Yahoo! announced today they signed an exclusive deal with HP, the #2 global PC vendor (Gartner statistic), to be the start-up home page for every HP PC sold in Europe and North America. Even better news for Yahoo! is that North American computers will include a co-branded Yahoo! toolbar installed on every machine once the new Internet Explorer 7 is launched by Microsoft.
This news comes after a similar deal was announced between Yahoo! and Acer computers. All-in-all, it appears that Yahoo! has a very clear picture of where it wants to be; in your face as much as possible.
What I find most interesting is that along with yesterday's announcement of near statistical tie between Google and Yahoo! for the share of global local search, these PC partnerships may pave the way to a future where Google and Yahoo! have equal overall market share.
Today ComScore announced their research findings on the size and growth of local search in the USA.
According to their findings, 63 percent of U.S. Internet users conducted a local search in July. Local searches are considered any form of search for local information such as a local business number, address, or business website. The real kicker, in my opinion, was that Google (30%) and Yahoo! (29%) had nearly the same amount of the local search market.
Here is some more data that you may find interesting:
Share of Local Searches by Site July 2006 Total U.S. Home, Work and University Locations Source: comScore qSearch
Total Local Searches Total Internet Population 100% Google Sites 29.8% Yahoo! Sites 29.2% Microsoft Sites 12.3% Time Warner Network 7.1% Verizon Communications 6.6% YellowPages.com 3.9% Ask Network 2.7% Local.com 1.9% InfoSpace Network 1.9% DexOnline.com 1.4% All Other 3.2%
If you have the time I recommend reading the entire document but here are some snippets from that I think you will find interesting. Please note that copied content is shown in Red:
Quote 1: "The research also found that the average global family owns 11 technological devices (12 devices in the U.S.), creating concerns about information overload while enabling better communications:
70 percent of global survey respondents agreed that technology allows them to stay in touch with family;
29 percent of parents said that they use mobile phones to keep in touch with children throughout the day;
25 percent of parents said instant messaging has helped improve relationships with their children."
Quote 2:
"Purpose-driven media usage. Families have adapted to new and changing media and technology, and now rely on the Internet as their top source of information on travel, jobs, finance and automobiles. Approximately half of respondents said they rely primarily on television for news (50 percent) and comedy (43 percent). Magazines are a significant source for celebrity gossip and other niche content. Newspapers are viewed as a strong secondary source, after the Internet, for information with a local flavor such as jobs, sports, concerts and events.
"You've got...functionality. In addition to enabling socializing, technology has become integral to routine family life. Two thirds (66 percent) of U.S. families surveyed use the Internet to research products, and 64 percent use a search engine every day. Families also use the Internet to share photos (62 percent), make travel reservations (60 percent) and research health (61 percent)."
Quote #3:
"The research shows that families in developed countries around the world are as inundated with technology and media as American families, but with some important distinctions. The U.S. lags other global regions in mobile phone usage. Mexico and the United Kingdom have the highest adoption of DVRs, and Asia leads in MP3 player adoption. In China, 59 percent of survey respondents watch streaming video online versus 25 percent globally."
The Synopsis: The conclusion provided by this research is pretty conclusive. If you advertise on or provide an online service or tool that will help a family create balance in their lives (i.e. communicating with loved ones, planning the next weekend, providing quality consumer advice, etc.) you are going to be reaching a very receptive audience.
Take what you will from these statistics but I know I find them quite comforting. After all, it is nice to know that today's families use the web for planning their days nearly as much as I do. Maybe I am not such a Geek after all!?
Welcome the new Microsoft... the media mogul and software giant
Google has proven it works, so guess what? Microsoft is now jumping on board and I expect they will be astounded by their positive reception because this is a great addition of quality advertising territory. Microsoft has launched a powerful advertising solution called Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions that will allow advertisers to get exposure across the following brands:
MSN Engage up to 380 million users with your advertisement on this popular portal.
XBOX Advertise directly to the gamers while they surf their XBOX Live sites.
Windows Live This new brand will gain a significant following over the next few years and as Microsoft puts it this "is a highly desireable audience" packed full of confident online consumers.
Microsoft Office Online Microsoft is targeting enterprise advertisers for this site that is designed as a technical extension of the popular Office suite of applications.
Windows Mobile Send text ads or interactive images direct to handhelds through this portal for mobile users.
