MediaPost | Search Insider

The Fallacy Of Google's Protected Query Data Announcement

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 16:25:00 -0500

It's been nearly four months since Google first announced it was making search "more secure" by encrypting the search queries of users logged in to Google Accounts. At that time, many of us (me included) were outraged. It was difficult to look beyond the immediate announcement to understand the larger chess match at hand. We were losing raw keyword query data, and that data is essential to SEO. And bear in mind, this wasn't the typical user resistance that has become common anytime Facebook makes some aesthetic change; this was the result of Google making it more difficult for SEOs to do our jobs.

The Facebook Personality Test

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 10:40:14 -0500

I've always believed that you could learn everything you needed to know about a person by asking them who their favorite Beatle was. But for the test to work, you actually have to know the Beatles on a fairly intimate level, and their status as a cultural baseline is regrettably eroding. Now, you could use a more standard but much less interesting approach; say a Myers-Briggs personality sorter, or the "colors" test. But a recent paper by Ashwini Nadkarni and Stefan Hofman (both from Boston University) in the Journal of Personality and Individual Differences offered a more timely way to sort out the extroverts from the introverts (and the neurotics from the narcissists). It seems our usage of Facebook may provide a remarkably accurate glimpse into who we are.

Five Lessons From Israel For Search Marketers

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 14:33:00 -0500

When I'm in a pinch for Search Insider topics, I draw from personal experience -- i.e., what's on my mind the day my column's due. I'm especially fond of analogies (best served with a healthy dose of puns) that relate my life and times to my chosen profession. Typically, my muse is a company -- Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Groupon, etc. Sometimes, it's a person -- for example, Steve Jobs. However, today it's a country. Sitting on a long flight back to my sweet home Chicago, I'm reflecting on my time in Israel last week and seeing what nuggets might be digestible for SEM.

Google Search Plus Your World: Monitoring Your Reputation Just Became Even More Important

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 13:38:57 -0500

Google recently launched its new default search results deemed "Google Search Plus Your World," which is already creating quite a controversy in SEO circles and beyond. Regardless of if searchers like the results, the reality is that Google has placed great emphasis on Google+ and is likely hoping that GSPYW will increase Google+ adoption.

The Evolution Of Google

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 10:04:03 -0500

Google introduced a new privacy policy last week -- and while it is essentially a practical move on its part to simplify more than 60 separate policies into a single, overarching policy, it says a lot about the company Google has become.

The Death of Google's Urchin Analytics -- And Why We All Should Care

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 13:18:26 -0500

Last week Google officially announced it would be retiring its Urchin Software web analytics technology -- a move that was a long time coming.

What Is An Agency's Role?

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 10:23:09 -0500

Last week, I was talking to someone about what role a digital agency would play in the future. We went down all the usual paths and came up with the usual answers, but afterward the question still lingered. What is our role in the future? I'm reasonably certain it won't be the same as our role in the past.

It's Not Over Yet: Why You Should Still Be Concerned About SOPA And PIPA

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 11:32:00 -0500

As some of you may know, I am on the international board of directors of SEMPO, and recently we weighed in on the debate about SOPA and PIPA in the House and Senate respectively. We became aware of this issue going back several months, and we sent the association's position to key individuals in Congress. The good news is that Congress listened, as many direct responses were received with regards to our position. But the rest of this column involves some of my personal thoughts on what has transpired over the last few months with these bills.

Search Marketing And The 'Do' Tendency

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 12:08:19 -0500

Bing introduced a new ad campaign last night during the NFC Championship between the San Francisco 49ers and the New York Giants. The campaign tag -- "Bing is for doing" -- is very similar to a campaign rolled out last year by Lenovo ("For Those Who Do"). Both campaigns are focused on those who aren't just passive consumers of media or information, but who make it their mission to get something done.

Embrace Your Inner 'Screw-Up'

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 09:48:46 -0500

Humans hate making mistakes. But the fact is, making mistakes is an essential part of being human. Somehow, we have to learn to live on the edge of this paradox. For digital marketers, our entire industry is balanced on this particular precarious precipice. There are a few rules of thumb to "screwing up" successfully:

Is Google Making Search Results Better By Playing Copywriter?

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 15:25:54 -0500

In an effort to make tasks "easier" for us, software companies have been adding features to make even the smallest tasks "simple." Some of these changes, I believe, are misguided and often lead to user frustration -- or perhaps it's just me? Google is doing the same thing. For some time now, webmasters and SEOs alike have complained that Google actually has been editing the title link that appears in search results, not always using the title tag of the ranked page.

