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Media Literacy: Making Sense Of New Technologies And Media by George Siemens - May 2 09

Search Tools & Technology - Sat, 2009-05-02 10:48
What is Media Literacy? Media literacy is the ability to bring critical thinking skills and about asking pertinent questions about what's there, and noticing what's not there. And it's the instinct to question what lies behind media productions - the motives, the money, the values and the ownership— and to be aware of how these factors influence content. In our world of multi-tasking, commercialism, globalization and interactivity, media literacy isn't about having the right answers - it's about asking the right questions. (Source: Jane Tallim) Photo credit: lumingopereira Inside this Media Literacy Digest:
  • Community Information Hubs - Finding relevant information about a local community is challenging in a sea of global information.
  • How Social Media Is Changing College Admission - Instead of marketing to 100,000 students at once (mainstream media model) they now focus on connecting to groups of 10-20.
  • Visualization and Search - Searching and finding useful information really shouldn’t be as difficult as it is today.
  • Technology as Philosophy - Technology is a philosophy and we MUST understand what it embodies, discuss its future impact, and explore what we are becoming.
  • LearnTrends - Jay Cross hosted a 24-hour learn-a-thon this week.
  • Pay Attention! - ...attention is a skill that must be learned, shaped, practiced; this skill must evolve if we are to evolve.
  • Rough Week for Higher Education - Established institutions like higher education are increasingly targeted as bloated, inefficient, and thoroughly corrupt.
If you are into understanding how technology improvements are shaping new and different paradigms in the way we conceive and experience education, this weekly digest provides you a good set of pointers, facts and resources to make sense of the challenges that awaits our society in a not-so-distant future. Here all the details:
Categories: New Media, SEO

SearchCap: The Day In Search, May 1, 2009

Search stats recap - Fri, 2009-05-01 20:53

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.

From Search Engine Land:

  • Small Business Owner Sues Google & Others Over ‘Android’ Name

    An Illinois small business owner is suing Google and 46 other companies because he says they’re infringing on his business name: Android Data. Forbes reports that the lawsuit was filed Tuesday, and seeks almost $100 million in damages from Google and all other companies in the Open Handset Alliance, which includes T-Mobile, Motorola, Toshiba, Sprint [...]

  • Sorry, Tom Curley: Don’t Expect A Google Ranking Boost For The AP

    Apparently talks between Google and the Associated Press aren’t going well, or so says Forbes today, with AP chief executive Tom Curley threatening to take his content and play elsewhere. Where that will be is hard to say. Part of the AP’s original issue with Google was that AP’s own member publications [...]

  • Google: I’ll One Up That Newcomer

    As I hinted to with the demo of Wolfram Alpha Google launched Google Profiles, that Google tends to release new features during or around the time a newcomer launches their product. This happened a couple days ago, when Google decided to launch Google Public Data during the big demo of one of the most [...]

  • Beyond Keywords: Multi-Variable PPC Targeting

    Sometimes my colleagues ask me why I’m always requesting demos of new marketing technology. The answer is that I find major creative inspiration from the tools. As vendors compete in the marketplace, they’re forced to innovate to differentiate themselves from their competitors. For example, a few years ago, Yahoo developed “assists” in [...]

  • Google Giving Away 250,000 Google Profile Business Cards

    Google has teamed up with iPrint.com to offer free Google Profile business cards to the first 10,000 people who claim them. Each person can get a set of 25 cards that shows the Google.com home page with his/her Google Profile URL underneath it in green. If you’re logged in to your Google account, you should see [...]

  • Google Adds Search Box Inside Gmail

    The newest addition to Gmail Labs is an option that adds a Google search box to your Gmail inbox interface. When activated, the search box appears below the “Labels” section of the left navbar, like this:

    (Of course, there’s a drag and drop option in Gmail Labs, too, that will let you move the search box [...]

  • Yahoo Analytics Now Available To Yahoo Advertisers

    Yahoo’s slow rollout of Yahoo Web Analytics continues with news today that its now available for free to certain Yahoo search and display advertisers. Here’s how Yahoo explains some of the benefits of its analytics tool in today’s announcement: “Yahoo! Web Analytics offers user insight that you’re not likely to find in other free analytics tools, including [...]