Microsoft TV Here is an opportunity for exposure across Microsoft's new age IPTV system that will provide broadcast-quality video and television to users.
So what does this all mean? Microsoft has finally clued in to the online advertising revolution and opened the doors to becoming much more than a software manufacturer. Now you can advertise across Microsoft's considerable network in areas that you never could before.
Hmm, I wonder if they will start to buy up newspapers soon? :-)
Here is just a quick post recommending that you read the following interview with Brett Crosby at Web Analytics World. Brett is the Senior Manager of Google Analytics and he discusses the current status as well as the future of Google Analytics. Do you want to know more about how to track your statistics? Check out Google's free Conversion University.
The free tool that it is Google Analytics offers some very tempting functionality for any webmasterand we currently use it as a secondary stats source but I still swear by ClickTracks. ClickTracks may be a paid solution but I find it very flexible and the reports are extremely easy to understand.
Yesterday (the 26 of September), a Mr. David Eun, VP of Content Partnerships posted a blanket notice titled "Our approach to content" describing Google's respect for copyrights. I recommend reading this posting but if you want the Coles notes... here is a snippet that sums it up well:
"... over the years we’ve come up with three primary principles to ensure that we respect content owners and protect their rights:
we respect copyright;
we let owners choose whether we index their content in our products;
we try to bring benefit back to content owners by partnering with them."
Mr. Eun does a good job of representing Google in this post. In fact, by highlighting how flexible Google is I think he does a great job of showing how silly this whole whiney copyright issue has become. I mean come on! If you (the copyright owner) wants money from Google, just be honest about it and don't try to attack them under the guise of copyright infringement. If you don't want to be listed in Google it is a very simple matter of implementing the proper tags.
Well you turned 8 years old today you playful little devil. You have been a temperamental child at times and lord knows you don't follow orders very well but at least you get straight A's for knowledge.
This holiday season Google has announced a search engine update geared towards a bolder integration of Google Base data.
At the latest Professional Ebay Sellers Alliance Summit (PESA) Google stated that they would provide a 'refine your search' option to those obviously searching for products using Google.com. The search box would appear after a product search was entered at which point, should a user use the refined search option, Google Base data would be provided.
According to the PCAdvisor article that described this announcement Google noted that rankings within these Google Base listings "will be determined by the attributes that the sellers listed for the product as well as by relevancy."
What is Google Base? The "Learn More" page provided by Google describes it well: "Google Base is a place where you can easily submit all types of online and offline content, which we'll make searchable on Google (if your content isn't online yet, we'll put it there). You can describe any item you post with attributes, which will help people find it when they do related searches. In fact, based on your items' relevance, users may find them in their results for searches on Froogle, Google Maps and even our main Google web search."
At this time I can't say that I have come across anything that appeared to be Google Base data in my online searching so I am sure this update is welcome to Google Base users. Perhaps it will herald an increase in user profits thanks to the boost in visibility. According to Google, Google Base content is actually inserted into some Google web searches now but such inclusion appears to be a side note when reading the description above.
So What Now? If you haven't already go and checkout Google Base and insert your products/services. The system is totally free and you just might get a little more visibility this holiday season.
Written by Scott Van Achte and published at 8:16 AM
While it is currently by invitation only, Monday night, Microsoft released a beta version of Soapbox to compete with the highly successful YouTube. Currently you can request an invitation; however, when clicking the link I was presented with an error “Oops. It's not anything you did--it's us. Our site's down. Please try again later.” No real surprise here, after all it is a Microsoft Beta.
YouTube is the ultimate video sharing venue attracting 34 million visitors in August according to Nielsen/NetRatings. Users worldwide can upload and share their videos in just about every category imaginable.
How big will soapbox get? Well, YouTube has exploded on the web, and certainly a property owned by Microsoft will have the same potential. Whether or not they will be able to surpass YouTube will have to wait to be seen. Currently in Beta, as with many other online Microsoft properties, it could be years until soapbox is officially released, (although I would expect it to be live sooner than later).
Interestingly enough, the soapbox name is previously trademarked by a messaging company Conversant. It will be interesting to see what happens in the future, will Microsoft change the name? Will they buy them out? Will lawsuits be in the future? I am a bit surprised that a company such as Microsoft which attacks anyone infringing on their own trademarks, would wind up infringing on someone else. You think they would do their research.