Nay-Sayers React To Google's New Search Experience

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 11:43:44 -0500

Google introduced Search Plus Your World last week -- and before the virtual ink was dry on the blog post announcing its new feature, the antitrust forces were gathering in the streets, pitchforks at the ready. If there's a crime in this newest twist to Google's search results page composition, it's the spectacularly bad branding for the new offering. ("Google Search plus Your World"? Seriously? Would it cost so much to hire a good product marketing person?)

In Search Of New Beginnings

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 16:13:10 -0500

The new year presents a blank slate, and there are plenty of opportunities for search and social marketers to start fresh and pursue new paths. These may not all be "new" paths, per se; some are likely best practices that have been around for a while but have been placed on the backburner for any number of reasons. Let's do a bit of reprioritization this year. Let's reset our approaches to program management. Let's take advantage of the promise of new beginnings.

As We May Remember

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 09:59:08 -0500

Last week, I asked you to ponder what our memories might become now that Google puts vast heaps of information just one click away. And ponder you did.

Five SEM Predictions For 2012

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 13:17:43 -0500

As I write this column, the ink is not yet dry on the full edition of the Kenshoo 2011 Online Retail Shopping Report, but I've just finished up the last section with my colleague, Ari Rosenstein, outlining five predictions for 2012. The research is based on a dataset of 28 billion total SEM impressions, 350 million clicks, and 8 million online sales transactions across our index of retail paid search advertisers. Here's a preview for all the Search Insider pun-dits out there.

Friction In Mobile Checkout Costs Sales

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 10:14:51 -0500

Smartphones drive search. Search drives shopping. And shopping drives… not as much in the way of sales as it should.

Mobile commerce has a terrible problem with friction. From sites that aren’t optimized for mobile, to mobile apps that rely on nutty checkout processes, shoppers have to work too hard to buy online. If only the buying experience could be as simple and fast as the search experiences that led to the desire to make a purchase in the first place.

While nearly 56 million mobile users shopped online in the U.S. in 2011, only about 27 million actually completed a purchase via a mobile device, according to eMarketer. With the exception of flash shopping sales at places like Fab and Gilt, and ticket purchases via services like Eventbrite, most e-tailers aren’t closing deals as well as they might on mobile platforms.

Though major online retailers have dramatically improved their mobile offerings in the last two years, introducing better mobile sites and apps for smartphones and tablets, the pace of retrofitting is surprisingly poky given the revenue at stake.

Commerce on mobile platforms is expected to grow at a compounded annual rate of 55% between 2012 and 2015, according to eMarketer, including a 73% growth rate this year alone. While there will also be impressive sales growth from these increases, the numbers might be much larger if only the mobile shopping experience weren’t so kludgey at the virtual checkout counter.

In my experience, mcommerce is pretty speedy at checkout when Paypal is an option, but it’s far too rare that Paypal is offered, unfortunately. Smaller etailers lag particularly, despite the availability of services like PaySimple, which cater to the small- and medium-sized business segment. These businesses, I suspect, fail to make the necessary investments to create frictionless shopping experiences online because they assume it will be too expensive for them to make the leap. It’s particularly ironic, given that this same segment is finally getting savvier about leveraging SEO and search marketing to drive more business.

Mobile adoption -- particularly smartphone and tablet adoption -- is growing a blistering rate globally. It’s projected that Google could exceed $4 billion in mobile revenues in 2012, or nearly 10% of its revenues. Which means the opportunity for etailers who really “get” mobile will be the big winners in the near future.

The hassle of filling out “bill to,” “send to” and credit card fields, particularly when combined with less-than-ideal mobile keyboard sizes, is just too much for most people. And by the time they get to a desktop computer or a brick-and-mortar location, they may have lost that zest for a purchase.

Make a resolution in 2012 to optimize your mobile sites and apps for frictionless checkout. The easier it is to buy in the moment, the better conversion rates you’ll see.

Is Google Replacing Memory?

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 09:23:08 -0500

"How old is Tony Bennett anyway?" We were sitting in a condo on a ski hill with friends, counting down to the new year, when the ageless Mr. Bennett appeared on TV. One of us wondered aloud about just how many new years he has personally ushered in. In days gone by, the question would have just hung there. It would probably have filled up a few minutes of conversation. If someone felt strongly about the topic, it might even have started an argument. But, at the end of it all, there would be no definitive answer -- just opinions.

2012 Resolutions For Search Marketers

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 09:24:51 -0500

2011 has been another dynamic year for search marketers. I want to continue a tradition I started last year and review some thoughts from the past 12 months and set some resolutions for 2012 that we should all live by.