  • Twitter Search (Finally) Available To All Users

    Much to the delight of users far and wide (such as our own @dannysullivan), Twitter has announced that Twitter Search is now available on all user account home pages. Not only that, but Twitter has also added a “Save This Search” feature that may prove popular, too. When logged in to your Twitter account, all users [...]

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Google Tops List of Global Brands; Pampers Not Too Crappy at #31

Marketing Pilgrim - Fri, 2009-05-01 12:43

Each year Millward Brown compiles its Brandz Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands (pdf). For the past three years Google has sat atop of the list and this year has the distinction of being the first $100 billion brand.

Outside the Top 10, but showing impressive growth in brand equity, are Blackberry (#16, up 100%), Amazon (#26, up 85%) and AT&T (#28, up 67%).

The highest new entry is Pampers (#31). Pertinent don’t you think, considering our economy is down the crapper?

Categories: Blogs, Marketing, SEO

New Search Options for Gmail and Twitter

Marketing Pilgrim - Fri, 2009-05-01 12:27

Apparently, Google’s engineers have adult attention deficit disorder. I’m being serious! Because of ADD, we now have Google Search integrated directly into the Gmail interface:

I used to have a problem. People would ask me questions, over chat or email, and I’d have to leave Gmail to search Google for an answer. Then I’d have to select the answer, copy it, go back to Gmail and paste the answer into the chat window or my reply. Sometimes I’d get distracted and forget to go back to Gmail, and I’d have to go through it all again when I remembered what I’d been doing.

Poor guy.

Anyway, head to the Gmail Labs tab in your account and you’ll see the option to switch on Google Search within Gmail. You’ll then get this in your sidebar:

And this handy pop-up with your search results:

Meanwhile, Twitter also decided today was a good day to better integrate its search tool with its interface. The previously announced changes should now be visible to all Twitter users.

Categories: Blogs, Marketing, SEO

AOL Making Noise with Another Ex-Googler Hire

Marketing Pilgrim - Fri, 2009-05-01 12:21

It was only a matter of time but it appears as if the time has arrived. While the buzz from some folks inside of AOL is very positive about the addition of Tim Armstrong it is going to get louder as more major hires are announced. The first is the hiring of a new top ad sales executive for the company. Not a surprise considering Armstrong’s pedigree and the importance of showing that AOL is still in the business of generating revenue through its properties.

As reported by the WSJ

Jeff Levick, who has worked at Google since 2001, most recently as vice president of industry development and marketing, is the latest in a series of Google executives who have announced plans to leave the company.

The 38-year-old executive will become president of global advertising and strategy at AOL, a unit of Time Warner Inc. He will be responsible for Platform-A, AOL’s ad unit, and for developing global revenue strategies.

So there are several observations to make here. First, don’t get to comfortable in any new job. Levick is replacing Gregory Coleman who took the job of president of Platform under the previous AOL CEO in February. Two months doesn’t even give most people enough time to find all the restrooms at a company the size of AOL let alone work themselves out of a job. Coleman will be leaving the company. One thing that may be noted is that Coleman came to AOL from Yahoo, which may be a resume liability these days.

Of course, the other side of the story is another executive leaving Google. Need for concern? Too early to tell but traditionally Google has required exiting executives to sign agreements not to hire Google employees for one year. The terms of Armstrong’s agreement upon leaving Google are not known.

People familiar with the matter said AOL has interviewed other potential job candidates from Google as well. That suggests that Google has given Mr. Armstrong, a former senior vice president who was one of its earliest employees, more freedom to hire former colleagues than it has with other former executives.

With AOL now poised to spin off from the Time Warner mothership and new blood being injected in what many thought was a dying entity, could AOL get comeback player of the year honors? Or, will this be an overhyped flurry of activity that puts AOL back in the news but results in the same old, same old? Your take?

Categories: Blogs, Marketing, SEO

Good Review, Bad Name for a Search Engine

Marketing Pilgrim - Fri, 2009-05-01 11:51

If ReadWriteWeb hadn’t looked at one of the newest players in the search engine game it may not have been found based on its name, Duck Duck Go. Before there is any further discussion about the merits of the engine one has to wonder why this name? Using a play on the name of an ages old kids game to represent results that are picked (I am guessing here) is a stretch at best and a brand manager’s nightmare at worst.