Last Friday (Sept 15 th) a Belgium court dealt a stunning blow against Google and its Google News search service. The court is now forbidding the popular search engine from indexing Belgian newspaper content without paying each newspaper for the use of their content.
The ruling requires Google to remove the plaintiff’s newspaper content from its search engine database within 10 days or face threatened fines of 1,000,000- € per day. In addition, Google must publish “in a visible and clear manner and without any commentary from her part the entire intervening judgment on the home pages of ‘google.be’ and of ‘news.google.be’ for a continuous period of 5 days within 10 days… under penalty of a daily fine of 500,000- € per day of delay.” (source website and original legal document)
This ruling signifies a strong precedent for other newspapers to follow and ultimately brings up a tempting legal option for all of those sue-happy “people” out there; “if my site is copyrighted… can I sue Google for indexing it?” The fact is newspapers with an online presence are bound to jump in on the action and try to get a little financial love from the major search engines and precedent like this just urges them on. Danny Sullivan published an extremely informative article today where he describes his interview with the Belgian group that led this successful case against Google. In this article he notes that Google CEO Eric Schmidt cut to the chase and sensibly summarized this legal nightmare as “business negotiation being done in a courtroom.” I must agree because there is no question the path news companies are taking to get their needs met is ass-backwards.
Just consider the following:
Google drove traffic to Belgian news sites ultimately making these sites money; their advertisers got more visibility and they got more subscribers.
Belgian news sites took Google to court to have their copyrighted material removed because they felt Google should not be able to use it without paying for it.
By winning their case Belgian news sites have now been removed from Google and ultimately the news sites will lose money by their online exposure being severely decreased.
To put this in another perspective if this was your business; would you spend money to go to court with the ultimate goal of losing money by losing online presence in the hopes that Google will pay you to get your content back later? Seems like a silly gamble to me and based entirely on the pursuit of ego.
The simple fact is that newspapers make money by getting free exposure from search giants like Google. Now they are biting the hand that feeds them. In that vein, the World Association of Newspapers (WAN) is taking a different, more sensible step to locate a technological solution to the problem without going immediately to court.Based in Paris, WAN represents 18,000 newspapers from around the world. According to WAN, two options have been considered at this early juncture:
Pay Royalties: search engines that pay an essential royalty will then be allowed to present copyrighted content within their search engine results for a limited time. If they don’t pay then the content will be blocked and this must be respected by the search engines as a whole.
New Robot Limiting Capabilities: the search engines need to acknowledge and follow an instructive file that could be provided by news sites which would define limits for the use of copyrighted information on their site.
How serious is WAN? Apparently a number of WAN members have separately launched legal proceedings against Google over the “Napsterisation” (illegal use) of stories on its website.
My Take Google has been paying the Associated Press (AP) for content for a while now under the reasoning that Google expects to use AP content within a new Google News offering later this year. Other news companies see this paid arrangement as additional precedent that Google should be paying for their content.
At this time WAN as a whole has not legally moved against the major search engines for infringement but has decided to try and find a solution amenable to both the search engines and WAN. I believe the search engines are smart enough to know that finding some middle ground is worth their time. I expect that between the two industries a solution such as new WAN-approved licensing Meta tags or robots.txt tags added over the next year to tackle the use and expiration of copyrighted content.
In a recent interview with Matt Cutts (a popular software engineer from Google that handles Spam) on WebmasterRadio Matt noted that Google has run across a few sites that had been hacked and in a manner that wasn't immediately apparent to the site owners. Jim Hedger wrote an article which summed up the entire interview and I highly recommend the read. For the purposes of this posting, however, I want to focus on how to determine whether your site has been hacked.
First of all, here is a little detail on the hack from Matt Cutts: "... basically say, everytime someone fetches something, go fetch it through this CGI file. The CGI program does cloaking. It doesn’t just check the user-agent, it actually checks for their IP address as well. And if it’s GoogleBot, it will add links to porn sites. And here’s the really scary thing or it will take all your existing links, or some of your existing links and, will slap a NO FOLLOW on them. So, the hacker is basically saying, 'All those sites you chose to link to, uh-uhh… we’re not going to link any PR that way, we’re going to link to our porn sites and that is just pretty much pure evil.'"
Identifying a Hacked Site So how can you tell if your website is being affected by this cloaking hack? First of all Matt and his host Vanessa Fox (also from Google) goes to great lengths to note that this is a very rare hack so keep that in mind.