Google's Holiday Gift to You: Google+ Adds Multiple Page Administrators Capability

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 17:25:03 -0500

Google+ pages for business launched about six weeks ago now, and since that time, the most common complaint I've heard is that the pages lacked the ability to have multiple administrators, as Facebook pages allow. Well, all of that changed just before the holidays when Google announced that business pages have now been enhanced to allow for up to 50 administrators!

Look At The Big Picture In 2012

Thu, 29 Dec 2011 11:16:09 -0500

When I look back on what has preoccupied me over the last 12 months, I will say that much of it has been spent "stepping back" and trying to look at the bigger picture. As online interactions have taken a bigger and bigger chunk of our lives, trying to understand how our actions play out against a broader online backdrop has been the thing I think about most often.

Will Clever Sense Help Google Become The Perfect Search Engine?

Wed, 28 Dec 2011 10:14:48 -0500

Two weeks ago, Google bought Clever Sense. Some are billing this as a response to Siri. Some see it as Google going after Yelp or Wolfram Alpha. And some have a hunch it's about Hunch, which I once called the iPhone of Search. I think the answer is none of the above -- but, in a way, all of the above. With Clever Sense, Google is trying to embody the original Ask Jeeves -- a butler-like digital assistant that knows who you are, what you want, when you want it, where you want it, and how you want it. In my mind, that would be the perfect search engine.

Local Search: Light Speed Ahead

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 11:32:04 -0500

For the local search and location-based services (LBS) industry, 2011 brought a great deal of innovation. The speed, availability and ubiquity of devices like tablets and smartphones, and the extreme growth of social media, have empowered users to quickly access and generate local content. While the vitality of the daily deal space is still up for debate, local group offers have significantly changed the way consumers connect with local businesses. In 2012, the deal market will continue to be refined as it has the potential to give SMBs new marketing power. So, with rapid innovation unlikely to wane, where is the LBS industry headed in 2012, and which applications will be the winners?

Three Holiday Delights And One Lump Of Coal For Sems

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 13:48:04 -0500

Since this year marks the close of my eighth year in the search industry, I thought it would be neat to do a bit of professional reflection on this year compared to years past. Thinking back on everything that happened in our space in 2011 has been a fun exercise. I honestly can't recall any other year in that introduced as much change and controversy as this one.So in the spirit of the season, I'm handing out holiday gifts. I'm giving awards to my biggest search delights of the year -- and calling out one notable lump of coal. Too bad we can't return or regift the latter.

In Search Of Simplicity

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 16:01:48 -0500

"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication." This quote, from Leonardo da Vinci, was on the original brochure for the Apple II. Throughout his life, Steve Jobs didn't stray far from this principle. In fact, he was obnoxiously obsessive about it.

The Power Of Surprise And Delight

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 15:41:04 -0500

If you go to Google.com and type "let it snow" in the search box, you'll get a lovely little surprise: softly falling snow and an increasingly frosty window until all your search results are obscured. The frost is easily cleared by tapping the defrost button. Delightful!

Can Websites Make Us Forgetful?

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 10:48:44 -0500

Ever open the door to the fridge and then forget what you were looking for? Or ever head to your bedroom and then, upon entering it, forget why you went there in the first place? Me too. And it turns out we're not alone. New research from the University of Notre Dame's Gabriel Radvansky indicates this sudden "threshold" amnesia is actually pretty common.

Search Insider Summit: The Buzz Was The Buzz

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 11:17:00 -0500

The meme is officially meta! I've tracked the buzzwords at the past 11 Search Insider Summits -- but last week's event took things to a whole new level as the buzz itself became the buzz. Indeed, thanks to DataPop and Chacka Marketing, we had two, count 'em, two buzzword bingo games with prizes that had attendees buzzing. So how good a job did Frank "the tank" Lee and Janel "cheery" Laravie do at predicting the buzz? We'll see as I reveal the top 10 buzzwords from #mpsis last week in Deer Valley.

The Potential Future Of Google Advertising

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 17:35:39 -0500

First let me start off by saying that this article is pure speculation on my part. I have no confirmation from Google regarding this direction for the future of its advertising platform. However, I do think that there are some strong signs that indicate the potential future and possibilities for Google ads.

Google Gets Touchier

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 10:08:03 -0500

Google's found new ways to bring advertising to your fingertips. And it's being pretty clever about it.

Is Facebook Luring Marketers Toward The Next Bubble?

Fri, 09 Dec 2011 11:04:55 -0500

I've been observing an interesting trend in our industry over the past two years: paid search marketers, abandoning their posts to conquer the Web's next advertising frontier -- Facebook Ads. Just this past summer at SMX Advanced in Seattle, I was reminded of this changing climate among PPC marketers.