So what’s in a name? In this case it remains to be seen. The engine itself seems pretty cool. One feature that I found particularly useful was the ability to click on an icon and search a term on 27 other sites including Twitter, About.com, NY Times, cnet and more. On that front alone the search engine may be worth an occasional visit. Gee, I wonder what the chances of Google doing something similar?

The core results are apparently sourced for the most part from Wikipedia and Yahoo’s BOSS. While the initial reaction to the Wikipedia source was a visible cringe and an audible sigh (the accuracy factor of Wikipedia data is always a potential gotcha) the way the information is presented helps to overcome that concern (after all it is just a concern since measuring the actual accuracy is difficult). The results pages are very clean, easy to read and the results were helpful for the few searches I con-duck-ted (get it?).

The RWW article points out one of the great strengths of the engine

Duck Duck Go also does a great job at providing users with options for disambiguation, which also look like they are based on Wikipedia’s disambiguation pages. If you search for “Berlin,” for example, Duck Duck Go will ask you if you are looking for the German capital, an album from Lou Reed, or a town in Connecticut.

Add in an iPhone app and the ability to add the engine to the Firefox toolbar and I am a convert of sorts. Of course, the question always comes back to how can another search engine survive with Google being the 800 pound gorilla in the space. Since there are a ridiculous amount of people using search to get around the Internet it may not take a big percentage of overall users to make the business go.

One nagging question that seems to be popping up a lot lately regarding Internet business is that annoying need to know how they plan to make money. While that is not readily apparent some quick information is that the company is based in Valley Forge, PA and its founder is Gabriel Weinberg. It may be worth keeping an eye on this entry into an already crowded field. Having options usually is a good thing especially when the other major search engine options outside of Google are more well known for their questionable business moves than actually doing search.

Categories: Blogs, Marketing, SEO

SearchCap: The Day In Search, April 30, 2009

Search stats recap - Thu, 2009-04-30 21:00

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.

From Search Engine Land:

  • Searchme Launches Multimedia Visual Search

    Searchme has rolled out what it calls “true” blended search results, combining web, video, images, music and Twitter results organized by their relevance and playable inside the search results page. Searchme displays results as small versions of entire web pages, in a format that looks just like the “cover flow” display in iTunes. I love Searchme [...]

  • Google, Give Me My $30,000 Back!

    I reported at the Search Engine Roundtable that one new AdWords advertiser found a $30,000 surprise from Google in her AdWords account. The advertiser said in a Google AdWords thread that she set up a test ad one night and when she returned the next morning to see how the ad was doing, she [...]

  • Search Biz: AOL Spin Off, Yahoo Layoffs, Google Losses, IAC Spoons And Pines For AOL

    The biggest Search Biz news of the week is about AOL’s forthcoming spin off and related personnel moves. Time Warner yesterday announced quarterly revenues and a whopping $16 billion loss (not the largest in the company’s history). For its part, AOL’s ad revenues fell roughly 20 percent to $867 million from $1.13 billion the previous [...]

  • YouTube Is Broken. Here’s How To Fix It

    As has anyone in the online industry, I have closely followed the YouTube saga since its acquisition by Google. Undoubtedly YouTube is one of the greatest success stories of the Internet era, adding users and usage faster than any site ever launched on the web, including MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, and Google. What is also often [...]

  • Powerful Linkbait: Contests & Incentives

    Most people in the industry look at contests and incentives as branding and marketing tools. However if you are willing to get creative, you can turn a contest into a powerful link building tool that will, over time, help your organic rankings. When most marketing and advertising teams look at a contest they are looking for [...]

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Flickr Takes Some Shots from Yahoo Layoffs

Marketing Pilgrim - Thu, 2009-04-30 20:18

While it is no surprise that Yahoo started announcing the layoffs of between 600-700 people this week (the number varies according t the source) there is a bit of a surprise in what business units were targeted. The biggest surprise comes from the cuts made at Flickr.

Om Malik of Gigaom gives some interesting insight into these changes by sharing the announcements he picked up from various engineers through tweets. While layoffs do seem to be a part of it there seems to also be some voluntary exits that go along with the forced reductions. While this is completely conjecture on my part, the experience I have had is that when there are voluntary exits that coincide with layoffs that is not a very good sign. Most people are happy that they didn’t get let go and move on with their jobs and just deal with the ‘survivor’s guilt’. If folks are jumping ship of their own accord in conjunction with the layoffs then you have to wonder what is actually happening there.

Malik’s statement below poses an interesting thought.