Here is the simplest way to discover whether your site (or your competition's) is using cloaking:
Ensure that you have the Google Toolbar installed and using the options button within the toolbar enable the tranlation option so that it appears on your toolbar. Note that you may need the newest version of the toolbar to do this (I am not 100% if it was added to previous versions).
Visit the website you want to check.
Click "Translate" (or "Translate into English" depending on your browser) and the page will be instantly translated into English from English.
If what you see is different than your live site, you had better contact your webmaster immediately because your website might have been hacked.
How Does this Technique Work? This translation process beats the anti-detection technology used by cloaking software so that you can see what Googlebot actually sees when it visits your website. This is a very effective method of testing your site but don't forget to check your competitor's as well. After all, you may find out that your competitor is purposely using cloaking to get ahead in search engine rankings. Cloaking is fiercely prohibited by search engines so you can expect your competitors will not get away with this for long. If it turns out they have been malisciously hacked I recommend letting them know, however it is ultimately up to your conscience whether you will inform them or not.
Want some free coffee courtesy of Yahoo! ? Well I am always looking out for my readers and freebies are a great way to extend the love :-) Read on...
Today Yahoo! released a press release announcing that in addition to launching a massive new media campaign to publish it's "fun brand" it will be providing free coffee from Dunkin Donuts this Friday, the 22nd.
"As appreciation for the millions of people who start their day with Yahoo!, all users who select Yahoo.com as their start page this Friday, September 22, 2006 will be eligible for a free coffee giveaway from Dunkin' Donuts. Beginning at midnight ET on Friday morning, visitors to http://www.yahoo.com will be able to access and print a coupon good for one free 16 oz. cup of Dunkin' Donuts iced coffee. The coupon is valid only on September 22, and may be redeemed from 9 a.m. to 11:59 p.m. local time or close of business at any participating Dunkin' Donuts retail locations in the U.S. while supplies last."
So often we are giving to the search engines so it is nice to see a little substance coming back. I hope you get to enjoy a free coffee from Yahoo!
Today Yahoo! released an option-packed email program to all Yahoo! Mail users throughout the USA and 18 markets around the world. The press release provides a glimpse into what this new product offers:
"Highlights of the Yahoo! Mail beta include a sleek, easy-to-use interface with the speed and responsiveness of a desktop application. The latest version also features innovative online calendar integration and provides a fast, efficient experience with enhanced functionality, such as drag and drop e-mail organization, message preview and an integrated RSS reader."
My Take? First I must be clear; I love GMail and do not intend to switch email providers. Now that that is out of the way, I have to admit this new and improved Yahoo! Mail is chock full of temptations that I can only hope Google will emulate to some degree. For example it offers, tabbed messages (like the slick tabbed browser windows in Firefox), drag & drop organization using folders similar to Outlook (I like!), RSS feed integration (Google has this available but separately), 1 gig of storage, better search options for emails and attachments, and a spam and security protection system. Here is a full list of the features with more detail.
This new layout from Yahoo! is sure to secure them some more users and solidify their current following. The tabbed email feature is positively brilliant and had better be integrated into GMail at some point. After all, the way that the various programs such as Google Calendar, Google Spreadsheets, Google Reader (etc.), are navigated is completely clunky (new windows open and require separate login). It seems a logical move to add a unified login area for GMail users with Tabs for each application added to the user's profile.
Whatever happens between these two search giants one thing remains undeniable, mail hosting is becoming (or is) a money making industry so this continuing competitiveness can do nothing but increase the quality of service and freebies we all receive in the end. Of course, the final and more relevant benefit to us site owners/marketers is an increase in the viewership for our PPC and organic rankings.
Do you want to advertise the physical location of your business for free and get a little extra Google exposure? Thanks to Google Maps this is possible and not many people (read ‘your competition’) seem to know about it.
First I think I need to show you what I mean here. As an example click here to see the location of my company, StepForth Search Engine Placement Inc. on Google Maps (no you don’t need Google Earth to do this). What should appear is a map of my home city, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada along with a marker identifying my business location and a comment balloon providing address and detailed information. This information was placed on Google with my input, entirely free of charge. All that Google needed to do was confirm my physical location by sending a letter in the mail with a code that would allow me go online and verify my physical address. That is it, as simple as pie!
Why Should You Bother With Google Maps?
