moving to WordPress for all its CMS needs? That's exactly what Scott Taylor talked about this year at WordCamp San Francisco.

Now, eMusic isn't the world's biggest site, but it's nothing to sneeze at either. It serves around 6 million visits per month and "billions of HTTP requests" and millions of page views. The site has 400,000 subscribers. If it can handle eMusic, odds are it can handle your site as well.

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