Frankly, cutting the Flickr team is a bit of a head-scratcher: That group is one of the few pockets of future-thinking tinkerers at Yahoo, especially when it comes to building new media experiences around “social objects” such as photos.

If that is truly the case then there is a talent leak occurring. Of course, the changes that have come with the Carol Bartz era could simply be too much for some to handle. It certainly isn’t the same Yahoo that existed just a few short months ago. Talent that liked a loose culture and atmosphere may be having a negative response to the decidedly different culture that is going to result from Bartz’s leadership.

As can be the case, some of the comments that follow this post exhibit the Yahoo supporters coming to bat for the new Yahoo world order while others wonder if they need to move all of heir photos from the service. There also appears to be a debate about how much, if any, money Flickr generates for the company. All good questions for sure that will only be answered with the passing of time and not opinions.

Categories: Blogs, Marketing, SEO

Disney Jumps Through Hulu Hoop

Marketing Pilgrim - Thu, 2009-04-30 19:24

Disney has announced it has acquired a stake in Hulu that is thought to be as high as 30% according to the folks over at Mashable. Disney has now joined NBC Universal and News Corp. in this venture.

The momentum this gives the video site is very real as it looks to jump on a position in the market that perhaps YouTube may be too late to the game on. YouTube has just started to strike deals with the major media producers and their lineup of available programs to watch is not as impressive as Hulu’s.

Another player that may be left in the dust is CBS. They currently show their productions on their own site and through TV.com. While they may feel like they have more control they are now on the outside looking in as FOX, NBC and ABC can be viewed on Hulu. For now this service is only available in the US much to the consternation viewers elsewhere in the world.

Now ABC shows like Lost and Desperate Housewives will be available to view online via Hulu. The sheer volume of the offering on Hulu by striking these big deals is far bigger than just the straight network plays. The days of the TV only companies are long gone. The shows on ABC are just one part of the gigantic Disney media machine that is searching for ways to get distribution in the widely decentralized market that exists in the Internet age.

In what can be viewed as a statement that shows the maturation of the media industry and the realization that they may actually be able to help each other, Jeff Zucker, president and CEO, NBC Universal said

“Hulu has shown that if you make quality content available on the web and combine it with an unbeatable user experience, viewers will come, and so will advertisers. The addition of some of the best content Disney/ABC has to offer will only enhance Hulu’s standing as a top site for high quality video entertainment.”

Maybe it’s as true in business as in reality where all ships do actually rise with the tide. By grasping that fact and working with it rather than fighting against it the future of broadcast content delivery may be more wide open than anyone imagined. Keep tuning in to find out.

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Categories: Blogs, Marketing, SEO

Why Facebook’s Fund Raising Reminds Me of NBC’s The Office

Marketing Pilgrim - Thu, 2009-04-30 13:57

Does anyone else see the similarity between Facebook’s attempts to raise additional funds and last week’s episode of The Office?

A quick re-cap. Michael Scott’s paper company is offered a buyout by his old employer. On their way to the negotiation table, everyone is eager to ensure that Michael Scott doesn’t reveal that his company is actually flat broke, and desperate for the money.


(click to watch the clip at Hulu.com)

Enter Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg:

“We absolutely do not need to take money,” she said. “We might take money, but it doesn’t mean we need to.”

OK, while Facebook is not exactly flat broke, it is playing a game of brinkmanship with venture capital firms–which value Facebook in the $2-3 billion range instead of the $5-6 billion Sandberg wants.

If you were a betting (wo)man where would you put your money? Facebook getting the valuation it wants, or VCs getting something lower?

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Categories: Blogs, Marketing, SEO

Forget Skynet! Computers Still Too Dumb to Spot Flu Outbreak

Marketing Pilgrim - Thu, 2009-04-30 13:27

John Connor would be relieved to learn that we don’t yet have to worry about our super-computers rising up against us–apparently, they’re still only as smart as the humans operating them.

Case in point, Wired reports that despite the thousands of computers at Google’s disposal–and over 10 years of data analysis–it wasn’t able to identify an increasing trend in searches that suggested the Swine Flu outbreak was beginning.

…Google Flu Trends team, which aggregates and analyzes search queries to estimate how many people are sick, wasn’t watching Mexican flu data until after the outbreak had already begun. That highlights the problem with tech-heavy disease-detection systems: Often, we don’t know what internet data to look at until after a problem starts.