If simply getting more exposure on an emerging Google tool isn’t enough here are the frills that Google provides freely with this map listing:
Google allows you to offer coupons to visitors of your map listing. These coupons are touted as a way to “reward loyal customers and attract new ones”. At this time, coupons are only available to businesses located in the US.
Once your address is fully verified you have full control over your listing. You can add or delete non-address information at will.
You can add all of your business locations from a single account.
Finally my personal favorite; all that your client or prospective client has to do to find your office is click on a link on your website and voila, they are taken to an accurate road map with directions. They can even click a button and see the satellite view of your location; very slick indeed!
Do it Yourself
Here is the process for you to get your site added to Google Maps.
Step 1: Add Your Business Visit Google Local’s “Add/Edit Your Business” page. There you will be asked to enter your Google account login and password (or you can quickly create one) before entering the submission area. Once in, you need to provide standard business address and contact information, a 200-character description of your business, the forms of payment you accept from consumers and your operating hours.
Step 2: Choose a Category Next you will be asked to provide a category that best describes your business. You can enter a phrase here and Google will try to find a related category to make this process simpler for you. You have the option to appear in up to 5 separate categories.
Step 3: Preview and Select Verification Method Your business listing along with a proof of your business’s mapped location is shown for your approval. Here you can make any necessary final tweaks to your listing. After that, you have to choose which verification method that Google will use to confirm your address; do you want Google to call you or receive a postcard to confirm your address? I chose the postcard because frankly, I love the idea of getting personal mail from Google and it seems like a far more effective way to confirm an address. In addition, when I received StepForth’s confirmation letter it came along with a $35 AdWords coupon (for businesses new to AdWords): click the picture on the right for a sample.
Step 4: Verify Follow the instructions provided to you by either the postcard or the phone and your listing will be active within 6 weeks.
Adding Your Google Maps Listing
Here are a couple of ways to add your new Google listing to your website.
One is to embed a cool JavaScript map of your location into your website using Googles Maps API, a sample of which is shown here. This option requires more than I can cover in this article and frankly I have to take the time learn how to do it first myself. That said it doses look very slick so I anticipate StepForth will be adding it as soon as I can find the time.
The second, much simpler option is to link directly to your listing from your website. Start by visiting http://maps.google.com and type in your business name into the search window. If your listing is active, it should come up within the results. Click on this listing and you will see your location appear on the map along with your company’s information balloon. Click the title within the balloon and your detailed Google Maps page will appear. Now you can simply copy the URL in your browser and paste that into your website so that your users can find your location. The other option is to take this process a step further and click on the “View Larger Map” link, at which point a far more detailed map will appear and you can copy this URL for use within your site.
Whatever you do just remember that all you need to do is find the page layout that you want your customers to see and then copy the URL so that you can link to this listing within your website.
Here is how StepForth’s Google Maps listing is currently linked from our “About” page.
What the Future May Hold for Google Maps
Having a listing on Google Maps does not currently have any noticeable impact on organic Google Rankings but I can see how it might in the future. For example, it would be very much like Google to add an icon next to each ranking that has a correlating Google Maps profile. After all, when creating a map profile Google does note that they may add advertising to Google Maps API in the future. Even if Google Maps is not added to organic listings in any way, you can bet that there will be more focused push to compete against giants like MapBlast and MapQuest in the future; these are very lucrative markets that Google cannot ignore.
So get your company on Google Maps, it is free after all. Moreover, remember that Google’s history states that anything they add advertising to will ultimately get more exposure.
Written by Scott Van Achte and published at 1:13 PM
Microsoft officially launched its “Live” search Last Monday. Live Search, Live.com, and Live Local Search were officially released from Beta. Live Search will also be the new power behind MSN Search.
Live.com has been released in 47 worldwide markets. Throughout its Beta period users have sent in suggestions and complaints which have been used to refine the software in preparation for its prime time debut.
Live.com uses a very clean, easy to use, uncluttered design which is sure to attract those looking to simply perform a search. Live can be used to search for web, images, news, rss feeds, blogs and video according to the
Blink
Del.icio.us
Digg
Furl
Google
Simpy
Spurl
Y! MyWeb
Last Friday (Sept 15 th) a Belgium court dealt a stunning blow against Google and its Google News search service. The court is now forbidding the popular search engine from indexing Belgian newspaper content without paying each newspaper for the use of their content.