The chart below shows the up tick in “flu” related searches happened over a number of days in April–which you would think would be long enough for a super-computer to recognize a trend, right?

Unfortunately, this reminds me of the 9/11 attack. I seem to recall that our intelligence agencies where able to piece together data after the fact, but didn’t actually see it coming.

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SearchCap: The Day In Search, April 29, 2009

Search stats recap - Wed, 2009-04-29 20:59

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.

From Search Engine Land:

  • Tracking The Swine Flu Epidemic With Maps & Search

    It was less than a week ago that health officials alerted the media to a possible pandemic of swine flu in humans. Since then, authorities have moved quickly to track the outbreak and reassure the public with precautionary measures. Here’s a look at some of the best sources of online information about swine, avian and [...]

  • Google Analytics Adds AdSense Integration

    After months of testing AdSense data in Google Analytics, Google has announced on both the AdSense Blog and the Analytics Blog that all AdSense publishers can now integrate their AdSense data directly into Google Analytics. To link up your AdSense account with Google Analytics:

    Log in to AdSense Click the link that says “Integrate your AdSense account with [...]

  • Is It Time To Send Google Maps Back To The Drawing Board?

    Google Maps and its Local Business Center continue to be the ugly warts on Google’s otherwise smooth surface. But rather than the long-running problems with mapspam and hijacked listings, the latest sore spot appears to be an internal problem with Google’s apparently unsophisticated (or perhaps over-complicated?) database systems. Mike Blumenthal points out today that Google is [...]

  • IAC Buys UrbanSpoon

    IAC has acquired UrbanSpoon, the restaurant review site that has an incredible popular iPhone application, amongst Facebook widgets and other widgets. The news is now over Techmeme that the company has been acquired for somewhere in the millions of dollar range. IAC has not disclosed the acquisition price. The company was set up by Ethan [...]

  • Google News Automatically Tweeting Stories @GoogleNews

    The Google News Blog announced they have joined Twitter to automatically post links to top stories on Twitter via @GoogleNews. Many news sites automatically post stories to Twitter as well, but Google News recently started to do this as well. I believe Google News also powers @News_By_Robots, but I do not have official [...]

  • Learning SEO From Building A Web Crawler

    There is no doubt that you can learn a tremendous amount of information on search engine optimization (SEO) by reading sites like this or ones in our blogroll, but there is always a lot to be learned from getting your hands dirty. Now, you can get your hands dirty by experimenting and trying SEO [...]

  • Search Marketing Firm, Conductor, Raises $10 Million

    Conductor, a search marketing firm, has announced they have raised $10 million in funding from Matrix Partners and FirstMark Capital. This is more good news from the search industry showing that venture capital companies are still investing in search marketing firms. Yesterday, we reported that Marin software raised $13 million and today, Conductor [...]

  • Another 5 Search Tools You May Not Know … But Should

    Wouldn’t it be great if you could use a search engine without needing to touch your mouse? You know, type your query and then scan and even click through to results without actually clicking the mouse button? Or maybe you’re looking for an alternate source of search advertising data, like how many advertisers are bidding [...]

  • How To SEO For Apple’s App Store

    If you still think mobile SEO is only about WAP pages and the mobile Web, you may have been living under a rock since July 10, 2008, when Apple launched their App Store for iPhone and iPod Touch. This week they announced their 1 billionth App download, and many out of work programmers are wondering how to become the next App Store millionaire. In the new world of digital content optimization (also called digital asset optimization by some) content can and should be optimized to make it more visible on many popular platforms, including the App Store. The few articles that I’ve seen on App Store SEO seem to focus on more black hat techniques like keyword stuffing with unrelated keywords, but there are white hat ways to get your content to the top of Apple’s App Store search engine as well

  • Measure Your Brand Success Using Competitive Intelligence

    Your brand is important to you. Consumers looking for you or a product like yours will often search using your brand in their keyword phrases. Your competitors know this and will likely try to advertise on your brands, slogans, and catchy phrases. How can you tell if you are winning out on your brand terms? Most advertisers [...]

  • Microsoft’s Tellme Offers Improved Mobile Voice Search Experience

    Tellme has been in the speech, automated directory assistance and “voice search” segment for a decade. Two years ago the company was acquired by Microsoft for roughly $800 million. Since that time the two companies have been working on integration and developing next-generation services. Tellme powers Microsoft’s LiveSearch 411, among other services. Today, two years to [...]

  • Reports: US Dept. Of Justice Looking At Antitrust Issues Over Google Books Lawsuit

    After skirting one antitrust action involving a proposed ad deal with Yahoo, Google may be facing a new one — this over the proposed settlement of the lawsuit involving Google Book Search. Both the New York Times and the Wall St. Journal are reporting that the US Department of Justice is [...]

  • Wolfram Alpha Makes Public Debut

    The highly anticipated Wolfram Alpha search engine made its debut today, although Google tossed in a little spoiler. The webcast was apparently difficult for some to view, but you can get impressions of what happened from Between The Lines and Bits. The site also has a new blog and Twitter account, and we’ll be looking at it [...]

  • Google Still Owns Online Video, But Hulu Is Rising

    Google remains the dominant player in the online video space, but Hulu is on the rise. It’s now the number three video property according to the latest comScore numbers out today. According to comScore, Hulu has passed Yahoo properties and moved into the third spot with 2.6% of all videos viewed during March. Yahoo dropped to [...]

  • Google Book Search Settlement Delayed

    Publishers Weekly is reporting that a judge has granted a four-month extension on the deadline for affected parties to object to or opt out of the proposed Google Book Search settlement. (You can read Judge Denny Chin’s ruling on Scribd.) Last week, a group of authors asked the presiding judge for four additional months to review [...]

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Proof That Nielsen is Wrong; Twitter’s Retention Rate is Not 40%

Marketing Pilgrim - Wed, 2009-04-29 15:12

Nielsen Wire posted a shocking statistic to its blog:

Currently, more than 60 percent of Twitter users fail to return the following month, or in other words, Twitter’s audience retention rate, or the percentage of a given month’s users who come back the following month, is currently about 40 percent.

The post also included a comparison of Twitter’s retention rate, compared to Facebook’s and MySpace’s:

But–and it’s a big but–did Nielsen fail to take into account that many Twitter users start off using the web site interface, then quickly migrate to a third-party application? That’s the suggestion Brendan O’Connell offered up.

A quick look at Twitstat seems to back up his theory. Twitstat is tracking over 200 different Twitter applications and, as the chart below shows, only 27% of Twitter users are using the web interface:

Of course, if we’re to question Nielsen’s numbers, we should also question Twitstat’s, but that 40% retention rate may not tell the full story.

UPDATE: For those of you that assumed Nielsen would have been smart enough to include external apps, it turns out the company did forget. It also turns out that the retention rate was still only 40%.

Categories: Blogs, Marketing, SEO

Armstrong’s Small Step from Google, Could be a Giant Leap for AOL

Marketing Pilgrim - Wed, 2009-04-29 14:10

The more you read about the trouble inside Time Warner the more you have to admire Tim Armstrong for ditching his comfy job at Google for the top job at AOL.

In quarterly numbers just released, Time Warner’s revenue dropped 7% from 2008 to $6.9 billion, with AOL being the biggest culprit for the decline–it saw a drop of 23%!

Clearly AOL’s just not thriving under the wings of Time Warner and it now seems inevitable that the division will be spun-off as a separate entity. Reading between the lines, you suspect that Armstrong was all but promised that AOL would be released from Time Warner. Speaking to Ad Age, Armstrong said:

"The understanding of the value of brands at AOL has gotten a little gray over time," he said in front of a crowd of ad agency CEOs, adding that the intense scrutiny of the company has had a negative affect. "The questioning from the outside" has actually bruised the company internally, he said. "There are cases where we have tens of millions of people touching a brand every day," but people inside AOL have forgotten the need to improve the products behind those brands.

I suspect that the people inside AOL are either content to be a part of the Time Warner juggernaut or feel that so constrained by it, they don’t have the enthusiasm needed to get AOL to where it needs to be. Either way, AOL needs a shake-up!

Still, there is hope for AOL. Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes hinted at a possible spin-off for AOL in yesterday’s earnings announcement:

With our separation of Time Warner Cable, Time Warner has become a more content-focused company. We’re also working to determine the right ownership structure for AOL.

Like I said, why would Armstrong make the giant leap for mankind his career, if he wasn’t promised that AOL would be released from Time Warner?

Categories: Blogs, Marketing, SEO

Why New Search Engines Shouldn’t Even Bother to Challenge Google

Marketing Pilgrim - Wed, 2009-04-29 13:28

Whenever a new start-up makes bold claims about its search technology, my first question is usually: what’s to stop Google from building the exact same thing?

For the benefit of all future search engines, Google has kindly proved my point by practically undermining the first public demo of Wolfram Alpha with the announcement of its own structured data search.

Just how much of a threat is this Google announcement to Wolfram Alpha’s plans? Enough of a threat that TechCrunch received a screenshot that attempts to show how Google’s data just doesn’t stack up.

OK, so Wolfram Alpha’s search data does look prettier in this example. But, here are the challenges the start-up faces:

  1. What the heck is a Wolfram Alpha? I hope they re-brand.
  2. Google’s data is already public, WA’s is not.
  3. Google has a gazillion engineers that can work on this, WA doesn’t.
  4. Google is the brand billions of people love and trust, most people won’t even be able to correctly spell Wolfram Alpha in their browser.

I’m not saying start-ups shouldn’t try, I’m just pointing out why WA (and Cuil) have the odds stacked against them.

Categories: Blogs, Marketing, SEO

Search and Tech Giants Named to Help Government Set Policy

Marketing Pilgrim - Wed, 2009-04-29 13:02

TechCrunch reports that Google’s CEO, Eric Schmidt and Microsoft’s chief research and strategy officer, Craig Mundie have been named to President’s Obama’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST). The council is designed to help the President and Vice President form policy related to science, technology, and innovation.

The council has an impressive roster of people associated with major academic and research organizations

The group is co-chaired by John Holdren, Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy; Eric Lander, Director of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and one of the principal leaders of the Human Genome Project; and Harold Varmus, President and CEO of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, former head of the National Institutes of Health and a Nobel laureate.

I checked out the press release regarding the announcement of these appointments to see what other corporations were present on the council. Google and Microsoft are the only two. I realize that it is important for the private sector to be represented. It is worth noting, however, that the private sector representatives on this council that will be helping set public policy are leaders in two technology giants that many already feel have garnered unfair advantages that stifle competition. Also important to note is that prior PCAST members have included Michael Dell so this is not a precedent setting move, just an interesting one.

In all honesty, I have no idea what could actually be accomplished through this type of group regarding a company’s opportunity to gain further advantage and influence. It is interesting, however, that there appears to be little hiding the fact that people like Schmidt, who campaigned hard for the President, are now being ‘rewarded’. The difference between this appointment and people like Dell, is that Google has lately been under more serious government scrutiny with regard to data privacy concerns. You can connect the dots if you wish.

So what impact can this have to us Internet marketing types? That is definitely a ‘to be determined’. As Google expands further into services that are not directly related to search like health information and other areas where privacy concerns are being raised it does seem curious that their position with the US government is getting a little more cozy. I am not a conspiracy theorist by any means but I, like many of you, can observe and wonder what might happen.

Categories: Blogs, Marketing, SEO

Website Spider and Visitor Usability

SEO Chat - Wed, 2009-04-29 13:00
In this article we are going to discuss spider and visitor website usability issues. Luckily for us both search engine spiders and human visitors have similar preferences and are quite easy to satisfy. Before we get deeply into what you should be doing though let s start with some examples of what you shouldn t be doing....
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Categories: SEO

Google Makes Public Data More Usable

Marketing Pilgrim - Wed, 2009-04-29 11:11

In what is being called just a start, Google has introduced the ability to better search and then actually use public data. The data that being used in this initial run is provided by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics and the US Census Bureau’s Population Division. Google’s hope is to not only make this data more easily accessible but then be able to use it in a way that can be helpful through comparisons of different data sets.

Two years ago Google purchased Trendalyzer, which is part of this offering. The Google blog states

We have been working on creating a new service that make lots of data instantly available for intuitive, visual exploration. Today’s launch is a first step in that direction. We hope people will find this search feature helpful, whether it’s used in the classroom, the boardroom or around the kitchen table. We also hope that this will pave the way for public data to take a more central role in informed public conversations.

Rather than just take Google’s word for how easy this was to do I did a search for Wake County population and the first result on the SERP (search engine result page) was a small line graph. Clicking on that line graph then brought me to an interactive feature that allowed me to compare the growth of Wake County v. that of surrounding counties by simply clicking a box. I could also do this v. any other county in the US. The verdict is that if you need this type of information for any reason this is ridiculously easy to use. The hardest part of the process was resizing the screenshot. Here is the chart that was created.

So one limitation is obviously the age or timeliness of the data that Google has indexed to help do these things. Data is often like that though so this is nothing to really be concerned with. You make do with what is available and go from there. Since this is just the first step you have to believe that there is plenty to follow. A quick list of some of the other public data that exists shows where this could go. Google explains

The data we’re including in this first launch represents just a small fraction of all the interesting public data available on the web. There are statistics for prices of cookies, CO2 emissions, asthma frequency, high school graduation rates, bakers’ salaries, number of wildfires, and the list goes on.

So it looks like it continues to be more and more of a Google world and we are simply allowed to play in it. Honestly, though, if they weren’t doing things like this who would have the resources to make this happen with the current state of economic affairs?

Categories: Blogs, Marketing, SEO

SearchCap: The Day In Search, April 28, 2009

Search stats recap - Tue, 2009-04-28 21:00

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.

From Search Engine Land:

  • MySpace Local & SEO Failures

    MySpace and CitySearch recently made big waves in the Local Search and Social Media community with the announcement of MySpace Local. The two companies agreed to a revenue share but no details were released as to what percentages each company would receive. MySpace quickly stressed that this was a completely new revenue source for the [...]

  • Google Launches Public Data Search & Charts During Wolfram Alpha Demo

    During the Wolfram Alpha demonstration today, the Google Blog announced the launch of their own structured data search feature that allows you to find and compare public data. Searches such as [unemployment rate new york] will now bring up a quick answer that looks like this:

    Clicking on the result will take you to a more detailed [...]

  • Search Marketing Firm, Marin Software, Raises Additional $13 Million

    paidContent.org reports Marin Software, a search marketing company, has raised an additional $13 million venture capital. The primary source of the money came from DAG Ventures, adding up to Marin raising a total of about $25 million in funding from sources such as Benchmark Capital, Amicus Capital and Focus Ventures. Marin reportedly manages [...]

  • Google Study On Sitemaps

    The Google Webmaster Central blog notified us that Googlers have presented a new study on Sitemaps at the WWW’09 conference in Madrid. The study is absolutely interesting and I recommend printing out the ten page PDF document and reading it. For those of you who don’t have time for that, I hope to [...]

  • Localeze Introduces Local “Confidence Score” Reflecting Data Accuracy

    Local search data and content provider Localeze has introduced what it’s calling the “Localeze Confidence Score.” The confidence score is the company’s statement to third party search engines and local directory partners about the accuracy of its local data and business records. The company is associating a confidence score with each of the millions of [...]

  • Where To Find Social Media Power Users

    While having great content and an appropriate message are crucial for success on social media news sites, having a quality user help with promotion is essential to build momentum. Contacting and conversing with top users who share similar interests as you can be beneficial in helping to spark your content and get it noticed. This [...]

  • Are Shortened URL Links Worth The Trouble?

    URL shortening services have become quite popular lately, primarily due to the restricted length of “tweets” on Twitter. Danny Sullivan compared several of these services in URL Shorteners: Which Shortening Service Should You Use? and talked about the SEO implications of using these services, especially when it comes to passing along link love. But not much [...]

  • Microsoft Goes Social (& Local) With Vine

    Microsoft is launching Vine today as a limited beta in Seattle only. It’s an interesting local/social communications and information tool that plays in the same sandbox as both Twitter and Facebook, and also competes to a degree with online news sites. Vine is Windows-only software that’s intended to sit open on your desktop so that users [...]

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Recent Hot Items From Sphinn, Our Social News Sharing Site:


Categories: SEO

Ask.com Adds Site Links

Marketing Pilgrim - Tue, 2009-04-28 16:27

Aside from bringing butlers out of retirement, Ask.com has been working to improve its search results. This week Ask adds Domain Navigation (what Google calls Site Links) to the first listing in its organic results.

Here’s how it looks for a search for Disney:

Not really earth-shattering, is it? On the one hand, I’m glad Ask is continuing to make enhancements to its search engine. On the other, it’s just not enough really, is it? Adding a feature that’s already offered by Google, isn’t going to get anyone switching search engine loyalty.

Categories: Blogs, Marketing, SEO
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